Pac-12 Picking: After Washington, conference picture muddied with unknowns

(Photo: Gabrielle Mercer/WCSN)

With two weeks of Pac-12 football in the books, the hierarchy in the conference is unclear, muddied by another round of unexpected results.

USC, preseason favorites to not only win the conference but also make a national championship run, finally succumbed to weeks of mediocre play with a loss at Washington State. The Trojan’s offensive trio of Sam Darnold, Stephen Carr and Ronald Jones was not enough on Friday night in Pullman; the Cougars beat USC at its own game, outlasting USC 30-27 to shake up the power of balance in the conference.

But, it was only a couple weeks ago Washington State needed its backup quarterback to engineer a three-score fourth-quarter comeback against Boise State. Mike Leach’s squad might have risen to 11^th in this week’s AP Poll, but could very well have dropped out of the rankings completely if they didn’t escape the Broncos.

Then there is Stanford, a team that looked in decline during back-to-back losses against USC and San Diego State. The last two weeks however, the Cardinal have rebounded with two home conference wins, riding its Heisman candidate – and possible frontrunner – Bryce Love to the tune of double-digit victories over UCLA and Arizona State.

The Sun Devils loss to Stanford must have felt especially frustrating to ASU fans, who watched its defense drop a dud in Palo Alto after containing Oregon’s explosive attack a week earlier in an impressive win in Tempe.

Oregon is a school facing inconsistency of its own, as the Ducks recovered from the upset loss to ASU with a uninspiring win over Cal this week.

Washington blew out Oregon State, leaving the Huskies as the clear frontrunner in the Pac-12. Utah is undefeated, but have been anything but impressive while tip-toeing through a favorable schedule to begin the year.

There are a lot of good teams in the conference, but just one great team if any. Week by week, unexpected result after unexpected result, it is becoming tougher to decipher who is next in line after Washington. If the Huskies lose, the Pac-12 can only be describe as the “wild west.”

That might not be a good thing in this College Football Playoff era.

Pac-12 Power Rankings

*Note: These rankings are based on who I think the best teams are at the moment…

1. WASHINGTON (Last week: 1) – Another week, another easy win for Washington. Cal comes to Seattle next week, the last obstacle between the Huskies and a perfect first half of the season.

2. STANFORD (Last week: 3) – Stanford is starting to look like itself again. A dominant running back, a game managing quarterback, and a defense that is beginning to round back into form. Yes they have two losses, but the way they are playing right now: good enough to beat USC and Washington State.

3. USC (Last week: 2) – The Trojans finally lost, but stay above WSU in the rankings; had that game been played at a neutral site, USC wins. Probably. But, games aren’t played at neutral sites, and Clay Helton needs to light a fire under his team if they are to build off last season’s Rose Bowl win.

4. WASHINGTON STATE (Last week: 5) – The Cougars have had their moments under Leach, but nothing quite like the start to this season. All the top Pac-12 North challenges still await, but a special season might be brewing in Pullman.

5. OREGON (Last week: 4) – The Ducks bounced back by pulling away from Cal late on Saturday, but it was another week that the Ducks looked average. The promise of Oregon’s trio of non-conference wins is beginning to fade.

6. UTAH (Last week: 6) – Utah had a bye week, but watched as every other Pac-12 South team suffer its first conference loss. It will be a big game next Saturday when Stanford pays a visit to the 20th ranked Utes.

7. CALIFORNIA (Last week: 7) – Cal stuck around again this week, taking its game at Oregon to the fourth quarter before a more talented Ducks team pulled away. The road doesn’t get easier for the Golden Bears; they head to Washington next week.

8. UCLA (Last week: 10) – The Bruins got a much needed win at home against Colorado, keeping the “Fire Jim Mora” crowd at bay for at least another week. Josh Rosen is playing well and putting up big stats, but the talent — or lack thereof — around him isn’t providing much help.

9. ARIZONA STATE (Last week: 9) – ASU could have moved to the top of the division with a win at Stanford, but that would have meant keeping Bryce Love under wraps. That didn’t happen, and the Sun Devils enter their bye week with a losing record.

10. COLORADO (Last week: 8) – Colorado suffered a bad loss at UCLA, its offense again stagnant during its trip to the Rose Bowl. They host Arizona next week in a big game for both struggling schools.

11. ARIZONA (Last week: 11) – The Wildcats were off last week. Saturday’s trip to Colorado will be one of their last real chances at a win this year.

12. OREGON STATE (Last week: 12) – Against FBS teams this year, Oregon State is getting beat by an average score of 50-17. At least they have their win against Portland State.

Weekly Awards

GOAT of the Week: Bryce Love (RB, Stanford)

For the second straight week, Love wins this award. He is more than deserving.

After setting a Stanford single-game rushing record with 301 yards against ASU, Love is now a frontrunner for the Heisman trophy. Somehow, he is making the Cardinal not miss it’s graduated Heisman candidate Christian McCaffrey.

On Saturday, Love had five runs of over 30 yards, and three touchdown runs of at least 43 yards. In a word, he was unstoppable.

Just a few of the ways to measure what Love has done this year:

-FBS career yards per rush (Love: 8.81; record: 8.26), according to Stanford SID Alan George.

-4th most-ever rushing yards through five games of a season, according to Pac-12 Network.

-39 broken tackles on 98 carries, according to Pro Football Focus’ Sam Monson.

-Second Pac-12 player in last 20 years to have consecutive 250 yard rushing game (Reggie Bush), according to George.

-Fastest Stanford running back to hit 1,000 yards (87 carries in 5 games), according to George.

Scape-GOAT of the Week: Pac-12 Scheduling

This week’s USC-Washington State game might turn out to be the game of the season in conference play. Not only will it be one of the highest-ranked match ups between Pac-12 teams this year, but it had all the ingredients of a classic.

Except one.

The game was played on Friday night.

Ending after 11 p.m., it was the epitome of the trending “Pac-12 after dark” fad. But, Pac-12 after dark is not the stage USC-WSU should have been on. Saturday night’s prime-time game on Fox was No. 15 Oklahoma State against unranked Texas Tech. Not right.

To be fair to the conference, the schedules and weekday games are set months beforehand; its impossible to predict when and where the best games will be. But, the Pac-12 has taken some heat this year for the inconsistent performances of its teams.

Putting arguably its best game of 2017 on a visible stage (prime-time Saturday night on network TV) helps fight that stigma, letting the whole country — and College Football Playoff voters — see more games.

What if USC comes back to win the conference with WSU being its only loss? It wouldn’t have hurt their cause if the country could have seen the battle it took to beat them.

West coast sports has historically been a hard sell, but the Pac-12 didn’t help itself out this week by putting one of its premier games in a less-than-premier time slot.

Play of the Week: “Set the Expectation” Presentation

It is not a snap of the ball, but the raising of awareness that wins this week’s award.

Brenda Tracy is the leader of the “Set the Expectation” movement, which advocates against sexual and relationship violence, an issue that has permeated far too deeply into college football.

On Saturday, Stanford and ASU played in the first ever “Set the Expectation” game, which saw both schools wear awareness ribbons on the back of its players’ helmets. Tracy was also honored at halftime, giving her the space to use her voice to speak for so many without one.