Monday morning WSU, Pac-10 links

COUGARS • UPDATED: 10:50 A.M.

It’s Monday morning and I am waiting to do an Oklahoma City radio show, so, as I wait for the phone to ring, it seemed like a good time to get to the links. If you are so inclined, read on.

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• Washington State: Not a lot from Pullman as the Cougars and myself, other than yesterday morning’s links and notes, had the day off. I will say there was a two-deep floating around the web yesterday that was rife with mistakes, as far as I can tell. The official one will be out today and it will look nearly identical to the ones we’ve been running each day with our position previews. It’s not rocket surgery. You watch practice, keep track of who runs out when the ones are called, when the twos are called and check off the injured players. If there is a change from day-to-day, you note it. It’s that simple. … When the official two-deep is released, we’ll look at some of the interesting aspects, for example, how many freshmen, the position battles we followed, etc. … There are some links from Oklahoma State to pass along, including this short blog post on WSU’s recent past. … How many games is OSU expected to win? Some day I will devote a whole post to expectations and why they are so crazy. … A practice report from Stillwater. … Brandon Weeden takes over at quarterback with quite a bit of baseball experience. … Hey, more on expectations. … And that’s about it this morning.

UPDATE: There are some changes going on in the athletic department with the addition of Mike Marlow on the senior staff. John Johnson, who had been in charge of the external operations, like marketing and sports information, along with fundraising, is turning most of those duties over to Marlow. Johnson will oversee some fundraising still, but just for facilities. Another senior associate athletic director, Anne McCoy, will take over the job of overseeing all sports except football and men’s basketball. And there will be more additions, though not at the senior level. Former Cougar football player Tony Thompson has been walking the halls lately and his hiring will be announced soon. He will be working with the athletic alumni.

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• Around the Pac-10: The phone is ringing, I’ll be right back. … We’re back. Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News checks in with the Pac-10 realignment discussions and finds there is little movement. It does look like the TV money will be distributed differently (evenly?) and the conference will split geographically. This is what I’m hearing as well. … ESPN.com’s Ted Miller goes out on a limb and makes his conference season predictions. He has WSU’s Brandon Rankin as the defensive newcomer of the year. … He also has some “fearless” predictions. … Washington: Steve Sarkisian, who coached them both, sees eerie similarities between Jake Locker and Carson Palmer. … Oregon State and Oregon: No quarterback controversy in Eugene. … The Ducks’ Kenjon Barner expects a breakout year. … Cal and Stanford: Making music is as crucial for this Bear player as making blocks. … USC: The Trojan defense needs to contain Hawaii’s quarterback. … UCLA: A season preview from the Daily News. … Arizona State: It looks as if Steven Threet has won the quarterback job. … Arizona: Another Zendejas is shining as the Wildcats’ kicker.

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• That’s all for this morning. The Cougars don’t practice until 8 tonight, and that’s a light, helmet, T-shirt and shorts walk-through type of practice. We’ll be back this afternoon with our first look at the Oklahoma State game and possibly more. Until then …