Roundup: Battle up front key to ASU-UCLA, UW-Stanford games

The biggest game of the weekend in the country comes your way Thursday night when Arizona State and UCLA clash in Tempe, and ESPN Stats & Info takes a look at what it considers to be the key matchup in the game – Arizona State’s pass rush vs. UCLA’s offensive line (thank you much, Jungkyu Lee).

Great feature on former head coach and UCLA quarterback and current Pac-12 Networks analyst Rick Neuheisel from Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports. In other UCLA news more pertinent to Thursday night’s battle, Kevin Gemmell reports that Brett Hundley has been limited in practice so far. Mora is waiting as long as he can until naming a starter.

Let’s go back to the trenches, shall we? Percy Allen is curious to see how the Washington defensive line will stack up against the Stanford offensive line Saturday afternoon.

Former USC All-American linebacker Scott Ross died Sunday at the age of 45, the school reported Tuesday. He played in three Rose Bowls and was on the New Orleans Saints’ roster in 1991.

The Utes might be home this weekend, but the slate doesn’t get any easier with Washington State, fresh off a near-upset of the No. 2 team in the nation, coming to town. Matthew Piper of the Salt Lake Tribune notes that the onus will be on the Utah secondary to cover four wide receivers all game long, because that’s what the Cougs do, yo.

The last time the Cougs went to the SLC was a very unpleasant experience, as the Utes whacked Washington State 49-6, leading Mike Leach to call the team’s effort “pitiful.” Leach made the offensive and defensive lines speak to the media as entire units, and now Washington State offensive lineman Gunnar Eklund wants to erase the memories with a win in Utah.

Alright it was fun talking about the Hail Mary and all, but Arizona quarterback Anu Solomon is focused on correcting his mistakes (he did throw two picks against the Golden Bears and had some overthrows).

Stanford men’s basketball coach Johnny Dawkins received a contract extension, the school announced Wednesday. Terms were not disclosed.

Tom Kensler of the Denver Post writes that Colorado football is remembering the anniversaries of the death of former CU QB Sal Aunese (25 years ago Tuesday) and “The Catch” (Kordell Stewart’s 64-yard Hail Mary TD pass to Michael Westbrook to win at Michigan 20 years ago Wednesday).

Ken Goe of The Oregonian notes that the Beavers have been night owls lately. Nine of Oregon State’s last 11 games (including this weekend’s 7:30 p.m. kickoff against USC) have started at 6 p.m. or later.

Oregon is the No. 4 seed in USA Today’s latest playoff projection, with Florida State No. 1, Oklahoma No. 2 and Alabama No. 3.

The San Francisco Chronicle did a feature on him last week, now it’s time for Jeff Faraudo of the Bay Area News Group to spotlight Cal safety Griffin Piatt, who had a first-half interception but was also on the field for the Hail Mary (though he wasn’t the main culprit).