I've made it to the press box at Sun Devil Stadium here in Tempe, where it's definitely warm, but has cooled down a bit from what it was earlier today. Weather.com says it's 97, though I doubt that. Still, pretty hot either way.

The Huskies are on the field warming up without pads, going through their pre-pre-game drills. I'd guess about half the team's out there right now, maybe a little less.

This is the second time I've been to this stadium, and I don't think I quite realized the first time around how cool of an atmosphere it is here. You can see city lights just on the outskirts of the stadium, but there's also a desert-like mountain thing in the background with a yellow "A" painted on it that gives it a nice, well, desert feel. Most importantly, the press box is air conditioned.

We're 75 minutes from kickoff as I write this, and I wrote last night that I'm expecting defense to dominate this one. That would be a definite change from what we've seen around the rest of the conference today, as California and UCLA combined for 55 points in the first half, Cal eventually winning 45-26. And it looks as if Stanford and Arizona are locked in a shootout at halftime, the Cardinal leading 28-20. USC escaped South Bend with a 34-27 win in a game that was actually kind of boring for the first half or so, then ended up finishing with another typical Notre Dame nail-biter. Irish haters are thankful that this one finally ended with the other team walking off the field with a win.

I'll be back with the game thread when kickoff is looming.