Oh, the rivalry! At the request of UCLA, the USC Trojans’ drum major will not stab the UCLA logo at midfield. For one, Bruins fans are very excited by this news. Nothing like good ole gamesmanship.
For two, Bruins fans must also be pretty happy about Johnathan Franklin being one of the “15 to Watch” for the Walter Camp Award, but they’re probably a little upset to see names like Matt Barkley and Marqise Lee also on that list (Kenjon Barner is on it as well).
There has been a lot of talk about offensive stars doing double duty around the conference. Last week, Washington tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins lined up at defensive end for a handful of snaps; could we see more of Seferian-Jenkins on defense in the future? Also, Utah wide receiver DeVonte Christopher took some reps with the defense during Tuesday’s practice, though the lede from this Salt Lake Tribune story is that former Ute Robert Johnson returned to campus to talk with the team and motivate them going into the final two games of the season (he is currently a safety with the Tennessee Titans).
In order to stay in the hunt for a bowl game, the Utes must beat Arizona, whose rushing defense has taken big hits, and the ‘Cats expect John White to run it right down their throats.
Planning on covering a Washington football game? Make sure you cap your tweets to 45 for the contest, as the Washington athletic department has set limits on the number of tweets for credentialed media for live events.
With the final game of the season this Saturday, Cal head coach Jeff Tedford is planning a thorough evaluation of how his program is run. In the meantime, the Golden Bears can more or less knock Oregon State out of the BCS picture with a win in Corvallis.
Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN writes that Washington State is doing the right thing by thoroughly reviewing the Marquess Wilson situation.
Destroying teams left and right and playing up to their potential every week, the Oregon Ducks are acting like a team that knows unfinished business is near.
Preparing for Oregon has to be a nightmare for opposing coaches, and Stanford head honcho David Shaw joked as much with the press yesterday when he responded to a “how are you doing” question by quipping “how would you feel if you watched Oregon on film for the last 48 hours?” He also gave some insight on what Stanford is doing to get ready for the Ducks. It includes using two offensive units during practice. One unit is snapping the ball, while the other unit gets the call for the next play and rushes onto the field as soon as the preceding play is over so the defense can get used to the Ducks’ tempo…or as much as humanly possible in practice.
Here are some Oregon State practice notes on Cody Vaz, Sean Mannion and the Stanford hangover, which, as we linked to yesterday, is a thing of the past now for the Beavers.
The final two games of the regular season are critical for Todd Graham and Arizona State for building momentum going into next year and finishing out this year on a good note with a trip to a bowl game.
Christmas is sort of around the corner, and Yahoo! supplies you with a list of the top 10 gift ideas for Colorado football fans.
Lastly, no link here, not even a football-related comment, but I’d like to personally thank Albany for shattering everyone’s dreams of a perfect November and December for Pac-12 men’s basketball. The Pac was the last conference standing without a loss until the Great Danes had to ruin it for everyone by beating Washington on a last-second layup. Oh well, I guess 18-1 isn’t too shabby after five days.