Pac-12 Bowl Recap: The Good, The Bad and Oregon Ducks Ugly

The Pac-12 Bowl season in 2015 saw 10 teams appear in the post season, the experience moving forward could be the key to next season for several teams in the Conference.

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Last weekend the 2015 Pac-12 football season came to an end with teams from the conference of champions going 6-4 during bowls. After a promising start the league had a few set backs to end things, while having a winning record there’s still enough what ifs. The final game of the Pac-12 season was big, but the Oregon Ducks provided by far the most exciting game, even if it did not end in their favor.

Let’s look at the good, bad and ugly from the 10 teams who played in bowl games.

GOOD: Arizona, California, Stanford, Utah, Washington and Washington State all won bowl games beating the likes of Air Force, BYU, Iowa, Miami (FL), New Mexico and Southern Miss. Most impressive was David Shaw’s Cardinal team who rolled the Hawkeyes right from the start with Christian McCaffrey scoring on the games first play. Their bay area rivals the Golden Bears had no problems with the Falcons winning by 19 points.

BAD: Three Pac-12 south teams had tough loses with both Los Angeles schools and Arizona State losing in the Foster Farms, Holiday and Cactus Bowl. UCLA lost to 5-7 Nebraska in Santa Clara 37-29 in which the Cornhuskers ran it 62 times for 326 yards. USC saw Wisconsin get a late field goal after taking a late fourth quarter lead to fall against the Badgers 23-21. Arizona State playing a home game lost 43-42, Todd Graham decided not to go for two which would’ve given his team a seven point lead but took the extra point and then saw the Mountaineers get the winning score.

UGLY: Yes, we’ve mentioned nine of the 10 teams who went bowling meaning the ugly was Oregon. Losing 47-41 in the Alamo Bowl but the Ducks built a 31-0 lead before TCU stormed back tied the game then won in triple overtime. What changed? Vernon Adams got hurt which slowed down their offense and put the defense out on the field a lot by not sustaining drives.

Next: Oregon Set To Hire QB Coach Yost

Now we wait for next season which will feature some excellent non-conference games, here’s hoping that the conference returns to the College Football Playoff and Heisman voters actually watch west coast games.