This week, on ‘Around the Pac-12’, we’re debuting something new. It’s something exciting and extremely informative. It’s a mascot ranking! Every week I’ll think of categories or events and rank the mascots based on how well they’ll do. If you’ve read these posts at all, you know that I enjoy sports team’s mascots. Since we’re out of non-conference play I don’t have the opportunity to find new mascots. Last week Matthew came up with this idea and I’m going to run with it. It may turn into its own weekly post. For now, the mascot rankings will fall after the jump* so that you get all of the informative stuff and have the opportunity to stop reading if ridiculous rankings aren’t your thing.
* Of course, I will still be making jokes and dumb comments in the informative part of this post.
This Week: Arizona (lost to Oregon State 38-35) at Stanford (lost to Washington 17-13)
Well, we know what happened with Stanford last week. Their quarterback won’t be able to win games for them. Fortunately for the Cardinal, he won’t have to. What is also concerning is that Stanford couldn’t just push around the Huskies. They do that against most of the Pac-12 and it will be interesting to see if they will be able to do this for the rest of season. Arizona is starting to look like the team we thought they were in the pre-season. Arizona can and will score quite a few points but it doesn’t seem as if the defense will be able to hold many teams down. They’ve given up 87 points in the last 2 games. Of course, this was against the two Oregon schools, two of the best teams in the conference. This is an intriguing match-up and could really provide some clarity in the Pac-12 race.
This Week: California (lost to Arizona State 27-17) vs. UCLA (beat Colorado 42-14)
The Golden Bears are now 1-4. They have played tough against Ohio State and Arizona State but simply don’t seem to have the quarterback to win games. They have the talent and I think they’ll start to win a few more in the weeks coming, but this isn’t the start to the season they’d imagined. UCLA did what they were supposed to do last week and beat Colorado fairly easily. They have moved to 4-1 and could wind up having a pretty interesting South division race with ASU and USC. That’s something I didn’t think I’d say at the beginning of the season. This week provides a battle of the bears and I really don’t know which bear is superior. Probably the one that’s not a statue.
This Week: Oregon State (beat Arizona 38-35) vs. WSU (lost to Oregon 51-26)
Oregon State continues to show that they are the most improved team in the conference, and maybe the country. I don’t think they’ll continue to win every single game but winning 9 or 10 games is definitely a possibility now. It’s tough to win in the desert and that’s exactly what the Beavers did. They should improve to 4-0 this week. Wazzu played Oregon pretty tough in the first half. The Ducks played a pretty simple defense against them and didn’t blitz often in the first half, which showed the rest of the conference what not to do. The Cougars are improving but I don’t know if it will be enough to win another game this season. They’re up against a stiff opponent this week.
This Week: USC at Utah
Both of these teams had a bye last week. This game is on Thursday night. Utah has been fairly bad all year and are playing well-below pre-season expectations. Even though USC has only one loss, they are playing below expectations as well. They have the talent that makes me think it’s only a matter of time before they get rolling but it may never happen. They should win this week though.
Byes: Colorado (lost to UCLA 42-14), Arizona State (beat California 27-17)
Colorado got back to their normal way of life this week after their miracle in Pullman. That might have something to do with UCLA being a much better team than WSU. Barring something crazy, Colorado will finish the season 1-11 and Jon Embree will join Jeff Tedford in unemployment or having toasty buns from the hot seat he’s sitting on. Arizona State is headed in the other direction, but I do question their level of opponent. Their defense appears to be strong but I don’t know if the offense has enough playmakers. Time will tell. For now, they have to be feeling good sitting at 4-1.
That’s all the match-ups. Now, on to the good stuff after the jump!
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