College Football 2018 Conference Previews -- Pac-12

PAC-12

OVERVIEW

Washington's Chris Petersen (Saturday Down South)

The Pac-12 is a Power 5 conference by name, but based on last season there are many who wonder whether it should be. The conference failed to place a team in the College Football Playoff, and while it seemed to have strength by getting nine teams to bowl games, it went 1-8 in said games. That certainly isn't the way a conference that claims to be elite performs, especially when the lights are brightest.

But that's why each season is a reboot, a chance to regain lost respect. And while the Pac-12 may not necessarily be better overall, it does have a legitimate shot at reaching the sport's Final Four in 2018 -- thanks to Washington. Chris Petersen's Huskies are loaded with experience and talent, boasting as many as 10 potential all-league selections. Many teams would love to have a quarterback as productive as Jake Browning, but fans in Seattle are oddly ambivalent about the senior. He likely won't be throwing as much this season as he has workhorse runner Myles Gaskin back to tote the mail, and future star Salvon Ahmed in relief. The line has experience, and the defense is led by the nation's top secondary, notably cornerback Byron Murphy and safety Taylor Rapp. An opening game with Auburn will set the course for the Huskies season. The biggest challenge in the North will be Stanford, which hopes to have Heisman favorite Bryce Love healthy all-season. He played with a nagging ankle injury yet still gained over 2,000 yards, and should once again be the focal point of the offense. The defense was not good last year but should be better with experience. Oregon played hard for interim coach Mario Cristobal in last year's Las Vegas Bowl, so much so that the school made him full-time coach after Willie Taggart bolted for Florida State. Cristobal has a premier talent in quarterback Jake Herbert, and a defense rife with talent and overseen by coordinator Jim Leavitt, who may be as important a piece of the puzzle as Cristobal. Justin Wilcox made California more competitive last season and could take the next step, to a bowl game. The offense is very good, led by quarterback Ross Bowers and underrated runner Patrick Laird, and will need to win games as the defense is in rebuild mode.

USC lost a host of front-line stars -- most notably quarterback Sam Darnold, running back Ronald Jones II and receiver Deontay Burnett -- but still has as much star power as anyone. Stephen Carr should be an able replacement for Jones in the backfield, and new signal-caller JT Daniels' job will be made easier behind an experienced offensive line. The defense is feast or famine, just as often giving up big plays as blowing up plays. Linebacker Cameron Smith is a standout. Utah is one of those programs that never gets headlines but simply wins. Last year's seven wins was the fewest for the Utes since 2013, and it should be better with one of the most experienced teams in the conference. Zack Moss is an underappreciated talent at running back, while the defense is paced by pass-rush terror Bradlee Anae and corner Julian Blackmon. It will be interesting to see how Arizona does under first-year coach Kevin Sumlin. His teams typically do well out of the box before growing stagnant, but as long as Khalil Tate is around to run the offense there shouldn't be too many worries. The defense has upgraded in talent, with sophomores Kylan Wilborn and Colin Schooler proving to be revelations last year. Getting Oregon and USC at home will help the Wildcats quest for a South Division crown. UCLA also has a new coach, albeit one with a slightly higher profile, in Chip Kelly. After four years away from the college game, Kelly is back, seemingly reinvigorated. He has a very young team, which allows him start with a blank slate. His trademark tempo and read option could take a while to master, which means the Bruins might run the ball a bit more. The defense was abysmal last season but should be better with a healthy Jaelan Phillips, who moves from end to linebacker. Darnay Holmes and Nate Meadors are a solid corner combo.

RISING: California
FALLING: Washington State
BOWL TEAMS (8): Washington, Stanford, Oregon, California, USC, Utah, Arizona, UCLA

PAC-12 PROJECTED STANDINGS
NORTH
1 Washington (13-0, 9-0)
2 Stanford (9-3, 6-3)
3 Oregon (9-3, 6-3)
4 California (7-5, 4-5)
5 Washington State (4-8, 2-7)
6 Oregon State (1-11, 0-9)

SOUTH

1 USC (9-4, 7-2)

2 Utah (9-3, 6-3)

3 Arizona (8-4, 5-4)

4 UCLA (6-6, 4-5)

5 Colorado (5-7, 3-6)

6 Arizona State (3-9, 2-7)

PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIP

Washington over USC

  
ALL-PAC 12 TEAM
FIRST TEAM OFFENSE
QB Jake Browning/Washington
RB Bryce Love/Stanford
RB Miles Gaskin/Washington
WR N'Keal Harry/Arizona State
WR Tyler Vaughns/USC
WR JJ Arceaga-Whiteside/Stanford
TE  Caleb Wilson/UCLA
OT Trey Adams/Washington
OT Walker Little/Stanford
OG Nate Herbig/Stanford
OG Calvin Throckmorton/Oregon
 C   Toa Lobendahn/USC
FIRST TEAM DEFENSE
DE Kylan Wilborn/Arizona
DE Jalen Jelks/Oregon
DT Greg Gaines/Washington
DT Christian Rector/USC
LB Troy Dye/Oregon
LB Cameron Smith/USC
LB Bobby Okereke/Stanford
LB Colin Schooler/Arizona
CB Byron Murphy/Washington
CB Iman Marshall/USC
 S   Taylor Rapp/Washington
 S   Evan Worthington/Colorado
FIRST TEAM SPECIALISTS
 K  Matt Gay/Utah
 P   Mitch Wishnowsky/Utah
KR Darnay Holmes/UCLA
PR  Dillon Mitchell/Oregon

SECOND TEAM OFFENSE
QB Khalil Tate/Arizona
RB Stephen Carr/USC
RB Zack Moss/Utah
WR Dillon Mitchell/Oregon
WR Shun Brown/Arizona
WR Laviska Shenault/Colorado
TE  Hunter Bryant/Washington
OT Kaleb McGary/Washington
OT Austin Jackson/USC
OG Luke Wattenberg/Washington
OG Tim Lynott/Colorado
 C   Jake Hanson/Oregon
SECOND TEAM DEFENSE
DE Bradlee Anae/Utah
DE Nnamdi Oguayo/Washington State
DT Renell Wren/Arizona State
DT Javier Edwards/Colorado
LB Jahad Woods/Washington State
LB Jaelen Phillips/UCLA
LB Ben Burr-Kirven/Washington
LB Rick Gamboa/Colorado
CB Alijah Holder/Stanford
CB Lorenzo Burns/Arizona
 S   Jalen Thompson/Washington State
 S   Marvell Tell/USC
SECOND TEAM SPECIALISTS
 K  Jet Toner/Stanford
 P  Alex Kinney/Colorado
KR Cameron Scarlett/Stanford
PR Vic Wharton/California

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Bryce Love/Stanford
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Troy Dye/Oregon
COACH OF THE YEAR: Chris Petersen/Washington
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR: QB JT Daniels/USC

Monday Musings -- Oct. 9

Washington coach Chris Petersen wishes his team's games would start earlier (Sporting News)

There is no doubt about it -- Chris Petersen is one of the best college football coaches in all of the land.

He took Boise State to untold heights, winning a couple of BCS bowl games, and has revitalized a Washington program that was spinning its wheels for many of the last 10 years.

Petersen is no-nonsense, preferring to work instead of making small talk or impassioned pleas in the media.

But he had finally had enough of his Huskies being ignored, and couldn't keep quiet any longer.

"I just want to say something to our fans: we apologize for these late games," he said at a recent weekly press conference. "And I'd also like to reiterate it has nothing to do with us or the administration. We want to play at 1 p.m. It hurts us tremendously in terms of national exposure. No one wants to watch our game on the East Coast that late, and we all know it. We haven't had a kickoff before 5 p.m. this season."

It makes sense, to hear him say it.

But it isn't correct.

Think about this -- the only real national program in the Pac-12 is USC. The Trojans move the meter, have history galore, and fans know the brand. That's not the case for Washington, which is why playing games at 1 p.m. -- 4 p.m. Eastern -- would actually be a bad idea.

You see, that window is typically when Alabama and Ohio State and Michigan and Clemson and a host of other national programs are playing. Washington would get lost in the shuffle, and would probably have fewer eyes watching than it does now.

In television, execs talk about potential viewing opportunities, about potential eyes on a program.

What Petersen doesn't get is that Washington, and the rest of the Pac-12 for that matter, can run games basically unopposed, which would mean more potential viewers, not fewer. Less competition means more of an ability to plant your flag, grow your brand, and that's what the Pac -12 is doing.

ESPN -- specifically GameDay staple Kirk Herbstreit -- added to the debate that basically said Petersen should be thanking the network for even televising Huskies games, a completely wrongheaded answer. But not unexpected from the network, which believes it  can do no wrong and that people value its opinion -- even though subscribers are leaving in droves.

Petersen was merely stating something that bothered him. He didn't call out a specific network or entity and say they were the problem. But it must have hit really close to home for ESPN to act like a petulant eight-year old in its response.

While I disagree with Petersen's premise, he is to be applauded for bringing attention to something that seems to bother more than a few Pac-12 coaches. Stanford's David Shaw has mentioned it before, yet it's hard to remember ESPN going out of its way to post catty little graphics on air about Stanford, or have the announcers talk about it in editorial fashion.

Not sure why the Worldwide Leader decided to pick this fight, but it's just another reason why fans are leaving the network like rats deserting a sinking ship.

Petersen took the high road and didn't fire back at ESPN, preferring to "move on to a new topic." It's a fight he wouldn't be able to win, so he's staying out of it.

He comes out looking like the better party in this whole dust-up, and that's just one more reason to admire the guy.

Wolverines Woes
Full disclosure -- I believed the hype about Jim Harbaugh, and thought that he was just the guy to fix Michigan's woes.

I mean, look at the resume -- dyed in the wool Wolverine, big time player, wildly successful at every coaching stop he's made -- including making Stanford relevant, which is no small task. Yes, it would be just a matter of time until he brought in his culture, his players and started racking up the victories.

Um, it hasn't happened yet, and now there is a question about whether it ever will.

Harbaugh is 24-7 in his first 313 games in Ann Arbor -- the same record held by Brady Hoke through that span. While it isn't horrible, it hasn't been good enough to even contend for the East Division crown in the Big Ten, and after a 14-10 loss to Michigan State on Saturday night, there are questions just how the rest of this season will go.

There are big time concerns around the offense, which will now be without Wilton Speight for the rest of the season. That means the offense is in the hands of John O'Korn, who has been a turnover machine, throwing four interceptions in four games. Michigan lacks dynamic playmakers, and the stubbornness of sticking with the physical, pro style offense could be the Wolverines undoing. While Ohio State and Penn State dazzle each week with playmakers and points, Michigan does it with will and determination. Harbaugh would have been perfect in the Woody Hayes era, but right now Michigan doesn't scare anyone offensively.

Now, to be fair, it hasn't been Harbaugh's fault that the quarterback situation has been a mess. He had Jake Ruddock in for a year after he finished at Iowa, and then went with Speight last season, which was fine. He didn't really scare anyone, but wasn't bad.

Michigan needs more than "not bad," though, if it's going to get back to the upper echelon of college football.

The defense is scary good, which means that Michigan should win every game in which it has a talent advantage. But the Wolverines still must face Wisconsin, Penn State and Ohio State, teams with as much talent and coaching prowess as they have. So far, Harbaugh hasn't shown the ability to adapt, or to beat UM's biggest rivals.

The loss to Sparty dropped Harbaugh's mark to 1-4 against Michigan State and Ohio State in his tenure, and natives are beginning to get a little nervous. The quirky personality, the rah-rah platitudes, the khakis, the sticking it to the Buckeyes whenever possible -- that's all well and good, but it loses its charm if you can't win the big games.

And right now, Michigan is just another program in the Big Ten.

That's something I never thought I'd be saying.

Falling By The Wayside
More teams have been pushed to the sideline after suffering a second loss, and that means they begin experimenting for next season, using younger players more, maybe work on a golf game. Because they aren't going to the College Football Playoff, and if you aren't going there, you really aren't going anywhere.

Louisville, it's been fun -- we really enjoy watching Lamar Jackson and his sometimes inhuman escapability. But that defense? Yeah, might wanna work on it, because it's keeping you from getting where you want to be.

Wake Forest, your ascent to almost relevance has been fun to follow, and your defense is enjoyable to watch. Let us know when you get an offense to match, and we might just pay attention to you again. Or maybe not.

Duke, for all of the offensive genius head coach David Cutcliffe supposedly brings to the table, it's amazing that you average just 4.85 yards per play, near the bottom of the barrel nationally. The defense, like Wake Forest, is cool to watch, and Mike Ramsay is a beast up front. But that defense is going to sue for non-support, and you'll be watching from the sidelines of some minor bowl game.

Kansas State, it was fun while it lasted, but your offense is too one-dimensional to really be a factor in any national race. Bill Snyder is still the coolest old guy around, and we would love to sit down and join him for a beer. But watching your team play? Sorry, we'll pass. It's just too boring.

West Virginia, it's cute how your fans are up in arms about a couple of officials calls going against you -- even though they were the correct ones -- especially the juggling non-interception on the sideline. But digress. Having to rely on a defense that ranks 106th in the country is just too much for any team to overcome, and you found that out against TCU.

Maryland, we're sorry about your quarterback woes because you looked like you were emerging as a team to watch. There isn't much there defensively, but if DJ Durkin keeps recruiting the way he has, you should be good enough to compete in a couple of years.

Oregon, we are pretty confident that Willie Taggart will end up being a good hire, and will have you back in the fast lane pretty soon. It just isn't going to be this year, especially not with the injury issues that have cropped up.

Florida, really? You couldn't muster up enough offense to knock off an LSU team that was circling the drain? It's interesting that, for all of the quarterback acumen Jim McElwain has, you guys haven't had a real live quarterback in his tenure (well, unless you count the first six games with Will Grier). That will need to change if you want to get past Georgia, a team that's stockpiling quarterbacks like they're going out of style.