Pac 10 (12) Players at the NFL Combine

Oregon State defensive tackle Stephen Paea proved his unbelievable strength. He set an NFL combine record with 49 reps at 225 pounds on the bench press. Yikes. He is an absolute animal.

Washington Huskies QB Jake Locker had a solid combine, with a nice 40 time.

Colorado Buffalos OL Nate Solder had a nice day as well, showing expolsiveness.

California's Shane Vereen had a monster day, running the 40 in 4.48, posting a 34-inch vertical jump and putting up 25 repetitions on the 225-pound bench press

Arizona St. Quarterback Steven Threet Will Retire

Arizona St. Sun Devil quarterback Steven Threet, who was the starting quarterback for most of the year for the Sun Devils, has been forced to retire due to concussions. Threet, who will be a senior in 2011, has suffered four concussions, two of which occurred last season. Last season, Threet completed 62 percent of his passes, throwing for 2,534 yards with 18 touchdowns and 16 interceptions for the Sun Devils. He was the Michigan Wolverines starting quarterback in 2008 until transferring to Arizona State. Threet is on schedule to graduate in December, will likely remain close to the program and help as a student assistant and work with the QBs

Mel Kiper Projects Several Pac-10 Players in 1st Round

Mel Kiper, the NFL Draft guru for ESPN with the great flow (hair), has revealed his lastest 2011 NFL Mock Draft. He listed several Pac-10 Players in the 1st Round, including:

No. 13: Jimmy Smith, CB, Colorado (Detroit)
No. 17: Cameron Jordan, DE, California (New England)
No. 18: Tyron Smith, OT, USC (San Diego)
No. 19: Nate Solder, OT, Colorado (New York Giants)
No. 21: Akeem Ayers, DE, UCLA (Kansas City)
No. 30: Rahim Moore, S, UCLA (New York Jets)Share

Are all of these players going to go in the 1st round? Perhaps not. However, it is clear that the Pac-10 develops some nice talent in college football.

The New Pac-12

College Football fans remember last spring when chaos mounted from the conference turmoil with the Big Ten, Big Twelve, Pac-10, and Mountain West. After all was said and done, two teams were set to join the Pac-10 for the 2011-2012 season. A year later, here are all the details for the new "Pac-12."

The Pac-10 doesn't become the Pac-12 officially until July 1 of this year. The two new teams are the Colorado Buffaloes and the Utah Utes. They are the first new teams since adding Arizona and Arizona State in 1978.

There will be two division:

North - California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Washington and Washington State

South - Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, UCLA, USC and Utah

Teams will still play nine conference games, but the round-robin format adopted in 2006 is over. With 12 teams, every team can't play every other on an annual basis.

These two divisions also mean a conference championship game, which will be played at the home stadium of the team with the best conference record on December 3rd. The winner of that game will be the Pac-12 Champion.

Norm Chow Joins Utah Utes Staff

Norm Chow has left the UCLA Bruins and will be joining the Utah Utes, the newest member in the "Pac 12." The 64-year-old is returning to his alma mater as Utah's offensive coordinator. He spent the past three years in the same role with the UCLA Bruins. The UCLA Bruins stumbled to a 4-8 season last year with an offense ranked 99th of 120 FBS schools. A change was necessary and Chow elected to leave for greener pastures. Rick Neuheisel remains on the hot seat at UCLA.

National Signing Day Recap

As always, much is made right away about National Signing Day and recruiting classes. It's fun for scouts to project who will be the next "star" player and who will shine. Although, the truth is, you really can't judge a recruiting class until 2 to 3 years later. Labeling a player with "3 stars", "2 stars" doesn't really mean a whole lot in my opinion. That just signifies that they have potential. Not every recruit lives up to that potential. Here are the ESPN recruiting class grades in the Pac-10:

Arizona: C+

Arizona State: C

Colorado: D

California: B

Oregon: B

Oregon State: C+

Stanford: B

UCLA: C-

USC: A

Utah: C+

Jake Locker, Where Will He Go?

Many experts thought that if Jake Locker had declared for the NFL Draft last season, he would have been a Top 5 pick and challenged for the #1 slot with Sam Bradford. However, Locker returned for his senior season with the Washington Huskies. He had a pretty decent senior season but more questions were raised about his play. He is considered somewhere in the 2-5 best quarterback in the draft. It really depends on what the team thinks of him, in my opinion. So, I'm asking all the fans out there, where will Jake Locker go in the NFL draft?