Pac-12 football preview: 5 biggest storylines and questions entering 2019

Pac-12 football holds a lot of unknown commodities for the 2019 season but what are the biggest storylines and questions in the conference?

Two conferences were left out of the College Football Playoff last season with Notre Dame making it in: the Pac-12 and the Big Ten. In the case of the former, Pac-12 football has been a rollercoaster in recent years. They’ve been the poster child for good-not-great teams that are far better than average but not quite elite.

Every team is likely aware of that and looking to change that in 2019 — but will they? These are the chief storylines worth following in the Pac-12 this season.

5. Is Stanford being slept on?

Look around at Pac-12 football predictions for 2019 and you’ll likely see the Pac-12 North shaping up easily with Washington and Oregon at the helm of the division. But what about the Stanford Cardinal?

Led by an upstart quarterback in K.J. Costello that came on exceptionally strong at the end of last season and anchored by a strong defense, David Shaw’s team has the potential to make noise against anyone that they face in the 2019 season. Yet, no one seems to take notice.

There are holes on the Cardinal roster and, to be sure, they likely won’t win the North. However, it should be considered the surprise that some think it would be if they did.

4. Will USC make the South interesting? Or will anyone else?

Coming into the 2019 season, it looks like the Utah Utes may well run away with the Pac-12 South. And they very well could do that as they are the surest thing in the division.

Looming in the division, though, is the USC Trojans. Even though they have fallen from their former highs, they are still a recruiting hotbed rife with top-end talent. Furthermore, they have a young quarterback in JT Daniels that now has a year of experience under their belt. Nothing is certain with Daniels and the Trojans but they have the recipe in place to be a sleeping giant.

On top of that, though, the rest of the South isn’t untalented. There is a lot of parity below Utah and the big storyline will be seeing if any of those teams, USC or otherwise, are able to rise up and challenge the Utes.

3. Can Mike Leach find transfer magic at quarterback again?

One season ago, Washington State Cougars head coach found lightning in a bottle with East Carolina transfer Gardner Minshew at quarterback. Minshew nearly led the Cougars to the Pac-12 title and threw the ball all over virtually every defense he played. With Minshew gone now, Leach is hoping to strike that magic again with Gage Gubrud.

A transfer from Eastern Washington, where he had an illustrious career, Gubrud is the apparent starter and will lead the high-octane Leach offense at Wazzu now. It’s hard to say if the Cougars have the overall talent to be where they were last year with Minshew but every modicum of success hinges upon Gubrud being another transfer stud in Pullman.

2. How good will Jacob Eason be for Washington?

With the Washington Huskies losing Jake Browning, the natural assumption might be that they could be hurting at quarterback coming into 2019. That’s not the case, though, thanks to Jacob Eason. Eason is a former five-star recruit that started early in his career at Georgia but injuries cast him out of the starting job in his second season and Jake Fromm took the job and never relinquished it.

Now Eason is in Seattle and the eyes of the Pac-12 will be on him. This is a young player that clearly checks the physical boxes to be a high-end college quarterback. Even so, he’s a player with one year of experience at this level — and that one year was both long ago and not particularly successful. Thus, how good Eason is for the Huskies will be critical in determining how things play out in the conference this season.

1. Will a national contender step up?

The race to the Pac-12 Championship should no doubt be tightly contested and fun to watch. Teams like Washington, Oregon, Utah and Stanford all have the opportunity to compete for the conference title.

What surrounds the conference this year, though, is the doubts about their national relevancy. The parity in the conference lends itself to the fact that they may just beat each other up, not leaving room for a potential College Football Playoff team to emerge. Whether that’s the case or if one can separate from the pack will be well worth watching late into many Saturday nights.