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Spokane’s 11-game winning streak came to an end Friday as No. 3 Jacksonville took advantage of four Shock turnovers to post a 64-49 victory.
Check back for more in about an hour.
The Pac-10 started down the road toward the Pac-12 on Friday, as the athletic directors of the 12 schools met for the first in what could be a few conferences aimed at ironing out the football schedule. To have a championship game – and the conference wants a championship game – there has to be two six-team divisions. How those divisions will be configured has to be worked out, more than likely by October. We know for sure Utah will join in 2011, with Colorado trying to move up its Big 12 withdrawal date so it can start play the same year. If that’s not possible, the Buffs will be a 2012 participant. We have the unedited version of our story on today’s meeting on the link, so read on.
Continue reading Pac-10 starts football divisional process »
If you want to head to Pullman and watch the 2010 football go through its paces prior to the Oklahoma State opener Sept. 4, you now can pencil in your plans. The school’s sports information office released the schedule today. Click the link to see the entire four weeks.
Continue reading WSU officially announces practice schedule »
Idaho’s Mike Iupati, a first-round draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers, signed a contract Friday worth an estimated $18.25 million. Stories and photos here.
Game-day for the Shock and it looks like they’ll be dealing with Aaron Garcia at quarterback. Garcia has been sidelined with a concussion and separated shoulder, but he practiced this week and will probably start tonight, according to the Florida Times-Union. More here.
Elsewhere, the Arizona Rattlers are now battling for a home playoff game because Milwaukee doesn’t have a suitable alternative site to the Bradley Center, which is undegoing renovations.The Arizona Republic also reviewed the AFL’s first year in this article. In the near future, look for the AFL to re-up with NFL Network for another year.
For the first time in months, it’s possible to spend your whole day reading and watching video of Pac-10 football. With plenty of Cougar stuff thrown in. If you want to spend your Friday that way, read on.
• UPDATE: Former Cougar guard Kyle Weaver was released by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday.
• UPDATE 2: The football practice schedule will be released soon but here are some notes for you. Until school starts (Aug. 23) practices will be at 8:30 a.m. Double days will go at 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. WSU will take off two Mondays, Aug. 16 and 23, and then Sunday, Aug. 29. During school, practices officially start at 3:45 p.m., but they usually get going about 20 minutes earlier. The first game is Sept. 4 at Oklahoma State. By the way, the improvements at the Rogers Field practice facility are pretty well done.
The 2010 Pac-10 football media day is over. My guess is I’m about seven pounds lighter. I know my skin is three shades redder. After the lack of outdoor exposure this summer, today in the Rose Bowl was a rude awakening. Anyhow, we have some notes and stories from the event, held here for the first time. Read on.
• UPDATE: We’ve posted the unedited versions of the stories on the link. They are below our comments.
Back with a preview of Spokane’s game with No. 3 Jacksonville on Friday. Here’s a link to the article that will run in tomorrow’s paper. From Jacksonville, it sounds like quarterback Aaron Garcia will be available to play. .
Some other AFL news: It sounds like the Bossier/Shreveport franchise might be bound for New Orleans and Alabama might be relocating to Nashville or Georgia. More here.
A quick summary of Paul Wulff’s remark’s to the assembled media in the Rose Bowl follows on the link. One piece of news, Jeff Tuel is the guy at quarterback. Read on.
Continue reading Oregon picked first, WSU last in Pac-10 poll »
I believe these (and others) have been mentioned here before, but GU has officially released five of its non-conference games (Illinois, WSU, Baylor, Oklahoma City and Memphis) for the upcoming season. More here.
The complete schedule will be released at a later date.
Spokane held on to the top spot in yet another curious edition of the weekly coaches poll, but there will not be a 1-vs.-2 showdown against Jacksonville on Friday.
Spokane picked up 11 of 15 first-place votes. Tampa Bay climbed from fifth to second, apparently on the strength of a 53-29 win over Alabama (6-9). Jacksonville crushed Bossier/Shreveport (3-12) 48-20, but dropped from No. 2 to No. 3.
Chicago, which lost 63-49 to Spokane, moved up one spot to No. 5. The Rush (10-6) received one first-place vote.
The WIAA executive board concluded its July meetings Tuesday and the expected announcement of where the new “regional state” sites would be was delayed.
Click the tab below for more information.
If Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott had any expectations concerning his media blitz of the East, they were probably exceeded yesterday. We have that and more on the link, so read on.
Donna Lenseigne, who turned the Gonzaga Prep girls tennis program into a powerhouse, passed away unexpectedly early Tuesday. She was 51. Read the story here.
Some teams rest starters when they’ve done about all they can do in the regular season (see Indianapolis Colts, 2009). Some teams don’t change their approach, even though there is risk of injury that could mar their playoff run.
Read more about Spokane’s approach here.
(By the way, that photo is of Mervin Brookins returning a kick for a touchdown, which was named the AFL’s highlight play of the week).
COUGARS
Washington State is a little thin at the defensive tackle spot, and the Cougars got a little thinner Tuesday when redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Dan Spitz was suspended for the first nine games of the season after failing a NCAA-mandated drug test last fall. Click here for the story.
Bob Kustra, president of Boise State, told the Idaho Statesman today that he sees no need to play the the University of Idaho in Moscow — or in Boise — after the football teams meet for the last time this season before BSU moves to the Mountain West Conference. His reason for wanting to stay away from Moscow? “It’s a culture that is nasty, inebriated and civilly doesn’t give our
fans the respect that any fan should expect when visiting an away team.”
Kustra’s comments come a day after Broncos coach Chris Petersen, when asked if BSU was willing to do a home-and-home series with Idaho, said, “Why would we go (to Moscow)? I don’t think our fans even like to go up there. Most of Idaho’s fans
are in Boise anyway.”
With the start of fall practice less than a week away, Eastern Washington University’s football team continues to rake in individual preseason awards. The Eagles, who have been picked to finish second to perennial national power Montana in the Big Sky Conference standings, just had two players — senior linebacker J.C. Sherritt and junior running back Taiwan Jones named FCS first-team preseason All-Americans by The Sporst Network, with junior defensive end Renard Williams landing a spot on the second team.
Links to that story and several others involving preseason predictions and honors have been provided below.
Continue reading List of EWU preseason awards keeps growing »
Click the tab below to read about former University High wrestling standout Tommy Owen being hired as head coach at Central Valley.
As the Pac-10 coaches tour the Big Apple (and nearby media compounds with four initials), conference commissioner Larry Scott is the man of the hour. It was just a year ago Scott oversaw his first football media day. A lot has changed since then. Read on.
Continue reading Pac-10 about to enter second year of Scott era »
Just over a month away from the start of the 2010 season, the Idaho football team today was picked to finish sixth in the WAC by the league’s coaches and fourth by the media. The Vandals traded spots with Utah State in both polls. As expected, Boise State was tabbed as the favorite in both polls, though Nevada garnered a first-place vote in each.
Idaho opens Sept. 2 versus North Dakota in Moscow. The Vandals are coming off an 8-5 season.
Read more here.
The countdown to football continues this week, with the Pac-10 unveiling a new look in advance of expansion. The conference has a new video selling itself and a new, easy-to-change logo (upper left on the video link) to brand itself. Read on for more.
• UPDATE: It looks as if the Pac-10 took the video down, because the link, that worked well this morning, is no longer active. It might have been an accidental post, as the conference looks to be launching a new site tomorrow. So you’ll have to check it out then.
The weekend’s results eliminated Milwaukee as one of Spokane’s potential first-round playoff opponents. The Iron, win or lose in their final regular season game, have clinched the Midwest Division title (they own tiebreaker over Chicago if it comes down to that) and will host a first-round game.
That means Spokane will face Chicago or Arizona. It’ll be the Rush if Arizona defeats Iowa on Friday. It’ll be the Rattlers if Arizona loses to Iowa. In the latter scenario, Arizona and Chicago both finish 10-6 but the Rush swept Arizona 2-0 during the season.
Orlando clinched the fourth and final spot in the American Conference by trouncing Oklahoma City. Pairings aren’t finalized there because Jacksonville and Tampa Bay remain tied at 11-4 (Sharks own tiebreaker). Spokane visits Jacksonville on Friday.
In two weeks the 2010 Washington State University football season will begin. Two weeks. Does it seem like the offseason went by just like that? It does here. But we’re back, so read on.
Back with my unedited game story from Spokane’s 63-49 win over Chicago. Sorry for the delay, but my computer acted up. Read on.
Spokane and Chicago traded touchdowns until deep into the fourth quarter when the Shock defense made a goal-line stand. The Shock turned that stop into a Greg Orton touchdown reception at the other end and Spokane went on to a 63-49 win at the Arena on Friday..
The victory gives Spokane hosting rights throughout the playoffs.
Game story in about 90 minutes.
Spokane returns home after two lengthy, but successful road trips, when it entertains Chicago at 5 p.m. Friday. My unedited advance is below.
Steve Bergum covers EWU football and men's basketball, college baseball, and writes weekly golf column during the summer.
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Vince Grippi covers WSU sports and invites readers to share their thoughts on the sports news of the day.
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Greg Lee covers high school sports throughout Inland Northwest.
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Jim Meehan covers Gonzaga basketball, Whitworth football, Spokane Shock football, college volleyball and prep softball.
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Dave Trimmer covers a variety of high school, college and professional sports and is the primary writer on the weekly Then & Now series.
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