ESPN College Football

After every season, starters leave. But not all starters are created equal.

Here are the biggest shoes to fill in the Pac-10 with spring practices just around the corner.

Toby Gerhart, RB, Stanford

How do you replace the best running back in the nation, a guy who scored 28 touchdowns and rushed for 1,871 yards? You don't. Those sorts don't come around every season.

The Contenders: Stepfan Taylor and Tyler Gafney will get first crack, as well as Jeremy Stewart, who's coming back from a knee injury. Incoming freshman Anthony Wilkerson could be a dark horse.

Sean Canfield, QB, Oregon State

The first-team All-Pac-10 quarterback became an NFL prospect during a strong senior season. He led the conference with 3,271 yards passing and 21 touchdowns, which tied with Washington's Jake Locker.

The Contenders: This will be a showdown between Ryan Katz and Peter Lalich this spring, with Katz starting as the leader.

Brian Price, DT, UCLA

Price could be an NFL first-round draft pick. He led the Pac-10 with 23.5 tackles for a loss in 2009. 'Nuff said.

The Contenders: Good question. The Bruins are perilously thin here, considering both tackles need to be replaced and only senior David Carter has much experience. The answers here might be in the Bruins' recruiting class.

Syd'Quan Thompson, CB, California

The Cal secondary was a huge disappointment this season, but Thompson, a four-year starter and two-time first-team All-Pac-10 performer, was mostly his usually stellar self.

The Contenders: Will Darian Hagan step up in his senior season? Perhaps the answer is sophomore Josh Hill? Or maybe a redshirt guy? The Bears only signed one player listed as a corner in their most recent recruiting class. Expect there to be a lot of competition here this spring.

Daniel Te'o-Nesheim, DE, Washington

Te'o-Nesheim, a high-motor guy who started four years and earned second-team All-Pac-10 honors his final two seasons, ranking third in the conference with 9.5 sacks.

The Contenders: Considering the other end, Darrion Jones, also is gone, the Huskies will trend young here. Andru Pulu was listed behind Te'o-Nesheim on the depth chart, with Talia Crichton and Kalani Aldrich on the other side. There also will be opportunities for younger players here.

Ed Dickson, TE, Oregon

Dickson not only was the Ducks' second-leading receiver with 42 receptions for 551 yards and six touchdowns, the matchup problems he presented forced defenses to scheme specifically for him. That helps an offense in ways that aren't accounted for in statistics.

The Contenders: Junior David Paulson was Dickson's backup last year, and he had some nice moments, but he's no Dickson. JC transfer Brandon Williams and touted incoming freshman Curtis White will be in the mix here.

Kenny Alfred, C, Washington State

Alfred, a four-year starter, was a good player on a bad -- and beaten up -- line. His brain as well as his physical ability will be hard to replace.

The Contenders: Walk-on junior Chris Prummer was listed as Alfred's backup -- largely due to injury -- but Andrew Roxas, who redshirted this year after contracting viral hepatitis, is probably the leader here, though Steven Ayers could move inside to challenge him. Or there could be some reshuffling.

Posted by ESPN.com's Ted Miller

Back in 2000, the weekly Pac-10 coaches conference call took on an amusing sameness when Washington State coach Mike Price's turn came up.

Remember that scene in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" when the teacher -- "Anyone? Anyone? ... the Great Depression, passed the ... Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill?" -- was desperate to get a student to participate in his class?

That was conference call moderator Jim Muldoon, the Pac-10's associate commissioner, trying to get reporters to ask Price a question.

	Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
	Paul Wulff and the Cougars have won just one Pac-10 game in their last 13 tries.

Price was a good quote and one of the nicest guys in coaching, but his team was in the midst of winning just three conference in the three seasons since it had played in the 1998 Rose Bowl. His Cougs weren't terribly relevant.

"Anyone with a question for Coach Price?" Muldoon would plead.

"There are no questions in the cue," the operator would reply.

What then happened most weeks was Bob Condotta, now with the Seattle Times but then with the Tacoma News Tribune, then would hit the "*1" to ask a question. Condotta covered Washington, but he was a Washington State graduate and he felt bad for Price, he'd later explain to me.

Over the next three seasons, though, Washington State won 30 games and finished ranked in the top 10 each year. Price and then Bill Doba got a lot more questions because they were relevant.

This is a long-winded way to make a simple point: There isn't much to say about Washington State right now. The Cougars aren't good and odds are decent they won't win a game in perhaps the deepest conference in college football.

And when a program in a BCS conference is looking at the possibility of winning only three games over a two-year span, it lands that program's head coach on a perceived hot seat, no matter what circumstances he inherited. Perhaps that's why Paul Wulff gets plenty of questions on the conference call.

So it's not completely unfair to call Wulff "embattled" or whatever. The debate over Wulff's two years on the main WSU blogs -- here , here and here -- has been fairly animated, though the always positive Lew Wright has tried to keep the Coug nation bucked up.

Two points, though.

First, the Cougars have been pretty awful for stretches throughout their history. And they have always bounced back.

Second, the Cougars, despite epidemic injuries for a second consecutive year, are better and playing harder than a year ago.

Now, be forewarned that what follows won't be much consolation to Washington State fans. But it's something to think about during the bye week.

In its four Pac-10 games thus far, the Cougars have dramatically reduced their margin of defeat from last year.

Stanford beat the Cougs by 58 in 2008 but by 26 in 2009; USC won by 69 in 2008, 21 in 2009; Oregon, 49 in 2008 and 46 in 2009. A bad Arizona State team beat the Cougs by 31 last year but a decent one only eclipsed them by 13 last week.

Hey, it's tangible progress.

What's a great measure of a team just slopping around? Turnover margin. Last year, the Cougars finished ranked 119th -- last in the nation -- in turnover margin. They forced only 13 and gave away 38.

So far this year, the Cougs aren't even last in the Pac-10 (OK, they're ninth, but still). They've forced 18 and given away 20, which ranks 76th in the country, ahead of plenty of quality teams.

Of course, it's easy to find bad news. They are at or near the bottom of the Pac-10 in every major offensive and defensive statistically category.

With a makeshift O-line missing three starters, they gave 12 sacks last week at home against Arizona State.

"We're playing some guys in there right now who physically, it's tough for them," Wulff said. "They are not ready to play every down in the Pac-10."

Wulff also didn't hide from an obvious area where he, with some validity, could be criticized: Behind that overmatched line, he again started a true freshman quarterback, Jeff Tuel, whom Wulff had planned to redshirt.

Yes, Wulff, said he was concerned that his young quarterback might lose his confidence under such an assault.

“That’s the thing we have to be real careful with,” he said. “We’re trying to grow up some young guys who have got enough potential to be awfully good. But in the process of growing up, we don’t ruin or do any sort of psychological damage, and or physical damage to our players.”

When Tuel, understandably, got out of sync, Wulff sat him down for a bit and inserted former starter Marshall Lobbestael, who's only a sophomore himself. When Tuel came back in the second half, Wulff felt he played much better.

Tuel finished the day completing 11 of 22 passes for 175 yards with two picks and two TDs, one of which went for 99 yards to receiver Johnny Forzani.

The beat up offensive line might get both starting guards -- B.J. Guerra (knee) and Zach Williams (ankle) -- back for the visit to California on Oct. 24. That should help, though there are now some questions at left tackle where Tyson Pencer (ankle, illness) and Steven Ayers (ankle) have been alternating injuries.

The athletic department is cash strapped and attendance at Martin Stadium is down.

There are no significant signs that athletic director Jim Sterk is going to suddenly lose one of his good qualities -- patience -- but who knows.

These are rough times in Pullman, and they may inspire hasty, drastic measures.

But if Coug fans look close enough they might see reasons for hope.

Anyone? Anyone? Reasons for hope? Anyone?