Pac-12 Notebook: Oregon State DT Castro Masaniai drinks his way to a leaner body

Here are some news and notes from around the Pac-12:

• Oregon State DT Castro Masaniai didn't like what he saw when he stepped on the scale this offseason. So he went changed the way he ate and it's paying big dividends, Lindsay Schnell of the Oregonian reported.

• Forget the road less traveled. Cal LB Lucas King has taken a road strewn with obstacles, littered with potholes and staked with warning signs. That's what happens when you have attention deficit disorder and are trying to make a go of it at a prestigious university, John Crumpacker of the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

• "Freakish," is how Stanford coach David Shaw described 6-foot-7, 308-pound offensive tackle Andrus Peat to Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury-News. It's rare for rookie linemen to be physically and mentally ready to play, but Peat and touted classmate Kyle Murphy have made a great first impression.

• The Arizona Wildcats are mirroring their Army hosts at Fort Huachuca by rising early, running through physically demanding drills and singing in unison, Ryan Finley of the Arizona Daily Star reported. We like this story. We also like saying Huachuca (Wa-choo-ka), which means thunder mountain in Apache.

• UCLA coach Jim Mora has looked foolish on three separate occasions recently, but as, Michael Lev of the Orange County Register noted, USC coach Lane Kiffin has stirred some controversy of his own.

• With a hairdo that he claims makes him 6-feet-2, unheralded Arizona State defensive lineman Jaxon Hood is turning heads at camp as he tries to play his way into the rotation, Doug Haller of the Arizona Republic reported.

• Ever since his two-carry, two-touchdown performance in the Rose Bowl, everyone, even Oregon coach Chip Kelly, has wondered what would happen if De'Anthony Thomas got more carries. The time is at hand, said George Schroeder of the Register-Guard.

• The Washington Huskies are dismayed by running back Deontae Cooper's third ACL injury, wrote Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times.

• Utah backup QB Jon Hays is used to playing in starter Jordan Wynn's shadow. But now there's a shadow clouding his backside, too, and it's coming from freshman QB Travis Wilson, Gordon Monson of the Salt Lake Tribune wrote.

• Colorado tackle David Bakhtiari knows he can't control the QB battle among Nick Hirschman, Connor Wood and Jordan Webb, but he told Tom Kensler of the Denver Post he wants “to see consistency. I want somebody to emerge from the group. I just want to see one of them step up and take the whole role, basically take this offense.”

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