A Grip on Sports: One of the sure signs of fall arrived today – the prep sports preview section

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Fall was in the air this morning. A little smoke, a big chill and a newspaper flying across the driveway, landing with a plop, carrying with it an in-depth look at autumn’s high school sports. Perfect.

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• The future of newspapers is always part of the national discussion these days. A once thriving part of our economy, the industry has been in contraction for a couple decades. But no matter how many computer-based entities try to displace the printed product, there still isn’t anything better, in Spokane at least, at covering the local high school sports scene.

That’s illustrated once again this morning, as the S-R delivered a section filled with stories about volleyball, soccer, cross country, slowpitch softball and, yes, football, to doorsteps around the Inland Northwest.

Why is that important? Mainly due to the rarity. Who else will do it?

If you are interested in national sports news, there are thousands of places to satisfy your yen. College sports? Hundreds of sites cover the Pac-12 alone, let alone other West Coast and beyond issues.

But when it comes to stories and news about your neighbors and their exploits, the pickings are slimmer. There are sites on the Interweb, that’s for sure, though their net has to be cast pretty wide to pay the freight. It’s the local newspaper, still, that keeps folks updated with local high schools named after directions, historic figures and the nearest town.

Dave Nichols leads the S-R’s coverage these days – and has his stamp on just about everything available to read today. Enjoy.

• The NFL weekend (and season) gets underway tonight in Los Angeles. The Rams host the Buffalo Bills in what could a Super Bowl preview. Then again, in the NFL, any game between AFC and NFC teams could be a Super Bowl preview. Just depends on how long the odds are.

Heck, Monday’s matchup of Denver and Seattle could be a Super Bowl preview. Hey, stop laughing. The Broncos aren’t that bad.

Oh, we get it. You’re laughing because of the Seahawks. Ya, the odds of the two teams both making the playoffs aren’t good. So bad, in fact, if you bet $1,000 it would happen and cashed, you might be able to pay off Russell Wilson’s new contract. And Geno Smith’s.

It would be worth it.

• Speaking of long odds, neither Washington State nor Eastern Washington are expected to be in the running for a victory this weekend. The Cougars didn’t show much against Idaho – by design, maybe? – and the Eagles are headed to Eugene to face a Duck team embarrassed by its performance in Georgia last week.

But who knows? College football is weird. Upsets, and near-upsets, are the early season norm. It’s why betting on the games seems a fool’s errand. Quite popular, sure, but not all that wise.

Our thoughts? The Cougars will avoid the early mistakes that plagued it against Idaho, score enough to stay close until the fourth quarter but come up short. The Eagles, faced with a chance to destroy the Dan Lanning tenure before it really begins at Oregon, aren’t up to the task. Though a couple of fourth-quarter scores makes it seem respectable.

As with all our prognostications, they are for entertainment purposes only. Laugh at them all you want. But don’t use them as a basis for wagering. The only folks laughing then will be the people taking your money.

• Corey Kispert and Jenn Wirth announced their engagement yesterday the traditional way. On Instagram. And the two former Gonzaga basketball players’ love story took me back more than 40 years.

Kim, a basketball player, and myself, a member of the baseball team, met in college as well. Actually, in the laundry room at UC Irvine’s athletic facility, where we both worked in the respective equipment rooms. Our ensuing engagement – the question was asked in the traditional Southern California way, while stuck in traffic on a freeway – led to a love story that has defied time. And our friends’ expectations. We wish the same for the Kispert and Wirth.

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WSU: The Cougars’ hopes for an upset – Wisconsin is favored by about 17 points – rest, to some regard, on health. They need to be at full strength to have their best chance. Colton Clark shares the news today one of their key players, Ron Stone Jr., will be at that level after being limited some against Idaho. That’s good news for the Washington State faithful. … The men’s basketball team announced its complete nonconference schedule yesterday. Jason Shoot has a look at it. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college football, Jon Wilner has his picks in the Mercury News (he doesn’t expect the Cougars to cover). … Stewart Mandel has his in The Athletic (he does). … Wilner also picks out the best teams in the West. … The Athletic writers posted a mailbag. … We’ve had a lot of thoughts about Washington in the past but never 19 about one game. … There seems to be 19 stories about Oregon just about every day. Actually, there are less today but the subjects are pretty diverse. … Oregon State is just trying to keep it simple this week. … With Air Force trying to dominate the ball, Colorado needs to run it well as well. … The sloppy play against Florida didn’t sit well with Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. … UCLA is better. But the attendance certainly doesn’t reflect that. … USC has transfers from a lot of schools, including this week’s opponent, Stanford. … Oklahoma State presents a challenge but Arizona State is confident. … Arizona has confidence as well. That’s new. … In basketball news, another European import is set to help Arizona.

Gonzaga: Over the past few days, we’ve read CBS Sports’ annual coaches’ survey. And each time we tell ourselves, “hey, we have to share these with our readers.” Well, we’ve forgotten every time. Getting old is problematic at times. Anyhow, we are grateful Jim Meehan shared the pronouncements today in this story. The Drew Timme comments were worth sharing by themselves. … Jim also has this story on the West Coast Conference re-upping with the Orleans Arena for a few more years. … That’s not all the GU news, however. Theo Lawson has this story on Gary Bell Jr. leaving campus. He’s taking an assistant coaching position at Northern Arizona. … Theo also has the story on an engagement we mentioned earlier.

EWU: As we said above, Oregon will be quite a test for Eastern. The game is also the starting point for Dan Thompson’s Big Sky notebook. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Northern Colorado steps up in class, playing at Wyoming. … The Montana offensive line will be tested this week by South Dakota. … Montana State has a standout without a key trait. … In basketball news, a national magazine picks Montana State and Montana first and second, respectively, in the conference. …The Bobcats released their nonconference schedule. So did Northern Arizona. … Mike Marlow, who was at Washington State for years, has been at NAU as athletic director for half-a-decade.

Preps: Before we get to all the fall previews – and there are a lot – we wanted to share this weekly football preview Dave put together as well as his roundup of Wednesday’s action. … Dave has two football-related features, one on Mead expecting to have a bounce-back season and one on an East Valley star who stayed true to his school. … Dave also has a capsule look at each of the GSL schools as well as the small schools in the area. … Slowpitch softball is also on Dave’s radar, with this U-Hi-based story and the capsules. … Madison McCord covers volleyball with a look at the Shadle Park program and the capsule summaries. … Cross country is covered by Keenan Gray, who has this story on East Valley and the summaries. … Justin Reed focus on girls’ soccer, with a story about Rogers’ program and the capsules on each GSL school.

Indians: Spokane picked up a 9-3 win in Tri-City on Wednesday night. Despite that, the Indians were eliminated from the postseason chase. Dave has this story.

Mariners: It’s been a while since the M’s played like they used to play so often over the past couple decades. But they did yesterday afternoon, kicking the ball all over and just handing a game to the White Sox. … You into wine? How about GU alums? Then do we have the story for you. … Eugenio Suarez picked up his 1,000 big league hit yesterday. It was a home run. Naturally. … With the M’s starting pitching, no one wants to face them in the playoffs.

Seahawks: The Times has a bunch of stories previewing the upcoming season, from Pete Carroll’s plans to the best way for the franchise to realize them. … There are also stories on Jordyn Brooks and the schedule. … A mailbag is available as well. … Rashaad Penny misses his friend.

Storm: Breanna Stewart is the best player in the WNBA. She isn’t, however, the league’s MVP. Malarkey. … What’s ahead for the Storm? It could be a tough offseason.

Sounders: The pitch at Lumen Field will now have a name.

Kraken: Seattle’s second season has little in the way of expectation among bettors.

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• We arose early today. The reason was simple. There were going to be more stories to link than usual. And there were. Good luck reading them all. Until later …