The college football -- and the Pac-10 season starts tonight. We have lots of special coverage in the Thursday paper, including my first column of the new college season and my Pac-10 and national power rankings.

However, we probably won't be getting my football picks into the paper for a couple of more weeks, so I figured we could get that started here on the blog instead. (After going 180-56 last season.)

THURSDAY
Stanford 27, Oregon State 24: I'll learn a lot from this one right out of the box because a lot of people see far more in this Beavers team than I do, and most folks don't see as much in this Cardinal team as I do.

SATURDAY
Arizona 53, Idaho 16: Arizona should have a very good offense this season ... and Tyrone Willingham can only wish he had a kind an opening game.

Arizona State 37, Northern Arizona 17: The Sun Devils out-of-conference schedule picks up a bit later. But not here.

California 31, Michigan State 24: The Golden Bears ended so badly last season that it's hard to have much faith in this. And questions -- maybe especially at quarterback -- linger into this year. So this is mostly a vote of confidence in Jeff Tedford ... and faith in the home field.

Southern California 33, Virginia 17: It may take the Trojans a while to get rolling -- both in this game and in this season. But a defense that appears to be the real thing should be able to buy them the time they need.

Oklahoma State 24, Washington State 17: The Cougars are having a pretty tough week. I like the early indications that Paul Wulff will be solid over there, but probably not right out of the box.

Oregon 45, Washington 28: These young Huskies should be fascinating and fun. But this is a lot to ask of so many young and inexperienced players.

MONDAY
Tennessee 35, UCLA 17: When your starting your No. 3 quarterback, you need to open with the Big West, not the SEC. Those newspaper ads could look pretty silly come Tuesday.

We've got a lot of special Pac-10 and NCAA football coverage in the Thursday newspaper, and that took me away from UW a little bit Wednesday.

However, I was there enough be part of a good conversation with Senio Kelemete, the true freshman out of Evergreen High, who will start at defensive tackle for the Huskies on Saturday night at Oregon.

I'll have a feature on him (and tailback Chris Polk, the other true freshman starter) in the Thursday paper.

Meanwhile, a few other notes from today:

The Huskies practiced under the lights for the second consecutive night, preparing for the 7 p.m. Saturday kickoff at Autzen Stadium. It also was the second consecutive practice that was fully closed, including the first 25 minutes that Coach Willingham has traditionally held open.

The team will hold an afternoon practice Thursday and bus down to Eugene, Ore., on Friday.

No new or unexpected health problems have been announced this week.

And finally, the UW Alumni Association reminds you folks heading down to Oregon that they will hold the first of their pregame tailgate parties -- called Washington Warm Ups -- starting three hours before kickoff Saturday. Details are available at uwalum.com.

We'll get to hear from Coach Willingham and the UW defensive players and coaches in the early afternoon. Until then, here's some reading material from this morning.

My TNT story looks a lot at the Washington-Oregon game and other opening games around the Pac-10.

Meanwhile, here's a look at the Huskies-Ducks match -- and Oregon's defensive plan for Jake Locker -- from the Eugene Register-Guard.