The Lombardi Award watch list, announced Tuesday, features three Wildcats: Rob Gronkowski, Brooks Reed, and Earl Mitchell. 

The Lombardi Award is presented to college football's top offensive or defensive lineman. The Award has been given out since 1970, and has never been awarded to an Arizona Wildcat. Arizona has had two players named as finalists for the award. In 1993, Rob Waldrop, and Teddy Bruschi the following year in 1994.

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From Star writer, Ryan Finley, Nic Grigsby left practice Friday morning on crutches with an injury to his left ankle.  The severity of Grigsby's injury is unknown. 

First, this is day two of training camp.  Let's not get nuts here.  The season is still 29 days away.  Hopefully, this is just a sprain.  But, with that said, a serious Grigsby injury will put even more pressure on whichever quarterback takes snaps on September 5.  As we have stated here before, Keola Antolin is more than a capable backup (525 yards and 10 TDs in 2008), but Nic Grigsby he is not.  

Get healthy Nic. 

AZCentral is one of many sites reporting Russ Pennell has received a head coaching job and he'll stay in the state of Arizona. The interim head coach that led the Wildcats to the Sweet 16 has agreed to a long-term deal that will make him the head coach of Grand Canyon University. The Division II team plans on filing a petition to move up to Division I. A press conference introducing Pennell will be held tomorrow.

Thanks for everything Russ and good luck at GCU.

Per Jim Bankoff, our CEO:

As members of our communities or readers of our sites, you already know that SB Nation takes a different approach to online sports. Our focus has always been on empowering fans to participate in conversations that are specific to their particular teams, leagues or sports. We’ve watched over the years as the popularity of this unique approach has rapidly accelerated.

 Today we want to welcome some new members to our flourishing communities. SB Nation and our friends at Yahoo are partnering to give Yahoo Sports audiences one click access to our sites and content. In addition to being the largest sport property on the web, Yahoo Sports is known for some of the best general sports blogs including: Ball Don’t Lie, Puck Daddy, Dr. Saturday, Big League Stew and others.

 Relevant pages of Yahoo Sports will now feature contextual links to specific SB Nation communities. Many other pages of Yahoo Sports will feature SB Nation content and links. The great news is that more sports fans will be introduced to SB Nation sites.

 There are now close to 200 different sports communities for Yahoo users to discover. Each is led by bloggers who are first and foremost passionate fans. Part of what makes our network so special is that each SB Nation site has its own URL, name and colors as well as its own community guidelines and expectations. Some are more serious, some more irreverent, but they all share a common goal of nurturing strong and focused conversations around a common interest.

If you are new to one of our communities, we welcome you. On our websites, you’ll find unique perspectives, insightful analysis and passion for sports topics that are unrivaled. We encourage you to read through posts and get acclimated to the tone, norms and quirks of the site you are visiting.

When you are ready, feel free to join the conversation or start one up. Whether you create a new profile or use your Yahoo or OpenID credentials to register, one username and password will give you access to all our communities. Each SB Nation site offers the same mechanisms for participating in the action via comments, FanPosts (a blog entry of your very own) or FanShots (a quick micro-post of a thought, link or photo.) Before you post though, please remember, you are entering an established and ongoing community. Your voice and opinions are encouraged (that’s what being a fan is all about after all), but as in any productive conversation, they should be presented in a manner that is courteous, civil and respectful of the culture that you are entering.

If you are an old-timer here, we encourage you to welcome and assist the newcomers. It can sometimes be challenging to join a new environment, so a helping hand is usually appreciated. Cut the rookies some slack and spread the word about what they have been missing all of this time. This is your chance to welcome new folks in a manner that is consistent with the type of place in which you want to participate. You have the power to shape the type of community you want.

As always if anyone has any questions or ideas, please do not hesitate to contact us here.

Fans First!

From here.

This is a BIG deal for SB Nation -- not only have we finalized our partnership deal with Yahoo! sports, but this should give us a chance to really drive up traffic to our sites. This is an agreement that's been in the works for awhile; we're finally able to go public with it. We're already linked to by most of SI.com's team sites, and this deal is expected to double or even triple our sheer number of unique visitors. The goal is to make SBN the premier portal for sports blogs on the internet. Of course, the continued success of our specific site is all dependant on Joe. (Not to lay the pressure on or anything, Joe! ;-) )

For the Yahoo! University of Arizona football site, go here. The men's basketball site is here, the women's basketball site is here, and the overall Arizona recruiting site is here. (Through Yahoo!'s partnership with Rivals.com) We've got a great chance to create the foremost Arizona athletics site here at Arizona Desert Swarm; let's try and keep it up! In the next few weeks, we might start seeing some new users -- let's give them a hearty Desert Swarm welcome. (And no, that does NOT mean hitting them with the Double Eagle Flex.)

Justin from Pitch Fork Nation gives us his take on the game tonight, his idea on how to beat ASU and what the atmostphere will be like tonight in Tempe:

Not necessarily. I think that it's more likely for Pendergraph to have an off night only when he's in foul trouble or when Derek Glasser is turning the ball over. Over the past few weeks, Glasser and Pendergraph have developed such a nice rapport on the court; it's as if they've been playing together for their entire lives. The great thing about James Harden is his ability to create his own shot, even if he's only going left. Harden can perform when Pendergraph is off and vice versa. I'd be more worried if the Devils guard play took a night off.

2. We called Washington and Washington State. Got their playbooks. Coached on them all week. Thoughts?

First off, where did you get the numbers of Romar and Bennett? It's a simple strategy: hit your threes. After beating ASU in Tempe three weeks ago, Tony Bennett said there was no reason to use any other game plan but to shoot a ton of perimeter jumpers; there was no reason to believe that ASU could run any defense as effectively as they ran the matchup zone. Both UW and Wazzou were lights out from outside and that's the reason they won those games at Wells Fargo Arena. Any extra preparation the Wildcats could have done this week should have involved their top 3-ballers taking extra reps.

3. I have touted home court advantage to be so big in the Pac-10 this year that every game is a toss up. What's it going to be like in Tempe on Sunday? 

It's going to be the first sellout at WFA since I moved to Tempe in 2003, and unlike other rivalry games of the past, this one might actually have Sun Devil fans at it. The atmosphere at the Devils home floor has been phenominal so far this season...better than it has ever been in years. It always gets rowdy at Wells Fargo when UA comes to town, but usually it's because of the near riots that sometimes break out in the stands. This time, there's something to play for on both sides, and it'll make for an incredible gym come 8:00 tomorrow.

4. What are your thoughts on your remaining Pac-10 schedule. Can you make a run for the title? 

I really believe that after UCLA's win over Washington on Thursday night that the Pac-10 is going to be a wild sprint toward the finish and that #1 seed in the Pac-10 (which, as proved by UCLA in 2007...really doesn't mean anything). Anyone, including Arizona, has a legit shot at grabbing the regular season crown at this exact minute and there's no reason to discount Arizona State from that mix. After Sunday's game, the Devils have to go to the Northwest for two big time revenge games and if ASU can pull off a win in Seattle, they will be the frontrunner for the title. Washington State will give the Devils fits, and then they've got disappointing Stanford and reenergized Cal at home. There's a legit chance the Devils will win the conference.

5. Right back at you, give us some perspective on how ASU fans perceive Arizona this year. 

No matter how good ASU ever is, there's going to be a lot of attention from this neck of the woods toward Tucson. Early on, honestly, Arizona was a laughing stock to us. We rolled on the floor holding our sides when Jamelle Horne lost the game to UAB. We did it again when Horne did it again to USC. And I'm sure that a select few of the dregs of our fan base took some sort of sick pleasure out of seeing Chase Budinger getting his face stepped on (I was not one of those, for the record, I have class). But there's a certain sense of....awe isn't he word...curiosity about the Wildcats right now in the midst of their 7 game winning streak. One thing is for certain: no one thinks Sunday is going to be a cakewalk win.

Time to start up the Pac-10 Roundtable with questions from fellow bloggers around the Pac-10 answered by none other than myself. This should start to be a regular thing, so if there is a question that you want answered by other bloggers around the Pac-10, feel free to e-mail me and I'll throw them around. Here we go.

1.  Is it too early to start thinking about the NFL draft?  Tell us about one of your players expected to go in this year's draft.

As posted last week here, there are only Eben Britton and Mike Thomas were invited to the NFL combine. Of those, Eben Britton has got to be the most highly sought after Wildcat. Scouts, Inc. has him as the 41st best player in the draft and the 6th best tackle in the nation. Eben is slated to be a late first round/ early second round guy.

2.  Who is the Pac10 B-Ball Player of the Year so far?  Show your work. 

I hate to be a homer on this, but it's got to be Jordan Hill. He is a monster. He averages a double double with 18.3 ppg and 11.5 rebounds per game. He creates havoc for opposing big men and alters shots of anyone driving into the paint. Oh yeah, he also averages 2.0 blocks per game and is up for the Wooden Award given to college basketball's player of the year.

3. Football season is over, no one cares about basketball anymore because Oregon is 0-12. How is your school doing in sports that may not get the publicity that Football and Basketball get?

Arizona has incredible lacrosse (Props to Nate Schmidt) and Ice Hockey.  That's a testament to the number of "snow birds" that come to Arizona and our club sports that have turned into such good teams that they are not even considered club anymore.

4. Give us a random fact about your University that people may not know. The more juicy and scandalous, the better! Extra points for it being true!

I visited The University of Arizona in the summer of 1998 after graduating high school in Austin, Texas. I applied to every SEC school and even visited Ole Miss and Tennessee. When I stepped on to the campus in Tucson, I knew that was where I was going to attend college. Beautiful weather, Top 20 business school, and more hot girls centrally located on the UA Mall than I had ever seen in my life. I chose to go to school in Arizona for one of those three reasons. (I hate the heat and am a lawyer. Can you guess which one?).

The one thing they don't tell you about Tucson is that Speedway is basically the "dividing line" between north and south Tucson. South Tucson is a little unknown gem of a hell hole where there are over 90 active gangs (as of the freshman english essay, December 1998). I heard 9 gunshots outside of my window at Coronado dorm. There were students that got robbed. Students that got beat up. Oh yeah, Mexico is only 45 minutes away so there are plenty of drugs and drug dealers in Tucson.  My senior year, the SWAT team raided my neighbors house and said that he had been driving out to the desert and cooking up meth for months.

Go figure.

5.  Ragnarok over at the California Golden Blogs wrote this magnum opus about a Faustian re-organization of college football entitled "A Total College Football Reorganization."

I think that Ragnarok spent more time on that piece than I have in 2 weeks on my blog. With that being said, I think that it is incredible. Although, I have a problem with the end scenario, I think the build up is well thought out. I am from Austin and don't think that Texas and Oklahoma should be canceled. Ever. The Southwest conference is real tight.