Grip on Sports: Pullman the place to be this week for the nation’s sports media

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Funny thing about winning football game after football game. The national media begin to take notice. It’s happened this week in Pullman, where the Cougars are riding an eight-game winning streak. It’s so crowded, I half-expected Drake to show up wearing a sweatshirt with Mike Leach’s portrait on it. Read on.

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• The tweets actually began last week, when ESPN.com’s Chris Low, who doesn’t do a bunch of Pac-12 coverage, arrived in the Northwest and starting gushing over the Cougars.

Then the Associated Press’ college football beat writer Ralph Russo made the drive over the mountains following USC’s upset at Washington. He spent time with Leach and athletic director Bill Moos, eventually putting together a story on the Cougars’ turnaround that has been printed by newspapers all over the country.

But those were just appetizers.

The main courses revolve around television, as everything does in college football.

Fox Sports’ Bruce Feldman, who is no stranger to Leach – they did a book together which angered the folks at ESPN back in the day – and Pullman, visited. That’s name No. 2.

Name No. 1?

That would be ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi, the guy who should have his own Kleenex endorsement deal.

Rinaldi is known for human interest pieces of a emotional nature. Every time a story of his appears on GameDay or some other ESPN show, it gets dusty in TV rooms all over America.

The football team’s Twitter account gave us a peek at Rinaldi’s visit with Leach, whose story has been told many times and many ways.

One wonders how such a well-documented history can be presented in a fresh way, but that’s Rinaldi’s gift.

That, and making us all sniffle. Wait, it’s not Rinaldi’s piece causing those. It’s my allergies.

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WSU: Yes, the Cougars have won eight consecutive games, the first time they’ve done that since 1930. They are 7-0 in Pac-12 conference play for the first time ever. And it all stops Saturday. At least that’s Jacob Thorpe’s prediction. He has Colorado winning, but not covering the spread. … One of the most entertaining aspects of the season for Cougar fans, besides the wins of course, is assistant coach Roy Manning’s postgame videos. Jacob explains. … With a judge finding against WSU in the Robert Barber case, the school moved quickly to re-examine all student conduct cases with similar problems. One of those concerns linebacker Logan Tago. Jacob has more in this story. … Winning means publicity, yes, but it also translates into recognition in the form of awards as well. Case in point: Luke Falk. And, yes, Jacob has a story. … Something has to give this Saturday. Colorado has won all but one coin flip, WSU all but two. … The Buffs are supposedly eager to face WSU’s passing attack. … Stefanie Loh has coverage of Tago’s case. And a feature on the running game. … Robert Barber is expected to beef up the Cougars’ run defense. … The basketball team is in the Virgin Islands – where they were met by Josh Hawkinson’s dad, a dancing machine – and Jacob has an advance of their tournament.

Elsewhere in Pac-12 football, even if Bay Area fans aren’t making a big whoop out of the Big Game, it’s still a big deal. Big, big, big. … If you didn’t know, it pits California and Stanford in a big game full of big snobbery. … The important California rivalry game is down U.S. Highway 101 in Pasadena, where USC will try to keep its hot streak going against UCLA. The Bruins have a history of upsets in this one. … Utah will put the heat on the Ducks and their freshman quarterback. … Washington isn’t looking past Arizona State. Sure the Huskies aren’t. But it won’t matter. … It’s a good bet Oregon State has some trickery planned for Arizona.

Gonzaga: The Zags finish their season-opening homestand by hosting Bryant University of Rhode Island. Jim Meehan has an advance of tonight’s game along with a history lesson and keys to a GU victory. … We’ll be back here tonight with our take on the coverage. … The women are on the road this week. Jim Allen has a story on how rough the task will be. … Around the WCC, Santa Clara is trying to return to prominence with a coach who has been successful at turnarounds. … BYU rolled to a second win.

EWU: It’s Friday right? So why are the Eags pla … never mind. We know. The Eagles are in Portland to meet the Vikings in a game that will be on television. Jim Allen has your advance. … He also has a transcript of yesterday’s live chat. … The basketball team had a rough go of it at No. 23 Texas yesterday. … Around the Big Sky in football, the Montana rivalry doesn’t need more history, but a coaching change added some. … A Southern Utah player is coming back. … Idaho State has reasons for its failures this season.

Idaho: Neither the Vandals nor Eastern could get past the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Conference volleyball tournament.

Seahawks: Russell Wilson took some time yesterday and explained why he has joined Chris Hansen’s arena group and what he hopes to help accomplish. He also acknowledged he’s not going to please everyone. … Thomas Rawls is ready to play again. George Fant is ready to block for him. … Earl Thomas is good, really good. But he has even loftier goals. … Jon Ryan, punter for the ages.

Sounders: The MLS playoffs take forever, we know that. Which might be a good thing for the Sounders this year. They may get a lot of guys back for the series with Colorado.

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• One more reminder. No column tomorrow. We’ll be here tonight for the Gonzaga game and then back on Sunday morning with links and opinions on Saturday’s action. … You know who would make the best subject of a Rinaldi piece? Riley Sorenson, of course. Jacob told the world Sorenson’s story earlier this year and the world commiserated. Sorenson has lost both his parents and suffered from testicular cancer in the past year. Still, he soldiers on, a big part of the offensive line that has helped lift Washington State into the national spotlight. Until later …