A Grip on Sports: This week’s college football slate could be a yawnfest but there is always the Seahawks to save the weekend

A GRIP ON SPORTS • We’re not saying it’s a bad week in college football but it’s a bad week in college football. You know how many matchups there are between top 25 teams? Zero. Nada. None. That’s OK. Next Saturday will be different. And there is always Sunday. The NFL. The always-interesting Seahawks.

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• Each Friday we sit down and go through the TV listings for the weekend. This time of year, that can take a while. After all, it is pennant race time. The Mariners are hosting the team of our youth, the Dodgers and all three games will have import, not only for the M’s but for National League West-leading L.A. as well. All three games are on Root – thank goodness, no AppleTV+ tonight – but each starting time is different. It’s 7:10 tonight, 6:40 Saturday and 1:10 Sunday.

Funny, but the best series in baseball this weekend is in Baltimore, where the battered Orioles try to hold off surging Tampa Bay for the A.L. East lead. And yet only Saturday’s game is available, and it is on MLB Network (4:05 p.m.).

That’s certainly because, pennant races or not, football is TV’s overlord. Even in a poor weekend like this one.

How bad is it? Well, the No. 1 team is playing a conference team but is South Carolina really an SEC team? Every league needs schools for Georgia to run over by 45, we guess, and that’s the East Coast’s USC. Overall, we counted 15 games (out of 23, as No. 5 USC and No. 22 Miami have the week off) in which the ranked team should win by at least three touchdowns.

Our suggestion, use the better part of the day to prep the house and yard for the deluge of leaves headed your way, then come inside at 2 p.m. to watch, depending on your fandom, No. 23 WSU rout Northern Colorado (Pac-12 Network) or eighth-ranked Washington mowed down Michigan State (Peacock). It can’t be both. And not because of rivalry rules. It’s just too darn hard to switch between a streaming service (Peacock) and a hidden cable network (Pac-12).

The other best bet for the day is actually at night, with Colorado State in Boulder to face Colorado (9 a.m., Fox 28). There was a little zest added to the Front Range war this week.

The NFL? Of course, there are always the Hawks. They have the early game this week, at Detroit (10 a.m., Fox 28). The station’s carriage issues with Comcast means another week of antenna TV but the other game on early is Las Vegas at Buffalo, so no loss, right?

The loss of Aaron Rodgers is going to play havoc with the schedule for a while, as the Jets were featured. This week they are at Dallas for the main 1:25 p.m. game (CBS). Unless you are interested in how they’ll do without Rodgers, it may be a snooze-fest.

• We are all interested in how the Seahawks will do this week, right? Maybe too interested. And way too worried. Let’s tick off our list of reservations, shall we?

– The two starting offensive tackles, Charles Cross and Abe Lucas, are out. Well, Lucas is out for sure. He’s on the injured list for at least four weeks. Cross is a maybe, with a bad toe, but smart money is on him not playing. The alternatives? Not good, though 41-year-old Jason Peters is in town and might be the left tackle. Jake Curhan will probably take Lucas’ spot. Good luck Geno Smith.

– The defense, despite some refurbishing over the offseason, seems to have the same issues. You know, tackling and covering and putting pressure on the quarterback and miscommunication. Not much other than that, though. The bend-but-don’t-break philosophy may well be broken. We’ll see what Jared Goff thinks of it.

– If a veteran gives an impassioned speech, does it really mean anything in the NFL? We may just find out Sunday. Bobby Wagner, back after a year’s sabbatical in Los Angeles studying Rams in the wilderness, went off in front of his teammates before a practice this week. From all accounts, it was mesmerizing. And productive. But these are professionals. Emotion shouldn’t be as crucial to success. In theory, they should be performing with top effort, intensity and focus already. We’ll see if what he had to say takes them up a notch.

Remember, only about 10 percent of NFL teams that begin 0-2 make the postseason.

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WSU: Who is your favorite Cougar football player this year? We challenge you to read Greg Woods’ story on Brennan Jackson and then tell us it’s not the sixth-year defensive end. This is a story not to be missed. … Northern Colorado knows what awaits in Pullman Saturday. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, have the 10 departing schools given notice of withdrawal already, as the bylaws ask? Anyone with a modicum of common sense would say yes. But, according to Jon Wilner, commissioner George Kliavkoff seems to focusing just on the word withdrawal, not notice in his arguments. What a weird way to try to ride a fence. … More picks to pass along today. John Canzano believes the conference teams will lose just once, Arizona State to Fresno State. To that we add one more. Idaho over Cal at home. In fact, we think this headline in the San Francisco Chronicle is spot on. … As we said, Washington heads to Michigan State tomorrow. It is a homecoming for some Huskies. … Hawaii’s run-and-shoot will give Oregon’s defense a test. The Ducks also need to stop the quarterback from running. … Oregon State has found its kicker. … Andrew Luck is back at Palo Alto. Not at Stanford, but at Palo Alto High. … For some reason Colorado is bringing out the worst in many people. Or everything is getting blown out of proportion. Not sure which. … Utah needs at least one safety to play a certain way. The Utes have it this season. … Arizona State is missing some players this week. … The Wildcats need to do simple better according to their coach.

EWU: Playing tight end means learning new things every day. At least that’s the case for Blake Gobel and the rest of Eastern’s tight ends. Dan Thompson has more in this story. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, two brothers picked off passes for Weber State last week. … Montana State has some experience in its secondary. … Idaho State hopes to do better against the run in its home opener. … Utah Tech continues its tour of Big Sky schools, playing at Northern Arizona this week. … The Sacramento State game at Stanford will be friendly, but hard-fought. … Cal Poly has some new faces on its football team.

Idaho: It took five years but Turon Ivy Jr. finally caught his first touchdown pass for the Vandals. It came on the first play at Nevada last week as the tight end caught a routine pass and took it 75 yards.

Preps: The baseball and softball field at Wellpinit High has always needed repair. Now it has been, thanks in part to the MLB and Scotts Miracle-Gro. Olympian Jennie Finch was in town this week to help dedicate the rebuilt field. James Hanlon has more in this story. … Dave Nichols has a preview of tonight’s football games. He also passes along some news in the roundup of yesterday’s action. One football game didn’t finish due to disciplinary reasons.

Chiefs: Portland came to town and made the hosts uncomfortable, edging Spokane 7-6 at the Arena in a preseason game. Dave Nichols has the coverage.

Mariners: The M’s took Thursday off – and lost a half-game to the Rangers in the wild-card chase – and welcome L.A. to T-Mobile this evening. Luis Castillo is not scheduled to pitch but Julio Rodriguez will be in the lineup. They are the dynamic duo right now. … Intensity is good. But only to a point. … Bryan Woo is pointing up.

Seahawks: There is no time for Seattle to waste.

Sounders: That Brad Evans is the perfect former Seattle player to carry the banner at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital on Thursday should come as no surprise. After all, Evans is a graduate of the best university on the West Coast, UC Irvine. We humbly posit all UCI grads are something special. Justin Reed has this story on his uplifting visit.

Storm: The roster has to improve in the offseason. Just what can Seattle do?

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• Have a great weekend. We’ll have our TV Take from the Cougar game Saturday. And will watch at least some of the Hawks game Sunday. But we’re all in with the M’s. Or is it the Dodgers? Well, either way, we’ll be watching. Until later …