Roundup: Golden opportunity for the Huskies
Quite the entertaining start to the weekend, eh? Pick-six? Nah, more like six picks; that’s what the UCLA defense came up with as the Bruins displayed their grit and depth in a 34-27 win at Utah. In particular, check out this Myles Jack interception to save the day. Always tough sledding on the road in conference play.
If you were watching this game, or even just saw the box score, you could probably come to the conclusion that Travis Wilson’s interceptions were costly in the loss to UCLA. To throw six interceptions and only lose by seven must mean that the defense kept the Utes close, and that was indeed the case. Interesting that UCLA picked off six passes, but none of them were a pick-six, whereas Utah’s lone interception of Brett Hundley was returned to the house.
UCLA-Utah proved to be a very good table-setter for what should be another exciting weekend on the best coast. Hope you’re prepared to stay up ‘til 11 p.m. or so on Saturday night, because No. 5 Stanford and No. 15 Washington will be getting it on in the Bay Area (7:30 p.m. PT, ESPN). With games against Stanford and Oregon in consecutive weeks, Steve Sarkisian’s Huskies have a golden opportunity to state their case nationally as the team to beat out West.
It’s not just Washington that has a tough schedule coming up, because Stanford is beginning a five-game stretch against top teams (UW, Utah, UCLA, Oregon State and Oregon) as well, writes Rick Eymer of Palo Alto Online and AP fame. Good Card info on the immediate game at hand in there as well.
In our lone non-conference matchup of the weekend, Arizona State travels to Arlington to take on Notre Dame as part of the Irish’s Shamrock Series. After beating USC 62-41 last weekend, the Sun Devils are eyeing the first back-to-back sweep of USC and Notre Dame… EVER. No team has ever beaten the Trojans and Irish in back-to-back weeks. NBC at 4:30 p.m. for all the fun.
When Oregon takes on Colorado Saturday at 3 p.m. PT on Pac-12 Networks, just about everyone will expect the No. 2 Ducks to make quick work of the Buffs. Crazy things happen in college football, though, so Ted Miller wonders if there is any chance for an epic upset in Boulder.
Mark Helfrich might be at the top of the college football world right now, but it wasn’t too long ago that he had to suffer through some tough times as an offensive coordinator with the Buffs, and it’s the lessons learned by Helfrich during his struggles at Colorado that fuel Oregon in his return to Boulder.
There’s a teacher v. pupil theme going down in Berkeley with Cal hosting Washington State (1 p.m. on Fox Sports 1), as Sonny Dykes worked under Mike Leach in his previous coaching stops. So, it should be no surprise that Cal’s Bear Raid is cut from the Air Raid cloth.
Hey let’s welcome Jacob Thorpe to the Coug beat for the Spokesman-Review, as he replaces Christian Caple (covering U-Dub now; how treacherous!). Like ESPN, Thorpe tells us about how Dykes’ and Leach’s lives are intertwined.
In one of the latest non-developments in the USC coaching search, Denver Broncos defensive coordinator (and former Man of Troy) Jack Del Rio declined to address the USC rumors. Many people bill him to be one of the top candidates to take over (Chip Kelly also brushed off USC rumors). In other Trojan news, Marqise Lee is getting better and Silas Redd has been cleared to play.
Seems like a good time for an Arizona men’s hoops feature with the football team not playing, so how ‘bout we tell you about Sabino grad Matt Korcheck bringing toughness and energy to a stacked Wildcat roster?
Dude didn’t know much about the game of football when he got to Corvallis from American Samoa, but starting middle linebacker Rommel Mageo is happy to get a chance with Oregon State.