Category Archives: Pac-10 Outlook

Posts previewing and reviewing Pac-10 football games.

by | October 23, 2012 · 8:23 pm

Around the Pac-12 – Week 9

If you missed it, I wrote a little bit on the Dawgs yesterday that you can find here.  Today, we get back on track with our weekly Around the Pac-12 posts.  After a brief hiatus, this post will include a mascot mash-up.  That will be after the jump, so go ahead and skip to that unless you like football.  Oh, you’re reading a sports blog and most of you like football?  Cool.  Here are the games for the week.

Arizona (Beat Washington 52-17) vs. USC (Beat Colorado 50-6)

Arizona is coming off one of their best victories of the year.  I didn’t need to remind anyone here of that.  USC finally looked like the dominant team they should be but that was against Colorado.  This game has upset written all over it, which could mean that the Trojans play their best game of the year.  We all know how talented USC is but they haven’t put it all together yet.  Arizona on the other hand is a tough team, especially at home.  I expect a lot of points and some great quarterback play.  This could be the game of the week and will go a long way in deciding who Oregon will play in the Pac-12 championship.

Arizona State (Lost to Oregon 43-21) vs. UCLA (Bye)

The last couple of weeks have provided us with plenty of Pac-12 blow outs.  This is the week where the conference could boast 4 good games.  This one will also go a long way in deciding what will happen in the Pac-12 South.  UCLA can’t afford to lose another conference game while Arizona State tries to prove that they aren’t as bad as they looked against Oregon.  Here’s a hint, everyone is going to look awful against Oregon except USC.  This game may feature quite a few points as well.  When it’s all said and done, I’m guessing that these two teams will be behind Arizona and USC in the south.

California (Lost to Stanford 21-3) at Utah (Lost to Oregon State 21-7)

This game features two teams that are trying to salvage their seasons.  Cal is 3-5 and Utah is 2-5.  The Golden Bears were thoroughly dominated by Stanford last week and Utah’s offense just can’t seem to get on track this year.  While this game may not be the most exciting to watch, I think it will be a dogfight that both teams desperately need to win.  Utah played decently against Oregon State but, like I said, their offense can’t seem to get rolling.  For the record, the Huskies go down to play the Golden Bears next Friday night.

Colorado (Lost to USC 50-6) at Oregon (Beat Arizona State 43-21)

This is not one of those quality Pac-12 games that I was talking about.  This will get ugly and in a hurry.  Colorado is terrible and probably won’t win another game this year.  Oregon is really good and may not lose a game this year.  You can do the math from there.  Oregon’s victory last week was impressive and their defense continues to impress.  A buffalo against a duck is a no contest as far as which one is bigger though.

Stanford (Beat Cal 21-3) vs. WSU (Bye)

This shouldn’t be much of a game.  Arizona gave Stanford some problems defensively with their spread offense so maybe Leach can get something going but WSU is not close to Arizona.  Maybe the bye week will help the Cougars as well?  I don’t know and I feel like I’m grasping at straws here.  Stanford has really found their running game and is still about 3 plays away from being undefeated.  I don’t think the Cardinal should be overlooked.  You should never overlook a tree because they are so beautiful.

It is time for me to rank mascots based on their ability to do an Olympic event.  Feedback has told me that this part of the post is as entertaining as it sounds.  I hope I don’t disappoint now.  Find out the event and the mascot rankings after the jump!

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by | October 11, 2012 · 3:09 pm

Pac-12 Picks – Week 7

Last week was a decent week for us, as Joe and Matthew went 5-0 and Dan and Andrew came in at 4-1.  The standings really aren’t changing much and this may come down to the bowl games.  Because I know so many of you care.  This is a somewhat big week for the conference.  There are two marquee non-conference games that the Pac-12 are playing.  BYU against Oregon State isn’t huge in the national eyes but it’s a game that will help decide if the Beavers are worthy of their lofty ranking.  Stanford at Notre Dame is a huge game for the conference and will boost national acclaim if the trees come out with a win.  Inside the conference, USC-Washington is a huge game that will give separation in both the north and south divisions.  UCLA-Utah is another game to keep an eye on as each of those teams try to salvage their seasons.  On to the picks.

Thursday:

ASU at Colorado
The Good Guys:  ASU

Saturday:

California at WSU
The Good Guys:  Cal

UCLA vs. Utah
Matthew:  Utah
Joe, Dan, Andrew:  UCLA

OSU at BYU
The Good Guys:  Oregon State

Stanford at Notre Dame
Andrew:  Stanford
Matthew, Joe, Dan:  Notre Dame

Standings:
Matthew 38-11
Andrew 37-12
Dan 37-12
Joe 37-12

So, Matthew is out to an early lead.  As always, the Husky predictions will come tomorrow night.

Andrew

 

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by | October 10, 2012 · 11:32 pm

Around the Pac-12 – Week 7

Last week brought with it the inaugural mascot melee.  This is week 2 of that, but you’ll have to make it through all of the football games first.  The mascots will be after the jump.  The Pac-12 football teams, on the other hand, will be talked about before the jump.  You can read both, or not.  One will be interesting and ridiculous, while the other will still be somewhat interesting, hopefully, and not so ridiculous.  How’s this for an introduction!  Let’s talk some football.

This Week:  Arizona State (Bye) at Colorado (Bye)

This is the Thursday night game that will be shown on ESPN.  What a barn burner they picked.  Arizona State is a surprise team and could make a run at the South division but count me in as a guy who doesn’t totally buy in to the Sun Devils.  I’m still trying to figure out what a Sun Devil is, to be honest.  This team has a good defense, although I question their secondary.  The offense is a bigger concern.  Colorado is bad.  They won one game by magically beating the Cougars.  They probably won’t win another one, although I wouldn’t be surprised if they kept this one a little bit close.  Arizona State should improve to 5-1 after this game, which is the same record they had last year before they collapsed.  Just saying.

This Week:  California (beat UCLA 43-17) at WSU (lost to OSU 19-6)

Cal went out last week and tried to salvage their season.  They succeeded.  WSU went out last week and tried to salvage their season.  Their defense gave a good effort but they failed.  Cal had looked lost all season before playing UCLA and now it seems that the Golden Bears aren’t as close to teetering off the edge as we thought.  They should be 3-4 after this week and, while that’s not great, aspirations of a bowl are still in tact.  WSU players said that they still think making a bowl is doable this week.  Logically that’s correct.  But, have they watched themselves on tape?  Seriously, that team has a lot of holes.  They might surprise someone this season and I guess this is as good of game as any?  But, no.  It probably won’t happen.

This Week:  Oregon State (beat WSU 19-6) at BYU

The Beavers magic will be tested this week.  That’s not because BYU is a good team.  In fact, I think the Beavers have beaten three teams that are better than BYU already, but it’s because they’ll be without their quarterback, Sean Mannion.  BYU will be a challenging place to play and it will make for an interesting task for new quarterback Cody Vaz.  OSU didn’t look all that impressive against WSU last week but you have to take into account that Sean Mannion was playing on a bad knee all game.  The defense continues to impress.  The Beavers are ranked in the top 10.  How weird is that?

This Week:  Stanford (beat Arizona 54-48) at Notre Dame

The Cardinal played a barn burner on Saturday against Arizona.  It was the exact opposite game that they played against Washington the week before.  I don’t know what to make of the Cardinal.  If they could put it all together, then they’d be a top-15 team but I just don’t see them doing that this year.  Notre Dame is a tall task for Stanford and I don’t expect them to get it done.  I hope they do.  The Pac-12 could use an Oregon State or Stanford victory this week, both would be fantastic.

This Week:  UCLA (lost to Cal 43-17) vs. Utah (lost to USC 28-38)

This could turn in to a really ugly game.  Both of these teams suffered disappointing losses last week.  Utah had USC on the ropes and had some points gifted to them.  They took an early lead only to get dominated in the second half.  It’s been a very disappointing season for the Utes thus far.  I only wrote that sentence so I could use the phrase ‘thus far’.  UCLA played their worst game of the season and, like a true UCLA team, got drilled by an opponent they should have beaten.  Now, they’ll try to regroup.  If they’re a true UCLA team they probably won’t regroup.

Byes this week:  Oregon, Arizona

Oregon is good.  Arizona is probably the best 0-3 conference team in the country but that doesn’t mean they’re good.  The Wildcats let Josh Nunes beat them last week.  Husky fans will laugh at that.  Matt Scott and Ka’deem Carey are on fire right now though.  As a Husky fan, I don’t like that Arizona has a bye the week before they play us.  As a Husky fan, I don’t like Oregon.

I plan to preview the USC-UW game a little more on Friday.  After the jump we move on to the mascot melee on one of the more controversial Olympic sports.  Continue reading →

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by | October 3, 2012 · 9:39 pm

Around The Pac-12 – Week 6

This week, on ‘Around the Pac-12′, we’re debuting something new.  It’s something exciting and extremely informative.  It’s a mascot ranking!  Every week I’ll think of categories or events and rank the mascots based on how well they’ll do.  If you’ve read these posts at all, you know that I enjoy sports team’s mascots.  Since we’re out of non-conference play I don’t have the opportunity to find new mascots.  Last week Matthew came up with this idea and I’m going to run with it.  It may turn into its own weekly post.  For now, the mascot rankings will fall after the jump* so that you get all of the informative stuff and have the opportunity to stop reading if ridiculous rankings aren’t your thing.

* Of course, I will still be making jokes and dumb comments in the informative part of this post.

This Week:  Arizona (lost to Oregon State 38-35) at Stanford (lost to Washington 17-13)

Well, we know what happened with Stanford last week.  Their quarterback won’t be able to win games for them.  Fortunately for the Cardinal, he won’t have to.  What is also concerning is that Stanford couldn’t just push around the Huskies.  They do that against most of the Pac-12 and it will be interesting to see if they will be able to do this for the rest of season.  Arizona is starting to look like the team we thought they were in the pre-season.  Arizona can and will score quite a few points but it doesn’t seem as if the defense will be able to hold many teams down.  They’ve given up 87 points in the last 2 games.  Of course, this was against the two Oregon schools, two of the best teams in the conference.  This is an intriguing match-up and could really provide some clarity in the Pac-12 race.

This Week:  California (lost to Arizona State 27-17) vs. UCLA (beat Colorado 42-14)

The Golden Bears are now 1-4.  They have played tough against Ohio State and Arizona State but simply don’t seem to have the quarterback to win games.  They have the talent and I think they’ll start to win a few more in the weeks coming, but this isn’t the start to the season they’d imagined.  UCLA did what they were supposed to do last week and beat Colorado fairly easily.  They have moved to 4-1 and could wind up having a pretty interesting South division race with ASU and USC.  That’s something I didn’t think I’d say at the beginning of the season.  This week provides a battle of the bears and I really don’t know which bear is superior.  Probably the one that’s not a statue.

This Week:  Oregon State (beat Arizona 38-35) vs. WSU (lost to Oregon 51-26)

Oregon State continues to show that they are the most improved team in the conference, and maybe the country.  I don’t think they’ll continue to win every single game but winning 9 or 10 games is definitely a possibility now.  It’s tough to win in the desert and that’s exactly what the Beavers did.  They should improve to 4-0 this week.  Wazzu played Oregon pretty tough in the first half.  The Ducks played a pretty simple defense against them and didn’t blitz often in the first half, which showed the rest of the conference what not to do.  The Cougars are improving but I don’t know if it will be enough to win another game this season.  They’re up against a stiff opponent this week.

This Week:  USC at Utah 

Both of these teams had a bye last week.  This game is on Thursday night.  Utah has been fairly bad all year and are playing well-below pre-season expectations.  Even though USC has only one loss, they are playing below expectations as well.  They have the talent that makes me think it’s only a matter of time before they get rolling but it may never happen.  They should win this week though.

Byes:  Colorado (lost to UCLA 42-14), Arizona State (beat California 27-17)

Colorado got back to their normal way of life this week after their miracle in Pullman.  That might have something to do with UCLA being a much better team than WSU.  Barring something crazy, Colorado will finish the season 1-11 and Jon Embree will join Jeff Tedford in unemployment or having toasty buns from the hot seat he’s sitting on.  Arizona State is headed in the other direction, but I do question their level of opponent.  Their defense appears to be strong but I don’t know if the offense has enough playmakers.  Time will tell.  For now, they have to be feeling good sitting at 4-1.

That’s all the match-ups.  Now, on to the good stuff after the jump!

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by | September 26, 2012 · 10:10 am

Around the Pac-12 – Week 5

After last weeks brief hiatus, ‘Around the Pac-12′ is back with a vengeance!  Since Matthew already laid out how the Pac-12 teams are doing this week, I can devote this whole post to mascots.  Just kidding.  Sort of.  Now that we’re in Pac-12 play, I’ll use a little bit of a different format that won’t be as organized and won’t be in alphabetical order.  Hooray for changes that make things worse!  Well, if you still want to read this after me telling you all of this I don’t know what will stop you.  Here we go!

This Week: Arizona (Lost to Oregon 49-0) vs. Oregon State (Beat UCLA 27-20)

Before last week, these were two of the surprise teams in the Pac-12.  Arizona’s shine has worn off since the shellacking they were served at Auzten.  Arizona’s offense couldn’t convert in the red-zone and then the Ducks turned it on in the second half, like they usually do.  The Wildcats are now 3-1, which is nothing to sneeze at if you look at their schedule thus far.  Unless you’re allergic to the teams that they’ve played.  Oregon State went in to Pasadena and continued to surprise.  This is the first week in which they haven’t had 2 weeks to prepare for a team, which is really odd but their first game was postponed.  The Beavers are unquestionably better but I don’t know if they have the staying power or the strength to stay at the top of the conference.  This game will tell more about the Beavers than it will the Wildcats.  Winning in Arizona is difficult and Oregon State pulls it off it may be time to take them seriously.  Arizona has their quarterback, Matt Scott, a little bit banged up and needs to rebound from their blowout loss.  This is probably the most interesting Saturday game in the Pac-12.

This Week: Arizona State (Beat Utah 37-7) at California (Lost to USC 27-9)

This game is a story of two programs going in different directions.  The Sun Devils looked impressive for most of the out of conference schedule and then walloped Utah in the conference opener.  The level of opponent is fair to question in all of their victories, but they have won emphatically.  I’m not sure why more of us didn’t see this coming though.  Yes, they lost a lot of seniors last year but they were a decent team who probably should have won the Pac-12 South.  They got off to a hot start but then collapsed and gave up as the year went on.  Maybe they’ll do that again this year, but the program is in better shape than many people gave it credit for.  California is an absolute mystery.  They are one of the most talented teams in the conference but look terrible.  They have lost to Nevada, Ohio State and USC.  Except for Nevada they aren’t bad losses and were expected before the year.  They struggled against an FCS school and just don’t seem to be well coached or execute very well.  The Golden Bears have the talent to turn it around but I don’t think that they will.  If they are going to turn it around, it needs to happen this week with a strong showing against the Sun Devils.  Unfortunately, a golden bear probably isn’t able to move or do much of anything aside from looking majestic and expensive as a statue.  Assuming a Sun Devil is just a devil in the sun (?) I don’t think they should have an easy edge.  Unless it’s raining.

This Week: Colorado (Beat WSU 35-34) vs. UCLA (Lost to Oregon State 20-27)

Last week, Colorado inexplicably earned what will be their lone victory of the year against the team who plays in the ugly part of Washington state.    Yes, a win was good for them but they are bad.  Watch the highlights of that game and then watch the highlights of any other Pac-12 game last week.  You’ll notice quite a difference.  It would be a shock if the Buffaloes won another game this season.  They’ll probably be double-digit underdogs in every game left on their schedule.  UCLA showed people that they still are UCLA.  The Bruins have to be inconsistent or something is wrong with the universe.  Oregon State could turn out to be a good team and the loss will look fine but people were anointing the Bruins to be USC’s competition in the south.  I heard pundits say that they would go undefeated through 8 or 10 games.  Haha.  They have talent and an impressive victory over Nebraska, otherwise they haven’t done much yet.  We’ll see going forward.  With that being said, UCLA won’t have a problem this week.  This is my favorite mascot match-up of the week.  A Bruin fighting a Buffalo would probably be more entertaining than this game will be.

This Week:  Oregon (beat Arizona 49-0) at WSU (lost to Colorado 35-34)

Maybe I shouldn’t say this game is at WSU because it’s in Seattle.  There will probably be close to as many Duck fans as there are Cougar fans in the stands.  The WSU players who spoke to the media this week weren’t exactly happy that this game is in Seattle.  One of them said they ‘deserve to play at Martin Stadium’.  That quote is laughable and undeniably true, although it’s not true for the reason he meant it to be.  The Cougars lost in amazing fashion last week.  Oregon won easily last week.  This should be a blow-out, although WSU has kept it close against the Ducks in recent years.  I worry about Mike Leach throwing his players under the bus after too many losses.  I think it will happen at some point this season and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the team quit on him.

Utah (Lost to Arizona State 37-7) This Week: Bye

What happened to Utah?  They were supposed to be USC’s only competition in the south and now they look like the second to worst team in that division.  Their quarterback is bad, their running back is hurt, and their defense is over-rated.  This team could turn it around but, right now, they aren’t close to pre-season expectations.

USC (Beat California 27-9) This Week: Bye

The Trojans won but it wasn’t extremely impressive.  Their passing game is lacking for some reason and they were carried by their running game this week.  I still think they could turn it around and make the Rose Bowl but they aren’t the team that we saw at the end of last year.

As always, we’ll be previewing the Stanford-Washington game in a while.  In fact, I’m working on an extra post on the Huskies for later today.  Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading!

Andrew

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by | September 13, 2012 · 8:57 pm

The Good Guys Pac-12 Picks – Week 3

These posts always seems a little empty to me, so before I jump into the predictions I wanted to recap the posts that were put up this week, just in case you missed them. I had the joyous task of recapping the UW-LSU debacle. I also looked ahead to what the Huskies need to accomplish in that game. We had our weekly preview of other Pac-12 games, as well. My favorite post of the week was written by Matthew. The post is about Arizona State Sun Devil, Deantre Lewis.

Now, for the predictions. We weren’t great last week, but with all the upsets all of us turned in with a record of 8-4. We still all have the same record (18-6), which is interesting since there have been a few different picks throughout these first 2 weeks. There are some interesting games this week, but expect quite a few games where we all predict the same team to win. Here we go!

Arizona vs. South Carolina State

The Good Guys: Arizona

Arizona State at Missouri

Matthew: Arizona State

Andrew, Dan, Joe: Missouri

California at Ohio State

The Good Guys: Ohio State

Colorado at Fresno State

The Good Guys: Fresno State

Oregon vs. Tennessee Tech

The Good Guys: Oregon :(

Stanford vs. USC

The Good Guys: USC

UCLA vs. Houston

The Good Guys: UCLA

Utah vs. BYU

Andrew, Dan: Utah

Matthew, Joe: BYU

WSU at UNLV (Friday)

The Good Guys: WSU

Standings:

Everyone is tied at 18-6

As always, Washington Husky predictions will come tomorrow with a bit more analysis to them. Thanks for reading!

Andrew

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by | September 6, 2012 · 3:22 pm

The Good Guys Pac-12 Picks – Week 2

The first week brought on games that weren’t exactly difficult to predict.  There was the Colorado upset and the Cal upset.  Joe correctly predicted the Colorado upset but his pick of WSU didn’t come anywhere near to fruition.  Blame his man crush on Marquess Wilson for that pick.  This week there are a few more marquee games and chances for upset.  If there was a week for the Pac-12 to make a statement, this is it.  I wrote a few sentences about each team earlier in the week if you’re looking for a little more of a preview.  But, here are our picks for the week.  If you are so inclined, please put your picks in the standings and see how you stack up against the Good Guys!  Here we go!

Arizona vs. Oklahoma State

The Good Guys: Oklahoma State

Arizona State vs. Illinois

Joe, Matthew, and Dan: Arizona State

Andrew:  Illinois

California vs. Southern Utah

The Good Guys:  California

Colorado vs. Sacramento State

The Good Guys:  Colorado

Oregon vs. Fresno State

The Good Guys:  Oregon :(

Oregon State vs. Wisconsin

The Good Guys:  Wisconsin

Stanford vs. Duke

The Good Guys:  Stanford

UCLA vs. Nebraska

Joe, Matthew, Dan:  Nebraska

Andrew:  UCLA

USC at Syracuse

The Good Guys:  USC

Utah at Utah State

The Good Guys:  Utah

WSU vs. Eastern Washington

The Good Guys:  WSU

Good Guys Pac-12 Pick Standings:

Everyone is tied at 10-2

Thanks for stopping by!

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by | September 3, 2012 · 9:57 pm

Around The Pac-12 – Week 2

The first week of college football is done and over with.  That’s kind of sad when you think about it, but there’s no time to reflect because we must press on.  Before I move on to telling you dumb things about the rest of the Pac-12, I’ll cover just a few Husky notes.  The expected news broke today that Jesse Callier and Hau’oli Jamora will be out for the rest of the season.  Callier is a blow and the running back depth is very low.  He was the guy with the most experience back there and one of the most talented.  The true freshman, Erich Wilson, will now be the second running back and I expect him to play pretty well (he did in the opener).  He could have an impact that Callier did his freshman year.  The Jamora news was expected, but it’s too bad for the young man.  Also, tonight Sark admitted on the radio show that he kept the offense vanilla for the opener.  He said they have other running plays in their back pocket that they think will be ran effectively.  I truly think you’ll see a different offense this week.  Of course, the opponent is a very stiff test.  Anyway, on to the rest of the Pac-12!

Arizona – Beat Toledo 24-17 OT – Coming Up: vs. Oklahoma State

Arizona’s game against Toledo wasn’t an over-inspiring opener for Rich Rodriguez.  They did gain a ton of yards and would have scored a bunch of points if it weren’t for turnovers.  This week, they play a team who just scored 379 points in one game (not really).  Oklahoma State will test the Arizona defense and probably over-match them.  The Cowboys have beat Arizona 73-24 over their last two years of playing.  Good luck, Rich Rod!  I can’t believe I haven’t called him that yet.

Arizona State – Beat Northern Arizona 63-6 – Coming Up: vs. Illinois

The Sun Devils played spoiler to Northern Arizona’s dreams of a perfect season.  That’s a ridiculous thing to say but I bet the Northern Arizona players were dreaming of a perfect season, so stop being so disrespectful.  A much stiffer test come this against Illinois.  No, Illinois isn’t a top 25 team but they are a mediocre Big-10 team who could challenge for a bowl.  We could learn more about Arizona State this week!  Unless we don’t watch or read about them.  It’s hard to learn about something without observation.

California – Lost to Nevada 24-31 – Coming Up: vs. Southern Utah

This was probably the Pac-12′s worst loss of the week.  I didn’t think the Golden Bears would lose and I expected them to be in the upper-echelon of the conference.  This could be a blip on the radar or it could be the beginning of the end of Jeff Tedford.  This week they play Southern Utah.    Southern Utah’s mascot is the Thunderbird.  Cal will probably drop their wrath on the Thunderbirds.  This is because Southern Utah is bad, not because a Thunderbird isn’t powerful.  They sound very powerful.

Colorado – Lost to Colorado State 22-17 – Coming Up:  vs. Sacramento State

Colorado had the other bad loss for the conference this week.  No one expected them to be good, so it’s not surprising but it doesn’t help the Pac-12′s reputation.  This week they play Sacramento State.  I would make some remark about Sacramento State but they beat Oregon State last year so they’ve earned some respect.  Still, this shouldn’t be much of a game as Sac. State lost to New Mexico State 49-19 last Thursday.

Oregon – Beat Arkansas State 57-34 – Coming Up: vs. Fresno State

If you hadn’t already heard this score, you’d probably think, “Wow!  That’s a lot of points Oregon gave up!”  It’s true that they gave up a lot of points but they were also ahead 50-3 midway through the second quarter.  Good for Chip Kelly to not be like Oklahoma State and score 522 points (they didn’t really score that many).  Although it is a little strange that the Duck’s backups gave up that many points.  I still wouldn’t really look far into that.  This week the dreadful team from Eugene continues it’s non-conference gauntlet against a mediocre at best Fresno State team.  At least we’ll get to find out more about Oregon’s backups these first few weeks!

Oregon State – Postponed vs. Nicholls State – Coming Up: vs. Wisconsin

It’s amazing how quickly something can change your perception on a game.  For some reason I thought that the Beavers played at Wisconsin this week.  I didn’t give them a chance.  Once I looked it up and saw that wasn’t the case I thought that an upset could occur.  Wisconsin is a very good team who should beat Oregon State but that’s a tough place to play.  Unfortunately for the Beavers, they weren’t able to get the kinks out last week because their game was postponed.  An upset would be a stretch, but I’m guessing that this game might be a little closer than people think.  I’m usually wrong though, so sorry Beaver fans.  Some of you seem nice and I don’t mean to ruin your chances.

Stanford – Beat San Jose State 20-17 – Coming Up: vs. Duke

If you’re feeling bad about the Huskies opener, I suggest you look to northern California to feel bad.  The Golden Bears lost to a team from Nevada, which shouldn’t happen and the Trees had to do everything in their might to beat a state team from a city.  If you can make sense of that sentence, congratulations.  Stanford looked bad in their opener.  Maybe worse than everyone aside from Wazzu.  I don’t expect them to be bad going forward and I think that if you survive the first week you should celebrate.  Still, they have some major question marks and didn’t look like the physical team we’d grown accustomed to.  This week they face off against Duke in a battle of very smart football players.

UCLA – Beat Rice 49-24 – Coming Up: vs. Nebraska

Of all the Pac-12 teams, UCLA might have had the most impressive opener.  They went on the road and beat a team by 25 points.  That’s not an easy thing to do, even if that team was the Rice Owls.  This week they face a much stiffer test, because they’ll be sore.  Wait, that’s not right.  They’ll face a much stiffer test in opponent in Nebraska.  I have my doubts about the Bruins putting up another 49 points against Nebraska but I don’t think a win is out of the question.  UCLA has been known to surprise in their non-conference schedule.  Plus, I’d take a Bruin over a Cornhusker any day.

USC – Beat Hawaii 49-10 – Coming Up: at Syracuse

USC’s first offensive play of the season was a touchdown.  There will be many more of those plays coming.  The Trojans are very good and look to improve as they face Syracuse in New Jersey this Saturday.  This shouldn’t be much of a game, as Syracuse is about the same kind of team as Hawaii (that being mediocre).  I’ve heard that Matt Barkley will stay and play for the New York Jets on Sunday, as well.  Take that Tebow and Mark Sanchez fans!  Are there any Mark Sanchez fans?

Utah – Beat Northern Colorado 41-0 – Coming Up: at Utah State (Friday)

Utah beat a bad team.  This week they’ll play a slightly better team and will probably win, but by fewer points. How’s that for analysis?  Some team’s pre-season’s just aren’t fun.  I’d rather see my school play against one really good team (or at least a unique team) than a whole bunch of uninteresting team.  I’ll see how I feel about this thought after LSU injures every single starting player the Huskies have.

WSU – Lost to BYU 30-6 – Coming Up: Eastern Washington

Wow, the Cougars looked bad.  I didn’t expect them to have such a difficult time scoring.  If the team plays like that for the rest of the season, Jeff Tuel will be injured and they’ll only win 3 or 4 games.  This game is one that they will win.  They should have no problem with Eastern Washington, although we’ve seen bad things happen against the Eagles.  I think we’ll see improvement from the Cougars as the year goes on.  I just hope it happens at a Paul Wulff improvement rate.  Sorry Coug fans, I couldn’t help myself.

Over all, it was a pretty underwhelming week for the conference.  There were a few close games that shouldn’t have been close and a few losses that should have been wins.  The Pac-12 has a chance to make a statement this week, although week 1 didn’t boost anyone’s confidence.  Here’s to a few upsets!

Thanks for reading!

Andrew

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