2021 Pac 12 Thread

[CatsbyAZ]

To look at a SECOND team to listlessly cede control of the South over the weekend, Arizona State lost their homecoming game to a Washington State team who’s recently overturned coaching staff is helmed by an interim coach whose latest gig was Safeties coach at Wyoming. ASU was down 28-0 right before halftime and 34-7 in the 4th to emphasize a totally unprepared effort by the Sun Devils.

To think two weeks ago ASU was sitting pretty with a 5-1 W/L record, a Top 25 ranking, and a not-so-difficult schedule to hold pace of first in the South. Topping their collapse with the lingering investigation that’s sidelined a sizeable portion of their coaching staff, I think the Sun Devil’s roster has checked out. I for one don’t think Herm will be fired, as many fans are calling for, b/c AD Ray Anderson won’t fire his buddy. Rather it’s very likely Herm retires at the end of the season, especially as the NCAA investigation moves along.

TL;DR: M.O. of Pac 12 Football is flopping at the pole position and not showing face at home games:


https://twitter.com/jwa1994/status/1454528431803158528

[CatsbyAZ]

Remember not so long ago when Washington and Stanford were strong enough to win a run of the better New Year’s Day Bowls? And UCLA and USC weren’t far behind, a half decade ago? Well now, save for dink-n-dunk Oregon, whose equivalently unskilled coaching is overcome by a roster of NFL talent, the programs that could make the Pac 12 look more like the Big Ten conference have taken a step back and nobody is filling their shoes.

Last Saturday 3-4 Washington faced 3-4 Stanford in a nearly empty stadium (see below) in Palo Alto. The game itself was as dry as corn flakes until Washington’s QB Morris marched the Huskies 68 yards for a game winning drive, topped by an impressive, over-the-shoulder TD pass to go up 20-13. Don’t let anyone claim this was a defensive struggle; these were two clueless offenses.

Recruiting has waned for both programs, under Washington’s new coach Jimmy Lake, and Stanford is no longer signing the Christian McCaffrey, Zach Ertz, or Andrus Peat level talents anymore.

I have a hard time pegging a single Pac 12 program who’s trending upward these days. Oregon State has gradually scratched their way out of the ditch. Oregon and Utah will likely tread the top of their divisions going forward. But the rest of the conference is sinking in their own mire by a combination of serial underachieving (USC, UCLA, ASU) and inadequate rosters (Arizona, Colorado). As a whole the Pac 12 is tracking toward worse days before maybe having the chance to improve.

[CatsbyAZ]

Fair or not, it took Cal sitting out 24 players and 5 coaches for my Arizona Wildcats to find the leverage for their first win of the season and break a 20 game losing streak. Even then nothing came easy. Arizona’s offense, on both of their only first half drives inside Cal’s red zone, committed fatal turnovers, leading to a 0-0 game at the half. This is the single ugliest game I’ve ever attended. Which is what I apologetically mentioned to the guy next to us, whom we found out was a tourist from Europe here in the Southwest for a several-months desert biking trip. Couldn’t’ve asked for a worse introduction to American Football.

Later in the game both teams finally traded FGs. On the Wildcats last meaningful drive their ground game, which was sniffed out by Cal’s DL all afternoon, finally broke open, capping a late drive with a 10 yard TD. By the time Cal had a chance to answer, Arizona’s defensive ends were teeing off against a worn out Cal OL and both of Arizona’s CBs kept up their pretty solid work of shutting down Cal’s downfield passing.

Tucson overall was gorgeous all weekend – the sun strong but the temps mild; by early November Arizona’s weather turns heavenly.

[CatsbyAZ]

Of all the despair and crap football across the Pac 12 – Arizona’s 2-year losing streak, ASU’s NCAA investigation and firing of assistants and broadcasters, Washington State’s Covid firings, Stanford falling apart – no program might be having a worse past week than the Washington Huskies.

It is bad enough the Huskies lost at home to their rival Oregon, but before that both Universities released statements over Coach Jimmy Lake outright insulting Oregon’s academics: “Our [recruiting] battles are really – the schools that we go against are way more … have academic prowess, like the University of Washington. Notre Dame. Stanford. USC. We go with a lot of battles toe-to-toe all the way to the end with those schools. So I think that’s made up in your world. In our world, we battle more academically prowess teams.”

A day after that loss, OC John Donavan was canned. The Huskies offense had ranked 10th Pac 12 scoring, in total offense, in passing, and 11th in rushing. Penn State fans might remember Donavon as getting fired from James Franklin’s staff after the Lions offense finished 2014 113th nationally in scoring, good for last in the Big Ten.

If that isn’t enough, looking ahead to Saturday’s game Vs Arizona State, Coach Lake will be absent from the sideline as he serves a one game suspension for hitting one of his own players while separating him from a sideline scuffle Vs Oregon (see below).

Washington is 4-5, to include a home loss to Montana, and is far removed from their #20 preseason ranking. To be fair to Coach Lake, he seems like a genuinely good guy you want to root for and see succeed. This past week aside, he handles himself with dignity, sticks up for his players and fellow coaches, and faces the media with respect. But his mistakes have been self-inflicted, recruiting isn’t going well, and internal support is wearing thin. Not sure Lake survives the season.


https://twitter.com/NCAAFootballHQ/status/1457782500185423878

[847badgerfan]

Ouch.

[MaximumSam]

I'm jaded but when I see this all I think is Washington is trying to get out of paying him a buyout.

[Brutus Buckeye]

So do the Utes and Ducks split their upcoming two game series? Or does one team sweep the other? 

[CatsbyAZ]

I'm jaded but when I see this all I think is Washington is trying to get out of paying him a buyout.

Agree.

So do the Utes and Ducks split their upcoming two game series? Or does one team sweep the other?

Some (meaning myself) would argue that the real drama out West isn’t between Utah and Oregon, but rather, the drama is in how so many Pac 12 programs are bottoming out for various unfortunate reasons. For instance Cal: What was supposed to be this coming weekend’s Cal-USC game has been rescheduled for December 4th due to a COVID outbreak. From the source below: “Berkeley’s Department of Health confirmed 44 have tested positive for coronavirus and said the team didn’t take the proper measures to stop the spread. The department says it is working closely with university health officials to contain a major COVID-19 outbreak involving coaches, students and staff in the Cal Football program.”

This after Cal was out 24 players and 5 coaches for last Saturday’s trip to Tucson, which, by now is a surprise it was played.


https://twitter.com/SFnewsnow/status/1458335254263959554

[Brutus Buckeye]

Personally I am more interested in the football than the self inflicted (covid/political theatre) drama. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

Is the CCG on for Vegas this year? 

Are there attendance restrictions in place? 

Might go if it's Utes-Ducks. 

[CatsbyAZ]

Is the CCG on for Vegas this year?

Are there attendance restrictions in place?

Might go if it's Utes-Ducks.

No. But Allegiant Stadium does require proof of vaccination. There is no mask policy.

Personally I am more interested in the football than the self inflicted (covid/political theatre) drama.

Sounds like Cal’s player’s have taken the Covid theatre stage against the Berkeley Dept. of Public Health's disruptive testing regulations (see below). Keep in mind Cal’s roster is 99% vaccinated, which evidently didn’t mitigate Covid’s spread to 44 players. The rumor mill is playing up the drama to wonder whether Bears’ coach Justin Wilcox bothers sticking around Berkeley, especially as several Huskies insiders are voicing confidence in Washington, given their troubles with Jimmy Lake, offering the job to Wilcox.


https://twitter.com/LucBequette/status/1458142012872425473

[ELA]

Hasn't Wilcox been mediocre to bad at Cal?  Why would Washington want him?

[CatsbyAZ]

Hasn't Wilcox been mediocre to bad at Cal?  Why would Washington want him?

When we agree that Washington doesn’t want Wilcox, let’s define which derivation of Washington we’re talking about. Huskie fans CERTAINLY don’t want Wilcox due to the plateauing at Cal you’ve pointed out, much like Sark’s (more on him in a moment). But I’ll slightly defend Wilcox’s mediocrity because he’s toughed out two winning seasons in an environment where Berkeley gives him nothing to work with.

After Wilcox took over a program dead in the water, he quickly delivered victories over rivals Stanford and Washington, earned long-awaited bowl bids in years two and three, and recruiting class rankings steadily improved from 70 to 42 to 43 to 39 to 28 all despite an administration that holds back their football program. This especially came to light during these past two Covid years when both the University and City of Berkeley have stonewalled football with unrelenting regulations which has led to mass sidelining of (vaccinated) players or outright cancelations of games.

No, Huskie fans don’t want him, but Wilcox would be a safe, stabilizing hire for a Washington administration (AD Jen Cohen) who doesn’t exactly shoot for the moon and can count on Wilcox not leaving anytime soon. Like Sark’s hirings at USC and Texas, how many times are we going to see administrations like the Longhorns, despite all the money in the world (over 200 million in annual rev – see posts from @Gigem in Coaching changes thread), make unambitious and even lazy, DOA hires (again, Sark!!!)?

And as a side point that I really want to get across, it’s worth pointing out the difference between being able to do better for yourself (see LA Times commentary below: “UCLA can do much better than Chip Kelly”) and getting what you DESERVE. Yes UCLA, ASU, USC, etc can do better than 5-4 or 6-3 but what the more vocal core of Bruins, Sun Devils, and Trojans fans don’t understand is that treading 6 or 7 wins/year is what’s DESERVED! The stadiums are quite empty (see above images), the TV ratings are low, the local coverage is at a trickle, and across the Pac 12 landscape, the recruiting base hasn’t held up.

Washington might not want a flat-lining Justin Wilcox, but they deserve him.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/story/2021-10-31/commentary-chip-kelly-is-nowhere-close-to-elite-and-ucla-can-do-much-better

[CatsbyAZ]

For all the frustration voiced this season by ASU fans (and I was with a few for last night’s game), last night the Sun Devils went into Washington and came out with a comeback win propelled by a dominant running game taking over in the 2nd Half. Despite the ongoing investigation and a homecoming collapse Vs WSU, this is a steady season for Herm. 7-3 & 5-2 in conference ranks ASU squarely at #3 across the Pac 12.

For more noteworthy Pac 12 context (Matt Zemek: https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/2021/11/08/mind-blowing-fact-emerges-about-herm-edwards-after-jimmy-lake-suspension/):

“I am not sure if I have ever come across a more improbable fact than the one I will shortly disclose to you. First off, let’s realize what is happening in the Pac-12 this football season.

We have had Washington State’s head coach essentially fire himself over a vaccine. He was told by his employer to take it. He refused. He didn’t get an exemption. Nick Rolovich clearly did not want to keep coaching Wazzu if it meant getting a vaccine. We have had USC fire its head coach, Clay Helton, two weeks into a season. We have now seen Washington suspend Jimmy Lake for a game due to inappropriate behavior this past Saturday night against Oregon.

It would be a wild and wacky year if just one of those three things happened within the course of a college football season. In the Pac-12 in 2021, all three have happened within two months. It’s absolutely insane: vaccine termination, Week 2 coach firing, one-game suspension for hitting a player, all in a two-month span. That’s so Pac-12 it hurts. It creates the mind-blowing fact I am about to drop on all of you:

Arizona State’s Herm Edwards will coach against three interim/acting/non-permanent head coaches in three consecutive games.

On Oct. 30 (Week 9), he coached against Jake Dickert, the interim coach at Washington State.

On Nov. 6 (Week 10), Edwards coached against Donte Williams, the interim coach at USC.

On Nov. 13 (Week 11), Herm will coach against Bob Gregory, the acting/temporary head coach for Washington while Jimmy Lake serves his one-game suspension.”


https://twitter.com/Jacob_Rudner/status/1459673895657562114