PAC 12 Football Power Rankings: The Huskies impress, Colorado gets pummeled and Washington State rises

PAC 12

12) Stanford Cardinal

When one-point home losses against average teams are the best result in the first month, that was certainly a terrible start to the season. And rest assured: over the next four weeks nothing is likely to improve!

11) California Golden Bears

Ever noticed former Cal quarterback Jack Plummer is enjoying the sixth-highest efficiency rating after moving to Louisville? Yet here we are months later with their former team struggling in crucial areas.

10) Arizona State Sun Devils

At first glance, Arizona State tailback Cam Skattebo didn’t feature on our bingo card of Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year candidates. While Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders is the apparent front-runner, Skattebo — an impressive 225-pound transfer from Sacramento State — stands out in an otherwise dull ASU 2023 reality.

9) Arizona Wildcats

Noah Fifita made an impression in a relief appearance against Stanford on Saturday. Still, let’s be clear: the Wildcats are not a good team right now.

8) Oregon State Beavers

The pass defense was exposed by Washington State’s Cam Ward (28 of 34, 404 yards). It’s a good thing there aren’t any other first-rate quarterbacks in this conference(sarcasm), or the Beavers might be in a bit of trouble down the road.

7) Colorado Buffaloes

CU will have less of a mismatch at the line of scrimmage against USC than against Oregon, giving them more chance of staying competitive into the fourth quarter, when anything could happen and probably will.

6) UCLA Bruins

Do we have any additional knowledge of UCLA after Saturday’s game against Utah? Their defense looked strong against a backup quarterback while their offense struggled, yet Utah’s defense proved formidable. Now comes an off week before we learn who UCLA truly is in mid-October.

5) Washington State Cougars

August was anything but stellar for WSU off of the field, while September could not have been more promising on it. The Cougars could be serious contenders this season in the PAC 12.

4) USC Trojans

As they did in their 2020 season opener, breakfast in Boulder may also come down to the wire. Keep an eye out as well – the Over/Under is set at 73.5 points; that seems low! The Trojans defense is not great, and they are not as good in the trenches as Oregon so Colorado could be a dangerous game for them.

3) Utah Utes

The Huskies lead with offense while Utes lead with defense. Only five teams in the country have allowed fewer points than Utah (38), including Michigan, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Penn State and Duke. At some point — perhaps on Friday night — Utah must also step up with complementary football and string together some touchdown drives of their own. If Cam Rising gets healthy, they may be at number one.

2) Washington Huskies

The Huskies scored more points (130) during the first half of four games than 78 teams have scored during four quarters in all their previous matches combined, as well as leading in yards per game (593.3), yards per play (9.23), passing yards per game (467.3) and wide-open receivers per play (5.6). I still have questions on the defensive side of the ball.

1) Oregon Ducks

Stanford Stadium has often been a tough environment for Oregon teams. Not so this year; Oregon is currently favored by 26.5 points; that may not be enough even with their post-Colorado letdown in mind.

The Cinderella story is OVER! 🗣️ – Dan Lanning’s speech before Oregon vs. Colorado 👀