Pac-12 Roundup: Week 13
Pac-12 Roundup returned from Mexican vacation just in time to catch the last two days of Rivalry Weekend action and boil it down for you, the lucky reader in this week’s final regular season Pac-12 Roundup!
BIGGEST WIN: Big congratulations to Colorado, who’s Seniors avoided a career road shut-out by beating an injury decimated Utah
Barkley’s days of locking on to Robert Woods are over. Marquise Lee torched the UCLA secondary for 13 catches for 224 yards on Saturday.
team in Salt Lake City. Congratulations also to Oregon and Washington for winning their respective rivalry games.
However, the biggest win of the week was USC’s enormous statement over in-city rival UCLA. The Trojans thoroughly dominated and humiliated the team that will replace them in next week’s Pac-12 Championship game. The 50-0 score makes a mockery of the new conference’s marquee event and serves notice to the rest of the Pac that if the preponderance of the Trojans’ NFL-ready juniors return, next year’s title game will almost certainly be held in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The Trojans demolition of the Bruins marked the end of a six game stretch that saw USC win big in South Bend, take Stanford to the very edge, humiliate Washington and even notch a victory in Autzen stadium over a top 5 Ducks team. USC now finds themselves in the AP top 10, and given the result of their last trip to Eugene, would easily be considered favorites for the Rose Bowl were they allowed to play in the post-season.
Some will say that with the Post-Season ban in effect, USC’s victories this season have been as meaningless as they are impressive. But that isn’t the case. USC lost 4 games and played in the Emerald bowl in their last season before the NCAA sanctions began. Finishing #22 in the AP after beating an unranked Boston College team.
Sanctions and the overhaul of the coaching staff was supposed to only exacerbate the Trojans problems. The era of USC dominance was over in Los Angeles and Rick Neuheisel was going to take all the Bruins’ new found advantages in LA and build a juggernaut.
Well, the two years have passed, and the final result is USC: 50. UCLA: Absolutely nothing. Scholarship restrictions will severely limit the Trojans acquisition of talent in the next few seasons, but the best of the best will still want to play for USC and even with no bowl game to look forward to this holiday, the future looks as bright as ever in Troy.
WORST LOSS: No one wanted to be the team that finally lost to Colorado at home and now Utah has to wear that dubious distinction, but with injuries to the only viable QB and RBs on their roster and a string of fluky missed field goals from the reigning Pac-12 special teams player of the week, Utah shouldn’t hang it’s head too long. The Utes still have a winning record and a bowl to prepare for.
Arizona State on the other hand is completely in shambles. The team that started 5-1 has morphed into a team that finished 1-5.
Cal and ASU are definitely programs running in different directions
The Devils are 6-6, losing 4 in a row, three of the four losses coming to teams I would have put in the bottom tier of the Pac at the time of the game.
I don’t know what happened to the Devils between October 8 and October 15, but in six games before Mid-October, ASU allowed 19 points per game. In their six games after, It was over 33. That’s a two TD per game difference. And it wasn’t just that they played Oregon in the 2nd half. They allowed 37 to WSU, and 47 to Cal. Cal! The team who’s QB throws 5 INTs per game and only other game above 40 points came against Presbyterian!
Arizona State lead the Pac in turnovers forced through most of the season (though Utah recently passed them) and Cal had the toughest time hanging onto the ball. This seemed to be a horrible matchup for the Bears, but turned out to be a case study in teams heading different directions as Cal actually finished winning 4 of 6 and one of the two losses was a narrow 3 point loss to Stanford.
The Devils on the other hand, have been playing like they were shot with a tranquilizer dart at Autzen Stadium. I won’t pretend to know what’s wrong with ASU’s talented defense, but the Sun Devils have to be the worst loss this week because they officially blew the major opportunity their stellar first half set up. Had they beaten Cal they could have patched together a two-game post season. Now they’ve fired their coach and at a decomposing 6-6 probably should not be invited to a bowl.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Who else could it be but Matt Barkley? The USC Jr. QB’s best move this offseason will likely be to declare for the NFL draft and given the recent history of USC QBs, that seems the most likely decision. Who could question Mark Sanchez’s decision to strike while the iron was hot rather follow Matt Leinart’s decision to lose millions by staying back.
If Saturday was Matt Barkley’s final college game, it was one for the ages. Barkley completed over 83% of his passes for 423 yards and 6 touchdowns, tying the USC record he set a few weeks earlier at Colorado. Barkley also finished his season with a completion percentage of .691, breaking Rob Johnson’s record of .686 set back in 1993. Barkley truly developed into the QB that Pete Carroll thought he was back in 2009. He won’t get to leave with a bowl, but USC fans will always remember the way he lifted the program at one of it’s toughest times.
SHOULD THE PAC-12 EVEN HOLD A CHAMPIONSHIP GAME?
Put yourself in Larry Scott’s position. You just convinced the Presidents of the Pac-10 to buck tradition, and abandon their round-robin schedule to add two teams from way out in the Rocky Mountains just so you could have two divisions and a Conference Championship game.
It may have been a rough transition and a lot of people were unhappy, but you were sure the fun of a post-season game for all the marbles was going to make it all worthwhile.
Your best-case scenario coming into the weekend was for Arizona State to patch things together with a winnable game at home and wrap up their claim to the Pac-12 South. It seemed they had it wrapped up when they blew USC out, and started 5-1. It was just a matter of time.
That failing, at least you had Utah. The only program in the Pac besides USC with multiple BCS wins and the best bowl winning percentage in the nation would be an interesting matchup for Oregon with their conference-leading defense.
Had either of those two teams managed to win at home against inferior opponents, the Pac-12 Championship game would have some life.
“Really the couches are easy to move. The biggest thing I’ll need your help with is this damn credenza my wife has…”
If they both lost, you’d be stuck with UCLA, but even that would be ok if the Bruins could pull another upset and beat – or at least stay close to- USC, proving that they were a legitimate post-season team.
Your worst-case scenario would be Arizona State and Utah both finding a way to lose close games at home and UCLA being humiliated so badly at the Coliseum that they fired their coach first thing on Monday morning. Sadly, that’s what happened and now the much-longed for Championship Game just looks like a total joke.
Oregon should play it like an NFL preseason game with starters only seeing action in the 1st quarter. For UCLA’s part, they would prefer to just not have to play the game at all.
Don’t believe me? Follow along At 6-6, the Bruins are .500 and bowl eligible. However, a loss to Oregon would give them a losing record of 6-7. Thus, should they lose to the Ducks, UCLA would not be eligible for a bowl without making a special petition to the NCAA.
The NCAA almost never grants such petitions, so hope seems dim for the Bruins. Perhaps it it is telling that word leaked on Monday that UCLA has already applied.
So I guess this Championship Game does provide one piece of intrigue. For perhaps the first time since the Korean War, a Pac team finds itself in a situation where a win means the Rose Bowl and a loss would mean not being bowl eligible at all.
Maybe next year this two-division thing will seem like a better idea. Right Larry?