One week removed from seeing #2 Oregon falling to Arizona in Eugene, #14 Stanford losing to #9 Notre Dame, Arizona State throwing a last second hail mary to defeat #16 USC in Southern California, Cal winning a shootout 60-59 over Washington State and Utah beating #8 UCLA in the Rose Bowl. Many thought that week 7 in College Football couldn’t get any more crazy. Well, it probably wasn’t as crazy but this week was another week that shows the country that their isn’t a team to beat in the Pac-12. Fans saw #25 Stanford beat Washington State 34-17 on Friday night which wasn’t a surprise. But some might think that #18 UCLA would bounce back from their upset lost to the University of Utah and beat #12 Oregon in the Rose Bowl. That wasn’t the case. The Bruins are now out of the AP Top 25 poll after falling to the Ducks 42-30. Oregon showed that they should be the team to beat in the Pac-12 after bouncing back in dominating fashion against UCLA. I thought it would be a more interesting game between the 4-1 teams in Washington and Cal but Washington showed who the better team was and put Cal off of the Pac-12 Contender map after many think they were on cloud 9 starting the season 4-1 when they were voted to finish last in the Pac-12 in the preaseason poll. Washington improves to 5-1 with a 31-7 win over Cal.
But the game of the week in the Pac-12 was #10 Arizona hosting USC. Arizona came in at 5-0 and ranked #10 in the nation after not even cracking the Top 25 until they beat Oregon in Eugene. The Redshirt Freshman Anu Solomon tried to carry his team to another signature win in the Pac-12 by throwing the ball 72 times completing 43 of those passes for 395 yards with 1 Touchdown. But Cody Kessler didn’t want any part of it as he threw 20 of 30 passing for 185 yards with 1 Touchdown and 1 Interception. Arizona just about won the game when they converted a touchdown but didn’t get the two point conversion they trailed 28-26 with 1:07 left. The Wildcats kicked an onside kick and recovered the ball and made a couple of plays down field. Once they went to attempt the Field Goal for the win, USC Head Coach Steve Sarkisian called a timeout before the ball was snapped even though the Arizona kicker made the attempt. On the second attempt from 36 yards, U of A Kicker Casey Skowron missed his third Field Goal of the night giving the Wildcats their first loss of the season 28-26 to USC.
The latest AP poll was released today and the University of Utah moved from #24 to #20 during their second and final bye week. Here is the latest AP Poll rankings within the Pac-12:
Oregon (5-1) was #12, now #9.
Arizona (5-1) was #10, now #16.
Arizona State (4-1) was #20, now #17.
Utah (4-1) was #24, now #20.
USC (4-2) was NR, now #22.
Stanford (4-2) was #25, now #23.
UCLA (4-2) was #18, now NR.
Another interesting note is that every single Pac-12 team has lost at least one game. The matchups in the Pac-12 this week:
Saturday – UCLA (4-2) (1-2 in Pac-12) at Cal (4-2) (2-2 in Pac-12)
Colorado (2-4) (0-3 in Pac-12) at #22 USC (4-2) (3-1 in Pac-12)
Washington (5-1) (1-1 in Pac-12) at #9 Oregon (5-1) (2-1 in Pac-12)
The game of the week – #23 Stanford (4-2) (2-1 in Pac-12) at #17 Arizona State (4-1) (2-1 in Pac-12)
And of course on Thursday night it’s the University of Utah (4-1) (1-1 in Pac-12) heading to Corvallis to take on Oregon State (4-1) (1-1 in Pac-12). Pregame Coverage begins at 4pm with Sean O’Connell and John Pease and Kickoff at 8pm on your home of the University of Utah, ESPN 700.
