WSU Morning Links: Cougars give out free tickets to those affected by wildfires

As eastern Washington continues to deal with the aftermath of deadly wildfires that ravaged the region this summer, Washington State is hoping to give the affected communities a few hours of fun this weekend.

The Cougars announced Wednesday that families, firefighters and relief workers from areas affected by the fires will get free tickets to WSU’s football opener against Portland State this Saturday.

“We realize these devastating fires have impacted so many people throughout our region and continue to do so,” WSU Athletic Director Bill Moos said in a news release. “Cougar Athletics would like to have those affected by the wildfires as our guests Saturday. Communities around the Northwest have supported Washington State Athletics through the years and we would like to offer some relief by enjoying a Cougar Football Saturday.”

In addition, the Cougars will also offer one end zone ticket to Saturday’s game to anyone who donates three food items or a case of bottled water. All these supplies will be donated to Second Harvest of Spokane, and sent out to areas affected by the wildfires.

The food and water can be exchanged for tickets at the ticket office outside Martin Stadium on Saturday.

As of Monday night, WSU had 8,000 tickets remaining for the game against Portland State. The Cougars have also sold 12,592 football season tickets and 11,000 student sports passes for the 2015 season.

Martin Stadium has a capacity of 32,952. The Cougars had 30,874 in attendance when they played Portland State in Pullman last season.

Now, for more WSU football news:

— The Forgotten Star: I profiled wide receiver Gabe Marks in this feature for the Times. Marks had a great sophomore campaign, then was mysteriously redshirted last season.

— Jacob Thorpe of the Spokesman-Review breaks down the strengths of each of WSU’s three running backs. It’s likely that the Cougars will use all three. Thorpe also quotes Mike Leach saying:

“…they can all do things the others can’t. The most consistent guy is probably (Jamal) Morrow, (Gerard) Wicks is explosive if he’s carrying the ball. The best receiver of them is Keith Harrington and Harrington is the best at making people miss.”

— ESPN.com polled 99 anonymous college football players on a bunch of random questions to start the season. These players picked Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon and TCU as the teams that will end up in the College Football Playoff.

But, more pertinent to Cougar fans, eight percent of these players also picked Mike Leach in the “last coach you’d want to play for” category. Interesting. Could this be the residual bad-PR effect from the infamous Adam James-locked-in-shed incident at Texas Tech? Or are there other reasons behind it?

For what it’s worth, Leach isn’t the least popular coach in college football. Alabama’s Nick Saban got 11 percent of the vote, Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh garnered 10 percent of the vote, and Arizona State’s Todd Graham tied Leach at eight percent.

— This Texas Tech blog has a pretty solid list of all the coaches who got their starts under Leach in some way and are now coaching their own programs.

— ESPN.com’s Kevin Gemmell picks out defensive lineman Destiny Vaeao as one of the players in the Pac-12 North who has something to prove this season.

— CougCenter.com previews WSU’s opener vs. Portland State here. Will the Vikings come out throwing as they did last year? Or will they default to a more balanced run/pass game under new quarterback Alex Kuresa?

— Continuing along the lines of “know thy enemy,” here’s a story from the Vancouver Columbian about Portland State linebackers Brandon Brody-Heim and John Norcross.

Are you ready for some football? The Cougs are too!

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