The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
66°F
Current Conditions
Overcast clouds
View complete weather report

Color Scheme

Subscribe now
Jacob Thorpe

Jacob Thorpe

Current Position: Sports columnist

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

All Stories

Sports

Cougars without a pair of starting receivers

STANFORD, Calif. – The Cougars were down a pair of starting receivers during Friday night’s game. Kristoff Williams practiced some last week but did not take the field and didn’t appear to be on the WSU sideline. He’s still listed as the starting Z-receiver but has not played since the Cougars’ second game, against Nevada. He also began the season as WSU’s primary kickoff returner.
Sports

Bully Stanford holds off Cougars

A week after Washington State's Connor Halliday threw for an NCAA-record 734 yards against California, the nation’s stingiest scoring defense harassed him all over the backfield as Stanford defeated the Cougars 34-17 on Friday night.
Sports

WSU at Stanford: Nothing complicated about this matchup

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – At a school that has had a faculty member win a Nobel Prize in science for three consecutive years, a football game is not going to be the most complex thing happening on the campus today. Especially not when the contest is between two programs – Washington State and host Stanford – that take a minimalist approach to their playbooks and eschew complicated schemes in favor of a more streamlined approach to the game.
Sports

Cougars receiver Vince Mayle has made tremendous progress

PULLMAN – Many young athletes dream of playing professional sports while growing up. Practically none of them pass the athletic litmus test to have a shot. They pick up a ball or a bat or a pair of cleats at an early age and put in just as much time, grind just as hard, want to succeed just as badly as the one in 1,000 who actually makes it.
Sports

Jacob Thorpe’s Pac-12 power rankings

PULLMAN – As we approach the regular season’s official midpoint there is more confusion than ever following a chaotic weekend that saw half the AP Top 10 fall at the same time for the first time in history and seven previously unbeaten teams go down. Just how overturned is the Pac-12 conference right now? The highest-ranked team, No. 10 Arizona, isn’t even favored at home against USC. But we’ll try and make some sense of it all before Washington State beats Stanford and blows it all up again. 1 Arizona (5-0, 2-0; last week: No. 5) Sure, Rich Rodriguez has done a pretty good job this season. But c’mon, coach, it took you that long to figure out Anu Solomon was your guy at quarterback?
Sports

Pac-12 football: ‘Power Five’ override vote falls short

PULLMAN – By Monday’s deadline only 27 of the required 75 votes had been cast by NCAA member schools to override the Board of Directors’ decision to grant the five largest conferences autonomy meaning that soon the NCAA’s wealthiest conferences will be able to provide significantly more benefits to their student athletes.The autonomous structure will allow the 65 member schools of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC conferences to act on proposed changes to athlete stipends, insurance, scholarship length and healthcare. The first changes can be voted into place during January’s NCAA Convention.
Sports

Cougars fire special teams coach

PULLMAN – Mike Leach didn’t wait until practice to make significant changes to Washington State’s special teams, dismissing coordinator Eric Russell two days after the Cougars gave up two kickoff returns for touchdowns and missed a potential winning 19-yard field goal in WSU’s 60-59 loss to California on Saturday. “We made a change at special teams, and while I think a great deal of coach Russell, but we wanted to split the special teams up among the assistants and the way he’s most effective is with him running the whole thing,” Leach said. “He’s a great coach. Yeah, I decided to make a change at special teams.”
Sports

Leach fires special teams coach Eric Russell

Mike Leach announced at his Monday press conference that he has dismissed special teams coordinator and assistant head coach Eric Russell. The dismissal comes on the heals of Saturday's 60-59 loss to California in which WSU gave up back-to-back kickoff returns for touchdowns.