Ducks Continue Their Winning Ways

A month ago the Oregon Ducks season could have easily continued on a downward spiral. Boise State defeated them 19-8 and the Ducks star RB LeGarrette Blount was suspended for throwing a punch. The schedule after the Boise State disaster was Purdue at home followed by Utah at home. At that point most people would have written off the 2009 season for Oregon. The Ducks were able to defeat Purdue 38-36, Oregon beat the 18th ranked Utah Utes 31-24 and they blasted #6 California 42-3 and climbed all the way back up to #13 in the AP Poll.

At the start of the season either Cal or Oregon was expected to challenge the USC Trojans for first place in the conference. Now that Cal is completely eliminated from the discussion the Ducks have put themselves in a great position with six games left to play.

UCLA is probably the best defensive team the Ducks have faced all season. The Ducks were held to zero points in the first half of the game. It wasn’t until the second half of the game when the Bruins could not stop turning the ball over that Oregon was able to take control of the game. After trailing 3-0 at halftime, the Ducks outscored UCLA 24-7 in the second half of the game. The Oregon defense held the Bruins to 6/16 on third down conversions and 0/2 on fourth down. UCLA QB Kevin Prince was 13/25, threw for 81 yards and had 1 interception. Bruins QB Richard Brehaut was 5/10, for 64 yards and 1 interception. The same offensive woes continued for UCLA with their inability to move the ball in the air.

Ducks QB Nate Costa only threw for 82 yards, but RB LaMichael James finished the game with 20 carries for 152 yards. After the Blount suspension James has taken advantage of his opportunity. James has a total of 581 rushing yards, 4 TD and is averaging 6.3 YPC. Without the services of starting QB Jeremiah Masoli and S T.J. Ward this was a big win for the Ducks. Now Oregon heads into the bye week with a lot of momentum. The Ducks have an opportunity to get healthy and their next three games will have a huge effect on where the Ducks end up in the Pac Ten Standings. Oregon is at Washington on October 24th. They get the USC Trojans at home on October 31st and they are on the road against Stanford on November 7th.

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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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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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Bruins Belong In The Top 25

The UCLA Bruins have taken some steps forward to prove that their football program is on the rise. With Redshirt Freshman QB Kevin Prince behind center the Bruins opened the season with a 33-14 victory over San Diego State. The following week UCLA went into a very hostile environment and defeated Tennessee 19-15. Not many teams in the country can travel to Neyland Stadium and pull out a victory in front of 102,000 fans. Kevin Prince was lost to an injury and the Bruins didn’t have an emotional letdown as they came back home to defeat Kansas State 23-9. Teams like Kansas (#20), Nebraska (#25) and North Carolina (#22) are ranked in the Top 25 without an impressive win on their schedule. A few more wins should secure a spot for UCLA in the Top 25.

When you think about this football program the names that come to mind are Rick Neuheisel and Norm Chow. The Bruins are not that great of an offensive team right now.
UCLA is the 8th best passing team in the Pac Ten with 167.3 yards per game. There are a lot of young players on that side of the ball. WR Taylor Embree is a Sophomore (7 Catches, 114 Yards). RB Jonathan Franklin is only a Freshman (242 Yards, 2 TD’s). QB Kevin Prince is a Redshirt Freshman and had a QB rating of 105.52 before he got hurt. As the season progresses the offense will start to produce more once the players start to understand their roles in the offense better.

It’s been the defense that has warranted UCLA being among the Top 25 teams in the country after their third game of the season. The Bruins are only giving up 74.3 yards per game and only 2.3 YPC. UCLA has the fourth best-run defense in the Pac Ten. With players like DT Brian Price, DE Korey Bosworth and CB Alterraun Verner leading the defense the Bruins have a chance to beat Stanford and Oregon over the next few weeks and remain undefeated when they play California in the Rose Bowl on October 17th.

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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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