It’s a great weekend for Pacific-10 Conference football.
Heading into Saturday’s match-ups, seven Pac-10 teams boast rankings in the top 30, led by Oregon’s No. 9 Associated Press standing. And don’t be surprised if, in two days, that figure changes.
Three of the five games have spreads of eight points or less, which should lead to an exciting, and perhaps surprising Saturday.

Stanford (2-3, 1-1)

at Oregon State (3-2, 1-1)
What in the mug is going on in Beaverville? Head coach Dennis Erickson has the Beavers off to their best start since 1967… is anyone in Eugene a little nervous?
“We’re making a great deal of progress,” Erickson told The Register-Guard, “but I’m not into moral victories.”
The Beavers narrowly lost in Seattle last week, 33-30, and are looking to take out their losing frustration on last season’s Pac-10 champion, which lost 20-14 against Notre Dame last week.
One of Stanford’s biggest weaknesses is at quarterback. Randy Fasani went down with a knee injury earlier this season and his status for this weekend is still questionable. If he can’t go, redshirt freshman Chris Lewis will have to make the trip.
Since 1969, the Cardinal is 13-4 against the Beavers in Corvallis. However, Stanford head coach Tyrone Willingham said he sees a huge difference from the Beavers of old.
“What’s happened is their stadium is becoming one of those unfriendly places for the enemy to walk into,” Williams said of Reser Stadium. “They’re starting to create some very nice things in their program that allows them to have success.”
Oregon State’s Ken Simonton is fourth in the nation with 164 yards per game, but was held to just 104 yards against Washington.
“This young man really attacks the line of scrimmage, or shall I say the goal line,” Willingham said of Simonton. “He is very determined and very good.”
 

Washington State (3-2, 1-1)

at No. 22 Arizona (4-1
Last year in Pullman, Arizona won 30-24 on a questionable call in the game’s final play.
But Cougars head coach Mike Price said he is not bitter about the last-second loss.
“We haven’t talked about it much,” Price said. “I’m sure we have kids who remember what exactly did happen. It wasn’t Arizona’s fault.”
Price said it was a bad call on the official’s part that cost the Cougars the game.
“I feel it wasn’t a catch,” he said. “It’s not a rallying cry for us this year, though.”
To be competitive against Arizona this year, however, Washington State must play even better against a Wildcat defense that is second in the nation against the run — allowing just 62 yards per game — and No. 6 overall in points allowed at 10.2 per game.
“We just have to double our effort to continue to prove that we deserve to be ranked,” Arizona head coach Dick Tomey said. “We did a good job of handling the fact that we were underrated earlier in the year, and now we have to do the same thing with the recognition that we have gotten.”
Cougar quarterback Jason Gesser leads the conference with a 147.5 pass efficiency rating and has not thrown an interception in four games.
“When you look around the conference, there were a lot of returning quarterbacks, but Gesser is leading the conference in passing efficiency by miles,” Tomey said.
If the Cougars can put up 42 points against the Wildcats — like they did in their 42-35 victory over Boise State last week — they might have a chance in Tucson. Washington State’s defense, however, has been its Achilles heel; it allowed 474 yards to Boise State.

No. 13 UCLA (4-1)

at California (1-4, 0-2)
Things aren’t looking so golden for the Bears: It’s pretty sad when the team’s only strong spot is its punter.
Oh yeah, the Bruins are also raging for revenge after losing to the Bears 17-0 last year.
“It left a terrible taste; not just [for] me but all the offense,” UCLA quarterback Cory Paus told The L.A. Times about last year’s performance against Cal. “We didn’t play particularly well last year as a whole. But that game was the worst offensive performance.”
Despite posting the worst Pac-10 record, Bears head coach Tom Holmoe said he sees some weaknesses in UCLA’s game, which has given his team some confidence.
“Against Oregon you see that [UCLA] wasn’t as strong as suspected; they have a few weaknesses,” Holmoe said. “They have some things that they can explode on and they can be really good, but if they don’t have all their people together, they can struggle at times.”
UCLA comes off a much-needed bye week to refresh some its many injured players.
Tailback DeShaun Foster, one of the nation’s leading rushers, went down with a fractured hand against Arizona State Sept. 30 and is not expected back for at least a couple weeks.
“A lot of people didn’t think we’d be 4-1 right now,” UCLA head coach Bob Toledo said. “A lot of the big teams have already gone down. I predict that the winner of this conference will have one loss.”