Roundup: Luke Falk is the 'Messiah of the Palouse'

Cool story from Lindsay Schnell of Sports Illustrated on Washington State quarterback Luke Falk and his rise from fallen high-school prospect to walk-on to dark horse Heisman candidate. As receiver Gabe Marks calls him, Falk is the “Messiah of the Palouse.”

The college football season begins Friday (in the United States, Saturday in Australia), and Robby Kalland of CBS Sports tells us why we should watch the Cal-Hawai’i game in Australia (7 p.m. PT, ESPN). #HowGreatIsBall

Another Robby Kalland link, and this time he lets us know that Oregon has named its new sports performance center after Marcus Mariota, naming it, well, the Marcus Mariota Sports Performance Center. There’s video attached of the new thing.

Ben Kercheval of CBS Sports explains what is keeping Christian McCaffrey from winning the Heisman Trophy. Late kickoffs last season didn’t help. So far in 2016, no 7 p.m. PT kickoffs for Stanford yet out of the four games that have set start times.

Chantel Jennings provides us with this Q&A with Washington AD Jennifer Cohen.

Kyle Bonagura writes that Utah transfer Stevie Tu’ikolovatu has become a vital cog in USC’s defense as a defensive lineman.  He visited Nebraska and Alabama before deciding on USC.

Gina Mizell and Danny Moran analyze the 2016 Oregon State football schedule. Toughest game? Nov. 5 at Stanford or Nov. 12 at UCLA. Best potential for an upset? Oct. 29 vs. Wazzu or Oct. 15 vs. Utah, depending on who you ask (I’ll let the two of them do the explaining).

Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times reports that UCLA isn’t expecting many surprises from Texas A&M’s offense as the Bruins get ready for the season opener against the Aggies. Why is that? Well, Noel Mazzone, former UCLA offensive coordinator, is now Texas A&M’s offensive coordinator.

Arizona State football coach Todd Graham is confident in his defense’s ability to make changes from last year, notes Kevin Gemmell. Arizona State, which gave up more than 33 points per game in 2015, was ahead in the fourth quarter in five of their seven losses last year, coughing up a lot of late leads.

Michael Lev posted this profile of freshman Arizona safety Tristan Cooper. He was only rated as a two-star recruit by Scout.com but has made a positive impression so far in August.

While the starting right tackle job is still an open competition, Brian Howell lets us know that Colorado’s offensive line is beginning to jell.

Let’s take a look at some highlights from Utah football’s second fall scrimmage, held Thursday.