Pac 10 Power Poll and Week One Review

Oregon had very high hopes going in to their matchup versus Boise State but saw their dreams shattered by an embarrassing offensive performance on the blue turf. The post-game meltdown of LaGarette Blount will be forever remembered as lore in college football perhaps as much as the famous punch that ended the career of Woody Hayes. Chip Kelly’s legacy as a coach may well be defined by how he gets his team to respond to the horrible performance both on and off the field. Blount, I believe, was a divisive force in the locker room but now that he is gone the entire team will either come together and play at the level they are capable of or they could see the season tailspin in to a year ala 2004 where the Ducks find themselves in the unusual position of being outside of the bowl picture. Playing Purdue is probably the best thing for Oregon right now but they are also not a team that they Ducks can automatically beat ala a Portland State. If the Ducks can’t beat Purdue (Autzen Stadium at night, long travel, body clocks thinking the game starts at 10:15) the Ducks will be lucky to beat anyone on the schedule outside of Washington State. If they can regain their mojo on offense versus Purdue the Ducks should be able to get things back on track and finish towards the top of the Pac 10. In the other notable game Washington showed they may have a pulse again in their performance versus LSU. Jake Locker was fairly effective as a drop back passer and Polk gave them a real running threat for the first time in well I can’t remember. The Dawgs have lost 15 straight games but that streak will end this weekend versus the putrid Vandals of Idaho. Stanford looks to be improved but it is tough to gauge anyone when they play WSU but a league road win is still a league road win. Cal, USC, ASU and OSU all rolled up on sub-standard competition but I was particularly impressed by Cal’s demolishing of a Maryland team that beat the Golden Bears last year. Let’s see how the Bears respond to playing Oregon but if they keep it up I think this Cal team has a legit shot to end the USC Pac 10 championship streak. UCLA and Arizona both got wins which is positive but they were not overly impressive. The Cats defense did a good job holding high flying CMU to 6 points but to only score 19 at home versus a MAC team could be some warning signs that Matt Scott could struggle a bit this year to match what Tuitama gave them.
1. USC – USC started out a bit slow versus San Jose State but then ended up putting 56 on the Spartans. Ohio State in Columbus is a much different experience and Matt Barkley may not have as much confidence as he showed in game 1. The Buckeyes played like dung versus Navy but may well have been looking past the Midshipmen to the Trojans. Pryor is a great athlete at QB and the Trojans have suffered a few losses over the years to duel threat quarterbacks in Vince Young and Dennis Dixon. I think USC will squeak out a win versus Ohio State but would by no means be surprised to see Ohio State pull the mild upset.
2. Cal – Dominant performance versus Maryland but this was also to be expected. An ACC team traveling west to play at night against a high powered offense that wants revenge is a recipe for disaster. Cal has a scrimmage versus EWU this weekend so the main key is to avoid injuries.
3. OSU – Not much can be gleaned from the performance versus PSU outside of the fact that Jaquiz Rodgers seems to be on the mend. The Beavs can’t afford a slip up to UNLV but it is a dangerous game for them. The Pac 10 was mauled by the Mountain West last year and that trend needs to be reversed.
4. LSJU – Jim Harbaugh has set the bar high for his Trees and they got a much valued road W in league play. Ofcourse it was against Big Sky front runner Washington State but hey a win is a win. Stanford travels all the way to Winston-Salem this weekend to play Wake Forest. Tough place to play and the travel will be tough but a very important game for Stanford to win if they wish to go to a bowl game for the first time since 2001.
5. UW – Husky Stadium was rocking, UW had some swagger and they gave LSU a battle though the final score was padded by a TD by Washington on the last play of the game. The streak should end versus Idaho if it doesn’t there is something ghastly wrong still with the Huskies. USC awaits the week after as the Trojans continue their tour of loud opposing stadiums to play road games in but I don’t we will get a real gauge as to how much Washington has improved until they face Stanford on the road on 9/26.
6. UO – Not much more needs to be said. The Ducks need to regain focus and need to remember that it is not about your name or how you look but how you play if you want to be a champion. Masoli needs to learn how to check down if he wants to remain a starter and the defense can’t be made to play another 40+ minute game.
7. UA – Solid defensive performance versus a high flying offense means that Stoops defense may be one of the better in the conference. The Cats do have to be concerned about only putting up 19 but they get to scrimmage NAU this weekend before they go out to face an Iowa team that should have lost to FCS member Northern Iowa.
8. ASU – Not a team I have much confidence in and playing Idaho State who is the worst team in the Big Sky means nothing as they have a bye this week the Devils get an incomplete grade from me.
9. UCLA – San Diego State is a terrible team and UCLA got the W versus them but now they have to go to Knoxville to face a revenge minded and seemingly rejuvenated Volunteer team with a freshman QB at the helm. Not a good sign for Kevin Prince or the Bruins who can hopefully rally the next week for Kansas State in Pasadena.
10. WSU – The Cougars played decently against Hawaii last year and this is a winnable game for them as well as next week’s battle versus SMU. If the Cougs can’t pull either of these out they are looking at 0-12 in the face unless they pull another Apple Cup miracle.

Power Poll Week Five

Well the PAC 10 is now down to one undefeated team and for the 7th time in the last 9 games Oregon had it’s starting quarterback injured. This time Jeremiah Masoli was speared on a late hit that really should have led to an ejection but didn’t. For some reason Oregon stubbornly kept running the ball with Chris Harper when everyone in the entire stadium except for Chip Kelly seemed to know that a run was coming every play. Finally in the third quarter Oregon put in Darron Thomas who led the Ducks to 3 touchdowns via the air but it was just not enough. The Ducks have to look back and kick themselves and the loss just added to the fuel of it being USC and the Seven Dwarves. In the AP no Pac 10team is ranked outside of #1 USC. In other news Stanford got a win versus Bay Area rival San Jose State which should have been no surprise. Give Harbaugh credit for not overlooking this rival who has beat the Trees a fair amount of times over the last decade. UCLA was pretty much throttled on their home field by Arizona making it seem even more and more that the Bruins win over Tennessee was a complete fluke. The Bruins have 2 and 10 or 3 and 9 written all over them while Arizona got a big road win it its quest to finally make a bowl game again and maybe save Mike Stoops job. Arizona State showed that the Pac 10 outside of USC in not anywhere near the level of the SEC this year, the Devils weren’t really in this game from the get go and can now mark down 2008 as a likely lost season. Finally the Washington State Cougars found a team they could actually beat, too bad that said team is a mediocre Big Sky team and the Vikings at the same time knocked out the Cougars top two quarterbacks. Gary Rodgers it appears has now played his last game and the Cougs have won their last game unless they catch UW or UCLA on a really flat effort day.
1. USC (1) – Should roll tonight in Corvallis, the only thing that might derail a BCS Championship appearance by USC is having undefeated BIG 12 and SEC teams jump ahead of USC in the final coaches poll then the numbers would be very close and a ton of controversy were occur. This in the end may end up being Carroll’s best squad ever. He’s shown he can recover from the many losses of assistant coaches over the last 5 years that have used USC as a springboard to other jobs.
2. UO (2) – I’d rank them lower if I could, not sure there is much difference between Cal and Oregon right now but even though the Ducks lost they were playing with their 4th and 5th string true freshman quarterbacks most of the game. I’d imagine any team in the country might have struggled with BSU with the same scenario
3. Cal (3)- Cal has a chance to end the Mountain West’s five game advantage against the Pac 10. Absolutely a game Cal cannot drop after a bye week.
4. ASU (4)- The Devils were overmatched versus Georgia and now get a week off before going to Strawberry Canyon in a key game for the Devils to have any shot at the Holiday Bowl. With a game at USC the week after that before hosting Oregon, ASU could find itself with a 5 game losing streak that would likely mean the end of the Carpenter era.
5. UA (6)- Arizona is probably one more road win away from all but locking up a bowl appearance. They get two weeks to prepare for Washington at home.
6. OSU (5)- Oregon State is likely going to be 1-5 after the next two Thursday games. No criticism for losing to USC but I think they over scheduled themselves with having to play Penn State and Utah on the road in the same year. Boo on the fans for not even selling out Bean Dip for USC on national tv. If it weren’t for Duck fans buying up seats the crowd would be even less for this one. Here’s a clue, you’ve known for 8 months the game would be on Thursday, take a half or full day off from work and then all of Friday and make it to the game Beaver County.
7. LSJU (7)- Did what they needed to do and that is beat San Jose State. They have likely their best shot at a Pac 10 road win this week in Seattle, a win is completely needed to keep the bowl hope alive.
8. UW (8)- The Dawgs are the only winless team in the conference and have to be still smarting from the whooping that the Sooners laid on them. Willingham is dead man walking and has been for over a year but a loss here and the walking papers may come Saturday night.
9. UCLA (9) – Have frankly played dreadful offensive football for all but 1 quarter this season. Slick Rick and Nor Chow will need to wait to 2009 to get this baby back on track. Look for Fresno to come in to the Rose Bowl with a ton of fans of rough up a Pac 10 team further negating the value of the conference in the eyes of the nation’s fans and media.
10. WSU (10) – In the battle of 3rd string quarterbacks Washington State is overmatched big time against Oregon. Look for the Ducks to go over 350 yards rushing in a contest that will be decided by the mid second quarter.

Oregon Washington

It is has nothing to do with hoops but Lamar Latrell always makes me laugh. How did that guy make it in to Cobra Kai. Has he been in anything else outside of any of the painfully bad Nerds sequels? Might have to check Imdb on that.

Well Oregon had a late run to get the game almost tied but then there was just too mcuch size and Justin Dentmon down the stretch and the Dawgs pulled away. Dentmon choose a great night to have a have a career day. It seems that Oregon had the scoring to win this game but were killed on the defeonsive boards and Tajuan Porter was exposed defensively by Dentmon. The Ducks may have missed Aaron Brooks more on the defensive side of the ball. I thought Ray Schaefer gave Oregon some pretty good minutes and that not having Zahn to spell Maarty hurt the Ducks a bit but had he been out there I don't think it would have meant Oregon would have won.

There has been a lot of crowing from USC fans that they deserve to be in the Top 25 (polls are meaningless I know) but Stanford handled them solidly last night showing that the Trees may be able to play themselves in to the NCAA's. USC needs to salvage their weekend with a win versus Cal who you can pretty much count out of even any NCAA consideration if they lose to USC on saturday. The Trojans have pretty ugly computer numbers but do have wins versus Oregon and Arizona. USC is really being hurt by scheduling 3 +300 RPI teams in the preseason.