ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Ted Miller

Touching all the bases while optimism remains high.

• Arizona receiver Mike Thomas isn't tall, but he's Money. Also, read to the notes portion of the story for this tidbit: "The Arizona Wildcats defense dominated Tuesday's practice." Hmm... is the defense better than some thought... or the offense worse? One thing is certain with the Cats D: LB Ronnie Palmer is the leader. 
• Arizona State needs to get even more defensive. Meanwhile, RB Keegan Herring is battling for carries on top of a bevy of backs.
• While it's better to give than to receive -- and QB competitions always get more attention -- California's got bigger issues at WR than QB. Notice that this name keeps coming up: Marvin Jones. Here's a Day 2 practice report. And here's another name to cogitate over: TB Shane Vereen.
• Pitchfork Nation looks at Arizona State's QBs -- past and present. And there's a special gift: A picture of ole No. 7, who attended the Sun Devils opening practice Monday to watch his freshman son play.
• Rob Moseley takes a look at what some believe is the soft spot of Oregon's defense. Here's an update on talented but hurting freshman QB Chris Harper. Meanwhile, Justin Roper doesn't appear eager to step aside for Nate Costa.
• At Oregon State, the Beavers are already banged up. TB Jeremy Francis got hurt and DT Pernnell Booth is hurting. The good news is OT Andy Levitre plans on delivering the hurting.
• It's time for Stanford to finally develop a running game.
• The tempo is up at UCLA. Brian Dohn provides an impression. The Press-Enterprise checks in on QB Ben Olson, the LA Times considers the secondary and the Orange County Register wants to know who the heck these guys are.
• It begins today at USC. But first, the paperwork. Scott Wolf checks in with Mark Sanchez.
• Molly Yanity chats with the former walk-on who will replace Washington LB E.J. Savannah: Josh Gage. Molly also has some good notes, including this encouraging paragraph about center Juan Garcia: "Center Juan Garcia's sprained left foot is healing at an impressive rate. Originally expected to miss most of the season, Garcia is possibly a week away from contact drills." Don Ruiz has more on Garcia's recovery.
  
• It's way early, but Washington State's players say it's obvious there's a new sheriff in town. And another take on the opening of practice. And another.