Sorry this post went up a day later than usual. My Sunday was crazy with driving home from Seattle from midnight to 4:45 a.m., sleeping five hours, going to Salem to coach a Little League doubleheader and then doing my Monday follow story on the Oregon State football team and blog from the car ride home.
Anyway, college football was turned on its side again this week. That’s what makes the game so good and unique. Each week is considered a playoff week for bowl positioning.
Here’s the latest look at the Pacific-10 Conference that played only three games last weekend.
1. Oregon (6-0, 3-0): Not a bad day when you can sit back on the couch, watch football and find yourself ranked No. 1 in the country. The Ducks are No. 2 in the BCS rankings and have a chance at the national title game.
2. Stanford (5-1, 2-1): Cardinal could be ready for a strong run. It has Washington State and Washington next. The bye week gets it more prepared.
3. Washington (3-3, 2-1): The Huskies may have learned more from beating the Beavers than the Trojans. And it helps to have a healthy QB Jake Locker.
4. Oregon State (3-3, 2-1): Beavers have to keep focus. Make one play at the end of last game and they would be the best option to topple the Ducks. Now they are being bashed by fans.
5. Arizona (5-1, 2-1): Sometimes a win is a win doesn’t cut it when the QB gets hurt. It will be interesting to see how the Wildcats handle the situation.
6. Southern Cal (5-2, 2-2): Even the might Trojans are schizophrenic this year. They took their happy pills for the win over Cal.
7. Arizona State (3-3, 1-2): Momentum could be built with a trip to Cal. Sun Devils had a bye week to prepare after win over Washington two weeks ago.
8. UCLA (3-3, 1-2): Road gets tougher with a trip to Eugene this week. Then again, the Bruins took out Texas on the road earlier in the season.
9. Cal (3-3, 1-2): That was a nasty beat down they felt at the hands of the Trojans. Will the Bears hold it together?
10: Washington State (1-6, 0-4): Cougars are a major factor in the conference because they keep injuring star players.
12 comments
OSU4life says:
May 18, 2013
Cliff, I really appreciate all of your hard work, the sacrifices you make, going above and beyond in what you do! Thank you Cliff for allowing us to live vicariously through the Beavers by providing the most current and up to date happenings of Oregon State athletics! Great job of putting a photo of Jordan Poyer, he needs to play more often, he is one of the best all around athletes in the Pac-10!
Jayson_L says:
May 18, 2013
Thanks again Cliff. I was thinking the same thing about being bashed. Is the team feeling the same way? Hope the bye gives them a chance to refocus and shake it off.
Poyer was all over the place on special teams. He was the first guy down on coverage and I think he'll also break a return for a TD soon.
ean says:
May 18, 2013
Yeah Poyer is definitely a bright spot. With Wheaton's new role as lead receiver (at least the lead big play guy) it might make sense to let him save his energy for WR and keep him off the return teams even as he returns to full health. Also where is Catchings? Has he fallen from grace? Still battling illness? or just not that dependable anymore? It really seemed like having 2 big play guys opened things up. Hopefully this is just a hiccup and this team bounces back.
aaron_ says:
May 18, 2013
good point ean, i was wondering the same about Catchings….
ean says:
May 18, 2013
yeah. I realize the other guys probably have more skill but he is the only other guy besides Wheaton that can really stretch it out vertically. I am sure the coaches have good reason for not playing him more, I am just curious as to what it is. With the bye week coming up maybe Cliff will get a chance to ask about him. I feel bad for the guy because I know what he is fighting against. He started out with so much promise too.
tradernum1 says:
May 18, 2013
Actually, anybody affiliated with the defense (coaches, players, parents, friends, girlfriends) should be bashed. That side of the ball is horsebleep.
Kudos to Riley for making sure his assistants got raises, but some of those folks aren't earning their pay.
And I hope for once we don't get the traditional GT columnist's "we need to have lower expectations" baloney whenever an OS program/person falls on it's butt.
OSU4life says:
May 18, 2013
OSU's defense allows 459.2 yards and 30.8 points per game! The only schools in FBS D-1 that allow more yards are; East Carolina(4-2), Bowling Green(1-6), Wyoming(2-5), Arkansas St(2-5), New Mexico St(1-5), and Wazzu(1-6). Without the Rodgers Bro's we might be (1-6) now instead of (3-3)? OSU's offense averages 29.0 points and 344.3 yards per game too. It's a little different if the offense scores more points than the defense allows! http://www.cfbstats.com/2010/team/528/index.html
OSU's defense must improve during this bye week, no excuses!
mckalk says:
May 18, 2013
Wow, your comparisons put it in to perspective. Those are really bad teams with East Carolina probably being the exception (they upset NC St on Saturday). So far the secondary seems to have a nose for the football or it could be even worse. Unfortunately, those numbers remind me of Beaver teams of the 1980-1990 decade! I did not include the 90s because even Pettibone had a couple of defenses that played with their hair on fire. I hope this gets corrected, but after six games you start to wonder if there is a talent gap this year.
ckirkpatrick says:
May 18, 2013
Don't know were the GT has said to lower expectations. All OSU teams must try, and they do, strive to win every game. That's why people play sports (soccer is the exception). That's why people thinking any team doesn't care are nuts.
The GT, since that would be me, is dealing reality. As hard as OSU tries, it is not going to win every game. You win what you can, try and pull the upset.
People also forget that there is another team out there trying to win every game. And sometimes those teams pull the upset or get the breaks.
tradernum1 says:
May 18, 2013
Also, if anybody would like to send prayers, thoughts, wishes to injured Rutgers player Eric LeGrand, the address is below.
http://scarletknights.com/football/eric/getwell.a…
OSU4life says:
May 18, 2013
Let's ask Cliff what he thinks needs to be done to improve OSU's Defense? D-Line, LB's, secondary, scheme, philosophy, forcing teams to punt, better athletes etc…? He might even write an article about it, who knows?
mckalk says:
May 18, 2013
I think six games is getting close to having a baseline, the defense has raised a few eyebrows, it would be nice to see something in depth pretty soon.