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Jacob Thorpe

Jacob Thorpe

Current Position: Sports columnist

Jacob Thorpe is a freelance sports columnist covering Washington State football.

All Stories

Sports

For WSU football, Thursdays feature coming attractions

PULLMAN – The largest – and some say the strongest – player on Washington State’s defense has not played a snap in a game this season, nor will he. At 6-foot-2, 314 pounds Ngalu Tapa is a load in the best way and he makes life difficult for opposing offensive linemen once a week, pushing them back so fast they occasionally sack their own quarterback. But only the ones on his team.
Sports

WSU men’s basketball team opens season at UTEP

PULLMAN – Washington State will open its men’s basketball season on the road for the first time since 2006 as first-year coach Ernie Kent takes the Cougars on a two-game Texas swing before next Friday’s home opener. Tonight, the Cougars will tip off the 2014-15 season at Texas-El Paso in Kent’s first official game as a head coach since his dismissal at Oregon following the 2010 season. The Cougars will then travel to TCU for Monday’s game against the Horned Frogs.
Sports

Jacob Thorpe’s Pac-12 football picks

PULLMAN – After 11 weeks of college football we finally know who these teams are. At least, we think we do. The contenders have separated from the pretenders in the Pac-12, with most of the conference’s strong teams residing in the south. This should be a pretty mild week compared to the last couple, with no ranked teams going head-to-head and the oddsmakers giving every favorite at least a touchdown advantage.
Sports

Jacob Thorpe’s Pac-12 football power rankings

Pac-12 teams continue to abolish the notion of home-field advantage with road teams winning three of four intraconference matchups last weekend. Visiting teams now have a 26-13 record in league games and the five teams ranked in the AP Top-25 have a combined overall road record of 19-2 Four of those teams (Arizona State, Arizona, UCLA and Utah) hail from the Pac-12 South, a division that is Arizona State’s to lose but with plenty of talented teams waiting to assume the Sun Devils’ mantle should they slip up.
Sports

Pac-12 notes: Jim Mora left emotion at home

PULLMAN – Jim Mora’s “business trip” to Seattle last weekend was an undeniable success. The UCLA coach returned to the city where he grew up, where he played college football at the University of Washington and coached the Seahawks and left with a 44-30 win over the Huskies. Mora was a popular candidate to take over the vacant head coaching position at UW last season, but in the week leading up to the game he insisted that the game against UW was “just another game” and that he didn’t have any nonfootball plans in Seattle.
Sports

For young Cougars, the future is now

PULLMAN – Last season, the Cougars used their extra bowl practices in part to give their youngest players more repetitions and work than they received in the regular season. Regular contributors this season such as Cole Madison, Daniel Ekuale, Gerard Wicks, Jamal Morrow and others first started to extensively train under the Washington State coaches during those bowl practices because WSU wasn’t preparing for an immediate game.
Sports

Luke Falk leads Washington State to win in his first start

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The uncertainty facing Washington State heading into its first game with a new quarterback, on the road, against a team that had more tangible goals at stake than the Cougars could have been enough to sink WSU. But “Cool Hand” Luke Falk’s uncommon poise during his first start at quarterback steadied his teammates and so the Cougars were able to beat Oregon State, 39-32, and leave Corvallis with their first victory since late September.
Sports

WSU-OSU notes: ‘Playing for Connor’

PULLMAN – With just more than one minute and 26 seconds left in the first half, Washington State receiver Vince Mayle and quarterback Luke Falk noticed that the Oregon State defense wasn’t set. Falk quick-snapped the ball, Mayle streaked downfield and the Cougars had a 48-yard touchdown pass. The play was Mayle’s 83rd reception of the season, giving him the WSU single-season record for catches (he added three more before the game was over).