PULLMAN -- The Apple Cup makes its biennial pit stop at Husky Stadium Friday afternoon, a cause for celebration by college football fans from Palm Springs to Napa Valley and points beyond in California.

Welcome to the California High School Alumni All-Star Game. When the Cougars and Huskies work off poundage gained via Thanksgiving grubfests, the vast majority of starters and others on the two-deep will be California natives.

READ MORE»

Former Washington State football player Steve Gleason will be the subject of an hour-long documentary Tuesday on “A Football Life,” a weekly program on the NFL Network. The show airs at 6 p.m. At 7, a half-hour program, “A Football Life: Backstory,” provides more information about Gleason’s inspiring life.

READ MORE»

PULLMAN – Mike Leach was so disgusted last season by the lame performance of Washington State’s offensive linemen at Utah that he ordered all five starters to talk to the media.

One year later, those linemen have yet to disclose what was more humiliating: Losing 49-6 to Utah, or being forced to talk to low-life sports writers.

READ MORE»

SPOKANE – DaVonte Lacy can’t say enough good things about Gary Bell Jr. Usually, that is.

This is not your usual week. Lacy and Bell could be guarding one another much of the way when Lacy’s Washington State Cougars square off against Bell and the 13^th-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs Thursday night at GU’s McCarthey Athletic Center.

READ MORE»

TUCSON, AZ. – Three years ago, Darryl Monroe took a gamble on a struggling football program and moved from sunny Florida to oft-frigid Pullman to play for the Washington State Cougars.

READ MORE»

PULLMAN – Washington State football fans were presented with crimson flags upon arriving at Martin Stadium Thursday night. WSU’s players skipped the crimson flags. They were too busy waving white ones.

Playing in 30ish temperatures that were supposed to cool off the visitors from Arizona State, the Cougars lost 55-21 and looked mighty feeble doing it.

READ MORE»

One day after his Washington State football team staged an aerial assault on the Oregon Ducks, Cougars coach Mike Leach politely rejected the opportunity to stage a verbal assault on Oregon defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti. Aliotti, who called it “low class” for Leach to let the Cougars continue to throw the ball late in Saturday night’s lopsided loss to Oregon, did not draw much of a reaction from Leach.

READ MORE»

EUGENE, OR. – Baseball television viewers seem united in their approval of Tim McCarver’s pending retirement from the broadcast booth. But we would be remiss in not recalling a rare moment when McCarver did not babble incoherently into the microphone.

READ MORE»

PULLMAN – The Washington State Cougars paid Paul Wulff $600,000 a year to coach football, and they got what they paid for – nine wins in four years and some of the most wretched football ever seen in the Palouse.

READ MORE»

Washington State’s annual dog-and-pony show in Seattle began on a sour note when the scoreboard operator was unable to get the clock to operate properly at the start of the Cougars’ annual “home” game at CenturyLink Field.

If only the scoreboard had been the only thing not working properly for the Cougars.

READ MORE»

PULLMAN -- The Washington State Cougars were so dominant Saturday night – or, depending on your perspective, the Idaho Vandals were so pathetic Saturday night – that a large chunk of the homecoming crowd left the football game early to . . . who knows? Beat the Pullman traffic?

READ MORE»

PULLMAN – Connor Halliday has completed passes to 10 teammates in each of Washington State’s first three games, but that’s not enough to satisfy the cocksure Cougars quarterback.

After slicing and dicing the Southern Utah Thunderbirds in a 48-10 laugher Saturday afternoon at Martin Stadium, Halliday groused about not getting credit for “my first career reception.”

READ MORE»

LOS ANGELES – Mike Leach came to Washington State to go to bowl games and win conference championships and take up residence in the Top 25.

Two games into his second season in Pullman, no one knows for certain if Leach will reach his goals. On Saturday night, however, Leach and his players provided WSU fans with hope, an entity that has been in short supply on the Palouse for the past decade.

READ MORE»

LOS ANGELES – Say this for Connor Halliday: He is never boring.

Halliday tends to go for broke, whether he’s tossing touchdown bombs or verbal bombs. Inevitably, some of his passes are intercepted. No doubt cringing Washington State officials wish some of his comments were intercepted before they go public.

READ MORE»

Note: Logistical and technical problems prevented publishing Howie Stalwick's column Saturday following Washington State's near-upset of Auburn in Alabama. Reading it Sunday morning is almost as good.

AUBURN, Ala. -- Almost two years have passed since Washington State athletic director Bill Moos handed over the Cougars football program to Mike Leach and told him, “Fix this thing.”

READ MORE»

AUBURN, Ala. – The Washington State Cougars, masters of self-inflicted mayhem, have dared to tread their way into Southeastern Conference country for a challenging season opener Saturday night at Auburn.

Everyone knows about SEC football. You know: The Supremely Egotistical Conference.

READ MORE»

PULLMAN – Opposing defenses have spent years trying to figure out how to stop Mike Leach’s high-octane, hurry-up, pass-happy offense. In most cases, those defenses have experienced little success and considerable frustration. Connor Halliday knows the feeling, even though he plays quarterback for Leach at Washington State.

READ MORE»

Mike Leach came to Washington State football with a reputation for filling reporters’ notebooks with hilarious, off-the-wall and/or scathing quotes. In that regard, Leach did nothing to disappoint fans and media during his first season with the Cougars last year. Leach was back at it again Monday night during a question-and-answer session with Sportspress Northwest correspondent Howie Stalwick.

READ MORE»

PULLMAN -- Gail Gleason still possesses that electric smile, that infectious laugh, that zest for life she passed on to her children. Most of the time. Inevitably, there are moments when her voice cracks and her eyes glisten and she must leave work to go home and face the fact that her eldest son – former Washington State football and baseball player and NFL safety Steve Gleason – is dying.

READ MORE»

PULLMAN -- For one magical season, John Olerud was the Babe Ruth of college baseball. Minus the pot belly, the womanizing and all that beer drinking, of course.

Twenty-five years ago, as a lanky sophomore at Washington State, Olerud duplicated the hitting and pitching heroics that Ruth accomplished early in his major league career before he became a full-time outfielder.

READ MORE»