Week One: The Pac Ten’s Race To The BCS

The first BCS Standings have been released and there are a few things that caught my attention. Boise State (.8083), Cincinnati (.7870) and Iowa (7869) are all ranked ahead of USC (.7695). The bottom line is the Trojans are a much better football team than Boise State, Cincinnati and Iowa. If the Trojans continue to win they will eventually pass those teams. Boise State will be hurt by their remaining schedule. It is highly unlikely that any team that Boise State faces for the rest of the season will be ranked. On the other hand, USC still has to face Oregon (AP #12) and there is a chance that Arizona State and Arizona will be ranked by the time they face the Trojans. The Iowa Hawkeyes still have to play at Michigan State and at Ohio State. The Bearcats have West Virginia, Illinois and Pittsburgh on their schedule. There is a lot of football left and upsets will happen.

The Pac Ten currently has three teams ranked in the first BCS Standings. USC is #7 (.7695) followed by Oregon #11 (.5849) and Arizona is #22 (.1138). USC still has a shot at the National Championship. Oregon is a long shot for the Title game and the Ducks would need a lot of help to move up that far. Arizona’s only option of making the BCS could be the Rose Bowl Game. The Trojans have the best chance of any Pac Ten team to qualify for a BCS game with two losses.

Arizona faces UCLA, Washington State and California over the next four weeks. If the Wildcats can win all those games they might find themselves in the top fifteen of the BCS standings. Over the next three weeks the Oregon Ducks are at Washington, USC (at home) and at Stanford. This week’s game at Washington is huge. The Huskies are 3-4 and 2-2 in the Pac Ten. Washington has already upset USC, they should have beaten Notre Dame and they loss on a blown assignment to Arizona State when the game should have went into OT. The Huskies need at least three more victories to become bowl eligible and it would not be a shock if the Huskies beat the Ducks. It is very important that the Ducks are not looking past Washington with USC coming up the following week. An Oregon win at Washington this Saturday would set-up a gigantic game against the Trojans on October 31st.

The Trojans, Ducks and Wildcats need to follow the old cliché and take them one game at a time. The way the college football season has gone so far it is very likely that a number of top twenty-five teams will lose this week. If these three teams are the class of the Pac Ten and continue to win games it will create some great games for the conference for the remainder of the season.

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Notre Dame’s Future Success Is Tied To Clausen

The Irish had an opportunity to send the game into overtime, but once again the Trojans found a way to get past Notre Dame 34-27. The Fighting Irish can only state with confidence that they are superior at the QB position and WR position. Matt Barkley is not better than Jimmy Clausen and it can be argued that Golden Tate is better than Damian Williams. At every other position on the field USC is just flat out better than the Irish. Notre Dame did a very good job of containing Joe McKnight holding him to 79 yards on 19 carries and 1 TD, but all three Notre Dame’s RB’s only combined for 70 yards on 20 carries and 1 TD. USC DE Everson Griffen was in the Irish backfield for the majority of the game. It was hard for Notre Dame to create pressure without blitzing. WR Damian Williams hit the Irish defense for a 41-yard TD on a WR screen when Notre Dame was caught blitzing at the wrong time. Even with the departure of players like Mark Sanchez, Rey Maualuga, Brian Cushing, Clay Matthews, Kyle Moore and Fili Moala Notre Dame still lacked the talent level to compete with USC.

If Notre Dame wanted to win this game their key players Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate had to have big games and they did. Clausen finished the game 24/43, threw for 260 yards and had 3 TD’s. Golden Tate finished with 8 receptions, 117 yards, 2 TD’s and 62 yards on kickoff returns. Notre Dame only has two playmakers and the Trojans have six or seven players that can change the outcome of a game. One major concern that needs to be addressed is how did ND allow Matt Barkley to throw for 380 yards. This was the first time this season that Barkley passed for more than 283 yards. Before this game Trojan TE Anthony McCoy’s best game was 3 catches for 64 yards against San Jose State. McCoy finished with 5 catches for 153 yards. Notre Dame can’t allow players who are seldom heard from to have the best performances of their career in a game of this magnitude.

If Notre Dame expects to have a chance against USC in the L.A. Memorial Coliseum in 2010 they will need Clausen and Tate to return for their senior seasons. If Clausen and Tate enter the 2010 NFL Draft the Irish do not have equal talent at QB or WR to replace those two players. With this season being used as a chance to get Matt Barkley some playing experience by next season Barkley will not only be considered one of the best QB’s in the Pac Ten, but he will be one of the best returning QB’s in the country. If USC faces Notre Dame next season without Clausen on the field the Trojans will have a major advantage at the QB position. When Notre Dame faces the Trojans in December of 2010 that game could have National Championship implications on the line for USC and the only way a BCS berth will be on the line for Notre Dame is if Clausen and Tate can be convinced to stay in South Bend for one more year.

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Stoops Makes A Major Mistake On 1st Down

The Arizona Wildcats have an overall record of 3-2 and they are 1-1 in the Pac Ten Conference and tied for second place with five other 1-loss teams (Stanford, USC, Oregon State, Washington and Arizona State). The Wildcats were one play away from being undefeated in conference play. With 2:55 remaining in the game with a 33-28 lead Arizona had the ball and Washington only had two timeouts remaining. The very first play should have been a run, because it was important to get the clock running and force Steve Sarkisian to decide when he would use his timeouts. The absolute worse case scenario should have been Arizona running the ball three straight times and punting the football. The decision by Stoops to pass the ball resulted in QB Nick Foles throwing a ball low that bounced off WR Delashaun Dean’s foot and landed in the hands of Washington LB Mason Foster. Foster quickly returned the interception for a 37-yard TD. According to Bobby Stover of the Arizona Daily Wildcat Coach Stoops took full responsibility for that play call.

The Wildcats have to overcome the loss to the Huskies and focus on their next opponent the Stanford Cardinal. The Wildcats dominated the game against Washington. Arizona had 384 yards passing and 461 yards on offense. WR David Roberts was unstoppable with 12 catches for 138 yards and 1 TD. The Wildcats are ranked 4th in total defense in the Pac Ten. Arizona has enough talent on both sides of the ball to win a lot of games and qualify for a higher profile Bowl than the Las Vegas Bowl that they won 31-21 over BYU last season. If the Wildcats qualify for a Bowl game this season it will be the first time they would have qualified for back to back bowl games since the Insight.com Bowl in 1997 and the Holiday Bowl in 1998.

In the next four games Arizona gets Stanford, UCLA and Washington State at home before traveling to California. Arizona has the talent to win the next four games and improve to 7-2 if they can avoid turnovers and coaching mistakes, but it is very possible that they can be 7-2 before they host Oregon on November 21st.

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Ducks Take Bears To The Woodshed

California entered Autzen Stadium as the #6 team in the country with the hopes of finally living up to expectations and capturing a Pac Ten Title this season. The Bears leave Autzen Stadium with an embarrassing 42-3 loss to the Ducks. Now the USC/Cal game next week might be an elimination game leaving the loser with no shot at the Rose Bowl. After going down to the Ducks it will be very difficult for the Bears to come back and beat the Trojans next week. Oregon was off the radar after their disappointing 19-8 loss to Boise State in the first week of the college football season. Since that defeat the Ducks bounced back and beat Purdue 38-36 and Utah 31-24. After this impressive win over the Bears, Oregon will be ranked again and are back in the hunt for first place in the conference.

The Ducks were lights out on defense. They held Cal to 3/15 on third down conversions and kept the Bear defense on the field for the majority of the game. The Ducks limited the Bears to only 76 yards on the ground. Oregon won the time of possession battle 32:47 to 27:08. After this performance Jeremiah Masoli is now neck and neck with Jake Locker as the best QB in the Pac Ten. Masoli was 21/25, for 253 passing yards and 3 TD’s. Just a few weeks back when RB LeGarrette Blount was suspended for the season many thought that the Oregon running game took a major hit. Redshirt Freshman LaMichael James has proven that he can be a threat out of the backfield. James finished the game with 21 carries, for 118 yards, 1 TD and 5.6 YPC.

The Ducks have Washington State at home next week before traveling to UCLA. On October 10th at the Rose Bowl the Ducks could be unbeaten in conference play and the UCLA Bruins could be undefeated. This game will be the marquee game in the Pac Ten and the winner will be in a very good position for the remainder of the season. The way the games have been playing out after the first month there is not a team that will separate themselves from the rest of the pack until the last couple weeks of the season.

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