Pac-12 Football Hierarchy: 10/17

The Pac-12 Hierarchy returns after a slate of steaming intra-conference matchups. Who moved up? Who moved down? All will be addressed in the coming moments…

1. Oregon Ducks (5-1)

Won 30-27 vs. Washington

Folks, it’s happening. Oregon is in the driver’s seat of the Pac-12 once again. After a bit of a hiatus (a few years) as the corona of the conference the Ducks are back. We used to plow through this conference like a redneck driving a Ford F-450. But then, we got distracted and slammed into another car one, and got our license revoked. For a couple years, we were stuck being chauffeured around by our weaker Pacific foes. But now, we’ve re-usurped the driver’s seat and are in square contention for the conference crown. The Ducks are back! And they’re coming for the title, and the playoff!

2. Washington Huskies (5-2)

Lost 30-27 @ Oregon 

Even though the Huskies suffered their second defeat of the season on Saturday and there are a couple one-loss squads behind them, I still think they’re number two. Look, the contest between OU and U-Dub was close. In reality, the teams are probably about even and the Ducks won in OT because they were at home. It’s not a bad loss at all. Talent-wise and performance-wise, Washington and Chris Petersen are my silver medalists.

3. Washington State (5-1)

Bye

Everything’s sunny in Pullman right now. They’ve got the College Gameday crew coming for this weekend’s bout with Oregon, they’ve got a 5-1 record and a national ranking, and they’ve got the gem of all gems…MIKE LEACH! Right now, they may be the most fun team in the country to follow. Come on, there aren’t many teams that blow out power conference foes while acquiring exactly 0 rushing yards. I love everything about them. And they shouldn’t be good, really. Leach is pulling this season out of nowhere. And Saturday night, we get to see if it’s legit.

4. Utah Utes (4-2)

Won 42-10 vs. Arizona 

Shhhhhh. Don’t look now but Utah is the hottest team in the conference. Hot take, I know. But hear me out: their offense is absolutely lethal in the red zone right now. Tyler Huntley closes offensive drives better than Craig Kimbrel closes playoff games (not a particularly tall task). The defense has been stellar of late too. This team just dominated Stanford and Arizona in consecutive weeks, putting 40 points on the board each time. Watch out for the Utes.

5. USC Trojans (4-2) 

Won 31-20 vs. Colorado

After a disappointing start to the year, USC and quarterback JT Daniels have rebounded quite nicely. The Trojans have sewn together an impressive three game winning streak, piercing their needle through the likes of Washington State, Arizona and Colorado. USC is rounding into a quality team that has enough talent to contend with the big boys of the conference. They’ll put every team they face on upset-alert.

6. Stanford Cardinal (4-2)

Bye

Coming off a two game skid, Stanford was in desperate need of some rest. They got some, now let’s see how they react. Will the players give up now that they know the College Football Playoff is off the table? Or will they come back embarrassed and motivated to go kick somebody’s teeth in? We’ll see this weekend during their trip to Tempe for a date with Sparky

7. Colorado Buffaloes (5-1) 

Lost 31-20 @ USC 

I don’t mean to say I told you so…but…I told ya so. I wrote this about them being ranked last week (Spoiler: I was right):

"Colorado: Sorry, Pac-12 brethren, I’m not impressed with you whatsoever. Here’s a number to chew on: 6-22. That is the combined record of Colorado’s opponents this year. They haven’t played anyone! Seriously, my high school football team has played tougher competition than Colorado’s pathetic schedule. And before playing mediocre ASU, their opponents were even worse, with a combined record of 1-16. Colorado has to prove that they can beat someone of any quality at all before I go patting them on the back. They are very overrated."

Yeah…So I do know what I’m talking about. Just a little bit.

8. Arizona State Sun Devils (3-3)

Bye 

Arizona is so average that I don’t even know what to say. It’s a shame. A top-15 team with Herm Edwards, Eno Benjamin, N’Keal Harry and Manny Wilkins would’ve been a boat-load of fun had it happened. Oh well.

Last: UCLA, California, Arizona and Oregon State 

Literally all of these teams are so bad that I can’t even differentiate them. They all get their butts kicked by the rest of the league and then spend they’re time beating each other. I’m not even going to give them respect enough to write about their respective teams.

By the way, I’m sure this article precisely will be used for locker room motivation. I imagine Chip Kelly holding up a printed out version of my article, screaming “Look at this clown! We beat Cal by 30 and he still doesn’t respect us enough to talk about us!” It’ll be bulletin board material I suppose. And hey, I’ll give a team with an 17% win percentage some extra motivation if it pushes them over the 20% mark.