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Sky's the limit
As a Trojan fan, I'm happy to see the Pac-12 as a whole isn't being left behind in the advancement of the FBS. I'm glad to see RichRod surfacing at UA and I'm glad to see Leach surfacing at Wazzu. Sarkisian's building a strong program at UW, Chip's got things going well at Oregon, Shaw hasn't - and won't - let Stanford miss a beat after Harbaugh moving on to Frisco. I honestly hope Mora does something special at fUCLA. Rivalries are more fun when they're competitive. 50-0 is a scrimmage.
It's a good thing for the Pac-12 to become a deeper conference top-to-bottom, get on that Big12/Big Ten level. The days of "USC and the little 9" or "USC, UO, and the little 8" are better off gone. Dominance is only impressive when the defeated are impressive.
I don't think Wazzu's going to be 10-2 immediately, but I think such seasons are in the program's future. I'd say the Pac is a half-step up from the Big 12 defensively, and maybe not even a half-step down offensively, what with the aforementioned added depth. I honestly think it's the most diverse conference offensively in the nation.
I think Leach could go anywhere between 4-8 and 7-5. They can start 2-2 or they could start 4-0. I feel like EW and UNLV are near-guaranteed wins, depending on how well UNLV can recover from their run of constant failure. If they can get BYU and beat Colorado on Homecoming, they're in business.
Oregon's going to be tough - maybe not unwinnable, but very, very tough. We have to remember this is a team coming off of three straight BCS trips - two Rose Bowls (a close loss and a close win), split by a National Championship appearance where they could have had the win if they could have wrapped up Michael Dyer instead of letting him get up and run to set up the game winning kick.
They can beat Oregon State, depending on how well that young squad has learned from last year's mistakes. I think that's going to be one of the better, more underrated conference games of the season. If they beat Ore St, they'll face a Cal team that should be 4-2 coming off of two conference wins.
Cal isn't unwinnable, but Stanford and Utah might be, the jury is completely out on UCLA, what with the new coach and the run of mediocrity they've gone through, but if they can win that game and Cal they could be 6-4 and bowl eligible going into Tempe. They'll probably lose that game and the Apple Cup, but being that the final is at home, depending on how the team grows or does not grow over the season, with huge question marks all over the defense and Leach's trademark offense in its first year, we could be looking at a 7-5 team in Leach's first season.
He never had a losing season at TTU, but he inherited a 6-5 team. What determines his first year record, I think, is the affects of so many teams in transition. This season, half of the Pac-12 have a head coach in either his first (UoA, ASU, UCLA, Wazzu) or second (CU, Stan) year. His main problem is that most of those are in the south, with Oregon and Stanford's transitions coming mostly in their backfields, rather than in the head man on the sideline and his system on the field.
The most definite wins in my mind are EW, UNLV, and CU, the most definite losses being USC, Stanford, and Oregon. They'll probably beat Oregon State and probably lose to Cal, Utah, and Washington but any of those could go either way in my mind and the three other games on the schedule are a complete push.
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07-29-2012, 03:21 PM
