Week 13 Review, Final Power Poll and Awards

UCLA did the unthinkable and threw a major wrench in to the BCS, USC’s amazing run of being in title games and the travel plans of LSU Tiger Supporters. Kudos to UCLA’s defense for not letting the USC receivers torch them late like the letdown that occurred late in the game against Notre Dame. UCLA showed a nice mix of blitzing and dropping back linebackers in to coverage which seemed to confuse Booty a bit. USC flat out laid an egg but give credit to UCLA who may have turned the corner with an impressive end to the year with wins over ASU, OSU and USC. Cal played quite a flat game against Stanford who gave an excellent effort yet it wasn’t enough to save the job of Walt Harris. The more I think about his firing I am not sure it is a good move. If it was based on his recruiting effort this year then maybe that makes sense but frankly the cupboard was completely bare from the Teevens era and in 2005 outside of the Cal-Davis game Stanford was quite competitive when they had a ton of seniors on the defensive side. It will be interesting to see who takes this job which faces some major issues in high academic standards, lack of recent bowl appearances, a very high cost area and a fan base that can’t be called rabid. A huge issue head coaches face at Stanford is the issue of the high cost of living making it very difficult to attract assistant coaches. $125,000 doesn’t take you very far in Palo Alto when you have a family while the same $125,000 in Pullman, Eugene or Corvallis makes one very well off. As for Cal I look for them to lay a major egg in the Holiday Bowl. This team hasn’t played very well this season against bowl teams outside the games versus ASU and Oregon, despite winning 7 games in conference, and I think that the players much like those at Oregon have been listening too much to their pre-season press clippings. In the final game of the college regular season Oregon State beat a very fired up and dangerous Hawaii team on the road which all things considered was a pretty impressive win. Note to Hawaii fans, stop throwing your trash on the field!

2006 Offensive MVP – Marshuan Lynch, Cal – Honorable mention to John David Booty, USC and Yvensen Bernard OSU.

2006 Defensive MVP – Daymeion Hughes, Cal – Honorable mention to Mkristo Bruce WSU, and Blair Phillips, UO

2006 Coach of the Year – Mike Riley, OSU Honorable mention to Ty Willingham UW and Pete Carroll USC

2006 Newcomer of the Year – Dexter Manley Jr – Honorable mention to Emanuel Moody USC and Chris Henry, UA

2006 Most Disappointing Team – Cal Bears – Dis-honorable mention to Oregon and ASU.

2006 Over Achieving Team – Oregon State Beavers - Honorable Mention – UCLA Bruins and Washington Huskies

2006 Comeback Player of the Year – Matt Moore, OSU – Honorable mention to Nate Longshore, Cal and Isaiah Stanback, UW

2006 Final Power Poll:

USC (1) – When it comes down to it this frankly wasn’t a very good team on the road but even so came within two plays of being in the BCS championship yet again. Going in to the season I figured USC would lose 2 games and that ended up happening. Being that this is a fairly young team with unfinished business I see them being the #1 team in the nation at the start of 2007 as long a Pete Carroll is not coaching the Arizona Cardinals. Team MVP: The entire USC front seven I can’t just single out one guy. They kept the boat afloat for most of the season and gave their much less efficient offense a chance to win every game. Without the defensive improvement seen from the 2005 to 2006 season USC could have finished with 2 or 3 more loses.
UCLA (3) – Major credit goes to UCLA for finishing the season out strong with wins over ASU, OSU and USC after a very difficult middle stretch. Karl Dorrell deserves a contract extension and has things set in the right way for 2007. If the offense opens up a bit more UCLA should be able to compete for the conference title in 2007 though faces the problem off having to play on the road at USC next year. Team MVP: Defensive Coordinator Dewayne Walker: UCLA was a 10 win team last though only because they were able to win a bunch of shootouts. Walker came in and in one year turned UCLA in to team that held both UCLA and Notre Dame to under 20 point games.
OSU (4) – No one outside of the players and coaches probably would have thought after the loss to WSU in the Pac 10 opener at home that OSU would end up with a chance to win 10 games. Kudos to Mike Riley for keeping his team together and not pulling Matt Moore from the starting line-up. Kudos to the Oregon State defense and special teams for taking advantage of almost every mistake made by their often “more talented opponents”. Finally kudos to Matt Moore for ignoring all the garbage thrown his way by OSU fans and students and persevere. Much credit goes to him for not forcing the passes that he did in 2005 so often. A big boo goes to the pathetic Oregon State fans and students, you didn’t deserve the effort your team brought you in 2006. Team MVP Yvensen Bernard, not the biggest of backs but had plenty of heart and put up another 1000 yard season in quiet fashion.
Cal (2) – Frankly 2006 has to go down as a major disappointment for the Cal Bears. The hype machine shown a bit too bright on this team before the season started and things just didn’t work out the way many had predicted. Cal’s defense was not up to snuff even with the amazing Daymeion Hughes being the nations best cornerback. The fall injury to opposite corner and special-teams maven Tim Mixon really hurt this team. If Cal can show the type of defensive improvement that USC and UCLA showed from 2005 to 2006 this is still a team with national title chances in 2007 but one of these days Jeff Tedford will need to live up to the hype. Team MVP: Daymeion Hughes, even in a down year for the Cal defense Hughes still proved to be the best cover corner in America.
ASU (5) – ASU is one of those teams ala Clemson and Michigan State that ever year looks much better on paper than they actually are and ends up showing some flashes of greatness before imploding. 2006 was no exception and the ASU brass decided that a change in direction is what is needed after the debacle of the Carpenter-Keller QB controversy. In college football they say you are what you are. Do I think a new coach will do much better at ASU than Dirk Koetter, no not really. Maybe it is the sun, the co-eds or the party-scene but for some reason ASU always underachieves almost every year and then makes a Rose Bowl every decade or so. Koetter did a nice job ruining Mike Stoops almost breakout season though it was helped by the cheap helmet to helmet shot that may have ended the career of Willy Tuitama. Team MVP: Ryan Torain. ASU was able to run the ball quite effectively in 2006 despite the massive injury damage to the Offensive Line and Rudy Carpenter’s loss of confidence after the Cal game.
UA (6) – Arizona and Mike Stoops were on top of the world after beating Cal and Oregon in back to back November games and a bowl game looked to be in the cards for the first time since the end of the Dick Tomey era. However a soon to be fired Dirk Koetter and ASU came in and ran the ball down the throat of the Wildcat D early and got off to a 21-0 lead. A questionable hit to the helmet knocked out Willy Tuitama giving the promising young man his third major concussion in a little over a year. The thought has to be out there that Tuitama may not be able to complete his career due to the injuries. Arizona is clearly not a very good team offensively without him on the field. A healthy Tuitama in 2007 and this is a team with an outside shot to deliver big in the conference and even challenge for that elusive first Rose Bowl bid, however no Tuitama and all those plans could go up in smoke when everyone brings 9 guys to stop Chris Henry and forcing the Cats in to a one dimensional offense with a substandard back-up QB. Team MVP: Notice a trend here? Willy Tuitama will be the most important offensive player to his team in 2007 if he is indeed able to play.
UO (7)- What started out so promising ended with a “moral victory” in a loss to rival Oregon State in Corvallis. Looking back at the season Oregon was able to put up some terrific numbers against some mediocre teams and got lucky with the whole Oklahoma game which if you turn from a win to a loss gave Oregon only two wins over bowl teams. Bellotti was probably a bit too loyal to Dennis Dixon and in the end probably did more damage to the young man’s confidence by not pulling him earlier in the season say a nice long stint on the bench for the Portland State game. Dixon didn’t improve as the year went on and panicked after early mistakes and unless he shows an improvement a-la Akili Smith from 97 to 98 the Dixon era at Oregon looks to be a disappointment. If Oregon can cut a turnover a game they have the chance to go out and win 10 games next year as the schedule is much more favorable despite a trip to Ann Arbor in September. The question of the off-season will be who is next year’s QB, Brady Leaf or Dennis Dixon. Team MVP: Blair Phillips. Phillips was a warrior on a team that had unbelievable injury issues on the defensive side of the ball. He will be incredibly missed.
UW (8) – At one point this team was 4-1 with only a loss on the road to Oklahoma and was sniffing the Top 25. Then Oregon State came to town put up a nice lead and then the unfortunate career ending injury to Isaiah Stanback occurred and the Washington season went down in flames. Stanback was clearly the heart and soul of this team along with being their only offensive playmaker. As for next year UW will likely sooner or later start the Jake Locker era as the mistake prone Carl Bonnell isn’t likely going to be taking any teams to the promised land soon. Had Stanback not gone down UW at a minimum would have defeated Stanford and would have been bowl eligible. 5 wins was about the upside I saw for Washington this season and that is what they achieved however I give the players who have bought in to coach Ty’s system credit. 2007 may end up being a step back but by 2008 I think UW will be back within the top half of the Pac 10 on a consistent basis. The days of Don James are forever gone but the potential to have a program along the level of what Oregon, UCLA and Cal have now is certainly easily within reach. Team MVP: Isaiah Stanback. If Stanback doesn’t go down and the Dawgs win 7 or 8 games then I might have put him as Pac 10 MVP.
WSU (9) – After beating Oregon and UCLA in October the Cougars found themselves in the Top 25 at 6-3 then they quickly were destroyed by injuries and even lost to a dreadful UW team who had lost by 18 to Stanford the previous week. All in despite some q breakout season by Mkristo Bruce this was not a vintage WSU season and outside of having a starting QB who will be a senior next year I don’t see any reason to think that WSU will have any better of a season next year. Jason Hill was injured and probably made a poor financial choice by not declaring for last season’s draft. Michael Bumpus had a lot of catches but wasn’t the deep threat that was needed to open up the running lanes and the Cougars were not able to be put up the type of yards that Harrison had put up last year. Team MVP: Mkristo Bruce. When healthy this was the scariest man in the league to opposing QB’s and running-backs.
LSJU (10) – The 2006 Stanford campaign will likely go down in as one of the worst in the history of the Pac 10. In the last decade I would probably only compare it to the 2001 season of the Cal Bears. All in all the administration decided to cut the cords with Walt Harris after only two years. Harris did take a Pitt team to the BCS in 2004 however said team only won 7 games and in my opinion was the worst BCS team since the whole thing started back in 1998 with, ironically, the 1999 version of Stanford likely being it’s top competition for the title. There is nothing good to say about the Stanford program right except that they have a pretty stadium. It would be difficult to have a worse 2007 than 2006 to think that Stanford will be back to the level of even 2005 next year is a bit ambitious. Team MVP: The people who designed the stadium redesign. The Cardinal have a pretty new house to play in, if they get a winner back there Stanford games may start becoming fun again.