Countdown to Camp: Schedule Part 2

Camp is starting!  The news of the day is obviously Wak getting fired but we’ll get to that later.  On to the second half of the Husky schedule!

@ Arizona

It’s easy to forget how close Arizona was to playing in the Rose Bowl last year.  If it weren’t for a ball bouncing off a receivers foot at Montlake and a last second touchdown by Oregon, Arizona would have been playing Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.  With that being said, Arizona should take a step back this year.  The offense should be okay.  They return their quarterback and running, Nick Foles and Nic Grigsby.  They also return most of a very good offensive line.  The defense is where they run into problems.  They lost 7 starters and have to totally rebuild at the linebacker spot.  Stoops is a pretty good defensive coach though.  Arizona could be a lot better than what people are saying.

Stanford

We all know what the Cardinal lost, Toby Gerhart was one of the best running backs the Pac-10 has seen.  You can’t replace a player like that.  They still have a good team though.  Andrew Luck is good, I don’t know if he’s as good as everyone says but he is good.  Their receivers are very solid and their offensive line might be the best in the Pac-10.  The defense is what stopped Stanford from winning the Pac-10 last year and it must improve if they’re going to be a good team this year.  They switched to a 3-4 defense this spring and we’ll see the results that yields.  If the defense improves Stanford could win the Pac-10…

@ Oregon

Yeah, Oregon will probably be good.  They return the most and if the defense improves there’s not much reason to think they won’t be the best team in the Pac-10.  I don’t feel like talking about how good the Ducks could be so let me point out how tough it will be to replace Masoli.  He was easily the best quarterback in the Pac-10 last year.  In the UCLA game that he was injured for, Nate Costa couldn’t get the offense to score against one of the worst defenses in the conference.  Costa doesn’t scare me at all.  Thomas is more of a threat but that offense took 3 years for Dixon to master.  It took about 2 years for Masoli to truly master.  I’m not saying the Ducks won’t be good but they might be in more trouble than what people are saying.

UCLA

This game should be fun!  Jake and Mason’s last home game, a Thursday night game, and national TV should make for a fn environment.  Much like Arizona State, we shouldn’t have lost to UCLA last year and we shouldn’t this year.  The Bruins should be improved but they have quite a few holes on the lines and still have questions about whether Kevin Prince can be a good Pac-10 quarterback.  I think he can be but he was inconsistent last year.  UCLA does have a pretty good secondary but the rest of the front 7 on defense has a few holes.  UCLA has talent but can they put it together?

@ Cal

Cal generally has the talent and will again this season.  Hopefully they once again have their late-season lapse against the Dawgs.  The Bears return most of an offense that under-achieved last year.  Cal has to fill some holes in the secondary but the rest of the defense looks okay.  Cal should be good again this year, as usual.  Not good enough to win the Pac-10 but still pretty solid.

@ WSU

We should not lose this game.  Truthfully, I think Montana St. might beat the Cougars.  Jeff Tuel is halfway decent if he doesn’t get injured by this point in the season.  James Montgomery is okay but I don’t know if he’ll be able to make it all the way back from an injury.  The receivers are okay.  The rest of the team is pretty awful and I don’t see a lot of hope in them winning more than one or two games.  In positive news for WSU fans, this should be Paul Wulff’s last game as the Cougar’s coach.