Roundup: Arizona QB Khalil Tate graces the cover of Sports Illustrated

Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate is on a regional Sports Illustrated cover as part of the magazine’s college football preview with the headline “He’s the Nation’s Best QB (Hand Him the Heisman).” The Arizona Daily Star notes that Tate is believed to be the first active Arizona football player on an SI cover since 1994.

Speaking of SI, Washington is No. 4 in Sports Illustrated’s preseason top 25, while Stanford is No. 12 and Arizona is No. 19.

Yahoo Sports is releasing a team a day during August as a way of revealing its preseason top 25, and on Monday, Sam Cooper gave us a season preview of No. 20 USC.

Kurt Kragthorpe reports that Utah running back Devonta’e Henry-Cole is out for the season with a “pre-existing arm injury,” per Kyle Whittingham.

Thuc Nhi Nguyen notes that UCLA football is adapting to a faster tempo in practice under Chip Kelly. And it’s not just the on-the-field stuff, too – Thuc computed (I believe seriously, I think?) that one player (linebacker Krys Barnes) increased his words spoken per minute in an interview by 30 from April to last weekend.

Andrew Greif ponders how good Oregon’s defense can be in Jim Leavitt’s second year as defensive coordinator. In Year 1, the Ducks held opponents to 12.4 fewer points per game and forced 13 more turnovers from the season prior to Leavitt heading up the unit.

Jeff Metcalfe gives us an Arizona State football practice report for Monday. The fellas started out practicing in 110-degree weather (but don’t worry, it cooled down all the way to 104 by the end of it).

And here’s an Oregon State football practice report courtesy of Nick Daschel of The Oregonian/OregonLive.

One more of these in today’s roundup – Theo Lawson’s notes and observations from Washington State football’s Monday practice.

Rusty Simmons features a pair of Michigan grad transfers playing for Cal football in tight end Ian Bunting and receiver Moe Ways.

Brian Howell features Colorado football center Colby Pursell, who could very well end up being the starter as a redshirt freshman.

Take a gander at the Stanford cross country schedule, featuring home dates for the Stanford Invitational and Pac-12 Championships.