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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Grip on Sports: College football’s first Saturday touched nearly all the bases – if you don’t mind the mixed sports metaphors

WSU’s James Williams, right, finds open space against Montana State on Saturday. (Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review)

A GRIP ON SPORTS • There are, seemingly, a million different ways for college football games to play out. Among the multitude are easy wins and workmanlike ones. And there are the blowout losses. Those are the three ways fans in these parts experienced yesterday as the 2017 season got underway in earnest. Read on.

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• Let’s take the outcomes in reverse order.

The first game of the Aaron Best era at Eastern Washington probably couldn’t have begun any worse. At least offensively. And in the final score.

After the Eagle defense forced Texas Tech into a quick punt, the offense made its first appearance, starting with decent field position.

The Eagles intended to take advantage. Gage Gubrud connected on short pass to Nic Sblendorio, who promptly lost the ball. The Red Raiders recovered.

Sure, it looked on replay at home as if Sblendorio really never had complete control as he tried to put the ball away and head upfield. And, sure, most times a play like that is at least examined in the replay booth.

But this was a road game against a Power 5 opponent. And, unlike road games in a pretty welcoming Pac-12, the Big 12 crew didn’t seem inclined to intervene. Turnover.

From there, the Eagles seemed tentative offensively. Texas Tech never was, and the Red Raiders rolled to a 56-10 blowout.

But adversity presents opportunity, and Best’s team gets that now. How will the Eagles bounce back, especially with perennial FCS power North Dakota State visiting Cheney next Saturday? The answer to that question may just set the tone for Best’s tenure at Eastern.

• The Washington State Cougars are ranked 24th in the nation. As such, they should have little trouble with a Big Sky Conference opponent in the season opener. As the Coen brothers like to say, would that it were so simple.

There is too much in the way of a backstory for that to be the case.

The Cougars had opened each of its last two seasons with losses to Big Sky teams. Plus, Mike Leach has yet to win an opener at WSU, a streak that had reached five games. Those facts hung over Saturday’s visit from Montana State like the sword of Damocles.

So what.

Washington State did what it should have done. It controlled the line of scrimmage on offense, dominated it on defense and steamrolled the Bobcats in a methodical fashion.

When it was over, the 31-0 victory may just have paved the way for a special season in Pullman.

• Last year Whitworth opened the season hosting Division III power Central Iowa. The Pirates scored at will, but so did the Dutch. The 50-49 loss may have ultimately cost Whitworth an at-large berth in the NCAA playoffs.

That scenario is not repeating itself this season.

Not after the Whits traveled to Pella, Iowa and pounded Central 56-13.

Ian Kolste, one of a quartet of talented college quarterbacks in the Inland Northwest, completed 37 of 47 passes for 473 yards and six touchdowns in the rout.

Is it a harbinger of things to come? Maybe. But if the past couple seasons have taught us anything, they have taught not to gauge the outcome of a three-month-long season by one game.

There are about a million ways for next 12 or 13 weeks to play out.

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WSU: Luke Falk was given time. He was given space. So maybe the fact he completed all 20 of his first half passes should not come as a surprise. After all, he’s completed 21 consecutive passes in a game before. At some point he may eclipse Aaron Rodgers’ Pac-12 record (23) and/or the NCAA mark (26) for consecutive completions in a game. He’s on schedule to garner about every other record. In the 31-0 win last night, he tied and then passed Connor Halliday for first on the WSU career list with 90, 91 and then 92 touchdown passes. That’s all part of Theo Lawson’s game story and two stories from Jim Meehan, one during the game and one after. … John Blanchette was also in Pullman and he has this column. … I was there as well and had some takeaways just as the game ended. … Tyler Tjomsland has an in-depth photo report. … Riley Sorenson, who is in his second battle with cancer, brought his smile back to Martin Stadium yesterday to raise the Cougar flag. Theo has that story, as well as one on Dennis Erickson earning another honor. … As always, there were difference makers and a player missing. … If you want more from the game or just in general concerning Cougar football, check out our WSU-themed website. … Luke Falk’s record-setting night prompted coverage from Stefanie Loh, who also has a game story. …  Montana State was somewhat in awe of Washington State’s speed on defense. The Cougars held MSU to 143 yards of total offense.

Around the Pac-12 yesterday, the conference didn’t lose a game, but there were some scares. … The biggest was in Corvallis where Oregon State survived a late field goal attempt and edged Portland State, 35-32. The Beavers had to rally to defeat the FCS team. … Oregon didn’t need any rallies as the Ducks ran over Southern Utah, 77-21. … California posted the biggest upset of the day, traveling to North Carolina and opening the Justin Wilcox era with a 35-30 victory. … Fourth-ranked USC was tied with Western Michigan in the second half before pulling out a 49-31 win. There was a heartwarming moment near the end. … Arizona got the season started right with an easy 62-24 victory over Northern Arizona. … There were still reactions coming in from games earlier in the week, including Colorado’s victory over Colorado State, Arizona State’s over New Mexico State, Washington’s at Rutgers and Utah’s over North Dakota. … UCLA ends the week for the conference tonight in the Rose Bowl versus Texas A&M.

Gonzaga: The Bulldogs’ volleyball team had a productive weekend. … An alum was named to the U.S. national rowing team.

EWU: Jim Allen was in Lubbock yesterday and witnessed the loss live. He has this game story. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana did what was expected, pounding Valparaiso 45-23. More needs to be done though. … Southern Utah learned how fast Oregon is in a game that was on the edge of postponement. … Cal Poly is 0-2 after a loss at San Jose State. … Weber State hardly broke a sweat, defeating Montana Western 76-0. … Northern Arizona was overwhelmed in Tucson.

Whitworth: We can pass along a story on the Pirates’ big opening victory.

Preps: There was an instant classic at Husky Stadium last night, with Gonzaga Prep falling to Eastside Catholic 41-40 in triple overtime. Sean Kramer has the story, and there is another in the Times. … We also can pass along a girls’ soccer roundup. … Coeur d’Alene football coach Shawn Amos’ trip to watch his son Gunnar play for Idaho State was a bit more eventful than he would have liked. Greg Lee has the story.

Indians: With its 3-2 win over Everett last night, Spokane gave itself a chance to clinch a playoff berth in the last day of the Northwest League season. Whitney Ogden has the story. … Elsewhere in the NWL, Spokane’s win eliminated Everett from the postseason. … Hillsboro routed Boise and Eugene clinched a playoff spot with an 8-3 win over Salem-Keizer.

Chiefs: Spokane played better in its second preseason game, defeating Vancouver 3-1 in Everett. … Everett got past Seattle in another game of the preseason tournament.

Mariners: Though it may have been lost in the bustle of the first college football Saturday, the M’s rallied from a four-run deficit and pulled out a walk-off, 7-6 win over Oakland last night. That helps their wild-card hopes.

Seahawks: The Hawks, like every NFL team, had to get down to the regular season roster of 53 players by 1 p.m. yesterday. How John Schneider and Pete Carroll did it surprised some. … Schneider is never going to stand pat. He’s always looking to improve the roster.

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• As you probably know, I’m not a huge admirer of late-night games in Pullman. It’s not the game-time itself, per se. It’s more about the ancillary issues. One of them is visible here. Getting home after 2 a.m. makes it tough to get this feature done by 9 the next morning, as is our daily goal. We made it. Barely. But I really can’t vouch for the quality. Most of the time the words seemed to melt together on the screen. So if Falk somehow came out Folk – hopefully that’s the worst mistake I made – then I apologize. And I blame Larry Scott. Until later …