For all the obvious reasons --- and maybe some unobvious ones, who knows? --- this Apple Cup isn't exactly stirring excitement throughout the state of Washington.

UW officials report that heading into the weekend, 65,600 tickets had been sold for Saturday's 3:30 p.m. kickoff. They also report that WSU returned about 500 tickets of its allotment of roughly 4,000.

That means that unless there's a heavy run-up sale this week, this could be the first Apple Cup crowd under 70,000 since Husky Stadium was expanded in 1987.

The smallest Apple Cup crowd since then came in 2005, when 70,713 saw the Cougars beat the Huskies 26-22. That also is the last time the teams had records this bad heading into a game in Seattle --- UW was 2-8 going into that game and WSU 3-7 in the last season before a 12-game schedule.

LOOKING AT THE COUGS --- WSU coach Paul Wulff talked to reporters via a conference call tonight and Vince Grippi of The Spokesman-Review has a good wrapup.

What readers of this blog probably care about the most is WSU's QB situation. Sounds like it's still muddled. Wulff said there's a chance Jeff Tuel may be able to return after missing the last two games with a kneecap injury, but that won't be determined until he goes through practice for a few days.

Tuel, a true freshman who played alongside UW true freshman safety Nate Fellner at Clovis West High in Fresno, Calif., had earned the starting job before being injured. Senior Kevin Lopina, who went all the way in the Apple Cup last year, started against Oregon State Saturday and would presumably start again if Tuel can't go.

Wulff said tonight that WSU's offensive line may have played its best game of the year against Oregon State. It either speaks to how bad a year WSU has had, or how good OSU's defense is, that the Cougars were held to 192 yards despite apparently getting a good performance up front. That includes just 59 yards rushing on 24 attempts and only nine yards rushing on nine attempts in the second half.

WSU was within 21-10 at halftime, but the score was a little deceiving as there was no doubt Oregon State was the better team throughout, its mistakes and sloppy play the only thing preventing the margin from being a lot worse.

WSU's 80-yard scoring drive to close the half was helped by four Oregon State penalties on four straight plays, taking the ball from the WSU 47 to the Oregon State 4 (there was also a four-yard gain on one of the plays). From there, it took four plays for WSU to get it in the end zone.

WSU also had a 49-yard drive on its first possession of the game when it seemed to catch the Beavers off guard a little bit with QB runs --- Lopina had five carries for 18 yards on the drive, picking up both third downs with his feet. Otherwise, WSU only had one other drive longer than 21 yards the rest of the day.

The Huskies have been installed as 26-point favorites in Saturday's Apple Cup game over the Cougars.

As far as I can tell, that's the biggest spread in the series since UW was a 34-point favorite at home in 1991, the year the Huskies won the national title.

The line for this week is a little higher than I thought it might have been. On the other hand, WSU hasn't come within 21 points of anyone on the road this season and has been outscored 216-50 in five road games this season.

In other Pac-10 lines:

--- Arizona is a 3.5-point favorite at Arizona State;

--- Stanford is a 10-point favorite over Notre Dame at home;

--- and USC is a 13-point favorite over UCLA at home.

No change at the top as the first eight teams stay the same this week.

And the national title picture is now clear. Texas will play, and almost certainly beat, Nebraska in the Big 12 title game to set up a national title contest against the winner of the Florida-Alabama SEC championship game, thus making this one of the most to-form seasons in recent memory.

From there it gets more muddled, especially with the Pac-10 teams.

Oregon moves back into my top 10 with its win at Arizona, while Cal also moves back in the poll with its win at Stanford.

I also moved Oregon State a bit higher after seeing them just toy with a team from the state of Washington for a second straight week. And worth noting that the Beavers started just five seniors Saturday --- two on defense and three on offense. The Beavers are truly at the reloading rather than rebuilding stage.

I included Stanford as my fourth Pac-10 team, leaving out Arizona, and that can obviously be debated. I also left out USC --- not sure how you can include the Trojans and not Stanford after the way the Cardinal beat USC in Los Angeles eight days ago.

UA now has four losses against just six wins, and has been beaten each of the last two weeks. And think about what a quick fall it could be for Arizona, which still has two Pac-10 games remaining. UA now finishes with games at Arizona State and USC. UA will be heavily favored to beat ASU but a lot stranger things have happened, and winning at USC is still a tall order.

A Pac-10 title picture that was pretty muddled a week ago is now crystal clear --- the winner of the Oregon-Oregon State game Dec. 3 goes to the Rose Bowl.

Simple as that. Wins by both Oregon schools today and Cal's upset of Arizona eliminated everyone else --- every other Pac-10 team now has at least three conference losses. And if OSU beats Oregon, it wins the head-to-head with the Ducks.

As for the Huskies, UDubSports.com reported tonight that linebacker Garrett Gilliland of Lutheran High in Orange, Calif., has committed to Washington. However, Dawgman.com reported that Gilliland has not yet had a chance to talk to UW coach Steve Sarkisian and that any commitment won't be final until he does. So sounds like one to write in pencil, for now. Gilliland is expected to take an official visit to UW for the Apple Cup. Rivals.com listed him as also having offers from Colorado, Washington State, Fresno State and Duke and rates him as the No. 75 OLB in the country.

Here's a note on Gilliland from the Orange County Register last week noting he's been battling an ankle injury all season.

Well, I got one Husky-related news item out of coming to Pullman today as word here is that the 2010 Apple Cup will apparently be played on Dec. 4.

WSU athletic director Jim Sterk confirmed that the Apple Cup is moving off of its scheduled Nov. 20. He would not say to what date it is moving. But WSU coach Paul Wulff said in his post-game news conference that it is expected that the game will be Dec. 4 in Pullman.

That would be the first December Apple Cup in the 102-game history of the series (game No. 102 coming next week).

The move will also give the Cougars and Huskies each two mid-season byes, one of the main reasons for the change.

The Cougars will fill the Apple Cup date with a home game against Cal on Nov. 20.

The Apple Cup was first moved off its traditional Saturday before Thanksgiving date in 2007 when it was played in Seattle on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

It stayed on its usual Saturday last year in Pullman, but will again be played this year the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

There had been a thought that the two schools would prefer not to play a game as late as the first weekend in December in Pullman.

But apparently each school has, uh, warmed to the idea to open up byes during the season and create greater flexibility in the schedule.

UW had been in talks with Oregon State to move a game set for Oct. 16 in Seattle to Dec. 4 for the same purpose, but that apparently fell through.

This move is separate from the talks of last spring to move the Apple Cup to Qwest Field. That idea is dead for now. Instead, this is simply just to try to add byes in the school.

I'm assuming this means there will be some further juggling in UW's 2010 schedule but I don't have info on any other moves.

The Pac-10 schedule for 2010 is expected to be announced soon.

The latest the Apple Cup has ever been played is Nov. 30, most recently in 1965.

Here's a link to UW's current 2010 schedule.

A bye week Saturday means mostly finding some links on some future Huskies.

--- And bad news for one of them as TB Deontae Cooper sprained an ankle early in the second half and his Citrus Hill team was upset, ending a 38-game winning streak and his fabulous high school career. He had 210 yards before being injured. The injury doesn't sound serious.

--- Nick Montana threw for three TDs and ran for another as Oaks Christian won its first playoff game 70-14.

--- TB Jesse Callier had 232 yards rushing and 348 total as Warren won its first playoff game 51-21. He has 2,864 rushing yards for the season

--- WR/DB commit Keanon Lowe scored three touchdowns for Jesuit of Portland as it won its second-round playoff game.

--- All the Pac-10 links you could want from The Oregonian.

May not be much else on the blog today as I'm on assignment in, well, Pullman. Not covering the game, per se, but just getting some stuff for our Apple Cup coverage next week. But not figuring to see much of a suspenseful game here and not assuming you guys would want to read much about it in this space, anyway. But if anything interesting happens or is said, I'll check in later.

Another round. ...

Q: How many incoming recruits do you expect to enroll early?

A: So far, the only two who have indicated they will try to do it are running backs Deontae Cooper and Jesse Callier. If there's anything bad about that, it's that tailback is probably the team's least worriesome position going forward, so maybe it'd be better if it were linemen or something getting the head start.However, Cooper and Callier enrolling early means they could count as members of the Class of 2009, opening up a couple spots in the Class of 2010, which helps. Nick Montana has said he will not be able enroll early, his transfer after his sophomore year apparently meaning he has to stay the full year to graduate.

Q: Do you expect any shakeup in the assistant coaching staff next season?

A: No. For one, Steve Sarkisian has stated emphatically several times he sees no reason to panic despite the recent losing streak. It's clear that in his mind, it's far too early to make any kind of determination that he needs to make a change in staff --- I think that would be the case even if they somehow lost the last two. For another, every assistant has a two-year guaranteed contract (here are all the details on that). UW is obviously willing to spend what it takes when it comes to football, but finances also come into increasing play these days. So unless an assistant leaves willingly for another job -- and that could always happen --- I don't expect any staff changes.

We don't usually delve into non-football matters here but thought this would be of interest to a lot of you on here as news broke today that former Husky baseball coach Ken Knutson is now the new interim head coach at Arizona State.

Here's the story detailing the sudden resignation of ASU coach Pat Murphy. Knutson was fired as UW's coach last spring and then hired by ASU as a volunteer coach.

The story indicates ASU will conduct a full-scale search for the job and it's unclear how long Knutson will remain as interim coach.