Yet another clearing out of the e-mails (if I haven't answered yours this week, just send it again --- there's been a lot coming in lately and I'm sure I've missed some):

Would the team get extra practices if the Apple Cup were moved back a week or two? And will they be able to continue practicing if thye finish 6-6 and bowl eligible before they know if they are in bowl?

The team would get an extra week or two if the Apple Cup were moved back and a bye created. However, the main benefit of having a bye would be to have some time to rest up and heal, mentally and physically. There would be a few additional practices thrown in there, and depending on when the bye fell, would certainly add a few days of preparation time. But I don't think getting an extra week of practice would be the main benefit of a bye. As for the second question, yes, teams can continue to practice if they are bowl eligible before they know if they are in a bowl, and that scenario could happen to UW as Pac-10 bowl slots likely won't be determined until Dec. 2 or later. However, the team will definitely take off the Thanksgiving week no matter what, so I don't think they would get more than a couple of practices in under that scenario. Again, they would have to plan as if they are going to a bowl (teams are limited to 15 practices during the bowl period) so they wouldn't go more than a time or two before they knew.

You mentioned Tyrone Willingham's history whith his coordinators -- what do you mean by that?

What I meant was, it's been widely speculated that Willingham might have been able to keep his job at Notre Dame had he been willing to make a few changes in his coaching staff, but that he didn't want to do that. That's not something Willingham has commented on publicly. But I think there is some truth to it. And the point here is that all of you who want them to fire all the coaches are probably going to be disappointed. Even if it were merited --- and despite the disappointment of the last few weeks, the bigger picture is that this team is probably about where it ought to be --- it's not Willingham's style to make changes like that. Especially after only two years.

Is Carl Bonnell really badly hurt?

There's no doubt the shoulder injury has affected him. How much is the issue. He always says he's fine and so does Willingham. Others around the program think it's more of a problem. But Bonnell looked pretty good in the brief part of Wednesday's practice that we saw so I don't think it's an issue for this week. Tim Lappano said Bonnell wasn't running as much because of the shoulder, but when I asked that of Bonnell, he said that he wasn't running as much because ASU and Oregon's defense didn't allow for it. Oregon likes to bring its safeties down quickly in run coverage, so he may have a point there.

You mentioned you are the AP voter for the college basketball poll this year. How do they pick the voters for the football and basketball polls?

Basically, they pick one voter from our state and they generally trade off someone from this side of the state and someone from the other side (basically Spokane). I've been the football pollster twice and this is now my second time doing basketball. Bud Withers is the football guy this year meaning next year, someone from the Spokane area will probably do it, etc. Essentially, they try to have people who regularly cover the sport. That's basically the prerequsite -- to cover the sport on a daily basis. Some of the larger states have more than one voter per state, and there are also a number of national voters (Dick Vitale, guys like that).