Pacific-10 Conference football just gets more exciting every week.
This Saturday, all the questions that seemed to have answered themselves could come undone.
Is Arizona for real? We’ll find out when they take on UCLA in Tucson.
Is Joey Harrington better on the road than he is at home? He should thrill the crowd at Arizona State.
Is Southern California really that bad? We’ll know the answer when they take on upstart California in Los Angeles.
Can Washington play on the road? We’ll find out in a hostile Stanford Stadium environment.
And finally, is Oregon State going to contend for the Rose Bowl? They’ll have a road block when Washington State comes to town.
Should we dissect the games?
No. 9 Washington at Stanford
Washington (6-1, 3-1 Pac-10) survived a scare when California came to Seattle last weekend. Down 24-13 going into the fourth quarter, the Huskies rallied to score 23 points and crush the Golden Bears 36-24.
Now Washington will face Cal’s Bay Area rival, Stanford (3-4, 2-2), which had a little drama of its own last Saturday against Southern California. Quarterback Chris Lewis, replacing injured starter Randy Fasani, threw a 20-yard bomb to Jamien McCullum on the final play of the game to give Stanford a 32-30 win.
This weekend, the pressure will rest squarely on Washington’s shoulders. The Huskies still have a legitimate shot at the Rose Bowl, but must win the rest of their games to get there.
Stanford is just looking for a bowl game and has to win three of its last four to achieve that feat. But after Washington, the road gets slightly easier for the Cardinal, who play UCLA at the Rose Bowl, then Arizona State at home and Cal in Berkeley.
Washington State at
No. 18 Oregon State
Oregon State (6-1, 3-1) is another team that has the pressure mounting with each snap of the football. The Beavers are one of the best one-loss teams in the conference and must prove themselves once more against Washington State (3-4, 1-3).
“They’re a team that’s very capable of coming in here and beating us,” Oregon State head coach Dennis Erickson said about his former team, Washington State.
Erickson has reason to worry. The Cougars have a deceptive record and have taken Arizona and Arizona State to overtime in their last two games, but lost both. Washington State’s emergence has come on the back of Jason Gesser, one of the league’s best passers.
But the Beavers have Ken Simonton, the nation’s fifth-best rusher, and quarterback Jonathan Smith, last week’s Pac-10 offensive player of the week. Oregon State should continue to pave its way to the roses.
California at
Southern California
The wheels have come off the USC bus. Now the season is gone, and coach Paul Hackett could be also. The Trojans (3-4, 0-4) must win their final four games to even become bowl elgible since they played an extra game early on.
California (2-5, 1-3), didn’t have the expectations that USC did, but had nearly the same results. The Golden Bears’ 15 minutes of fame for 2000 came when they beat UCLA in triple overtime in Berkeley, but they have dropped games to Washington, Arizona State and Washington State. Cal needs to win out if they want to go to a bowl, but with games against Oregon State and Oregon, that seems highly unlikely.
Hackett may be the only person in the world who cares about the outcome of Saturday’s game between the Trojans and the Golden Bears.
t seems highly unlikely.
Hackett may be the only person in the world who cares about the outcome of Saturday’s game between the Trojans and the Golden Bears.
