A Nod To the Future: Pac-10 Football in 2009

This is a young team with a lot of returning starters. Antolin and Grigsby will both be back, as will their tight end Rob Gronkowski. More importantly, their defense (lose five starters) and O-line  (lose two) will return mainly intact with plenty of seniors manning each group.

Cons: Willie Tuitama is gone. So is Mike Thomas, and thus half of their offensive production. Considering Tuitama has been the de facto starter for nearly three and a half years, it’s hard not to see Arizona taking a step back in this game with one of the freshmen quarterbacks taking the reins.  Their offense is entirely dependent on a good QB game, so we’ll have to see how well they adapt to their surroundings.

Conclusion: They will be much like Cal next year, albeit weaker at the skill positions. However, they do come to Memorial, so the Bears should have the advantage in this one.

Arizona State

Danny Sullivan or the Elway kid? Rudy Carpenter is now gone (up to you to wonder if that’s a good or bad thing), and the jury’s out on whether Dennis Erickson is washed up–my guess is he’s over the hill, but I’ve been wrong about these things before. We’ll know when they go to Georgia what type of team they are.

Pros: Carpenter’s gone, which can be good if you really hate Rudy Carpenter. It’s Arizona quarterback battle II this offseason, as Danny Sullivan fights for the right to start his senior season, although he might take a backseat to the frosh as well. Also only three seniors on the defense leave, so this squad will escape 2008 relatively intact (which can be a good or bad thing).

Cons: That offensive line was terrible last year, was worse this year, and doesn’t show any signs of changing this year considering only two of those players graduate. This team is going to have all sorts of trouble adjusting to Cal’s 3-4 front.

Conclusion: Dangerous game in the desert (all of them are), but it should be Cal’s easiest in the last four trips to Arizona.

Stanfurd

AXE.

Pros: Gerhart is back, and he was tough to take down all year, so it’s going to be tough playing him straight up. Also the O-line is in place, so you have to expect Harbaugh to power run up the gaps for most of the season.

Cons: The ‘Furd loses eight starters and five more backups on defense. Let me repeat, they lose THIRTEEN of their primary and secondary defenders. Jahvid Best could very well march for 250 on them in the Big Game.

They lose Pritchard, who at least showed signs of competency. We have no clue what Alex Loukas or Andrew Luck or even Josh Nunes will do or whether a clearcut #1 will emerge.

Conclusion: We’re going to have to see what Jim Harbaugh’s recruits can do as most of Walt Harris’s recruits move on. If they excel, the Big Game will be tough, but if they are merely adequate we’re keeping the Axe.

UCLA

I would like to say this team is an easy out, but it all depends on Kevin Craft. Will he really develop into the QB that Neuheisel thinks he’s capable of becoming? The other options aren’t pretty.

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