A Grip on Sports: Cougars shine at Colorado State as Pac-12 shows strength to start its final as-we-knew-it season

A GRIP ON SPORTS • College football’s first complete Saturday featured a little of everything. And that was just in Fort Collins, Colo. But even that game didn’t feature a national-media inspiring upset. Nope. That happened in Texas. Thanks to Deion Sanders and his Colorado Buffaloes. Oh, and the Pac-12? The conference that is disappearing? It has yet to lose a game.

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• Let’s take everything today in that order, shall we?

If you are wondering how Washington State stacks up with the Mountain West, well it’s simple. The Cougars made a multitude of silly mistakes. Were victimized by one awful missed holding call on a kickoff return that went 98 yards – as well as a strange replay overturn on an obvious scoop-and-score. Had a couple breakdowns defensively. Are still melding together an offensive line.

And they still walloped Colorado State 50-24. On the road. At altitude.

OK, sure. The Rams were a middle-of-the-pack Mountain West team last season and probably will be again in this one. But Wazzu – if the school is using that moniker on the coaches’ hats, we guess it is safe for us to use it as well – could have scored 70 points. No, we’re not kidding. The Cougars left at least three scores on the field.

That’s domination. It’s also worrisome in that those mistakes need to disappear as early as next week, when a Big Ten school actually visits Pullman. Wisconsin, under former Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell, will be better than the Wisconsin team WSU defeated in Madison last season. And that nonconference test will be followed by even sterner tests come conference season. How fun.

• Our choice for player of the game? No, not Cam Ward, even though he set a personal best with 451 passing yards. Nor Lincoln Victor, who had 11 receptions, nor Jaden Hicks, who returned an interception for a score.

We were most impressed by David Gusta. The 6-foot-3, 292-pound defensive tackle did what players his size are supposed to do. He controlled the middle of the line of scrimmage. Forced two Rams to account for him. Caused holding penalties and missed assignments. Clogged up the front and allowed new starting inside linebackers Devin Richardson and Kyle Thornton to shine with 11 and nine tackles, respectively.

Oh, and Gusta, a sophomore, had as many tackles, four, as anyone on the defensive line.

The inside of the d-line was a worry starting the season. Maybe his emergence will make sure it won’t be as the season wears on.

• It was a simple equation. Colorado was one of the worst FBS teams in the nation last year. Deion Sanders was hired and ran off all but a handful of the former players. Mined the transfer portal for new ones, including stars from his previous stop.

The Buffs had to be better. After all, Sanders wasn’t going to bring in worse players. And, in his son, he has a quarterback who is talented enough to compete with anyone.

But instant success was not guaranteed. Though, in the opener at TCU, there was an opportunity for instant gratification. The Horned Frogs’ run last season gave them credibility, and a ranking, even if they only returned three defensive starters.

Sanders’ Buffs took advantage of the Frogs’ inexperience, pulled out every stop and earned a 45-42 upset win. Good for them. It’s true, you know. Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing. Even in college football.

The multiple scores of former Buffs who had to find new places to play after Sanders’ arrival are testament to that. As are the newcomers who melded together quickly and gave Colorado an eye-opening win.

• Yes, Oregon State has a game today. The 18th-ranked Beavers are at San Jose State. If they win, and they are heavy favorites, the Pac-12 will post a perfect record for the opening weekend. Heck, with USC having won twice already, the conference-that-is-soon-to-disappear is 12-0.

But next weekend, with games against more Power 5 opponents, will be crucial to the national narrative. Win games against Wisconsin, Oklahoma State, Auburn, Texas Tech, Baylor, Nebraska and Mississippi State and the final season of this configuration could become special.

Until, of course, the depth of the conference begins inevitably cannibalizing the won-loss records and allows four other teams in other conferences to earn playoff berths.

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WSU: First-year beat writer but the same depth and quality of coverage of Cougar football games. Such is the tradition and culture of Washington State football reporting in the S-R. Greg Woods has a game story from Colorado State, sure, but he has so much more. He has his difference makers. A notebook. And a story following MWC commissioner Gloria Nevarez’s media availability at the game. … Hey, we covered what Nevarez had to say as well in our TV Take. We wished we had paid even more attention to some of the odd statements analyst Randy Cross, the former Bruin/49er came up with. They would have been fun to highlight. Maybe next time. … Tyler Tjomsland was also in Fort Collins and he has a photo gallery. … The folks in the office put together the recap with highlights. … From Colorado, we can pass along these stories about the Cougars’ 50-24 win. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, we’ll start with Jon Wilner’s mailbag in the Mercury News because it has a lot of thoughts on WSU and OSU and the future. … John Canzano also has a mailbag from Saturday and he answers similar questions. … Wilner also has his usual Saturday Night Five column. … Stewart Mandel’s notebook in The Athletic features a lot of West Coast items. … No. 10 Washington ran over Boise State – is Andy Avalos on a hot seat? – 56-19 and looked great doing it. Like Colorado, the Huskies earned some national attention. … Oregon’s Duck did as well, mainly because the mascot had to do more than 500 pushups during UO’s 81-7 dismantling of Portland State. Bo Nix only played a half for the 15th-ranked Ducks. …  The Colorado upset featured more than just the younger Sanders’ outstanding Buff debut. Two-way player Travis Hunter did some spectacular things on both sides of the ball. … California blew out North Texas, ruining former WSU offensive coordinator Eric Morris’ head coaching debut. The Bears won 58-21 despite losing their starting quarterback to injury. … UCLA made a quarterback change though it wasn’t injury related. Freshman Dante Moore helped the Bruins to a 27-13 win over visiting Coastal Carolina. … Caleb Williams is so good it doesn’t seem fair. The USC quarterback was instrumental in the sixth-ranked Trojans’ 66-14 win over visiting Nevada. … Arizona’s defense didn’t allow Northern Arizona to do anything in the Wildcats’ 38-3 victory. … No. 14 Utah heads to 0-1 Baylor next week. … Going back to Friday night, Stanford did a lot of positive things in its win at Hawaii. … Will Cal and Stanford have to cut sports after joining the ACC at a discount?

Gonzaga: If you were wondering where Marcus Adams Jr. would end up – we weren’t, considering it may not be his final destination – the stop-by-GU-for-a-latte freshman said he will play for BYU. Theo Lawson has more in this story.

EWU: Second-ranked North Dakota State is one of the best, if not the best, FCS football program in the nation. At one point in time, the same was said about Eastern, though that’s not the case anymore. So, it probably isn’t a surprise the Bison rumbled to a 35-10 neutral-site win over the Eagles in Minneapolis. Dan Thompson was at U.S. Bank Stadium and has a game story and a notebook. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, No. 14 Montana had little trouble with visiting Butler, winning 35-20. … Third-ranked Montana State had even less with visiting Utah Tech in a 63-20 win. … Paul Wulff’s return to the Big Sky as a head coach was successful as Cal Poly defeated San Diego 27-10. … The first game of the Cody Hawkins’ era at Idaho State wasn’t a win but the Bengals held their own at San Diego State, losing 36-28.

Preps: Rogers defeated Medical Lake 35-0 in a football game that was called off before halftime Saturday. But the final score wasn’t the most important aspect, Dave Nichols explains what was in this story. … Dave also has his usual look back at Friday night’s action.

Indians: Oh, and Dave has coverage of Saturday’s doubleheader at Avista Stadium. Spokane and Everett split the two games.

Mariners: If Luis Castillo was pitching like he has in the past, the M’s quick three-run lead Saturday would have been enough. And saved those of us who had to follow along on an app a lot less nervous. Instead, the Mets rallied, the game entered the ninth tied at seven and J.P. Crawford had to take matters into his own at-bat. He did. With a solo homer. Justin Topa made it stand up and the M’s 8-7 win lifted them to a one-game lead over the Astros in the West. … The M’s hot hitters stayed hot.

Seahawks: Questions? Here are some answers.

Sounders: Taking off your shirt after scoring a goal may be iconic but it’s also an automatic yellow card. Turns out it also was the first step in the Sounders’ coughing up a two-goal lead. Playing a man down after Leo Chu picked up another run-of-play yellow, Seattle gave up two late goals and tied with Portland 2-2.

Storm: Seattle just can’t keep up with the defending WNBA champions from Las Vegas. The Aces swept the season series with a 103-77 victory last night.

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• There was a lot of football to cover this morning. And that’s without the NFL playing today. Maybe we’ll skip next Sunday. Save our index fingers the workout. Yes, we type with two fingers. What of it? H.L. Mencken once said he used the tools of his reporting trade, his two eyes, his two ears and his two fingers. Good enough for him, good enough for us. Until later …