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Pac-12 Media Day

I wasn't able to make it to Pac-12 Media Day this year, but thanks to the wonders of technology, it almost doesn't matter. Head Coach David Shaw, running back Stepfan Taylor, and linebacker Chase Thomas took the stage to talk about the challenges facing the Cardinal in 2012, and the video is below. Enjoy...

 

A Conversation with Marcus Allen

There are two things you notice when you're standing next to Marcus Allen. First, he's big. There's a tendency to think of running backs as smaller than the rest of the behemoths on the football field, small enough to squirt the narrowest of gaps, but Allen stands roughly 6'2" or 6'3". The second thing you notice comes quickly. Even though he's on the other side of fifty years old, he still looks like he could leap over the line and score from the one yard line.

I had two separate conversations with Marcus Allen during last month's Pac-12 Media Day. We talked only briefly during the morning when I interrupted him in conversation just so I could shake the hand of a Heisman Trophy winner, but when I ended up standing next to him in the back of the press room as USC head coach Lane Kiffin and quarterback Matt Barkley spoke to the assembled media, I couldn't resist asking him a question. I wondered if he remembered how he had felt when he was doing press tours before his senior season, back before he had won the Heisman Trophy and won a national championship and won a Super Bowl and gained election into the college and pro football Halls of Fame.

An Interview with Coach David Shaw

The centerpiece of Pac-12 Media Day was obviously the three-hour press conference in the interview room, where each team's head coach and one selected player held court before the assembled media. In the afternoon, however, all of the principals were available for one-on-one interviews during which there was more of an opportunity to get deeper answers to specific questions about the team. I had a chance to spend some time with Stanford head coach David Shaw. The first question below is one that I asked him during the press conference, but the rest came as I sat next to him during lunch. The italicized topics indicate paraphrased questions from other media members. Read on...

How Not to Cover Pac-12 Media Day

If you make the same mistakes I did when you decide to cover Pac-12 Media Day for  the first time, your day might go something like this.