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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