Moments after the final seconds ticked off the clock of a 24-19 Apple Cup victory — which, fittingly, culminated with a Husky DB taking a swing at a Coug for a 15-yard personal foul — NBC’s sideline reporter found Jake Dickert and opened with a standard question: How did you do this?

His response was not standard.

“Grit. Toughness. I love this team,” he said. “They stayed here for this.”

Then, his voice broke — and a few tears started to flow.

“I’m sorry, I’m emotional about it — I love these guys. They love each other. We said we were going to win this game, not because we hated them, but because we loved each other, and that’s what you saw there for four quarters.”

If there is a more perfect way to describe what it means to be a Coug, I have yet to hear it.

As we all know, there’s plenty of (justified) hate to go around to the folks in purple, ergo, I have had an indescribable amount of fun clowning on Huskies for the past 48 hours. Jake has to be classy, but I do not, because I’m just a dumb fan. And I’m leaning hard into that right now.

However, when I think about the bigger picture of the entire situation, I’m not sure anything could be more spot on when describing our relationship to each other.

We won not because we hated them, but because we loved each other.

I shed a lot of tears myself on that field after the game.³ And while I’m pretty sure I’m a man who is more comfortable emoting in public than most, I also am usually not one to uncontrollably cry. A few teardrops as Craig asks me to be his best man? Or as Leon Bender shows up on the Back Home video with a rose in his mouth? Sure. Tears flowing like a fountain as I stand 30 feet from a platform where a trophy is presented, unable to shut off the valve … ?

I mean, I just couldn’t stop. And as I took some deep breaths and tried to compose myself, I attempted to figure out what was going on. Was I really that deeply invested in a freaking football game?

Yes, I was. But more than that: The past 13 months of dread, pain, and anxiety all came to a head in that moment. That is what was pouring out of me. All I could think to say, down on that field, was WE’RE STILL HERE!!!! over and over. It probably sounded very stupid. In fact, I’m quite confident that it sounded very stupid. But in that moment, the fact that we had just proved — again — that we absolutely still belonged, despite getting the absolute shaft because of something as random as a geographical decision made 130 years ago … I dunno, it felt like something worth loudly declaring.

It also was something that was still very much up in the air for the last 13 months, and with only two games on the schedule to prove it, the stakes were high for WSU in this game.

Husky fans showed up in droves expecting to clown “little brother” again, even having the audacity/stupidity to buy resale tickets on the Cougs’ side. Whatever the outcome, the Big Ten schedule was waiting.

We, on the other hand, came in knowing that so much more than that was at stake.

The breakup of the Pac-12 was not just a major bummer for our sports teams; it remains an existential threat to the health of the university. That sounds dramatic, but for real: A ton of our identity as a university is big-time athletics, and dropping down has the potential for real, major ripple effects across campus.¹ A major thing that separates us from them is that we don’t just really like our sports teams — we⁴ first and foremost absolutely and undeniably care about the institution and, by extension, anything associated with it.

Our love includes our sports teams, but it is not defined by it.

It’s why, when we lose an Apple Cup (which has happened a lot!) and I wear my Coug gear to work, I get that quizzical look from a coworker accompanied by, “wow, that’s gutsy wearing that today!” I give them the most quizzical look I can muster right back and say, “I have no idea what you’re talking about — every day is a great day to be a Coug!”

The way we feel about WSU is something they literally cannot understand or fathom, which is why I rarely engage in tit for tat with any of them. All I can think is: I’m sorry, but y’all are mostly a bunch of dorks who throw on purple when it suits you, make excuses when your team pees down its collective leg, and then put your purple away on Sunday so you can grab your 12 jersey and crow when the Seahawks beat the Patriots in OT. And that’s fine! That’s most fans! I went to the Sounders last night, they pounded Sporting Kansas City, and I was very happy.

That said, I did not puff my chest out with Sounders gear at work today. You know what I was wearing.

I’m not saying anyone out there, Huskies included, need to somehow prove their fandom. What I am saying is that when you’ve actually attended the university — WSU in particular because of it’s unique setting — it’s a fundamentally different relationship with the team you are rooting for, and if you haven’t lived this with us, not even an empath of the highest order can hope to even sort of comprehend what the last 13 months have been like for us.

To Huskies, it’s an inconvenience that we are collateral damage in the inevitable march forward of capitalism and college football. Most of the Huskies I know personally have expressed some level of disapproval, while simultaneously shrugging their shoulders: “We had to do it. Sorry you got caught in the crossfire. I guess that’s life.”

The first part is, of course, pure, unadulterated, propagandist bullshit. They absolutely did not have to do this. It was an act of cowardice of the highest order. But they do believe it, just as they believe to their core — whether they are impolite enough to say it to our faces or not — that we are inferior, that on some level we do deserve this, simply for existing in circumstances that are not only out of our control, but virtually unchangeable in lieu of a megadonor who wants to personally fund the athletics department to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

So when I climbed over that railing and worked my way toward the platform, searching for my best friend who had gone before me, all of that was floating around my head.

We know this win doesn’t change a damn thing about our situation, really. The AP poll came out on Sunday, and even at 3-0 as one of the few teams with two P4 wins, we still couldn’t crack the top 25. We’re close, but as we know all too well, what really matters is who they thought you were in August and whether you belong to the correct conference. We’re also still left trying to piece a “Pac-12” back together with the best brands in G5, and it will be very difficult for the rest of the season to get any kind of traction to move up in the polls. We’ll climb very slowly if we can keep winning. Impressive victories will do very little.²

But for one day — one, glorious day — we put one on those assholes, which is why I will continue to float through this season with a smile on my face.

However, that’s not why I was crying on Saturday. As Dickert knew all too well, tears don’t come from hate — they come from love. And I love this university as deeply as anything in my life that isn’t sealed to me with a vow or have my own blood running through it. Washington and the rest of the college football machine will never, ever, be able to take this win away from me, no matter what happens in the coming months.

GFC.

When thinking about how this game tilted the Cougars’ direction, there’s plenty of credit to go around. On the offensive side: John Mateer’s legs (and arm!), the play of the line, Kyle Williams’ ability to run past folks … all deserve plaudits.

But c’mon: We know it was the defense that won this game.

An incredible thing about this unit was its “bend but don’t break” quality. The Huskies had 10 drives (plus one end-of-half drive) and only scored a touchdown on one of them, coming on an explosive pass on their second drive. The rest of the day, they’d move the ball, then suddenly stall out thanks to a negative play. On the afternoon, Washington’s average distance on 3rd down was a whopping 9.1 yards.

Say what you want about UWs penalties, the fact that they could not at all overcome them — when WSU scored a TD on a 3rd and 20 — tells you a lot about both their offense and our defense.

All told, Washington only made it into the red zone twice — scoring just three points.

It was the second of those trips that will go down in WSU lore for generations.

Which, of course, all set up the pivotal play.

This time, it was Kyle Thornton relentlessly attacking the ball as his teammates did the necessary dirty work. Edson fought through the reach block of the right tackle to hold the edge and force the Huskies to string the pay out further … and further … where they were met by Buddah Al-Uqdah, who had stonewalled a tight end at the line of scrimmage.

Faced with an onrushing Thornton, Rogers was left with few choices. He elected to pitch the ball, hoping Coleman could get to the edge. (On the short side of the field, smh.) No problem: Thornton just scraped off and also met Coleman, stoning him at the 2-yard line for noooooooo gain — and effectively ending the game.

I don’t know what Jedd Fisch was thinking, making that call in that moment. I’m not a Brilliant Football Mind, so I can’t tell you why he thought that was a great idea. What I can tell you is that WSU — as in so many pivotal moments in this game — was ready for that play in a way that makes you wonder what they knew that Washington did not. Because time and time again, the Cougs came up clutch in a critical down, often looking as if they recognized what was coming.

“We showed them a look and that we've done before, but we had a little bit of a change up to it,” Dickert said after the game. “I'm not going to go kind of deep into it. They thought they could get the speed option out the back door, and, you know, we didn't give them the blitz — what it looked to be. I thought they made the right call with what we showed them, but credit to our defensive staff — that's two weeks in a row just coming with a great plan, and our guys just flying around making plays.”

It was not a game full of great execution from beginning to end, particularly as it pertains to allowing explosive plays by Giles Jackson. But when it mattered most, WSU knew the assignment and the players balled out. Whatever concerns we had about the defense after week one have been firmly laid to rest.

One more word about Thornton. There could not have been a more perfect man to have made that particular play in this particular game. Evil Money University needs just two yards to drive a stake through the heart of Spunky State U, but they are foiled by a one-time walk-on in his sixth year who rose up to not only earn a scholarship, but become a starter and a captain? Send the script to Hollywood, man.

Sometimes, you can’t pick just one.

I’m not going to try and say this is a dominant unit. What I am going to say is that this is a unit that is vastly improved from a year ago, and that these five guys have played exceptionally hard and exceptionally together in these first few games.

For all the pressure that Washington brought — and they brought a metric shit ton of it in the second half — the Huskies sacked Mateer just one time, in the first half. Mateer obviously deserves a lot of credit for that with his ability to escape and elude rushers, but all told, the offensive line held up really damn well.

“Those guys played their ass off,” Dickert said. “I mean it — a year ago, we wouldn’t be able to hold up, and I mean (UW) bring it now. I mean, they didn't hold anything back; they bring it any situation, any down and distance, any zone. And I thought our guys just really answered the call every step of the way. A hell of a job by our off offensive line really neutralizing what I think is a pretty potent attack.”

You’ll be hard pressed to find a guy who had 8 targets that ended with just 3 catches for 22 yards who had a bigger impact on a game than Williams did on Saturday. The wide receiver consistently beat UW’s corners like a drum, running right past them repeatedly and tilting the field.

He drew a pair of penalties that were critical on two of WSU’s scoring drives. In the first quarter, a pass interference in the end zone on 2nd and 2 gave the Cougs a new set of downs, after which Mateer ran in for a 23-yard TD on the very next play. In the second quarter, a defensive holding on WSU’s final drive of the half (which should have been DPI, which would have moved the ball much deeper into Washington territory) kept the chains moving on 2nd and 6. Three plays later, Mateer scored on his improbable QB draw.

Williams should have drawn at least one more penalty (in the third quarter, when a clear tug on his jersey went uncalled), and maybe two (the DB used a clear grab of the jersey to leverage himself into position on Mateer’s lone interception). On balance, UW’s strategy of blitz like crazy and take their chances with penalties on the outside proved to be a sound strategy. Doesn’t seem replicable by our future opponents, though.

And I want to give one more shoutout to Williams’ blocking. On Mateer’s long TD, he was part of a wall of WRs giving the QB a cutback lane to the pylon. In short, Williams is the kind of guy who will do anything it takes to help the team win, and you cannot have too many of those guys on your roster.

Once again, sometimes you can’t pick just one.

While the runs for the TDs were absolutely epic, that’s not what impressed me the most. We knew he could run. What we weren’t sure of is how well he’d hold up if he had to throw the ball 30 times.

Well, he had to throw the ball 34 times. And it wasn’t just because of what Washington was doing — offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle seemed to want to get Mateer out on the front foot, throwing the ball 12 times in the first quarter against just seven rushes. It worked.

In the end, Mateer completed 17 of 34 for 245 yards, one TD and that one interception. It wasn’t a classic air raid performance, but with apologies to week 1 — where he was basically throwing on air — it was Mateer’s best performance of the year when you consider the circumstances and opponent.

Mateer was fearless, and he generally made good decisions. Heck, even the interception wasn’t a bad decision — he just did that thing he does where he doesn’t quite get his feet set and follow through on his throw, resulting in deep balls ending up just a bit short. I have confidence that will get corrected. The almost interception that was overturned by replay⁵ also wasn’t a bad decision — the guy made an excellent play that very easily could have been called DPI in another game. So sad for him that he couldn’t hold onto the ball.

Mateer is making big steps every week. Improvement is not linear, but through three games, he’s making it look like it.

Honorable Mention: Josh Meredith. Look, he probably deserves his own section, but I’m already pushing 4,000 words and I’m tired. But what a killer performance for a guy who has had to wait and wait and wait for his time. Seven targets, seven catches, 111 yards and a TD? That’s an all-timer. We’ve needed another WR to win his battles this year, and Meredith was spectacular.

This was perfect, no notes, and I will not hear otherwise.

(OK, maybe the refs. Good god: They blew a substitution call on our 4th and 2 in the first quarter that would have allowed us a first down; there was as clear late hit on WSU’s punt returner where he was hit three steps out of bounds; the blindside block call was panned by the “rules official” on the broadcast; and there was at least a possible targeting on Mateer in the 4th quarter that wasn’t even reviewed. Washington fans have been crying about the officiating ever since the game ended, but I think WSU clearly ended up on the wrong end of the most egregious calls.)

(OK ONE MORE: The “neutral” site game can die in a fire like a couch on Greek Row after a big win. There was nothing neutral about any of that. The crowd was about two-thirds Huskies, as you would expect in their home city. There also was a little extra sauce on the announcements of great Husky plays, the plethora of Washington imagery on the video boards after great UW plays, the “B1G” logo being on the chains, the Husky radio broadcast being pumped into the bathrooms, and Washington being listed as the home team on the stats. It was EVERYWHERE.)

It’s a major bummer this game is Friday night, because I bet a lot of Cougs would be making last-minute plans to head to Pullman. Maybe the Spokane Cougs can light up highway 195 with headlights.

Also, this is a trap game if I’ve ever seen one. San Jose State is not a bad team at all — the Spartans are 3-0, and they’re quarterbacked by one Emmett Brown. You might remember him from WSU spring games before he transferred. He’s not real tall — listed at just 5-foot-10 — but he can definitely throw the rock: He’s averaging more than 300 yards a game on 60% completion with 9 TDs and 2 INTs.

That said, this isn’t exactly a great offense overall. They’re averaging a mere 5.7 yards per play, including just 1.9 yards per rush. However, the defense’s numbers are the sort to give you pause: They’ve allowed just a minuscule 3.5 ypp through three games, forcing an average of three turnovers.

No, the Spartans have not faced anyone on WSU’s level; they have wins over Sacramento State, Air Force, and Kennesaw State. But the Cougs take this game lightly at their own peril.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. PT on Friday from Pullman, with the game to be broadcast on the CW.