Roundup: Stanford escapes Corvallis with last-minute win

Pretty would not be the adjective I use to describe Thursday night’s game in Corvallis, as Sam Cooper of Yahoo Sports writes that Stanford narrowly avoided a bad loss at Oregon State. Out of all of his fantastic performances, Bryce Love made his biggest case for the Heisman Trophy Thursday night by not playing with that ankle injury. The Cardinal just couldn’t do much of anything offensively but found a way to win at the end.

On the other sideline, Ken Goe writes that while Stanford won the game, interim head coach Cory Hall might be “winning the audition” for the full-time head coaching gig. Dude has certainly breathed life into this Beavers squad.

The Saturday slate gets started bright and early with Colorado hosting Cal (11 a.m. PT/noon MT, Pac-12 Networks), and Rusty Simmons writes that Cal will have its hands full trying to contain Phillip Lindsay, Colorado’s uber-productive running back.

No. 12 Washington hosts UCLA for an agreeable 12:30 p.m. PT kickoff, and Adam Jude tells us how the Don James statue came to life. The bronze statue of James will be unveiled on Friday.

Potentially, some good news for Ducks fans – Oregon head coach Willie Taggart said that quarterback Justin Herbert may play against Utah Saturday afternoon (2:45 p.m. PT/3:45 p.m. MT, Pac-12 Networks). Hat tip to Jen Beyrle of The Oregonian/OregonLive for the link.

Prepare the hot take cannon for this one, because Gordon Monson believes that Kyle Whittingham is to blame for Utah’s offensive struggles.

Juicy North-South clash with Washington State heading to Tucson to take on Arizona (6:30 p.m. PT, Pac-12 Networks), and Michael Lev gives us an Arizona football injury update for the Washington State game – tight end Trevor Wood is out with a concussion, while DT Dereck Boles (neck), DE/LB Kylan Wilborn (ankle) and LB Tony Fields II (concussion) are all probable.

Theo Lawson details how Khalil Tate went from Washington State defensive recruiting target to Arizona’s do-it-all quarterback. The Cougs wanted Tate as a defensive back, but I’d say Tate made the right choice in coming to Tucson as a QB.

Perhaps the biggest matchup of the weekend will be the last one, with Arizona State hosting USC (7:45 p.m. PT, ESPN). Be sure to check out the Pick Six podcast from The Arizona Republic to get yourself updated on all the hot topics heading into this pivotal Pac-12 South matchup.

Zach Helfand opines that Clay Helton’s calm philosophy will be tested this week considering how the Trojans are coming off a blowout loss at Notre Dame.

UCLA women’s basketball is No. 7 in the preseason USA Today Coaches Poll that also features Stanford at No. 9, Oregon at No. 11, Oregon State at No. 17 and Cal and Washington tied for No. 25.

Colorado men’s basketball freshman Evan Battey has been ruled academically ineligible for the 2017-18 season by the NCAA. Tad Boyle wasn’t too happy with the NCAA’s decision, saying in part that “Evan Battey gets punished and North Carolina gets off scot-free.” Let ‘em know, Tad.