The Morning Haul: 8/16

Just over two weeks until the season starts, and I can’t tell you how ready I am. I don’t mean to complain, but there will be great rejoicing when I can write an article based on game observation rather than “well, because of this happening last year, I think this could happen this year” kind of projection/conjecture that becomes the name of the game in the off season. It’s always fun to try to make predictions, but it will be wonderful to write without everything needing the “we’ll see August 31st” caveat attached.

Stories Especially Worth Reading:

Gregg Bell’s more beat-like coverage of the football team continues, and he’s putting the extra access afforded his position as the AD’s Director of Writing to good use. While most beat writers have little choice but to say the same things as every other beat writer that was at practice, Bell has some more interesting tidbits. Particularly cool to hear Coach Sarkisian comparing freshman receiver John Ross to Reggie Bush. Even if it’s in the context of one particular cut, Sark doesn’t seem to throw out comparisons to established stars like that very often. To me, that points to Sark being especially excited about Ross. It certainly would be nice to see someone making plays in the return game.

I know I’ve been gushing about Mason Kelley even more than I’ve been going on about Bell’s coverage, but this insight into Kasen Williams and his focus in practice is just plain awesome. It’s the kind of thing that fans have zero chance of knowing without a writer passing it on to them, and it’s the kind of thing that endears a player like Williams to the fans that want to see him succeed.

It’s Ted Miller’s best/worst case scenario writeup for Washington. And yeah, it’s weird.

Four-star athlete Devante Downs of Lynnwood, WA has committed to Cal and plans to enroll early. Given that he’s one of the top recruits in the ’14 class within the state of Washington, and a UW target, this is a loss for the Huskies. Still, as they say, there are plenty of other fish in the sea.