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College Hotline - Pac-12 football rewind: Down to the wire in the dead of night

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Well, well, well. It seems Pac-12 officials are once again the subject of national ridicule and internal discipline after misinterpreting the rules and mistakenly awarding an untimed down that resulted in Central Michigan …

Oops, sorry. Those were Big 12 and MAC officials.

Not that Pac-12 crews are top shelf — not by any stretch. But let’s remember that other conferences have egregious mistakes, too.

Theme of the week I: #pac12afterdark

I don’t have at-the-ready a list of kickoff times from the past four years. But the 2016 Week Two schedule was something to behold, even for this conference:

40 percent of the weekend’s games were in progress at 2 a.m. Sunday in the Eastern Time Zone, which is only home to 48 percent of the population.

Those in bed at a reasonable hour missed some highly entertaining action.

#pac12beforedawn




Theme of the week II: Thank you, Mountain West. May we have another?

OK, maybe it wasn’t that bad. But it wasn’t good, either.

Four games against the MW and two wins. Except it was worse than 2-2 when you consider that one of the MW opponents was UNLV.

Against that conference’s top tier, the Pac-12 was 1-2.

Then again, the Pac-12 recorded wins over the ACC and Big 12. And it’s not like any of the other Power 5 leagues are flourishing.

Theme of the week III: Week Three.

Not exactly a choice selection of games this past weekend, but that changes this coming Saturday (see below).

Game of the week: Holy War

With nine turnovers and that unexpected finish — You’d do it again, Kalani Sitake? Really? — the rivalry had everything you’d expect.

That’s six in a row for Utah, not that anyone’s counting in SLC.

Team of the week: Arizona State

The Sun Devils outscored Texas Tech 68-55 and showed us skeptics that they are, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the best pinball-playing team in the Pac-12.

Because that sure wasn’t football they were playing, at least not the kind of football required to win the division.

We’ve seen this before: Cal’s run defense.

Bears gave an award-winning impersonation of a turnstile, allowing San Diego State’s Donnel Pumphrey to rush for 281 yards … on only 29 carries.

Swiss cheese called. It’s offended by any comparisons.

We’ll see this again: Washington.

The Huskies hammered outmanned Idaho 59-14 and will do the same to Portland State five days from now.

Washington should never, ever, have a multi-cupcake non-conference schedule.

We couldn’t believe our eyes: Arizona.

Trailed Grambling State 21-3 at halftime. Yes, it was Brandon Dawkins’ first start. That’s no excuse.

(Good thing there were so many other games in progress, and the Wildcats had limited viewers.)

It’s 1990 all over again: Colorado.

Buffs opened with an impressive win over Colorado State and followed that with a beat down of Idaho State.

Next stop: The Orange Bowl, Notre Dame and a show at the national championship … err, make that the Big House, Michigan and a chance for a momentous upset.

It’s 2000 all over again: Washington.

Huskies have outscored their opponents 107-17 and sure look like a team that will compete for its first conference title in 16 years.

It’s so-many-years all over again: Washington State.

The Cougars are 0-2 and not nearly as in sync as I expected them to be.

And the clock management? Um ….

Game of this week (noncon version) I: Colorado at Michigan.

Because whenever a Pac-12 team takes on one of the Big Ten heavyweights, it’s worth a mention.

Game of this week (noncon version) II: Oregon at Nebraska.

Thought about tagging this the Riley Bowl, except the only thing he ever did for the Ducks was give up 50+ points to their spread offense (repeatedly).

But he’s a good coach, heck of a guy and will have the Cornhuskers ready. Dakota Prukop’s tenure as the Oregon starting quarterback starts now.

Game of this week (noncon version) III: Texas at Cal.

Because it’s UT on the west coast, and not the bad version of UT by any stretch.

Game of this week (conference version) IV: USC at Stanford.

Which Trojans are the real Trojans? Can their defense contain Christian McCaffrey? Is Stanford’s Ryan Burns ready for the spotlight?

The answer to these and other questions … will be provided by the end of the third quarter.

Stanford wins, USC contributes to its own demise, and it’s not all that close.

* Follow me on Twitter: @WilnerHotline

* Episode 1 of the College Hotline podcast, with ESPN’s Ted Miller as guest (we discussed Washington’s rise, UCLA’s transformation to power football, USC’s issues, Utah’s life in the shadows, the Pac-12’s position in the playoff race and loads more):


The post Pac-12 football rewind: Down to the wire in the dead of night appeared first on College Hotline.

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by Jon Wilner
 
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