Let's get to talking Pac-10 fans!

How about preseason predictions? With all the broken and dislocated limbs in So Cal, I'm not feeling the same way the other pollsters are. I'll stick my membership through the glory hole and go with the following predicted finish:

1. Oregon
ASU (tie)
3. USC
4. Oregon St
5. Cal
6. Arizona
7. Stanford
8. UCLA
9. Washington
10. WSU

I fully admit that at least 2 of these will be completely wrong by season's end.

Costa or Roper? Belotti hasn't announced who the starter will be for the Season opener against the Huskies next Saturday. I hope they start Nate Costa because I want to see the kid play. And he gets the nods in the looks department.



As far as predictions:

1. USC
2. Oregon - Will be one of the most exciting/explosive teams in the nation (barring critical injuries)...and Nick Reed will anchor the defense.
3. Arizona State
4. Oregon St
5. Cal
6. UCLA
7. Arizona
8. Washington
9. Stanford
10. WSU

Cougs will be good...don't sleep on us

The season hasn't even begun and Pac-10 QBs are dropping like flies! Now Costa's hurt again and out for the season. It's going to be an interesting year.

How do you see the Ohio State-USC and Georgia-Arizona State matchups playing out?

USC over Ohio St
Georgia over ASU

Observations after week 1:

UCLA may have just changed the Pac-10 landscape. Or, was it a fluke?

Oregon seems to have learned from last year and has prepared all of its QBs this year.

I think most everyone knew that Riley was Cal's No. 1 QB, but Saturday proved it once and for all.

How about Stanford and Arizona?

And, how about Fresno St and Utah? GO DAWGS and UTES!

GO DUCKS!

my cougs have work to do this year haha

Oregon is rolling over Utah State although it looks like Jeremiah Johnson is out of the game. He only has one carry and it's late in the 4th. At least Blount, Crenshaw and Alston is picking up the load. Roper started and now Masoli and Harper are playing clean-up.

I watched the 4th Q of the Husky/BYU game. Bad call by the ref on the Locker potential tying touchdown. Come on. I can see why he threw the flag because, technically it was over the top celebrating, but it just seemed ticky tack and it wasn't like Jake was taunting the opposing team or anything.

Actually it wasn't even "technically" over the top celebrating. They were just talking about this on ESPN and said that the rule involves "prolonged, excessive or premeditated celebration." It was none of those. And also, while it is a point of emphasis rule for officials this season, they were instructed to handle it according to the situation on the field (i.e. if it occurs at the end of the game, special consideration must be paid to the decision whether or not to flag it). There's no way that play at that moment deserved a flag. He flung the ball in the air, didn't rush into the stands, immediately went to hug his teammates. There was no showboating or anything. What a shame.

According to the referee, Larry Farina:

"After scoring the touchdown, the player threw the ball into the air and we are required, by rule, to assess a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. It is a celebration rule that we are required to call. it was not a judgment call.''

Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times found the rule:

"The rule in question is Rule 9, Section 2, Article 1 of the rule book.

Section C of that rule states that "throwing the ball high into the air'' is an unsportsmanlike act."


I still say the ref should have kept the flag in the pocket and let the kids play. Shame.

Other games:
Cal. Wow. Total annihilation of the Cougars in Pullman. 66-3. OUCH!
It looks like ASU is pulling away from Stanford in Tempe and Arizona is handling Toledo in Tucson.

Next week is a good one as most of the Pac 10 are tested on the road:

Oregon at Purdue
Cal at Maryland
UCLA at BYU
Stanford at TCU
WSU at Baylor
Arizona at New Mexico

And the remaining Pac-10 teams are home:

The big one: Ohio State at U$C
Oklahoma visits Washington
Hawaii at Oregon State
UNLV at ASU.

Predictions for this weekend? I'm going with:

Oregon
Cal
UCLA
USC
Stanford
Baylor
Arizona
ASU
OSU
Oklahoma

I hope my Cougs can get it back and start winning! jeez! Big game vs Baylor tomorrow haha

Two Pac-10 games affected by Ike: Stanford/TCU and WSU/Baylor.

I guess there's always next week. On the positive, at least they scored a couple of touchdowns this week. It looks like a long season for the Cougars this year.

I think it will take a couple of years before Wulff can rebuild the Cougars back to to the upper tier. Doba left the cupboard pretty empty and I think his wife battling cancer (sadly, she passed away in 2006) affected his focus and unfortunately also had an impact on recruiting during his last couple of years coaching the Cougars.

I liked Doba. He was a class act. I also like Wulff, but we won't know for a couple of years if he was a good or bad hire.

As for tomorrow:

Oregon
Cal
BYU but would LOVE UCLA to pull the upset in Provo.
USC
TCU
Arizona
ASU
OSU
Oklahoma

Soooooooo... many people pick Penn State to finish 3rd or 4th in the Big Ten. I see you guys think Oregon State should be 3rd or 4th in the Pac 10. What does last week's PSU/OSU game tell us about the quality of the Pac 10? Talk amongst yourselves...

Oh my... aside from the PSU/OSU game last weekend, what does yesterday's games tell us about the Pac-10? Other than USC and, ahem, Oregon State, the teams didn't just lose, most got taken behind the woodshed. OK, so Oregon barely got past Pur-don't. The way they played, that was almost a loss, but it goes in the win column.

Baylor 45, Washington State 17 to Baylor?

Maryland 35, Cal 27 and it wasn't that close most of the game

TCU 31, Stanford 14

BYU 59, UCLA 0 will the real Bruins please stand up

Oklahoma 55, Washington 14 bye, bye Ty

New Mexico 36, Arizona 28

UNLV 23, Arizona State 20 seriously, UNLV beat a ranked team?

Week 1 the conference looked respectable. But this weekend... oh my.

It was a horrendous week for the Pac-10. The Mountain West conference went 4-0 against the Pac-10. Stunning.

I was most surprised at BYU/UCLA and UNLV/ASU.

Leave it to the Arizona schools to f*ck things up. What the hell? Were they both looking ahead to next week? That could be a good case for ASU as they host Georgia next week. Nice going, boys.

UW has one of the toughest opening schedule of all teams. At Oregon, BYU and then Oklahoma? Are you kidding? That being said, unless they win 7 or 8 of their remaining 9 games, Tyrone will be gone. Yes, the team is young, but I don't know if the psyche can be repaired. Locker, though, is a stud.

Oregon blew too many scoring opportunities. Justin threw 2 picks inside the red zone that killed two scoring drives. Purdue did a good job holding off the Ducks, but really, the Ducks were moving up and down the field in the first half, but penalties and bad throwing decisions by Roper hurt them. Justin is out 4-6 weeks so it's up to Jeremiah Masoli and Chris Harper to lead the Ducks. The Ducks really don't want to play one of their prized freshman Darron Thomas as they want to redshirt him so hopefully, Masoli and Harper can stay healthy until Roper returns.

OSU always starts slow so the Penn State score did not surprise me. For some odd reason, Mike Riley's teams hit their stride mid-way through the season, every season. And I don't think OSU is the third best team in the Pac this year.

Obviously, USC is the class.

Next tier would be Oregon/Cal/ASU

Then Arizona/UCLA followed by OSU and Stanford and UW/WSU rounding out the bottom.

UCLA would have been more competitive if they haven't had all the QB problems. They are in the same boat as Oregon with 3rd string QB's leading the team. I give Neuheisel two years before UCLA will be battling USC for Best of the Pac. That guy is a weasel but he can coach.

What a strange week for the Pac.

COUGS ARE PISSING ME OFF...HAHA

Is it safe to come out? Has the USC/TOSU hailstorm of media hype ended?

Geez!

Yes, it was a bad weekend for the Pac-10. A few questions:

Who's going to be this season's Michigan State of the Pac-10? ASU? UCLA (again)? Cal?

Why do Oregon's QBs keep getting hurt?

Why can't Arizona get it together and what's with ASU losing?

And on the subject of the SEC, Auburn wins 3-2? Reminds me of the days of yore in the Pac-10 when Oregon and Oregon St would play in the so-called Toilet Bowl to see which school wouldn't be last place.

WSU is the Duke of college fball haha

AARGH! Oregon hasn't solved its QB problems, I see.

That was a great win for Boise State. Even with ESPN Gameplan and the Fox Sports national package and a few hundred TV channels, I was unable to find that BSU-Oregon game today though. It would have been a good one to watch.

Cougs won and that's all I care about haha

I saw Wazzu get manhandled by Baylor (who stole my schools coach) and yeah it wasn't purty.

What's the deal? Did the previous coach leave the cupboard bare?

OK... so now that the conference is done embarrassing itself against the Mountain West, etc., it has apparently decided to further implode by eating it's own, taking down it's last hope for respectability. I am now officially rooting for the Beavers to win out... it will give us a "quality" non conference dismantling on our resume.

My first thought after the game was... I bet USC loses one more game this season. While a lot can happen between now and the end of the season (see last year), right now they have to feel that they have lost their shot at a national championship. It will be hard for Carroll to keep his team focused the rest of the way out. They have a conference championship and Rose Bowl berth to play for, but I have to wonder if they were paying attention to their press clippings too much. After hearing that they should be playing on Sundays, hearing they are LA's pro team, hearing that only a few top teams in the country could possibly beat them, hearing how this was Pete Carroll's best team yet (don't they say that every year?) this will be a major letdown. This is where Carroll is going to earn his dollars, getting them to regroup.

Dear Penn St,

GO BEAVERS!

Many Pac-10 fans don't genuflect at the USC altar. Nor do we find the media's starry-eyed love affair with the Trojans anything other than nauseating. (The band alone is enough to make you reach for the mute button.)

It's early in the season and lots will happen between now and Dec 6. I agree: USC will probably lose another game. ASU and/or Oregon might yet get their acts together. OSU almost always gets stronger throughout the season - Riley might be the best Pac-10 coach - they almost always end up higher in the standings than the preseason ratings put them. Cal and Arizona might surprise. And, even Stanford can pull it together to shock.

Chow for now.

GO DUCKS!