Pac 10 Season Review

Due to some life issues I haven’t been able to update my blog for some weeks, and those weeks turned out to be some of the most shocking, and as an Oregon fan depressing, in my time of viewing college football which dates back to the early 1980's. When I last posted the Oregon Ducks were riding high as #2 in the country and Dennis Dixon was the clear front runner for the Heisman. Now Oregon has lost 3 in a row, were knocked out of the top 25, shut out for the first time since 1985 and became the first home team to lose the Civil War since 1993! To think that I was actually worried about finding a flight and hotel to New Orleans seems almost comical now. When I look back on 2007 and all that happened I will always remember how close that Oregon came. For the first time in their history I think they can argue that had Dennis Dixon not been hurt (and the injuries to Brian Paysinger, Cameron Colvin, Jeremiah Johnson and Brady Leaf were all very painful to the Oregon cause as well) Oregon had the best team in the country. Everything changed on that dropped touchdown by Derrick Jones for Oregon. I believe the players, especially Dennis Dixon have shown an immense amount of heart, this coming from a program that has been criticized for lacking heart since the departure of Jeff Tedford and Joey Harrington. In other news the Rose Bowl, by choosing Illinois over say a Georgia team, caused the ASU Sun Devils to not be invited to a BCS game. The Pac 10 had looked like a lock for 2 BCS bids and then ended up finding themselves with only one. The Trojans should eviscerate Illinois while ASU faces a fairly subpar Texas game in the Holiday Bowl in a game I would not be surprised to see ASU come out quite flat in. The last three weeks has seen the announcement that two of the Pac 10 coaches will not be returning next season in Bill Doba and Karl Dorrell. Neither of these are shocks while in news that may have seemed surprising 6 weeks ago Ty Willingham and Mike Stoops will be back with Washington and Arizona next season. All that awaits this year is bowl season and you could make the argument that every school that qualified for a bowl has to be a bit disappointed at where they ended up.

Awards:
Offensive POY: Dennis Dixon ,Oregon
Defensive POY: Sedrick Ellis, USC
Coach of the Year: Dennis Erickson, ASU
Freshman of the Year: Jahvid Best, Cal
Coaching hot seat rakings
1. Bill Doba – already fired
2. Karl Dorrell – already fired
3. Ty Willingham – Needs to go to a bowl in 2008
4. Mike Stoops – Ditto, with a senior QB no excuse not to
5. Mike Bellotti – Will not leave unless it is on his terms or if he did something to anger Knight, has lost a lot of the fan base over poor clock management, the Dixon injury and stupid comments in the press
6. Mike Riley – Back to back great years but the fans will always prefer Erickson
7. Jeff Tedford – I could only see him leaving on his own terms but losing 6 of 7 to end the year and losing to Stanford is just plain bad
8. Jim Harbaugh – He did something that no other team has accomplished since the 02 WSU Cougars, beat Cal and USC in the same season
9. Dennis Erickson – Riding high in Tempe we shall see how long he lasts there
10. Pete Carroll – The only thing that will make him leave is an amazing NFL offer or the Reggie Bush scandal blowing up big time

Bowl predictions

USC over Illinois
Texas over ASU
South Florida over Oregon
BYU over UCLA
Oregon State over Maryland
Air Force over Cal
LSU over Ohio State

I will get my first chance to see Oregon play live in basketball in 2 years tomorrow as I will be at the Pape Jam at the Rose Garden tomorrow.