AP Top 25: Utah joins the poll at No. 24; 5 Pac-12 teams in

Sep 8, 2015

Utah is in, while Arizona State and Stanford are out of the latest AP Top 25 poll released Tuesday. Five Pac-12 schools are ranked in all – Oregon is No. 7, USC is No. 8, UCLA is No. 13, Arizona is No. 22 and Utah is No. 24. The five ranked teams are the second most of any conference behind the SEC’s record-setting 10.

The Ducks’ offense didn’t miss much of a beat without their Heisman Trophy winner, as Vernon Adams and the fleet of super-speedy running backs paced the Ducks to a 61-42 triumph over Adams’ former team. But beating an FCS squad won’t move you up in the polls without teams in front of you losing, so the Ducks are standing pat at seventh in the country. One thing’s for sure – the Ducks will need to shore things up defensively if they want to move to 2-0 on the season. Eastern Washington gained 549 yards against Oregon, who now have to head to East Lansing for a date with No. 5 Michigan State.

Same thing with the Trojans – USC dominated a lesser opponent in its 55-6 thumping of Arkansas State out of the Sun Belt and stayed at their previous week’s ranking (No. 8). Thirteen true freshman played in the season opener, and there’s a good chance those collegiate rooks will get some more time next weekend when the Trojans play host to another Sun Belt school in Idaho (yes, Idaho’s in the Sun Belt now). After the Vandals come to town, though, things really heat up schedule-wise, starting with a visit from Stanford on Sept. 19.

UCLA had the most impressive win in the Pac-12 with its 34-16 victory over Virginia, and Josh Rosen had the most impressive offensive performance of anybody in the country with his 351 yards passing and three touchdowns en route to being named Walter Camp National Player of the Week on offense. Despite all that, the Bruins didn’t get a bump up in the poll and are stuck at 13^th for the moment (doesn’t help when nobody in front of you lost, and it also doesn’t help that Eddie Vanderdoes is out for the year). Up next for the Bruins is a trip to Sin City to take on UNLV as the Pac-12 tries to break the early-season Mountain West curse following opening-weekend losses to Hawai’i and Boise State.

Despite losses by Wisconsin and Stanford directly in front of them in last week’s poll, Arizona wasn’t dominant enough in its 42-32 win over UTSA to be considered worthy of a rung-or-two improvement on the AP ladder and is staying put at No. 22. It also doesn’t help matters poll-wise that Scooby Wright is out three to four weeks following surgery to repair torn cartilage in his knee. Like the Bruins, Arizona heads to Mountain West territory next weekend, as the Wildcats take on Nevada in the Biggest Little City in the World.

Welcome to the poll, Utah. Beating a big-name opponent in Michigan was enough to get the Utes from 30^th (fifth-most in the “others receiving votes” section) to 24^th. The 24-17 victory showed that the Utes are more than just Devontae Booker on offense, as Travis Wilson completed more than 70 percent of his passes en route to a 200-yard game and that Britain Covey kid looked pretty impressive as well. The Utes received a boost on defense as well, as Dominique Hatfield is back on the team following his suspension over the summer. Now the Utes will welcome in-state rival Utah State to Rice-Eccles under the Friday night lights before wrapping up non-conference play at Fresno State.