Runnin' with the Pac, Week 3
By: Lotti Bull, Posted 16 September 2002

“Fancy Boys” don’t cook, they order takeaway. Mike Bellotti says that stats don’t matter and Colorado Coach Gary Barnett recalls the Taylor Barton saga and the image he presented. Everybody’s patsy, Cal, was far from Spartan and Mike Price is no longer the poorest coach in the Pac-10. Why Bob Toledo would win a national championship if he coached in the Big Twelve.

 Dear Mal, 

• UCLA at Oklahoma State (UCLA 38-24)

  Prior to the game, the Oklahoma newspapers referred to the Bruins as “Fancy Boys.” You know, Mal, that’s due to their surfing image--one orchestrated by the media--and to their cute powder blue jerseys.

  Comment: There was nothing fancy about the win or about what the Bruins eat. “They don’t cook, they order takeaway,” so said a Los Angeles Times’ headline.  The Blue’s defense forced five turnovers and held OSU to just 94 yards on the ground. UCLA rushed for 189 yards. The beleaguered, oft-criticized Bob Toledo is 5-0 against Big Twelve teams.

• WSU at Ohio State (Ohio State 25-7)

  Mike Price should have waited for his new salary contract until after the loss at Ohio State. That’s the way it’s done in the State of Washington.

  Instead, Mike will settle for $600,000 this year, which is a pay boost of approximately $101,000 per year.

  Comment:

  Still, Price is reportedly one of the lowest-paid coaches in the Pac-10. Impoverished Coach Bob Toledo earns $578,000 at UCLA (The Los Angeles Times), which includes apparel and shoe money.

  Rick Neuheisel (who earns up to $1.82 million per annum) won't get a salary extension next week after playing winless Wyoming. The Huskies need to lose big-time to insure their head coach's solvency. That might not happen until after the Huskies play the Trojans, who displayed plenty of panache in their lop-sided victory over Colorado.

• Miller Time

  According to Ted Miller of the Seattle P-I, “Winning the nation's toughest conference won't be enough for a Pac-10 team to earn a shot at the conference's first consensus national title since 1972…It's going to require an 8-0 run through the conference league schedule, something that few figure will happen.”

  Comment: Washington’s eight Pac-10 opponents are 22-2 in non-conference play.

• USC at Colorado (USC 40-3)

  According to the Los Angeles Times, 11 NFL teams watched from the press box as Carson Palmer completed 22 of 30 passes for 244 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions.

  Without starting quarterback Craig Ochs, Colorado passed the ball ineptly, and Palmer and the Trojans herded (or should that be “hurted”?) the Buffaloes shamelessly, 40-3. The Trojan’s defense held the Buffs to a paltry 61 total yards for the game.

  Comment: I’ll bet that Coach Gary Barnett wishes that Taylor Barton, who is the Neuheisel incarnate, hadn’t left Colorado for Washington.

• Idaho at Oregon (Oregon 58-21)

  Remember when former Oklahoma Coach and former TV color man Bud Wilkinson called “Time of Possession” the most important statistic in football? In their lopsided loss to Oregon, Idaho won the time-of-possession battle, 38:50 to 21:10. Idaho out-passed the Ducks 280 to 230, and had more total offense, 404 to 403. Okay, so that last stat was by one yard.

  Comment:

  Coach Mike Bellotti got to the bottom line.

  "Stats and time of possession obviously don't mean a lot. It's points and victories."

• UNLV at Oregon State University (OSU 47-17)

  UNLV rushed for 160 yards, while OSU rushed for 65. The swaggering Beavers managed to cut their penalty assessment yards to 65, down from their season’s average of 147.5 yards per game.

  Comment:

  Stats don’t mean a lot.

• Cal at Michigan State 22 (Cal 46-22)

  Previously, the media had ranked the Bears as a Pac-10 cellar-dweller for the season. That’s being in last place for you folk who live in Camarillo, Mal. After beating the then-fifteenth-ranked Spartans, the AP Poll ranks Cal as the twenty-third best in the land.

  Comment: Senior quarterback Kyle Boller was a big difference, along with Bears' skilled players. In most of the weekend games involving Pac-10 teams, the conference showed a marked speed-to-size-ratio advantage over the teams it played.

  Cal (1-10 last season) is 3-0 for the season but is bowl ineligible this season as part of a five-year probation for academic improprieties and improper payment of hotel incidental expenses.

Editor's note: An avid golfer, Lotti says, "It's easy to play scratch when the mosquitoes are out."