A Grip on Sports: Eastern’s win in Las Vegas the best intro to college football’s first weekend anyone could have imagined

A GRIP ON SPORTS • You know that Twitter meme that is all the rage on Fridays? C’mon. You know the one. Daniel Craig, aka James Bond, introducing The Weeknd on Saturday Night Live? It is supposed to serve as a portal to two days of fun. Perfect, right? Nope. Perfect happened last night.

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• Can you think of a better introduction than Ely Doyle running down the Allegiant Stadium turf, right-armed raised, two fingers in the air signifying the Eagles’ just-finished 35-33 upset victory over host UNLV?

And why not? Eastern had squandered a 14-point fourth-quarter lead, missed a medium-ranged field goal to win as regulation expired but scored both times it had the ball in the overtimes. And then Doyle, flying up from deep in the endzone, crashed into the UNLV’s Zyell Griffin to destroy the Rebels’ tying two-point conversion attempt – and their hopes.

College football’s first weekend of 2021 is here.

And Doyle wasn’t the only one celebrating. Or breathing a sigh of relief – we’re looking at you Ohio State fans.

There had to be celebrations at the Big Sky offices, as UC Davis’ win at Tulsa gave the conference a 2-2 record against FBS foes after one day. In the Pac-12 offices, as the conference’s two South powers, No. 24 Utah and No. 25 Arizona State, supplied the Big Sky its two FBS losses by large margins. And in Moscow, where Vandal fans could revel in Boise State squandering a lead in Florida, probably assuring the Broncos they won’t be leaving the Mountain West any time soon.

Such is the fun of the first weekend. A weekend that starts on Thursday and doesn’t end until late Monday. Your team doesn’t even have to play to celebrate. You can toast your rival losing. Or a former rival. Or just the fact games are being played and there are people able to watch.

• Speaking of watching, what else is available this weekend? Quite a bit, actually, even with the NFL enjoying its usual calming period before next week’s storm.

The lead dog, of course, is college football. Every day, including Sunday and Monday, features games.

(As an aside, Notre Dame plays at Florida State on Sunday night. The ABC game seems a bit out of character for a Catholic school but what do we know? Our 12 years of Catholic education featured more talk of football than situational ethics.)

The local games remaining, except Whitworth hosting Carnegie-Mellon this afternoon, are on TV. And you can listen to the Pirates on the radio. SWX has the Vandals’ season opener vs. Simon Frasier at 1 p.m. Saturday while Washington State’s season kickoff is on the Pac-12 Network, starting at 8 p.m. PDT (hopefully).

But there are other shouldn’t-be-missed games. Like No. 5 Georgia vs. No. 3 Clemson in Charlotte, N.C. (ABC, 4:30 p.m.). Or UCLA carrying the Pac-12 banner against 16th-ranked LSU in the Rose Bowl (Fox, 5:30 p.m.). Or No. 11 Oregon trying not to look past 1-0 Fresno State at a weird hour (Pac-12, 11 a.m.).

We’ve just scratched the surface, considering the Big Ten opened conference play in the first week, Texas opens the Steve Sarkisian Era played a ranked Louisiana team and there is game on ESPN Monday night.

As opening weekends go, it’s pretty darn good. Better, even, than an introduction by James Bond.

• Wait, we didn’t even get into the baseball. The Mariners have a chance to make up some ground in the wild card race, as they play at woeful Arizona. Golf has two major events at once, with the men finishing up the FedEx Cup competition at Eastlake in Atlanta while the women faces Europe for the Solheim Cup. Tennis has its last major of the year going on in soggy New York.

And, lest we forget, Washington’s high school football season begins tonight all over the area. There is a game on SWX (Lewis and Clark at Ridgeline in the Falcons’ first-ever contest) and one on the radio (Ferris vs. Mead at Union Stadium on 700-ESPN).

There is not enough time, or not enough of me, to get to it all.

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WSU: Before we delve into what’s available in today’s S-R, don’t forget the football section from Thursday. … Colton Clark delves into what a home game with a sell-out crowd means to Washington State and Pullman. It touches every aspect of the university and the greater community. … Larry Weir was in Las Vegas on Thursday, calling the Eastern win. But he took the time to talk with his WSU counterpart, Matt Chazanow, for the latest Press Box podcast. … The Seattle Times has its season-kickoff coverage of the Cougars in this morning’s paper. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college football, Jon Wilner delves into the soft-schedules of Utah and Arizona State as well as a COVID-19 issue that could rear its head in L.A. at some point this season. Both columns appeared on the San Jose newspaper’s website yesterday. … As we mentioned above, there were two games last night. Arizona State was able to put all the NCAA crud behind it for one night and rolled over hapless Southern Utah. But the margin of victory wasn’t enough for Herm Edwards or anyone else for that matter. … Utah also rolled, though Weber State hung around for a while. That didn’t please Kyle Whittingham or the Utah fans. … If you have any questions about Washington this season, we’re pretty sure today’s coverage in the Seattle Times will answer them all. Not sure we can link every story there are so many. But we have one. Is Montana a cupcake on the Washington schedule? Maybe not. But such games won’t be as readily available in the future if The Alliance works. … Oregon may be the best team in the conference. But that doesn’t mean the Ducks are a finished product. And that they won’t be tested by Fresno State. … This is an important season for Oregon State. Can the Beavers turn a corner? … Colorado is playing tonight. The Buffs should roll against Northern Colorado. But what if they don’t? … That question will be asked every game USC plays. … UCLA has made generous use of the transfer portal to shore up spots of need. … The newest addition to the Arizona landscape, besides coach Jedd Fisch, we mean? A barbershop. Will the Wildcats get trimmed by BYU? … In basketball news, Tommy Lloyd just keeps adding to the Arizona coaching staff. And yet, we haven’t received a call. … Finally, this is fun. The Athletic looks at breweries all over the Pac-12 footprint. The recommendation in Pullman? Paradise Creek Brewing. 

EWU: The Eagles are 1-0. And Dan Thompson has the coverage of their 35-33 win that easily could have been 23-13 or something like it. The defense played well, which is crucial for Eastern every year. … Playing in Las Vegas is usually more fun than it is during a pandemic. … Around the Big Sky, there was another win over an FCS school. No not, sixth-ranked Weber State winning at the FBS’ No. 24 team, Utah. That was a rout for the Utes. … No, the upset was supplied by UC Davis, which handled Tulsa on the road. … Northern Arizona had a chance to make an FCS-themed statement for the conference, but defending division champion Sam Houston came to Flagstaff and won in a rout. … The Ed McCaffrey era begins at Northern Colorado tonight at Colorado. … The Brent Vigen era begins at Montana State tomorrow at Wyoming. … Bobby Hauck spent some time at Washington. Now he wants to win there with Montana.

Idaho: We’ve known Connor Whitney (and his dad Craig, the West Valley High coach) for a long time. Connor even played a basketball tournament one weekend we coached. So his success on the football field comes as no surprise. Peter Harriman delves into the senior tight end’s importance to the Vandals.

Preps: Dave Nichols will be out and about tonight but before he hits the road, he has this preview of all the games. … The Times has some thoughts on players and teams from around the state.

Indians: Today we have to refer to them as “the first-place Spokane Indians.” They won last night, 7-5 over visiting Tri-City, and moved into a tie for first in the High-A West standings with Everett at 59-46. Eugene is a half-game back. Dave has all you need to know in this story.

Hoopfest: If you want it, Hoopfest is offering a full refund, even though the entry form was clear about a cancellation due to COVID-19. If everyone demands one, it’s possible we’ve seen the last of the event. But, you know, $124.80 is a lot of money.

Mariners: The management team is in place for a few more years. Now what else does Seattle need to be successful? Larry Stone has an idea.

Seahawks: K.J. Wright won’t be back. He signed with the Raiders. … Local boy Jake Luton, who played at Idaho for a while, signed with the practice squad. He’s happy about it. … That practice squad features an eclectic bunch. To say the least. It includes a video game actor, a Baylor basketball star and a foreign player that doesn’t count against the roster limit.

Sounders: The newest Seattle player met the media yesterday and said the right thing. All he wants to do is win.

Kraken: It’s time for answers to everyone’s questions. Well, some of them.

Storm: Breanna Stewart wasn’t about to let Seattle’s losing ways continue. She had 33 points in a home win over New York.

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• Here we are, three days into September and I miss July immensely. Why, you may ask? Mainly because it takes twice as long to put this column together each morning. It’s easy in the summer. Harder than heck during this time of year. I’m asked all the time why I do it. My answer? I love getting up every morning and putting it together for you. This week the answer might be different. As in “I’m not sure. Habit, maybe.” Until later …