Pac 10 Week 5 standings and predictions

The Pac 10 has proven to be totally upside down and inside out this season... what I thought I knew, the USC Trojans are going to dominate, has not come true. What I thought I would never see happen, the Huskies are rocking, is happening. What does it all mean? Going into Week 5 of Pac 10 play it is really still anyone's game. Below is the listings for the Pac 10 teams and their overall record, conference record and last week's ranking...

Oregon Ducks (3-1, 1-0 3)
USC Trojans (3-1, 0-1 2)
California Bears (3-1, 0-1 1)
Stanford Cardinal (3-1, 2-0 8)
Arizona State (2-1, 0-0 5)
Washington Huskies (2-2, 1-1 4)
UCLA Bruins (3-0, 0-0 7)
Arizona Wildcats (3-1, 1-0 9)
Oregon State Beavers (2-2, 0-1 6)
Washington State Cougars (1-3, 0-2 10)

The Washington Huskies take on Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday

The Washington Huskies take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, this Saturday in one of the best Huskies match-ups of the season. Both teams are boasting great quarterbacks this season and both teams have had big victories early on.

The Washington Huskies had a huge upset over the USC Trojans who are long time rivals of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish... for Notre Dame beating the Huskies would be a relative slap in the face to the USC Trojans. For the Washington Huskies beating the Fighting Irish would be a great way to get a big step closer to securing a spot in the post season.

Betting pools have the Washington Huskies listed as the 13 point underdog, but considering how they have been playing and the big upsets they have already completed I think the game is really anybody's at this point!

PAC 10 Rankings after the first week of NCAA Football

The Pac-10 has released its first conference rankings for the 2009 Pac 10 Football Season. Surprisingly, the USC Trojans are not on the top... though anyone who saw the Huskies-Trojans game or read my last post knows that the Trojans really didn't deserve to win that game or be atop the rankings. With several conference games this weekend including a televised matchup against California and Oregon its anyones guess as to who will top the rankings next week.

As of September 22 the Pac 10 Rankings according to the official Pac 10 Website were:

Stanford 1-0
Washington 1-0
California 0-0
Arizona State 0-0
UCLA 0-0
USC 0-1
Oregon 0-0
Oregon State 0-0
Arizona 0-0
Washington State 0-1

Check Back after this weekends games for an updating standings list!

Pac 10 Favorites USC Trojans lose and the Pac 10 is wide open

Its football season sports fans and that means that the polls have opened and critics are already predicting which Pac 10 teams will take the Pacific Ten Conference Title this season. Almost every season since the start of the Pac 10 Conference, the University of Southern California Trojans have swept the conference and gone on to do great things nationally in the BCS series.

However, it seems that the USC Trojans may have rested a little too long on their laurels and now are paying the price. Last week in a stunning loss that almost no one predicted the Trojans walked away from Seattle losing to the Washington Huskies 13-16. With this loss the Pac 10 rankings are wide open for lesser known teams to make quite a stir. This weekend several Pac-10 teams face off against each other and with the USC Trojans licking their wounds it is possible that Washington State Cougars can make it two losses in a row for the Pac 10 Golden Child.

Like Noah’s Ark on the Oregon State Beavers roster everything comes in 2’s

It seems like a great many things come in 2’s: a pair of shoes, Hostess cupcakes, Twins and this season many of the positions on the Oregon State Beavers roster. Now although there is an old-farm-wives saying that goes, “if you have a boy you have one boy, if you have two boys you have half a boy, and if you have three boys you have no boy at all” nothing could seem farther from the truth in this case.

The Oregon State Beavers roster includes two phenomenal quarterbacks this season. Both Lyle Moevao and Sean Canfield have proven that they can throw the ball and handle the pressure of being the playmaker. While going into the season it looks like Sean Canfield will start since Lyle Moevao had to sit out spring practices with an arm injury, last season the roles were reversed and Lyle Moevao started. With two first-line capable throwing arms it is clear that Oregon Beavers definitely have talent to work with.

But that is not where the double-trouble stops, both quarterbacks have two great choices to throw to. Jacquizz Rodgers and James Rodgers will both be starting Jacquizz as a sophomore running back and James as junior receiver. Both Rodgers boys have shown that they can catch the ball and hold on to it once they have it. And if that wasn’t enough pairings the Oregon State Beavers are also looking forward to what the new pair of corners will do after Keenan Lewis and Brandon Hughes graduating vacating the Oregon State Beavers roster slots they held from 2005 to 2008.

If you ask this Pac 10 fan you should go out now and buy Oregon State Beavers tickets, a pair of them!

University of Arizona Wildcats offense will look very different this season

When Arizona Wildcats quarterback Willie Tuitama left the Wildcats roster at the end of last season, collective “now what do we do” was heard from just about every Wildcats fan. As the season approaches quickly, rumor has it that sophomore Matt Scott is the favorite to step up and fill the shoes of the University of Arizona record holder for career attempts, completions, yards and touchdowns… no small shoes to fill.

Matt Scott at 6’ 3” and 190 pounds is a dynamic offensive player that came out of Corona Centineal a high school football powerhouse. Scott saw limited game time last season but still managed to lead the team with 8.2 yards per carry. Offensive Coordinator Sonny Dykes feels that this agility and speed will make Matt Scott the perfect replacement for Willie Tuitama.

The other contender for the position is transfer student, Nick Foles whom at 6’ 5” and 235 pounds is much closer in size and build to Tuitama. Last season, Nick Foles spent time on the scout team for Arizona. Foles earned the respect of both coaches and teammates in the 2008 season with his ability to watch an opposing quarterback and than emulate his style, a characteristic that makes it hard to go up against him. Although Foles is qualified for the job, most think that it will go to Scott with Foles playing back up and Bryson Beirne coming in at 3rd by a long ways, though Beirne does have awesome footwork and a very strong arm.

California Golden Bears Head Coach Jeff Tedford sets out to do it again

The California Golden Bears are often an overlooked team in the Pacific-Ten Conference. With the USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins taking up most of the California college football talk, the Cal Golden Bears often are left behind. What isn’t overlooked when referencing Golden Bears football is head coach Jeff Tedford.

Jeff Tedford joined the Cal Golden Bears roster in 2002 and since then has enjoyed great success. Other than his first season with the Cal Golden Bears, Coach Teford’s teams have made it to post-season play, winning 5 of 6 bowl games including a stand-out performance against the Texas A&M Aggies in the 2006 Pacific Life Holiday Bowl. The Golden Bears swept the Aggies 45-10 and went on to be the Pacific 10 Champions that season.

While Coach Jeff Tedford’s record with the California Golden Bears is enough to keep him a topic in football talk, what is really impressive is his ability to turn out great quarterbacks. Known to his peers and football critics as “the groomer of NFL quarterbacks” Jeff Tedford has coached 5 first round draft picks since 1994. Notably, Jeff Tedford coached Super Bowl Winner Trent Difler and Brett Favre’s successor on the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers.


This season the California Golden Bears will bring back Junior Quarterback Kevin Riley who in his first season as the primary starter racked up an impressive record book including the school record for most pass attempts in a single game, 58 against Maryland. The Cal Golden Bears roster also includes 4 back-up quarterbacks who all are young and still have a lot of time to be guided by Jeff Tedford. Rumors are already circulating that Coach Tedford could send more than of his Cal Golden Bears players to the draft in the next few years.