Go back to June and read in ESPN 30 for 30 voice:
“What if I told you unranked Southern Cal would be trying to salvage it’s season, starting with a win over surging Colorado? What if I told you floundering Oregon would be dying for a win at home over Washington? That Washington State looks like Wisconsin?”
“The Pac 12 (After Dark), Saturday, starting at 3:30 EST.”
There may be no more interesting conference in the nation five weeks in, and the more we know, the less we can believe. What we’ve picked up on this week for your own personal use forward
1. Washington is for real, for CFB Playoff real
The thing that stuck out about Washington thumping Stanford was the speed, all of the speed. Yeah, Stanford was banged up in the secondary and yeah, they looked like replacement guys. They couldn’t get their head around all day in the rare moments they were in coverage. But Jake Browning is elite (sorry, NFL, he’s got one more year) and receivers were running totally free. Both lines destroyed Stanford, and the major hangup will be how they can deal with success. But either way, we found out that Washington looks very much the part after such a long period of being dormant on the national stage. The Pac-12 champ has the inside track on playing in the CFB Playoff, and Washington has the major inside track on being that team.
2. Stop with Christian McCaffrey and the “true road” touchdowns
We hear it every time Stanford plays a road game, about McCaffrey not having any rushing touchdowns on the road in a “true road” game. This is dumb. Judging a quarterback on his merits on the road is a reasonable conversation to have, what with having to call the plays amidst the noise. But a running back? For one, everyone game plans to stop McCaffrey, who’s not guaranteed to get the ball versus a quarterback. Plus, so much of what you do as a running back is related to how the offensive line blocks and in McCaffrey’s case, how the coverage rolls to him. I don’t know, maybe I’m nitpicking, but it’s gotten to the annoyance level in terms of how much it actually means.
3. So Mike Leach coached teams CAN run the ball!
Through the first two games, both losses, Washington State ran for a combined 137 yards against Eastern Washington and Boise State. In neither did they really even try to establish the run, though BSU sort of slammed the door early and forced a furious comeback. The last two weeks, both wins, they’ve gone for 228 (Idaho, ho hum) and at Oregon (280). And suddenly, it’s 2015 all over again, losing to an FCS team out of the gate and slowly redeeming themselves. It’s no secret that Wazzu is better when they at least balance some run in to keep the defense off balance, but when they’re running it well, they’re a new football team.
4. Oregon is in deep trouble, and they know it
Confession … I’ve always loved Oregon’s flashy, somewhat self-aggrandizing, always beautiful uniforms. They were always secondary in flash to the team, however. Up until now. Now, Oregon, 2-3, battered and bruised, limps into another home game against a team from Washington. This one is the Huskies, they being of top 5 timber after throttling Stanford. Oregon will go into it with a quarterback change, to a freshman, and they’ve already had the dreaded “players only meeting” to address obvious complacency. This is a big weekend, or as staggering as it is to say so, Oregon could wind up spiraling out of control.
5. As far as football goes, Gary Andersen’s career decisions have never looked more odd as of 3:30 EST last Saturday
Whatever other reasons Andersen chose in going from Wisconsin to Oregon State, the football portion looked a little sketchy as Wisconsin was battling in a top-10 tilt with Michigan while the Beavers were getting their pelts hung on the wall by Colorado. In around a year and a half in Corvallis, Andersen has celebrated three wins, only one over an FBS foe, and none over Pac-12 opponents. Part of it is a credit to Oregon State, whom we’ve become accustomed to playing well annually. But they’re easily the worst team in the conference right now, and he left from a program that is continuing to surge. Obviously it’s not all about football in career decision making, but a good coach wherever he’s been, this is a bit of an anti-eureka moment for Andersen’s career if they keep struggling.
