Roundup: Pivotal North-South clash on Halloween

We got one Pac-12 contest for ya tonight on Halloween, and it’ll be a 7:30 p.m. tilt on ESPN between Arizona State and Washington State in Pullman. It’s a big one for both sides, and Doug Haller provides us with an Arizona State-Washington State scouting report and prediction (he’s got the Sun Devils winning 45-28).

Flipping things over, All Coug’d Up presents this preview of the Washington State-Arizona State game for Coug Nation. And, since it’s Oct. 31, you’d probably like to hear Mike Leach talk about his favorite childhood costume, this time with Mike Yam guiding the conversation. Oh hey, one more thing, since it's a good feature: Deone Bucannon is finishing his Washington State career in style, as penned by Bud Withers of the Seattle Times.

Also in the spirit of Halloween, Bruce Feldman of CBSSports.com believes Anthony Barr is the scariest player in college football. Deone Bucannon is No. 6 on his top-10 list.

We’re now a week away from the biggest college football game of the regular season in the Pacific time zone, and Austin Murphy of Sports Illustrated writes that even though they are polar opposites off the field, Oregon and Stanford are becoming fierce rivals on it. Very good lead-up piece here.

Keeping it with the same publication, Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota graces the national cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated.

Here’s an update for ya on Kasen Williams: He is out two to four months after surgery to take care of a broken bone in his lower left leg and a foot injury. It's a huge loss, and the Huskies are starting to feel the effects of losing Kasen Williams.

He got off to a rough start this year once Pac-12 play rolled around, but Arizona quarterback B.J. Denker is answering his critics as of late, completing 63 percent of his passes with six touchdowns and one interception in his last three games (not to mention two rushing touchdowns, which have now been mentioned).

There are a lot of reasons why USC shouldn’t be sleeping on Oregon State, one of which is the fact that USC has a recent history of losing in Reser even when it was a highly-ranked squad.

He began the season as the Buffs’ starting signal-caller, but Colorado quarterback Connor Wood is now adjusting to his backup role with Sefo Liufau having taken over the No. 1 spot on Mike MacIntyre’s depth chart.

This No. 2 man on the depth chart is actually leading the Beavs in rushing, so you can say that Terron Ward is sparking the Beavers’ run game. The orange uniforms will debut for the Beavs Friday night- you’re not gonna wanna miss that.

This is a couple of days old now, but Cal women’s basketball is ranked ninth in the USA Today Sports Preseason Coaches’ poll. Stanford leads the way in the Pac at No. 3, while Colorado is No. 19 and UCLA is No. 25 (UCONN and Duke go 1-2 in the poll). Cal vs. Duke at Haas on Nov. 10 is a game you need to watch (3 p.m., ESPNU).

No game for the Utes on the gridiron this week, so we turn to Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Trib for a men’s hoops story about how a couple of rotation spots still need to be settled for Utah at small forward and center for the Fighting Krystkowiaks.

Some Pac-12 hoops news here: Five Pac-12 student-athletes were named candidates for the 2014 Senior CLASS Award (Gennifer Brandon, Chiney Ogwumike, Cassie Harberts, Michelle Plouffe and Dwight Powell), and here’s Grantland’s preview of Pac-12 men’s hoops.