The bowl picture continues to take shape this weekend as the elite teams in the Pacific-10 Conference battle for coveted positions in the standings. Both USC and UCLA remain undefeated atop the leaderboard and face Stanford and Arizona Saturday, respectively. Meanwhile, Oregon State continues its quest for a postseason berth as it plays the Huskies, who are still searching for their second win of the season.
No. 1 USC (8-0, 5-0) at Stanford (4-3, 3-2)
Cardinal and Trojans fans alike are still talking about last year’s meeting between these two teams in Palo Alto, Calif. It was there that Stanford was three points away from pulling off an upset over USC, which has the longest winning streak in the nation with 30 straight victories.
A Cardinal win would be just as surprising Saturday at the Memorial Coliseum where Stanford head coach Walt Harris faces Pete Carroll and his Trojans for the first time in his career.
“He’s done a great job, and on a personal note, I’m very excited about all of the things he has accomplished,” Harris said. “He’s a great guy and a great competitor.”
USC quarterback Matt Leinart leads the Trojans’ high-powered offense, which ranks first in the Pac-10. Leinart and USC’s tailbacks LenDale White and Reggie Bush were rampant last week against Washington State and should have no problem taking care of the visiting Cardinal. Kickoff is at 12:30 PST and airing live on ABC.
No. 7 UCLA (8-0, 5-0) at Arizona (2-6, 1-4)
The Bruins narrowly escaped another upset last weekend against Stanford, thanks to some late heroics by quarterback Drew Olson, who threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Brandon Beazell to lift UCLA to a 30-27 win in overtime. The Bruins face another dangerous and often-overlooked team opponent Saturday in Arizona, who snubbed Oregon State at Reser Stadium one week ago 29-27.
The Wildcats have shown significant improvement on offense since moving freshman Willie Tuitama into a starting role as quarterback in their 28-21 loss to Oregon on Oct. 22.
UCLA continues to battle skepticism from the media, which continue to speculate about how many close wins the Bruins have in them. UCLA’s offense, led by Olson and tailback Maurice Drew, has carried the team to late scores for big wins against Cal, Washington, Washington State and most recently Stanford. The Bruins play their best in the second half where they have scored the majority of their points. If they play as well as they can, they should avoid an upset by head coach Mike Stoops and his Wildcats for homecoming weekend at Arizona Stadium.
Oregon State (4-4, 2-3) at Washington (1-7, 0-5)
It’s also homecoming weekend in Seattle for Washington who hosts Oregon State. Both teams are coming off of losses suffered last week.
Washington head Coach Tyrone Willingham may have only one career win to his credit since taking the head coaching job for the Huskies, but he insists that his team’s strategy has not changed and will be the same for the Beavers.
“I think the formula really hasn’t changed for us, only the opponent has changed,” Willingham said. “The first thing we have to do is take care of ourselves and eliminate some of our mistakes.”
Turnovers have been costly for the Huskies this season. They rank tied for seventh in the Pac-10 in turnover margin (-5) and have seen little production from their rushing game headed by tailbacks Louis Rankin and Kenny James. Oregon State’s rushing defense shouldn’t have trouble keeping the Huskies’ offense unbalanced and forcing Washington quarterback Isaiah Stanback to throw.
The Beavers were embarrassed at home last week against Arizona and are in need of a win this Saturday to keep them alive in the race for postseason play.

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