Appeal Tribune ܂ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2018܂ 1B Sports COLLEGE FOOTBALL Huskies lead Pac-12 favorites Washington stacked with NFL-caliber talent Greg Beacham ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES – Chris Petersen spent the past half-decade building a powerhouse at Washington, and his lat- est group is the strong favorite to win the Pac-12 title while leading the league’s quest to regain national re- spectability. So why was Petersen so disappointed when a preseason media poll simply confirmed what everyone already knows by anointing the Huskies as the Pac-12 favorites? “I like to be on a different team than you guys are on,” Petersen said to re- porters at Pac-12 media day. “I’d rather prove you wrong than to prove you right. Now we’re working to prove you right rather than prove you wrong.” Apparently you can take the coach out of Boise, but you can’t take the Boise out of the coach. Petersen just won’t ditch his underdog worldview, even with quarterback Jake Browning and running back Myles Gaskin leading a Huskies roster stacked deep with NFL- caliber talent and chasing its second playoff berth in three years. But in truth, the entire Pac-12 could be excused for taking a bit of Petersen’s mentality into this fall. The league’s rep- utation is still smarting from its 1-8 rec- ord in bowl games last winter, followed by an offseason of heavy coaching turn- over featuring five schools turning to new leaders. The Pac-12 returns with its usual wealth of talent, but uncertainty at many programs. Washington has little uncertainty anywhere, and that’s why Petersen’s team is the consensus pick to win the West. The Huskies’ season-opening showdown with Auburn in Atlanta is a chance to show the sport that the Pac-12 is back – or it could just be another game on a long road of redemption. “I’ve been hearing that a lot, that we have to represent the Pac-12, but we’re just going out there looking to beat Au- burn,” said Washington safety JoJo McIntosh, one of five returning starters in the Huskies’ secondary. “Just go out there and compete, and win, and they’ll notice you.” Here are more things to watch in the eighth season of the conference’s cur- rent 12-team configuration: Chip part 2 Chip Kelly led the speed-based revo- lution in college football and won three Pac-12 titles during his four-year tenure as Oregon’s head coach. After two stints in the NFL and a year as a broadcaster, Kelly was enticed back to the college game by UCLA and its deep-pocketed Washington head coach Chris Petersen, middle, walks on the field during practice Aug. 3 in Seattle. Petersen’s Huskies are the preseason favorites to win the Pac-12 with their roster full of NFL-caliber talent, but the entire league is looking for an improved season after going 1-8 in bowl games last winter. ASSOCIATED PRESS “I like to be on a different team than you guys are on. I’d rather prove you wrong than to prove you right.” Chris Petersen, Washington head coach boosters, who are determined to put the Bruins on equal footing with crosstown rival Southern California. Kelly could start slowly with a mixed bag of talent, including no standout starting quarter- back and little experience at receiver. He isn’t saying much about his plans, natu- rally. But the entire sport is waiting to see what Kelly can conjure in West- wood. Love on the farm Heisman Trophy runner-up Bryce Love defied most predictions and the conventional wisdom around tailbacks by returning to Stanford for his senior season. The human biology major is de- termined to graduate in December to protect his dream of going to medical school, but his return also sets up the Cardinal for another season of their punishing ground game with Love run- ning behind four returning starters on the offensive line. Stanford also has four returning receivers for K.J. Costello or whichever quarterback claims the start- ing job. While Washington is the favorite, the Cardinal are a strong contender in the Pac-12 North. Herm’s head Aside from Kelly’s return, the most intriguing new hire among the league’s five new coaches is Herm Edwards. The veteran NFL boss is also the biggest risk : Although he enjoyed modest success with the Jets and Chiefs, Edwards hasn’t coached anywhere since 2008, and he hasn’t been a college coach since his three-year stint as San Jose State’s defensive backs coach in the 1980s. Ed- wards’ progress in his new job should be fascinating to watch, but the rebuilding Sun Devils are projected to finish last in the South division. “We don’t go by polls,” Edwards said. “We’ve got our own aspirations. We’re trying to win a Pac-12 championship. So whatever peo- ple write, they can write what they want. That’s good. Hopefully no players are listening to that, because no coaches are listening to it.” USC’s next QB Sam Darnold has left USC for the New York Jets after one Rose Bowl vic- tory and one Pac-12 title. He also left a void behind center for the Trojans, and three young passers are competing in camp to become the next passer in their school’s enviable lineage. Jack Sears and Matt Fink have advantages in expe- rience, but touted freshman J.T. Daniels is making early strides. Coach Clay Hel- ton is likely to wait to make his decision until USC is close to its season opener. The Trojans are the preseason favorites to repeat in the Pac-12 South, but their ability to stay afloat during their usual daunting September schedule could de- pend on quickly finding a standout quarterback. Wildcat strike In his first season at Texas A&M, Kev- in Sumlin coached a relatively unsung, athletic quarterback to a surprising Heisman Trophy. Six years after Johnny Manziel did the improbable, Sumlin is taking over at Arizona with the chance to make a star out of Khalil Tate, the dual-threat QB who passed for 1,591 yards and rushed for 1,411 more while starting just nine games last season. The Wildcats are a popular pick to chal- lenge USC for the Pac-12 South title largely on the strength of their coach- passer duo. Clamming is both fun, educational for kids Fishing Henry Miller Guest columnist GARIBALDI – “I would like to live here, get clams and eat doughnuts,” said Will Lederer, 12, of Salem. At the time, he was munching on a doughnut while sitting at a table at Gari- baldi’s fabled Bayfront Bakery, a bag of his freshly raked cockles chilling in a cooler in the trunk of the car. His brother, Gus, 8, smiled through a mouthful of doughnut. “Living the dream,” the younger Le- derer said. Indeed. Will and Gus are Kay’s great neph- ews, the sons of Kay’s niece, Sarah, and her husband, Clint. Avid anglers and campers all, Will and Gus had only pursued clams one other time, razors on a north coast Ore- gon beach with maximum effort and limited success. So we offered to take them on an out- ing to rake cockles on the north end of Tillamook Bay while Sarah and Clint tended to the two Baskin-Robbins fran- chises that they own in Salem. Some regular readers bang on about how I bang on repetitively about pursu- ing Oregon’s tasty bivalves. In my defense, I like clamming as a way of introducing kids to what are eu- phemistically known as the “consump- tive sports” (as in pursuing something that you can eat) for a couple of reasons. Principle among them are that clams are reliably plentiful if you know where to look, certain varieties such as cockles and purple varnish clams are easy-pea- sy to get, and best of all clams can’t swim away or steal your bait. Added to that - especially with two or more younger kids in the mix - you won’t have to worry about flying weights and hook impalements along with not hav- ing to spend the bulk of your time un- tangling lines or picking bird’s nests out of the reels. A bonus is that there are lots of op- portunities for corollary biology lessons when someone rakes up a crab, fish or worm in hot pursuit of the quarry, al- though the young lads’ fascination with washed-up eyeless fish heads from dis- carded crab bait can be somewhat off- putting. And no, Will, you can’t take that home. Clamming also offers kid-favored in- centives such as opportunities to get wet and muddy and not get admon- ished. It’s what we outdoor educators refer to as the complete package. And Saturday’s minus tide at the cusp of dawn ensured little traffic going over and a quiet ride home with both Will and Gus passed out in the back seat all the way back to Salem. We cleaned the clams, chopped up some of the meat and had linguini with garlic, olive oil/butter and parmesan cheese for lunch, two plates for Will, one each for Kay and me, and a plate of but- tered linguini with cheese for Gus. He said that he didn’t like clams, which I took is more a statement of an 8-year-old’s youthful assertiveness than the results of a previous gustatory experience (Gus, gustatory, get it? Nev- er mind). Speaking about clamming … There are at current count 23 people on the “Clamapalooza!” email list. It’s a shout-out to folks about week- end clamming outings and an open in- vitation to join us when we go. As I said, it’s about two dozen people … and a grand total of, let’s see, do I need the calculator? Probably not. One! Showed up Saturday at Garibaldi. But given the forecast (it rained, oc- casionally hard), and the hour (7:21 a.m. an hour and a half drive from Salem), that’s pretty much par for the course The one person who showed up, Su- sie Bodman, a former Statesman Jour- nal reporter/copy editor, kicked some serious clam butt. A first-timer, she limited. One of the ironic twists in this story is Will, left, and Gus Lederer show off two of their clams after first-ever outing to Garibaldi. KAY MILLER/ SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL that neither Kay nor I got more than a half-dozen of our limit of 20, the rakes being masterfully pulled by Will and Gus and the backup shovel in Bodman’s capable hands. We’re thinking about opening up a second (or is it third) avocation: Miller & Miller Clamming Consulting and Facili- tating. The salary is non-existent, but the rewards are pretty sweet. Or maybe we’ll just get a couple more rakes. Yep, living the dream. Henry Miller is a retired Statesman Journal outdoor columnist and outdoor writer. He can be reached via email at HenryMillerSJ@gmail.com