Some articles on coaches: Jolette Law at Illinois talks about her new recruits.

"This class, I'm going to hold it dear to my heart because it's the first class that we had the opportunity to handpick and choose and watch the kids grow and see them for an entire year. I think this class ranks No. 1 in my book."

Cal's Joanne Boyle gets Q&A'd:

The program has risen so quickly since you’ve taken over the reins. Are you where you expected to be entering your fourth year here?

I don’t know if you ever know, coming in, what you’re capable of doing or what the team is capable of, until you’re in it. I was very hopeful, but I don’t know if I had expectations of, “By this year, we will be this.” I knew I had tons of potential here. The thing that I’m most happy about is that the kids have maximized their potential, have given me their most. But we’re not done; we’ve still got this season. We met to set our team goals and our mission statement—“who are we this year?” Last year, going from our second to our third year, we needed to be Road Warriors, to win road games and not split. We needed to take care of business in that way. This year, it’s that we need to finish big games. Being in games among top 10 teams in the country is great, but the expectation is to finish it, close it out. That’s the big theme this year.

Tia Jackson, post Husky exodus:

"I'm not foolish; I knew coming in that there were three that had expressed their interest in not wanting to be here," Jackson said of Redmon, McCormack and Bennett, who all left after completing the season. Nichols left early. "As much as I might think I'm a great person, I've hired great people on my staff and I think the team is awesome ... it's not going to change who I am. I'm not going to coddle and change my character and moral value, or belief in the system just because I'm trying to [say] 'Please don't leave.' The best thing that could have happened was that they did leave so that we could move forward."