Perspective can be a hard thing to come by, especially in the wake of a loss as disheartening as the one Washington State suffered Saturday night in the 110th Apple Cup.
The Cougars squandered a number of opportunities by losing to Evergreen State rival Washington 41-14 at Husky Stadium, but none of them were harder to swallow than a chance to represent the Pac-12 North in Friday’s conference title game against USC.
That’s an opportunity the Cougars had last season, when they reeled off seven consecutive conference wins to set up a winner-take-all Apple Cup with the Huskies.