Heat on at WSU practice
COUGARS • UPDATED: 11 A.M.
How is everyone this morning? Take a moment today and walk around, feel the sunshine, enjoy the heat. If you live in the Inland Northwest, it more than likely will be your final day of 70-degree weather until spring. Build some memories because there will be days in January and February when you'll need it. Do all that, of course, after you read on.
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• Washington State: This is a big week for the Cougars but as John Blanchette writes, it has nothing to do with the homecoming football game. It has everything to do with the athletic director meetings in San Francisco. ... Yesterday's practice was interesting and we covered it with our notes last night. One thing I didn't mention is how the soreness index seems to be rising among the Cougar players. More and more often you see players limping or rotating arms, wearing ice, working our kinks. The long slog of a season – as Myron Beck said, week six of 11 – will take its toll on these young men, there's no doubt. ... We had our Pac-10 notebook in today's paper. ... Christian Caple of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News had this story on C.J. Mizell. He and Sekope Kaufusi will be featured in our story on dealing with the Oregon offense that will run Friday. ... We summarized Paul Wulff's press conferences yesterday and the WSU Football Blog did the same for his radio show. ... ESPN.com's Ted Miller has some thoughts on Wulff and the Cougars. ...UPDATE: We found an AP story about Bill Moos and Oregon.
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• Around the Pac-10: Miller tosses out some numbers to chew on. ... Bud Withers previews the athletic director meetings. ... He also looks at the fall of Troy. ... Washington: It doesn't seem like any school in this state, Pac-10 school anyway, can stop the run. ... Dennis Erickson makes another trip back to Seattle. ... Oregon State: James Rodgers returned to practice Tuesday. ... Mike Riley gets a lot of questions about other schools. ... Oregon: The Cougar passing attack is the one thing worrying the Ducks right now, though their defense seems to be ready for the challenge. ... Chip Kelly had a lot to say – which might not be a good thing – about Oregon's place in the college football universe. ... Cal: A week off should have helped the Bears deal with the pistol this time. ... Stanford: Everyone says the enmity from last year is behind them. Do you believe it? ... At the very least it sold some tickets. ... USC: An undermanned USC defense is trying to plug holes (wow, never thought I would write that sentence). ... UCLA: T.J. Simers takes Rick Neuheisel to the woodshed. ... Quarterback Kevin Prince looks good to go. ... Arizona State: The head butt we showed you yesterday coast linebacker Vontaze Burfict a start. ... Arizona: Though he can't play until next year, receiver Dan Buckner is trying to work harder than anyone at practice.
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• That's all for this morning. We'll be back some time with our Pac-10 picks and a look at Oregon's national championship hopes. Until then ...
