Yeah, the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week award is nice, but Colorado wide receiver Laviska Shenault is a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender, opines Sam Metivier of Ralphie Report.

Writing for the Associated Press, Nicholas K. Geranios notes that Washington State football is a “surprise contender” in the Pac-12 at the midway point of the season. Not too many people gave the Cougs a shot this year, but here they are at 5-1 heading into their bye week.

Utah football play-by-play man Bill Riley believes that the Utah offense found its identity in the win at Stanford (KSL.com). That run game sure was effective against the Cardinal, and the “throw game,” as Kyle Whittingham would call it, certainly was efficient.

Kevin Ellison’s family will donate his brain to researchers at Boston University who study head trauma in athletes and members of the military, Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times reports. Ellison, a former USC safety, died Thursday after he was hit by a car while walking along a freeway.

San Antonio Spurs point guard Dejounte Murray has a torn ACL in his right knee, the team announced Monday (ESPN). The former Washington guard suffered the injury in Sunday’s preseason game against the Houston Rockets.

Michael Lev spends this article examining Arizona’s plan at quarterback. With Khalil Tate not at 100 percent, head coach Kevin Sumlin put Jamarye Joiner in for a series in the win over Cal, and Lev notes that you can expect more of that going forward.

Jeff Metcalfe lets us know that Arizona State hockey is 2-0 for the first time in its NCAA Division I history (four years) after sweeping Alaska Fairbanks over the weekend. Props to goaltender Joey Daccord for posting back-to-back shutouts.

Oregon women’s volleyball’s Taylor Borup and Brooke Nuneviller earned Pac-12 weekly awards on Monday, with Borup being named offensive player of the week and Nuneviller being named freshman of the week. The Ducks had a big weekend by nabbing back-to-back road sweeps of UCLA and USC.

Stanford men’s water polo center Ben Hallock was named MPSF Player of the Week after netting four goals and dished out three assists in a statement win over top-ranked USC Saturday afternoon. If you haven’t had a chance to see his left-handed goal yet (he’s a righty), be sure to check it out in the link. This guy is special.

David Wharton of the Los Angeles Times writes about UCLA’s success in the run game against Washington, as the Bruins rushed for a season-high 150 yards in the close loss to the Dawgs.

Rusty Simmons takes a look at what went wrong in Cal’s loss to Arizona. Not converting on that fourth-and-1 inside the 5-yard line in the fourth quarter certainly didn’t help matters.

Check out Nick Daschel’s Oregon State football midseason report card. The Beavs are 1-5 heading into the back half of the schedule.