Roundup: 30-year-old kicker having great freshman season at Colorado

Here’s an Associated Press story on 30-year-old Colorado kicker James Stefanou, who is 6 of 7 on field-goal attempts and 10 of 10 on PATs as a freshman for the Buffs.

After suffering a spinal fracture and being carted off the field in Saturday's game, Oregon State quarterback Jake Luton got a special visitor - and a special gift - as he was being released.

Great longform feature from Los Angeles Magazine on UCLA gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos Field, aka “Miss Val.” The piece dives deep into how Miss Val got into coaching gymnastics as a dancer and put her unique footprint on the sport in addition to detailing her fight with breast cancer. Fantastic lede.

Barrett Sallee of CBS Sports believes that Oregon’s Willie Taggart is one of the five most underrated coaches in college football. Coach T has driven this Oregon bus out to a 3-0 record and national ranking thus far.

Stanford women’s volleyball swept Cal in its conference opener (Pac-12 Networks recap), taking down the Bears 25-20, 25-14, 25-15. The Cardinal hit a whopping .549 as a team, committing just five attacking errors.

Christopher Kamrani of The Salt Lake Tribune looks into Rich Rodriguez’s rebuilding job at Arizona as the Utes head South to Tucson for a Friday night showdown.

Meanwhile, Kurt Kragthorpe is of the opinion that the Utes’ increase in offensive productivity helps their chances in the Pac-12. Despite their success over the last three seasons, the Utes are the only team from the Pac-12 South to not play in the Pac-12 Football Championship Game. Will that change this year?

As the Trojans get ready to head up to Berkeley for a Saturday afternoon affair against Cal, the Los Angeles Times looks at Cal’s turnaround under Justin Wilcox, a former defensive coordinator at USC.

Now writing for USA TODAY Sports, Lindsay Schnell features USC freshman walk-on kicker Chase McGrath, who played the role of hero in the Trojans’ win over Texas.

Our Yogi Roth breaks down the Nevada-Washington State game Saturday afternoon in this video. With a win, the Cougs will be 4-0 for the first time since 2001.

House of Sparky gives us some Oregon football players to watch as the Sun Devils ready for their conference opener against the Ducks.

Former Washington women’s basketball star Kelsey Plum worked out at Arizona last week and left the UA men’s basketball team in awe, notes Ryan Kelapire of AZ Desert Swarm. A big reason why she was in Tucson is that Adia Barnes, a former UW assistant who recruited Plum to Seattle, is now the head coach of the UA women’s team.