2015 football preview

Bryan Harsin closed out the 2014 season by hoisting the Fiesta Bowl trophy for the third time during Boise State’s remarkable rise. That was far from the most important moment of Harsin’s first season in charge of the Broncos. For the head coach, the apex came nearly three months earlier after his team was handed an embarrassing beating by Air Force and the Broncos bounced back.

Dallas Sandberg’s pregame ritual will be the same as it’s always been tonight as Idaho kicks off its season against Ohio. He’ll run out of the tunnel and take a look to his right. There, about halfway up section 18, adjacent to the 30-yard line, will be his older brother, Corey Sandberg, waiting to acknowledge and give him a look of reassurance.

Joe Dahl is the left tackle who protects his quarterback’s blindside, a role that combines the trope of an offensive lineman’s gritty anonymity with the celebrity of collectively understood importance to his team’s success. He is the local boy who grew to love football during Washington State’s heyday in the early 2000s, memorizing names like Brink and Gesser and Trufant.

Scott Peck has been on quite an odyssey. For the first time since early in his sophomore year, the Central Valley senior will play sports injury free.

If the Seattle Seahawks become the first team to win three straight NFC titles, they’ll likely do so as champions of their division yet again. But the reigning conference champs see a challenge waiting in the NFC West.

For all the mystery over who might be the alpha dog at the University of Washington this season, there’s a much larger question. Fifteen hundred pounds worth.