You get one football game to re-watch from each season since 1997. Which ones do you choose?

Hello sports fans. It’s been a whirlwind week. With the COVID-19 stay-at-home precautions around the country, we’ve all had to adjust our lives tremendously. There are no sit-down restaurants open, no K-12 schools open, businesses are shut down and sports pretty much don’t exist right now.

This might be the worst time of year for this to happen, too. The NCAA Tournament was thisclose to tipping off and Major League Baseball would have started its season yesterday. The NBA and NHL seasons were winding down and the playoffs were right around the corner. NASCAR was starting back up. High schools were about to crown state champions and spring sports were about to begin.

But now, there’s nothing. It’s been interesting to see how the sports media has adjusted. Sports pages in newspapers are brief. CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV now suddenly have all sorts of time slots to fill. ESPN is thankful for Tom Brady and the NFL, at least. Many networks are starting to play games from years past. The Mariners-Yankees Game 5 playoff game from 1995 was on MLB Network earlier this week. That was fun.

This all got me thinking. Which past WSU football games would you like to re-watch? Let’s put this into a little exercise. Starting with the 1997 season, let’s go year by year and pick just one game that we’d like to see again. We are eliminating Apple Cups to begin. We’ll move on to those games in their own category.

Here....we....go....

1997

WSU 37
UCLA 34

The season opener was a sign of things to come. Winning the game defending your own end zone on national television was a nice kickoff.

Honorable Mention:

WSU 35
Arizona 34

1998

WSU 33
Boise State 21

Slim pickings in 1998

Honorable Mention:

Unless we want to re-watch a loss, picking between wins over Illinois and Idaho isn’t easy.

1999

WSU 22
Hawaii 14

This was the season finale after an Apple Cup loss and introduced us to Jason Gesser, the football player version.

Honorable Mention:

Idaho 28
WSU 17

I know it’s a loss but the cynic in me wants to see how in the world we lost to Idaho.

2000

Arizona 53
WSU 47
3OT

Another loss, but games that go three overtimes are always wild. Plus, the official stats say Paul Mencke started at wide receiver. I have no recollection of that.

Honorable Mention:

WSU 33
USC 27

We beat USC right before the Trojans got good.

2001

WSU 33
Purdue 27

First bowl win since 1994.

Honorable Mention:

WSU 24
UCLA 14

Lamont Thompson picked off four passes as WSU beat no. 9 UCLA. Why is this just honorable mention?

2002

WSU 30
USC 27

“Ballgame!”

Honorable Mention:

WSU 31
Nevada 7

First game in what was then called Seahawks Stadium. Will Derting’s introduction.

2003

WSU 55
Oregon 16

Cougs take advantage of the SI cover jinx.

Honorable Mention:

WSU 36
Oregon State 30

Talk about a roller coaster (also, the Holiday Bowl could be in this spot).

2004

WSU 20
Arizona 19

All the Wildcats had to do was take some knees and they’d win the game. They ran one last play and fumbled the ball. WSU scored a minute later.

Honorable Mention:

WSU 31
UCLA 29

Alex Brink gets his first win and Jerome Harrison runs wild.

2005

UCLA 44
WSU 41

I’d like to see WSU blow a big lead against UCLA again because I’m a masochist.

Honorable Mention:

Oregon 34
WSU 31

Another game we should have won but we blew a sizable lead? Sure why not.

2006

USC 28
WSU 22

Give me some space pajamas. Plus, that USC roster was insane.

Honorable Mention:

WSU 34
Oregon 23

Upset city.

2007

WSU 27
UCLA 7

This was a nice win and the first of two wins in a three-game stretch later in the season.

Honorable Mention:

WSU 33
Stanford 17

This was that second win in that three-game stretch. We all thought we’d turned a corner, but then WSU got slaughtered at home in the rain against Oregon State the next week.

2008

NO THANKS

2009

PASS

2010

Maybe that fluke win at Oregon State?

2011

WSU 37
Arizona State 27

Nice to meet you, Connor Halliday.

Honorable Mention:

WSU 31
Colorado 27

Marshall Lobbestael finds Marquess Wilson deep to cap a comeback win. The Cougs were 3-1!

2012

WSU 24
Eastern Washington 20

Mostly I want to see Andrew Furney nail a 60-yard field goal.

Honorable Mention:

Colorado 35
WSU 34

One of the dumbest endings ever.

2013

WSU 49
Utah 37

Cougs are going bowling!

Honorable Mention:

WSU 24
Arizona 17

A nice comeback win with a defensive stand at the end to seal the win. The 10-7 win over USC almost took this spot.

2014

WSU 28
Utah 27

Cougs were down 21-0 in this one and got a good lashing from Leach. Then they came back and won in the rain.

Honorable Mention:

Cal 60
WSU 59

Another time where I want to see how in the world this happened.

2015

WSU 31
UCLA 27

Still my favorite win of the Mike Leach era. Such a satisfying game.

Honorable Mention:

WSU 45
Oregon 38
2OT

This was when I thought, “hey, I think we have ourselves a football team!”

2016

WSU 35
Oregon State 31

If you went to sleep at halftime (guilty), you had quite the surprise when you woke up the next morning.

Honorable Mention:

WSU 51
Oregon 33

Always satisfying to beat Oregon. Even better when you light up the scoreboard.

2017

WSU 47
Boise State 44
3OT

An amazing game for so many reasons.

Honorable Mention:

WSU 30
USC 27

Lots of good choices in 2017.

2018

WSU 34
Oregon 20

The re-air includes both College GameDay and the game.

Honorable Mention:

Tons to choose from: The Alamo Bowl, of course, plus the wins over Wyoming, Utah, Stanford and Cal.

2019

WSU 54
Oregon State 53

Jeff and Craig already watched this but I need high blood pressure so I’m picking it too.

Honorable Mention:

Not the UCLA game. Or the Oregon game. Pass on the ASU game as well. Nope. None of those.

Apple Cups

Easy: 1997, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2012.

Not 2008. Sorry.

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OK, what say you?

Links

What happened: A three-part series on the abrupt end to Washington State’s basketball season | The Spokesman-Review
Not until he woke up Thursday morning could Jeff Pollard fully grasp the breadth of the history he and his Washington State teammates had made the night before, beating Colorado 82-68 in the Pac-12 Tournament.

What’s happening: A three-part series on the abrupt end to Washington State’s basketball season | The Spokesman-Review
Kyle Smith may not be instructing young adults on the anatomy of pick-and-roll defense right now, but it doesn’t mean the first-year Washington State basketball coach is fully escaping teacher mode in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

Teammates, coaches, friends react to death of Washington State safety Bryce Beekman | The Spokesman-Review
Countless current and former teammates, coaches, friends and others shared their condolences on social media after it was learned rising redshirt senior safety Bryce Beekman died Tuesday night at the age of 22.