Pac-12 Football Notes: Transfer QBs Lift Conference's Image
Five Issues to discuss this week:
Issue No. 1: Herm Edwards fired; Is Karl Dorrell Next?
Arizona State's 30-21 home loss to Eastern Michigan -- a 20.5-point underdog that had lost to Louisiana (the one in Lafayette) by 28 points the week before and played ASU with a backup quarterback -- was the final straw for Sun Devils head coach Herm Edwards, who was fired on Sunday.
Edwards, 68, had been on shaky ground before the season started because of an NCAA investigation into the football program as well as mass staff and player departures in the offseason.
The embarrassing loss to Eastern Michigan and the 1-2 start led to the end for Edwards, who finished with a record of 26-20 at ASU, including 8-5 last year.
The school said it was making "a change in leadership" by "mutual agreement," according to athletic director Ray Anderson. Running backs coach Shaun Aguano will be the interim head coach.
Will Colorado's Karl Dorrell meet a similar fate?
Just two years ago, Dorrell was named Pac-12 coach of the year. This year, the Buffaloes are 0-3, have been outscored 128-30 and have quarterback issues as evidenced by the fact that they did not exceeding 90 passing yards in either of their last two games. They rank 127th of 131 FBS teams in total offense.
The only positive aspect of Saturday's 49-7 loss to Minnesota was the mopup-time play of freshman quarterback Owen McKown, who is third-string but could make his way into the conversation to be a starter.
And this little note below does not help:
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Issue No. 2: Shhh: The Pac-12 is Back -- Maybe
One-sided victories by Oregon and Washington against ranked nonconference foes on Saturday reinforced a growing suspicion: The Pac-12 is back.
It's only being whispered in secluded corners among faithful Pac-12 football fans. No one dare say it out loud yet. But there are hints that the Pac-12 at least is worthy of being called one of the Power Five conferences again.
After Week 1, when Oregon got hammered by Georgia and Utah lost to Florida, the mantra was rekindled: The Pac-12 stinks again.
But then Washington State upset then-No. 19 Wisconsin on the road, and on Saturday Washington stomped on No. 11 Michigan State in a game that was not as close as the 39-28 final score suggests, and Oregon blew by No. 12 BYU 41-20 one weak after the Cougars had defeated Baylor.
And USC won convincingly against a pretty good Fresno State team, although, truth be told, the Bulldogs were hampered significantly when they lost quarterback Jake Haener early in the third quarter with an injury.
So, what is the common thread here among those four Pac-12 teams? Well, there are two.
Washington, Oregon, USC and Washington State all have new head coaches, which presumably has some influence, although we always are reluctant to give new head coaches much credit or blame for what happens in their first seasons.
The bigger issue is this: All four of those teams have transfers as their starting quarterbacks. And quarterback talent can change a team's prospects instantly. Washington Michael Penix Jr. (from Indiana) and USC's Caleb Williams (from Oklahoma) have made enormous impacts on their team's offenses, and Washington State's Cameron Ward (Incarnate Word) and Oregon's Bo Nix (Auburn) give their teams reason for optimism.
Four Pac-12 teams are ranked in the AP top 20 this week -- No. 7 USC, No. 13 Utah, No. 15 Oregon, No. 18 Washington. It doesn't compare with the glory days of the conference, but it looks a lot better than it did two weeks ago.
Issue No. 3: USC's Impressive Offense
USC's defense showed up in the 45-17 victory over Fresno State on Saturday night, but it is the Trojans' offense that has folks suggesting they might get to the College Football Playoff.
Check out this stat: USC has scored touchdowns on each of its first three possessions in all three of its games.
That's even more impressive than it looks in print.
Scoring TDs of 75, 84 and 70 yards on its first three possessions against Rice was not noteworthy. But then the Trojans scored touchdowns on drives of 33, 83 and 70 yards in their first three possessions against Stanford, and they went 83, 65 and 83 yards the first three times they got the ball in the victory over Fresno State.
Eight of the drives were 65 yards or more, and four were more than 80 yards
Having elite talent at quarterback (Caleb Williams), running back (Travis Dye) and wide receiver (Jordan Addision) -- all of whom are transfers -- to go along with the offensive mind of head coach Lincoln Riley, a "transfer" from Oklahoma, makes immediate success possible.
But the most impressive stat may be this. Despite running up and down the field with a multi-faceted offense that ranks 12th nationally in total offense, the Trojans are one of just four FBS teams that has yet to turn the ball over this season. (No. 1 Georgia is one of the other three).
Granted, USC's first three opponents would not be considered defensive monsters, and we will learn more about USC when it faces its first challenge of the season next week in its Pac-12 opener against Oregon State in Corvallis, Oregon..
Issue No. 4: Notre Dame "Luck" Hurts Cal
The inevitable conspiracy theories are cropping up after what happened to Cal in its visit to Notre Dame Stadium.
With Cal leading 7-0 in the first half, Notre Dame kicker Blake Grupe missed a 45-yard field goal attempt on a fourth-and-5 play. But Cal was called for offsides on the play, when no offsides occurred.
“I don’t see anyone offside on the play,” said former official Terry McAulay, who was NBC’s officiating expert on the TV broadcast.
When Cal coach Justin Wilcox was shown on the sidelines arguing about the call, Jason Garrett, the analyst for the NBC telecast.said, “Justin Wilcox is livid, and he should be.”
It would not have been a big deal except that the penalty gave Notre Dame a first down, and two plays later the Irish scored a touchdown to tie the score 7-7.
So here's where the conspiracy theorists take over, noting that it was an Atlantic Coast Conference officiating crew, and that Notre Dame, an independent in football, is part of the ACC in basketball. And if the ACC wants to bring Notre Dame's football program into its conference . . . well, you can see where the rationale is heading.
It's a preposterous theory with no merit, of course, like most conspiracy theories. This was simply a blown call, although we would like to know what the official who called the penalty was looking at and what he saw.
The luck of the Irish haunted Cal in the final play of the game.
Trailing 24-17 with the ball at the Notre Dame 35-yard line with five seconds left, Cal quarterback Jack Plummer launched a Hail Mary pass into the end zone. Three Cal receivers -- Mavin Anderson, Monroe Young and Jeremiah Hunter -- had a shot at the ball as it bounced around for what seemed like several seconds. Hunter had the ball on his stomach while lying on his back, but was unable to secure the ball as it rolled to the ground.
Issue No. 5: UCLA survives, but few see it
UCLA barely got past Sun Belt foe South Alabama 32-31 when Nicholas Barr-Mira hit a 24-yard field goal on the final play of the game. That gave UCLA its first 3-0 start in seven years, but fans are not flocking to their games.
Official crowd size at Saturday's game was 29,344, but it looked sparse in the 100,000-seat Rose Bowl stadium.
The fact that the Rose Bowl is about 30 miles from the UCLA campus, making it the country's longest distance between a campus and its football venue does not help matters.
Former UCLA star Troy Aikman called it an "embarrassment" and wants something done:
Maybe UCLA will have enough money to build a stadium when it joins the Big Ten in 2024.
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Top Five Teams
(based on results, not on theories on which team is best)
1. Washington (3-0) -- The Huskies clobbered a team ranked No. 11 in the country at the time, and Washington ranks fourth in the country in total offense.
2. Washington State (3-0) -- The 38-7 win over Colorado State didn't mean much, but last week's road win over Wisconsin did.
3. USC (3-0) -- The No. 7-ranked Trojans have been impressive, but we're waiting for them to face a challenge
4. Oregon State (3-0) -- The Beavers' 68-28 victory over Montana State represented their fifth-highest point total in school history.
5. Oregon (2-1) -- The win over 12th-ranked BYU offsets the loss to No. 1 Georgia.
(Yes, Utah may be better than all of them, but the Utes lost to a Florida team that is 1-1 otherwise, and Utah has yet to face a ranked team.)
Pac-12 Player of the Year standings
1. Quarterback Michael Penix Jr., Washington -- Outstanding against Michigan State, Penix is the reason Washington's offense is light years ahead of where it was last season. Now if he can only stay healthy . . .
2. Quarterback Caleb Williams, USC -- Seventh in the nation in passer rating, Williams has eight touchdown passes and no interceptions.
3. Receiver Jordan Addison, USC -- 98.3 receiving yards per game, 5 touchdowns.
4. Receiver Jalen McMillan, Washington -- 102.7 receiving yards per game, 3 touchdowns.
5. Quarterback Chance Nolan, Oregon State -- He edges out Utah's Cameron Rising because the Beavers are unbeaten. We'll know more next week when Nolan faces USC.
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Cover photo of Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. is by Joe Nicholson, USA TODAY Sports
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