A GRIP ON SPORTS • “South Park” might be passé these days, but one of the shows better characters, Professor Chaos, would be right at home in 2020. After all, it’s a year of chaos and missteps, two things Butters Stotch always hopes for when he dons his aluminum foil costume.

That asterisk we're putting next to the 2020 college football season? How about an exploding emoji instead?

One day after it was learned starting quarterback Jayden de Laura had come down with COVID-19, Washington State's game against Stanford was canceled and declared a no-contest due to the Cougars falling below the 53-man scholarship requirement, the Pac-12 Conference confirmed in a statement Friday afternoon. 

A GRIP ON SPORTS • There is so much to unpack this Friday morning, it seems akin somehow to a three-week vacation in the wilderness. Except, of course, things like that don’t happen these days. But we have football news, basketball news and, ahem, season-saving news. What a Friday.

The offseason came with mixed results for Kyle Smith.

If this season looks like the mother of all rebuilding projects at Washington State, Kamie Ethridge is quick to disagree.

Every year, there are tens of thousands of undergraduate students who attend Washington State University without the financial relief of a full-ride football scholarship.

This week it was announced that WSU Head Basketball Coach Kyle Smith tested positive for COVID-19. Rob Jesselson sits down with Spokesman-Review's Theo Lawson to discuss how this will impact the team as they head into their first game next week against Texas Southern.

Washington State starting quarterback Jayden de Laura has tested positive for COVID-19 and won't play for the team in Saturday's game against Stanford, The Spokesman-Review has learned through multiple sources.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Of all the recent innovations instituted by the NFL in the past 20 years or so, Thursday night football has to be the worst, right down there with the way the league handles replay or marks the football. The Seahawks’ appearance this year occurs tonight. At home vs. the Cardinals. Strap in folks, because we don’t know what’s going to happen.

CJ Elleby’s decision to pursue a career in professional basketball, rather than return to school for his junior season, paid off for the Washington State forward Wednesday night. In a rather fortuitous way, too.

Golden State guard Klay Thompson injured his right leg Wednesday during a workout in Southern California.

Max Borghi hasn’t played a snap for Washington State this season and he’s the main topic of this week’s mailbag.

Nick Rolovich and Washington State will apparently have to wait longer to sign their next player from City College of San Francisco.

Washington State men's basketball coach Kyle Smith has tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss the Cougars' season opener against Texas Southern, according to a press release from the school.

Washington State's basketball team will play a regionally-focused nonconference schedule, hosting Idaho, Eastern Washington and two other Big Sky opponents as part of a seven-game slate in November and December.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • OK. I will say it. This week is weird. I blame the NFL. Partly because the Seahawks will be wearing their garish “color-rush” uniforms but mainly because they will face Arizona on Thursday night. For the second time this season. The first one didn’t go all that well.

A few thoughts went racing through Kyle Smith’s head as No. 11-seed Washington State upset No. 6 Colorado in the first round of the Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament in March.

Daniel Isom was on Washington State's football team one day and not on it the next.