It's time to look back out our forward-looking from August and eat our annual plate of crow. And perhaps gloat a bit.

We made five predictions heading into the 2011 season.

They were:

• Oregon at Stanford is the game of the year, and it will have national title implications.
• The Pac-12 is going to win the Heisman Trophy.
• A Pac-12 coach is going to get fired.
• Watch out for UCLA, California or Washington.
• Neither Colorado nor Utah is going to flop in Year 1.

The first is mostly true. It was the Pac-12 game of the year, but it didn't really end up having national title implications, other than it became Stanford's only loss.

The Pac-12 didn't win the Heisman. Stanford QB Andrew Luck did finish second, though. Again.

A Pac-12 coach is going to get fired? Gee, that's brilliant. Four did.

UCLA, Cal and Washington? Neh. I wrote: "One of these three teams is going to win nine games and exceed preseason expectations." Nope. I wrote, "When the pressure is on, [UCLA coach Rick] Neuheisel seems to come through." Nope.

As for Colorado and Utah, the Utes did their part, despite losing QB Jordan Wynn, whom I rated the team's most indispensable player. The Buffs went 3-10, which most certainly feels like a flop.

As many of you know, I started banging a drum for Arizona State before the 2010 season even ended. And I still believe the Sun Devils would have been a top-25 team if not for a series of critical injuries, starting with CB Omar Bolden and LB Brandon Magee before the season even began.

Still, at 6-2, I felt pretty smart. I felt certain on Oct. 30 that the Sun Devils were going to win the South Division and win nine or 10 games. I thought coach Dennis Erickson was secure.

Ah, but they lost four in a row, and then fired Erickson.

So, survey says: BAAAAAA!

Of course, I should have seen this coming, as I named ASU as the Pac-12's "Tease Team" in the preseason.

On the plus side, we did see the emergence of Oregon super-frosh De'Anthony Thomas in our "Sweet Beginnings" story.

Finally, some of you enjoy the "Best case, worst case" scenarios we write for each team in the preseason. You can re-read them all here. Some teams actually matched those fits of fancy fairly well.