The Pac-12 football season that never was (and what it could have been)

The 2020 Pac-12 football season promised intrigue and excitement until it was canceled.

Pac-12 football gets an often-unfair bad rap compared to the other Power 5 conferences. Anyone who watches the game on the west knows it’s not short of riveting storylines and fireworks on the field.

Over recent years we have been entertained by USC’s daily dramas, Herm Edwards’ quotes, rivalries, reffing gaffs, late-night madness and more.

Unfortunately, the cancelation of the 2020 fall season means no new stories will be added to those, at least for now.

College football will continue elsewhere, but it’ll be a bit dimmer without the Pac-12.

Here are the things you’ll miss from the Pac-12 season that never was…

Pac-12 After Dark

Sure, you might not be interested in tuning in for a game between Washington State and Arizona under normal circumstances, but pit those two programs against each other late on a Friday night and magic happens. Pac-12 After Dark was a staple of college football and now it’s gone. No more thrilling nightcaps. No more bizarre finishes to watch with bleary eyes. No more upset specials and underdog miracles.

USC vs. Alabama, Part II

Whether you were a USC fan clinging to the vague hope of Clay Helton pulling off an unlikely upset over Nick Saban, a rival looking forward to seeing the Trojans humbled (perhaps embarrassingly), or a curious observer tuning in to see what Kedon Slovis might accomplish against the Tide defense, the USC vs. Alabama season=opening game was going to be must-watch.

It could have sparked a firing, a Heisman campaign or any number of dominos for the Trojans.

The storylines didn’t end there either. In 2016, USC took on former head coach Lane Kiffin, then Alabama’s offensive coordinator. In 2020, the Tide had another former head coach coordinating their offense in Steve Sarkisian. The Tide also had a former USC five-star commit, Bryce Young, vying for their starting quarterback job.

All the messy Pac-12 football divorces

The 2020 campaign could have been the season of drawn out and painful divorces in the Pac-12.

In his first two seasons with UCLA, Chip Kelly lost 15 games and managed just two victories over teams with winning records. Year 3 looked like the epitome of make-or-break. On the one hand, the Bruins finally had a more forgiving schedule in 2020. On the other hand, excuses would be minimal if Kelly didn’t start strong and drastically improve.

Kelly isn’t the only one who was slated for the chopping block. Kevin Sumlin at Arizona also entered his third year with no bowl bids to show for it. And unlike Kelly’s Bruins, his Wildcats didn’t look like they’d be making a big improvement in 2020.

The biggest name on the hot seat would have been Helton. If you made a joke at any point this summer about the cancelation of the season-saving Helton’s job, you weren’t alone. Those quips were a dime a dozen. But they weren’t wrong. Helton was narrowly spared in 2018 and somehow scraped through 2019 as well. With an established athletic director in place, an exciting quarterback and a talent-laden team, the Trojans head coach was heading for the ultimate put-up-or-shut-up campaign.

The 2020 season would have been consumed by the “will they? won’t they?” of Helton’s job status.

Justin Wilcox as a national coaching candidate

As inevitable as the Helton hot season was, there was also a feeling Justin Wilcox’s tenure at Cal would heat up as well. Not because Wilcox was in danger of being fired, but because another strong season with the Bears could raise his profile as a national coaching candidate.

Wilcox’s trajectory with Cal has been consistently positive. He started 5-7, then improved to 7-6 before taking another step forward in 2019 with an 8-5 record and a bowl victory.

He had quarterback Chase Garbers returning with high hopes and a largely consistent defensive output to continue carrying the team. A dark horse run in the Pac-12 wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. With it would come serious national attention.

Oregon State’s bowl pursuit

Speaking of dark horses, it was undoubtedly too early to start talking about Oregon State as a contender in the North, but Jonathan Smith’s Beavers were looking more and more intriguing in 2020.

Oregon State managed five wins in 2019. They were some good wins too. They outpaced UCLA and Arizona while scraping by solid teams like Cal and ASU. Outside of a blowout to Utah, they were competitive in losses as well. Defeats to Stanford and Washington State came by one score while they played Washington and Oregon tough.

They returned running back Jermar Jefferson even if they had to determine their next quarterback in the offseason. A now-veteran defense led by All-American linebacker Hamilcar Rashed Jr. could have propelled them into bowl contention.

Now, Oregon State will have to wait another season to compete for its first bowl game since they defeated Boise State on Christmas Eve in the 2013 Hawaii Bowl.

Coming-of-age stories

The 2020 Pac-12 football season would have been full of newcomers and young stars at quarterback. The coming-of-age stories were all set to be written.

Obviously, the tales would begin with USC’s Slovis and ASU’s Jayden Daniels, arguably the best quarterbacks returning in the league. Would there be a sophomore slump? Would the two wage a war for supremacy in the Pac-12 South? Heisman talk might not have been out of the question for either. Who wouldn’t have enjoyed seeing the two sling it?

Other young quarterbacks might also have taken center stage, from Arizona’s Grant Gunnell to Oregon’s Tyler Shough succeeding Justin Herbert to Washington’s Jacob Sirmon taking over for Jacob Eason.

Rebuilding time for established head coaches

Where do Utah and Stanford go from here? That was a question supposed to be answered by this season.

The Utes needed a rebuild from the top of the hill. They won the Pac-12 South last year with a veteran squad and was a win over Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship Game from likely making the College Football Playoff. However, the cost of their 2019 success was losing almost all of their production on offense and defense for 2020. Could Kyle Whittingham go into reloading mode? Or would there be a year or two of rebuilding? The latter seemed more likely, but they can’t prove otherwise this fall.

Stanford muddled their way to a 4-8 record in 2019. It was the first time in David Shaw’s tenure he failed to notch eight or more wins in a season. There was also a lot going on for the Cardinal as they adjusted to life without Bryce Love and struggled with injuries at quarterback. Or did a declining defense and rushing attack herald the end of the golden era for Stanford? SP+ projected another down season with a 6-6 record, so maybe it’s for the best on Stanford’s end.

New eras at Washington, Washington State and Colorado

The 2019 season was the end of three eras in the Pac-12. Chris Petersen stepped down at Washington with six seasons under his belt. Mike Leach ditched Washington State after eight years for Mississippi State. And, coming in with a significantly less lengthy tenure, Mel Tucker cashed in on one promising season for Colorado and took the Michigan State job after Mark Dantonio’s abrupt retirement in early February.

The end result? Three intriguing new eras were set to begin in the Pac-12. And the circumstances for each couldn’t have been different.

Jimmy Lake was given his shot as a head coach via internal promotion. It was a certain risk, given his inexperience, but one with a potentially huge payoff for a talented young defensive coordinator. If Lake could pick up where Petersen left off, the results could have been stellar.

Nick Rolovich stepped into Leach’s place as an up-and-coming coach, then followed a little too closely in Leach’s footsteps when he fell into a bit of controversy over his handling of the “We Are United” movement. It would have been fascinating to watch him navigate a doubly-difficult first season.

Finally, there was Karl Dorrell…maybe the last name you might have expected to hear among Pac-12 head coaches in 2020. Whether a train wreck or a miraculous rise, his debut season at Colorado would have been interesting, to say the least.

A dominant Ducks defense

A thousand conversations could have been had about the state of Oregon’s offense in 2020. An outfit that struggled to reach its peak in 2019 was going to have to make its way without Herbert and four of five starting offensive linemen. Maybe watching All-American left tackle and Outland Trophy winner Penei Sewell carrying the offense on his back would have been immensely entertaining.

But really, the thing to watch on the Oregon front was going to be the defense.

Where to begin on that defense? All-American candidate Kayvon Thibodeaux would have terrorized quarterbacks from the defensive end spot after picking up nine sacks last year as a true freshman.

At linebacker, the Ducks welcomed Top 15 prospects Justin Flowe and Noah Sewell (Penei’s younger brother) in the class of 2020. Those two are among the five most highly-rated Oregon recruits ever.

So yeah, the young front seven was set to bring a ton of talent to the field. The secondary was primed to be even more outstanding.

Pro Football Focus (subscription required) declared Oregon’s secondary as the best in college football for 2020. Safeties Brady Breeze and Nick Pickett were ranked in the Top 11 nationally for the season while four other defensive backs — Jevon Holland, Mykael Wright, Thomas Graham Jr. and Deommodore Lenoir — ranked among the Top 25 cornerbacks in the country.

The cancelation of the 2020 deprived football fans at large the chance to see that defense come together.

Fortunately, all is not lost for the Pac-12. The 2020 fall season may not be happening but a spring season is (hopefully) on the way. Pac-12 fans can still get their fill of Slovis, Daniels, the coaching carousel and that Oregon defense when football returns, whether in January or after an eternal layoff in the fall of 2021.

The disappointment is real, but missing football this year will make it all the more sweet next time around.

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