Pac Ten Alley

The Huskies took Monday off and practiced yesterday. Not a lot to report since I didn't have any friends at practice on Tuesday.

According to the papers Hasty, and Savannah are still running stairs, but my intuition tells me that Willingham will let them back on the field any day now. The coaches are getting interviewed by the press and the latest to talk is new TE/ST coach Brian White. White says they have enough talent, it is more of a want succeed type of thing he needs to develop. As we said last week Goodwin should be the punt return guy this Fall. An educated on kickoff return guys is that Shaw, Goodwin, and Polk should be the guys back there based on speed, and hands.

The Huskies have eleven more practices including the Spring game.

Pac Ten Alley

Lets take a walk down the coast and see what the neighbors are up to.

Spring Camp has wrapped up over at WSU

Alfonso Jackson and Chima Nwachukwu switched positions early in camp, and things have gone so well according to coach Ball that it will stay this way into the '08 season.

Tony Bennett isn't going anywhere which is good news for WSU fans. He reportedly turned down Marquette, LSU, California, and Indiana. It makes you wonder what his ideal job is at this point?

Tony Bennett said Tuesday he will remain the basketball coach at Washington State University, where he is the first coach to take the Cougars to two consecutive NCAA tournament appearances.

UCLA will be rebuilding next years basketball team because the majority of the top players on the team are leaving. It will be a whole new league next season, and Washington which was down the last two years should be one of the top teams in the league.

I am not going go through the roller coaster of up or down re. Whether DC, RW or KL will stay or go. I don’t have any inside sources ala Dohn, Pucin or any other beat reporters. I don’t talk to the coaches or players.However, given what I have read to date and based on my two decades of following UCLA (and the world of college hoops on a day to day basis) I believe we have seen the last of DC, RW, and KL at UCLA. I believe they are gone and it will be nothing short of an absolute miracle if any one of them decides to come back for another season at UCLA

Picking a QB at UCLA

It's only been five days. Kevin Craft is still learning his way around campus. Patrick Cowan and Ben Olson are still shaking the off-season rust off. Chris Forcier and Osaar Rasshan are trying to make an impression with just a handful of reps each day. But UCLA's five-man quarterback competition could fast be coming to a close. After Tuesday's practice, coach Rick Neuheisel and new offensive coordinator Norm Chow said they will start thinning the competition out a bit, and one or two players could be out of the competition as soon as Thursday. "We've got 10 more practices, then fall camp, and 29 practices after that, we've got Tennessee so we need to do something and I think everybody realizes the urgency of it,'' Chow said

The Stanford women were dominant in the finals.

Watching Stanford dismantle U-Conn yesterday, I had the same feeling I did watching Memphis pound UCLA on Saturday. That’s not to say the teams, players and coaches are even close to identical — especially the coaches. (Tara VanDerveer is always pleasant, modest, respectful …)
But the Cardinal women and Tiger men share a few things in common, starting with “it.”

It looks Like Mike Montgomery couldn't resist and is rumored to be the next head coach at Cal.

With Lute Olson back in charge (and supposedly in better health) in Tucson and Mike Montgomery reportedly taking over at Cal, the league has the best lineup of coaches in the country.

QB competition at USC

For two weeks I resisted the constant temptation to say the quarterback competition was a charade although anyone who reads this blog probably figured out what direction the ``derby'' was taking. But it seems foolish to act like anything is up for grabs right now as Mark Sanchez clearly is the No. 1 quarterback.Here's some facts for those following this race:Sanchez got six series with the first team during Sunday's scrimmage. Mitch Mustain got two.Sanchez practiced exclusively with the first team Tuesday. Mustain split time with Aaron Corp with the second team.Offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian said he did not anticipate giving Mustain more time with the first team during USC's next scrimmage on Saturday.We will wait for the official word from Pete Carroll, of course. When (not who) he announces the starter is the only mystery left right now.

Examining the fall at Cal

You could say Cal has hit the skids since it rushed to 5-0 and a No. 2 ranking last October. What does California football need to focus on this spring? "Everything," seventh-year Coach Jeff Tedford said.

Looking back at OSU

I think that there are some in Beaver fandom who remember the impact that Dennis Erickson had on the OSU football team--and forget the years immediately preceding. They remember DE getting the Beavs their first winning season in forever in Year 1, and an 11-win season (and I think we would have given Oklahoma a better fight than FSU had we made it to the Orange Bowl). There is an assumption that what worked for football, would work for basketball.

University of Arizona receivers are catching on.

The Wildcats wide outs caught virtually everything within their grasp, a week after being told they were not doing their jobs well enough during scrimmage work on Saturday.
Terrell Reese caught five passes for 133 yards and two touchdowns, Delashaun Dean had five catches for 147 yards and a touchdown, Terrell Turner caught five balls for 66 yards, Derick Barkum had two receptions for 70 yards at the Wildcats’ scrimmage on Saturday.

ASU has their first scrimmage of the Spring

Getting beyond 16 penalties, half for false starts on the offense, takes a little doing. But Arizona State did have some unflagged moments to remember Saturday in its first spring football scrimmage at Sun Devil Stadium. The No. 1 offense scored on its second possession and added another touchdown later. Quarterback Rudy Carpenter threw 14-yard scoring passes on both, the first on a rollout to tight end Dane Guthrie and the second to wide receiver Chris McGaha.

Spring practice in full swing in Eugene.

The three guys who got banged up Friday sat out today. Fenuki Tupou aggravated a hamstring injury, Bo Thran tweaked his knee and Will Tukuafu hurt his ankle. From the sound of it, Tupou’s has the potential to linger the longest. C.E. Kaiser continued to play left tackle with the first string, while Jordan Holmes was the No. 1 left guard for most of the day. Jeff Kendall was in that spot for the final drills of the day. Dominic Glover was in Tukuafu’s starting end spot late in the day.