COUGARS

Not only do we have our morning links today, we have some left-over thoughts from the weekend. If you're interested, read on.
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• Washington State traveled across the state of Washington on Saturday to play Hawaii. The Cougars took 60 players and, according to coach Paul Wulff, 28 of them had never made a college football trip before. That's 47 percent of the suited-up roster. But if you look deeper into the other 53 percent, you'll discover nine other players who are in just their second year of playing. So 37 of 60 players are either first- or second-year players. That's 62 percent of the roster. That might go a long way toward explaining why they had such a slow start. ... The NCAA statistics are not kind to the Cougars. There are 120 FBS schools charted this season in 37 areas. But, of the 16 main statistical categories, ranging from rushing offense to sacks allowed, WSU is 100th or lower in half. The Cougars are 118 in total defense, 117 in pass defense and 116 in pass efficiency defense. On the other end, the Cougars are 45th in the country in pass offense, averaging 237 yards a game. ... Individually, punter Reid Forrest is fifth in punting (47 yard average), Nico Grasu is tied for 12th in field goals (two a game) and James Montgomery is 57th in rushing (78.50 yards a game). ... Wulff said Sunday night people familiar with WSU's receiving corps are "seeing it grow up right in front of their eyes." The group doesn't have a senior, but the wideouts combined for 17 catches for 213 yards Saturday, with EWU transfer Jeffrey Solomon leading the way with six catches and Jeshua Anderson breaking free deep for a 44-yard reception. All that came after potential star receiver, sophomore Jared Karstetter, was benched after two fumbles. ... OK, on to the links.

• Washington State: We had our follow story and our looking back in today's S-R. ... Freelancer Howie Stalwick had this follow in the News Tribune … The Kitsap Sun ran AP's follow. ... SMU travels from Dallas to play in Pullman on Saturday and the Mustangs have already won more games then they did all last year. Here is the Dallas Morning News follow from their Conference USA win over UAB.

• Around the Pac-10: ESPN.com's Ted Miller has his power rankings and what he learned from Saturday. ... Nick Daschel believes the Huskies game vs. USC is the game to watch this weekend. ... Washington: Speaking of the Huskies, Todd Milles writes how much they're looking forward to playing their coach's old team. ... The Times' Bob Condotta covers the same ground. … Oregon State: Some notes from coach Mike Riley's press conference. The most interesting: The Beavers were cited three times Saturday for having 12 men on the field. ... Oregon: The Ducks improved, but not enough to please coach Chip Kelly. ... Cal: The rout of EWU moved the Bears up to eighth in the AP poll. ... Stanford: Nothing here. ... USC: Matt Barkley might have injured his shoulder Saturday. Is there a team in America better able to handle an injury to its starting quarterback? ...UCLA: The Bruins are sure their starting quarterback is out. Now Rick Neuheisel has a decision to make. ... Arizona State: The Sun Devils are still in bye mode. ... Arizona: The Wildcats' offense just isn't what it used to be.

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• That's what we have for this morning. We'll be back later with our first look at SMU. Until then …

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