The Pac Ten’s Best QB Is?

After the first five weeks of the season the Pac Ten race is very close. There are three undefeated teams in conference play Stanford (3-0), Oregon (2-0) and Arizona (1-0). Three teams in the Pac Ten are only 1 game out of first place. The USC Trojans are 2-1, Oregon State is 1-1 and the Washington Huskies are 1-1. If a player can emerge as the best QB in the conference their team has a great chance of winning the Pac Ten Championship.

It is very possible that a QB can have a lot of individual talent, but the supporting cast might not be that good. Washington Huskies QB Jake Locker has 1,283 passing yards, 7 TD’s and 3 rushing TD’s. Locker has the ability to beat teams with his arms and his legs, but he does not have the best offensive line, running backs or receivers in the conference. The top five players with the highest QB ratings are Arizona Wildcat Nick Foles (156.9), Stanford Cardinal Andrew Luck (147.7), USC Trojan Matt Barkley (139.6), Oregon State Beaver Sean Canfield (134.0) and Jake Locker (129.1).

The top four QB’s have a very good supporting cast. The Arizona Wildcats RB Nic Grigsby is averaging 8.1 YPC and Arizona has three receivers with over 10 catches. The Stanford Cardinal have Toby Gerhart the Pac Ten’s leading rusher with 650 yards and WR Ryan Whalen is averaging 17.2 YPC. Trojans RB Joe McKnight is averaging 7.1 YPC and Damian Williams leads USC with 24 receptions. Oregon State’s Quizz Rodgers has 9 TD’s and WR James Rodgers has 37 receptions.

Defense will play a big part in how successful the QB’s are in the Pac Ten. The ability to get crucial stops and turnovers that allow the offense to get the ball back will result in more victories and a first place finish. The top five defenses in the conference are Arizona St, USC, UCLA, Arizona and Oregon. Taking the offensive weapons and defense into account the best QB’s in the Pac Ten after five weeks are Andrew Luck (Stanford), Matt Barkley (USC), Jake Locker (Washington), Nick Foles (Arizona) and Sean Canfield (Oregon State). Some of the best QB’s in the conference will play in these games this week Arizona at Washington, Stanford at Oregon State and Oregon at UCLA.

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Jeff Tedford’s Indecision At QB Is Puzzling

The California Golden Bears have dropped their last two games by a combined score of 72-6. In those two losses to the Oregon Ducks and the USC Trojans the Bears are 15/46 on third down conversions. Against the Ducks Cal QB Kevin Riley was 12/31 for 123 yards and against the Trojans Riley completed 15/40 for 199 yards and 1 interception. I don’t have a problem with Riley having bad games, but I do question Jeff Tedford’s resistance to putting in a different QB. This has been an issue with the Bear’s program for the last couple of seasons. Former Bear QB Nate Longshore had a lot of bad games, but kept his job. Riley took over for Longshore for the last couple of games last year, but Tedford went right back to Longshore for the Emerald Bowl. Cal has been lacking consistent play at the QB position since Aaron Rodgers left for the NFL.

If you look at the Pac Ten Conference there are a number of teams starting young QB’s that are producing in games. Pete Carroll decided to go with first year QB Matt Barkley and Barkley has led the Trojans to victories at Ohio State and California. UCLA was starting red-shirt freshmen Kevin Prince at QB until he was injured and Prince led the Bruins to a victory at Tennessee. Red-shirt freshmen Andrew Luck has led Stanford to a 4-1 record and the Cardinal are in first place in the Pac Ten. These teams have proven that they can be successful with a freshmen QB under center.

The question is does Cal have a young QB that was highly rated coming out of high school that could be playing? QB Allan Bridgford was the 15th rated QB in the country from last year’s recruiting class according to Phil Steele. Phil Steele had USC QB Matt Barkely #5, Kevin Prince was # 49 in 2008 and Andrew Luck was #8 in 2008. Why have coaches like Pete Carroll, Rick Neuheisel and Jim Harbaugh come to the realization that starting these young QB’s this year will make their programs extremely better over the next three seasons, but Tedford seems to lack that same kind of vision. If Matt Barkley can take the Trojans to the Rose Bowl his confidence will be out of this world at the start of next season. Andrew Luck has a great chance of leading Stanford to their first bowl game since 2001 and once Kevin Prince returns from injury the Bruins will probably make their first bowl game since 2007.

Jeff Tedford has been touted as a QB guru so he should not have a problem getting another QB on his roster ready to play. Cal has a bye week before traveling to UCLA on October 17th. If a change is going to be made this would be a good time to make it. If Tedford sticks with Riley for the rest of the season, Cal will begin the 2010 season with Riley being the only returning QB on the roster with starting experience. USC, UCLA and Stanford will be ranked ahead of the Bears in every pre-season poll in 2010, because all three programs would be returning second year QB’s who were productive and gained valuable experience in the 2009 season.

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Bruins And Cardinals Play For First Place In The Pac Ten

UCLA travels to Stanford on October 3rd with first place in the conference on the line. UCLA’s top priority will be to stop the Stanford running game. Toby Gerhart is leading the conference with 516 rushing yards. Stanford will be running directly at a Bruin defense that is only giving up 2.3 YPC on the ground. The goals for both of these programs going into this season was to become bowl eligible. Stanford has not been to a bowl game since the Seattle Bowl in 2001 and UCLA’s last bowl appearance was the 2007 Las Vegas Bowl. Stanford is 3-1 after beating Washington 34-14 and the undefeated Bruins (3-0) are coming off a bye week after beating Kansas State 23-9 on September 19th.

Both of these teams have to find a way to advance the ball down the field through the air. After the fourth week of the season UCLA has the ninth best passing offense (167.3 Passing Yards Per Game) in the conference and Stanford has the seventh best passing offense (185.8 Passing Yards Per Game). Cardinal QB Andrew Luck is completing 60.2% of his passes and has a QB rating of 146.4. On the other hand, both Bruin QB’s are completing less than 60% of their passes. Kevin Prince is completing 55.8% and Kevin Craft is completing 54.2% of his throws. The team that gets a big performance out of their QB will have a big advantage in this game.

This game is very pivotal in the Pac Ten race. UCLA and Stanford face some tough opponents following this game. UCLA gets Oregon and California at home before traveling to Arizona on October 24th. Stanford is at Oregon State and Arizona before getting Arizona State at home on October 24th. The next four weeks will determine what Bowls they can qualify for and if they will be Bowl eligible at all.

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Cardinal Let One Slip Away

Jim Harbaugh has the Stanford Program headed in the right direction. In 2008 they went 5-7 and the goal for this year is to make their first Bowl Game since 2001 when the Cardinal played Georgia Tech in the Seattle Bowl. After defeating Washington State 39-13 last week, a victory at Wake Forest would have been a tremendous accomplishment. Stanford lead the Demon Deacons 17-3 at the half, but the offense, defense and special teams could not get anything going in the second half of the game.

There is no excuse for Stanford getting out scored 21-0 in the second half of the game. What is shocking is the fact that the Cardinal could not lean heavily on RB Toby Gerhart to help the offense to keep putting points on the board. Gerhart finished the game with 17 carries for 82 yards. The Cardinal defense gave up 251 rushing yards. That is not a good sign when Stanford must face players like Jahvid Best, Joe McKnight, Stafon Johnson and Jacquizz Rodgers in the upcoming weeks. The defense also had trouble adjusting to Wake Forest when the Deacons starting using 3 WR sets.

Coach Harbaugh will be second-guessed for not calling timeouts and allowing the clock to run in the last minute of the game. The bottom line is when they had a 17-3 lead the game should have been over. Stanford gets San Jose State at home on September 19th and hopefully this loss will not be the game that prevents them from being Bowl eligible later in the season.

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Inside The Pac Ten Week 1

It was evident after Week One in the College Football season that the USC Trojans and the Cal Bears are the two best teams in the Pac Ten Conference. The Trojans defeated San Jose State 56-3 and California beat Maryland 52-13. Oregon got out played and out coached in a 19-8 loss at Boise State. Another team must step up and prove that they can compete for first place in the Pac Ten. There are a number of good OOC match-ups this week such as UCLA at Tennessee and Stanford at Wake Forest. There are a number of players that must step up this week for their teams if they expect to get a victory in Week Two.

First year Trojan QB Matt Barkley had a very solid game going 15/19 and passing for 233 yards. One thing that will make life easier for Matt this year is the experience of USC’s offensive line. With players like C Kristopher O’Dowd (6-5 300), G Jeff Byers (6-4 285) and T Charles Brown (6-6 295) the o-line will provide more than adequate protection for Barkley and open up holes for RB’s Stafon Johnson and Joe McKnight. Scott Wolf of the L.A. Daily News reports that O’Dowd should be ready for the game at Ohio State. RB Joe McKnight averaged 10.4 YPC against San Jose State and USC hopes to keep the running game going at Ohio State this week.

One of the question marks for the Bears coming into this season was there receiving core. With the Maryland defense concentrating on Jahvid Best that allowed QB Kevin Riley to pass for 298 yards and 4 TD’s. The WR’s stepped up against the Terrapins with Marvin Jones averaging 24.7 YPC, Verran Tucker 16.7 YPC and Nyan Boateng catching 2 passes for 22.0 YPC. The Bears have an easy opponent this week with E. Washington coming to Memorial Stadium. The Bears are now ranked #10 (AP) in the country. If California can win at Minnesota on September 19th they can put themselves in a very good position Nationally and in the Pac Ten.

One of the teams that most people are not talking about is the Stanford Cardinal. Stanford is 1-0 in conference after beating Washington State 39-13. Redshirt Freshmen QB Andrew Luck had a very solid game against the Cougars. Luck went 11/23, passed for 193 yards and 1 TD. This Saturday Stanford travels to Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons are coming off a 24-21 home loss to Baylor. Head Coach Jim Harbaugh will rely on RB Toby Gerhart to have a big game to take the pressure off Andrew Luck. Gerhart ran for 121 yards and 2 TD’s against Washington State. A victory at Wake Forest would be huge for the Stanford Program.

The UCLA Bruins started off slowly last Saturday against the Aztecs. San Diego got off to a 14-10 first quarter lead. The Bruins out scored the Aztecs 23-0 the last three quarters of the game. QB Kevin Prince got an opportunity to get a game under his belt before the Bruins take on the Tennessee Volunteers this Saturday. When the Bruins travel to Knoxville they will need RB Derrick Coleman to have a big game and the UCLA defense will need to play well to keep this game close going into the 4th quarter. BlueReign of Bruinsnation.com talked about the importance of a good defensive performance by UCLA. With the Oregon Ducks in trouble, a win by UCLA at Tennessee would prove that they are one of the teams that could have a tremendous year in the Pac Ten this season.

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