Instant reaction to developments on the field …
1. October checkup
We’re halfway through the first football season of this new era, with the former Pac-12 schools scattered across three conferences and 3,000 miles.
From a competitive standpoint, the past seven weeks have been nothing short of a Cal-amity.
No, make that a Troy-gedy.
An indisp-Ute-able disappointment.
Put another way: The results are as bad as those puns.
Two of the departed schools have losing records, and three are merely .500.
It’s entirely possible that only one, Oregon, will crack the AP Top 25 when the new poll is released Sunday morning.
Nowhere is the gloom more palpable than at USC, which somehow is already eliminated from the College Football Playoff even though it beat LSU in the ballyhooed season opener.
Since then, the Trojans have lost three Big Ten games, each in come-from-ahead fashion. They were outscored 27-10 after halftime by Penn State, 14-0 in the fourth quarter by Minnesota and 7-0 in the final minute by Michigan.
As a result, USC won’t make the CFP field through the at-large route and is effectively eliminated from the conference championship game.
Get ready for two months of speculation about Lincoln Riley’s job security, which is rapidly becoming a fair and reasonable topic given that he’s collecting roughly $10 million annually and has put a decidedly mediocre product on the field for the past season-and-a-half.
That said, at least Riley and Co. are blowing leads on broadcast television and not a regional cable network.
2. Shall we go on?
What about the 2023 Pac-12 champion and national runner-up? Glad you asked.
Washington also has three losses after getting steamrollered at Iowa on Saturday morning, which followed (by a few weeks) the narrow loss at Rutgers and the equally narrow loss to Washington State in the Apple Cup.
But there’s far more to UW’s predicament than the 4-3 record. Its upcoming schedule includes the best teams in the Big Ten: Indiana, Oregon and Penn State, which have a combined record of 18-0. The Huskies play all three on the road, meaning their climb into the postseason — it requires at least six wins — will be treacherous.
Of course, the Trojans and Huskies look like playoff teams compared to UCLA, which lost its fifth consecutive game on Saturday (to Minnesota) and is a serious threat to finish last in the Big Ten.
If not for Purdue, the Bruins would be the frontrunner for the cellar. They appear completely ill-prepared for their new existence, have a brutal schedule ahead and will be fortunate to win three games under rookie coach DeShaun Foster.
The situation is not quite as bleak for Arizona. But the Wildcats, who finished the 2023 season on a seven-game winning streak, are floundering with a 3-3 record after losing decisively at Brigham Young on Saturday afternoon.
(Not on our Big 12 bingo card: Arizona winning at Utah by two touchdowns and losing at BYU by three.)
That brings us to the Utes, who were picked to win the Big 12 and reach the CFP. At the moment, they are closer to last …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
