A Grip on Sports: It’s time for football to start but not yet time for summer sports to exit stage left

A GRIP ON SPORTS • If you need any more proof the dog-eared days of nothing going on in the world of sports are over, look no further. This weekend’s TV schedule proves it.

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• It starts tonight, actually. The Seahawks play their third – and final – preseason game in Dallas. Is the quarterback battle over? Sure. Until Geno Smith plays poorly in some random regular season game. Or gets injured. But Drew Lock, who will play a lot tonight according to Pete Carroll, is the backup for now.

Makes you excited to watch, huh? Well, you should be. If only to see how many tackles the Hawk defense misses. It’s been more than a dozen in each of the first two games. If that doesn’t improve, Tom Brady could be playing quarterback and Seattle would still be mediocre.

Anyway, the big football news this weekend doesn’t have to do with the NFL. It’s the opening weekend of college action. Sure, the games aren’t riveting – those are saved for Labor Day weekend – but there are games on all day Saturday. From 9 in the morning on the CBS Sports Network – Austin Peay is at Western Kentucky – until the Vanderbilt at Hawaii game ends on the same channel sometime around 11 p.m.

College football. Isn’t that grand? Your outlook on life the next four months decided by how well a bunch of college-age guys play on Saturday. And intellectuals think sports isn’t important.

(We are going to take a small interlude here riffing on televised sports this weekend to call you attention to two stories you shouldn’t miss reading. The first comes from Greg Woods with the Idaho State Journal in Pocatello. The subject matter concerns Lewis and Clark High grad Xavier Guillory and his relationship with his late father, Raphael. That’s the core of the story, though football is the framework. A beautiful piece. The other comes from a friend, someone familiar to readers in Spokane. Christian Caple, writing in The Athletic, has the most in-depth story on Jake Dickert’s football journey you have ever read. It is also worth your time today. OK, now we return you to our regular programming.)

Football may be starting (and in a couple weeks will take over the dial) but summer’s sports are still shining bright in the sunlight. Well, if you have Apple TV+. Thursday’s 3-1 Mariner win was broadcast on YouTube, formerly known as the place you went if you needed instruction on repairing your garbage disposal. Tonight’s game is on Apple TV+, home of such well-known shows as Loot, Trying and Invasion. Ya, we don’t watch them either. We do watch Ted Lasso, however, and there could be a parallel drawn between Dani Rojas and Julio Rodriguez – is baseball, like soccer, life? – so we will roll with it.

The rest of the weekend showdown with the Guardians (of the Cleveland galaxy) will be on Root like always. Which has evolved over the years into a good thing.

Friday night also features a key Sounders match. Their foray into Portland for a rivalry game with the Timbers has more than the usual import. And there are usually tons. If Seattle can’t find a way to bring home at least one point – three would be preferable – the playoffs might just be out of the picture.

Speaking of playoffs, the Storm opens its WNBA semifinal series with Las Vegas on Sunday in Sin City. It’s on ESPN.

That’s the network the Little League World Series has been on this week, but Saturday’s U.S. title game will be on ABC, as will Sunday’s championship. Both start at 12:30 p.m.

Finally, if you are tired of the soap opera that is professional golf right now, you probably don’t care who wins the Fed-Ex Cup this weekend from Atlanta. Or who starts the next rump tour. If not, the PGA Tour Championship at Eastlake begins Saturday and Sunday at 11:30 a.m. on NBC. The next tour? Tiger has that covered.

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WSU: The key component offensively this season? We’ve been saying all along it is how the offensive line meshs. (And, yes, Mr. Stevens, we know we say this almost every year. It is because it is almost always true.) Colton Clark delved in-depth into that group’s evolution over the summer and into preseason camp. Line coach Clay McGuire, on his second tour of duty in Pullman, has decided on a starting group. … It’s also volleyball season on the Palouse and Jim Meehan previews the upcoming year under long-time coach Jen Greeny, who just signed an extension. Jim also takes a quick look at the area’s other Division I schools, all of whom have new coaches. … Back to football. Jon Wilner believes Washington State will finish the season 6-6. He goes game-by-game today in the Mercury News. … The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel sees the Cougars finishing 7-5 overall and 5-4 in conference play. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college football, a former Midwest conference commissioner doesn’t believe the Big 12 has anything to offer Pac-12 schools. … Wilner predicts the Huskies will finish 7-5. Oh, and win the Apple Cup in Pullman. … Caple has his thoughts on Washington’s depth chart. … We said this yesterday. And we repeat it today. There are more stories about what’s happening with Oregon than with any other Pac-12 school. Cornerbacks, receivers, quarterbacks, more cornerbacks. Wow. … One Oregon State player has overcome a lot. … Colorado and its offensive line are gearing up for the opener against TCU. … Utah has standouts all over on offense. … The relationship between Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams should pay off for USC. As should other things. … In basketball news, Oregon won once more in Canada. … One Arizona player is receiving great offseason experience.

Gonzaga: It’s official. Chet Holmgren is out for his rookie season. Foot injury. Don’t give me this crud about his weight or build. Zion Williamson is built in a completely different way and he’s hardly played in the NBA due to injuries, including one to his foot this year. Theo Lawson has more on Holmgren in this story.

EWU: It’s been an odd offseason for former Eastern star Kendrick Bourne. But he’s gotten through it. … It looks as if Kim Aiken is on his way to New Mexico State. … Around the Big Sky, Montana’s athletic director has his thoughts on the changes in college athletics. … Montana State will be fine on special teams. … Sometimes a small school like Idaho State can feel it is caught up in forces out of its control.

Idaho: The Vandals attracted two transfers in the offseason. One came from Notre Dame. One from USC. Rivals. Now they are teammates and friends. Peter Harriman has their story.

Preps: The new downtown stadium is going up, a bit over budget and behind schedule. Jim Allen and Tyler Tjomsland were on a tour recently and produced this story and a few photos, respectively. … Jim also checked into the site of what was Albi Stadium. It is now a flat plot of land. It’s time to build fields for youth sports there. … We linked a story above on Xavier Guillory. That led us to this Dave Nichols story from four years ago. If you want background, this is the right place to go.

Indians: The night started poorly in Everett. The Indians fell behind by a handful of runs. But they rallied and won, 10-9. Dave Nichols has more in this story.

Mariners: One big first-inning bomb. One measly first-inning run. The M’s won 3-1 over Cleveland as Mitch Haniger delivered the former and Marco Gonzales gave up the latter. … Andres Munoz moves closer and closer to becoming the closer the M’s need to win in the postseason. He showed that again yesterday. … Julio Rodriguez and the soon-to-be Hall of Famer being honored this weekend, Ichiro Suzuki, have plenty in common. That’s according to Larry Stone, who has been around both. … Ty France had a collision at first. Two actually. The first was no one’s fault. The second sure looked intentional. France left the game after the latter.

Seahawks: The game tonight has more than enough to focus upon. The quarterback play is part of it. Can Lock make a statement? … Rashaad Penny won’t be playing as he recovers from COVID-19.

Kraken: A couple new additions bring Stanley Cup experience to the team.

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• This was a Friday filled with great stories – we gave a couple of them special recognition – and depth of content. It almost seems as if fall sports will begin soon. Oh, wait. They will. Also, if you are wondering, after sleeping about 28 of the past 36 hours, we feel refreshed and ready to go today. The vaccine’s after-effects have withered away. Until later …