Cougs earn two Pac-10 awards; Hasselbeck out three weeks

THE EARLY NEWS

The accolades for WSU just keep rolling in.

Not only was Eric Frampton named Pac-10 defensive player of the week and punter Darryl Blunt special teams player, but coach Bill Doba was praised in this ESPN.com article from Mark Schlabach. The story doesn’s say why, but I guess it has to do with the Oregon win.

••••••••••

The news about Matt Hasselbeck was about as good as could be expected. The veteran quarterbacks suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee and should miss about three weeks.

••••••••••

I probably should have linked to this Larry Stone baseball column this morning, but I didn’t want to be late for my golf game (didn’t putt real well, but that’s life – the company was great).

Stone writes about the legend of Kenny Rogers, no, not the ancient singer, the Tiger pitcher. And all the talk radio guys today were trying to unravel the mystery of Rogers’ dirty hand last night. No, I don’t think it was pine tar. My guess it was just blood from shoving a cameraman out of the way.

Speaking of old left-handed pitchers, former Mariner Jamie Moyer signed a two-year extension with the Philadelphia Phillies.

He’ll be 45 when it runs out, and will have probably lost a foot on his changeup - which is a good thing.

••••••••••

The Huskies’ road to a bowl game is a lot tougher than it looked a couple weeks ago. Though UW is 4-4, it still plays Arizona State (the Sun Devils are 1-3 in conference, but the three losses are to USC, Cal and Oregon) and Stanford (mark that as a win), and Oregon and WSU on the road. Because the road games will be so tough, UW probably has to win this Saturday against ASU to ensure a bowl bid.

Both running back Kenny James and quarterback Carl Bonnell came out of the Cal game a little banged up, though the depth of the injuries is unknown. If Bonnell is unable to handle the job, it looks like freshman Jake Locker is next in line.