Game week has begun for the Huskies, and we got a few minutes with two of the players who represent the biggest stories of the preseason so far: center Juan Garcia and tailback Chris Polk.

Garcia said he feels healthy enough to play all game at Oregon -- both in terms of his injured foot and in terms of conditioning. However, he said he also had a sincere talk with line coach Mike Denbrock, telling his coach that he wants to play only to the degree that it will help the team. Garcia said that if his play isn't good enough, then he assured Denbrock that he wants to be pulled or moved down the depth chart -- his respect for his coach is good enough where he would understand.

Polk also was impressive. Early in camp we saw a very confident borderline cocky Polk. However, today -- the day after becoming the first true freshman tailback Tyrone Willingham can remember starting -- Polk seemed confident but humbled. He also explained -- in technicolor detail -- his tendency to vomit before games. For those of you wanting to know more -- and really, who wouldn't? -- I'll have a full story later in the week.

Here's what Willingham had to say about Polk: "The thing I've said that what I've seen from Chris is kind of that 'wow' factor that you stand there as a coach and watch some of the plays he makes as a coach and you stand there and go 'wow.' It's a wonderful sensation to have as a coach when you have a player who does that."

Earlier in the day we heard from all of the other Pac-10 coaches by conference call.

Oregon's Mike Bellotti said he seems some advantages to starting the season with a big conference game. I'll write in detail about that for the Wednesday paper.

Despite that, Bellotti called UW's Jake Locker the "biggest, fastest and most dangerous weapon in college football."

Finally, it didn't come up in the conference call, but the Oregonian's Ducks blog is reporting that Oregon receiver Ellis Krout won't play this week due to suspension by Bellotti.

You really want to run down to the corner newsstand and pick of, oh, five or six of today's News Tribune.

This is the day of our special preseason Huskies football coverage, and the section includes rosters and profiles and lots of good information including player-by-player profiles of the starters and game-by-game predictions of what I see as a 5-7 season.

Most of the coverage is also available in the Huskies section of The News Tribune website. But our hope is that the section is something you'll want to keep by the TV and refer to all season long.

Plus there's more ahead. Washington State gets similar treatment Wednesday, and then we'll preview the Pac-10 and national college seasons in the Thursday paper.