It's time to take my fandom to the swamp lands

By the time you read this, I'll be somewhere over Colorado, or maybe Texas.

I'm on my way to New Orleans to see the Saints play the Bears, spend a day at the World War II Museum and eat some cajun cooking.

And Halloween in New Orleans? You can auction off my belongings if I don't make it.

Luckily, I found The American Sports Saloon, supposedly the only bar in New Orleans with the Pac-12 Network. Wish me luck, because there's also a World Series game tonight, and I assume there are lots of Astros fans in New Orleans.

New Orleans is also the hometown of Hunter Dale, so I'm fully expecting him to have another strong game because that's how it works, right? We'll need him and his fellow #SpeedD teammates to be on their toes, since Khalil Tate is a dangerous maniac.

About 57 miles to the southwest is Houma, LA, the hometown of Davontavean Martin. You know him as Tay. You also know him for his breakout game last week. Let's hope we see more of him, even with Tavares Martin Jr. back in the lineup.

It'll be a new experience for me, watching the Cougs with no other Coug in sight, presumably. If it's a home game, I'm in Martin Stadium. If it's a road game, I'm watching from a local establishment.

But being the only Coug in the joint? This will be new, and it should be fun. Maybe I'll recruit some new Coug fans. It's not like Tulane is any good, and LSU has a bye.

So wish me luck. Let's hope they let me turn one TV to the Coug game, and let's hope for win number eight.

Links

Football

Pac-12 Week 9 game picks: Can Arizona keep rolling? | Pac-12 Blog- ESPN
One ESPN Pac-12 writer picks Arizona to win, the other—a WSU alum—picks WSU.

Small but mighty: Freshman receivers Renard Bell, Jamire Calvin have made a big impact for WSU | The Seattle Times
Before they were reunited at WSU, Renard Bell and Jamire Calvin played high school football together.

Arizona is 3-0 behind sensational QB Khalil Tate; Can WSU hand him his first loss of the season? | The Seattle Times
Over the years, we've seen what Arizona football coach Rich Rodriguez's teams can do when they have elite quarterbacks at the helm. With Wildcats sophomore Khalil Tate dominating Pac-12 defenses, what will WSU have to do to stop him?

Once a defensive recruit for WSU, Arizona’s Khalil Tate now an unsolvable puzzle at quarterback | The Spokesman-Review
Before Khalil Tate became the hottest – and fastest – thing in college football, the Washington State Cougars had targeted the Arizona quarterback as someone who could potentially make a difference in their defensive secondary.

WSU gets commitment from 4-star Texas WR Drue Jackson | The Seattle Times
WSU gets a huge commitment from four-star receiver Drue Jackson, who picked the Cougs over Texas Tech and Utah.

Volleyball

Upset city! The soccer team upset the UCLA Bruins earlier this month, and the volleyball team got in on that action, too.

The Cougs dropped the first set, won the next two, dropped the fourth and won the final frame for a 3-2 victory over 13th-ranked UCLA.

WSU Volleyball Upsets No. 13 UCLA 3-2 in Pullman | Washington State University Athletics
Fun fact, courtesy of WSU Athletics: WSU has beaten UCLA just nine times in 63 matches, and head coach Jen Greeny was part of the the team for eight of them: twice as head coach, once as an assistant and five times as a player.

Jen Greeny: Bruin Killer

Cross Country

You wouldn't know this if you met me in real life, but I was once a skinny high school cross country runner. But once your metabolism slows, your long distance running career does, too.

But I still follow the sport here and there. There's something about racing—whether by foot, car or bike—that excites me. There is so much strategy involved, as well as physics, believe it or not.

And when it comes to cross country, you force your body to do things it wasn't designed to do, and it's amazing.

That's all a preamble to the news that WSU's Chandler Teigen took ninth place in the Pac-12 men's championships yesterday. The Pac-12 boasts some insanely good runners, and to be the ninth-best is a tremendous feat.

The Cougar men finished sixth while the women finished tenth. Think about this: the men were in the middle of their own conference yet are the 19th-ranked team in the nation.

That's nuts.

Teigen ninth, Korir 13th, to lead Cougars at Pac-12 Championships | Washington State University Athletics
The WSU men finished sixth overall, the women tenth.

Old YouTube Clip of the Week

Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

(video won't embed so you get the cool photo above)

I can't wait to see the Steve Gleason statue outside of the Superdome. This video, which needs no analysis, tells the story we all already know, but it's one that I hadn't seen, and it's very well done.

Enjoy.