The Monday Morning QB, Week 3

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The Monday Morning QB, Week 3
A look at the Pac-10
By: Malamute, 14 September 2003.

WSU, ASU, USC and Oregon look to be among the best in the conference. Because of its impressive defense, UCLA is a strong sleeper, with much potential, providing it can get its newly installed WCO on track. As it turns out, since Ohio State isn’t as strong as it appeared to be against Washington—struggling against San Diego State and North Carolina State the last two Saturdays—where does that leave Washington? We’re flummoxed. Here's how we rank conference members.

USC (1; really, the class of the conference?)

USC is clearly the class of the conference, beating Hawaii 61-32. Its win over Hawaii was quite impressive. Don’t be fooled by the Warriors’ 32 points, which, in the main, were accumulated against third and fourth stringers. Pete Carroll could have named the score if he’d wanted. Hawaii coach June Jones is an old friend of Carroll’s. Thanks to the Trojans’ 52-6 lead in the third quarter, backup QB Matt Cassel got in some valuable playing time against the Warriors. The Trojans ran for 163 yards on the game, a bogey the Trojans’ running corps needs to establish for each and every game.

We still haven't seen true freshman John David Booty at quarterback.

If USC and Michigan end up 1 and 2 in the BCS that could leave the Rose Bowl with a rematch of UW and Ohio State. Yikes, perish that thought.

WSU (2; when will the Cougs Coug it?)

The Cougars continue to impress, beating Colorado (17) at Boulder, 47-26. In a nice mix of running and passing, the Cougars rushed the ball 33 times for 153 yards and passed the ball 33 times, completing 17 passes for 310 yards. QB Matt Kegel threw 3 touchdown passes, while suffering one pick. Leading 23-13 at halftime, the Cougs scored 24-straight points in the first 6:39 of the third quarter to take a 47-13 lead. Two of the scores came off Colorado turnovers.

The Cougs could so easily have Couged it against the Buffs, considering their heartbreaking loss the week before against Notre Dame. Give them credit.

ASU (3; sputtering Devils?)

Using a balance between running and passing, ASU ran the ball 35 times for 153 yards and passed the ball 37 times for 274 yards, beating Utah State at home, 26-16. QB Andrew Walter looked sharp, completing 20 of 37 passes for 273 yards, with one touchdown and an interception. That was the good news. For the most part, ASU’s offense sputtered for most of the evening and needed its defense to come to the rescue. At one point in the game, ASU lost the ball three times to fumbles, in a stretch of three out of five drives, one of the balls jarred loose at the goal line and rolling through the end-zone. The Devils held Utah State to just 69 yards rushing (2.0 yards per carry).
Oregon (4; new uniforms each week?)

Oregon’s nuclear-powered road uniforms molted into white for its clash with Arizona. The Ducks have a new sartorial look for every opponent, including the look of different quarterbacks. The Ducks need to settle on a starting quarterback, either Kellen Clemens or Jason Fife. However, both quarterbacks worked just fine during the 48-10 pummeling of hapless Arizona. The Oregon defense held ‘Zona to 188 yards on the night, allowing just 40 yards rushing. Clemens was 11 of 17 for 168 yards passing, throwing one touchdown pass, and Fife went 11 of 15, accounting for 116 yards passing, along with two touchdowns, one passing and one running.

UCLA (5; a sleeper, a three-point death wish?)

A 6-3 winner over Illinois, UCLA looked to be all defense and no offense, netting just two field goals in its win. That’s not surprising since the Bruins lost their starting quarterback, Matt Moore, to injury playing Colorado the week before. However, Tyler Ebell and Manual White look good running the ball, and if the Bruins’ pass receivers can hang onto the pigskin, the Blue should be much stronger when they play Washington on October 4. Whoever runs the ball the best will prevail when the two sleepers clash at Pasadena.

At this time, however, Karl Dorrell’s newly installed West Coast Offense, as orchestrated by ex-Washingtonian Steve Axman, is offensive to say the least.

Defensively, the Bruins have the second-best front four in the conference behind USC. Washington may need a Houdini act at QB to pull out a win, leaving me sleepless in Camarillo waiting for these two sleepers to collide. Although I like the Blue’s defense, it is essentially the same as last year’s defensive group that gave up 100 points to WSU and USC in its last two conference games. The Bruins will miss cornerback Matt Clark, if he should lost for the season; he has academic problems to resolve.

Washington (6; a sleeper, but not sleepless)

The Dawgs are an enigma, a conundrum, a cipher, needing an impressive win over pusillanimous Idaho next Saturday to become a member of our Pac-10s top five. Currently, we rank the Huskies just ahead of OSU, Stanford, Cal and Arizona, maybe sixth in the conference. The UW’s version of the WCO needs a slot-receiver to come to the fore, along with more passing to its tight ends and running backs. If that should happen, the running game will gel, as promised by a successful WCO implementation.

The bye week should give QB Cody Pickett’s injury time to heal. He suffered a slight tear to a pectoral muscle in the game against Indiana. The UW needs to jump on the Vandals early, so that it can give playing time to QBs Casey Paus and Isaiah Stanback. In its critical game against UCLA at Pasadena, Washington will need Stanback on the field at some position (backup quarterback, tailback, slot receiver), especially in the red-zone.

Former head coach Rick Neuheisel never had a chance to show off his recruiting skills at the UW. Sanctions restricted his recruiting effort, and a hostile local media, smitten with the idea that big-time college football is corrupt, chased prospects away from a program that was paying Neuheisel a big-time-college football salary. WSU, small potatoes by anyone's measure, is the apple-cup of the medias' eye. Look for the Cougars to out-recruit the Dawgs this season, thanks in part to a charitable media.

OSU, Cal, Stanford, Arizona (the also rans?)

Cal (8). Lost to Utah, 31-24.

Stanford (9) and Arizona (10). Stanford had a bye and Arizona lost to Oregon, 48-10. The Wildcats have lost 12-straight Pac-10 games and are 0-8 for their last 8 home games.

Parity

Parity dominates college football. Ohio State has to be the worst highly-ranked team in the recent history of college football—the last couple of years, anyway. A blown call gave Ohio State a triple-overtime win over North Carolina State. The loss of Maurice Clarett is devastating to the Buckeyes, who are thrashing aimlessly in a collegiate sea of parity. All things being equal, one man, especially one as outstanding as Clarett, can make a huge difference. You know, toss WR Reggie Williams out of Washington’s lineup and what do you have?

Arkansas beat fifth-ranked Texas, which was at home, 38-28; on the road, Purdue beat Wake Forest (21), 16-10; UNLV beat Wisconsin (15), who was at home, 23-5; Michigan (7) shutout Notre Dame (14), 38-0. WSU pummeled Colorado (17), 47-26. Florida State (10) eked out a 14-13 win over Georgia Tech at home.

The experts tell us that the ranked teams that were either beaten or that eked out wins last Saturday were over-ranked.

And that’s what they’ll tell us next week and the week thereafter, and…then again what I call "parity" could be a euphemism for my ignorance.

Richard Linde (a.k.a., Malamute) can be reached at malamute@4malamute.com