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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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About halfway there

Let's discuss college football.

Glenn Kasses looks at the Cougs at the halfway point of fall practice. Here is his story today about the Cougs' coaching staff backing off a little Sunday and Monday. There are only about two weeks before the opener at No. 4 Auburn. Glenn also looks ahead to the Tigers a little more on his blog.

Alex Brink firmly established himself as the Cougars' quarterback last year, so now stories about him are popping up all over the state, like this one from the Vancouver Columbian.

On the Idaho front, Jim Meehan writes about the Saturday scrimmage and links to this Orange County Register story about former coach Nick Holt on his blog.

UPDATE: Dave Trimmer has just about everything you could ever want to know about Eastern's weekend on his blog, including the news fromer Eag Erik Meyer was cut by Cincy.

Bob Condotta examined the Huskies' practices through the halfway point in a Seattle Times story this morning. I was hoping for a little more commentary on his blog, but as of 9:30 a.m. there wasn't any. There is also a good piece in the Everett Herald about Alex Mercier's senior thesis.

But the best story out of UW comes from Don Ruiz in the News Tribune. Ruiz talked with freshman safety Jake Merrill and explains why Merrill quit playing football. A good read.

There is trouble in the Arizona desert. Read this Arizona Republic story and this East Valley Tribune piece and see if you read the same thing between the lines I do.

Here's how I see it: ASU coach Dirk Koetter names senior quarterback Sam Keller the starter Friday night. Saturday, a group of players come to Koetter to say they want sophomore Rudy Carpenter as the starter. I'm also speculating Carpenter have dropped hints about transferring as well. So Koetter backtracks Sunday and names Carpenter the starter. Now Keller will probably leave. In the end, a senior who has given his heart and soul to a program for four years is out and a sophomore has the job for this year – and probably two more.

There are no winners here.



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