Around the Pac-12: Week 11 (Football)
The first week of Pac-12 football is in the books. Exciting games and maybe some playoff contenders are in the mix.
The defending Pac-12 champions, the Oregon Ducks picked up right where they left off with a 35-14 win over Stanford. Sophomore quarterback Tyler Shough looked impressive in the Ducks win over the Cardinals but the running game for Oregon was far more impressive. New offensive coordinator and former Penn State play caller, Joe Moorhead has got the Ducks looking like the favorites for the Pac-12 North title.
Stanford hung in with Oregon but could not finish off the Ducks. Stanford missed their starting quarterback Davis Mills who did not play due to COVID-19.
USC made an incredible comeback and secured the 28-27 win over Arizona State. Sophomore signal caller Kedon Slovis looked very impressive with 381 yards and two touchdowns. Drake London was the go to man for Slovis throughout the whole game and caught the game winning touchdown.
Overall the offense looked explosive and the defense made big stops when needed. The biggest enemy for the Men of Troy are themselves the rest of the season.
Coming off of a stunning loss to USC, Arizona State is looking to bounce back in a big way. Jayden Daniels looked great versus the Trojans but the Sun Devils missed a number one wide receiver. As USC had a go to man in the game, Arizona State could not find a consistent target to go to.
The Sun Devils capitalized on USC’s mistakes, but overall could not finish the job. It will be a big game mentally as Arizona State plays Cal this week.
Hailing from Saint Louis high school in Hawaii, Jayden de Laura looks like the next promising Pac-12 star. The offense that Washington State runs compliments the talented true freshman.
In their 38-28 win versus Oregon State, the Cougars were without star running back Max Borghi. Not to mention, Wazzu had 32 players out due to COVID-19 which shows that even not at full strength this Washington State team is impressive. The Cougars could run the table this year if they improved on the defensive side of the ball.
Oregon State looks like a new team. They are explosive and have solid pieces on their team that were never there before. Running back Jemar Jefferson stood out from the rest of the pack.
Colorado ran rampant over the Bruins of UCLA. The score may not show it, but this game was dominated by the Buffalo.
Colorado running backs had a field day versus UCLA with a combined 264 yards between the four running backs. UCLA also turned the ball over four times which Colorado went on to capitalize on all four turnovers.
UCLA looked really bad until the fourth quarter. The Bruins turned the ball over four times and could not get anything going on offense until it was too late.
Four teams get to play their first games this week. Cal, Washington, Utah and Arizona.
A hungry Cal team is ready to run the Pac-12 table as they play Arizona State in Tempe. Quarterback Chase Garbers has matured throughout his time as a Golden Bear and has his main target Nikko Remigio back at wide receiver.
Washington has yet to name a starting quarterback, but this Husky team is good. Washington is crawling with weapons and will look to prove it versus Arizona State.
Utah is in the same boat as Washington but tends to get overlooked by the rest of the conference. The last thing you want to do is play a night game at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Arizona is looking to improve off of last year with second year quarterback Grant Gunnell leading the offense.
Cole Koffler is a freshman majoring in communications. To contact him, email colekoff13@gmail.com.
