Washington's top-10 clash, five coaching debuts, eight home openers headline Week 1 in Pac-12 Football
PRESEASON RANKINGS: Four Pac-12 teams are ranked in the AP poll, three in the Coaches poll. WASHINGTON (6/6), STANFORD (13/13), USC (15/15) and OREGON (24/nr) ... That’s six consecutive years with four or more Pac-12 teams in the preseason AP Top 25 ... WASHINGTON’s No. 6 ranking is its highest preseason ranking in the AP poll since 1997 when it opened the year at No. 4. The Huskies have now appeared in the AP Top 25 for 33 consecutive ranking periods ... STANFORD has appeared in the preseason AP Top 25 for the eighth consecutive year. The Cardinal are one of eight teams to have appeared in the preseason AP poll in each of the last eight seasons ... USC has appeared in each of the last 17 presesaon AP polls and 58 preseason polls overall. Only Ohio State (65) and Oklahoma (60) have appeared in more preseason AP Top 25 polls.
PAC-12 HIT: The Pac-12 has posted a winning record against foes outside league for 34 consecutive seasons ... The Pac-12 has a 130-50 (.722) record in non-conference play over the last four seasons ... The Pac-12 was 11-1 in season-openers in 2017.
PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Team
Bryce Love, RB, STAN
Nate Herbig, OG, STAN
Myles Gaskin, AP, WASH
Matt Gay, PK, UTAH
Taylor Rapp, S, WASH
Mitch Wishnowsky, P, UTAH
Second Team
Kaden Smith, TE, STAN
N’Keal Harry, WR, ASU
Cameron Smith, LB, USC
Troy Dye, LB, ORE
Byron Murphy, CB, WASH
Jake Bailey, P, STAN
USA TODAY
First Team
Bryce Love, RB, STAN
Cameron Smith, LB, USC
Byron Murphy, CB, WASH
Matt Gay, PK, UTAH
Mitch Wishnowsky, P, UTAH
Second Team
N’Keal Harry, WR, ASU
Nate Herbig, OG, STAN
Troy Dye, LB, ORE
Taylor Rapp, S, WASH
Jake Bailey, P, STAN
THE RETURNEES: A total of 177 starters, who started at least half of his team’s games or a majority of games at a specific position, return to Pac-12 football squads in 2018. That’s out of a possible 288 (including placekickers and punters) for an average of 14.8 starters returning per team. ARIZONA, CALIFORNIA and WASHINGTON each return the most with 18 starters. WASHINGTON STATE returns the fewest starters with 10. Here are the numbers:
Arizona - 18
California - 18
Washington - 18
Oregon - 15
Oregon State - 15
Stanford - 15
USC - 15
Arizona State - 14
UCLA - 14
Utah - 14
Colorado - 12
Washington State - 10
THE HEADLINERS: Among those 177 returning starters are a number of headliners, including a total of 10 first-team and 12 second-team All-Pac-12 performers. Nine of the 12 squads return at least six starters on offense, and seven squads return at least six starters on defense.
Returning are the reigning Offensive Player of the Year in Stanford senior running back Bryce Love, as well as the Freshman Co-Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year in Arizona running back J.J. Taylor and Stanford offensive lineman Walker Little, and Arizona linebacker Colin Schooler. Four teams have multiple returning First Team all-conference performers - USC linebacker Cameron Smith, defensive back Marvell Tell and all-purpose/special teams Michael Pittman Jr.; Stanford’s Love and offensive lineman Nate Herbig; Washington offensive lineman Kaleb McGary and defensive back Taylor Rapp; Utah placekicker Matt Gay (Lou Groza Award winner) and punter Mitch Wishnowsky. Additional returning first team performers include Arizona State junior wide receiver N’Keal Henry and Oregon junior all-purpose/special teams Brenden Schooler.
THE COACHING RANKS: Five new coaches enter the league this season. It’s the highest number of new coaches to grace the sidelines in one season for the Pac-12. Well, one is not so new as UCLA’s Chip Kelly returns for his second stint in the Pac-12. Kelly posted a 46-7 record in four seasons at Oregon (2009-12) and led the Ducks to the 2010 BCS title game ... ARIZONA’s Kevin Sumlin has averaged 8.7 wins over 10 seasons, including back-to-back 10-win seasons at Houston (2011) and Texas A&M (2012) ... ARIZONA STATE’s Herm Edwards moves from his role as an ESPN analyst back to the sidelines where he last coached in the NFL for eight seasons (2001-08 - five with the Jets, three with the Chiefs) ... OREGON’s Mario Cristobal moves from co-offensive coordinator to head coach. Cristobal has reached the pinnacle of college football with a pair of national titles as a player for Miami (1989, 1991) and one CFP title as an Alabama assistant coach (2015) ... OREGON STATE’s Jonathan Smith returns to his alma mater for his head coaching debut. Like his Civil War counterpart, Smith achieved success as a player (MVP of the 2000 Fiesta Bowl/BCS) and as a Washington offensive coordinator (2016 Peach Bowl/CFP semifinal) ... Add the seven other league coaches who have a combined FBS record of 399-259 (.606) and Pac-12 football is in good hands.
TAKE IT ON THE RUN: Among the Power 5 conferences, the Pac-12 returns the most players (5) who rushed for 1,000 or more yards last season.
- Bryce Love, Stanford - 2,118 yards (needs 1,174 to set Cardinal career rushing mark)
- Khalil Tate, Arizona - 1,411 yards (3 200-yard rushing games last year are more than all other Pac-12 quarterbacks combined have tallied in the history of the league)
- Myles Gaskin, Washington - 1,318 yards (has rushed for at least 1,300 in each of his first 3 season)
- Zack Moss, Utah - 1,173 yards (Utes have had a 1,000-yard rusher in each of the last 4 seasons)
- Patrick Laird, California - 1,127 yards (last Bear with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons was Marshawn Lynch in 2005-06)
AIR IT OUT: Among the Power 5 conferences, no other conference has more returning quarterbacks that averaged better than 200 yards passing per game last season than the Pac-12 (5).
- Ross Bowers, California - 253.2 yards per game
- Manny Wilkins, Arizona State - 251.5 yards per game
- Steven Montez, Colorado - 247.9 yards per game
- Tyler Huntley, Utah - 241.1 yards per game
- Jake Browning, Washington - 209.2 yards per game
BALANCE: UTAH and WASHINGTON are two of only five Power 5 teams to return a quarterback/running back combination where the quarterback threw for at least 2,000 yards and the running back rushed for at least 1,000 yards (also Alabama, Mississippi State, Wisconsin).