The conference has been down overall the past 2-3 seasons but things go in cycles.
Usc was smashing everyone (except Vince Young) before the probation and horrible leadership of Garrett and Haden beat them down. The weather is too nice for them not to rise up again.
UW is going to be a national powerhouse as long as Peterson is the coach. The Ducks will need a few years to undo crappy coach mess but they will be back. Stanford has a solid program. Just not enough good play from qbs have killed them. Colorado and Cougs are on upswing. Utah has their moments. Both AZ schools and UCLA are the huge underachievers of conference. They have no excuses to be so bad.
Also might be a regional thing. Aside from Buckeyes, mich and maybe Wisconsin do I not get bored watching. I see a lot of average and boring teams. Probably how you see Pac 12.
Usc was smashing everyone (except Vince Young) before the probation and horrible leadership of Garrett and Haden beat them down. The weather is too nice for them not to rise up again.
UW is going to be a national powerhouse as long as Peterson is the coach. The Ducks will need a few years to undo crappy coach mess but they will be back. Stanford has a solid program. Just not enough good play from qbs have killed them. Colorado and Cougs are on upswing. Utah has their moments. Both AZ schools and UCLA are the huge underachievers of conference. They have no excuses to be so bad.
Also might be a regional thing. Aside from Buckeyes, mich and maybe Wisconsin do I not get bored watching. I see a lot of average and boring teams. Probably how you see Pac 12.
Someone said that the Pac is better off when Oregon is doing well. I agree.
Stanford has recently been bit by the injury bug... big time. Similar effect.
Good teams shouldn't play poorly but sh*t happens. So what do you do?
I will say that I still marvel at Colorado's improvement/play. Entertaining.
Peterson pulls the load with conference's best team. Good football to watch.
USC seems to be pulling itself up by it own bootstraps. It's been a while.
UCLA always wins ugly when they do win
Like I say, shit happens. ;+)-
Stanford has recently been bit by the injury bug... big time. Similar effect.
Good teams shouldn't play poorly but sh*t happens. So what do you do?
I will say that I still marvel at Colorado's improvement/play. Entertaining.
Peterson pulls the load with conference's best team. Good football to watch.
USC seems to be pulling itself up by it own bootstraps. It's been a while.
UCLA always wins ugly when they do win
Like I say, shit happens. ;+)-
I can't think of anyone thinking the PAC12 is better off when Oregon is doing well. Despite their run of late, they've been irrelevant in the history of PAC6/8/10/12. The TRADITIONAL powers in the PAC12 are USC, UW, UCLA. When those 3 teams get rolling at the same time, the PAC12 will be rolling. Go back and look at the history of the Rose Bowl. Before 2000, how many trips had Oregon made, as compared to those 3 mentioned previously? Having teams like Stanford, Utah, Oregon, and CU step up and play well only enhances the brand. As a matter of fact, I believe Stanford has been to more Rose Bowls than Oregon. But make no mistake, the big 3 historically have been USC, UW, and UCLA. Love the Oregon program, but let's be real.
I don't think the person making that comment was referring to a historical point of view WinOne. It was obviously based on more recent years. Look around now at the rest of the conference and you will find a lot of teams playing hurry-up offense thanks to what Chip Kelly introduced when he arrived on the scene. You have to admit that people around the country like watching that style of football. That and the emphasis on speed have changed the way things are done out west compared to the typical lumbering giants in the B-10. But in reality many are incorporating both lately if their recruiting can support it.
I'll give you the hurry up/no huddle, even though RR was running the spread at Tulane and then later at WVa. And Mike Leach has always run a hurry up/limited huddle offense, although more passing. As for speed, C'mon man, that's always resided in So Cal as far as the conference is concerned. But compared to the rest of the conferences, especially the midwest (B10) you got me there. He did run circles around the big country boys.
Honestly, I think Chip's biggest influence on the sport is how teams train, track training, and monitor activities outside of on the field. He and Oregon are pioneers in that area.
OK it's true that USC has been serving up fast football in an athletic sense and that goes way back, not to ignore their lumbering giants up front at the same time. I think I mentioned last week in a post something about their offense in '05 run by Lane Kiffen... "Must See TV" and they had an 80-yard long red zone meaning that they could strike from anywhere on the field. UDub had left the scene since shortly after the millennium and even WSU was pretty good back in those days too. Oregon and Stanford have done pretty well filling in the vacancy at the top in the meantime. Both have drawn plenty of national attention because they put on a good show. Now Colorado seems to have awakened, Utah adds a defensive element that is formidable and UDub is back. Not sure yet about how far USC will go in their renaissance but I enjoy watching it. Kudos to Helton (its about time) for sitting Max Browne down and starting Sam Darnold. They've always seemed to have an Adoree Jackson and a Juju Smith-Schuster... nothing new there. They could use a superstar running back to emerge. All the rest is as it was. The conference has a few new delights and as it was said, a little spice never hurt. I cant remember the last time I was impressed with the play as the hype would suggest in the case of UCLA. The Zonas bore me sorry to say.
2 things ... #1 = when UCLA fire Mora and hire Kiffin in 2 months their turnaround will begin with Rosen lighting up the conference in his final season before the draft. Been a decade since Kiffin was able to work with a 2-3 year experienced starter at QB with true elite pro potential...would be about the only reason for me to turn on a PAC10 game
#2 - i have never been a believer that parity makes a conference better. I think your blue bloods being good (or great) is much more important to enhancing a brand than the bottom feeders winning titles. Nobody respects the B12 because their two traditional powers are either junk (texas) or inconsistent (OU). Same reason in P12...nobody will ever get excited about Colorado, Utah, and Arizona challenging for a conference title because they need USC (really the one and only blue blood out west) to be a top 10 team for that conference to get noticed.
