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Among the objectives he's brought to the Pacific Northwest, Nick Rolovich has said he wants to foster a player-run program at Washington State.

The only thing Washington State fans have wanted to talk about the last two weeks seemed to be the last thing their head coach wanted to discuss after the team's second scrimmage, but also the main thing he'll have to figure out before the Cougars board an airplane to Corvallis two weeks for now.

The first one was mighty successful, so Washington State figured it couldn't hurt to go back to the Mauigoa family football tree.

One way or the other, in mid-October or late-November, Mother Nature was bound to interfere with Washington State's late-starting 2020 football season.

Given what we saw last year from Washington State’s defense, it would be almost preposterous to think that group would be a step ahead of the highly productive offense come Nov. 7, when the Cougars open the season at Oregon State.

Willie Taylor III finds himself at a new position for Washington State this fall. It’s probably best he doesn’t get too comfortable.

Washington State still doesn’t know what time it will kick off the Nov. 7 season opener against Oregon State, but the Pac-12 Conference announced possible starting times and television slots for both of the Cougars’ Friday games later on in the year.

The Pac-12 has established cancellation and tiebreaker policies for its virus-truncated football season.

It accounted for 115 points (a Pac-12 high) last season. It didn’t miss until late November. It bailed Washington State out two years ago at Stanford, as the Cougars closed in on the best record in program history.

A variety of circumstances – some related to COVID-19, others not – could usher WSU's youngest players onto the field earlier than expected this season. Unlike other years, when WSU's freshmen would spend much of their first season learning the nuts and bolts of the playbook, in 2020 they'll benefit from being on a level playing field as their older teammates.

Two years ago, even as Mike Leach attempted to keep the nature of Washington State's quarterback competition close to the vest, it wasn't a major surprise when Gardner Minshew trotted onto the field to take the first snaps of the season in Laramie, Wyoming.