Sunday, December 2, 2007

Two-Liners; State of the Pac-10

The 2007 Pacific-10 Football season has come to a close, and it's time to evaluate where each of the 10 programs in this great conference is at after another hard fought season. The only way to do it, of course, is with two-liners.

Arizona Wildcats
-A program stuck terribly in neutral that really will never go anywhere with Mike Stoops as head coach.
-Rob Gronkowski is the Pac-10's next great tight end.

Arizona State Sun Devils
-What a difference a coach makes!
-One of those only disappointments of this team was Josh Barrett, who came into 2007 with so much hype but lost his starting job before conference started.

California Golden Bears
-After this kind of collapse, you have to wonder if Jeff Tedford really is the kind of guy you want running your program.

-Jahvid Best is going to be the next big thing in the Pac-10; the most exciting player since Reggie Bush.

Oregon Ducks
-I really wanted this team to win the n
ational championship after they beat Arizona State, and what happened to them is just really unfortunate.
-Mike Bellotti, as great of a coach he is, devastated their season when he didn't give Brady Leaf any reps in practice before the UA game.

Oregon State Beavers
-Quietly, a very good season up in Corvallis...did you notice they were 6-3? Me neither!

-They need a quality, Pac-10 quarterback, stat.

Stanford Cardinal
-If Jim Harbaugh stays long enough, he has a chance to really rebuild and inject enthusiasm into a tattered program.

-Their win over USC at the Mausoleum is the upset by which other upsets will always be judged by.

UCLA Bruins
-The next coach of this team (I'm assuming KD will get his walking papers) has a lot of work to do with very few talented skill players.

-Jay Norvell isn't a bad coordinator, once again, he just had no Pac-10 caliber talent to win.

USC Trojans
-Until further notice, this program is still the class of the conference.
-Joe McKnight will be a top 10 draft pick, but J.D. Booty is the worst quarterback the Trojans have had in years.

Washington Huskies
-I feel that this year was the step back before taking two steps forward.
-Jake Locker is a very exciting, dynamic quarterback who will run roughshot over the conference next year.

Washington State Cougars
-This is your new bottom dweller in the Pac-10.
-Whoever takes this program over from Bill Doba has a ton of work to do, especially now that Alex Brink is done.

2 comments:

Nuss said...

Don't sleep on the Cougs next year. Virtually the entire defense, except for the interior of the line, returns next year, and the offense will be directed by Gary Rogers, the guy a lot of us thought should have been the QB the past two years.

Alex Brink was the most overrated quarterback in the history of the Pac-10. This team will be better next year, especially with the right choice at coach as the rest of the conference gets weaker. You watch.

Justin said...

I will, and I hope they do, because I think the conference is a whole is stronger when Washington State is good. I just feel like the other struggling programs have some more immediate upside, but WSU will be better off in the long run with the right coach.