Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen treated Pac-10 football media day last week as though it was no different from any other media day.

It was different, of course, because it will be his last. Hansen announced earlier this summer that he will be stepping down after a 26-year reign. (Here’s the story I wrote at the time.)

However, he played his final media day address prett straight, speaking briefly on the Pac-10′s strong out-of-conference scheduel, its 2008 bowl lineup, its TV contracts, introducing the league’s two new coaches, and taking pride in the Pac-10′s NCAA-high 13 sports championships

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UW quarterback Jake Locker is among 12 Pac-10 players and 65 players overall named to the Maxwell Award preseason watch list.

The award is given annual to the outstanding collegiate football player in America. Player are selected for the preseason list based on their play during the previous season.

Other Pac-10 players on the list are WR Brandon Gibson of Washington State; QB Rudy Carpenter and RB Keegan Herring of Arizona State; WR Mike Thomas and QB Willie Tuitama of Arizona; WR Jaison Williams of Oregon; WE Sammie Stroughter of Oregon State; and RB Stafon Johnson, RB

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Two good stories today on a couple of former Huskies … or actually, I guess they’re lifelong Huskies who no longer wear the purple and gold.

The first story comes from News Tribune Seahawks reporter Frank Hughes, who catches up with former UW coach Keith Gilbertson, now the Seahawks receivers coach. Gilbertson has plenty of interesting things to say, which is typical for him.

Gilby was the coach during my first season covering Husky football — yes, that 1-10 season of 2004 — but I found him easy to work with and liked him a lot. You

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We’re down to less than a week until the Huskies take the practice field for the start of fall camp next Monday afternoon.

Today — exactly one week in advance — brought the annual UW coaches/media golf outing at Washington National in Auburn. This is a very nice addition that Tyrone Willingham brought to the job, and it’s a great time to get to know the coaches a bit without sticking tape recorders in their faces.

We obviously caught a break with the dazzling weather, and I paired into an exceptionally fun foursome along with offensive coordinator

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Single-game tickets for the upcoming Husky football season go on sale at 8:30 a.m. Monday. Four-game plans also are available.

Here’s this season’s home schedule:

Sept. 6 vs. BYU, home opener vs. perhaps the best of this season’s mid-majors.

Sept. 13 vs. Oklahoma, national title contender with a ton of tradition.

Sept. 27 vs. Stanford, home loss to Stanford in 2006 may have been worst of Willingham era.

Oct. 18 vs. Oregon State, only home game of this season’s “Northwest championship” round robin.

Oct. 25 vs.

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At least a couple of other UW blogs have indicated incoming freshmen QB Dominique Blackman, RB Demitrius Bronson and DT Craig Noble may not be available this season, instead delaying their enrollment until January. And coach Tyrone Willingham apparently said something to Seattle Times columnist Bud Withers that was fairly unclear but generally was taken to mean that linebacker E.J. Savannah may have more to worry about beyond his arm injury before he takes the field again.

Reading all that, I went back an reviewed my recordings of what Willingham told me about personnel issues heading into the Aug.

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Back from media day. We had three main stories in today’s paper:

* Tyrone Willingham talking about the affect his job status is having on recruiting.

*An overview on the Pac-10 race, with USC once again the odds-on favorite.

*And a Pac-10 Media Day notebook, topping with Rick Neuheisel, but also talking about the new rules that will be used in college football this season.

This flurry of football news could be followed by something of a lull — a calm before the big storm of coverage. The next expected news from UW

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Pac-10 Media Day capsules with teams listed in their order of finish as predicated by the annual media poll:

1. USC

Coach Pete Carroll says that Mark Sanchez has all that it takes to become a great quarterback … if he can just win the starting job. It’s that way across the roster, where the names may be new but the talents remains high enough to contend for a BCS title.

2. Arizona

The schedule becomes tougher in coach Dennis Erickson’s second season. However, he has plenty of horses, including what may be the league’s top

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