No. 13 Michigan State | No. 15 TCU | Top 25No. 14: WashingtonLast Season: 7-6? (4-5 Pac-12 North)The Huskies are my surprise team to make the playoff. Last year they had just four starters back on defense but allowed only 18.8 points per game, the best mark in the Pac-12. They return 15 starters, including seven from the best overall defense in the conference (351.8 yards per game allowed). The defensive backs, led by CB Sidney Jones and FS Budda Baker, rank third in my charts, while the linebackers, behind Azeem Victor (95 tackles), are sixth. Offensively, QB Jake Browning (2,955 yards) and tailback Myles Gaskin (1,302) are back as experienced sophomores. John Ross, who missed last year due to injury, is a game breaker at receiver, and they have a veteran offensive line with nine of the top 10 back. The Huskies get most of the toughest opponents at home, leaving them favored in 10 games, slight underdogs at Oregon (+1) and a toss-up at Utah. The Huskies might just have their first double-digit-win season since 1991.Washingtons chances to win each game 09.03 vs. Rutgers: 92.5% 09.10 vs. Idaho: 98.1% 09.17 vs. Portland State: 98.6% 09.24 @ Arizona: 59.7% 09.30 vs. Stanford: 68.6% 10.08 @ Oregon: 57.2% 10.22 vs. Oregon State: 93.7% 10.29 @ Utah: 65.7% 11.05 @ Cal: 70.0% 11.12 vs. USC: 55.0% 11.19 vs. Arizona State:?85.0% 11.25 @ Washington State: 66.8%The offseason champions should be good -- 9-3 looks attainable -- but the hype felt a bit much for a team that needed to win its final two games of the regular season last year just to qualify for a bowl. -- Kyle BonaguraThe Husky hype is a projection that quarterback Jake Browning and running back Myles Gaskin will make huge jumps in Year 2, complementing a defense that allowed just 18.8 points per game last season. An easy nonconference schedule sets up a tough league slate, and a likely 9-3 finish. -- Kevin GemmellA returning starter at quarterback, running back and left tackle. One of the countrys toughest defenses. And a coach who has done more with less. A 10-2 season will be a good statement to the country that Chris Petersen is ready to put Husky football back on the map. -- Chantel JenningsBoth Browning and Gaskin should be improved after starting as true freshman, the offensive line also returns in near entirety, and the defense is expected to be the Pac-12s best again. The Huskies nonconference schedule is also the leagues easiest, so its fair to expect this team to improve to 9-3. -- David LombardiThe Huskies are a hot team in the preseason because they welcome back a bevy of promising young players, including Browning, Gaskin and the core of the Pac-12s best defense in 2015. With a forgiving nonconference schedule, a 9-3 finish seems realistic. -- Ted MillerNo. 13 Michigan State | No. 15 TCU | Top 25 Nike Odyssey React Sale . Just not the game. Kyle Palmieri scored two straight goals in the third period to rally the Anaheim Ducks past the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Tuesday night. Nike Air More Uptempo China . Dusautoir, the former World Player of the Year, sustained a torn bicep playing for Toulouse in the Heineken Cup on Saturday. The flanker, who has played 65 times for France, is expected to be out for up to four months. http://www.nikereactsale.com/ . Dallas hasnt ruled out the star quarterback for Sunday nights game against Philadelphia, but all signs point to Romos back injury pushing Kyle Orton into the starting role after two years of limited play as the backup. Surely Ortons name isnt the first that comes to mind for fans wanting a change after years of damaging interceptions, fumbles or, most infamously, the field goal flub when Romo dropped the snap on a kick that could have won his first playoff game in 2006. Nike React Cheap .35 million, one-year contract that avoided salary arbitration. Plouffe batted .254 with 14 home runs and 52 RBIs in 477 at-bats last season, his second as a regular in the lineup. Nike Air Presto Wholesale . Pence singled in the winning run with no outs in the ninth inning to give the Giants a 7-6 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday. It was an image that touched the hearts of millions: A 5-year-old Afghan boy wearing an improvised Lionel Messi jersey made from a plastic bag.Now, nearly a year later, Murtaza Ahmadi has finally met his idol.Murtaza made a special trip from Afghanistan to Qatar, where Messi was with his Barcelona teammates to play a friendly match against Al Ahli on Tuesday.In a meeting arranged by the organizing committee of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Messi held hands with Murtaza at the team hotel before picking up the boy and posing for photographs. Murtaza was wearing a Barcelona jersey.Im very happy to have met my hero. It is a dream for me, said Murtaza, in quotes supplied by the World Cup organizing committee.Murtaza, who is now aged 6, will walk out onto the field with the five-time world player of the year before Tuesdays match.The boy became an internet sensation early this year when pictures of him playing near his home in eastern Ghazni province were widely circulated. They showed him wearing a plastic bag -- in blue-and-white stripes, like the Argentina national team jersey -- with Messi and the No. 10 written in black marker.A few weeks later, Messi sent ssigned Barcelona and Argentina jerseys to Murtaza.ddddddddddddMurtazas father, Mohammad Arif Ahmadi, said in May that the family was forced to leave Afghanistan amid constant telephone threats and fears that Murtaza would be kidnapped because of his sudden notoriety.Life became a misery for us, said the father at the time, speaking to The Associated Press over the telephone from the Pakistani city of Quetta, where the family had settled.The meeting between Messi and Murtaza comes at a time when Qatar is introducing long-expected reforms to policies governing its vast foreign-labor force, who labor and human rights activists say are open to abuse by the current system.Qatar says it is abolishing the kafala sponsorship system that binds workers to their employer. Rights groups say the changes fall far short of what is needed to protect the multitudes of mostly Asian low-wage workers transforming the tiny country.---This story has been corrected to show that Murtaza Ahmadi was 5 years old, not 6, when the original photo was taken. ' ' '