Happy Tuesday Cougs, and welcome to part two of OldSavage's WSU preview for 2013.  Yesterday he took us back to the 2012 season, plus hit on the offensive skill-position guys looking towards the new season, but today he takes a look at the meat-and-potatoes of any football team - the offensive and defensive lines!  So without delay, I'll just get out of the way and let OldSavage take it from here...

Happy back-at-it Monday Cougs, as we come off a wonderful Father's Day weekend and we hit the ground running for a new week of Rise 'n' Grind (or is it Rise 'N Grind?  Or maybe Rise & Grind?  Any grammar police want to weigh in, go for it, but it seems like the opinion is split on how to abbreviate "and").  I sincerely hope you all had a great weekend as father's everywhere were honored in some way, shape and form.  We were busy Friday night and most of Saturday with my oldest son's Lacrosse tournament, which was a lot of fun for all.  And for what it's worth?  Lacrosse is getting HUGE up here in the NW!  This Battle of Bothell tournament had 85 teams from around the region over the 5/6 and 7/8th grade levels.  Some really great athletes out there playing this sport, and you can see why they love the game with all the back-and-forth action.  This was our 6th grader's first season playing the game and I knew absolutely nothing about it prior to this spring, but it really is a great sport.  I wonder if baseball might be in some trouble around here with that age group going forward as a spring activity?  Because with the speed and fun of the game it is definitely attractive to the short-attention-span generation!.  

Anyway we had a great day yesterday for Father's Day - had a really good AM run with great morning weather, my kids helped make a huge Sunday breakfast, we went to see Man of Steel (LOVED it btw), then had family over for a BBQ Sunday evening.  Good stuff!  But it's back to the GRIND today, so here we go.

Today's post is a little different than the usual links-n-such style roundup.  Our loyal reader "OldSavage" has been writing a huge preview for the 2013 Cougs, something he shares with family and friends prior to the football season.  We thought it would be a good idea to have him share it with the blog, so, today we will proceed with OldSavage's 2013 preview.  This morning, we'll look back at 2012 and then look at the coaching staff and the offensive skill positions.  Then later this week we'll check in on the O-line, the D-line, linebackers and secondary.  So here we go...

Happy Friday Cougs, and as we steamroll into Father's Day weekend we wish the best to you and yours.  And to you geeks out there like me?  It's MAN OF STEEL weekend!  After all the hype and trailers and TV spots and such, finally the movie is out.  Like many of you, we will venture out into the great unwashed at some point this weekend and check it out, as yet another superhero movie hits the big screen in all it's "epic-ness".  

So far the reviews have been somewhat mixed, in that it edges more towards the Dark Knight trilogy in terms of tone (darkness?) vs. the fun popcorn style fun approach like last summer's Avengers. Personally I like the origin stories of characters like this, from Batman Begins and Spiderman to even Iron Man and Thor.  And I like it a little on the dark/serious side vs. the ridiculousness approach of some of these things.  But hey, it's a superhero movie after all - it's gotta be somewhat ridiculous?

What's somewhat interesting is that in a lot of these superhero movies, the hero is usually 1) an only child, and 2) has had some sort of tragedy as a youngster, robbing them of their innocence along the way.  Batman had his parents murdered in cold blood right in front of him as a youth, and clearly he has issues dealing with their loss for, well, the rest of his life. Superman lost his real parents when he was an infant, then was raised by foster parents who did their best instilling strong, Midwest family values in young Clark Kent.  But he still struggles to figure out who he is and why he is here.  Spiderman had his parents disappear on him as a young child, only to be raised by his aunt and uncle and then saw his uncle murdered, sending him on his path against crime. 

Superman has always been kind of tough to wrap your arms around though.  I mean Batman, at least he's a human being who had some tough times.  Sure he's a billionaire in his real life and a huge part of what he can do is based on untold amounts of cash on hand!  But at the same time he's human and you can feel for him and his loss.  Superman is an alien, and essentially a GOD sent here to protect the world.  It's kind of hard to feel for him at times, I mean he's SUPERMAN, ya know?

But I think that's the big challenge that this new movie has for it, in how it is going to try and establish the idea of getting the audience to actually care about Clark Kent/Kal-El and feel for his angst.  That approach was a huge win when Christopher Nolan took over the Batman franchise and in Batman Begins, spent the first hour or so of building the back story and establishing Bruce Wayne's real-world struggle of dealing with his painful loss.  They reeled in the audience by getting you to care about Bruce Wayne more than the guy in the costume (go back and watch the first Batman movie from 1989, literally the first 5 minutes you see Michael Keaton as Batman before you know anything about Bruce Wayne!).

Anyway, we're ready to see how it all goes.  At least my youngest has his old Superman suit all ready to go!

Alrighty then, on to today's links...

Happy Thursday Cougs, as we hope all is well for you and yours as we cruise towards another weekend here in the great NW.  

So Phil Steele is getting ready to ship his ultra-deep annual college football magazine!  Per his website at philsteele.com, the magazines are boxed and ready to ship, and will start showing up on store shelves next week.  

And if you are in the northwest, this should be the cover you will see if you hit Barnes-n-Noble, Target, etc:

The great thing about Steele's annual magazines is that they are absolutely packed with info (just as the cover states!).  It might be looked at as a little too much at times, and it can seem a little overwhelming.  But when you really want to dig in and check out a team, it gives you pretty much everything you need for a summer preview.  Obviously things are fluid with college football teams and changes can happen quickly, especially once August starts and fall camp begins.  Injuries, players quitting, true frosh or JC's emerging, etc, can sometimes render the preseason depth charts as completely off the mark by September.  But still, Steele's mag is something I always look forward to and even in today's Internet age of I WANT IT ALL AND I WANT IT NOW, it's a still a great resource to have by your side for college football nerds like me.

Speaking of Phil Steele, he released a list of returning letter winners for 2013.  Above and beyond just looking at returning starters or even just the two-deeps, instead Steele takes things a step further and breaks down the numbers of players who actually are coming back this season who won a varsity letter last year.  Let's take a look and see how it breaks down for the Pac-12...

Happy Humpday Cougs, as we wish all the best to you and yours.  And per the latest webcam pic of the Cougar Football Project, it looks like another beautiful morning on the Palouse!  As you can see, the construction continues to hum along on the new $60+ million dollar Football Ops building, which we've harped on enough as to what an asset this thing should ultimately become for the entire football program.

Speaking of stadiums and all that, yesterday WSU released some updated renderings of the Football Ops building.  Here are a few new ones for your viewing pleasure :

From the Stadium Way side endzone

Better close-up of the new structure

From Rogers Field - practice field view

You can see the rest of the updated renderings here, but so far so good.

But of course, we are not alone in the Pac-12 when it comes to updated facilities and spending money to spruce things up in order to compete for talent.  But who is doing what, exactly, right now?  Let's take a look...

Happy Tuesday Cougs, as we get after it with another rise and grind.  As always, we hope things are good with you and yours as we roll out of bed and take on the day ahead.  And that's the right attitude to take, am I right?  I mean the day shouldn't be something that just washes over you, you need to take it on and get after it!  Someone once said that life and finding success is 10% what happens to you, but 90% of how you respond to those things that makes - or breaks - the individual.  So I say don't just sit there and let things happen, go out and get it!

Anyway, there are more previews-n-such making the rounds today in regards to those beloved Cougs of Washington State, so, let's take a look...

Fred Flintstone - Man's First Degenerate Gambler

Happy Monday Cougs, as we all collectively rise and grind our way through the beginning of yet another week.  We hope as always that things are well, and that you of course got out and enjoyed some nice NW weather this weekend.  Quick disclosure - my oldest son had a pretty intense two-day lacrosse tournament in Snohomish, which was long (and draining), but also a lot of fun.  The kids scrapped and fought all the way to the championship game on Sunday afternoon, where they completely ran out of gas and were overwhelmed by an amazing team out of central Seattle.  Still, they reeled in 2nd place out of the whole thing, five games in two days was a lot of action!  But it sure made the whole weekend just fly by.

Anyway, a lot of Cougs were a little taken aback when some of the early betting lines were released by Golden Nugget on Friday.  And the Cougs, well...newsflash - we're underdogs - BIG underdogs - throughout 2013.  But is it a big deal what a betting line says in early June?  Are we simply overreacting as a fan base by the realization that the wise guys in Vegas don't think we're within single digits of any BCS game we play in 2013??  Well, let's see...

Happy Friday Cougs, and as usual we hope all is well in your world as we ride into another weekend.  Don't know about you but this week just flippin' FLEW by for yours truly!  I cannot believe it's already Friday.  Work is busy so that certainly has a lot to do with it, but wow does time fly by sometimes.  

How about this year's schedule poster?  I loved last year's, but I think this year they really hit a home run with the 2013 version.  Mike Leach in the center, surrounded by players, with Martin Stadium rising in the background with a lush green football field-like color featured throughout.  Very cool!  And you know, the other night my wife and I were going through the calendar for this summer, and I realized something - that season opener on August 31st is going to get here fast!  That's like what, 84 days away, something like that?  Crazy.

So I think the "Morning Drip" has seen the end of it's (very) short-lived run.  The name was, well, not great.  But while we are happy to take suggestions, I have to admit I'm warming up to "Rise and Grind".  There are many different ways one can take Rise and Grind, but here are some definitions per UrbanDictionary.com:

You get the idea. There is another definition for it that isn't exactly safe for work/family friendly, but I love the idea of just getting up and after it. It kind of fits what I do every weekday morning, where I am up at 5 AM and write, then roll into a morning workout to get things going before the workday at 8 AM. You rise, and you grind, period.  So we'll roll with this for a while and see if it sticks.

On to today's links-and-such...

Happy Thursday Cougs, as we get rolling on this AM's morning post.  

So yesterday, someone commented on Facebook that the whole "Morning Drip" name was essentially lame, or maybe the worst idea ever.  Per our Facebook page:

John Mullen Is it just me or is the Title "Wazzu Morning Drip" the worst title line ever? Especially for sports reporting? C'mon!

You know what?  It's not just you.  He's right. The "Drip" idea was always meant as something tongue-in-cheek if you want to know the truth, sort of a shot at ourselves and also to convey something about a morning post, and the drip relates to the idea of coffee...?  Anyway, suggestions are always welcome for some other name for a morning links-style post.  Morning Drip?  Rise and Grind?  Feel free to offer advice, we are always open to new ideas.

Moving on to this morning's links...

Happy Humpday Cougs, as we hit the midpoint of the week.  And a good look at another beautiful morning on the Palouse, as Martin Stadium's football OPS building continues to rise.  A poster at Cougfan who goes by the name "LowPorkWA" has snapped some of his own pics of the construction, which you can see here:

Nice.

As cool as the new press box/luxury seating structure is and how that big sucker is going to help bring in the money to the athletic department, many still believe that football OPS building might be the most important piece of the puzzle for Mike Leach and the program.  When you think about the recruiting wars and all that you are up against in this conference, with Oregon and USC and UW and all those nice football-only facilities that are either in place or coming soon around the Pac-12?  The OPS building was HUGE for the program in ways that the common fan like you and I can't even fully appreciate.  

But it isn't just about blowing the kids away with bells-n-whistles and such, but more about keeping up with your conference brethren in the facilities department.  These coaches and administrators are always looking for that "edge" to pitch to kids and their families, and if you have top-notch facilities you can actually see and touch and all that, it can only help to attract the high-quality players needed in order to compete on a regular basis!

One rumor going around Twitter yesterday was that there is talk that instead of just moving the scoreboard to the Stadium Way side of the field, that they are looking to purchase a new scoreboard instead of dealing with the existing one.  I haven't heard much else about it but that was some Twitter "talk" yesterday.  

Rumor is that Martin Stadium is likely to get a sweet new scoreboard this year. It will be placed on the opposite end-zone. #WSU #GoCougs

— Coughouse (@Coughouse) June 4, 2013

I don't know if that makes a ton of sense though, I mean they just got the new scoreboard a few years ago (2008), so there has to be more life left in it?  I guess we'll find out.  I know everything is better now in the new Pac-12 and the cash is probably there to do something like that, but I don't imagine we are in the mood to just toss it out for something new and shiny.  And what do you do with an old scoreboard anyway, just throw it in a dumpster behind a fraternity?  Set it on the curb with a "FREE - Still Works!" sign?  I don't know about you, but I just want my CRIMSON ENDZONES, finally!?!

Moving on...