Jacob Thorpe

The Pac-12 football season began on Wednesday as Arizona State and Colorado held their first practices.

Washington State will almost certainly be better in 2015 than 2014. How much better depends on these five guys.

Jeremiah Allison has a Rhodes Scholar's resume and a philanthropist's philosophy because of the mentors that shaped him.

PULLMAN – The story of how Jeremiah Allison overcame meager circumstances to become a community pillar is not a chronicle of his life, but rather an account of the adults who shaped him. That the Washington State linebacker gives – by helping to build homes through Habitat for Humanity, by teaching kids to read on his day off, by playing dominoes at the senior center – is due to the enormous efforts of his mentors.

LOS ANGELES – For all the effort Oregon coach Mark Helfrich must be going through to get Vernon Adams on his roster next season, he sure doesn’t want to acknowledge his next potential starter at quarterback. “I know everybody will want to ask about the quarterback position,” Helfrich said before any reporter asked about it. “And the only thing we’re going to be talking about are the people that are here and involved in the program.

LOS ANGELES – Arizona football coach Rich Rodriguez did an admirable job warming up the crowd, calling out the Pac-12 hosts on their gaudy 100th anniversary décor and saying that “cold beer, lemonade or Bacardi and Coke” would be more refreshing than an experienced quarterback. Rodriguez drew laughs and added life to a typically monotonous event that was noteworthy this year only for the lack of news it produced. But during the second day of Pac-12 Media Days he was still simply the undercard, and Washington State’s Mike Leach was the main event.

Washington State coach Mike Leach was the main event during the second day of Pac-12 Media Days.