By snoadmin
2007 FOOTBALL Team PAC-10 Overall 1. Arizona State 4-0 7-0 2. UCLA 3-0 4-2
3. USC 3-1 5-1 4. Oregon 2-1 5-1 5. California 2-1 5-1 6. Oregon State 2-2 4-3 7. Stanford 1-3 2-4 8. Arizona 1-3 2-5 9. Washington 0-3 2-4 10. Washington State 0-4 2-5
Week 7 Review:
If you are a Pac-10 football enthusiast, like I am, it must be frustrating to see what has transpired through the past couple of weeks. Personally, I am disappointed and hurt. If USC would have held on to what it looks like the worst defeat in college football history, after Stanford couldn’t put away a weak Mountain West Conf. team in TCU at home, they would be No.1. And this weekend after all the upsets that had taken place and LSU losing, Head Coach Jeff Tedford and the California Bears couldn’t beat the Oregon State Beavers at home. The Pac-10 could have easily contained the No.1 and No.2 nationally ranked spots with California and USC. All they had to do was win a game against a weaker conference opponent and of all places at home. “Could of, would of, should of” as the saying goes, and USC and Cal didn’t and they need to look past the saying and try to climb up the ranks once again. If the Pac-10 teams get healthy and accept a will to win, especially with the insane way this football season is going, four Pac-10 teams can easily end up in the top-10. Currently we have, Oregon No.7, California No.10, Arizona State No.12 and USC No.13. The team that doesn’t receive enough credit is newly acquired Head Coach Erik Dickerson and Arizona State. They have demonstrated how not to play down to your opponents level as many of the other Pac-10 teams have. Congrats to Head Coach Mike Riley and Oregon State for dominating the line of scrimmage and keeping your composure. I also have to give a big shout to OSU RB Yvenson Bernard who has averaged 126 rushing yards and about 2 TD a game against Pac-10 opponents this year. Not only is he producing healthy numbers but he is doing it in nice fashion. He scored go ahead touchdowns against ASU and UCLA and the go ahead and winning touchdown against Cal.
Game Previews and Analysis: Week 7 UCLA (4-2) – open date – next game Nov. 20 vs. California ARIZONA (2-5) at USC (5-1) Once again USC outperforms their opponent in the stat column, but give up turnovers to keep their opponent in the game. However, USC needed a big time play from an unusual face. With starting RB Stafon Johnson still out, Freshmen RB Joe Mcknight ignited the USC offense in the fourth quarter. McKnight, who prompted comparisons to Reggie Bush with his shifty moves and speed at John Curtis High in River Ridge, La., set up the game’s final 10 points with a 45-yard punt return and 59-yard run Saturday, giving No. 10 USC a 20-13 victory over Arizona. “Joe McKnight, you saw him finally, you saw what we’ve been talking about,” Carroll said. “He’s a fantastic football player. It just hasn’t happened for him yet. It’s just a confidence deal; it’s just getting out there. The players of the game, however, have to go to USC defense only allowing 22 rushing yards and overpowering the line of scrimmage most of the game. Nevertheless, the Wildcats (2-5, 1-3) were clearly the better team until McKnight’s punt return, having overcome a 10-0 deficit to take a 13-10 lead. “Tough loss,” Arizona coach Mike Stoops said. “I thought we had a great opportunity and we let it slip away. We just missed out on some opportunities. Our defense played its best game of the season.” Sanchez, who entered having thrown 10 college passes, completed 19 of 31 for 130 yards with two interceptions. He was filling in for John David Booty, who broke the middle finger on his throwing hand against Stanford. Arizona’s Willie Tuitama completed 30 of 43 for 233 yards. “I can honestly say we left nothing on the field,” Tuitama said. “Our defense did a great job of containing them for almost the entire game.”
In order for USC to become a contender against quality teams they have to illustrate solid defense as they have been doing, get healthy and hold on to the ball.
Arizona 13
USC 20 WASHINGTON STATE (2-5) at OREGON (5-1) It’s nice to know that Oregon isn’t going to collapse after losing to California as they did last year, losing three of their last eight games. But, Oregon’s easy victory over Washington State came at a high cost — receiver Cameron Colvin and running back Jeremiah Johnson left with injuries, and could miss the rest of the season. On a good note Dennis Dixon threw for 287 yards and three touchdowns as No. 9 Oregon handed Washington State its fourth straight loss, 53-7 on Saturday. Dixon also ran for a touchdown for the Ducks (5-1, 2-1 Pac-10). But Colvin broke his ankle early in the game, and Johnson injured his right knee after scoring two touchdowns. “Those are serious blows,” coach Mike Bellotti said. “Our depth will be tested, but I have confidence that we will still be able to do the things we want to do.” However, the Ducks still have their main man and much of the weight will be put on QB Dennis Dixon who has accounted for 21 TD and a 7:1 TD, INT ratio in 6 games. Oregon’s offense is still in good shape with keeping their top quarterback, running back and receiver in their lethal attack healthy. However, most of the upcoming games will come down to how well the Duck’s defense performs which they did admirably sacking QB Alex Brink six times and holding a Washington State team who puts up 28 points and 451 yards on offense per game to 7 points and 314 yards. Much of the Washington State offense comes from the arm of Senior QB Alex Brink who only completed 15 of 33 passes for 251 yards. He has 18 touchdown passes this season and needs three touchdowns to pass Jason Gesser’s career school record of 70.
Washington State 7
Oregon 53
TCU (4-3) at STANFORD (2-4) I was hoping Stanford would pull of a win for USC sake in the national polls, but they didn’t. Stanford’s win over USC on the road is the biggest upset in college football history after losing to a weak Mountain West Conference opponent in TCU. It looked like Coach Harbaugh had his boys ready in the beginning of the game as the teams traded scores through most of the first three quarters, with Kimble’s 15-yard touchdown early in the second half putting the Cardinal ahead 28-17. However, what I thought wouldn’t happened did as Stanford was outplayed and outmatched during the latter part of the game getting outscored 21-5. Allowing two touchdown passes from TCU QB Andy Dalton with one accounting for 70 yards and a rushing touchdown. Pritchard, the hero of the USC upset, was 12-of-27 for 171 yards and two touchdowns for Stanford (2-4). Anthony Kimble added 109 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
TCU 38
Stanford 36
OREGON STATE (4-3) at CALIFORNIA (5-1) California, didn’t you learn how not to get upset by a weaker opponent or were you hibernating? Oregon State pulled of another thrilling-upset victory over a top national ranked and Pac-10 opponent with defeating Cal almost same time OSU upset USC last year. OSU RB Yvenson Bernard, who had another solid performance against a Pac-10 team rushing for 110 yards and two touchdowns, leaped into the end zone on fourth down from the 1 with 8:30 remaining and Oregon State delivered the latest shocker in an upset-filled season, beating the second-ranked Golden Bears and backup quarterback Kevin Riley 31-28 Saturday. With Cal down by 10 points with 3:38 remaining in the fourth Riley drove the Golden Bears 79 yards downfield for a touchdown eclipsing it with a 64 yard-touchdown pass to Lavelle Hawkins. After Cal made OSU go three-and-out, OSU Alex Serna pinned the ball on the Cal 6 yard line. Riley had orchestrated a near-perfect drive with 1:27 remaining. But his inexperience showed at the end. Riley drove Cal all the way down to the OSU 12 and the win wasn’t sealed until Riley inexplicably tried to scramble from the 12 with 14 seconds remaining and no timeouts. He was tackled after a 2-yard gain and the clock ran out before the field goal unit could get
on the field. Coach Jeff Tedford said he didn’t consider kicking a field goal on the play because the Bears had time to take a shot at the end zone. But he wouldn’t blame Riley for how the game ended. “It’s not his fault,” Coach Jeff Tedford said. “He played his heart out at the end to get us in that situation. We didn’t lose the game because of that play.” I don’t want to blame it all on Tedford because Riley is experienced enough to know that there isn’t much time on the clock, but some of the blame should be put on Tedford not solely because of the last drive, but because he was out coached during the first and third quarter or what I like to call the coaches quarter. The first quarter, the coaches set a game plan which wasn’t very effective for Cal and the third quarter you make adjustments which OSU coach Mike Riley did and Tedford didn’t. Cal (5-1, 2-1) looked poised to move into the top spot for the first time in 56 years after No. 1 LSU’s triple-overtime loss at Kentucky earlier in the day. But the Bears were unable to handle their own business, becoming the 10th team ranked in the Top 10 to lose to an unranked team already this season. Riley, a redshirt freshman from Portland, Ore., came into the game having thrown only three passes, all incompletions.
Riley did lead a pair of touchdown drives in the first half, throwing a 10-yard TD pass to Hawkins and running in from the 3 to make it 14-10 with 43 seconds left in the half. Hawkins finished with nine catches for 192 yards and two scores.
PAC-10’s Stars of the Stats: Week 7 Passing: Alex Brink (Sr., Washington State) 27/50, 369 yards, twoTD Receiving: Fred Davis (Sr., USC) five receptions, 152 yards, one TD Jeshua Anderson (Fr., Washington State) three receptions, 98 yards Brandon Gibson (Jr., Washington State) five receptions, 80 yards, one TD Rushing: Bernard Yvenson (Sr., Oregon State) 32 attempts 140, three TD PAC-10 Offensive Player of the Week: Week 6 PAC-10 Defensive Player of the Week: Week 6 PAC-10 Special Teams Player of the Week: Week 6 PAC-10 Player of the year Chase – Comp. Percent Yards TD INT Arizona State: Rudy Carpenter 66.3 1730 16 7 Washington State: Alex Brink 62.5 2079 18 7 Arizona: Willie Tuitama 62.4 2055 15 7 Oregon: Dennis Dixon 70.2 1525 15 2 Dennis Dixon Attempts – 63 Yards – 324 Yds/att – 5.1 TD – 6 Rec. REYD REYR TD Brandon Gibson 39 567 14.5 6
RUSH RUYD RUYA TD
Yvenson Bernard 175 752 4.3 10
