Pac-10 Ramblings

by user Deuelio

Football season is only a couple of weeks away with fall camps opening for many schools in early August. As per usual, around this time emails start flying around the office, trash is begun to be talked and tickets are purchased. Because of this, I give you my Pac-10 ramblings.

1. USC will lose at least one game this year. I don’t think they can lose everything they lost and still reload. They will really begin to see the loss of Norm Chow this season. Get your kicks in while you can, because the Men of Troy always recruit the best players and they will reload quickly. I say they lose at least one Pac-10 game this season.
2. Is there a tougher place to recruit to than Washington State? It makes what Mike Price did there so impressive for anyone who has seen that area. The fact that the Cougs go toe-to-toe with locales like Tempe, LA, downtown Seattle and the Bay Area is not lost on me. Price had that team in the top-20 every year despite this issue.
3. USC seems like the Miami of four or five years ago. Remember, the Hurricanes were riding a 30+ win streak and came into the BCS title game against Ohio State expected to win. Well, the Buckeyes pulled off the win in OT and Miami hasn’t been the same since. They lost Ken Dorsey, Willis McGahee and other key people off that team. The similarities are there with USC. 30+ game win streak, BCS title game loss, and the loss of much of the offense. To top it off, several former and current Trojans are under investigation for various misdeeds and transgressions. Will they put all the distractions aside and romp through the Pac-10 again? My guess is no.
4. Other than the victory over USC three years ago, what has been Jeff Tedford’s signature win? I would say Oregon’s shellacking of Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl is Tedford’s signature win. But since he’s taken over at Cal, he’s been labeled as the next big thing and all they’ve done is join the top half of the conference without actually winning anything in particular. This year they appear to be loaded. If they can find a quarterback to go with their offensive weaponry, they should be very good. Cal hosts Oregon, travels to USC and they also open at Tennessee which will be an interesting game because you know Tennessee will be looking to re-establish themselves as a power and Cal will be looking to gain some respectability nationwide.
5. Oregon is an interesting program. They’ve been consistent appearing in bowls and having winnings seasons. I think the constant shuffling of uni’s is distracting and makes them a novelty nationwide. But the players love them and get to design them so I believe they can use it as a recruiting tool. On the field, the Ducks have their best talent they’ve ever had. They’re in year two of the Gary Crowton experiment so the new QB’s should be acclimated to the terminology and nuances. Oregon has a brutal schedule and if they can make it through with just one loss, they could be playing for a national title. They travel to Fresno State, host Oklahoma, to Arizona State, to Cal, to Washington State, to USC, and to Oregon State. I say there is no way they lose just one of those games, but more likely four. Given their starting position, if they start out with four wins in a row (Stanford, Okalahoma, @ ASU, @ Cal) they’ll be top five. They could start 1-3 and I wouldn’t be surprised.
6. Oregon has 48 uniform combinations. Just let that sink in.
7. UCLA will come back to earth this year and I think Dorrell is done after this season. UCLA goes to Oregon, Cal and ASU and hosts USC. I don’t see Dorrell lasting past this season after losing the players he lost.
8. Get your punches in on Washington while you can because I believe Willingham can restore them back to prominence. Seattle is a great destination to recruit to and the tradition of success is great. My guess is that Willingham revitalizes the program, but will he be there to see them take the leap, or will he be shown the door Notre Dame style?
9. Dirk Koetter has got to be feeling a little heat at ASU. Another perennial favorite in the Pac-10, the Sun Devils typically start fast and then finish slow. When that happens, ASU’s home field advantage goes away as fans realize there is enough to do in Tempe that they don’t have to support a middling program. ASU should be a power year in and year out, but for some reason they just never put it together for a full season. This year, with two of the Pac-10’s better returning QB’s, the offense will be stacked, but will the defense let them down an offensive minded conference?
10. Oregon State may surprise a lot of people this year. Matt Moore needs to improve, but the Beavs return all five starting O-lineman, the conference’s leading returning rusher, and one of the conference’s top tight ends from injury. Plus they host all the key conference games, Cal, ASU, Oregon, USC but travels to UCLA. They are ripe for an eight win season.
11. Arizona is another sleeper. Mike Stoops always brings in good recruiting classes but they can never get the thing going. He’s won six games and just four against NCAA 1A teams yet he consistently brings in good recruiting classes. They will have two of the more entertaining players in the conference with defensive back Antoine Cason and sophomore QB Willie Tuitama. Will Stoops finally figure out how to coach on game day or does he just excel in living rooms and on phone calls?
12. I’ve discussed Doba and WSU already but I’ve got a feeling he’s done after this year. How do you sell a kid from Southern California to relocate to Pullman? I don’t know, maybe he should ask Price, who brought in a quarterback from Hawaii of all places. That’s some serious recruiting. I’ve digressed. I hear Dennis Erickson is just across stateliness in Idaho. Do you think that he’s itching to return to a BCS conference to prove that his work at OSU was legit? I would look out for “Hurricane Dennis” (as he is known around here) to turn up at WSU when Doba is canned.
13. …or at Washington if Willingham has another brutal season or two in Seattle. Either way, I predict that Erickson is back in the Pac-10 within two years.
14. Oregon has 48 uniform combinations.
15. …if they wanted too, they could have 96 guys on the sideline and only TWO would have the same uniform on.
16. If you combined Mike Stoops and Mike Riley, you would have Mike Ditka and a pretty good football coach. But on their own, they struggle. Stoops can recruit and scream during games, but can’t get out of his own way on the sideline. Riley is the exact opposite. Comatose during games, but is a great X’s and O’s coach but doesn’t recruit well and his players commit some of the dumber penalties in Pac-10 history.
17. Walt Harris…anyone?….Bueller? Is this thing on? I kid, but he is kind of dry. I think he’s a good coach however because he went 4-4 in the Pac-10 with loses to Cal, USC, Oregon and UCLA….the top four teams in the Pac-10. They beat Arizona State and had Notre Dame on the ropes until late in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately for Harris, the only thing many people will remember is 20-17.
18. …UC Davis finished 5-6 last year and beat Stanford at Stanford. That was a serious strike against Harris and the Cardinal. It will be interesting to see what affect their new stadium has on their team, recruiting and the culture of the program.
19. 48 uniform combinations.
20. As I’ve pounded through these thoughts I’ve sort of backtracked from my USC will be down comments from earlier. They had four and five star recruits sitting the bench last year just dying to play. Booty would have started for many teams in the country and their defense is going to be stellar. Thinking about Oregon, only Haloti Ngata and possibly Kellen Clemens would have been on USC’s two-deep depth chart last year. Cal, ASU and Oregon will challenge USC but all of those games are in LA. I’m liking USC’s chances now. In addition to the Pac-10 schedule, USC will travel to Arkansas for their season opener and then host Nebraska the following week before traveling to Arizona for the conference opener. We’ll get a good looksee at what USC has early on.
21. Fun games to watch:

Arizona – Sept 9 at LSU - We'll get an early look at what Stoops has and how competitive the 'Cats will be when they travel to LSU. Will they pull an OSU from a few years back and take LSU to the brink? Um...no.

Arizona State – Sept. 16 at Colorado; Sept. 23 at Cal; Sept. 30 vs. Oregon – Rough three game schedule for the Devils and it will show what they’re made of.

Cal – Sept. 2 at Tennessee; Oct. 7 vs. Oregon; Nov. 18 at USC - If the UT game was at Cal, they’d probably be favored big-time, but it will be interesting to see what Tennessee has after a disappointing last season. Oregon and Cal have played great games the last two years and the USC game could decide the Pac-10 champs.

Oregon – Sept. 9 at Fresno State; Sept. 16 vs. Oklahoma; Sept. 30 at Arizona State; Oct. 7 at Cal; Nov. 11 at USC - That’s five potential losses for a pretty good Duck team. However, if Oregon gets through Oct. 7 unbeaten, they’ll probably be in the top five nationally.

OSU – Not much, Sept. 7 at Boise State - They’ve had good games lately and BSU is always dying to beat up on their BCS big brothers. This could be trouble for the Beavs.

Stanford – Sept. 2 at Oregon; Oct. 7 at Notre Dame - Season opener is at Oregon and both teams will be pressing to start 1-0, especially for the Ducks because of the next four games. If Stanford knocks off Oregon, they could be going into Washington on Sept. 23, 4-0. A win there puts them at 5-0 on the way to South Bend, Indiana for a showdown with the Fighting Irish.

UCLA – Sept. 2 vs. Utah; Oct. 14 at Oregon; Oct. 21 at Notre Dame - Utah will be geared up, but UCLA should take this one. The Bruins could be 5-0 heading into Oregon. Notre Dame is a national title contender but play a brutal schedule.

USC – Filled to the brim. Sept. 2 at Arkansas; Sept. 16 vs. Nebraska; Nov. 11 vs. Oregon; Nov. 18 vs. California; Nov. 25 vs. Notre Dame - Five very intriguing games, and USC will probably be favored in all. Three big games in November all at home. This will be a tough schedule for the Trojans but they’ve got the personnel to make it work. I’d watch out for Arkansas, I imagine they’ll want to exact some revenge for last year’s 70-7 thrashing at the hands of USC.

Washington – Sept. 9 at Oklahoma; Sept. 16 vs. Fresno State - I say the Huskies go 0-2 in these two games, but they will be interesting to watch from a Pac-10 perspective.

Washington State – Sept. 2 at Auburn - Season opener and it could be ugly for the Cougs. They’ve got a nice pair of WR’s, but a suspect quarterback and they lost the conference’s leading rusher in Jerome Harrison.

Date

Thu 07/20/06, 7:04 am EST