Oregon at Arizona State
Hang on for a couple of minutes and I’ll work back around to the game. In 2005 Sports Illustrated named Long Beach Poly, “Sports School of the Century.” Long Beach Poly is a high school in Long Beach, California that has had more than 60 of its players land in the NFL over the years. Guys like Willie Brown, Earl McCullouch, Gene Washington, Carl Weathers, Tony “Thrill” Hill, Marquez Pope, Mark Carrier, Willie McGinnist, Omar Stoutmire, Kareem Kelly, Manual Wright, Darnell Bing, Winston Justice, Marcedes Lewis, DeSean Jackson, Jurrell Casey, Kenny Rowe, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and more. Not exactly obscure names if you’ve watched college football and the NFL over the years. Six alums have played in the Super Bowl and four earned NFL Rookie of the Year honors. But the school’s athletic prowess wasn’t just in football. The great Tony Gwynn, Randy Moffitt, Chase Utley and Milton Bradley played baseball for the Jackrabbits and Billy Jean King played tennis. Kenny Booker won back-to-back NCAA basketball titles playing for John Wooden at UCLA and Tyus Edney helped guide the Bruin to another title in 1995. The school has captured 38 California State Champsionships, 23 in track and field alone. And, the Lady Jackrabbits are the only American girls team to beat the Jamaicans, a world prep power who allow athletes as old as 19 and 20 to compete at the high school level in international competition.
My son went to Long Beach Poly and we used to have an inside joke that there isn’t a single significant athletic event that ever takes place without there being a Long Beach Poly kid involved. I remember one year we were watching the World Series and there was a Poly graduate on each of the teams playing-we had to laugh. Well, guess what Arizona State DB’s Jack Jones, Kobe Williams, Kejuan Markham, Keon Markham, Safety Aashari Crosswell, LB Elijah Juarez, and DLine Jermayne Lole all have in common? That’s right, they’re all Long Beach Poly graudates who with their teammates hung on to take down No. 6 Oregon-and it felt significant. It was both great and horrible. It was great for Head Coach Herm Edwards and his unranked Sun Devils who needed the win to become bowl eligible. But it was horrible for No. 6 Oregon and the PAC-12 whose only thin chance at getting one of our teams into the final four would have been for both Oregon and Utah to not lose another game prior to meeting in the PAC-12 Conference Championship Game.
Arizona State Freshman QB Jayden Daniels vs Oregon Senior QB Justin Herbert-supposedly a guaranteed NFL 1st Round Draft Choice next year. In this contest the Freshman won out connecting on almost 70% of his passes for 408 yards, 3 TD’s, and no interceptions while Herbert was 20-of-36 for 304 yards, 2 TD’s and 2 interceptions-both of which led to points on the board late in the game for the Sun Devils. After being tied at the end of the 1st Qtr 7-7, there was only 6 more points scored in the 2nd and 3rd Qtrs combined, all going to Arizona State on Christian Zendejas field goals. But once the 4th Qtr bell rang 5 TD’s were scored that took up just 7 minutes and 12 seconds of clock time including a 4 play drive and Jayden Daniels 26 yard TD pass to Frank Darby; a 3 play 75 yard drive and rushing TD by Oregon’s Cyrus Hibibi-Likio; a 3 play 66 yard drive and TD from Justin Herbert to Johnny Johnson; a 3 play drive capped off by an 81 yard TD pass from Justin Herbert to Brandon Aiyuk; and a 9 play 61 yard drive ending in another TD pass from Herbert to Johnson-the last points Oregon would score in a shocking 31-28 loss to Arizona State.
Sun Devil RB Eno Benjamin helped keep the chains moving rushing 31 times for 114 yards as well as collecting 5 passes for 54 yards while fellow WR’s Brandon Aiyuk and Frank Darby averaged 26 yards a catch combining for 286 yards and 3 TD’s on just 11 receptions for Arizona State. Oregon Sophomore RB’s CJ Verdell, Travis Dye, and Cyrus Habibi-Likio carried the ball 25 times collectively, accounting for 172 yards with Habibi-Likio punching it into the end zone twice. Lots of blame to throw around on this one as the Oregon Offense was shut-out entirely in the 2rd and 3rd Qtr and the highly touted Duck Defense gave up 535 yards. In spite of all that and considering the three point margin, Oregon could have still won the game if not for the two interceptions thrown by Herbert late-critical mistakes that cost them the game. The first, down at their own 32 that went for a TD and the next, down at their own 20 leading to Christian Zendejas’ third field goal of the night.
Both teams have huge rivalry games this next weekend whose beginnings date all the way back to the 1890’s. Coming up on Saturday, November 30th, Oregon will be hosting Oregon State in the “Civil War” at 1:00pm on the PAC12 Network while Arizona State will host Arizona in the “Duel in the Desert” at 7:00pm on ESPN.
Oregon State at Washington State
If you’re a Cougar fan you might have had a coronary watching this game. Washington State, needing to win one last game to become bowl eligible and knowing that they were playing the Huskies in the Apple Cup the following week, probably felt like they had to beat Oregon State if they wanted to play in the post season given their record against the Huskies lately. Little did they expect that it would take the entire game to get it done as Washington State RB Max Borghi-who predicted the win-ran into the end zone with just two seconds left to lift the Cougars to a breath-taking 54-53 victory at home in Pullman.
Washington State QB Anthony Gordon who leads the nation in Passing Yards and TD’s threw it up 70 times, connecting on 50 for 606 yards, 6 TD’s, and 3 interceptions-all of which led to points for the Beavers-two TD’s and a Field Goal that kept Oregon State close and the fans apoplectic. As reported by the AP in their recap on ESPN; “He broke the Pac-12 single season passing touchdown record formerly held by Jake Browning and Jared Goff when he hit [WR] Renard Bell in the end zone with 1:44 left in the third quarter.” In true Mike Leach Air Raid style Gordon connected multiple times with nine different receivers with WR’s Bell and Dezmon Patmon collecting two scores a piece and Jr RB Deon Macintosh and Senior WR Calvin Jackson Jr. hauling in the other two. RB Max Borghi, true to his word didn’t rush for a lot, just 44 yards on 10 carries, but he made them count punching two runs into the end zone-including the one that mattered most.
For Oregon State, QB Jake Luton connected on 22-of-40 for 408 yards, 5 TD, and 1 pick, while Sophomore RB Jemar Jefferson carried the ball 21 times for 132 yards and 2 TD’s with Senior Artavis Pierce picking up an addtional 58 yards on seven carries. In addition to the interceptions leading to points, Washington State also fumbled the ball 3 times, losing it twice with one of those losses also leading to an Oregeon State TD. If you take away all the points that were the result of Cougar turnovers, either interceptions or fumbles, this could have been a pretty easy 59-24 victory. But what would college football be without so much excitement that sometimes you’re not sure you can even continue to watch the game-excitement in the stadium that was palpable when Borghi ran it in for the win.
The game had just about everything happen that you could imagine, even a recovered onside kick by the Beavers on their own 49 half-way through the 4th Qtr which led to a TD to go up 46-42. As Washington State Head Coach Mike Leach said aftewards; “It was a really wild game. I was proud of our guys for being tough enough to stick in there. We created a bunch of adversity for ourselves in the fourth quarter and then clawed our way out of it.” Jonathan Smith, Head Coach for Oregon State had this to say; “It was a heck of a football game. It was back-and-forth and credit Washington State for continuing to answer. We got ourselves down by 11, responded with a couple of quick scores to take the lead and it goes back-and-forth. Our guys played their hearts out, they really did, but we were just one play short.” Regardless of whether the Beavers make it into a bowl game or not, it has been fun to watch them progress this year and as Coach Smith said, they not only played their hearts out this game but have played that way the entire season-inspiring stuff.
Washington State will have a short week as they play in Husky Stadium for the Apple Cup this coming Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. After Washington’s shocking loss to Colorado, maybe this is a year in which the Cougars can get it done and take that cup back up to the Palouse. Oregon State has just one last chance to become bowl eligible as they will travel down to Eugene to play against the Oregon Ducks, another team that experienced an unexpected loss in the desert to Arizona State. Should be interesting.
UCLA at USC
Clay Helton may or may not keep his job as Head Coach, but the fact that he just might would be a testimony to his willingness to take a chance this year and completely change the football culture at Tailback U by bringing in Offensive Coordinator Graham Harrell to install an Air Raid Offense that is now running on all cylinders late in the season-cranking up 642 yards of Total Offense in their 55-32 victory against cross-town rival UCLA this past Saturday in the Coliseum. Big tip of the hat as well to Freshman QB Kedon Slovis who started out as the Trojan’s third string signal caller, forced into duty as the result of injury, and has been simply amazing passing for 400 yards in four of their last five games and keeps getting better-connecting on almost 80% of his passes for a school record 515 yards, 4 TD’s, and no interceptions in the win. And if that wasn’t impressive enough, when responding to the press after the game he said; “Any of you [reporters] in here could probably throw for 100 yards with these receivers.”
Humility is always a welcome quality in a leader but he’s not wrong about his receivers as they are the very best in the PAC-12. One in fact, Senior WR Michael Pittman Jr., who hauled in 13 passes for 104 yards and 2 TD’s in this game and has 95 catches for 1,222 yards and 11 TD’s on the season has been named a finalist for the Bilentnikoff Award which is given to the nation’s top receiver. The good news for the Trojans is their star QB will be returning next year as will Fresman WR Drake London who collected 8 passes for 142 yards and 1 TD; Sophomore Amon-Ra St. Brown who hauled in 8 passes as well for 128 yards; in addition to Tyler Vaughns who collected 106 yards and a score on just 6 receptions. Also coming back for the Trojans are Junior RB’s Stephen Carr and Vavae Malepeai who collectively rushed 21 times for 147 yards and 3 TD’s. Whomever gets to be Head Coach, they’ll be inheriting a wealth of riches on the offensive side of the ball.
UCLA’s QB, Sophomore Dorian Thompson-Robinson, will also be back next year and even though the Bruins have made strides this year with their offense, it’s the defense that really needs to improve having given up 101 points and 1,179 yards in the last two weeks. They are allowing 35.4 points and 460+ yards of Total Offense per game which puts them in the bottom 10% of the 130 Division 1 FBS programs. In the game against USC they gave up their average in points at 35 and more than coughed up the average they have been allowing their opponents in Total Offense at 643 yards in the game. On the other side of the ball Thompson-Robinson connected on 26-of-44 for 367 yards, 3 TD’s and 1 interception while also rushing 16 times for 64 yards and another TD. UCLA’s talented Senior RB, Joshua Kelley who I thought would be more of a factor in this game, collected 45 yards and 1 TD on 15 rushing attempts. Freshman WR Kyle Philips and Junior TE Kevin Asiasi hauled in most of the yardage thrown by Thompson-Robinson at 264 with Asiasi, Junior RB Demetric Felton, and Sophomore WR Chase Cota each scoring a TD.
UCLA took the ball right out of the gate and in less than 4 minutes drove 83 yards down the field in 9 plays capped off by a 9 yard TD pass from QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson to RB Demetric Felton for a 7-0 lead. But their next three possessions consisted of a three-and-out, a fumble, and an interception after which USC scored a field goal and then a TD on each of their next three possessions. UCLA picked up another score on a 3 yard TD run by Thompson-Robinson but went into the half down 24-14. The Trojans scored TD’s on four of their first five possesions in the 2nd half but UCLA was neither able to stop them nor keep up the pace, scoring three times themselves but still ended up two touchdowns and a field goal short of even a tie at the end.
Coaching college football is a lot like being a batter up at the plate in baseball, three strikes and your out. And as the AP pointed out in the “Take Away” section of their Recap; “The Bruins will miss out on a bowl game in three of four years for the first time since 1989-92 . . . Next season [his third year] looms large for Kelly and his credibility as a coach.” Regarding the USC coaching situation, Helton is just finishing up his third full year as head coach of the Trojans and certainly represented a calming influence in relationship to the turmoil and commotion of the Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian years. There’s a new AD at USC, Mike Bohn, who was hired November 7th. Even though undefeated since his arrival, whether or not Helton has done enough to keep his job is still up in the air. Helton is considered a great guy but just a good coach and “good” isn’t usually good enough for Trojan Nation and their donors. I believe if Helton could find a Defensive Coordinator that is as effective as Graham Harrell has been on the offensive side of the ball they’d really have something going next year.
UCLA will be hosting Cal in the Rose Bowl on Saturday, November 30th, at 7:30pm on FS1 while the Trojans are done for the regular season with the speculation being that they’ll be headed to the Alamo Bowl on December 31st. Of course all that could change if No. 6 Utah loses to Colorado earlier in the day at 4:30pm on ABC. A loss would put them in a tie with the Trojans for first place in the PAC-12 South-the only team in the conference that owns the tie-breaker against Utah. Impossible, I would have thought so before watching Colorado beat Washington this past week. Improbable for sure, very improbable in fact, but on any given Saturday.
Washington at Colorado
After the game Washington Head Coach Chris Peterson was quoted as saying; “This is as frustrating a game that we’ve had since I’ve been here for sure.” Mike Vorel, Seattle Times Staff Reporter, had other words that he used to describe the Huskies shocking 20-14 loss to Colorado, one of the worst teams in the PAC-12 and wrote; “In a season that has included a parade of dropped passes against California, a physical thrashing on “The Farm” against Stanford and back-to-back pick-sixes against Utah and Oregon State, this was a new, undeniably ugly offensive low.” Fans are fans until they’re not and patience is running kind of thin, not that Peterson is in any danger as that would probably take a season more disappointing than this one. But as he indicated in his quote above, since his arrival this is the most disappointing and head-scratching loss we’ve seen.
Washington’s first half against Colorado consisted of four three-and-outs, five punts, and one interception that took place in the red zone of all places. The Huskies picked up all of 81 yards in the air and a mere 10 rushing yards while Colorado put up one TD and 2 Field Goals to go in at the break 13-0. With Washington having won the toss and deferring to the 2nd half they got the ball on the first possession after halftime and took it 75 yards in 15 plays with RB Richard Newton punching it in from the 1 yard line to get to within 6 points at 13-7. But the Buffaloes came right back going 82 yards in 11 plays with their own RB Alex Fontenot scoring from the 2 yard line to go up 20-7 with less than three minutes left in the third. Seemingly having pulled their head out during the break, Washington came right back with another 75 yard drive, this one in 12 plays that culminated in a Jacob Eason 15 yard TD pass to WR Cade Otton to pull back to within six at 20-14 with well over twelve minutes left to play in the game. But that would be it for both sides as the next four possessions all ended in punts with Colorado grinding out a long 81 yard, 11 play drive, to burn up the clock and any remaining hope for Washington to salvage this mess.
Colorado’s Senior QB Steven Montez ran an efficient and evenly balanced offense against Washington while connecting on 17-of-28 for 223 yards, 1 TD, and no interceptions with Sophomore RB Alex Fontenot rushing 24 times for 105 of the Buffaloes 207 yards on the ground and another score. The Huskies were able to get a rushing TD in the game but when you add in the 29 yards that Eason lost trying to scramble, their ground game consisted of 32 yards on 32 carries. You don’t need to be a math major to calculate that average out. In the air Eason connected on slightly over 60% of his passes for 206 yards, 1 TD, and 1 pick in the red zone that would have been the difference in the game had the Huskies scored a TD on that drive.
In the player’s mind maybe it’s a matter of you’re young and you start off the year thinking you might have a slim chance at playing for a national title. When that goes away you’re thinking PAC-12 Conference Championship and playing in the Rose Bowl. When that’s gone and after you’ve lost to two Top-10 teams that you had in the palm of your hand but let slip away, maybe you just feel like there’s nothing left to play for. Could it be that basic for Washington. The Cougars probably hope so and that Washington’s feeling sorry for themselves as they’ll head into Alasaka Airlines Husky Stadium this coming Friday after Thanksgiving to play the Huskies for the Apple Cup, a rivalry game first played 119 years ago-a game Washington State hasn’t won since 2012 in a thrilling 31-28 OT victory up in the Palouse. For Colorado, they still have one last chance at becoming bowl eligible as they’ll meet No. 6 Utah on the road this coming Saturday, November 30th, at 4:30pm on ABC. Somehow I don’t think lightening’s going to strike twice as I expect Utah will do their best to make a statement to the selection committee regarding their participation in the CFP final four.
Utah at Arizona
Utah runs the top Defense in the PAC-12 and are in the Top-5 nationally out of 130 Division 1 FBS schools. Against Arizona they didn’t skip a beat leading from start-to-finish in a 35-7 victory over the Wildcats in the desert of Tucson. Utah QB Tyler Huntley, with outstanding protection from his front line, connected on 82% of his passes for 211 yards, 1 TD, and 1 pick while the school’s all time leading rusher Zack Moss absolutely blistered the Wildcats on the ground for 203 yards, a season high, and 1 TD on 26 carries. Moss has now surpassed 1,000 yards in each of his last three seasons. In a twist, TE Brant Kuithe, who only had one carry all season long, rushed twice for just 9 yards but 2 TD’s.
On the other side of the ball for Utah, they held QB’s Greg Gunnell and Kahlil Tate to a combined 14-of-27 for 135 yards and no TD’s. If that wasn’t bad enough they limited Arizona’s running game to just 61 yards on 25 carries. The Wildcat’s Greg Gunnell did sneak into the end zone on a 7 yard QB keeper, but it was Arizona’s only score of the game and it came with less than two minutes remaining in a 35-7 loss to the Utes-the fifth time in six games they have held their opponent to seven or less points.
After losing to USC Utah has won seven straight games and with Oregon’s shocking loss in the desert to Arizona State the Utes remain the only hope the PAC-12 has of getting into the CFP final four. With Oregon slipping in the polls after their loss, a win by Utah in the PAC-12 Championship Game won’t be enough to get them into the CFP semi-final. It will take a loss by No. 4 Georgia, also a 1 loss team, for Utah to have a chance of landing that 4th spot. When asked about it, Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham said; “Don’t care, doesn’t matter. We have our hands full with Colorado. We’ve got to try to figure out how to make a first down next week. That’s our objective. Whatever else is happening is none of our business.”
Arizona will be at Arizona State this coming Saturday, November 30th, at 7:00pm on ESPN for the “Duel in the Desert” with the winner receiving the Territorial Cup. Awarded first in 1899, it is the oldest rivalry trophy in college football according to the NCAA. As Coach Whittingham indicated above, Utah will be playing Colorado next but they’ll be back home to do it this coming Saturday at 4:30pm on ABC.
Cal at Stanford
Although Week 14 has been declared Rivalry Week, one of the oldest college football rivalry games took place in Week 13 when Stanford hosted Cal for what is simply known as, “The Big Game,” the oldest college rivalry in the West. According to Wikipedia, the game was first played in 1892 when future President Herbert Hoover was, while an undergrad at Stanford, manager of both the football and baseball teams. He, along with the Cal football manager Herbert Lang, put together the very first game. As the story goes, they printed 10,000 tickets but 20,000 people showed up. Since 1933 the winner of the game has been awarded the Stanford Axe which is a trophy consisting of an axe-head mounted on a large wooden plaque, along with the scores of past Big Games.
Up until this past weekend, Stanford has had possession of the Stanford Axe since 2010, only coming close to losing it in a narrow 17-14 win in 2017. But this past Saturday combine a late 16 yard TD run by Cal’s QB Chase Garbers, with only 1:19 left to play, and a huge defensive stop with Stanford needing just 1 yard for a first down, and you’ve got Cal pulling off its own narrow victory with a 24-20 win. Besides taking the Stanford Axe back to Berkeley the Bears also became bowl eligible with the win and will have a chance to play in the post season. As Cal Head Coach Justin Wilcox said after the game; “To be able to get a win, get the axe back and what that means to the players and our institution, it’s a big deal. To get bowl eligible and have a chance to win a bowl game, it’s huge for our program. To get both on the same day is special.”
In addition to connecting on 20-of-30 for 285 yards, 1 TD, and no interceptions Cal’s Sophomore QB Chase Garbers was also the Bears leading rusher in the game taking off 13 times for 72 yards and a score. Sophomore WR Nikko Remigio was the recipient of 157 of those yards including a TD on 9 receptions, more than half the total yards in the air, with six other receivers picking up the remaining 128 yards. All toll Cal had 424 yards of Total Offense against 344 yards for the Cardinal with most of those coming from their passing game where Junior Backup QB Davis Mills, in for an injured K. J. Costello, connected on 26-of-35 for 283 yards, 1 TD, and 2 picks. Once again Stanford couldn’t get much of any traction in their ground game, not as bad as the prior week, but still only 61 yards on 24 carries with Senior RB Cameron Scarlett reaching across for their one lone rushing TD.
After the game Stanford Head Coach commented; “This was Chase Garber’s game. We couldn’t stop him. Athletic quarterbacks have been difficult for us all year. He makes a difference with his legs.” In addition to Chase Garber and the rest of the offense Cal’s Senior LB Evan Weaver, who leads the nation in tackles, picked up 13 more-7 all by himself. It doesn’t get any easier for the Cardinal as they’ll be hosting No. 15 Notre Dame Saturday, November 30th, at 1:00pm on FOX while Cal hits the road to take on UCLA in the Rose Bowl, also Saturday, at 7:30pm on FS1.