Larry Scott Schedules Game in the Middle of The Masters: Week 2 Pac-12 Preview
Can Gebbia and the Beavers bounce back? Will USC manage to beat a team from Arizona convincingly? Who will don the green jacket at Augusta?
More wacky scheduling this week in the Pac-12, but maybe we are learning some valuable lessons for the next global pandemic. One can only hope.
Here’s your Saturday/Sunday viewing guide:
(All times Pacific)
Colorado (1-0) at Stanford (0-1) - 12:30 PM, ESPN
This game was going to be on ESPN2, but other Covid cancellations around college football managed to elevate this Pac exactly one (1) ESPN than they were slated for.
Stanford didn’t have that great of a showing last week in Eugene, but apparently their starting QB Davis Mills had a false positive last week and might be available for this one after all?
Whether the Ducks had some Phil Knight money pulling the strings back at the PCR test lab is matter for the UDub conspiracy community (WAnon, as I like to call it), but even still, I think that Beaverton High School’s own Sam Noyer is going to put another one over on the Trees.
Buffs by a touchdown.
USC (1-0) at Arizona (0-0) - 12:30 PM, FOX
Kevin Sumlin would probably need like five more weeks of consecutive Covid cancellations in order to get the Wildcats ready to face off against the Pac-12 South favorite Trojans.
Clay Helton and USC tried their best to lose to ASU last Saturday morning, but they managed to pull one out at the last minute. I don’t usually love the “we have to root for *insert team here*,” talk, but I guess Ducks fans are rooting for an undefeated Southern Cal so that the Pac-12 Title Game has some real stakes to it?
But it’s only week two, I’m getting way ahead of myself.
USC by a lot.
#Pac12AfterDark
CANCELED- Cal (0-0) at Arizona State (0-1) - 7:30 PM, ESPN
Cal was apparently all ready to go after being full of Covid last week, but now the situation in Tempe looks pretty dire. Sources claimed that nearly an “entire side of the ball,” was Covid positive, and Herm Edwards tested positive for it too. Quarantine might give the Devils some more time to think long and hard about how the last couple minutes of the USC game got away from them.
ALSO CANCELED- Utah (0-0) at UCLA (0-1) - 7:30 PM, FOX
Will Utah ever play a game? I sure hope they do. But it doesn’t really matter, the Pac coaches will vote Whittingham to Coach of the Year over Mario again whether they play or not.
Oregon State (0-1) at Warshington (0-0) - 8:00 PM, FS1
As of 5 PM on Friday afternoon, it looks like Washington might actually get to play this week after having another opponent with a Covid scare.
OSU had a positive test on their roster, but apparently they didn’t have to do a big quarantine like so many other schools do. Do the Beaver players not hang out with each other? Are they not friends? Does Jonathan Smith have a divided locker room on his hands?
All of those questions will be answered in time, I’m sure, but I’m still bullish on Beavs QB Tristan Gebbia. I think he’s a little bit of a baller.
And I’m also still interested in if the Jimmy Lake era in Seattle might start off with a loss to the Beavers and bunch of Nebraska transfers.
Beavs by a field goal.
(This is the pick I’m least confident about, but I’ll never stop Respecting™ Oregon State)
SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!
Cal (0-0) at UCLA (0-1) - 9:00 AM, FS1
A finally healthy Cal team announced this last minute Sunday game on Twitter by triumphantly saying, “WE’RE HEADED TO THE ROSE BOWL.”
If that doesn’t say something about the state of California Golden Bear football, I don’t know what does.
I still think Wilcox can coach ‘em up, though. And Chip’s UCLA team scored a lot last week against CU, but didn’t manage to keep their opponents from scoring more.
Cal by a score and a half. Right in the middle of Sunday at Augusta.
So, there’s your official viewing guide for the weekend. Some of these games will be worth watching, some are impossible to watch due to COVID, and the ultimate future of the season seems very much in limbo. But hey, at least we can all agree on one thing: #FireLarryScott
Go Ducks.