Happy Monday Cougs, and a big welcome back to work for you and yours. Long time no write, I know, in fact it's been FAR too long since we've communicated around here. But a couple of the blogfathers and I had a little chat the other night, and well, we figured it was just about long enough of a hiatus for this here blog. We've sat on the sidelines long enough, and now it's time to write again, know what I mean? As we've said before, if you don't write you can't have a blog. So here we go.
We will be back at it in the mornings with a usual post, and we should get some good stuff from Longball in the next few days . Meanwhile Sutra has gone missing, but there is some pretty strong word that he will be back in about a month or so once he escapes from his current work situation/pit of hell.
Note to Sutra – make the climb WITHOUT the rope. Then fear will find you again!
So let's get on with it, some morning links and such to check out on this first Monday in June…
I don't know about you, but one clear way you can tell summer is coming? COLLEGE FOOTBALL PREVIEWS! That's right, the magazines are starting to hit the local racks, and so you know the days ahead of lying around on a hammock somewhere, cold beverage in hand and flipping through college football stuff are on the way. I happened by a Barnes-and-Noble last weekend and was surprised to already see Athlon's and Sporting News with their college mags sitting there, and it sounds like Phil Steele will be releasing in a few short weeks. Quick sidenote – back in the day, I used to flippin' LOVE going to Barnes and Noble. But with the digital age we live in today, with iPad's and Kindle Fire's and all that stuff, it just doesn't happen much anymore. But it was cool to go in and just kind of cruise through and get lost in a few different areas. As much as I love my Fire HD, there is still a cool thing about actually holding a real book?
Anyway, I grabbed the Athlon's Pac-12 preview and of course, flipped right to the Coug section. And while the Cougs were predictably picked last? It actually wasn't too bad of a projection. They picked us 68th overall, and 6th in the north. But they do believe the Cougs are getting better, and even admitted in some sort of a "round table" article about the conference overall that they debated maybe putting them 5th instead of 6th, but there were just far too many holes for this season. But they do speculate that maybe WSU is just one season away from finally getting back to a bowl game.
Your 2013 Pac-12 Northwest cover
I do recall that last year, Athlon's threw us all a bone and found a way to sneak WSU's own Mike Leach on the far top-right corner of the cover:
But this year, no such luck. But hey, I know we've been bad the last several years. When you lose and are in a small media market like Pullman, you just aren't going to be prominently featured in the yearly magazines-n-such. And worrying about that stuff, it's just more small-man-syndrome than anything else. It really doesn't' t matter when you think about it. But these are the kinds of things that once you start winning, the rest of these things like more media coverage just kind of happens. But WSU will be on the cover again, just not yet.
Athlon's sees a strong season from Oregon and Stanford (again) in the north, and they really like a three-team dogfight in the south between ASU, USC and UCLA. The predictions:
Pac-12 North:
1) Oregon (12-1, 8-1)
2) Stanford (10-2, 7-2)
3) Oregon State (8-4, 5-4)
4) UW (7-5, 4-5)
5) CAL (4-8, 3-6)
6) WSU (4-8, 2-7)
Pac-12 South:
1) ASU (8-5, 6-3)
2) USC (9-4, 6-3)
3) UCLA (8-4, 5-4)
4) Arizona (7-5, 4-5)
5) Utah (5-7, 3-6)
6) Colorado (3-9, 1-8)
It's weird to see Cal picked so low, and right along the Cougs in a battle for the basement. But I guess I have to admit one thing – I was surprised that they picked Oregon State to finish ahead of UW? Although it appears it is only a one-game spread, and in fact they mention in the magazine that the game in Corvallis between UW and OSU will likely settle 3rd place in the North. But I guess I've been pretty optimistic about UW this year, and have been thinking all along that they have 9 wins written all over them (I know, BOO THIS MAN!). I just see a lot of starters returning (16), a senior QB in Keith Price, and playing back in their renovated home with a not-so-daunting non-conference schedule makes them feel like 9-3 to yours truly. I could be way off of course, and that opener vs. Boise State could really dictate how they go in 2013, but even I can admit that they are an interesting team to watch this year (when I'm not like, you know, totally HATING them).
I guess I'm not real sold on Oregon State this year either. They lose Jordan Poyer and some d-line depth up front on D, and Markus Wheaton is gone after a huge 2012 where he caught 91 balls with an unsettled-at-best QB situation. I'm also not sure about the QB's in general, between Sean Mannion and Cody Vaz and the back-and-forth "feel" they have right now, I just don't know if I see 8-4 on that team? But I sure doubted them last year and they steamrolled to 9 wins and the Alamo Bowl, so there!
Speaking of preseason mags and rankings and all that? Phil Steele released his preseason Pac-12 teams, and the Cougs got seven guys named to the various squads. Steele likes Deone Bucannon and Andrew Furney the most, placing both on the second team. Check out the official WSU release here, and you can see the entire Pac-12 preseason teams here.
That's it for now. Have a great start to your week, and of course, GO COUGS!
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