ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Ted Miller

We learned a lot about the Pac-10. And it was mostly delivered by painful lessons, via blowout or upset.

• The Pac-10 is out of the "best conference" debate: Even in the unlikely event of an Arizona State upset of Georgia this weekend, the Pac-10 won't recover in 2008 from its 3-7 weekend that featured upsets to inferior teams an uncompetitive performances against good teams. California looked asleep for three quarters while losing at a Maryland team that lost to Middle Tennessee State. Arizona and Arizona State failed to take care of business against second-tier Mountain West teams, New Mexico and UNLV. UCLA and Washington got bludgeoned by BYU and Oklahoma. Stanford wilted in the fourth vs. TCU and Washington State looked like the worst BCS team. USC surged and Oregon survived, but it was a yucky weekend for the conference.
• Yes, it's USC and the Nine Dwarfs: While the rest of the conference struggled, the top-ranked Trojans returned to the unquestioned head of college football with their tour de force performance in a 35-3 drubbing of Ohio State. Sure, Oregon survived, but there was little in that game that suggested the Ducks could match the Trojans. If USC stays healthy, it will be a major, major, major upset if it drops a Pac-10 game. At the beginning of the season, we'd have used only one "major."
• Is there an Oregon QB Curse? Honestly, if Ducks coach Mike Bellotti named you starting QB today, wouldn't you be a little nervous? I'd sure as heck strap on a knee brace or something. First, Oregon loses Dennis Dixon last year when it was a national title contender -- and, like, three other QBs behind him -- then it loses Nate Costa the last week of the preseason. Now, Justin Roper goes down with a sprained knee in the overtime win over Purdue that will keep him out at least 2-4 weeks, if not more. That leaves true freshman Chris Harper and junior college transfer Jeremiah Masoli as the possibilities -- both will play -- next week against Boise State.
• The football monopoly is not over in LA: Talk about extremes. One week, UCLA is celebrating an inspired victory over nationally ranked SEC power Tennessee. The next they are suffering a 59-0 loss at BYU of the Mountain West, the Bruins' worst defeat since 1929. Gulp. The worst thing about the loss for new coach Rick Neuheisel was how hard he drilled his players on UCLA's history of turning in terrible performances after posting big wins. And they failed to respond. The inconsistency remains, and this was an exclamation point on that.
• It's desperation week: While USC will sit back and chomp on a fat cigar -- it's off until a Sept. 25 visit to Oregon State -- the rest of the conference is scrambling for some redemption, which in some spots must be taken at the expense of the equally desperate. Arizona will visit UCLA (is Mike Stoops back on the hotseat?). ASU tries to regroup against, yikes, Georgia. Oregon has a tough nonconference home game with Boise State. Stanford needs to beat neighborhood rival San Jose State. Washington State must beat FCS team Portland State or lose all of its mojo. Cal licks its wounds during a bye week. And Washington's Tyrone Willingham contemplates the ticking clock above his head during an off weekend.