Spring Preview 2009
The 20 Big Questions ...
No. 12
By
Pete Fiutak
With
spring ball underway, here are the 20 Big Questions to start off the
offseason.
12. Does the 5-0 record in
the bowls mean the Pac 10 will get more national respect?
Not necessarily, but the
league certainly deserves more national attention.
The Pac 10 had
a tremendous bowl season with Arizona beating BYU, Oregon State beating
Pitt, Oregon beating Oklahoma State, California beating Miami, and USC
beating Penn State, and now the league will try to parlay that into more
national respect. However, that will only come with winning big
non-conference games in the regular season.
While the ACC does a
good job of scheduling some decent non-conference games and the SEC
deserves a better reputation for stepping up lately with the big
out-of-conference battles, no one takes on the world like the Pac 10.
The problem is that the league didn’t step up last season, especially
against the Mountain West, with too many teams, outside of USC, getting
tagged with a big loss.
It’s one thing for Oregon State to lose
at Penn State, but it was another for Oregon to lose at home to Boise
State and for Arizona to lose to New Mexico. As always, there are
several big non-conference games, and these are the make-or-break dates.
Arizona – at Iowa
Arizona State – at Georgia
California – Maryland, at Minnesota
Oregon – at Boise State, Purdue, Utah
Oregon State – Cincinnati
Stanford – at Wake Forest, Notre Dame
UCLA – at Tennessee, Kansas
State
USC – at Ohio State, at Notre Dame
Washington – LSU, at
Notre Dame
Washington State – Notre Dame (in San Antonio)
It
might not be fair, and it might make Pac 10 fans shake their fists in
disgust, but the league has to shine in most of those games and has to
win at least ten of them. Of course, if USC can go into Columbus and
beat Ohio State, that could set the stage for a national title run. But
the issue isn’t about USC, it’s about getting a second Pac 10 team into
the BCS for the first time since 2002 and for only the third time since
the current format started in 1998.
For right or wrong, the SEC
has built up so much respect, partly fueled by the media and partly
helped by three straight national championships, that it can had a bad
non-conference season, like it did last year, and it gets largely
ignored. The ACC and Big East don’t get the respect the Pac 10 does, and
the Big Ten and Big 12 don’t exactly tax themselves, with their
non-league schedules, with a few key exceptions. The Pac 10, because
most fans and pollsters east of the Mississippi don’t pay attention to
non-USC games, have to do a little more to stand out. There isn’t an
East Coast bias; there’s an East Coast ignorance.
What the 5-0
bowl season did was get the Pac 10 on the radar going into this year. If
the league starts out hot and comes up with a few splashy early
non-conference wins, the storyline and the attention will quickly shift
to the league and the unbeaten bowl season will be viewed as a jumping
off point to big things. However, with so much turnover at quarterback,
with USC rebuilding and reloading, and with Oregon having issues on the
lines, the league could need a little while to shine.
However,
there is hope. Remember, a one-loss Oregon team had a shot to play for
the national title, and Dennis Dixon had the Heisman for the taking,
until a knee injury and a three-game losing streak ended all of that.
The world paid attention then, and it will now if a non-USC team rises
up, beats the Trojans, and has a great record. Of course, if USC goes
unbeaten, it’ll almost certainly play for the whole ball of wax.
The Top 5 Players Who Need A Big
Spring
1. Mitch Mustain or Aaron Corp, QB USC
2. Kevin Riley,
QB California
3. Danny Sullivan, QB Arizona State
4. Jake Locker,
QB Washington
5. Jordan Bishop, WR Oregon State
The Top 5 Position
Concerns/Battles
1. USC quarterback
2. USC linebacker
3.
Oregon defensive line
4. UCLA quarterback
5. Oregon State
secondary
The 5 Biggest
Pac 10 Spring Storylines
1. The USC quarterback situation. There
are some major quarterback battles for several Pac 10 teams, but none
will impact the national title chase more than the fight between Mitch
Mustain, Aaron Corp, and Matt Barkley.
2. Will UCLA have an offense?
Getting more production out of the quarterback, whomever that’ll be,
will be job one. There are more options this year, so if Kevin Craft
isn’t far better, the Bruins will go with a new starter.
3. Can Jake
Locker handle the new offense? Washington will need its star quarterback
to work well right away with new head coach Steve Sarkisian.
4. Is
Kevin Riley ready? He’s been the on-again, off-again main man for the
California offense over the last few years, and now he’ll have to show
that he can make the team his or else he’ll be looking over his shoulder
at Brock Mansion.
5. Can Oregon keep up the running game? After
ripping up Oregon State in the regular season finale and following it up
by dominating Oklahoma State in the Holiday Bowl, the Ducks need to
replace four starters up front and loses RB Jeremiah Johnson.
The Spring Pac 10 Team Rankings
1. USC
2. California
3. Oregon
4. Arizona State
5.
Arizona
6. Oregon State
7. UCLA
8. Stanford
9. Washington
10. Washington State
The
Pre-Spring Call For Player Of The Year
1. Jahvid Best, RB
California
2. Taylor Mays, S USC
3. Jacquizz Rodgers, RB Oregon
State
4.
Jeremiah Masoli, QB Oregon
5. Jake Locker, QB Washington