Week 1

Hey All,

Here's that column you've been waiting for since spring practice, Notes on a Pac 10 Scorecard. We still miss you, Alan Malamud.

Summaries

USC 49- Hawaii 36: Yes, it was a win in Lane Kiffin's debut as HC at Troy, but something was missing. The Trojan defense was nowhere to be found. After hearing about how USC's defense was in the hands of a great staff, they went out and promptly gave up 588 yards and 36 points to a WAC team that isn't Boise State. On the bright side for USC, the offense overwhelmed a much smaller Warrior defense. QB Matt Barkley tied a USC record with five TD passes to go along with his 257 yards through the air. TB Marc Tyler showed why he won the starting job rushing for 154 yards on just 17 carries and a TD. However, the most impressive Trojan was WR Ronald Johnson who caught only seven passes, but three of them were for scores.

Telling Stat: T.O.P. UH held the ball for 32:07. USC lost the time of possession battle to a Run-and-Shoot team. That just shouldn't happen.

TCU 30- Oregon State 21: For OSU, this was supposed to be the successful homecoming of the Rodgers brothers to Texas. However, 6th ranked TCU spoiled it by bottling up the Rodgers brothers with a strong defensive effort. TCU held Jacquizz Rodgers to 75 yards rushing and a TD, while holding James Rodgers to 75 yards receiving and a TD. That's great considering how good those two players are. Meanwhile, TCU QB Andy Dalton threw two interceptions that led to two OSU TDs, but he made up for that by running for two TDs and throwing for a third. The Beavers still had a chance in this game late, but with 4:14 left, Ryan Katz had the snap sail over his head and out of the endzone to give TCU a game clinching safety.

Telling Stat: You gotta have the ball to score. OSU had the ball for only 7:15 seconds in the second half v. the Horned Frogs.

Arizona 41- Toledo 2: It was the first time a Pac 10 school ever went on the road to play a MAC school and the Wildcats proved to be rude guests by smacking around the Rockets in front of their home crowd. UofA's offense lived up to its' preseason billing with QB Nick Foles completing 32 of 37 passes for 360 yards and a pair of TDs. Meanwhile, questions about the Wildcat defense seemed to be answered as they shutout the Toledo offense. The Rockets two points came when UofA was hit with a holding call in their own endzone.

Telling Stat: They couldn't break through the Wildcat wall. Of their 11 drives, Toledo only drove further than 25 yards once, and that one ended with UofA making a goal line stand.

Stanford 52- Sacramento State 17: The Cardinal did their bit for charity by helping the California State University system when they gave the Hornets a big check in exchange for a beatdown in a glorified scrimmage to open the season on The Farm. SU QB Andrew Luck threw four TD passes by halftime as the Cardinal opened up a 38-7 lead. After that, it was a just a scrimmage.

Telling Stat: It was over early. Stanford held a 38-7 lead at the half, holding a yardage edge of 405 to 57.

California 52- UC Davis 3: Charity part II; The Golden Bears gave a fat check to the Aggies in exchange for getting to smack them around at old Memorial Stadium. Cal QB Kevin Riley complete 14 of 20 passes for 258 yards and three TDs, while TB Shane Vereen chipped in with 67 yards rushing and 2 TDs of his own in this rout. As for Cal's defense, they held the Aggies to 4 first downs and 81 total yards for the afternoon.

Telling Stat: He's number one. With the win over the Aggies, Cal HC Jeff Tedford became the winningest coach in modern Golden Bear history with 68 wins. He passed the legendary Pappy Waldorf who went 67-32-4 from 1947-56.

BYU 23- Washington 17: A game that was supposed to be about Jake Locker beginning his Heisman campaign, ended up being about a tough Cougar defense instead.. It's always tough to play in Provo, but UW looked good going into the half with a 17-13 lead. Then, BYU shutdown the Husky offense. The Cougars shutout the Huskies in the second half, including two key fourth down stops just outside of the redzone. While their defense held firm, the BYU offense generated the game-winning points in the third quarter with a Mitch Payne 29-yard field goal and a 48-yard TD pass from QB Riley Nelson to J.J. DiLuigi.

Telling Stat: Field position matters. UW's average starting field position in the second half was their own 17-yard line.

Arizona State 54- Portland State 9: In another glorified scrimmage, the Sun Devils ran over the Vikings in Tempe. ASU unveiled their new quick strike offense with QB Steven Threet connecting on 14 of 21 passes for 239 yards and two TDs, while RB Cameron Marshall ran for 3 TDs of his own in the rout. ASU's FCS schedule will continue next week as they host Northern Arizona.

Telling Stat: Cameron Marshall's 3 TDs came in his first four carries. He scored on runs of 50, 38, and 5 yards.

Kansas State 31- UCLA 22: In front of a record crowd of 51,059 for a home opener, the Wildcats rallied to beat the bRuins in Manhattan, Kansas. The bRuins showed off their new pistol offense and went into halftime holding a 10-7 lead behind QB Kevin Prince's 11-yard run and PK Kai Forbath's 44-yard field goal. However, the second half came along and the bRuins had no answer for Wildcat RB Daniel Thomas. He ran for 234 yards on 28 carries, including the game clinching TD with 58 seconds left. The bRuins had their chances in this one, but misfired on a 2-point conversion that would have tied the game with 1:19 left in the fourth quarter. The bRuins then failed to recover the onside kick and allowed KSU's game clinching score.

Telling Stat: They ran to daylight. K-State ran for 313 yards and held the ball for 35:56 in their winning effort.

Oregon 72- New Mexico 0: Jeremiah Masoli who?, LaMichael James who? The Ducks entered their opener without QB Jeremiah Masoli,who was busy losing for Ole Miss, and TB LaMichael James who was suspended for the game and calmly went about a complete destruction of the Lobos. The Ducks ran up a school record 720 yards of offense and led 59-0 at the half. QB Darron Thomas completed 13 of 23 passes for 220 yards and 2TDs, while RB Kenjon Barner ran for 147 yards and 4 TDs on the afrternoon. The Ducks special teams got in on the act too. PR Cliff Harris returned two punts for TDs of 61 yards and 64 yards in the second quarter.

Telling Stat: Nothing like it; UO's 72 point margin of victory is the largest in school history v. an FBS school.

Oklahoma State 65- Washington State 17: Wazzu turned the ball over on their first play of the game and everything went downhill from there. Cowboy RB Kendall Hunter rushed for 257 yards on 21 carries and 4TDs in this laugher in Stillwater, OK. the other offensive star for Okie State was WR Justin Blackmon who caught 8 passes for 125 yards and 3TDs. He also returned a blocked punt for a fourth TD. The lone bright spot for the Cougars was PK Nico Grasu. He nailed a 56-yard field goal early in the second quarter.

Telling Stat: He's got the leg. Wazzu has the best punter in the Pac 10 in Reid Forrest. Heck, he's averaged 10 punts a game in his Cougar careeer.

Observations

...Whether you call it the Swingin' Gate, Lonesome Polecat, 3-4-4- Crazy, or anything else, the formation USC ran for PATs V. Hawaii was fun to watch. Also, it was fun to watch the Trojans really pay attention to special teams. After all, it is only about 20-30 percent of any given game.

...College football spelling bee. Illinois' new spread option QB goes by the name of Nathan Scheelhaase. His last name is pronounced Shell-House. That's gonna give some sports editors some problems.

...Someone has to do an intervention at Nike. They are ruining football uniforms all over the country. The Va Tech uniform was one of the ugliest things I'd ever seen. Oh, and the Boise State ensemble was just awful, and don't get me started on TCU's togs.

...Definition of Irony; Ole Miss HC Houston Nutt is being vilified right now by the Rebel faithful after his team lost 49-48 at home to FBS stalwart Jacksonville State. The JSU HC knows a little bit about how Nutt feels. The JSU coach is Jack Crowe. Crowe was almost run out of town when his Arkansas squad lost a home game to The Citadel in 1992.

...That's just not football weather. The temperature for the 7:00 PM kickoff at Sun Devil Stadium for ASU's home opener with Portland State was 106 degrees.

...Wow, it's tough to be a Cougar. On November 8, 2008 Wazzu TB Dwight Tardy scampered 18 yards to give the Cougars an early 7-0 lead over Arizona. Wazzu hasn't held a lead in regulation play since. They do have two wins since then, but they have both come in overtime after the Cougars tied those games to force those overtime.

...In that big game between the only mining schools I've ever heard of outside of UTEP, Colorado Mines beat South Dakota Mines, 52-24.

... Name Game; #84 for USC is TE Jordan Cameron. #97 for California is DT Cameron Jordan. I'm looking forward to when USC hosts California and Cameron Jordan tackles Jordan Cameron.

...By dropping games with BYU, TCU, Kansas State, and Oklahoma State over the weekend, the PAC 10 has established itself as a very weak looking conference in 2010.

...At least we didn't lose like Mississippi. That's what fans of Oklahoma, LSU, and Florida can tell themselves after surviving close scrapes over the weekend.

...UCLA PK Kai Forbath is the defending Groza Award winner and looks like he's gonna challenge for another one. He's calm, confident, and deadly accurate. He kept UCLA in their game with Kansas State.

...With the Spread/Pistol now becoming the dominant offense in college football, it was interesting to see Missouri's wrinkle on running the system. The Tigers run it out of the quad formation. They don't split their wideouts up, they line four on one side of the field. The over rotation by the defense sets up some interesting mismatches.

...I never thought I'd ever see the day when Penn State HC Joe Paterno would start a true freshman at quarterback. Then again, I didn't think I'd see Joe Paterno still coaching in 2010.

...It was really good to see USC have one dominant TB. Marc Tyler was great against the rainbows. However, I do like seeing Alan Bradford carry the rock as well.

...And the brain bowl champ is Northwestern. The Wildcats went into Vanderbilt and beat the Commodores, 23-21.

...I hope USC will start doing tackling drills again in practice.

Until next week folks, remember to keep low when you fire off the ball.

-The Commissioner