Roundup: How Sam Darnold has saved USC's season

Oct 27, 2016

There’s a Thursday night showdown in the Coliseum tonight with Cal taking on USC, and Kyle Bonagura explains how quarterback Sam Darnold has saved USC’s season – in his four starts, Darnold has thrown for 1,198 yards and 11 touchdowns with just one pick, and he has the No. 2 QBR in the FBS.

Jon Wilner writes about the scheduling quandary facing Cal football this week, as the Golden Bears had to play a double-overtime game on Friday night, while USC is coming off a bye. Unintended consequences of adding a conference championship game, I guess you could say.

Oregon State cornerback Jay Irvine and linebacker Shemar Smith are out for the season with injuries, with Irvine nursing a shoulder and Smith banging up his knee.

UCLA men’s basketball freshman Ike Anigbogu is out four to six weeks after tearing his meniscus in practice last week. He was the No. 17 recruit in the nation according to Scout (Clay Fowler, OC Register).

Jacob Thorpe reports that Washington State nose tackle Robert Barber was not at practice Wednesday, leading Thorpe to believe that his appeal of being suspended from the university for an off-campus fight has been denied.

Adam Jude informs that if he hits his bonuses, Washington’s Chris Petersen has a chance to be the highest-paid head coach in the Pac-12. His base salary of $3.6 million is third in the conference, trailing only David Shaw of Stanford and Kyle Whittingham of Utah.

The folks at CBS Sports list Oregon’s Dillon Brooks as the No. 3 player in college basketball, and Markelle Fultz of Washington is at No. 2 behind Duke’s Grayson Allen.

Cool story from David Lombardi about how the Stanford football team helped cornerback Malik Antoine as his family tried to recover from the August flood in Baton Rouge (where his family lives).

Brian Howell lets us know that Colorado safety Tedric Thompson is having a great senior season. He had two picks in the 10-5 win at Stanford that enabled the Buffs to go bowling for the first time in nine years.

Brad Rock of the Deseret News tells us that Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott had high praise for Larry Krystkowiak when Rock asked the commish about the Utah men’s basketball head honcho.

Hey 520 dwellers, looking for something to do Friday morning? Check out the Pac-12 Cross Country Championships in Tucson at the Randolph North Golf Course, then.