Despite putting a 48-16 pasting on Fresno State Saturday night, the Washington Huskies dropped one spot from No. 6 to No. 7 in the Associated Press college football rankings released Sunday. UW remained at No. 6 in the coaches poll in a week of shakeups involving Pac-12 schools.

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Fall training done, the sixth-ranked Washington Huskies (3-0) soon will have to go to class during the day, then go to work in the afternoon prepping for opponents of a caliber similar to their own. If they take anything from the eggless omelette of the preseason, which concluded Saturday night with a 48-16 win (box) over overwhelmed Fresno State, it is that they have a singular weapon capable of bending foes to his will and skill.

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It's probably one of the more astonishing factoids in college football this season, but because it doesn't reflect well on anyone, it isn't brought up much: The first two seasonal opponents for Fresno State, which plays Washington Saturday at Husky Stadium (6:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks) were Alabama and, ahem, the University of the Incarnate Word.

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Washington moved up one spot to No. 6 in the Associated Press college football rankings Sunday following Saturday night's 63-7 victory over Montana at Husky Stadium. UW (2-0) collected 1,124 points, 200 fewer than USC, which jumped from sixth to fourth after its 42-24 triumph over No. 14 Stanford, which dropped to 19th.

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Dreadful as these college-football payday mismatches are -- the Montana Grizzlies received $625,000 to come get their snouts whacked in the big city -- the Washington Huskies rolled out an entertainment extravaganza Saturday night that made it fairly easy to ignore the 63-7 scoreboard travesty. Sort of like when Mom lets the kids skip the vegetables and permits dessert for dinner.

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Rarely has the University of Washington traveled so far to play a football game. So perhaps there should be little surprise they seemed Friday night ready in the season opener to fall off the edge of the earth, right there in Piscataway, N.J.

At times out-muscled and often underwhelming, the awkward Huskies finally cobbled together their dignity for a 30-14, season-opening win (box) over a much more resolute Rutgers team than the one they pasted a year ago in Seattle, 48-13.

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Eight seasons removed from that ghastly 0-12 season, the University of Washington football team (No. 8 AP, No. 7 coaches) has an opportunity to flip the worst into the best --  a 12-0 regular season. That would duplicate the mark of the 1991 co-national champions, an outfit that pummeled its first 11 foes by a combined 461-101 before rolling Michigan 34-14 in the Rose Bowl.

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Tony Castricone (CASS-truh-CONE), play-by-play voice for Clemson's men's basketball team since 2014, has been named director of broadcasting and will serve as the Huskies' radio play-by-play host for football and men's basketball. Bob Rondeau is retiring following the football season, and Castricone will broadcast his first hoops game Nov. 10 when Belmont plays the Huskies at Hec Ed.

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Given the caliber of the opponent, the Washington Huskies are unlikely to feel any consequences in their season opener Friday night (5 p.m., FoxSports1) in the New York area against Rutgers. But star LB Azeem Victor was suspended for the game, and DB Austin Joyner for the first two games, for unspecified violations of team rules.

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Four Pacific-12 Conference schools, including Washington State, cracked the Associated Press college football Top 25 preseason poll released Monday. A surprise at No. 24 given their routine dismissals in AP preseason polls, plus the fact they failed to make the first coaches-poll rankings two weeks ago, the Cougars are joined in AP's Top 25 by No. 4 USC, No. 8 Washington and No. 14 Stanford.

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Chris Petersen's Washington Huskies, Pac-12 champions and a national semifinalist last year, came in at No. 7 in the 2017 preseason coaches poll released Thursday. The Huskies were not the highest-ranked conference team as USC came in at No. 4. The Trojans were also picked to win the league title last week by Pac-12 Conference media members.

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The USC Trojans Wednesday were selected as the favorite to win the 2017 Pac-12 Conference football championship in a vote of 52 media members who regularly cover the league. The Trojans received 28 votes to earn the preseason favorite pick over defending conference champion Washington, which received 22 votes.

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Two ex-Seahawks, coach Mike Holmgren and RB Curt Warner, are among a class of eight elected to the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame Tuesday. Also elected: Seahawks and Washington State coach Dennis Erickson, soccer goalkeeper Kasey Keller, Washington RB Joe Steele, Olympic skier Debbie Armstrong, pro basketball star Byron Beck and administrator Gary Wright.

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University of Washington wide receive John Ross, an early first-round projection who fell off many draft boards in recent weeks due to concerns over his multiple surgeries, surprisingly went No. 9 overall to the Cincinnati Bengals in Wednesday night's NFL draft. The 5-foot-11, 188-pound Ross caught 17 touchdown passes for the Huskies last season and then rocked the NFL combine with a record 4.22-second 40-yard dash.

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Apparently chastened by criticism of their weenie non-conference schedules in recent years, the Huskies found a solution by going to the top of the industry -- a home-and-home series with perennial football power Ohio State in 2024-25.

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University of Washington football coach Chris Petersen has agreed to a contract extension through 2023 that will reportedly make him the highest-paid coach in the Pac-12 Conference. Petersen, who came to the Huskies three years ago and last year led them to the national semifinals, will receive an average salary of $4.9 million per year.

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Bats out of hell go slower.

John Ross, the former University of Washington wide receiver, dazzled the NFL combine in Indianapolis Saturday with a history-making clocking of 4.22 in the 40-yard dash, which broke Chris Johnson's record of 4.24, set in 2008. One NFL scout told USA Today that he hand-timed Ross in 4.16.

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University of Washington head football coach Chris Petersen Wednesday hired Scott Huff as his new offensive line coach. Huff, who worked with Petersen for eight years at Boise State, replaces Chris Strausser, who departed earlier this week to become offensive line coach of the Denver Broncos.

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The NFL continued its poaching of Chris Petersen's University of Washington football coaching staff Tuesday when the Denver Broncos finalized a deal to make Chris Strausser their new assistant offensive line coach. Strausser had been UW's offensive line coach since 2014 and, before that, a Petersen aide at Boise State.

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Matt Lubick, who was fired after four seasons as Oregon wide receivers coach as part of the purge of head coach Mark Helfrich, was hired Wednesday by University of Washington football coach Chris Petersen to the same position, plus sharing the offensive coordinator title with Jonathan Smith.

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