COUGARS

There seemed to be a renewed energy around the Washington State practice field Tuesday afternoon. It was caused by, and get your No. 2 pencils ready because this is a multiple choice question, a) naming Jeff Tuel the starting quarterback; b) the Cougars' play down in LA on Saturday; c) the first football-like weather of the fall, cool with a slight breeze; or d) all of the above. If I picked the answer like I did the SAT (eenie, meenie, minee ...) then I might stop on any and still have a chance to be right (and somehow, I still got into a decent college – weird). But the mature adult in me tells me to logically pick one. So we'll go with "d" and hope that's right. Read on for links from around the West.
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• Washington State: We had quite a few practice notes up on the blog last night, and we also put up the raw version of our Pac-10 story. ... Freelancer Howie Stalwick had a Cougar notebook in the Tacoma News Tribune and other papers. ... Bud Withers of the Times had these notes. ... Want to listen to Paul Wulff's press conference? here it is, courtesy of the guys from CougCenter.

• Around the Pac-10: The Times' Bud Withers examines each conference team after one month, plus has a short notebook. ... Ted Miller at ESPN.com looks at the evolution of the conference's defenses and how the Pac-10 is as good as anyone on that side of the ball. My feeling is, as schools play more conference games, facing teams and coaching staffs that have seen them before, the offensive numbers will improve. Just a feeling. ... Buster Sports' Nick Daschel has his weekly rankings of the conference's coaches and an early look at the Pac-10's bowl spots. ... The Arizona Republic's Pac-10 notebook power rankings. ... Washington: It's column day. The News Tribune's John McGrath has this on the coin flip ... and the Times' Steve Kelley writes about the Huskies needing more muscle. ... Oregon State: Just how smart can the Beavers be? ... Oregon: With the Ducks losing game-turning cornerback Walter Thurmond III, what will that mean for their defense? ... A quick response from a quick player. ... Cal: The loss to Oregon is officially behind the Bears now. ... Stanford: Because of Chris Owusu, one of the first decisions that must be made is where to kick the ball. ... USC: The accident that befell Stafon Johnson this week might have killed him if he wasn't in such great shape according to his doctor. It looks like he will be able to play football again some day. ...UCLA: The Bruins offensive line is coming together as the season wears on. ... Arizona State: The Sun Devils' Jarrell Holman feels he has a lot of friends looking over his shoulder during games. ... Arizona: Running back Nic Grigsby should be ready to play in the Wildcats' next game. They have a bye this week.

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• That's it for this morning. We'll be back after practice unless breaking news forces an earlier post. Until then …

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