Which Pac-12 Teams Could Play Spoiler to the Conference's Playoff Hopefuls
Even at the dawn of October, the Pac-12's list of playoff hopefuls is significantly smaller than when the season started. Fresh slates no longer exist, and most teams with a loss on the resume have already seen any dreams of championship glory fade away.
Those teams can still have as big of an impact as anyone in the race to the playoff, though. The only teams with any real shot of reaching the four-team final act are Oregon, UCLA, Stanford and USC. The Cardinal and Trojans are at a disadvantage with losses to their names, but the talent is there and should everything come together, the top four is still within reach.
Other one-loss teams throughout the conference don't have the same potential, and Arizona—while undefeated—has a difficult road ahead to keep the unblemished record. We'll find out Thursday whether the Wildcats are for real.
So if we accept that the Ducks, Bruins, Cardinal and Trojans are the only teams remaining with a legitimate shot at the playoff, which teams have the best chance to ruin dreams in the final two months of the season?
Let's take a look at five teams with the best chance to play spoiler to the Pac-12's playoff hopefuls.
All stats via cfbstats.com.
California Bears
1 of 5
Anytime you have a team with the ability to score in bunches, watch out. Cal is averaging more than 47 points per game in 2014, more than double what the Bears had last season. Quarterback Jared Goff has thrown for over 1,300 yards and 17 touchdowns in just four games and could end up as one of the few signal-callers to keep pace with Washington State's Connor Halliday.
The concerns come in when you start to look at the defense, which is still giving up more than 30 points per game. It allowed Colorado's Sefo Liufau to toss seven touchdowns, and the Buffaloes were coming off a victory over Hawaii in which they managed just 21 points.
Against teams like Oregon and UCLA, Cal will need an incredibly fast start to have any hope of hanging on, and even then it probably won't be enough. But against Stanford and USC, two teams still trying to find an identity on offense, the Bears may own the perfect recipe for an upset.
Under Sonny Dykes' "Bear-Raid" system, Goff gets to chuck the ball all around the field and develop a rhythm. When gunslingers like the young sophomore get hot, that scoreboard tends to light up in a hurry.
What makes the 2014 Bears different from teams like the Cougars who throw the ball upwards of 60 times per game, however, is a ground game averaging more than 170 yards per contest. Granted, all of these numbers will drop as competition increases, but this is a hungry program starting to build confidence.
To top it all off, Cal will play host to UCLA and Stanford, it gets Oregon at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara and travels to USC to play the Trojans on Nov. 13. Dykes and company get a shot at all four playoff contenders, so don't be surprised to see at least one of them go down.
Utah Utes
2 of 5
We're fully aware that Utah is coming off an embarrassing home loss to Washington State. That the defeat came at the hands of the Cougars isn't the bad part; it's the fact the Utes gave up a 21-0 lead and failed to score more than a field goal in the second half.
That said, Kyle Whittingham's team is not one to be overlooked in 2014.
With quarterback Travis Wilson healthy, the offense is capable of moving the football much better than it ever did at the tail end of 2013. The defense, led by lineman Nate Orchard and defensive back Eric Rowe, is allowing just fewer than 20 points per game.
We'll get our first glimpse at the Utes attempting to knock off one of our four playoff hopefuls on Saturday when they travel to the Rose Bowl to take on UCLA.
Everything up until the second half of the game against Washington State suggested Utah was a team that belonged in the top half of the conference and could perhaps even contend in the South Division. One half of football sheds some doubt on that, but it shouldn't erase all the positives of the first few weeks.
Traveling to Stanford on Nov. 15 one week after playing Oregon will be difficult, especially with the Cardinal likely having revenge on their minds from last year. But the Utes will get the Ducks after they're coming off their own battle with Stanford. Utah also gets USC at home on Oct. 25.
If the second half of Saturday's game against Washington State was the start of a trend, forget everything you just read. But that's not going to be the case, so better remember just to be safe.
Washington Huskies
3 of 5
We arrive at another team coming off a tough loss, although falling to Stanford by a lone touchdown is nothing to be ashamed of. The Washington Huskies, led by first-year coach Chris Petersen, have as much of a chance as anyone to knock off one of the Pac-12 playoff hopefuls, and the credit belongs mostly to the defense.
Both Danny Shelton and Hau'oli Kikaha along the defensive line have seven sacks, which leaves them tied with Missouri's Shane Ray for the best mark in the nation. Linebacker Shaq Thompson, who began his career as a safety, already has 34 tackles, a pick-six and two fumble recoveries returned for touchdowns.
He'll give us a nice segue over to the offense, as Thompson also has 84 yards rushing and another score. The offense hasn't been nearly as prolific as the defense, however, putting solid performances together against really only Eastern Washington and Illinois.
The unit scored zero points in the first half against Georgia State before finding a rhythm, and the NFL-like D of the Cardinal held the Huskies to just 13 points. But, quarterback Cyler Miles brings an interesting dynamic with his ability to run, and the receiving corps is underrated when you look at what Kasen Williams and John Ross bring to the table.
Jaydon Mickens is another weapon in the offense, and running back Lavon Coleman has been a nice surprise around the league.
Washington failed in its chance to hand Stanford a second loss, and winning at Oregon will be tough, despite a decade of losses built up in the rivalry. But we're targeting a Nov. 8 date with UCLA at home as the Huskies' best chance to make a national statement. If the offense can find some sort of a rhythm before then, the Bruins could be in for a rough road trip in Seattle.
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Arizona Wildcats
4 of 5
Arizona fans may feel slighted at seeing their team excluded from the opening-slide list of playoff hopefuls, but be real: Do you see the team as a legitimate national championship contender?
Perhaps you're waiting to see what happens against Oregon, and that's fair. Even then, it would be hard to envision the Wildcats finishing with the Alabamas and Oklahomas of the college football world. But that doesn't mean Rich Rodriguez and his team can't play a spoiler role in preparation to what could be a serious run at the conference title in 2015.
It starts with Oregon at Autzen Stadium. Beating the Ducks isn't an impossible task; the Wildcats did it one year ago and in grand fashion, winning 42-16 in a game that was never close. Their last trip to Autzen, however, was full of promise but empty on results—the Ducks won 49-0 after pulling away in the third and fourth quarters.
Even if Arizona walks out of Eugene with a loss, however, it'll get its shot against both USC and UCLA. The offense, with Solomon at the helm, should continue to grow. We're in the very early stages of watching a player who could have a Heisman-caliber impact in a year or two.
Running back Nick Wilson already has 482 yards and four touchdowns on the ground as well. The key will be getting stops and not falling into big holes, which is a surefire way of losing at Oregon or UCLA.
A year from now, the Wildcats don't want to play the role of spoiler—they want to be the hunted. For right now, the former title will have to do, and they could earn it as early as Thursday night.
Colorado Buffaloes
5 of 5
Why would lowly Colorado be included here and not a team like Oregon State or Arizona State? Because the Buffaloes still have the label of being the conference doormat. Losses to Arizona State and Cal didn't change that.
But it's that quality of being overlooked by the majority of opponents that will allow the Buffs to pull an upset or two during the next two months. Who looks past weak opponents the most? The best teams, which is exactly who we're talking about.
Colorado would need a miracle to pull off a victory at Oregon, but UCLA's visit on Oct. 25 could be interesting. Quarterback Sefo Liufau looks vastly improved from a year ago, having already thrown for over 1,500 yards and 17 touchdowns. Six interceptions are an issue, but he has more touchdown passes in five games than he did in eight contests in 2013.
Like several other teams on this list, the defense is a problem and will continue to be a problem if it allows opposing quarterbacks to throw seven touchdown passes, as Jared Goff did on Saturday.
But the combination of having a competent offense with being overlooked by most opponents should give Colorado several chances to pull off upsets. Add in a belief about winning that clearly did not exist during the past four or five years, and you have the perfect candidate to play the role of spoiler.
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