This week in Pac-12 Football
PAC-12 FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK:
THE DIVISION RACES: With three weeks remaining in the regular season, three teams remain in contention in both the North and South Division races.
THE NORTH: Washington and Washington State each control their own destiny. If either team wins out, which includes a victory over the other in the Apple Cup, that team would then represent the North Division in the Pac-12 Championship Game. If Stanford wins its final two conference games, and Washington wins the Apple Cup, then Stanford would capture the North.
THE SOUTH: USC controls its own destiny. USC can clinch the South if it wins one of its last two games (at Colorado, vs. UCLA). Arizona and Arizona State remain in contention if either team wins out, and USC drops its final two games, then the victor of the Territorial Cup would be the South Division participant in the Pac-12 Championship Game.
THE RANKINGS: Three Pac-12 teams are ranked in the AP poll, snapping a streak of 17 consecutive weeks with four or more teams in the Top 25 . WASHINGTON (9/8), USC (15/14) and WASHINGTON STATE (19/20). Those same three hold down Top 25 positions in the latest CFP rankings, coming in at No. 9, No. 11 and No. 19, respectively.
NATIONAL AWARDS: The Davey O’Brien Award released their semifinalists for the nation’s top quarterback and the Pac-12 has four players listed among the 16 semifinalists: ARIZONA’s Khalil Tate, USC’s Sam Darnold, WASHINGTON’s Jake Browning and WASHINGTON STATE’s Luke Falk.
RECORD SETTING WEEKEND: The Pac-12 had some record-setting performances last week.
• Washington’s Dante Pettis set an FBS career record with his ninth punt return for a touchdown
• Pettis became the Pac-12’s all-time leader in punt return yardage with 1,258 yards
• Washington State’s Luke Falk set the Pac-12 career passing mark with 13,806 yards
• Arizona’s Khalil Tate set a Pac-12 season rushing record for a quarterback with 1,087 yards
MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU: WASHINGTON STATE senior QB Luke Falk has moved to the top of the list on several Pac-12 career record lists and is within striking distance of several others.
Total Plays: 2,171 (previous record: 1,824 by Carson Palmer, USC, 1998-2002)
Pass Completions: 1,327 (previous record: 1,187 by Sean Mannion, OSU, 2011-14)
Pass Attempts: 1,931 (previous record: 1,838 by Sean Mannion, OSU, 2011-14)
Touchdown Passes: 115 (2nd, trails 116 by Matt Barkley, USC, 2009-12)
Total Offense: 13,453 (previous record: 13,033 by Marcus Mariota, ORE)
Passing Yards: 13,806 (previous record: 13,600 by Sean Mannion, OSU, 2011-14)
50+ RUNS: The Pac-12 has posted 33 rushes of 50+ yards this season. STANFORD RB Bryce Love leads the way with eight rushes of 50 or more yards this season. ARIZONA QB Khalil Tate has six.
THE TATE FILE: ARIZONA sophomore QB Khalil Tate has taken the 2017 football season by storm. Here’s a look at what he’s accomplished so far this season (played in seven games, with just four starts):
• Rushing Yards/Season - 1,087 yards (Pac-12 rushing record by a quarterback)
• Rushing Yards/Game - 155.3 ypg (No. 3 FBS)
• Single Game FBS QB rushing record: 327 yards vs. Colorado (Oct. 7)
• Rushing back-to-back games: 557 yards (327 at COLO, 230 vs. UCLA). Fourth-best in Pac-12 history
• October Rushing Totals: 884 yards (most by a FBS player in a single month in more than a decade)
• Four rushes of 70+ yards: 75 at COLO, 71 vs. UCLA, 76 at CAL, 82 vs. WSU
• Nine rushing TDs this season have covered: 58, 28, 47, 75, 45, 71, 76, 49 and 32 yards (53.4 avg)
• Leads FBS in yards per rush attempt (11.44)
THE LOVE DOSSIER: An ankle injury was the only thing to keep STANFORD junior RB Bryce Love (BryceLove20.com, #HeismanLove) in check the last two weeks as he did not play in Stanford’s 15-14 win at Oregon State and did not practice prior to the Washington State loss. Despite the injury, Love still leads the nation in rushing (198.1 yards per game). Here’s a look at Love’s achievements to date:
• Rushing Yards/Game - 182.0 ypg (No. 1 FBS)
• Stanford single-game rushing record: 301 yards vs. Arizona State (Sept. 30)
• Rushing back-to-back games: 564 yards (301 vs. ASU, 263 vs. UCLA). Third-best in Pac-12 history
• Has rushed for 100+ yards in nine consecutive games, with a 50+ yard rush in each game
• Six rushes of 60+ yards this season: 62 vs. Rice, 75 at USC, 69 vs. UCLA, 61 vs. ASU, 68 at UTAH, 67 vs. ORE
• 12 rushing TDs this year have covered: 10, 75, 51, 53, 69, 61, 43, 59, 68, 5, 67 and 52 yards (51.1 avg)
• Second in the FBS in yards per attempt (9.64)
PAC-12 PLAYERS OF THE WEEK:
OFFENSE
Luke Falk, QB, WSU
Led the Cougars to a 24-21 win over Stanford, becoming the Pac-12’s all-time leader in career passing yards with 13,806, breaking Oregon State’s Sean Mannion’s record of 13,600. Completed 34-of-48 passes for 337 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. Trailing 21-17 entering the fourth quarter, Falk led WSU on an 11-play, 94-yard drive that lasted 4:56 for the game-winning touchdown drive.
DEFENSE
Manase Hungalu, LB, OSU
Recorded a team-best 20 tackles in the game against California. Twenty tackles is the most by a Pac-12 player this season. The 20 is also tied for the fourth-best single-game output in Oregon State history. Thirteen of the 20 tackles were solo. One of the 20 was also a tackle for loss.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Dante Pettis, WR/PR, WASH
Pettis broke the NCAA record with the ninth punt return touchdown of his career, providing Washington with the early, go-ahead score in the Huskies’ 38-3 win over Oregon. Pettis’ 64-yard punt return for a TD early in the second quarter broke a 3-3 tie. It was his fourth of the year (tying the Pac-12 record for TD punt returns in a season). With that return, he also became the Pac-12’s all-time leader in punt return yardage with 1,258 career punt return yards, passing Oregon’s Keenan Howry, and Oregon’s Sammie Stroughter. Pettis is one of just seven players in the nation this season with more than one punt return TD and the only one with more than two. In Saturday’s win, he also caught four passes for 87 yards, including a 47-yard touchdown.
THIS WEEK'S GAMES:
WASHINGTON (8-1) at STANFORD (6-3)
Fri., Nov. 9 • 7:30 pm MT • FS1/FOX Deportes • #UWvsSTAN
WASHINGTON: Washington tops the FBS in total defense (240.9 ypg) and second in scoring defense (11.1 ppg) ... While allowing Oregon 247 yards rushing, the Husky defense held Oregon’s pass offense in check allowing just 31 yards through the air ... With a pair of touchdown passes, junior QB Jake Browning now has 75 career TD passes, matching the school career mark of 75 held by Keith Price (2010-13)... Junior RB Myles Gaskin posted the 18th career 100-yard game with 123 yards vs. Oregon. Gaskin has 34 career rushing touchdowns and trails only Bishop Sankey (37) on the UW career list ... Senior WR Dante Pettis set an FBS record with his ninth punt return for a touchdown with a 64-yard return against Oregon. Pettis also owns the Pac-12 mark with 1,258 career punt return yards.
STANFORD: Despite seeing his string of rushing for 100 or more yards end at nine consecutive games following his 69-yard performance at Washington State, junior RB Bryce Love did extend his streak of posting a touchdown run of at least 50 yards to 10 straight games with a 52-yard score. Love continues to lead the FBS with 182.0 rushing yards per game. He has rushed for over 150 yards in six of eight games he’s played this season ... Love’s career touchdown runs are 93, 47, 48, 7, 56, 50, 49, 10, 75, 51, 53, 69, 61, 43, 59, 68, 5, 67 and 52 yards ... Sophomore PK Jet Toner leads the team with 81 points this season and ranks 11th in the nation with 15 made field goals. He’s second in the Pac-12 in field goal percentage (.882).
USC (8-2) at COLORADO (5-5)
Sat., Nov. 11 • 2:00 pm PT • FOX • #USCvsCU
USC: A victory by the Trojans and they will clinch the South Division ... Sophomore QB Sam Darnold is 17-3 as a starter, including a 11-0 mark at home ... After his 20-of-26 performance for 311 yards/2 TDs vs. Arizona, Darnold has thrown for at least 200 yards in 19 games and at least 3 TD passes in a game 10 times ... Junior WR Deontay Burnett leads the Pac-12 with 63 receptions (6.3 rpg) and fourth with 83.2 receiving yards per game ... Freshman WR Tyler Vaughns has posted 33 receptions for 472 yards and 4 TDs score over the last six games ... Junior TB Ronald Jones II rushed for 194 yards vs. Arizona, giving him 1,082 yards (6.8 avg) for the season. He has tallied 410 rushing yards the last two games and is the first Trojan in a dozen years to post back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons. Jones already has run for 3,151 yards (ninth on USC’s career rushing list) with 33 TDs in his USC career.
COLORADO: Senior TB Phillip Lindsay rushed 23 times for 80 yards and 2 TDs against Arizona State and brought his season rushing total to 1,334 yards. His 3,567 career rushing yards rank him third all-time at CU with Rodney Stewart in his sights (3,598, 2008-11) ... He now has 952 receiving yards, 17 shy of Stewart’s 969 for the most by a running back in CU history ... Sophomore QB Steven Montez had a streak of 174 pass attempts with out throwing an interception come to an end with his final throw of the game at Arizona State. The streak now stands as the longest in CU history ... Montez completed 23-of-41 for 345 yards and 1 TD. The 345 yards passing was the fourth 300‐yard game of his career (third this season) ... Freshman PK James Stefanou connected on all three of his field goal attempts at Arizona State, including a career-best 53-yarder. He’s gone 3-for-3 in four games this season.
WASHINGTON STATE (8-2) at UTAH (5-4)
Sat., Nov. 11 • 3:30 pm PT • P12N • #WSUvsUTAH
WASHINGTON STATE: With the 24-21 win over Stanford, WSU recorded a perfect 7-0 mark at home this season, the most home wins in a season in program history and the first undefeated home mark since 2003 (6-0) ... Has posted eight or more wins for the third straight season and the first time since 2001-03 ... The Cougar defense held Stanford to a season-low with 198 yards of total offense ... Senior QB Luke Falk became the Pac-12’s career passing leader with 13,806 yards. He completed 34-of-48 for 337 yards and 3 TDs in the victory. The three touchdowns give him 115 for his career, one shy of the Pac-12 mark held by USC’s Matt Barkley (116, 2009-12) ... Falk tallied his school record 26th win, his school record 28th career 300-yard game and his 22nd career 3-TD game.
UTAH: Utah limited UCLA to two punt returns for -11 yards. Of the three punts returned this season by opponents, all three have been for negative yards ... Junior P Mitch Wishnowsky leads the Pac-12 and is seventh nationally with a 45.7 average. He’s dropped 15 of his 34 punts inside the 20 and has only two touchbacks ... Junior PK Matt Gay has 21 field goals (21-of-24) and has made four field goals of 50+ yards this year (4-of-5). He is the first Utah kicker to make four 50+ field goals in a season ... Sophomore RB Zack Moss had his third 100-yard rushing game this season with 153 yards against UCLA. Over the last five games, he has posted 577 yards total offense as he’s rushed for 475 yards on 80 carries (5.9 avg), while adding 15 receptions for 102 yards ... Sophomore QB Tyler Huntley was 15-of-22 for 234 yards and 4 TDs, plus a career-high 93 yard rushing in the win over UCLA. He’s thrown for 200 or more yards five times in the seven games he’s played.
ARIZONA STATE (5-4) at UCLA (4-5)
Sat., Nov. 11 • 6:30 pm PT • P12N • #ASUvsUCLA
ARIZONA STATE: With the 41-30 win over Colorado, the Sun Devils earned their 600th victory in program history, improving ASU to 600-391-24 ... ASU is now 30-31 (.968) in the red zone this season (includes 23 TDs), which ranks third in the FBS. Only time it did not score was last possession of game vs. Washington (ran out clock) ... Senior RB Demario Richard rushed for a career-high 189 yards (141 in the 4th quarter) in the win over Colorado. It was his 10th career game rushing for over 100 yards. His 2,743 career rushing yards place him sixth in Sun Devil history ... Junior LB Christian Sam led the Sun Devils with 12 tackles vs. Colorado. It was his seventh consecutive game posting double digit tackles. He currently leads the Pac-12 with 95 tackles (10.6 per game) ... Junior QB Manny Wilkins rushed for a career-high 95 yards and 1 TD and completed 18-of-34 for 202 yards and 2 TDs ... Sophomore WR N’Keal Harry leads the Pac-12 with 6.7 receptions per game (60 receptions) and is currently second averaging 88.2 receiving yards per game.
UCLA: Redshirt freshman QB Devon Modster received his first career start in place of injured junior QB Josh Rosen. Modster responded by completing all seven of his first half pass attempts for 101 yards and a 24-yard TD pass to senior WR Darren Andrews. Over the last two games, Modster is 15-of-24 for 180 yards and 2 TDs ... Andrews now sits fourth with 162 career catches and needs 18 more catches to move up to third on the school’s all-time list. With 23 additional yards, he’ll become the 12th Bruin with 2,000 receiving yards. He is just the second UCLA receiver to catch at least 40 passes in three straight seasons (other - Kevin Jordan, 1993-95) ... Senior LB Kenny Young posted 12 tackles and now has 66 over the last six games ... 18 freshmen and 17 sophomores saw action at Utah last week.
OREGON STATE (1-8) at ARIZONA (6-3)
Sat., Nov. 11 • 8:00 pm MT • ESPN2 • #OSUvsUA
OREGON STATE: The Beavers have won six of the last seven meetings in Tucson and 13 of the last 16 meetings overall with the Wildcats ... Sophomore PK Jordan Choukair was a perfect 3-of-3 on his field goal attempts in the loss at California. Choukair hit a pair of career-best 49-yard field goals in the game and is now 10-of-12 from 49-yards and in ... Senior LB Manase Hungalu posted a career-high 20 tackles (13 solo) at California, which were the most tackles in a game this season by a Pac-12 player. It was the fourth-most tackles all-time in a single-game by an OSU player.
ARIZONA: Arizona finished with 234 rushing yards Saturday, marking the seventh straight game the Wildcats have rushed for more than 200 yards. Arizona has eclipsed the 200-yard mark in eight of nine games this season ... Wildcats are leading the league and are fourth nationally in rushing (327.0 ypg) ... Over the last five games, sophomore QB Khalil Tate has accumulated 1,890 yards of total offense. In that span, he’s rushed for 1,001 yards/9 TDs and completed 55-of-90 passing for 889 yards/8 TDs. Tate has posted a run of at least 50 yards in five consecutive games ... Five different Wildcats have rushed for 130 or more yards in a game this season - Tate (327 vs. Colorado, 230 vs. UCLA, 137 vs. Cal, 161 vs. USC), Brandon Dawkins (133 vs. UTEP), Nick Wilson (135 vs. UCLA), Zach Green (130 vs. Cal) and J.J. Taylor (152 vs. Washington State).
OPEN DATE
CALIFORNIA: Junior RB Patrick Laird posted his third 100-yard rushing game of his career as he ended the day with career highs in rushes (33) and rushing yards (214). He also added a career-high six receptions. The last time a Cal player rushed for 200 yards was Jahvid Best (311) against Washington in 2008 ... Junior WR Vic Wharton III notched his second 100-yard receiving performance this season with eight catches for 121 yards and a TD. Wharton III has been added to the Biletnikoff Watch List ... Sophomore QB Ross Bowers completed 24 of 30 passes, good for a career-high completion percentage of 80.0. Bowers passed for 259 yards and two TDs ... Senior PK Matt Anderson surpassed Doug Brien to become Cal’s career leading scorer now with 297 points, passing Brien’s 288. Anderson was 3-for-3 in field goals (with a long of 49) along with four extra points vs. Oregon State.
OREGON: In the 38-3 loss at Washington, the Ducks were held without a TD for the first time since Nov. 24, 2007 at UCLA (16-0) ... Senior RB Royce Freeman rushed for 122 yards. It was his seventh 100-yard rushing game this season, 29th of his career, a UO record. His Oregon career rushing record stands at 5,364 yards, second all-time in the Pac-12 (Pac-12 record: USC’s Charles White with 6,245 yards, 1976-79) ... Freeman has a UO-record 54 career TDs and is now just five rushing TDs shy of matching the Pac-12 career mark held by Oregon State’s Ken Simonton (59 TDs, 1998-2001) ... Senior PK Aidan Schneider has hit 47 of 55 field goal attempts (.855) in his career. He needs three more to move ahead of Jared Segal (49 field goals, 2001-04) for the UO career record. With 334 career points he needs 15 points to pass LaMichael James (348, 2009-11) for the school’s career scoring record.
COACHES TELECONFERENCE: This week's Pac-12 Football coaches teleconference can be found here.