Game week has begun for the Huskies, and we got a few minutes with two of the players who represent the biggest stories of the preseason so far: center Juan Garcia and tailback Chris Polk.

Garcia said he feels healthy enough to play all game at Oregon — both in terms of his injured foot and in terms of conditioning. However, he said he also had a sincere talk with line coach Mike Denbrock, telling his coach that he wants to play only to the degree that it will help the team. Garcia said that if his play isn’t

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You really want to run down to the corner newsstand and pick of, oh, five or six of today’s News Tribune.

This is the day of our special preseason Huskies football coverage, and the section includes rosters and profiles and lots of good information including player-by-player profiles of the starters and game-by-game predictions of what I see as a 5-7 season.

Most of the coverage is also available in the Huskies section of The News Tribune website. But our hope is that the section is something you’ll want to keep by the TV and refer to

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The Huskies put out their first depth chart since spring today and it contains major surprises on each side of the ball.

Jordan White-Frisbee is listed as the starter at left guard, beating out incumbent Ryan Tolar. (Juan Garcia is listed as the starting center. Chris Polk as the starting tailback.)

On defense, late-arriving true freshman Senio Kelemete is listed as the starter at defensive tackle alongside Cameron Elisara.

(The defense shown is a 4-3.)

And the team is young — 10 freshmen or sophomores in the starting lineup — five on offense, five on

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I’ve finally gotten around to transcribing Oregon coach Mike Bellotti’s remarks from Pac-10 media day. Though delayed, the offer a pretty good shapshot of the team that the Huskies will face at 7 p.m. Saturday in Autzen Stadium.

Some highlights:

Bellotti on the season opener: “We’re excited about opening the season with Washington – a conference game. I say that for a couple of reasons. For one thing it’s a conference game, and it’s had our young men’s attention since it was announced. Two, it is on television, it gives us an opportunity to showcase the Pac-10. And

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The Washington Huskies are off today after closing fall camp on Saturday.

News out of Eugene is that Oregon starting quarterback Nate Costa is doubtful for the opener, vs. Washington at 7 p.m. Saturday at Autzen Stadium.

Even at that, the Ducks offense apparently looked pretty good in their final scrimmage, according to the Register-Guard.

Here’s a link to Oregon’s official football site.

And another to this Ducks’ blog from the Oregonian.

There are no UW public/media events this week, but the countdown to Autzen begins seriously on Monday.

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Just before noon as I write this, the Huskies are in Husky Stadium wearing shorts and shoulder pads, concluding fall camp for another season.

In the 25 minutes open to media, three players seemed to be missing: safety Jason Wells, tight end Michael Gottlieb and punter Jared Ballman. Wells has been slowed by a knee injury all camp, but the other two were unexplained for now.

Loud music — mostly country — was blaring from speakers, as the coaches apparently tried to simulate the noise the team will experience one week from today when the Huskies open the

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The dates of Washington’s home games in the College Basketball Experience Classic have been moved back one day each to Nov. 18 & 20. The Gazelle Group, which puts on the tournament, hopes to have a release on the teams in mid-September.

However, regardless of what the Huskies do in those two home games, they will advance to the semifinals and either consolation or championship games the following Nov. 24-25 in Kansas City.

Meanwhile, the CBE has introduced this blog as a source of information for the tournament.

Here is UW’s full hoops

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There’s no media time with Coach Willingham today, but we just got a good briefing from both coordinators on their thoughts of the Thursday scrimmage and how it has influenced their thinking going into Oregon game week.

Some highlights…

from offensive coordinator TIM LAPPANO

*True freshman running backs Johri Fogerson, David Freeman and Terrance Daily all looked good. He likened Forgerson’s running style to that of Marcus Allen.

*Tight end Kavario Middleton has apparently “got the attention” of the UW defensive backs, who apparently got pretty physical with him. Still, Lappano said Middleton has been

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