Roundup: Oregon State plays spoiler (again)
What a win for the Corvallis boys, as Oregon State again played spoiler in a 35-27 win over No. 6 Arizona State. The Beavers have ruined some potential championship seasons for others before – Reser Stadium has been a house of horrors for highly-ranked road teams.
Despite the loss, Arizona State can still win the Pac-12 South. Doug Haller breaks down the scenarios for the Forks.
Great story in Tucson Saturday afternoon, as Arizona kicker Casey Skowron nailed a game-winning 47-yard field goal as time expired to boost Arizona past Washington 27-26. It was just a few weeks ago that Skowron missed a field goal that cost the Wildcats the game against USC.
Tough one to swallow for the Huskies, and Christian Caple writes that penalties and turnovers cost Washington the game against the Wildcats, none bigger than Deontae Cooper’s fumble in the final 90 seconds that gave the Cats a chance to win (Washington was up 26-24 at the time of the fumble).
Fitting that in Utah’s 20-17 double-overtime defensive struggle over Stanford, Utah defensive end Nate Orchard set the school record for sacks in a season. He was a monster against the Cardinal, registering 3.5 sacks Saturday and now has 16.5 for 2014. Offensively, the Salt Trib tells us that those overtime touchdowns were “timely” for Kaelin Clay and Kenneth Scott.
Colorado wide receiver Nelson Spruce is a semifinalist for the Biletnikoff Award, which goes to the nation’s top receiver. USC’s Nelson Agholor, Washington State’s Vince Mayle and ASU’s Jaelen Strong are also on the list.
The upcoming showdown between USC and UCLA has special meaning to USC wide receiver JuJu Smith, who happens to turn 18 on Saturday. Overall, it’s a really good feature on the young man courtesy of Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times.
Interesting story here from Andrew Greif of The Oregonian on how the Oregon athletic department shuts down fake social media accounts of its athletes like Marcus Mariota and Royce Freeman.
Kudos to Stanford men’s soccer for winning the Pac-12 title, doing so on an overtime goal from Austin Meyer to lift the Cardinal past the rival Golden Bears. Also, Stanford women’s hoops takes on UConn Monday night, so let’s get former Stanford forward Chiney Ogwumike’s thoughts on the Stanford-UConn game.
Nice start for Cuonzo Martin in his new digs, as Cal men’s basketball blew past Kennesaw State 93-59 Sunday. The Golden Bears are 2-0 on the young season.
With the Bruins coming off a bye week, let’s visit a headline from last week now that we have the chance – UCLA men’s basketball signed Aaron Holiday, the younger brother for former Bruin and current New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday and former Husky and current Golden State Warrior Justin Holiday.
Let’s wrap things up with a Sunday night practice report for Washington State football from Jacob Thrope. The Cougars play Arizona State in Tempe on Saturday.