Sunday, November 27, 2011

Stanford and UCLA do, well, different things for the Pac-12

The two latest games of the Pac-12 football weekend provided decidedly different results for the league.

Stanford kept Notre Dame at bay, winning 28-14 to claim its 11th victory of the season. That ought to be enough to get the Cardinal to the Fiesta Bowl, although one bowl official I spoke with awhile back voiced some concern that a 10-2 Michigan team with Denard Robinson could squeeze Stanford out on the basis of fan travel. Michigan is indeed an exciting team with Robinson, but it would be hard to pass on an 11-win team with the consensus No. 1 pick in the NFL draft (and very possibly, the Heisman Trophy winner) in Andrew Luck. Then there were the UCLA Bruins. What can you say about Rick Neuheisel's team, other than 50-0? Fifty to nothing against USC? Funny, but I remember covering the UCLA-USC game back in 2008, because Steve Sarkisian had been named coach at Washington, and this was his swan song at USC. The Bruins acquitted themselves well, losing 28-7, and really took the fight to USC at the Rose Bowl. You had the sense Neuheisel had the Bruins on the right track. And now this.

How, exactly, does Fox make the Pac-12 title game look halfway interesting Friday night -- the Bruins at Oregon? It reminds me of those NCAA-tournament games in which one side of a first-round matchup includes a 14-16 team that happened to win its conference tournament (and now it's playing Kentucky).

The Arizona Republic is reporting that Dennis Erickson is likely done at Arizona State. Neuheisel would appear to be a goner at UCLA. Ditto Paul Wulff at Washington State. So with Rich Rodriguez having been hired at Arizona, the league could easily have four coaching changes here shortly.

Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com

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