Pac-12 football stat pack: Week 6

Week 1 of conference play is in the books, but let’s look back at a neat stat to show how awesome the Pac-12 is this year. The 33 non-conference opponents on Pac-12 schedules have combined for a 78-40 (.661) record to date. (This excludes games played against the Pac-12, and only counts one record for common opponents, i.e., Hawaii, Utah State and Notre Dame). Compared to other BCS conference opponent’s records, no conference can top the Pac-12’s opponents’ winning percentage. Week 5 was a wet one, so I want to give a huge shout out to the fans in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon State, Oregon, Washington, Washington State) who braved the pouring rain. Especially the WSU Cougars popcorn loving guy. Brilliant stuff. Here are your week 6 stats to look for.

Arizona

• The Wildcats went up to Seattle and suffered their first loss of the season. It wasn’t for a lack of a running game, though, because Ka’Deem Carey rushed for 130 yards and a touchdown. Carey has eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark in 11 of his last 12 games and is averaging 5.9 yards per carry this season.
   
• Arizona has a bye this week as it prepares to play a Thursday-nighter in Los Angeles next week vs. USC. It’ll be a rematch of last year’s thrilling 39-36 victory for the Wildcats. The ‘Cats put up 588 yards on offense against the Trojans in that one. B.J. Denker will look to do his best Matt Scott impression as the 2012 Arizona QB ran for 100 yards against USC. Scott combined with Ka’Deem Carey to rush for 219 yards in the win.

Arizona State

• Marion Grice scored four touchdowns in the Sun Devils’ 62-41 win over USC last week. The senior running back leads the nation as he averages 18.0 points per game with 12 touchdowns (eight rushing, four receiving) through the first four games this season. He is averaging a touchdown nearly 14 percent of the time he touches the ball this season and for his career he is averaging a touchdown per every 7.51 touches in his ASU career (31 touchdowns on 231 touches).
   
• ASU has a rare opportunity this weekend to accomplish something that’s never been done before. In the history of college football, a team has played both USC and Notre Dame in consecutive weeks on only 13 separate occasions. No team has ever won both of those contests, giving ASU a chance to make history when it takes on the Fighting Irish this Saturday.

Cal

• Cal has run at least 90 plays from scrimmage in all four games this season with a high of 99 in the season opener against Northwestern.
   
• The Bears return home to face Washington State on Saturday. Cal’s current eight-game win streak over Washington State equals the longest win streak in the series by either team when the Golden Bears won eight in a row from 1920-29. The Bears’ last loss to Washington State was in Berkeley in 2002.

Colorado

• The Buffs take on the No. 2 team in the nation when the Oregon Ducks come to town Saturday afternoon on the Pac-12 Networks. Colorado is 4-16 all-time against teams ranked No. 2 and they’ll be extra excited for this one. At halftime of the Oregon game, the Buffs will honor their all-time winningest coach, Bill McCartney, as he will become the seventh Buffalo to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in December. Over 100 of his former players are expected back to honor their coach, who compiled a 93-55-5 record in Boulder from 1982 through 1984.
   
• Paul Richardson’s 26 receptions in three games are one short of the school mark for the most over a three-game span (27, Charles E. Johnson, 1992) and it also left him with 99 career grabs, one shy of becoming the 12th player in CU history to snare 100. He has 16 career TD receptions, which have covered 641 yards, or 40.1 per. His TD grab last Saturday at Oregon State covered 28 yards.

Oregon

• The Ducks head to Boulder to face Colorado on the Pac-12 Networks having scored 50 or more points in four straight games for the first time in history.
   
• Oregon wide receiver Bralon Addison leads the nation in punt returning, averaging a ridiculous 36.5 yards per punt return. Last week Addison returned two punts for touchdowns to become the second player in Oregon history to do so. His touchdown returns of 75 and 67 yards put him in elite company in the Pac-12 history book: Bralon became just the fourth player in Pac-12 football history to return two punts for TDs in a game. The others are Cliff Harris (Oregon, 2010), Mike Garrett (USC, 1965) and Sam Brown (UCLA, 1954).

Oregon State

• Last week Sean Mannion set an Oregon State single-game record with six touchdown passes against Colorado. Mannion is leading the nation in passing yardage with 2,018 through five games. He has so many crazy stats that it’s hard to choose just a few. Mannion has now thrown for 21 touchdowns in 2013, tied for the fourth-most in a single season at Oregon State. He has 52 touchdown passes for his career, tying him with Erik Wilhelm for third-most at Oregon State. #GradLevelQB
   
• On the receiving end of these passing stats is Brandin Cooks. His two touchdown receptions last week gave him nine on the year, which is tied for the fifth-most in a single season. For context, he had eight TDs in his first two seasons combined. Mannion and Cooks have hooked up for 16 TD passes in their careers – just one short of the OSU record held by Erik Wilhelm and Robb Thomas, who connected on 17 TDs. Cooks has 52 receptions this year and is on pace to break the single-season record of 91 held by Markus Wheaton in 2012 and James Rodgers 2009.

Stanford

• No. 5 Stanford welcomes the No. 15 UW Huskies to Palo Alto on Saturday for a battle between two undefeated Pac-12 North squads. The saying goes “Home is where the heart is,” but for the Cardinal, home is where the wins are. Stanford’s active 11-game home winning streak is tied for the fourth longest in the nation, behind Michigan (17), Georgia (15) and South Carolina (13). Stanford has won each of its last 10 home games in the month of October. Its last loss at home during the month came in 2007 vs. TCU. Stanford is 9-1 (.900) at home against opponents ranked in either the AP or USA Today Coaches polls since 2009. The Cardinal is 32-3 (.914) at Stanford Stadium since the final home game of 2007.
   
• The Cardinal is looking to avenge a heartbreaking 17-13 loss to the Huskies that took place last season. In last year’s meeting the Huskies outrushed Stanford 136-65. Rushing yardage on both sides of the ball is always a huge stat for Stanford. The Cardinal is 25-1 under David Shaw when it outrushes its opponent.

UCLA

• The No. 12 Bruins come off of a bye week and head to Salt Lake City on Thursday night looking to start a season 4-0 for the first time since 2005. UCLA leads the all-time series with the Utes 9-2, but both losses have come in its last two trips to Rice-Eccles Stadium. The Utes have outscored the Bruins 75-12 in their last two visits.
   
• The Bruins come into the game red hot as they’re ranked first in the nation in third down conversion percentage (.680), second in the nation in total offense (614.3) and third in the nation in scoring (52.7) after the school-record 692-yard performance vs. New Mexico State two weeks ago.

USC

• USC has a bye this week as it prepares to host Arizona next Thursday. The Trojans are coming off of a 62-41 loss at ASU, where Marqise Lee sprained his knee. Before the knee injury, however, Lee caught seven passes for 92 yards to surpass Johnny Morton’s USC career yardage record of 3,201 yards. Lee now has 3,249 for his career with a lot of ball left to play.
   
• With Ed Orgeron being named the interim head coach at USC this week, it marks just the second time since 1888 – USC’s first season of football – that the Trojans have had two head coaches in the same season. Turn back the clock 125 years and you’ll see Henry H. Goddard and Frank H. Suffel patrolling the sidelines as co-head coaches. (Awesome side note: Henry H. Goddard was also a prominent psychologist who is known as not only one of the first USC football head coaches, but as the scholar who introduced the term “moron” into the field of psychology and thus the English language).

Utah

• The Utes are set to host UCLA on Thursday night in front of the MUSS (Mighty Utah Student Section) for their sixth-annual blackout game. The Utes will wear black uniforms and fans are encouraged to wear black attire. Utah is 4-1 in blackout games, with wins over TCU in 2008, Wyoming in 2009, Oregon State in 2011 and Cal in 2012.
   
• In Utah’s last game two weeks ago at BYU the Utes received a solid rushing effort from James Poole. He had a career-long rush of 65 yards in the first quarter. He had 18 carries for 96 yards in the game and 118 yards of total offense which included 22 receiving yards on five catches. That was Poole’s last game under his given first name, James. He has decided to go by his nickname, Bubba, from here on out.

Washington

• Last week Washington defeated Arizona and in doing so improved to 4-0 for the first time since 2001. The last time UW started 5-0 was 1992 when it won its first eight games of the season. In the game Bishop Sankey set a new UW record with 40 carries.
   
•  The No. 15 Huskies head down to California for a huge game at No. 5 Stanford this week. The turnover battle is always big, but in this game it will be vital for the Huskies. They’ll have to be careful with the ball on offense as Stanford’s defense has forced a turnover in 28 straight games. UW has turned the ball over five times and it’s led to zero opponent points. Conversely, Washington has scored six touchdowns off seven opponent turnovers in 2013. The only time the opponent’s turnover did not lead to a UW touchdown was against Illinois, when the Huskies ran the clock out after a fourth-quarter interception.

Washington State

• Last week against Stanford Deone Bucannon picked off his 12th career pass, tying him for sixth-most in school history #BallHawk
   
• Kicker Andrew Furney has picked up where he left off from last season, hitting from 44 yards at Auburn, kicking the game-winner from 41 yards out with 3:03 remaining at USC and adding makes from 46 and 30 yards against Southern Utah. Furney connected from 36 yards against Stanford, pushing his career total to 36, good for fourth place for the most makes in program history. He enters the week second in WSU history for career field goal percentage at .765 (36-47), percentage points behind Drew Dunning’s top mark of .773 (68-88)

(Credit: Stats Inc., the sports information departments of the Pac-12)