Dominating the West: Pac-12 Check
Also, Chance Nolan should be QB1 in Corvallis.
The Good, the Bad, and the Badder from the past weekend in the Pac-12 Conference.
The Good
The Oregon Ducks (and the UCLA Bruins) made an impressive statement on behalf of the conference to begin the 2021 campaign.
The Pac BADLY needed a win like the one Oregon pulled off in Columbus. Now, all of the sudden, new commish Georgie K has himself a bonafied Playoff discussion in Year One.
There’s lots of football left to play—hell, UCLA plays Fresno State this week—but as of right now it feels like the Ducks and Bruins have themselves at least one very intriguing date with each other down the line.
The national media has congratulated the Pac-12 for their “great showing” to start the year, and I’m glad they seem to be skipping over the results coming out from the rest of the conference…
The Bad
Colorado almost won a strugglefest against Texas A&M. That was actually pretty cool. But it would’ve been a lot cooler if they had won.
Cal lost yet another winnable game when they broke down against TCU (who is probably worse than Nevada, who Cal also could’ve beat).
Utah slept through their Holy War against BYU.
And UDub lost a slow one to Michigan. And the scapecoping is in full swing in Seattle.
Oregon carried the banner for the conference this week. Because of that Duck victory, the media apparatus seems to generously think that, “the Pac-12 won the weekend,” but just imagine what could’ve been if CU, Cal, Utah, and Washington actually pulled off those non-conference wins (all of which were away from their home stadiums, but all of which also turned out to be winnable).
As a Pac insider, I think Oregon, specifically, won the weekend. The rest of the Pac (sans UCLA and maybe ASU) is still just treading water until we see otherwise.
But I suppose they are all more than welcome to feed on our spoils of war.
Mario makes sure everybody eats.
The Badder
Stanford dominated USC in the Coli, 42 to 28, and that was the final straw for Clay Helton.
I always knew that David Shaw was a nerd, but I didn’t know that he was also a big dumb idiot.
We had a really good thing going, and you ruined it. You ruined it for all of us, David.
We could’ve milked AT LEAST five more years out of that Helton deal if we played our cards right, but ‘Ferd had to go beat him too badly, too early—and now we have to actually consider the Trojans moving forward.
If USC was smart, they’d let interim HC Donte Williams win eight games this year, and then they’d hand him the keys to the city. They missed their moment with Urban Meyer. Cincy’s Luke Fickell would be the safe move, but I’m not sure that making the "safe move” will take SC to the promised land of college football.
If Mario Cristobal’s hire at Oregon has taught us anything, it’s that you should hire a dude who recruits out of his brain, garners grassroots player support, and surrounds himself with winners.
But SC will probably just do what everybody else does and hire an old-head tired-man who either got fired from or quit his last gig.
It worked for their rival when they hired Chip Kelly, so maybe SC can hire Chris Petersen and grow up to be just like their big brothers in Westwood.
And I say go right ahead. The last thing Mario needs is for someone with a pulse to be recruiting in his backyard of Los Angeles County.
Go Ducks.