Relative to the others in the conference. Firstly I thought I would just point out that I think the Pac12 will be much improved this coming year.
** Most of these are complete gut feeling guesses, if you don’t like it, feel free to prove me wrong in the comments**
South:
Utah – We won it last year, and could be better next year. We will almost certainly be better on offense, at least better than we were early this past season… Though I think our ceiling is about where we were performing on offense by the time the Rose Bowl came around. Anyone who doesn’t think we improve on defense is in my humblest of opinions, a colossal idiiot. SOOOO MUCH young talent played well on the defense last year, despite losing Lloyd, I think the defense will return to being a strength of the team. We will miss Covey on special teams but our punting and kicking will get better… It has to right??
USC – USC will have the most talent in the south as always, and they will take a step forward now that they have a coach that knows what he is doing. They won’t be elite just yet, though that is possible. I think they struggle in their big OOC games, and then stabilize as the season moves forward.
Arizona – This is a well coached team that is suddenly recruiting better than just about every team in the Pac 12. They have an experienced and good QB joining them, along with a bunch of big time recruits, and a coach that is bringing this program back from the dead. Originally, the talk about their coach was that he was just a placeholder until they could get out from underneath Sumlin’s awful contract… Now it’s looking like someone’s deep pockets are turning this team into a force. This uptick in wins might come in two years rather than this coming season.
UCLA – I think they improve marginally until toward the end of the season when the wheels fall off and Chip gets canned. This is completely off of gut feeling, I thought I read he was on the hot seat, but I don’t know what his contract situation is.
ASU – I think Herm’s disappointing decline continues into this coming season. Daniels is not a good QB, the coaches will have completely lost the team, and things will continue to get uglier as the season progresses.
Colorado – I don’t really know about Colorado… This just seems about right to me.
North:
Oregon – I think Oregon is going to be more of the team they were at the end of this past season than the team that we saw at the beginning. It will take time for the new coach to establish an identity, but the rest of the North is kind of crappy so yay for Oregon.
Stanford? – They had a young QB, and have a proven coach. I think they will improve compared to where they were last year.
Oregon State – Their coach has done a nice job with this team, If they kept Baylor I would have put them at #1 in the north, but they didn’t, so I think they will suffer a bit on offense. I think they improve some on defense.
Washington – I think their new coach will help them establish an identity. They will struggle offensively, but their defense will hold down the fort until the offense finds a little life later in the season.
Cal – I don’t know about this one… I just know that WSU lost their QB of the future for some stupid reason, and that is going to be a problem for them.
WSU – They might finish as high as third place. Their coach did a good job in a tough situation last year. I think they would have been a potential first place pick had De Laura stayed… but he didn’t, and now they are going to likely struggle.
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