ESPN College Football

Joe Schad, Jesse Palmer and Ed Cunningham discuss conference expansion and if Notre Dame should remain independent.

Here are five things I'll be watching in college football this weekend:

1. Can No. 14 Georgia keep it close against No. 1 LSU in the SEC championship game?

The Tigers are one victory away from completing a perfect regular season and earning a trip to the Jan. 9 Allstate BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans. The Bulldogs have won 10 games in a row since losing their first two and they're playing with a lot of confidence entering Saturday's SEC championship game at Atlanta's Georgia Dome. But Georgia hasn't played a defense as physical and menacing as LSU's. Can Georgia's offensive line protect quarterback Aaron Murray, who has thrown 14 touchdowns in his past four games? Will Georgia tailback Isaiah Crowell be able to start and finish a game? Georgia might have the second-best defense LSU has faced this season, behind Alabama's, which held the Tigers to only nine points. Will LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson continue to make big plays?

2. Will No. 10 Oklahoma beat No. 3 Oklahoma State for the ninth straight time?

The Pokes are still in the BCS national championship race, although they'll need some help from voters and computers to pass No. 2 Alabama in the BCS standings. OSU hasn't beaten the Sooners since 2002, losing eight games in a row in the Bedlam series. Saturday night's game will be played in Stillwater, and the Sooners aren't as explosive without leading rusher Dominique Whaley and star receiver Ryan Broyles. The Pokes haven't played since a 37-31 loss in double overtime at Iowa State on Nov. 18. They had five turnovers in the loss to the Cyclones and can't afford to turn it over against OU. The last team with the ball might win the game.

3. Which team will win the Big East?

If No. 23 West Virginia beats South Florida on the road on Thursday night and Cincinnati defeats Connecticut at home on Saturday, there will be a three-way tie for first place in the Big East standings. The Mountaineers, Bearcats and Cardinals will finish tied, and the tiebreaker would be decided by the highest BCS standing, which would favor the Mountaineers. West Virginia has been inconsistent in coach Dana Holgerson's first season, and the Bearcats are unpredictable without injured quarterback Zach Collaros. Big East football might be mediocre again this season, but at least it has been dramatic to season's end.

4. Will No. 15 Wisconsin get revenge against No. 13 Michigan State?

The Spartans derailed the Badgers' national championship hopes with a dramatic 37-31 victory in East Lansing, Mich., on Oct. 22. The Spartans won the game on quarterback Kirk Cousins' 44-yard touchdown pass to Keith Nichol on a Hail Mary pass on the final play of the game. Both teams lost in their next games, but recovered to win out to claim their divisions. The Spartans will have to slow down tailback Montee Ball in Saturday's inaugural Big Ten championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Ball has 29 rushing touchdowns and five touchdown catches; his 34 touchdowns are five shy of tying former Oklahoma State tailback Barry Sanders' NCAA single-season record of 39 touchdowns set in 1988.

5. Will No. 5 Virginia Tech win the ACC again?

The Hokies are one victory away from winning their fifth ACC championship in only eight seasons in the league in Saturday's ACC championship game in Charlotte, N.C. Virginia Tech will try to avenge its 23-3 loss to Clemson at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Va., on Oct. 1. The No. 13 Tigers held the Hokies to only 258 yards and no touchdowns at home for the first time since 1995. The Tigers, who have lost three of their past four games, will have to limit Hokies tailback David Wilson, who has run for 1,595 yards with nine touchdowns. Wilson has already tied an ACC record with nine rushing touchdowns this season and he's 61 yards shy of breaking Ryan Williams' school single-season rushing record.

The conventional wisdom is Oregon State's already formidable trip to Wisconsin on Sept. 10 became even more daunting Monday with the Badgers' addition of quarterback Russell Wilson, a transfer from NC State who passed for 8,545 yards and 76 touchdowns in his career with the Wolfpack.

Maybe. Makes sense. Wilson, who has one year of eligibility remaining and can play right away because he has already graduated, is a dual-threat quarterback who also has, by the way, played baseball in the Colorado Rockies' minor league system after being a fourth-round pick last year.

Further, the Badgers' play at quarterback was mediocre to bad this spring, with no one stepping to the fore to replace Scott Tolzien. Wilson, it would seem, is an instant upgrade, even over Tolzien. Wilson completed 58.4 percent of his passes for 3,563 yards with 28 touchdowns and 14 interceptions and rushed for 435 yards and nine touchdowns last season. Tolzien's 2010 numbers, though good enough to get the Badgers to the Rose Bowl, don't even compare.

The general feeling is this makes Wisconsin the Big Ten favorite. Which makes the Beavers look like road kill, right?

Again, maybe. But we live in a world of unintended consequences. There are no sure things, and the unexpected often happens.

For one, Wilson will be learning a new offense with new teammates with only a month or so this summer and fall practices to prepare. That's not easy. Sure, he's a veteran college QB. But he'll still be the new guy -- not unlike incoming freshmen.

His first order of business? Decisively beating out Jon Budmayr, Joe Brennan and Joel Stave. If Wilson is only marginally better, or if there's doubt within the team that he earned the starting job, then things could get prickly in the locker room.

The ideal situation for Oregon State would be for Wilson to not get a warm-up game before the Beavers come to town. That's not the case. Not only does Wisconsin open against UNLV, it also has a couple of extra days between that Thursday, Sept. 1 opener to iron out the kinks and get ready for the Beavers.

Oregon State opens its season against Sacramento State, giving it a preseason game in which to get in rhythm without revealing a lot. The Beavers certainly should be able to get more from the Badgers-Rebels game film than Wisconsin will from the Sac State film.

Wilson should make the Badgers better, but it's reasonable to believe he will be better as the season matures than he is early-on, when he's still figuring out the offense and his teammates. So Oregon State has that going for it.

With or without Wilson starting, the Badgers will be heavy favorites when Oregon State visits. The Beavers are coming off a 5-7 season with lots of questions and they do not own a distinguished record for starting fast. They've, in particular, suffered a few bad nonconference whippings on the road in the early-going -- see ill-fated trips to Louisville, Boise State, Cincinnati and Penn State.

The conventional wisdom will write this one into the Oregon State loss column before it's played, and the Badgers' addition of Wilson makes it less risky to do so in pen rather than pencil.

Right? Well, maybe. Let's just say lots more folks figure to tune into the Wisconsin-UNLV opener than before.

The Pac-10 chant for the 2010 season: "We're No. 2! We're No. 2!"

Hey, it could be worse.

It should come as no surprise that the SEC reigns supreme in ESPN Stats & Information final college football conference rankings for 2010. Sure, the SEC was only 5-5 this bowl season, but it won a fifth consecutive national championship -- with a fifth different team in the BCS Era -- and finished with six teams in the final AP poll.

The Pac-10 blog has taken issue with the almost reflexive assumption of SEC supremacy a number of times in the past, mostly because the Pac-10 blog -- humbly -- only wished to educate the ignorant. The Pac-10 blog, however, will only tip its cap to the SEC this year.

The SEC was way ahead of the Pac-10 in the final tally, while the Pac-10, No. 3 Big 12 and No. 4 Big Ten were fairly tight. More than a few folks from the Big 12 might give the final rankings a "harrumph." The Big 12, after all, had five teams ranked in the final top-25, the Pac-10 just two.

In an interesting twist, it is the Pac-10 that appears top-heavy compared to the Texas-Oklahoma conference. With No. 3 Oregon and No. 4 Stanford, the Pac-10 is the only conference with two teams ranked in the final top-five, but after that no other teams ended up in the top-25, and only one, Washington, received any votes in either final major poll.

And that was just a single vote in the Coaches poll. FYI: Steve Sarkisian was a voter this season.

The Pac-10 is helped in the conference standings by bowl victories against teams ranked in the final AP poll: Stanford against No. 16 Virginia Tech, the ACC champion, and Washington against No. 20 Nebraska, the Big 12 North champ. Further, the Pac-10 posted nonconference wins against Iowa, Notre Dame and Hawaii -- all three received votes in both final polls -- as well as Syracuse and Louisville, which both won bowl games. Victories against Texas, Colorado, Wake Forest, Tennessee and Houston don't carry as much weight as they would in most seasons, but they contributed to a strong 17-12 overall record versus FBS foes and a 12-7 mark against AQ conference foes.

While some are hung up on the Pac-10 only producing four bowl-eligible teams -- it actually was five; USC was just ineligible because of NCAA sanctions -- the tough nonconference schedules and the nine-game conference slate are mostly responsible for that. Arizona State, which lost by a single point at Wisconsin, would have been bowl eligible if San Jose State didn't break a game contract to chase a payday with Alabama, and the same could be said of Oregon State if it didn't schedule a pair of top-10 nonconference foes (No. 2 TCU and No. 9 Boise State).

The Pac-10's arduous schedule is accounted for, by the way, in the highly respected Sagarin Ratings, which rank the Pac-10 No. 1.

Still, the Pac-10 wasn't No. 1 in its final year before it becomes the Pac-12. The SEC earned the top spot after beating the undefeated Pac-10 champion for the national title.

Again, a tip of the cap. No trash talk.

One last thing, though: Oregon-LSU, Sept. 2.

Buckle up.

Folks throw around terms such as "best" and "worst" and "most" and "least" in sports in all the time, even when their application is more symbolic than real. Extremes are easy to understand. Talking about them can be fun. Actually experiencing them is rare, though. Living through the best of times and worst of times? That was just Charles Dickens rolling out a good opening line.

Richard Sherman and the rest of Stanford's fifth-year seniors, however, know both the best of times and worst of times, at least in terms of college football.

In 2006, the Cardinal went 1-11. That was the most losses in school history and worst record since an 0-10 mark in 1960. It was the program's fifth consecutive losing season, and coach Walt Harris was fired after just two years.

Worst of times.

In 2010, the Cardinal went 11-1. That set a school season record for victories. Stanford, ranked fourth in the final BCS standings, hasn't finished ranked in the top five of the AP poll since 1940. It's headed for a date with Virginia Tech in the Discover Orange Bowl on Monday.

Best of times.

And, yes, the latter is more fun.

"It's unbelievable," Sherman said. "I can't even express to you the emotions I have and the other seniors have. Coming in the way we did, obviously, 1-11 and now leaving with a record-setting season, one of the best offenses in the country, one of the best defenses in the country. Just a great team. We love each other. I can't explain it to you. It's a combination of joy, happiness, pride, a lot of things. Man, watching these guys grow up. We've all come a long way."

Sherman was a freshman on the 2006 team. It was shut out twice. It lost to San Jose State. It ranked 118th in the nation in scoring (10.6 points per game) and 108th in scoring defense (31.4 ppg), meaning it lost by an average of three touchdowns.

Harris went 6-17, turning in the shortest tenure of any Stanford coach since Rod Dowhower left after one season in 1979 with a 5-5-1 record. It was clear his disciplinarian methods weren't clicking with the sort of players who can get into Stanford.

"It was maybe just a bad fit," receiver Mark Bradford said at the time. "Maybe we didn't respond to the way that was his style of coaching. His style of coaching probably would have worked in a lot of other places. It didn't work here."

Enter Jim Harbaugh, who introduced himself by stating, "I vow I will attack this endeavor with enthusiasm unknown to mankind."

He was the anti-Harris. "It was just a whole different way of coaching. ... Coach Harbaugh definitely brought a different energy and enthusiasm to the program. Basically, he brought a belief in winning that I don't think guys had before he got here," Sherman said.

That can't be undersold. While injuries were a huge issue for Stanford in 2006, there was plenty of talent on the roster: Trent Edwards was the quarterback for the first half of the season before he got hurt, and plenty of guys went on to the NFL. And many names are familiar because of their roles in the Cardinal's recent surge under Harbaugh, from running back Toby Gerhart to Sherman to almost the entire offensive line.

There was talent in 2006. Sherman said the players worked hard and practiced hard. But the results were terrible. The offense only scored as many as two touchdowns in two games all season.

"It was rough coming from high school," said Sherman, who started out as a receiver. "You don't really know what to expect and then you come into that. It's rough to not get wins. You work hard every week, you game plan every week, and things just don't work out for you. It's obviously frustrating."

Just four years later, Stanford became one of the great turnaround stories in college football history. Louisville, which went 11-1 in 2001 after going 1-10 in 1997, was the last FBS team to win one game and then as many as 11 games four years later. Pittsburgh won the 1976 national championship with a 12-0 record four years after posting a 1-10 mark.

The 2010 Cardinal not only won, they dominated. They outscored foes by an average of more than 22 points. They ranked No. 8 in the nation in scoring (40.3 ppg) and No. 11 in scoring defense (17.83). They recorded three shutouts for the first time since 1969. They set a school record for points (484), and quarterback Andrew Luck set a school record with 28 touchdown passes. For the second consecutive year, the program produced a Heisman Trophy finalist -- Luck -- who followed Gerhart, the 2009 runner-up.

"This year was like the perfect storm," Sherman said.

But Sherman & Co. still retain a chip on their collective shoulders. They aren't ready to announce their arrival on the national scene just yet. They won four games in 2007, five in '08 and eight in 2009. It's been a process, and they sense there are still some stragglers who doubt them.

"People don't look at us as a talented team now and they didn't look at us as a talented team then [in 2006]," Sherman said. "Obviously, when you put on the Stanford 'S' it takes your talent and speed away. You're not fast or athletic anymore. It's been that way since I got here. We have great athletes, great players."

Sherman said the Cardinal aren't satisfied with merely earning the trip to Miami for a BCS bowl game. "There aren't going to be many guys trying to live the life in Miami. It's not about the trip. It's about the win," he said.

Winning, of course, is the only way to ensure that 2010 will be remembered as the very best of times on the Farm.

1. Regardless of your opinion on whether 6-6 records are bowl-worthy, no teams’ seasons are defined by their bowl results quite like these. Louisville beats Southern Mississippi to go 7-6? Charlie Strong has a successful rookie season. Air Force takes advantage of a slew of Georgia Tech mistakes to win, 14-7 in the Independence Bowl on Monday night? The Yellow Jackets (6-7) lose five of their past six games and face a very long offseason.

2. Leave it to Sue Paterno to crush the rumors of her husband’s ill health. Joe Paterno is fine, Sue said Monday during Outback Bowl week, and the two of them have not discussed the possibility that he will not coach in 2011. Paterno, who turned 84 last week, has been quoted as saying he plans to coach five more years. That’s been his stock line for 25 years, which is also about how long he has had to deal with rumors of his impending retirement.

3. Most coaches schedule a walk-through at the stadium on Friday. By Monday afternoon, both Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema and TCU coach Gary Paterson already had taken their teams to the Rose Bowl. They did it to take pictures and, of course, to minimize the jitters that will overtake the players when they come out of the end zone tunnels on Saturday. And they did it because who wouldn’t visit the Rose Bowl as soon as you could?

1. Sitting in the nosebleeds Tuesday night in Hartford to see the UConn women break the UCLA men’s record with their 89th consecutive victory made me reflect on the longest football winning streak. Oklahoma set the record of 47 straight from 1953-57. We were fortunate to see both Miami and USC reach 34 straight wins in the last decade. Both lost heart breakers in a national championship game. Given the way players leave early for the NFL, the Sooners’ record seems inviolate.

2. The bad news in watching bowl offenses is that they may suffer from a lack of rhythm borne of not playing for several weeks. The good news is that the nagging injuries in young bodies have had time to heal. Quarterbacks such as Denard Robinson of Michigan and Taylor Martinez of Nebraska have begun to look like themselves in practice leading to their bowl games next week. In their case, health is a great lubricant for offensive rust.

3. I like how Louisville spotted Southern Mississippi a 14-0 lead in the first 5:00; how the Cardinals scored 31 points; only 10 of them on drives of more than 37 yards; how Jeremy Wright returned a kickoff 95 yards for a score; how corner Johnny Patrick blocked a Southern Mississippi field goal; how the punt team pinned Southern Miss at its 2 with :07 to play; and how Louisville didn’t lead the Beef O’Brady’s St. Petersburg Bowl until the fourth quarter but won, 31-28, giving Charlie Strong a 7-6 record and a big boost into 2011.

The questions were only natural. How would Southern Miss quarterback Austin Davis respond after missing the majority of 2009 and all of spring practice with a foot injury?

Slowly at first. But now Davis is playing his best ball of the season, and it is coming at the right time, with the Beef 'O' Brady’s Bowl against Louisville set for Tuesday in St. Petersburg, Fla.

“Everyone played better toward the end of the year,” Davis said in a phone interview. “I’m more comfortable with the guys. You play more games, you get better. You can’t substitute game experience.”

Davis has had plenty of that, even though he missed the final eight games of last season with a ligament tear. In 2008, he became the first freshman to start in his first game since 1991 and is very close to breaking the school career records for passing yards, passing touchdowns, 200-yard passing games and rushing touchdowns by a quarterback.

He needs two more passing touchdowns to pass Lee Robert and Brett Favre into first place on the career touchdowns list with 53.

Davis was able to stay healthy this season despite some foot pain, but many of his teammates were not, and that accounted for some of the early struggles. Top receiver DeAndre Brown was hampered all season, and only played in five games. The running backs were also banged up. Kendrick Hardy, Tracy Lampley and V.J. Floyd all got starts this season. The offensive line also had to break in four new starters, so it took a while for everyone to find a rhythm.

“I think Austin played himself back into being comfortable,” offensive coordinator Blake Anderson said. “You don’t know how the guy is going to respond. Initially early maybe he was trying to do too much.

“Some of that had to do with some of the injuries we had earlier. You’re dealing with different skill players every week, so there wasn’t continuity with him and those guys. The timing was not always as good. We found the comfort zone offensively in what we liked and what we had confidence in and gradually our guys got better.”

Indeed, Southern Miss scored 40-plus points in seven of its last eight games. But two of those were critical one-point losses to East Carolina and UAB. Because Southern Miss beat eventual East Division champion UCF, wins in those games would have gotten the Golden Eagles into the C-USA title game.

The UAB loss in double overtime was particularly galling because the Blazers ended the season 4-8. Davis has had a hard time of letting go of those losses, knowing how much they ended up costing Southern Miss.

“There were a couple of plays in those games that I know I made mistakes that keep me up at night,” Davis said. “I feel if I could have done something different, we might have won that game and ended up playing in the championship. You never know what play is going to make a difference. We just have to learn, come out focused and ready to play with intensity in every game. Once we mature to the point we can do that, we’ll find ourselves in the conference championships.”

Despite the disappointment of those two games, Southern Miss is in a bowl game for the ninth straight season and has won eight games for the first time since 2006.

Davis was selected to the C-USA second-team and needs just 102 yards to go over 3,000 yards this season. He will be the only Southern Miss quarterback to go over 3,000 yards passing in a season. Plus, he is also a threat to run, ranking third on the team in rushing with 436 yards on 132 carries and 10 touchdowns.

With many of the skill players returning in 2011, this bowl game could be a big momentum booster. And it will all start with Davis.

“For us to win 10, 11, 12 games a year from now, we’ve got to start out the season with him playing like he’s playing now,” Anderson said. “That is not easy to do. His focus level and preparation over spring and summer is going to be tailored toward that.”

Southern Miss Golden Eagles (8-4) vs. Louisville Cardinals (6-6)

Dec. 21, 8 p.m. ET (ESPN)

Southern Miss take by nation blogger Andrea Adelson: The Golden Eagles beat eventual C-USA champion UCF earlier this year, but a pair of one-point losses to East Carolina and UAB kept them from winning the East. Still, they have the longest active bowl streak in Conference USA with nine straight, and have one hot quarterback in Austin Davis, who is playing his best football of the season.

The problem for Southern Miss of late has been its defense, which has given up way too many points. Four times in its final five games, the Golden Eagles gave up 30-plus points. That includes the 50-49 loss to UAB in overtime. The defense failed them as well against the Pirates at home earlier in the season. One thing about this team, though, they will be playing with plenty of inspiration.

Three players were shot following a fight at a club that spilled into the parking lot after the team returned home from its 31-21 win over UCF on Nov. 13. Linebacker Martez Smith was paralyzed from the waist down, while Tim Green cannot speak after reportedly being shot in the neck. Defensive end Dedrick Jones also was shot. The team wears a decal on its helmets in the shape of a heart with their decals inside. They are 1-1 since the shootings, winning an inspired game over Houston the week after it happened and losing the finale at Tulsa.

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Louisville take by Big East blogger Brian Bennett: The 6-6 record may not look impressive, but Charlie Strong worked wonders in his first year in Louisville.

Everyone picked the Cardinals to finish last in the Big East, and the team he inherited was roundly considered to have the least amount of talent in the league. But Strong and his staff got the most out of a previously underachieving group of seniors, with tailback Bilal Powell the prime example. Powell, who had never broke 400 yards in a season, erupted for 1,330 yards and 10 touchdowns behind a veteran offensive line.

It's on defense, though, where Strong truly made his mark. Despite lacking size or elite playmakers, the Cardinals finished 12th in the country in total defense while locking opponents down in the final month of the season.

Louisville was competitive in every game this season but needed to beat Rutgers in the finale to clinch its first bowl appearance since the 2006 season. Quarterback Adam Froman, who missed the final four games with a thigh injury, could be healed in time for this game. The Cardinals’ seniors are excited about playing in their first bowl, and they'll look to continue the Big East's recent domination of Conference USA in the postseason.

If you don't like where you are in the power rankings, play better.

1. Oregon: Ducks slapped Portland State aside just like they should. The matchup Saturday at Arizona State is suddenly a lot more interesting based on how the Sun Devils played at Wisconsin.

2. Arizona: A signature win against Iowa that was significant because the Wildcats were physically dominant, and when the screws tightened they asserted that dominance while the Hawkeyes wilted.

3. Stanford: Wow. That was just mean what Stanford did to Wake Forest. Seems like Jim Harbaugh was still mad about the officiating in Winston Salem last year. Andrew Luck, the nation's third-rated quarterback, has 10 TD passes vs. zero interceptions. Is it just me or is Luck good?

4. Oregon State: The win against Louisville was inconclusive as to how good the Beavers are. The game at Boise State on Saturday could make a significant statement, though.

5. USC: You know that annoying hourglass you look at when your computer is making you wait? That's what we have with the Trojans. Folks continue to be eager to write them off. I'm not so sure that's wise.

6. Arizona State: An excruciating, what-might-have-been loss at Wisconsin. But the important take-away is this, Sun Devils: You guys look like a bowl team now. Now, what can you do vs. Oregon?

7. California: Ah, Cal. There is so much we want to say. But the salient fact is this: Nine games remain. Make a stand.

8. UCLA: There was blood in the water, but the Bruins responded with an impressive win against Houston (and, by the way, UCLA established dominance well before Case Keenum went down). Now the schedule eases up with ... a visit to Texas.

9. Washington: Three things came out of the home blowout loss to Nebraska: 1. The Cornhuskers are very good; 2. Washington's rebirth should eyeball .500 before it aspires to grand expectations; 3. The "Jake Locker is overrated" contingency is dancing in the streets over Locker's career-worst performance on the big stage.

10. Washington State: The big question for the Cougars is will they muster four-quarters of fight in every game the rest of the season. The Pac-10 blog continues to believe, if they do, that will eventually yield a tangible reward.

Oregon State struggled to put Louisville away, but the Beavers got a late interception from James Dockery to secure a 35-28 victory.


The Beavers led 35-14 in the third quarter before Louisville made things interesting. The Cardinals outgained the Beavers 453 yards to 319.

Jacquizz Rodgers ended a three-game slump with 132 yards on 24 carries. He scored two TDs and also caught five passes for 27 yards.

Ryan Katz turned in a solid performance, completing 15 of 26 for 142 yards with two TDs and no interceptions.

The problem is the Louisville offense on the road isn't going to be anything like the Boise State offense at home, which is what the Beavers face next weekend.

It will be another big-stage game for the Beavers against a top-10 foe from a non-AQ conference. It should be interesting. More than a few teams across the country -- from AQ conferences -- will be cheering for the Beavers.

Went 8-0 last week but it was an 8-0 that felt like USC's 2-0. Sorta "neh."

Season record is 15-3. To the picks.

Friday

California 38, Nevada 30: Warning, warning, warning, Cal Bears! Nevada is not a push-over, particularly not at home. The Wolf Pack has averaged 592 yards and 50 points in its first two games. Cal fans, if you want my advice, you should feel nervous about this one.

Saturday

Iowa 28, Arizona 24: Arizona is better on offense and Iowa is better on defense, but the Hawkeyes are better-er on defense than the Wildcats are on offense. That said, this one should be far more competitive than the game in Iowa City last fall.

Wisconsin 27, Arizona State 17: Expect Wisconsin to have a significant advantage in time of possession, and that's why I think the Sun Devils defense will wear down in the second half. I also think the Sun Devils earn respect on the road in a tough venue and feel pretty good going forward about their chances of surprising some folks in the Pac-10.

USC 41, Minnesota 17: I am picking USC to roll for a third week in a row. Why do I think I might be correct this time? Well, for one, as in the previous two games, USC has a lot better players. And, second, I think the Golden Gophers are about as uninspired as a team can be, see a narrow victory over Middle Tennessee and a loss to South Dakota.

SMU 41, Washington State 24: What the Cougars need is a soft nonconference schedule that helps them build confidence. What they've got is a road game at a good SMU squad that will be highly motivated after its mistake-filled loss last year in Pullman.

Nebraska 28, Washington 21: The Huskies are going to challenge the Cornhuskers. But they aren't going to beat them.

Oregon State 35, Louisville 24: Beavers QB Ryan Katz will be comfortable at home, and that means distributing the ball to his playmakers, the Rodgers brothers, who are going to hang up some big numbers.

Oregon 1,000, Portland State 3: And then the second half starts. No, actually, my guess is Chip Kelly doesn't want to play his starters much after halftime.

UCLA 27, Houston 24: Just when you think the Bruins are going to go belly-up, they will rally and win. It will make a huge difference that Kevin Prince got a full week of practice. Not to mention that Houston QB Case Keenum is questionable with a concussion.

Stanford 45, Wake Forest 24: The Wake Forest defense gave up 48 points and 487 yards to Duke. Duke isn't terrible or anything, but you'd think QB Andrew Luck will represent a slight step up from sophomore Sean Renfree. And the Cardinal should be pretty salty based on how things went in the second half last year in Winston-Salem.

An undefeated weekend. Unless you're UCLA.

Team of the week: Oregon actually in some ways looks better because it came back from a 13-3 deficit at Tennessee with a 45-zip run. If the Ducks had rolled from the get-go, it would have been a case of "that's what we expected." But by bouncing back from adversity -- nothing went right in the first quarter on either side of the ball -- Oregon showed notable resilience and grace under pressure. And, let's face it, it was kind of fun that the early going spawned some SEC trash talk -- "We play defense in the SEC!" -- that was notably muted by game's end.

Best game: So Washington State nearly went down to Montana State? Think Virginia Tech, Kansas and Minnesota would prefer a "nearly" for themselves? The Cougars showed some heart by rallying from 15 points down in the fourth quarter to win 23-22.

Biggest play: LaMichael James' all-on-his-own 72-yard TD run was a thing of beauty. Just spectacular. And when he made the Tennessee defense look silly -- there was a palpable wince in Neyland Stadium -- you could sort of sense that the Ducks were about to deliver a beatdown. And they did.

Offensive standout: Washington receiver Jermaine Kearse bounced back from an inconsistent performance at BYU to dominate Syracuse's secondary. He hauled in nine receptions for 179 yards with three TDs. Kearse ranks third in the nation with 143.5 receiving yards per game.

Defensive standout (s): Two strong performances from Bay Area teams. California linebacker Mohamed led the Bears defensive effort against Colorado with 14 tackles and an interception for a TD, while Stanford safety Michael Thomas had five tackles -- one for a loss -- and forced two fumbles in the shutout win against UCLA. The second forced fumble he returned 21 yards for a TD.

Special teams standout: Kenjon Barner returned a punt 80 yards for a TD, giving the Ducks three punt returns for scores in two games after Cliff Harris had two against New Mexico in the opener.

Smiley face: The Stanford defense, which recorded its first road shutout since 1974, a 35-zip blanking of UCLA. Also, the Pac-10, a week after going 6-4 in nonconference games, went 7-0 against nonconference foes, including wins against the Big 12 (Colorado), the SEC (Tennessee), the Big East (Syracuse) and the ACC (Virginia).

Frowny face: UCLA. The Bruins rank 115th in the nation in scoring, 115th in passing and 111th in total offense. The defense? It ranks 116th vs. the run and 102nd in scoring. And Arizona State's rushing offense, which only produced 56 yards on 29 carries against Northern Arizona. That's 1.9 yards per rush vs. an FCS team.

Sloppy: Look at the bottom of this list. Arizona State and USC rank 118th and 119th in penalty yards per game (112 and 120, respectively). Both have committed 24 penalties in their first two games. Yeech.

Quote of the week: "That's the most miserable 2-0 locker room I've ever been in," USC coach Lane Kiffin said after his Trojans beat Virginia.

Quote of the week II: "Tonight was an offensive disaster," UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said after his Bruins were blanked.

Thought of the week: Here's are the top games (Oregon vs. Portland State is not included).

Iowa at Arizona
Arizona State at Wisconsin
Nebraska at Washington
Cal at Nevada (Friday)
Wake Forest at Stanford
Houston at UCLA
USC at Minnesota
Washington State at SMU
Louisville at Oregon State

The win-loss record on Saturday night will play a huge role in how the Pac-10 is perceived this season. And, Oregon fans, if you are starting to entertain national-title dreams, you should root hard for the conference to do well. And, yes, that includes the Huskies and Beavers. Saturday's results will resonate in both the national and computer polls -- and later the BCS standings.

If you don't like where you are in the power rankings, play better (we're thinking of adopting that as the power rankings' official slogan).

1. Oregon: The Ducks started slowly -- REAL slowly -- at Tennessee, but then opened up a bottle of kick ax and used a 45-0 run to emerge with a 48-13 win. The Ducks are a decisive No. 1 and they mostly will be on the sidelines this week getting ready for Portland State while the rest of the conference tries to prove its mettle.

2. Arizona: Wildcats quarterback Nick Foles has completed 83 percent of his passes in two games. Sure, he hasn't faced dynamic competition, but it's hard to hit a stationary target from 15 yards away 83 percent of the time. Speaking of dynamic competition: Iowa comes to town on Saturday with one of the nation's best defense. This could become one of those before-and-after games for the program.

3. Stanford: Almost as often as we thought, "Wow, Stanford looks good," during the Cardinal's 35-zip win against UCLA, we also repeatedly considered this: UCLA might be a big reason Stanford looks so good. Stanford shouldn't forget that it went to sleep in the second half at Wake Forest last year and lost a game it seemed to have in hand.

4. California: So Cal fans, should we all get on the bandwagon? Is it safe to make that leap of faith? (Don't think I am not fully aware of your hand-wringing). Because I watched the beatdown of Colorado and couldn't find many things not to like. And get this: Look who's the Pac-10's No. 1 QB. Beware: A visit to Nevada could be tricky.

5. Oregon State: We don't think the Beavers are the No. 5 team in the conference, though the teams that we thought were behind the Beavers in the preseason have closed the gap. But Oregon State drops because it was off last weekend and, to point out the obvious, is 0-1. An impressive win against Louisville should provide a boost with a marquee visit to Boise State ahead.

6. USC: The bottom line is USC is 2-0 without having played a certifiable patsy. But the power rankings aren't about bottom lines. They are about measuring power on a weekly basis, and the Trojans have struggled to consistently show it in two games. In game one at Hawaii, the defense looked terrible. In Game 2 against Virginia, it was the offense.

7. Washington: After a slow start, the Huskies overwhelmed Syracuse and reignited the reasonableness of the position that if things fall into place, an upset of Nebraska on Saturday is possible. Not that we're ready to take that position.

8. Arizona State: The Sun Devils acquitted themselves reasonably well during the preseason (two games vs. FCS teams). This does not look like a team that will be an easy-out in the conference this fall. A visit to Wisconsin, however, will be a huge upgrade in competition.

9. UCLA: The Bruins rank 115th in the nation in scoring. It's hard to win when you rank 115th in the nation in scoring, particularly when the next two games are against Houston on Saturday and at Texas on Sept. 25. Suddenly, Game 5 -- at home vs. Washington State -- takes on an unanticipated and slightly desperate importance in terms of how things might ultimately stack up in the conference race.

10. Washington State: What to say about the Cougars after they rallied to beat Montana State, an FCS team? John Blanchette nails the sane and reasonable position. Instead of another round of forehead slaps, why not enjoy a gutty comeback win?

One week is in the books, and it wasn't a good one. The Pac-10 went 6-4 and ended up frowning in each of its major tests.

Team of the week: Other than a brief first-half lull, Arizona looked like a good team in midseason form, despite losing both of its coordinators and rebuilding its defense. The 41-2 blitzing of a solid Toledo team featured dominance in all three phases. Goodbye bad taste from the Holiday Bowl. The Wildcats outgained the Rockets 518 to 183. Nuff said.

Best game: It's very possible that Oregon State lost to a TCU team that will play for the national title. I came away more impressed with the top-to-bottom quality of TCU than believing the Beavers got exposed. As it was, it was a competitive, well-played, entertaining game. And if Beavers fans need to vent for the sake of venting -- as we all sometimes do -- I'd suggest wondering how might the Beavers' defense have looked if end Matt LaGrone and middle linebacker David Pa'aluhi, returning starters from 2009, hadn't decided to quit the team.

Biggest play(s): Washington twice had fourth-down plays in the fourth quarter inside BYU's 30-yard line. Both times QB Jake Locker threw an incompletion. The Huskies lost 23-17. Great QBs need to make those plays.

Offensive standout(s): Wow. Lots to choose from. USC QB Matt Barkley completed 78 percent of his passes at Hawaii with five TDs. Arizona's Nick Foles and Stanford's Andrew Luck also were outstanding. But the top notice has to go to Oregon's "backup" running back Kenjon Barner, who was a force of nature against New Mexico, rushing for 147 yards on 17 carries -- 8.6 yards per tote -- with four TDs. Oh, he also caught a short pass he turned into a 60-yard TD.

Defensive standout: Wow. Not a lot to choose from. While it's hard to laud a player from UCLA's defense after it got pushed around by Kansas State, OLB Akeem Ayers showed why so many NFL scouts are salivating over him. He piled up 11 tackles with a sack and a pass breakup. But what really stands out is his ability to get his hands on the football -- he recovered two fumbles. He might want to refrain in the future, however, from pushing a running back when he's out of bounds.

Special teams star: USC receiver Ronald Johnson not only caught three TD passes against Hawaii, but he also went 89 yards for a TD on a punt return. It's notable that UCLA kicker Kai Forbath ignored a preseason injury that was supposed to keep him on the bench and went 3-for-3 on field goals at Kansas State, with a long of 44.

Smiley face: The QBs lived up to the preseason hype. The known guys -- Barkley, Foles, Locker and Luck -- each played well. The new guys -- Arizona State's Steven Threet, Oregon's Darron Thomas and Oregon State's Ryan Katz -- were solid. California's Kevin Riley played well, and Washington State's Jeff Tuel was hardly the reason the Cougars went down hard at Oklahoma State. The only QB who played poorly was UCLA's Kevin Prince, and he probably looked rusty because he sat out most of fall camp with a back injury.

Frowny face: Defense. The top two rushers in the nation at present -- and three of the top 14 -- played against Pac-10 defenses this past weekend. And look who ranks 106th in the nation in total defense, two slots below Washington State.

Thought of the week: This is a quiet week with few marquee games, other than the start of the Pac-10 slate with Stanford's visit to UCLA. But next week will define how the Pac-10 is perceived nationally this season. Consider the slate:

Iowa at Arizona
ASU at Wisconsin
Nebraska at Washington
Cal at Nevada
Wake Forest at Stanford
Houston at UCLA
USC at Minnesota
Washington State at SMU
Louisville at Oregon State

Five at home, four on the road. Three ranked teams. No patsies. The Pac-10 needs to get at least six wins or you'll start to hear how it's a "down year" instead of folks lauding the conference's depth.

Questions for the week: Can California (vs. Colorado), USC (vs. Virginia) and Washington (vs. Syracuse) take care of business against inferior BCS conference foes at home? Same for Oregon: Will the Ducks be able to handle the atmosphere at Neyland Stadium against a Tennessee team the Ducks shouldn't have too many problems against? How will the Trojans' defense react after a terrible effort at Hawaii? Who's got the advantage between UCLA's new pistol offense and Stanford's new 3-4 (which the Cardinal didn't use vs. Sacramento State)? How do the Huskies react to a disappointing loss at BYU?