WSU starting early this Saturday

COUGARS

You can blame the Lentil Festival. I am. Because the Washington State football team is ticketed to participate in today’s parade, practice begins at 8 a.m. On a Saturday. Shoot, it was hard to get up this early on a Saturday even when watching Bug Bunny cartoons and eating Trix were all I cared about. But we’re awake. And we’ve got your morning briefing. Just click the link.
••••••••••

• Washington State: Where should we start? Well, there’s always our position preview , this one on the receiver crew. And if you want to know how Friday’s practice went, there’s our usual post from yesterday. … Plus there’s this good notebook from freelancer Howie Stalwick in the Kitsap Sun and other papers. … And there’s a linebacker preview on the CougCenter site.

• Around the Pac-10: Buster Sports’ Nick Daschel examines the top defensive ends in the Pac-10. There are no Cougars on the list. … Bud Withers of the Times has his Oregon State preview . … And ESPN.com’s Ted Miller asked around the conference and came up with this list of the week’s outstanding practice players. … Washington: With two weeks remaining until the season opener against LSU, new coach Steve Sarkisian tells the Times’ Bob Condotta he’s optimistic . … When the Huskies scrimmage today, defensive end Darrion Jones wants to get a sack , according to Tacoma’s Todd Milles. … Oregon State: The injury situation in Corvallis reads a little like a Thomas Pynchon novel with all the twists and turns. . … Oregon: If people aren’t going to challenge him, Ducks’ cornerback Walter Thurmond III says he’ll find another way to make an impact . … Cal and Stanford: Guess what? I can’t find a story specifically about these schools. Sorry. If you’ve got anything new, pass it on. … USC: If Aaron Corp wants to start the season opener against San Jose State, Pete Carroll says he has to be back at practice by Tuesday. … UCLA: The Bruins scrimmage today and new quarterback Kevin Prince has a simple assignment that isn’t that easy. … Arizona State: Another scrimmage. Another test. For the Sun Devils, this exam will be game-like . … Arizona: Trevin Wade talked big last year when he was just a mop-up player. He also played big . Now he’s a starter.

•••

• That’s it for this morning. The Cougars not only practice at 8 in full pads (or so I’ve been told), but they’re back at 3 in the afternoon in helmets and shorts. Between the two I hope to post a practice summary and the quarterback preview story that will run in Sunday’s paper. Before then, I have one link that’s a little out of the ordinary. New Arizona coach Sean Miller has a new graduate assistant with a famous last name . We’ll be back Until then …