1 Improvement Every Pac-12 Football Team Needs
The Pac-12 Conference has won 17 of its first 24 games to start the 2015 season, but the league's reputation has taken a hit because of a lack of quality performances so far this fall.
High-profile losses by Arizona State (to Texas A&M), Oregon (to Michigan State) and Stanford (to Northwestern), Washington State falling at home to FCS school Portland State and only three wins against Power Five conference opponents have all contributed to the league getting knocked down a peg at this point.
Even if every Pac-12 school sat at 2-0 at this point, though, each would likely have something about its start that could use some improvement. Here's a look as one area where all 12 schools could stand to get better as the season progresses.
Arizona: Pocket Pressure
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Arizona had 38 sacks last season, but 14 of those came from linebacker Scooby Wright and only nine came from down linemen. It was an area of emphasis for the Wildcats this offseason, hoping to be able to get more pressure from their three-man front so Wright didn't have to do as much and in case something happened to him.
And wouldn't you know it, early in Arizona's first game Wright suffered a knee injury that required minor surgery and has him out for at least a month. Several other linebackers have been hurt as well, making the middle of Arizona's defense very thin.
Jeff Worthy earned the Wildcats' first sack of the season last week at Nevada, and in two games they've only been credited with four quarterback hurries (per CFBStats.com).
Arizona State: Ball Security
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Arizona State was plus-14 in turnover margin during its 10-win season last year, ranking sixth in the country thanks to 27 takeaways and only 13 giveaways. The Sun Devils forced three turnovers in their 2015 opener against Texas A&M, but they also lost two fumbles in that game, and last week against Cal Poly another two turnovers contributed to being tied at home with an FCS team in the fourth quarter.
ASU didn't commit its fourth turnover in 2014 until the fourth game, when it gave the ball away four times in a blowout loss to UCLA. It was one of only two games it failed to win (or tie) the turnover battle.
There have been other issues contributing to ASU's uneven 1-1 start, including an offensive line that allowed nine sacks against Texas A&M and a defense that's yielded 462 rushing yards in two games. But when the Sun Devils are giving the ball away, that completely throws off all other aspects of their game plan.
California: Kickoffs
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California might have had the best start of any team in the Pac-12 this season, with convincing wins over Grambling and San Diego State where pretty much everything worked out perfectly. If we had to find fault with something, though, it would be a below-average performance after kicking off.
The Bears have kicked off 18 times in two games, thanks to all of the scoring it's done, and kickers Matt Anderson and Noah Beito have only gotten one touchback. Fifteen kickoffs have been returned, for an average of 23.4 yards, and opponents have started eight drives at the 30-yard line or better because of those short kickoffs.
Heading into Saturday's game at Texas as well as with the Pac-12 season looming, if Cal continues to give foes a shorter field to work with, it will put pressure on its improved defense and could lead to breakdowns.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Colorado: Punting
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Colorado has punted it 12 times in two games this year, resulting in a rather unimpressive average of 30.75 yards per kick that's fourth-worst in the FBS. The three teams below it have punted a combined 10 times.
The Buffaloes have turned to a freshman, Alex Kinney, to handle the punting job this season after the graduation of Darragh O'Neill. O'Neill averaged 42.7 yards on 281 career punts between 2011-14, one of the few bright spots for Colorado while going 10-39 in that span.
Kinney's kicks have led to some considerable field-position advantages for Colorado's opponents so far. Two of Hawaii's touchdowns came after bad punts, and a 16-yard punt in the first quarter against Massachusetts allowed the Minutemen to tie the game at seven four plays later.
Oregon: Pass Defense
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With the weapons it has on offense, Oregon can usually afford to give up points and yards without worry of losing a game. That's why the fact the Ducks allowed 438 passing yards and five touchdowns to FCS opponent Eastern Washington two weeks ago didn't get much attention since it came while they posted 61 points and gained 732 yards.
Yet this will be an issue once the Pac-12 slate gets going next week, since there are plenty of great quarterbacks and talented receiving corps in the league that will tear apart Oregon's leaky secondary if adjustments aren't made.
"Either we're not very good or I got to make changes," Oregon secondary coach John Neal said, per Steve Summers of Scout.com.
Through two games, Oregon has allowed 26 passes of 10 or more yards, six of which have gone for at least 20 yards and four that went for 30-plus.
Oregon State: Passing Offense
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Oregon State's offense is a major work in progress, with its best plays coming when freshman quarterback Seth Collins takes off and uses his athleticism to pick up big chunks of yardage. He's run for 180 yards on 28 carries, including 152 in his debut against Weber State.
Ideally, the Beavers would like to have a more balanced offense that can move the ball through the air as well as it has on the ground at times. That's yet to occur, as Collins has 171 passing yards in two games and OSU has completed only 50 percent of its passes for 189 yards.
This was a major issue last week at Michigan, when the Beavers were held to two yards over the final three quarters after gaining 136 in the opening period. The Beavers threw for 79 yards in that game, a far cry from the recent past when Sean Mannion threw for more than 13,000 yards to become the Pac-12's career passing leader.
Stanford: Red-Zone Offense
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Stanford's offense didn't score its first touchdown until late in the second half of its second game this season, and that was on its fifth trip into an opponent's red zone. Before that, the Cardinal managed only two field goals in the loss at Northwestern and stalled on their first red-zone trip against UCF.
The inability to finish drives was a big reason Stanford went 8-5 in 2014, when it ranked 112th in overall red-zone efficiency and managed touchdowns on only 31 of 57 trips inside the opposing 20-yard line.
The Cardinal have played strong defense so far this year, allowing 23 points and 511 yards, but now comes a stretch where they face USC, Arizona and UCLA in the next month. They can't expect to keep those teams completely off the scoreboard and thus will need more than field goals when getting close to the end zone.
UCLA: Pocket Pressure
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UCLA has recorded one sack in two games, that coming from Deon Hollins in the season-opening win over Virginia. And it's not like the Bruins are regularly getting close to quarterbacks or forcing them into bad throws, since no player has been credited with a QB hurry (per CFBStats.com) in 2015.
The lion's share of the credit for UCLA's strong pass defense to this point belongs to the secondary and linebackers who drop back into pass coverage. That group has six of the team's eight pass breakups, along with both interceptions. That includes Kenny Young's pick that he returned for a touchdown at UNLV.
UCLA had 29 sacks last season, led by nine from Hollins.
USC: Third-Down Conversions
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It's difficult to find much wrong with USC's 2-0 start, in which it outscored Arkansas State and Idaho 114-15 and outgained those teams 1,246-712. There were only a few times when the Trojans sputtered on offense, and that was most frequently on third down.
Only 16 of their 138 offensive snaps this year have been on third down, and just four of those 16 plays have resulted in a first-down conversion. They were 3-of-10 against Arkansas State and just 1-of-6 in the Idaho game.
USC has passed 11 times on third down, completing six throws for three first downs. One of those resulted in a 61-yard touchdown pass, but the other five completions went for a combined 36 yards. Five third-down runs have netted only four yards, partly because of sacks, and only one first down.
Utah: Passing Offense
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Quarterbacks Travis Wilson and Kendal Thompson have completed 74.5 percent of their passes this season, with Thompson completing eight of 10 throws after Wilson injured his shoulder last week against Utah State.
Together they've thrown for 342 yards with only one interception on 55 attempts, but none of those throws have resulted in a touchdown.
Utah has scored 48 points in two games, with five rushing TDs and a defensive score. Wilson has run it in twice for TDs and Thompson has scored on the ground once as well, but together they've attempted only two passes in the red zone.
Running back Devontae Booker is Utah's go-to weapon in most situations, particularly close to the goal line, but Utah needs to have the ability to score through the air to keep defenses honest.
Washington: Offensive Line Play
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Washington is one of the youngest teams in the Pac-12 this season, particularly on offense where it's starting a true freshman at quarterback and getting major contributions from a true freshman running back. Both made significant improvement from the Huskies' first game to the second, despite playing behind an offensive line that continued to struggle.
The Huskies allowed seven tackles for loss in their 16-13 loss at Boise State and another eight in a shutout home win over Sacramento State. The 15 TFLs allowed put them in a tie for 109th nationally and tied for sixth-worst among Power Five conference schools.
Washington's line has been in flux since Dexter Charles, a senior with 29 starts, was forced to retire during the preseason because of lingering knee issues. Seven of the 11 offensive linemen listed on the depth chart for Saturday's game against Utah are either freshmen or sophomores.
Washington State: Special Teams
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Washington State picked up a huge win last week at Rutgers, bouncing back from the embarrassing home loss to Portland State in its opener. But amid the celebration of that victory was plenty of head-shaking over the resumption of one of the Cougars' biggest issues from the year before.
WSU allowed two special teams touchdowns to Rutgers' Janarion Grant, on punt and kickoff returns, in the fourth quarter. It was the second time in as many seasons the Cougars have yielded two return TDs in a game.
One of the lowest points of the 2014 season came in a 60-59 home loss to California when it squandered a record-setting performance from quarterback Connor Halliday. Halliday threw for 734 yards, most in FBS history, and six touchdowns, but because the Cougars allowed Cal to score twice on kickoff returns, the game came down to a 19-yard field-goal try.
Which WSU missed. Two days later, coach Mike Leach fired his special teams coordinator.
Leach felt his team played well on special teams for three quarters against Rutgers but acknowledged WSU has to "get better at that and finish the game," per Stefanie Loh of the Seattle Times.
All statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
