The safety had a pair of interceptions in the Apple Cup to help the UW pull away for a big win.
Leading up to this season, Jedd Fisch and his University of Washington defensive coaches reiterated the pressing need for more turnovers. It was almost a daily mantra. It was programming a different mindset.
In 2024, the Huskies came up with just 14 of them, practically one per game, hardly enough to get the defense off the field in an expedient manner. Even into this season, the UW emerged from decisive victories over Colorado State and UC Davis with just one takeaway in each encounter. Leave it to Northern Arizona transfer Alex McLaughlin to finally up the ante and not only collect a pair of interceptions, but put one of them in the end zone with a 47-yard runback in the fourth quarter of Saturday's 59-24 victory over Washington State in the 117th Apple Cup in Pullman.The 6-foot-2, 200-pound junior from Chandler, Arizona, was an opportunist from start to finish, coming up with a 21-yard interception return on the first series of the game, too, with what was best described as a team effort in thievery. Senior edge rusher Zach Durfee hit Cougars quarterback Zevi Eckhaus right as he released the ball, sophomore linebacker Deven Bryant deflected the pass and McLaughlin was more than happy to pick it off for his first UW interception and give his team midfield field position.In the fourth quarter, McLaughlin took advantage of an Eckhaus overthrow, got his hands on the football with the receiver totally unaware of what was happening and sprinted to the end zone with no one from WSU in any position to stop him. "I was guarding my man and looked up and saw the ball and saw nothing but green," the former All-Big Sky selection said. "So I just ran straight and scored." The Huskies forced three turnovers in all, with freshman cornerback Dylan Robinson punching out the ball out of Eckhaus' hands and junior defensive tackle Bryce Butler coming up with the first UW fumble recovery of the season. Entering the fourth quarter, the Huskies led just 31-24 before everything came apart for WSU, which was outscored 28-0 to the end. "I think what happened was we wound up taking the ball away -- we needed to get a takeaway," Fisch said. "That Alex McLaughlin interception for a touchdown, I really think changed a lot of the momentum." For McLaughlin, it was his seventh and eighth career interceptions in his time at Northern Arizona and the UW. He had four during the 2023 season when he was a freshman.In the Spring Game, he offered a preview of what he could do with an 80-yard interception return that would have gone end zone to end zone had he got a final block and not been pulled down from behind. At the Apple Cup, McLaughlin showed what's possible for the defense, which will try to take the ball away from No. 1-ranked Ohio State in Seattle next weekend. "I think obviously we've got some things to work on," McLaughlin said, "but when we're all on the same page I think we looked really good."Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.
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