Football season won’t hit full stride until talk radio starts debating the merits of the Bowl Championship Series and Bill Parcells goes ballistic at a news conference. But the early gridiron schedule really kicks off this weekend.
Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts come to town Saturday night for the third exhibition game of the preseason. Starters for both teams probably will play the first half before ceding to the backups. More important, it will be the first meeting between the teams since Manning embarrassed Denver in a wild-card playoff game last January.
Collegiately, three local teams begin their 2005 campaigns Saturday. Reigning Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference champions Colorado School of Mines host Washburn (Kan.) at 1 p.m. on Brooks Field in Golden. The Orediggers cruised to an undefeated regular season last year and their first conference title since 1958, before falling to Pittsburg (Kan.) State in a second-round Division II playoff game. Mines coach Bob Stitt claims the school’s best winning percentage (.608, 34-22). And Ichabods coach Craig Schurig will enjoy a homecoming of sorts – he played linebacker at Mines in the 1980s.
Other RMAC squads playing are Mesa State College vs. Western Washington at 7 p.m. in Grand Junction, and Western State vs. Angelo State (Wash.) at 1 p.m. in Gunnison.
– Nick Groke
WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE
1. Little League World Series star Kalen Pimentel of Rancho Buena Vista, Calif., decide he’d rather skip middle school in favor of becoming the No. 2 starter in the Rockies’ rotation.
2. A healthy turnout for the final three days of the race meet at Arapahoe Park in Aurora. Post time is 2 p.m. today and 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The Mile High Derby and Futurity for quarter horses are slated Saturday and Sunday, respectively, with the track’s signature race, the Gold Rush Futurity for 2-year-old thoroughbreds, on tap Sunday.
WEAK IN REVIEW
1. Former Nebraska and NFL running back Lawrence Phillips was charged with assault as prosecutors in Los Angeles say he drove into three teenagers after an argument. Dr. Tom isn’t here to help anymore.
2. The Dodgers’ Milton Bradley and Jeff Kent had a civilized, academic discussion on 21st-century race relations. Maybe next time they can get Cornel West to moderate.
3. Cincinnati basketball coach Bob Huggins, who last year was convicted of drunken driving, will be paid $3 million … for getting fired or stepping down or whatever it is they’re calling it.
THE COUCH
ON: Tiger and Phil aren’t playing at the Buick Championship, the NFL is mired in preseason yawners and Sunday night baseball will just remind you the Rockies aren’t competing for the playoffs. So why not get excited for the football season by watching some of the best football movies. Might we suggest one movie for each level of the game: check out “Friday Night Lights” with Billy Bob Thornton, based on a true account of a West Texas high school football team; “Rudy” with Sean Astin as the diminutive longshot walk-on at Notre Dame; and the original “The Longest Yard” with Burt Reynolds as the jailed former pro quarterback recruited to play a game against crooked prison guards.
OFF: As if traditional triathlons were too flat, the second annual Fat Tire Off-road Triathlon, the only race of its kind in Colorado, will take racers off the beaten path Saturday at Lory State Park in Fort Collins. It’s a sprint-distance race at about half the length of a regular triathlon. But after a half-mile swim through the Eltuck Bay of Horsetooth Reservoir, the 12-mile bike leg and 3-mile run will snake through the back trails and will include a 500-foot ascent. Registration capped at 300, but spectators and longshot walk-on hopefuls can congregate at 8:30 a.m.
AROUND THE STATE
If there’s one thing Colorado is known for, it’s picturesque beaches. And if you believe that, we’ve got some beachfront property in Boulder to offer. In this case, the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour’s Boulder Open returns for the first time in a decade this weekend at the Boulder Reservoir. The tournament begins today with qualifying rounds and ends with championship matches Sunday. U.S. Olympians will be the center of attention, including: men’s three-time gold medalist Karch Kiraly, who won the last Boulder Open, in 1996; and Athens gold medal duo Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, the tour Team of the Year two years running. But check out locals Elaine Youngs and Rachel Wacholder. Wacholder, a former all-Big 12 player at Colorado, and Youngs, who resides in Durango
