Soon and very soon

It is a bit difficult when the temperature is hovering around triple digits to think about football, but the NFL teams have reported to their respective camps to get ready for the preseason and of course the regular season, once the calendar reaches September.

The college teams will also be starting their camps soon to get their players in shape to face another demanding season.

For the most part the local teams are predicted to do well. EWU is predicted to be in the upper echelon of the Big Sky conference and once again make the NCAA playoffs.

The Eagles play North Dakota State in the second week of the season in Cheney.

This should be a great early season game that should give everyone an idea of how well new Head Coach Aaron Best’s team will compete with arguably the best football program in the FCS.

WSU figures to be in the top three of the Pac-12 North, which should be good enough to make a bowl game. They open with the Montana State Bobcats, which should bring Coach Mike Leach the first opening game, win of his WSU career.

The more games you win the better the bowl game typically. So the key for them is to win all the games they are supposed to and pick off an upset or two and who knows. Confidence early in the season is the key.

The UW Huskies are predicted to win the Pac-12 North but the ‘experts’ say that USC will defeat Washington in the Pac-12 championship game. Both teams should be good and they will both be difficult teams for anyone in the conference to compete against.

But you still have to play the game and on any given Saturday.

Who knows. Nothing is guaranteed but UW and USC have some really good talent.

The Seattle Seahawks reported to their facilities to begin training camp on Sunday. There are a lot of people that like the Seahawks to return to the Super Bowl next February.

The Seahawks had a lot of injuries to key players last year that saw the Hawks make the playoffs with a 10-5-1 record. They defeated the Detroit Lions in the wild card round and then lost to eventual Super Bowl runner-up Atlanta in the second round.

The injuries to Russell Wilson early in the season kept the offense at bay for part of the season and at times the team was tough to watch. The Seattle-11 came back to win a couple of games when it didn’t seem possible. So they did have some magic when it mattered.

When Earl Thomas went down, the defense suffered. You can fill the safety position with another player but you can’t replace Thomas. His presence is felt on the defensive side of the ball but it is also felt on the other side of the field as well.

The opponents know everything there is to know about Thomas and Kam Chancellor and they make things awfully difficult on any receiver or running back that dares to enter their zip code.

For now I suggest you keep cool and pay attention to what happens at the respective training camps and see how the teams progress. Get excited for the season and above all else make sure you hydrate and keep cool.

Summer is just trying to balance out what happened last winter. At least that’s what I think.

Soon, and very soon, football will be here before we are ready for it. But we’ll be making those road trips and the weather will cool off and we’ll forget about the triple digit temperatures at least for a little while.