(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
At Arizona State, senior Danny Sullivan, sophomore Samson Szakacsy, sophomore Chasen Stangel, redshirt freshman Jack Elway, and true freshman Brock Osweiler are all fighting for Carpenter’s old job. Sullivan was his backup, but nothing is etched in stone for him to be the starter in 2009 just yet.
Stanford returns last year’s starter, Tavita Pritchard, but given his less than stellar play in 2008; his job is in jeporady. Alex Loukas and redshirt freshman Andrew Luck are hoping to impress head coach Jim Harbaugh enough to unseat Pritchard.
Matt Scott or Nick Foles will replace Arizona Wildcats’ starter Willie Tuitama. Whoever gets the nod better have wheels because the Wildcats have a lot of questions on their offensive line.
In Berkeley, Kevin Riley was given the job last season, but could not hold onto it throughout the season. Now with Nate Longshore gone the job should be his right? No, his inconsistency still plagues him and if he isn’t careful Brock Mansion will unseat him.
Is there anything to look forward to out of the state of Washington?
Both teams combined for two wins last season, one of those wins was a conference win against the other, and were outscored by their opponents by an average of 41-13 in all of their games.
The Huskies fired Ty Willingham and replaced him with former USC coordinator Steve Sarkisian, while the Cougars have second year coach Paul Wulff was just suspended for the first few practices of fall camp due to violations he had while at Eastern Michigan.
Two once-proud programs are now bottom dwellers in the Pac-10, and I don’t expect much to change this season. Besides Jack Locker, can you really name any other impact players of either school in Washington?
Locker now has to deal with a new offense with Sarkisian at the helm and the fact that he hasn’t been healthy for an entire season yet. Their linebackers are back (Mason Foster, Trenton Tuiasosopo and Donald Butler) but is that really a plus for a team that gave up 39 ppg last year?
The Cougars are running into their own problems with injuries and suspensions. Quarterback Marshall Lobbestael was recently suspended for an alcohol violation. And if you think help is on the way, well you are mistaken.
For the second year in a row, Washington State is ranked 10 out of 10 in the Pac-10 recruiting rankings.
The Washington Huskies were fifth and ninth in the past two years respectively. Buckle up, it’s going to be a long and bumpy ride in 2009.
Will Oregon see a smooth transition between Mike Bellotti and Chip Kelly?
On Mar. 13, Mike Bellotti decided to become the Ducks’ full time Athletic Director, therefore, handing the reigns over to assistant Chip Kelly. This wasn’t a big surprise because in early December, Kelly was named the head coach in waiting.
A lot of this sounds familiar to Ducks’ fans because it was Rich Brooks who named Mike Bellotti his successor when he left to go coach the St. Louis Rams. I think this should be an easy transition for the team. Kelly is a quality offensive coordinator who has been around the program for two years.
It was Kelly who was the key coach that helped Dennis Dixon become a Heisman contender in 2007. Kelly has already had his hand in naming a few new assistants, but other than that little change, business should be the same as usual in Eugene.
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