Pac-12 Football Notebook: Utah, UCLA, Oregon State Have Player of the Year Candidates
The big news of the day: Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley reportedly will leave the Sooners to become USC’s head coach.
The other news is that Utah will face Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game in Las Vegas on Friday, with the Utes hoping to earn their first Rose Bowl berth ever. Utah is one of three Pac-12 teams that has never played in the Rose Bowl, along with Colorado and Arizona.
With that bookkeeping out of the way, let’s pass out awards for season superlatives.
Offensive player of the Year
The candidates:
Utah quarterback Cameron Rising: The Utes have the best conference record, and they are 8-1 with Rising as their starting quarterback. He has 17 touchdown passes with three interception, and the quarterback of the best team is almost automatically a candidate in this conference.
Oregon State running back B.J. Baylor: The Pac-12’s leading rusher with 1,259 yards, and his 6.0 yards per carry are the best among the top 10 rushers in the conference. Utah’s Tavion Thomas has been the Pac-12’s best runner the second half of the season, but Baylor has done it all year and is the reason Oregon State is 5-4 in the conference.
USC wide receiver Drake London: He is a candidate in name only because he played only eight games. But London had over 1,000 receiving yards in those eight games and his 135.5 receiving yards per game would lead the nation by nearly seven yards per game if he had played enough games to qualify.
UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson: He leads the Pac-12 in passer rating, which is the best indicator of a quarterback’s effectiveness, and he ran for 609 yards. His 21 touchdown passes with six interceptions compare favorably with the other two quarterbacks under consideration – Washington State’s Jayden de Laura (23 TDs, 9 picks) and Rising.
The pick: Dorian Thompson-Robinson
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Defensive player of the year
The candidates:
Oregon defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux: Yes, he is the Pac-12’s best pro prospect, expected to be the top overall pick, but he missed some time and does not have the numbers others do. He would rank behind a teammate in my defensive-player-of-the year voting. That teammate would be . . . .
Oregon safety Verone McKinley III: His five interceptions are tied for the most in the country, and he also had 68 tackles and six pass breakups for a team that won the Pac-12 North.
Oregon State linebacker Avery Roberts: His 128 tackles are fifth-best in the country, and he had double-digit tackle totals eight times this season.
Utah linebacker Devin Lloyd: His 22 tackles for loss are second in the country, and his 99 tackles were third-most in the conference. Plus he had three interceptions, one of which he returned for a touchdown, six pass breakups and two quarterback hurries to go along with his eight sacks. Plus he always seemed to come up with a big play when it was needed most. And I like the fact that he was the lowest-rated prospect of the Utes’ 20-player 2017 recruiting class.
The pick: Devin Lloyd
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Coach of the year
The candidates:
Oregon State’s Jonathan Smith: Picked to finish fifth in the Pac-12 North, the Beavers were in the running for a division title until the final weekend. And Oregon State seldom has highly rated recruiting classes.
Washington State’s Nick Rolovich/Jake Dickert: I guess you can’t award at a coach who got fired and his replacement, but somebody did an outstanding job in elevating this program and keeping this team together during a midseason upheaval so it could compete for a Pac-12 North title after being picked to finish last.
Utah’s Kyle Whittingham: The Utes seldom have a star-studded recruiting classes, but they just keep winning. Despite a 1-2 start Whittingham made Utah the best team in the Pac-12, thanks, in large part, to an early-season decision to change quarterbacks.
The pick: Kyle Whittingham
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Most surprising season
The candidates:
Oregon State: Picked to finish fifth, the Beavers wound up with a 5-4 conference record, and they did it with a strong running game despite presumably not having the overall talent to just overpower opponents. Oregon State handed Utah its only conference loss and is headed to a bowl game for the first time since 2013.
Washington State: The Cougars were picked to finish last in the Pac-12 North and started the season 1-3, including 0-3 against FBS teams, but they got it going at midseason and somehow kept it going despite a coaching change to finish second in the Pac-12 North.
The pick: Washington State
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Most disappointing season
The candidates:
Washington: The Huskies were ranked No. 20 in the preseason AP poll and picked to finish second in the North, but they lost at home to FCS school Montana, had their head coach (Jimmy Lake) fired during the season and, at 4-7, finished with their first losing season since 2009.
USC: Picked to win the Pac-12 South and ranked No. 15 in the preseason poll, the Trojans are 4-6 overall, had their coach fired during the season, never got their quarterback situation straightened out and have been horrible at home. USC was 1-4 in conference games at the Los Angeles Coliseum and that included a 42-28 home loss to Stanford, which was 1-7 in its other eight Pac-12 games.
The pick: USC
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Best streak
The candidates:
Utah’s eighth straight winning season: Some wondered whether the Utes could contend in the Pac-12 after they moved from the Mountain West Conference following the 2010 season. They struggled their first three years in the conference, but now Utah and Oregon are the best programs in the conference.
Oregon’s 19-game home winning streak: Oregon has not overwhelmed opponents at Autzen Stadium this season, but they seem to come up with the big plays at the right time at that place, needing the homefield magic to get past Fresno State and Cal. The fact that they had a road loss to Stanford and got their clock cleaned 38-7 at Utah indicates that this was not an overpowering Ducks team and was aided by its home environment. The Ducks have not lost in Eugene since they blew a 17-point lead in an overtime loss to Stanford on Sept. 22, 2018.
The pick: Oregon’s 19-game home winning streak
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Worst streak
The candidates:
Arizona had lost 20 games in a row before beating Cal 10-3 on Nov. 6. In some minds the Wildcats’ losing streak is ongoing since Cal was missing 24 players, including 10 starters, in that game because of COVID issues.
Stanford ended its season on a seven-game losing streak that started after it beat then-No. 3 Oregon. None of the Cardinal’s final four games was closer than 21 points, and Stanford gave up 173 points in those four contests.
Cal has one game left (against USC), but with a 3-5 Pac-12 record it has clinched its 12consecutive season with a losing conference record. No other Pac-12 team has an active streak of more than four straight seasons with losing conference marks. That’s Arizona, which has not had a winning Pac-12 mark since 2017. But Cal has not had a winning record in conference play since it went 5-4 in the Pac-10 in 2009, when Jeff Tedford was the head coach.
The pick: Cal’s 12 straight seasons of losing conference records
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Former Pac-12 head coach of the year
The candidates:
Lane Kiffin, Mississippi (formerly USC): Ole Miss is 10-2 and ranked No. 8 in this week’s AP poll
Mel Tucker, Michigan State (formerly Colorado): The Spartans are 10-2 and ranked No. 11 this week.
Sonny Dykes, SMU (formerly Cal): The Mustangs started 7-0 and were ranked No. 19, but they lost three of their last four to finish the regular season 8-4. It was still enough to get Dykes the TCU job.
Jim Harbaugh, Michigan (formerly Stanford): The Wolverines are 11-1 and ranked No. 2 after upsetting Ohio State and they will undoubtedly get a berth in the College Football Playoff if they beat Iowa in the Big Ten championship game.
The pick: Jim Harbaugh.
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Worst season by a former Pac-12 head coach
The candidates:
Ed Orgeron, LSU (formerly USC): He won the national championship with the Tigers in 2019, but he agreed at midseason to resign after this season and LSU is 6-6, including 3-5 in the SEC.
Steve Sarkisian, Texas (formerly Washington, USC): The Longhorns started 4-1 and were ranked No. 21, but they blew a big lead against Oklahoma and lost six games in a row, including a home game to last-place Kansas, which did not beat any other FBS team this season. Texas finished 5-7 in Sarkisian’s first year at the helm.
The pick: Steve Sarkisian
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The Pac-12 ranking as a football conference
For the fifth straight year, the Pac-12 will not have a team in the College Football Playoff, the longest such streak among the Power Five conferences. The Pac-12 has just six bowl-eligible teams, which is its fewest since 2016 and means it will not be able to fill all of its seven guaranteed bowl berths. Six conferences have more bowl-eligible teams than the Pac-12. Twelve SEC teams are bowl-eligible and 10 ACC teams are eligible for the postseason. A lot of that has to do with scheduling, of course, but still . . . .
Here’s how we rank them:
1. SEC, 2. Big Ten, 3. Big 12, 4. Pac-12, 5. ACC, 6. American
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Weirdest note of the season
Stanford, Utah, Oregon State, Washington State, Arizona and USC all began the season with a different starting quarterback than they ended the season with. For Oregon State, Utah and Washington State, the change was a blessing.
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Symmetry note of the week
While Cal and USC play each other in a meaningless regular-season game on Saturday, the day after the Pac-12 title game, former Cal quarterback Troy Taylor will lead his fourth-seeded Sacramento State team in a second-round FCS playoff game against South Dakota State on the same day. Sac State won the Big Sky title by going 8-0 in conference play and Taylor was named Big Sky coach of the year for the second time.
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Cover photo of Dorian Thompson-Robinson is by Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA TODAY Sports
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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53
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