Canzano: News, whispers, facts, and fun from across the footprint
Spanning the globe...
We weren’t farmers, but I like to tell people “I grew up a little rural.” Our family had a single acre of land and got our water from a well. The property, where my parents still live, is located off Hecker Pass in the agricultural hotbed of Gilroy, Calif.
I told Mike Tyson that once.
The heavyweight champ told me: “Hold up. Gilroy? Johnny’s from Gilroy?! Garlic Capital of the World?!”
Tyson bought his pigeons there. Said: “They have the best breeders.” Over the years, I’ve marveled at the reaction of people when they tell me they know the speck on the map south of San Jose where I grew up.
During my childhood, Gilroy had a McDonald’s, a grocery store, a cemetery, a drug store, and a two-screen movie theater in the center of town. The nearest stoplight to my parent’s home was two miles away. I remember when they put the light in. It was a big deal.
Earlier this year, I mentioned Gilroy in a column. I got a pile of notes from readers who had passed through my hometown. One of them came from Bill Hancock, the executive director of the College Football Playoff.
“We stumbled onto a big fruit stand east of town once,” he told me. “We wound up ordering by mail from there for several years.”
I know that place.
The kid whose parents owned it played on my Little League team.
My dad was a retired professional baseball player who went into real estate. He and my mother signed us up for 4-H. My two sisters had lambs and a horse. My brother and I raised pigs. Over the years, our family livestock also included — brace for it — a steer, chickens, rabbits, and doves.
Jim Martineau, the athletic director at Clackamas Community College, grew up on a 1,100-acre ranch east of Sutherlin, Oregon. His family had cattle, sheep, horses, and farmed 100 acres of hay. As I listed all the animals we helped raise, Martineau’s jaw dropped. He blurted out: “On one acre?”
We never had all those animals at the same time. We rotated our interests over the years. But Jim was a rancher. I was just playing one. I know this because we named the steer when it was a calf. And 18 months later, when “Jubilee” became hamburgers and steaks, my family sat at dinner and stared in silence at our plates, unable to eat.
“I turned vegetarian for a while after that,” my older sister likes to tell me.
News, whispers, facts, and fun…
• Quarterback Caleb Williams is expected to be the No. 1 pick in Thursday’s NFL Draft. The bigger question is what position the Bears will target with the No. 9 pick. Receiver? Offensive line? A trade? Something else? You tell me in the comment section and let’s see how you do.
• Williams was asked who he would pick with the No. 9 selection and offered: “I’d probably go Olu Fashanu because I know he'd put his life on the line for me, protecting me.”
Williams and the Penn State offensive lineman were high school teammates (Gonzaga College in Washington, D.C).
• Cam Ward left Washington State for Miami via the transfer portal. He’s had 14 practices and a spring game, where he was 19 of 24 passing for 324 yards and three touchdowns.
Ward told reporters: “Making routine plays, that’s the biggest thing we wanted to accomplish.”
• I reached out to Hurricanes’ coach Mario Cristobal and asked for the early word on Ward. Cristobal gave me two: “Alpha Dog.”
• Ward is now on his third college. He played at Incarnate Word, then transferred and spent the last two seasons at Washington State. In Pullman, Ward received an NIL package of $90,000 from the Cougar Collective. It included an apartment, a leased pick-up truck, and $50,000 in cash.
• Keep in mind that these were very early NIL days. When I reported Ward’s compensation package in April of 2022 it was one of the first college endorsement deals publicly outlined and documented.
• Ward did a deft job leveraging Miami’s donor collective into a seven-figure deal. He and his parents will appear in a national advertising campaign, I’m told. Remember, Ward used the NFL Draft for leverage. He announced in a five-second video posted to social media on New Year’s Day: “What’s up. It’s Cam Ward and I’ll be declaring for the NFL Draft.”
• Ward’s brief and careful language jumped out to me that day:
• Less than two weeks later, Ward changed his mind and announced he was transferring to Miami.
• You know how you keep old photos on your phone and never delete them? I have one of Ward and Utah star quarterback Cam Rising that has been on my phone since last July. I snapped it at Pac-12 Media Day as the two quarterbacks crossed paths at my radio broadcast booth and talked for a while.
• Ward and I were chatting about WSU. He saw Rising, the reigning league MVP, approaching and called out: “The GOAT! Here comes the GOAT!!”
Rising just grinned. He looked like he was going to blush, even. The Utah QB was coming off back-to-back conference championships. He didn’t play a snap due to his knee surgery in 2023, but Rising gave me a great interview. The podcast of it is a fun listen for anyone interested in leadership.
• Rising looked great in Utah’s spring game on April 13, throwing for 208 yards and two touchdowns. He completed 15 of 19 passes. “Feeling strong,” Rising said, after the scrimmage. “… it’s good to be out there with the guys making plays and watching them go.”
• Utah offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig is one of the best around. Rising is a sixth-year senior. The advantage of having a returning head coach, a high-level returning coordinator, and a star experienced quarterback is going to be a handful for the rest of the Big 12.
• If you missed my Q-and-A with Oregon President Karl Scholz, give it a look. We talked about UO’s departure to the Big Ten, the possible expansion of Autzen Stadium and more.
• I’m particularly interested in seeing Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel in the spring game on Saturday. The transfer already has 49 college starts. If Gabriel starts all 12 regular-season games at Oregon and the Big Ten title game, he’d be sitting on 62 career starts.
• In case you’re wondering, the record for starts by a college QB is held by Bo Nix (61).
• Nix broke the record (53 starts) that was previously held by Boise State’s Kellen Moore, Texas’s Colt McCoy, Washington’s Jake Browning, Northwestern’s Clayton Thorson, and Notre Dame’s Sam Hartman.
• Florida State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei has 40 career starts and turned 23 years old last week. I got a note from him thanking me for doing some deep reporting on the Damien Martinez piece I posted. One positive byproduct of so many players staying in college for NIL deals — the maturity that comes along for the ride.
• Oregon State will definitely re-invest the $400,000 that it would have spent on Martinez this year. That NIL money from Dam Nation Collective is still earmarked for football, per sources. The transfer portal closes on April 30.
• The Beavers will go shopping, but I’m told some of the unused funds are being reallocated within the current locker room to help with retention of the roster. Trent Bray playing some defense?
• Former OSU men’s basketball star Jordan Pope is headed to Texas. Speculation is the NIL market for Pope landed around $500,000. He also had an offer from Texas A&M in the mid six figures, per a Texas-based source, but chose the Longhorns.
• The gates at Autzen Stadium for Oregon’s spring game on Saturday open at noon and the event kicks off at 1 p.m. Rich Burk and Yogi Roth are on the Pac-12 Network broadcast.
• Yogi Roth asked me for a hiking recommendation. He’s bringing his 9-year-old son on the trip. I directed them to Multnomah Falls and, also, Wahkeena Falls. My wife reminded me that there’s a 5-mile hike that connects both natural attractions. What else should Roth and his young sidekick do on their visit to Oregon? Restaurants? Stops? Leave your reader suggestions in the comment section.
• The Pac-12 Network has the seven remaining spring games fully covered. Decide for yourself which are the ones you’d want to watch (link).
• I’ll watch them all in some form or fashion. Curious to see if ASU can channel coach Kenny Dillingham’s enthusiasm. Also, interested in seeing the Colorado offensive line. It did an abysmal job protecting quarterback Shedeur Sanders last season. Will it be better in 2024? Also, I’m into seeing some Washington State football. Jake Dickert has done a tremendous job under less than ideal circumstances.
• There’s lots of enthusiasm coming from Arizona football right now. Brent Brennan was an outstanding hire and a great value. I took a look at the base pay of his contract at UA here:
$2,200,000 for year one
$2,400,000 for year two
$2,600,000 for year three
$2,800,000 for year four
$3,000,000 for year five
• Brennan also gets $500,000 a year for promotional activities and fundraising events. He’ll get another $200,000 annually from the deals with Learfield and Nike. That’s $2.9 million plus bonuses.
• Jedd Fisch got paid $3.25 million last season at Arizona. Fisch will make $7.5 million in his first year at Washington.
• Brennan is my bet to end up as one of the best coaching values in the Big 12 next season. Let’s see how much he’s worth, per victory. By comparison, Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy will make $7.75 million and Colorado’s Deion Sanders will be paid $5.7 million in 2024.
• Received a note recently from Jane, a senior citzen who describes herself as “old and retired.” Thanks to all who have donated paid subscriptions to this publication. Jane is on a fixed budget and is grateful to continue to stay engaged here. That community and generosity is one of the cool and unexpected things I’ve discovered since launching this independent publication.
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A great hike on a clear day in Eugene is the ridge line trail to the top of Spencer’s Butte. Great view of the city and mountains from the Cascades to the Coast Range.
Would recommend hiking Silver Creek Falls for Yogi and his son