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7/17 Roundtable - 5 Thoughts On The Pac 10
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CollegeFootballNews.com
Posted Jul 17, 2009
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7/17 Roundtable - Five thoughts on the upcoming Pac 10 season. It's the Friday topic in the CFN Daily Roundtable Discussion.
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CFN Daily Roundtables
 July
17
5 Thoughts on the Pac 10.
Over the next several weeks, as part of the CFN 2009 Preview, we'll
examine some of the key questions going into the year with a
daily discussion of the big topics.
Pete
Fiutak,
CFN
Yes, I'm part of
the problem. You can check me out at
twitter.com/CFN_Fiu and find
out future roundtable topics and other random musings.
Q: 5 Thoughts on the Pac 10.
A: The Pac 10 can't seem to get a second team into the
BCS, and why? Because few are taking the league seriously enough, and
before the bowl season, there was no reason to think the league deserved
much more than second-tier status.
Yeah, the league went 5-0 in
the bowls, but does that erase the lousy non-conference season? For
every big win, like USC throttling Ohio State, there were close calls
against the mediocre, like Oregon vs. Purdue, ugly blowouts, like Fresno
State and BYU over UCLA, and the Mountain West's year overall against
the Pac 10. Throw in Penn State's blowout over Oregon State, Georgia's
win over Arizona State, and Maryland's win over Cal, and the conference
didn't exactly take the college football world by storm.
And
then there were the bottom feeders. Washington and Washington State were
among the worst teams in America, UCLA was an unmitigated disaster, and
Arizona State was a major disappointment. However, because USC is so
good and so consistent, all is not lost. Now it's time for everyone else
to pick up the slack.
Pac 10 fans are right when they complain
that the East Coast isn't paying attention, but it has nothing to do
with a bias. SEC fans don't care about the Pac 10, and it's not like ACC
coaches who vote in the polls are staying up late to watch the Oregon
State - Arizona State battle that starts at 10:30 p.m. EST. Simply put,
the rest of the nation hasn't had a lot of reasons to give all that much
credit to the Pac 10. The league has to change that and force everyone
to pay attention.
The Pac 10 gets more breaks than many think.
Everyone watches USC's blowouts when the lights are on, but not enough
see the mediocre performances, where they happen on the rare occasion.
Oregon was a shoo-in for the national title game a few years ago before
Dennis Dixon got hurt, USC is a mortal lock to play for the national
title if it can win all the games it's favored in, and there are more
than enough chances in the non-conference schedule this year to show
that the bowl season wasn't a fluke in any way.
It might not be
fair, but that's the deal for the Pac 10. The league has to do something
splashy and it has to shine a little brighter in the big battles to grab
the attention away from the weekly Saturday night SEC and Big 12 games.
The conference has to give fans a reason to stay up late (even though
those shootouts are among the best week after week and deserve watching
no matter what). And this year, the conference has the teeth to do it.
USC is USC. It has to rebuild, but it's replacing star players with
more star players. Oregon and Cal are as good as they've been in years,
Oregon State is always plucky, and the dregs of last year are going to
be better. Step one is to beat the non-BCS teams. Oregon has to beat
Boise State and Utah, and the conference can't be so lousy against the
Mountain West again. Step two is to generate more of a buzz in league
play. Oregon State's run to a possible Rose Bowl berth didn't exactly
capture the nation's imagination, partly because it was obliterated by
Penn State and lost to Utah and Stanford. If anyone is going to
challenge USC, it has to be the real deal with a big-time record.
It's time for the league to step up and challenge the other BCS
leagues in the pecking order, and it's time for another BCS bid so this
doesn't remain USC and the little nine.
Richard
Cirminiello,
CFN
Q: 5 Thoughts on the Pac 10.
A:
Although I’m probably
going to regret this at some point during the season, here it goes … Cal
has a shot to be real good in 2009.
I’ve been burned enough times
to hate myself for admitting it, but I do like the make-up of this team,
and not simply because of superstar RB Jahvid Best. Yeah, he’s the cover
boy, but I’m really intrigued by this program because of the potential
of both lines. The offensive unit is a massive group that’ll be able to
bully many opponents into submission. On defense, Tyson Alualu and
Cameron Jordan are a couple of full-sized ends, who’ll both be playing
on Sundays. Couple that line with one of the Pac-10’s best defensive
backfields, and few teams will be able to throw the ball with success.
Cal has the speed and the athletes, like it usually does on both
sides of the ball. However, this year’s squad also brings a physical
demeanor in the trenches that could separate it from those that
disappointed under Jeff Tedford in recent years. The Bears are, by no
means, USC-good, but if Kevin Riley can finally put it all together
under center, they should deliver the school’s third 10-win season this
decade.
Matthew
Zemek, CFN
Q: 5 Thoughts on the Pac 10.
A:
I won’t deny that USC should rate as the favorite in this conference. When one considers the track record established by Pete Carroll and Co. since 2002, it would be hard to rate any other program as the likely earner of a Rose Bowl berth. With Taylor Mays patrolling the secondary and a more experienced offensive line in tow, the Trojans will be a formidable opponent for anyone they play. Safe to say, USC is not a program in decline.
With that said, however—and please, L.A. sports fans, you have to avoid taking this as a personal insult—no team wins everything all the time. The Lakers have not won every NBA title since 1947, the year of the very first NBA World Championship Series (later re-named the NBA Finals). The Dodgers have not won every World Series since moving to Southern California in 1958. (Only Vin Scully has been a constant in DodgerWorld over that period of time.) The Angels needed 41 years to win their first world title. The Rams made only one Super Bowl (XIV) while in L.A., and the Raiders didn’t stick around SoCal long enough to accumulate titles beyond their Super Bowl XVIII conquest. Even the best teams (outside of Los Angeles) eventually miss out on a title. The Yankees? Nine years without a world championship. The Montreal Canadiens? Try 16 years. The Celtics went 22 years without a crown before the 2008 title against Los Lakers. The New England Patriots have been Supe-less over the past four seasons.
Therefore, when I proclaim that Oregon—winner over USC the last time the two schools met in Eugene, and host of this year’s titanic conference tilt—will win the Pac-10 in 2009, one should not view such a prediction as a stinging indictment of USC football. Daring to think that the Trojans will (GASP! HORRORS! GOODNESS GRACIOUS SAKES ALIVE!) go “only” 11-2 this year and finish sixth or seventh in America does not represent a downgrading of that fine program. Picking the Ducks to rise to the seat of Left Coast leadership is little more than an acknowledgment that all good things must come to an end. If there was a season in which a really good USC team was nevertheless poorly positioned to make (yet) another Pac-10 title defense, this is it. Oregon’s skill-position studs and overall quickness will give UO the chance to exploit SC’s young and unproven linebacking corps. If Trojans-Ducks comes down to a field goal, SC’s weakness in the kicking game could rear its ugly head.
Oregon will need a mighty effort to subdue its persistent nemesis and rival, but again, just spare any and all talk about the presence of an anti-USC agenda. Pete Carroll ranks at the top of this correspondent’s list of premier college football coaches; Oregon simply seems to be good enough to exceed the Trojans for one solitary season, nothing more, due to the convergence of several key factors.
The laws of averages affect all of us. Not even the USC juggernaut is immune, and Oregon is the team that stands to benefit after seven seasons of uninterrupted dominance by the Trojan Empire of College Football.
Hunter Ansley,
Publisher,
DraftZoo.com
Q: 5 Thoughts on the Pac 10.
A: If
there’s one thing everyone should have learned about USC by now, it’s
that no matter the personnel losses, they’re still the class of the Pac
10. And yet here we are
again -- it’s posh to doubt the 2009 version of the Trojans.
But what’s so different about this year than 2003.
Both Trojan’s squads entered the fall with some defensive stars
lost (2003 team had just lost Troy Polamalu).
Both have questions at quarterback (2003 was Leinarts’s first
year at the helm and some were thinking Brandon Hance would get the
start). And both have strong
backfields (remember Reggie Bush and Lendale White?).
Joe McKnight is still looking to break out, and there are only
about 100 other backs looking to play Lendale to his Reggie.
Then there’s the fact that the Trojans have two former number one
overall recruits playing quarterback.
Whether it’s Aaron Corp, Matt Barkley, or even Mitch Mustain that
ends up leading Pete Carrol’s squad, having three names like that sounds
like pretty good odds to me.
Yes Oregon looks great on paper, and Cal should be improved with Kevin
Riley in his third year under Jeff Tedford and a hopefully healthy
Jahvid Best. But it’d be a pure
pipe dream to believe that someone can actually knock USC from their
perch until it actually happens.
This team has already proven time and again that they can drop a
conference game and still earn the trip to the Rose Bowl.
Jon Miller,
Publisher, HawkeyeNation.com
Q: 5 Thoughts on the Pac 10.
A:
This appears to be one of the most wide open BCS leagues in the
nation. I believe that Oregon, Cal and USC each have a shot at
winning this thing, and I don't believe USC to be the favorite.
First off, they have a lot of talent to replace on defense and
their quarterback situation is as unsettled as it's been since
Pete Carroll got things rolling back in 2002. Next, this is the
year their road schedule is brutal. Stanford and UCLA appear to
be on the come, as does Arizona, except they have to replace
some key offensive linemen and Willie Tuitama at quarterback. A
coaching change in Washington has Huskies fans feeling
optimistic. Week to week, this should be a fun league to watch,
as it will be unpredictable.
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