Pac-12 power rankings: Utah, Oregon keep playoff hopes alive; Oregon State, UCLA improving every week

The Pac-12 power rankings still have Utah and Oregon at the top but it’s Oregon State and UCLA who are making a big move in a positive direction.

There remain two teams with one loss on the year in the Pac-12 who still have hope of making the College Football Playoff. The Oregon Ducks and Utah Utes are the clear class of the conference this season, but you never know what can happen over the final few weeks of the season. While the Ducks and Utes remain the course toward the conference championship game, Oregon State and UCLA are showing vast improvement in recent weeks.

Here are our Pac-12 power rankings entering Week 11 of the college football season.

The Utah Utes took on the Washington Huskies on the road this past weekend and came away with a season-defining victory. With the win, the Utes moved their record to 8-1 on the season, as they currently have sole possession in the Pac-12 South Division. Down 14-13 at the half, Utah was finally able to get to Huskies quarterback Jacob Eason, forcing a pick-six, as they kept their College Football Playoff hopes alive.

Like the Utah Utes, the Oregon Ducks kept their CFP hopes alive this past weekend, though they had an early scare against the USC Trojans. Down 10-0 at the end of the first quarter, the Ducks defense took over, forcing four turnovers from USC quarterback Kedon Slovis, and turning them all into touchdowns. When it was all said and done, the Ducks cruised to a 56-24 victory over the Trojans, making their legitimate case for inclusion in the College Football Playoff discussion.

While the Washington Huskies suffered a tough loss against the Utah Utes this past weekend, it was not enough for them to drop in our weekly rankings. The bottom line is, the Huskies are the third-best team in this conference, though they have to start stringing wins together. This one hurt because the Huskies were fresh off their bye week, but they just could not get anything going on the ground, and the Utes proved to be the superior team. For head coach Chris Petersen, this is his first loss out of the bye.

Don’t look now, but the Oregon State Beavers have something special going, and they absolutely blasted the Arizona Wildcats this past weekend. Quarterback Jake Luton is one of the more consistent signal-callers in all of football, and on Saturday, he casually threw for 328 yards and three touchdowns against zero interception. Luton has 16 touchdowns and one interception this season, and now that Jermar Jefferson is starting to get healthy, this is a team nobody wants to play right now.

The Chip Kelly era is starting to get ramped up at UCLA, as suddenly, they appear to be one of the better teams in the conference. The winners of three straight games, the Bruins took care of Colorado on the road this past weekend, as running back Joshua Kelley rushed for two touchdowns while averaging 5.5 yards per carry. They now control their own destiny in the Pac-12 South and will head to their bye before their huge matchup with the Utah Utes on November 16 on the road.

The Arizona Sun Devils had the week off in Week 10, and they definitely needed the time away. The Sun Devils started the season out at 3-0, but have fallen on hard times as of late, but have the talent on both sides of the ball to stay in the race. Star freshman quarterback Jayden Daniels has thrown for 1,902 yards and 11 touchdowns with only two picks this season while rushing in for three scores as well. They have fallen out of the top-25, but there is a lot of season left.

The USC Trojans had a chance to really make a statement this past weekend, as they welcomed a top-10 team into their house this Saturday. After getting off to a 10-0 start in the first quarter, it was all downhill for the Trojans, as quarterback Kedon Slovis turned the ball over four times, and the Ducks scored touchdowns after each turnover. In the game, Slovis broke Todd Marinovich‘s record for attempts with 57, but the team averaged 3.6 yards per carry on the ground and were blown out the final three quarters of the game.

The Stanford Cardinal was one of four Pac-12 teams to have their bye this past weekend, and it could not have come at a worse time. The Cardinal have won three of their last four games and finally have a healthy K.J. Costello back under center. This is a team that is peaking at the right time, but they have to string a couple of wins together if they hope to get back in the bowl game prediction heading into the final weeks of the season.

The Washington State Cougars have lost four of their last five games entering their bye week, and see their record at 1-4 in the division entering Week 11. The Cougars have gotten strong play from freshman quarterback Anthony Gordon, who has thrown for nearly 3,400 yards and 32 touchdowns running Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense. Jahad Woods leads the Cougars with 79  tackles, and this weekend, they will look to get their season back on track on the road against Cal.

For Cal, their best win of the season seems like forever ago, as their last victory on the road against Ole Miss was way back on September 21. Since then, the loss of quarterback Chase Garbers has been too much to overcome, and that has led to them falling to 1-4 in the Pac-12 North division. The lone bright spot for the Golden Bears this season has been the play of linebacker Evan Weaver, as the potential first-rounder already has 126 tackles through eight games.

The Arizona Wildcats did not put up much of a fight against Oregon State this past weekend, though we continue to see good things from freshman Grant Gunnell. Gunnell threw for 269 yards and two touchdowns against the Beavers, and J.J. Taylor led the Wildcats in both rushing and receiving yards in this one. Arizona has now lost four straight games after a 4-1 start to the season, and it does not get any easier this weekend, as they will head to Oregon to take on the seventh-ranked Ducks.

The Colorado Buffaloes sad season continued this past weekend, as they lost their fifth straight game in Mel Tucker‘s first year as head coach. The UCLA Bruins were able to keep Colorado weapon Laviska Shenault Jr. in check, and the Buffaloes defense had no answer for Joshua Kelley and Dorian Thompson-Robinson. A slow start doomed the Buffaloes in this one, as they had two straight three-and-outs, and then a pick, and that led to UCLA getting out in front for good. The end of the season cannot come soon enough for Colorado.

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