2010 Pac-10 Football Predictions

About Time!

Fall football camp will open up in the next couple weeks for all Pac-10 Teams, and one of the more wide-open and highly anticipated Pac-10 College Football Seasons is less than 40 days away. With USC nothing more than an asterisk and with the unsurprising expulsion of Jeremiah Masoli from the Oregon Football Team, the Rose Bowl will undoubtedly be represented by someone other the aforementioned two teams.

So without further adieu, here is an objective and non-biased prediction on the 2010 Pac-10 College Football final league standings. (Over the next couple of weeks, a full breakdown of each school will be published in the order of their predicted finish).

1) Arizona Wildcats
(Finished 2nd last year)

-Why they'll finish 1st: With the conference's most prolific offense led by an experienced Nick Foles (Junior), stable of running backs with speed (Nic Grigsby/Keola Antolin) and power (Greg Nwoko/Taimi Tutogi), as well as a versatile and explosive wide receiving corps anchored by the conference's top receiver, Juron Criner; Arizona will light up the scoreboard all year long. Though the defense may be young and some inexperience exists in key positions, the Cats will always have a good to great defense with Mike Stoops as thier head coach. They bring back the conference's best defensive end combo in last year's sack leader, Ricky Elmore, and his DE teammate Brooks Reed (whom many believe is more talented than Elmore but spent most of last season injured). When adding some interior D-Line transfers from Ohio State and Tennessee, and blue-chip Secondary recruits (Adam Hall and Marquise Flowers), the Cats will have a defense better than last year's squad. The final reason Arizona will go to the Rose Bowl is their sent-from-heaven schedule. Arizona will have 7 home games this year with their most difficult games at home (Oregon State, USC, Cal, Arizona State, Washington). Had they been faced with a tougher schedule, then they might have been ranked lower than 1st.

2) Oregon Ducks
(Finished 1st last year)

-Why they'll finish 2nd: With 9 returning starters on an already good defense, and the electric LaMichael James at tailback, the Ducks will have yet another great season. Keeping the Ducks from repeating as Pac-10 Champs is, of course, the loss of QB Jeremiah Masoli. It's unbelievable how people think that Nate Costa or Darron Thomas can somehow, with absolutely no real experience, come in and replace Jeremiah Masoli and expect another Rose Bowl. Quarterback is the most difficult and most important position on the field. There's no way Costa or Thomas can compare to the athletic or play-making ability of Masoli. Oregon's schedule is in their favor however, with Arizona, Stanford, Washington, and UCLA all coming to town. The Ducks are still very loaded and will win most of their games even without Masoli.

3) Oregon State Beavers
(Finished 3rd last year)

-Why they'll finish 3rd: Although the Beavers open with a brutal 6-game stretch, they have enough depth and and talent to come away in decent shape and coast through their final 6 games. Nothing more needs to be said about the Quizzes and their incredible talent. Also, with 8 returning starters and 4 of 5 offensive lineman coming back, the Beavers will give fits to all of their foes this year. However, with an unproven and inexperienced quarterback, (Ryan Katz, So.) leading the Beavers into 2010, there's no way they can be the kings of Pac-10 Football this year. The Beaver defense is stout as usual, but many answers still remain as the secondary and front 4 need to improve this year.

4) Washington Huskies
(Finished 7th last year)

-Why they'll finish 4th: When you have the conference's most athletic and exciting quarterback on your team, Jake Locker, you better finish 5th or better even if you only have average talent around said quarterback. With all 11 starters returning on offense and a good crop of incoming freshman, the Dawgs will finally get back to playing in a post-season football game. The triple-threat of Locker, Polk (RB), and Kearse (WR), will frighten D-Coordinators all season long. Unfortunately, the Dawgs have 4 very difficult conference road games, and they will probably only win one of them (at California). Too bad UW doesn't have Locker for a couple more seasons as this will be their best season for a while.

5) Stanford Cardinal
(Finished 4th last year)

-Why they'll finish 4th: You can have all the Luck and Owusu you want, but without Gerhart anchoring the offense, Stanford will not finish better than 5th. As Andrew Luck gets major props and hype going to this season, deservedly so I must add; it is insanity to think that he will guide them to a Rose Bowl or 2nd place finish as some people are predicting. Toby Gerhart was the Stanford Offense last year. All the major pass plays were setup via the play-action, and without Gerhart to fear, the play-action will not be nearly as effective this season. Also, don't expect easy red zone touchdowns anymore as Gerhart garnered most of those TD's for the Cardinal. Stanford's D also loses some key players (Ekom Udofia, DE and Will Powers, LB) which will really hurt this year's defensive expectations. Standord's schedule is slightly difficult as they must play Oregon, Cal, and Washington on the road.

6) California Golden Bears
(Finished 6th last year)

Why they'll finish 6th: An experienced Kevin Riley comes back to hand the ball off to the explosive Shane Vareen, but an underwhelming receiving corps and no Jahvid Best to score TD's will lead to Jeff Tedford having an extremely hot seat at season's end. Tedford has had one great season, but just cannot convert amazing talent into season long success. The Bears bring back only 6 starters on defense this year, and those starters are average at their positions. The one bright spot in the Bear outlook is that they get first crack at soon-to-be-conference-foe Colorado in Week 2.

7) UCLA Bruins
(Finished 8th last year)

Why they'll finish 7th: With only 13 total returning starters to a team that was less than good last year, the Bruins will clamor for wins this season as they have one of the tougher schedules in the league. In a conference with several outstanding quarterbacks (Foles, Luck, Locker, Barkley), Kevin Prince will not be one of them as he leads a boring UCLA Offense to minimal success this year. Until Neuheisel can have 3 more recruiting years under his belt, the Bruins will continue to finish in the bottom half of the conference.

8) Arizona State Sun Devils
(Finished 9th last year)

Why they'll finish 8th this year: Why is it that ASU can't compete in football? Answer: No talent or depth on the offensive line...which is really only the tip of the iceberg. Letting Dirk Koetter go was probably the dumbest thing Lisa Love (the AD) could have done when she first took over. The year Koetter was fired he was just starting to get his kids and his system into place, hence their Holiday Bowl appearance in Dennis Erickson's first year as head coach. Unfortunately, with no real options at Quarterback, a brutal schedule, and an O-Line that seems to have a new injured player every week this spring/summer; there is no real hope for Sun Devil fans this year or in the near future.

9) Washington State Cougars
(Finished 10th last year)

Why they'll finish 9th this year: The Cougars should really be listed at 10th, but since USC is nothing more than an asterisk and a lame-duck this year, the Cougs must be placed 9th by default. With the conference's worst offense and worst defense last year, WSU cannot expect to win more than one game...and that's really asking a lot because Montana State isn't a pushover. I really like Washington State's new coach, and they have shown in the past that success is possible in Pullman. Just not this year or for the next 4 or 5 years until their program gets an overhaul and re-stocking of new recruits.

*10) USC Trojans
(Finished 5th last year)

Why they'll finish *10th this year: Ahhh the asterisk. Poor USC. The conference as a whole really does get more pub and respectability when the Trojans are able to play in bowl games. Even without the asterisk though, the Trojans probably would have only finished 4th this year. Barkley is good but will not ever be great. The defense was shaky last year and won't improve much this season. The offense is probably going to be a little better with Barkley having experience now. Sadly for the Trojans and their fan-base though is the stark reality that after the bowl ban is lifted the cupboard will be bearer than it's been in years, and it will take another 3 or 4 years of Kiffin recruiting to get the Trojans back...and when they do I'm sure they will undoubtedly be title contenders again.

Upcoming article:  "Team Breakdown: Arizona Wildcats"
Followed by: "Team Breakdown: Oregon Ducks"

Best,
 Pac-10 Guru