Roundup: Arizona schools continue to impress on the gridiron
Raise your hand if you thought Arizona would be the team with the most juice in the Pac-12 South in late October – the Wildcats defeated Cal 45-44 in double OT after Colin Schooler broke up a two-point conversion that would have won the game for the Golden Bears (Arizona Daily Star).
Doug Haller writes that Arizona State is continuing its “defensive surge” following the 30-10 win at Utah. The Sun Devils have to have one of the most impressive resumes for a 4-3 team in the country. And to think, this team (and defense especially) was an afterthought just a couple of weeks ago…
Christopher Kamrani of The Salt Lake Tribune writes that Utah is searching for answers after the loss to Arizona State. Tyler Huntley’s return didn’t seem to help much, as the Utes quarterback threw four picks in the Utes’ third-straight loss following a 4-0 start to the season.
It was an ugly night in South Bend with USC losing 49-14 to Notre Dame, and Nick Bromberg of Yahoo Sports writes that USC is likely out of the College Football Playoff now that it has two losses. No two-loss team has made the College Football Playoff yet.
Washington State got back on track with a 28-0 beatdown of Colorado, but head coach Mike Leach made the Cougar offense do pushups and up-downs on the sideline during the game. Apparently, two consecutive three-and-outs leads to punishment in Pullman.
Neill Woelk of CUBuffs.com gives us 10 takeaways from Colorado’s loss to Washington State. I always appreciate a team/athletic department website that doesn’t try to sugarcoat stuff; CUBuffs.com has always been good about accuracy and fairness over saying the biggest takeaway from a four-touchdown loss is that the team has good fan support.
Play of the week easily goes to UCLA running back Bolu Olorunfunmi for jumping on an Oregon defender’s shoulders for a touchdown in the Bruins’ 31-14 win over the Ducks (600th win in program history, by the way).
John Canzano is of the opinion that Oregon running back Royce Freeman deserves better in his senior season after the Ducks’ third consecutive loss dropped them to 4-4 overall.
The University of Washington will unveil the Don James statue at Husky Stadium on Friday, October 27 at 5 p.m., the university announced over the weekend.
Danny Moran gives us this story on how Cory Hall came to be the interim head coach at Oregon State.
Stanford women’s soccer defeated Oregon State 6-0 on Pac-12 Networks Sunday afternoon, nabbing its 13th straight win in the process (Pac-12 Networks highlights). This team is fun to watch.
Cal rugby finished third at the West Coast Collegiate 7s using an all-freshman-and-sophomore squad. Not too shabby.