Pac-10 football is now only a week away as Stanford and Oregon State will open the season next Thursday in Corvallis.

Here is the the Pac-10's first football notebook of the season, with a roundup of next week's action.

Here are their notes about the Washington schools:

WASHINGTON: Dynamic QB Jake Locker earned Pac-10 Freshman of the Year honors last season after accounting for 3,048 yards total offense and 27 TDs. Included were 986 yards rushing, a Conference record for a quarterback. . . . Locker's rushing prowess was one major reason the Huskies finished second in the Pac-10 in rushing offense last year at 203.1 yards per game. . . . Plus the offense averaged 29.2 points per game last year, its best mark since 2002. . . . Does any team have a more challenging early schedule than Washington? The Huskies first three opponents--No. 21 Oregon, No. 16 BYU and No. 4 Oklahoma.

WASHINGTON STATE: New head coach Paul Wulff, a former starting center for Washington State, will have the Cougars in an up-tempo, no-huddle spread offense this season. . . . WSU is expected to utilize a 4-3 on defense. . . . Senior QB Gary Rogers will direct the offense, finally getting his opportunity after backing up record-setting quarterback Alex Brink the last three seasons. . . . All-Pac-10 WR Brandon Gibson led the league in receiving yardage last year and was the only receiver to average more than 100 yards per game (107.3). He had 67 receptions for a school-record 1,180 yards.

Hey folks, Ryan Divish here, filling in for Don today, while he gets some stuff done at the office for the upcoming Huskies preview.

I guess the big news of the day was that Tyrone Willingham canceled today's afternoon practice. With 11 days before the first game, it seems a bit unusual. But Willingham, as only he can, downplayed the whole situation.

"We're probably going to change our schedule so this afternoon we won't be out on the field," Willingham said. "We'll spend a little more time meeting on working on some thing from that perspective. It's just a natural thing to do based on where our team is and how they are feeling. It should help them be even better to be where our goal is soon to be 11 days from now."

Um, OK.

Using a coach-speak translator, that seems to mean, some of the guys are a little beat up and have some tired legs.

"We feel like it's the right time to just put a little rest in there," Willingham said. "We have some naturally built into our schedule, but this we'll just add to it. We anticipated that we would need it at some point."

"The banged-up is not the key ingredient. It's just the fact of where your legs are as a moving unit," Willingham added .

Jake Locker update
I saw him he had post practice ice on his throwing shoulder and sore hamstring - both typical of this time of the season.

"Jake has been fine," Willingham said. "Obviously, he's still not doing everything and we're not including him in everything, but he could do everything."

* Juan Garcia missed practice this morning with a death in the family. He may return to campus sometime this afternoon or possibly tomorrow.

* Nate Williams was limping around practice and was limited this morning.

"One of his bruises caught up with him a little bit, so one of the precautions to slow him down a little bit," Willingham said.

Central Washington University, new home to former UW tailback J.R. Hasty and cornerback Jordan Murchison -- has been unanimously picked to win the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

Here's a preview of the Wildcats.