COUGARS

The plane from Seattle to Dallas was filled with Oregon State fans. And, no, that wasn't the reason why the day was so stressful. In fact, the Beaver crowd was a lot of fun. My plane from Dallas to Tulsa was filled with Oklahoma State fans. And, no, that wasn't the reason why the day was so stressful either. It was the time in between the two flights, the late, late gate change in Dallas that made a sprint between terminals necessary. Now that was stressful – any thing that involves the word sprint is stressful to me. But you don't want hear about the labor pains, do you? You only want to see the baby. So read on.
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• Washington State: Today's the day. The day you've been thinking about for nearly nine months (fits nicely with the labor pains metaphor, no?). It's opening day. The Cougars will travel down the highway to Stillwater later today, strap on the pads and take on a Oklahoma State team that is debuting a lot of new faces and a new offense. No matter what the outcome, it should be interesting. ... No news to pass on. WSU arrived at their Tulsa hotel last night after a walk-through in Stillwater seemingly no worse for wear. Charter flights – sans airport runs – will do that for you. ... It's not supposed to be too hot here, the temperature at kickoff predicted to be 83. Of course, the humidity is 80 percent right now. ... On to the links. We had our preview in today's S-R (by the way, check out our new-look web page). We also have a new feature called the 2-minute drill. ... The Seattle Times' Bud Withers is here and he made a pilgrimage out to Boone Pickens Stadium yesterday. Then he got to talk with the living legend himself. ... Freelancer Howie Stalwick had this advance in the News Tribune and other papers. ... From the Oklahoma City paper (the website of the Tulsa paper was not working this morning), the new offense is the center of attention. ... And watch this guy. He's one of the main guys the WSU offense has game-planned for.

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• Around the Pac-10: Lots of stuff prior to today's eight games. ... ESPN.com's Ted Miller opens his mailbag as he does every week. ... He also has an interview with Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott. ... And the things you should know. ... One thing you should know is the NCAA reversed itself on Jeremiah Masoli. Wow. ... College football games are about money? Wow. ... Washington: Like Oklahoma State for WSU, BYU will give the Huskies a yardstick to measure themselves against. ... Jake Locker is entering the season that will make or break his legacy. ... Oregon State: What type of game will those OSU fans see (if the are sober by now)? Here's a preview. ... No matter what, it's being played in a amazing venue. ... Oregon: No one expects New Mexico to give the Ducks much of a game. ... But there have been upsets in Eugene before. And not that long ago. ... Cal Speaking of upsets, is there any chance for UC Davis in Berkeley today? ... Stanford: Who will replace Toby Gerhart? No one really. ... USC: Looking back at the Trojans' tougher-than-expected victory in the islands. ... UCLA: It's Rick Neuheisel's third year in Westwood. Will the Bruins make stride? ... Arizona State: How will the Sun Devils use their quarterbacks today? ... Arizona: Finally, there was one Pac-10 team in action yesterday and the Wildcats looked damn good. ... The came out intense and played that way most of the night.

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• That's all for this morning. We're going to head out to Stillwater relatively early today in an attempt to avoid the traffic and we'll post with our last thoughts before the game. It's obvious from reading comments and thoughts from around the web, Cougar Nation is excited. A word of warning. High expectations can lead to disappointment (like when people meet me). So you might want to tamp down the enthusiasm a bit. Until we get to OSU ...

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