After Week 6 of the college football season, there is plenty of movement in our Pac-12 Power Rankings. Take a look at the latest rankings.
There were some incredible games in the Pac-12 this past weekend, as certain teams saw their College Football Playoff hopes dashed. Stanford suffered a bad loss at the hands of Washington State, and the UCLA Bruins were beaten by Arizona State. Utah and Washington continued to roll, and USC seems to be back on track after a tough start to the season.
Here is a look at our Pac-12 Power Rankings after Week 6 of the college football season.
It continues to be a long season for the Oregon Ducks, who were expected to be much better than this when the season started. On Saturday, the team hosted the fifth-ranked Washington Huskies, as they looked to make a statement against their Pac-12 foe. However, the only statement they made was that they are really bad, as the Huskies trounced them 70-21.
There were not many positive things that came out of Saturday’s drubbing, which was the team’s fourth straight loss. The Ducks have not lost four straight games since the 2006 season, and appear to be headed for a bowl-less season. Oregon is set for a bye week this week, which could not come at a better time. They will head to Berkeley to play Cal in a Friday night game in two weeks.
Freshman quarterback Justin Hebert made his first collegiate start for the Ducks, starting in place of graduate transfer Dakota Prukop After throwing an interception on his first throw of the game, Hebert settled down, throwing the first two touchdowns of his college career. He became the first true freshman to start at quarterback for the school since Chris Miller in 1983.
The Arizona Wildcats have had an up and down season thus far, playing through injuries to some key players. They lost Anu Solomon to injury early in the year, and backup Brandon Dawkins, who played extremely well in his absence, left the game last week with a rib injury. He made the start against Utah, but the team was without star running back Nick Wilson.
Despite all that, the Wildcats actually hung tough against the 24th-ranked team in the country, before the Utes turned it on in the second half. Arizona got out to an early lead, as Dawkins hit Shun Brown for a 75-yard touchdown on the first snap of the game. The Wildcats would race out to a 14-3 lead, but Utah scored 26 unanswered to quiet any thought of an upset.
The issue on Saturday was the Arizona defense, which once again allowed way too many yards. Utah was able to rack up over 400 yards against a Wildcats defense that had no answer for Utes quarterback Troy Williams. Arizona will host USC in a Pac-12 South matchup this weekend, as they look to snap their three-game losing streak.
On Saturday, the Oregon State Beavers did something that it had not done in a very long time. They won a Pac-12 game. The win broke a 12-game losing streak in conference play, and gave second-year head coach Gary Andersen his biggest program win to date. It took overtime to do it, but the Beavers beat the California Golden Bears, 47-44.
The game was won on a 16-yard scamper by quarterback Darrel Garretson, though the play was nearly a disaster. Garretson did not get a good handle on the snap, bobbling it before gaining control. He then nearly walked into the end zone on the final ten yards of the play, sending the home crowd into bedlam. Garretson got the final score, but the day belonged to running back Ryan Nall.
Nall rushed for 221 yards in the winning effort, which is the tenth-highest total in school history. Despite not playing the final 11 minutes of the game after reinjuring his foot, Nall came within 18 yards of the Reser Stadium record set by former Beavers star Steven Jackson. Next up for the Beavers is Utah, which is one of two ranked teams in the Pac-12.