The Beast's Pac 10 Football Preview
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by user The Beast
1. USC Please don't be Miami, the signs are there. Miami had the "greatest team of all-time" in 2001 and then lost an all-timer national title game to Ohio State in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. The year after without QB Ken Dorsey and several other stars, the Canes slipped a bit. USC had the "greatest team of all-time" the last two years, but capped off last season with the loss to Texas in the Rose Bowl. Despite the fact that they break new players in, USC has first class talent. John David Booty or Mark Sanchez have the best receiving courpse in the entire country, Dwayne Jarrett, Steve Smith, and Fred Davis. Tailback Chauncy Washington may stun America this season as he could quietly become a Heisman Trophy Canidate, since he is running behind a superb offensive line. The defense should be better, with the addition of new defensive coordinator Nick Holtz. Holtz was a former linebackers coach at SC in 2003. He is a fiery coach, and the defense seemed to get worse ever since his departure. USC still might have enough juice to compete for a national title, and definately the Pac 10 crown.
2. California The potential is there for a really, really big season. Cal starts off at Tennessee, and even though the Vols might still be hung over from last year, that would be a fantastic win to give the program a shot of confidence. The offense has too much firepower and the defense has too many returning playmakers to not shoot for a trip to the BCS. The offense could explode if a quarterback emerges from the group. Cal has two nasty road games after the trip to Knoxville playing at Washington State and at USC, so. 9-2 or 10-1 isn't completely out of the question.
3. Arizona State This has to be the year. The quarterback situation is fantastic with Sam Keller and Rudy Carpenter battling it out to see who one of the nation's top passers will be. The rest of the offense is one of the nation's best. ASU shows how deep the Pac 10 is this year. They would easily be one of the best teams in the Big East, Big XII, or the ACC, and they are third best team here on the West Coast. The defense can't be much worse, so the hope has to be that ASU can simply outbomb teams. While they aren't ready to crash the BCS they need to get to the Holiday Bowl, or even more. The Devils can't have any sulk fests like there were after the USC loss; the team has to get up for every game. That's up to the coaching staff.
4. Oregon The Ducks feel disrespected. That "no one loves us" whine didn't work for the Holiday Bowl, but it could serve as motivation going into the season. The offense should be able to compete with anyone else in America, and it'll have plenty of chances to show what it can do on a national scale in games against Oklahoma, at Arizona State, at Cal and at USC. The Oklahoma game will be huge for them in mid-September. They should beat Stanford and Fresno State in the first two weeks. Already being well-seasoned and playing in Autzen Stadium might be enough for the Ducks to ruin the Sooners' title dreams.
5. Arizona
The Cats goota be sharper. Turnovers killed Arizona last year, and there weren't enough big plays from the defense to make up for the problems on offense. The quarterback situation is finally in place, with Willie Tutima taking over the reigns. Arizona lost five games by a touchdown or less, so if all the little things can be taken care of, and there's just a wee bit more production from both sides of the ball, a winning season is possible.
6. UCLA Dorrell has to get his baby bears to toughen up. The defense has been too awful for too long, and there's no way the offense can pick up the slack like it did in every game last year. New defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker has already cranked up the intensity several notches this spring, but this isn't a star-studded Defense. Ten wins might be a lot to ask for again with the season-opener against Utah and a road trip to Notre Dame, but there's no reason not be in the Pac 10 title race up until the final two games at Arizona State and at home against USC. If the defense continues to be lousy, UCLA won't win at Oregon or Cal and won't have any shot against the Sun Devils or Trojans. The fate of the Bruins lies in the hands of the Defense.
7. Oregon State It might not take too much tweaking to be really good. The pass defense can't be any worse than last year when it finished 117th in the nation, the team finished last in the Pac 10 in passing efficiency, and 115th in the country in turnover margin. Even so, the Beavers went 5-6 with bad losses to Arizona and Stanford by a total of five points. Considering they get so many returning starters on both sides of the ball, it shouldn't be too hard to improve enough to become a bowl team again.
8. Washington State They could be this year's surprise team. Most of the key players return on defense and enough good skill players come back on offense to be one of the league's top sleepers. The Cougars could be even more of an afterthought after a likely opening day loss at Auburn, but the Pac 10 schedule isn't too bad with USC, Cal and Oregon coming to Pullman and the toughest league road games at UCLA and Arizona State. If Doba doesn't lead these boys to a bowl game he might be on the hot seat.
9. Stanford Don't set the expectations too high. The return of QB Trent Edwards and WR Evan Moore from injury later on this off-season should help the offense shine, but the defense will always have to battle. The schedule is brutal with seven road games (but the San Jose State date could be considered a home date) with games at UCLA, Notre Dame, Arizona State, Oregon and Cal, who all went to bowl games last year, along with a trip to Washington. If that wasn't enough, Stanford has to host USC and bowl-winner Navy. They don't have great leadership at the top, thats you Mr. Harris, to get wins on the road.
10. Washington It's time to be better. This is Washington after all, and it wasn't that long ago when the program was a Pac 10 title and national superpower. I don't understand why people think that Tyrone Willingham is such a great coach. He had one good year at Stanford and one good year at Notre Dame. Two pretty good years do not justify being a great coach. He is conservative, doesn't think outside the box, and has had more losing seasons than bad ones. UW shouldn't have trouble getting good players to come to Seattle, but they need a proper leader, and Ty ain't it.
Date
Wed 07/19/06, 12:08 pm EST
