With original reporting and details, this excerpt from Bud Withers' new book chronicles the final five editions of Chris Petersen's 6-0 Apple Cup record — and Jimmy Lake's own rivalry with Mike Leach.
I still have a picture in my head of Gardener Minshew looking back at the field as he was walking away after the game. He had visible tears running down his face. Indelible!
I enjoyed the Coach Pete Apple Cups greatly. It was literally as if each year the Coug fans would be even more confident that they would win the game than they were the previous year. And they would get very soundly beaten again. Coach Pete was a vastly better football coach than Leach and he built a roster at the UW that had a whole lot of talent on it. But the players were extremely well coached and Pete did a great job of motivating them for the AC each year. Having Lake helped greatly, but that was hardly the only important factor in those games. Pete had built the football program and the culture at the UW to his standards and that was the biggest difference of all. He was just not going to lose the AC to a coach like Leach. Even in 2019 with Eason not playing all that well at QB in big games Coach Pete still hammered WSU and Leach. Just as he had in 2015 with Browning playing as a true freshman at QB. In both of those years the UW did not have top teams at all, but Leach still had no real chance in the AC.
Maybe it was because the Cougs were decent under Leach but every year we'd put the beat down on them their fans would become more and more obnoxious. They'd be out of control at Husky Stadium. We got Cougs tossed from our section in 17 and 19 for their boorish behavior. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
I still have a picture in my head of Gardener Minshew looking back at the field as he was walking away after the game. He had visible tears running down his face. Indelible!
I enjoyed the Coach Pete Apple Cups greatly. It was literally as if each year the Coug fans would be even more confident that they would win the game than they were the previous year. And they would get very soundly beaten again. Coach Pete was a vastly better football coach than Leach and he built a roster at the UW that had a whole lot of talent on it. But the players were extremely well coached and Pete did a great job of motivating them for the AC each year. Having Lake helped greatly, but that was hardly the only important factor in those games. Pete had built the football program and the culture at the UW to his standards and that was the biggest difference of all. He was just not going to lose the AC to a coach like Leach. Even in 2019 with Eason not playing all that well at QB in big games Coach Pete still hammered WSU and Leach. Just as he had in 2015 with Browning playing as a true freshman at QB. In both of those years the UW did not have top teams at all, but Leach still had no real chance in the AC.
Maybe it was because the Cougs were decent under Leach but every year we'd put the beat down on them their fans would become more and more obnoxious. They'd be out of control at Husky Stadium. We got Cougs tossed from our section in 17 and 19 for their boorish behavior. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Took me back down memory lane to some fond memories during the Petersen era. Thank you for the story.
Really enjoyed that retrospective and now I guess I’ll have to buy the book! Looking forward to the AC and this was a great primer!