The UCLA Quarterback Will Be...?

In a year of transition for many college football programs in 2015 two of the most interesting reside here in the Pac-12. The changes that have curiosity to them in the conference are at Oregon and UCLA. Oregon has the idea that whenever Vernon Adams makes it to campus that he will be the guy behind center. It's a little different in Westwood. In arguably the toughest division in college football, the Pac-12 South, UCLA appears to like TRUE freshman Josh Rosen to start for them and that could be a great thing or a not so great thing.


Anybody that follows, coaches, or watches football knows that starting young, inexperienced players can be frustrating. They miss blocks, run through the wrong hole, commit penalties, and the list goes on and on. However, the reward is that as they attain that experience through the season they get better and coaches are willing to deal with the mistakes, so that sets them up for the following season with an experienced team. No position on the field is this inexperience more on display than at the quarterback position. It's a dicey proposition, quarterbacks make the calls at the line, shift protections, change the play,  and have to read the defense all in the span of about 10-15 seconds. Having freshman quarterbacks can make a coach look real smart or look like he doesn't know what he's doing because he is dealing with a steep learning curve with a young player at quarterback.


Enter Josh Rosen, freshman quarterback at UCLA. He is a true freshman, not a redshirt freshman who has had a year to soak up the play book, learned how to navigate campus and find time to complete their class studies.


At the completion of the 2014 season and seeing long time starter Brett Hundley jump to the NFL most people had the train of thought that Jerry Neuheisel who started in place of Hundley when he was hurt, would be the most logical replacement. Neuheisel certainly has the savvy to take the position, but as they went through spring ball it became apparent that the Bruin coaching staff was going to give Rosen an honest look and reps with the team. If it is indeed Rosen who gets the nod at quarterback, the coaching staff is not giving into the pressure of naming a starting quarterback until the very last minute. Seeing how they are handling Rosen, most people believe it is going to be him.


Rosen wants nothing to do with some big announcement on the topic. He just wants to go out and help his team win. "Honestly, whoever starts, we're all going to be supremely confident in them because if they win the job, they won the job for a reason. They are going to be the best man for the job." Rosen said during spring practices.


The last few years the question about the quarterback position have not been an issue because of the steady play of Brett Hundley. Hundley threw for over 9,000 yards, got the Bruins a south division title, two bowl victories, but could not lead the Bruins to their first Pac-12 title since 1998. The next quarterback, probably Josh Rosen gets that task. A daunting one considering the division that they are in is extremely tough, plus the conference overall is a gauntlet of deadly Saturday afternoons.


One thing about Josh Rosen that is sticking out besides all the physical tools is his mental make-up and how he is handling everything that is being thrown at him by the coaches. If he has this great mentality of handling pressure situations, then the Bruins and their fans could be in for a rebirth, but lets pump the brakes on crowning him the "next coming" of quarterback for right now. He still has to be named a starter and take snaps on a Saturday afternoon with an opposing defense that wants to take his head off.


"For a young guy, he has such great composure of what's going on around him and great understanding of all the moving parts and how they work." Offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone commented recently.


With praise like this from the offensive coordinator, it is no wonder why people around the program expect Josh Rosen to be named the starter at some point in the very near future. Rosen is concentrating on feeling more comfortable each and everyday and has even mentioned Brett Hundley in reference to that feeling of trying to feel comfortable.


"Brett was a starter for three years and I bet, each and everyday, he felt more comfortable." Rosen explained.


In Westwood, the fans want a conference title, yesterday. They don't want to feel like the little brother to USC. They want success and they want continued success. For that to happen they need a quarterback that is top level. Is Josh Rosen THAT guy? Is he ready for that responsibility? Time will tell, but by all accounts he wants that pressure on his shoulders. Let's watch and see...


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Isaac Seumalo: Best Lineman You May Not Know About

Sometimes when somebody just does their job and does it well, people don't notice. Which is a shame, but for Isaac Seumalo he just may prefer it that way. Playing football in Corvallis for Oregon State tends to hide some of that noticeability. However, people outside of the Beaver football team are taking notice. Ever since Seumalo stepped on campus at Oregon State he has been a big presence, literally...


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Washington Huskies: Return of The Dawgs?

When I was growing up you could count on a few things in life. First, you could always watch "Looney Tunes" on a Saturday morning, "The Love Boat" on a Friday night, and knowing that the Washington Huskies would be reigning supreme in the Northwest and the Pac-12 in football. The "Dawgs" as everybody in the Northwest called them were the premier program in the region. Rose Bowls after Rose Bowls, conference titles, and even a National Championship were the norm and what was expected. Anything less was viewed as failure. Oh, how have times changed.


The Huskies are not the "team" in the Northwest anymore. To most of the alumni, their rival in Eugene is now the team in the region. That alone drives Husky fans up the wall. They hate the Duck program with a passion and with every win over the Huskies, every Rose Bowl, or National Championship appearance, that hatred grows deeper. What has happened to the once mighty Husky program?


One thing that has happened is that they are not recruiting the type of players it takes to sustain dominance like they had. Don James, the old Husky Head Coach built a fence around the state of Washington and the Northwest and all the great players were coming to him. With his Rose Bowl appearances, Don James could also get his hands on some of Southern California's best talent and that added to the dominance of the program. When you dominate, you win, so the recruits come to you. Now, Chris Peterson, the current Husky Head Coach has to fight very hard to keep the best Washington recruits from leaving the state. Peterson has vowed to put a fence around the state and keep all the talented in-state. He's only entering his second season with the Huskies, so his fence is still in the build stage.


The program has languished in mediocrity for the past 20 years after Don James, "The DawgFather", resigned amid sanctions that found that many of the players at Washington were getting improper benefits. As stated earlier, there was a ton of success in James time as coach. He even had three national coaching honors and a 22 game winning streak to add to the allure of the program. The program had their knees cut from underneath them with these sanctions and they really haven't recovered. Enter Chris Peterson 20 years later.


Let's face facts here. Chris Peterson and all his accolades he got in his tenure at Boise State, needs to come up with some success at Washington in his second year. Husky fans are tired of being average and want the return of fear when the Huskies come to town or when the opponents have to enter into Husky Stadium. Husky Stadium can be a very difficult place to play. When I was youngster, and went to Husky Stadium for a couple of games, it was so loud and the fans were right on top of you. Much like it is at Autzen Stadium in Eugene. I didn't think a stadium could be so loud, but this is something Peterson has to restore to the program as well.


Chris Peterson has his work cut out for him, but I do think he is the guy to restore the honor to the program. To me he's a proven commodity, even though he did the majority of his winning at a smaller school at Boise State. He proved he could beat the bigger schools or at the very least compete with the likes of Oregon, Georgia, and let's not forget the Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. One of the best college football games I have ever seen. It's not like he DOESN'T know how to get the job done. Entering this second season at the helm of the Huskies, fans want results yesterday. The honeymoon is over. Was there ever one?


Peterson needs to do better against ranked opponents too. They were 0-5 against those type of teams and that will also cause some more angst in latte' capital of the world. They also have to win the bowl game they go to as well. They came up short against the Cowboys of Oklahoma State in the Cactus Bowl in Tempe. That didn't sit well with the UW fan base, plus if you factor in the near upsets by the likes of Eastern Washington and Hawaii and you have a thought that Peterson was lucky to finish with the 8 wins that the team had. Peterson nearly had a very dismal opening in season number one.
The facilities and resources at Washington are such that Peterson can just be average in recruiting or any aspect of major college football. He needs to get the top recruits to the school and build those players into a cohesive unite to compete with the likes of Oregon, Stanford, USC, UCLA, ASU, Arizona, and Utah. Sounds pretty tough doesn't? Well, if you are the coach Washington, you can't be scared of a scenario like that in the Pac-12. I don't think Peterson is scared of anything, if anything he likes a challenge because he faced challenges coaching at Boise State, so something like this challenge is nothing for him. It's just on a much bigger scale than normal.


In his second year the Huskies and Peterson need to get a big time win, such as beating Oregon or Stanford, plus make strides to being in contention for the Pac-12 title in future years. If this can be accomplished, Peterson will get more of a leash (no pun intended), but if the program continues to be mired in mediocrity then he may not be around that much longer.


One of things that may make that a little more difficult is the huge amount of change on the defensive side of the ball. They lost probably the best DT in the Pac-12 in Danny Shelton and all-everything Shaq Thompson. With the type of wide open offenses in the conference, replacing talent like that is going to be difficult. Offensively he loses Cyler Miles, a quarterback, who has stepped away from football for personal reasons. There will be questions all around this team, but Peterson knows he won't get any extra leash because his depth chart is shallow. He is known for building programs and he is in the midst of probably his toughest job yet.


The one question I have is.... will Chris Peterson be around long enough to see the success he wants and the success the fans want? I hope so. Go Dawgs!

Pac-12 or Pac-14?

Change can be good, and usually is. Change helps society evolve and get better most of the time, but in the case of Pac-12 football it just might not be. A few years back the then Pac-10 expanded to the Pac-12 with the addition of Utah and Colorado. It's worked out just fine. Utah is coming around and Colorado is trying their hardest to become competitive, but now the question is out there. Does the Pac-12 expand to 14 teams like the SEC or does it stay pat?


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Can Utah Win the Pac-12 South?

When the Pac-12 expanded a few years back, there was talk that they could have lured Texas and Oklahoma to the conference. As attractive as that seemed at the time, I still was still thinking that they would get somebody else. The Texas/Oklahoma talk was pie in the sky thinking to me and when the conference finally invited Colorado and Utah I was a little disappointed, but that they were actually better fits for the conference than the other two.


Has it worked out the way the conference may have wanted, maybe, maybe not, but at least one of these two teams has started to make inroads in the Pac-12. Utah, yeah, remember them? The team that made it to the Sugar Bowl and smoked Alabama. After having some seasons that were not so great as they were stepping up in competition when joining the Pac-12, the Utes have become a threat to win the Pac-12 South division and even the conference. Here is one of the questions going into 2015, can Utah win the South division?


My answer to that is yes, however it is going to be a tough road for them because of some changes in the program. Lets discuss what is going to make it tough at least at this point. Nobody has played a game yet, injuries haven't happened, or anything else that typically happens during the course of the season.


First of all, their Defensive Coordinator Kalani Sitake left the program for Oregon State. Sitake is a guy that brings a very aggressive style to his defenses and Utah fans have to wonder how their defense will play without their leader on the sideline. Will their new DC John Pease keep the attacking style or be something different that the fans have to get used to. Lets talk about some of the players that need to be replaced or need to step up this year. Defensive end Nate Orchard is gone and so is his 18.5 sacks that he had in 2014. Who will take his spot in 2015? Hunter Dimick should be that guy on the defensive line, but he will be getting more attention this year, but he did have 10 sacks last season, so he is hoping to improve on that. 2014 for Utah's linebackers was a year of injury. The coaches managed to piece together enough with those linebackers to at least finish second in total defense in the Pac-12. The player to watch with their linebackers is their leading tackler from last season, Jared Norris, who had a team high 116 tackles, including 13 for a loss. He can cover space and make devastating hits. Watch Norris this year. The secondary will be something to watch as well and it may make them susceptible to getting passed on all game. The coaches converted quarterback Jason Thompson to safety and evidently he is competing very well for the position, but in the end if teams are passing all over the field on the Utes it will make for a very long season for them.


Moving over to the offense, quarterback is a little cloudy because you don't know how quarterback Travis Wilson will perform because he was very average last season. Seeing him play in person against the Sun Devils I wasn't that impressed. His 2014 season was so up and down that he lost his starting spot to back up Kendal Thompson twice. The major reason he got his spot back was that Kendal Thompson injured his knee. Wilson has to improve substantially for the Utes to get to the promised land of winning the South division. He did only throw 5 interceptions, but remember he did get replaced and only got back in because of injury to the other quarterback. The other aspect that people talk about with Wilson is that people around the program say he wasn't comfortable with former OC Dan Christensen, who left to become the O-Line Coach at Texas A&M. Aaron Roderick, Wilson's new OC is not changing that much with the offense, but he wants Wilson to complete a higher percentage of passes. "We're not trying to reinvent what we are doing. We just want to get better at it." says Roderick.


Devontae Booker. To me, the best running back in the Pac-12 will be back and hopefully have the same results as he did as junior college transfer in 2014. Booker runs hard or as I say "runs angry" and he ran all over the Pac-12 last season. He averaged 130 yards a game and ran for 1,512 yards. To get that many yards you have to have speed and as much tough running as he does, Booker does have explosive speed. What does he need to be successful? Rhetorical question obviously. He has a very solid offensive line.


Will this O-Line be as successful as they were last season? I believe so. They return most of this line for 2015.  They took a hit when junior, Jeremiah Poutasi, left early for the pro's. However, they do return Isaac Asiata and their center Siaosi Aiono who were probably the most consistent players on the offensive line. If the line plays to their 2014 season, Devontae Booker will be running wild again and Utah will be winning games.


The x-factor is always the special team play on a team. The Utes have one of the best kickers around the Pac-12. I did see him miss a field goal against the Sun Devils in overtime, but he didn't miss much last year. Andy Phillips made 23-28 field goals and was 12-15 from over 40 yards. Their punter is very good as well. Tom Hackett averaged 46 yards per punt and out of 80 total punts, he had 36 of them inside the 20 yard line. Great weapon to have if you can pin your opponent deep in their own territory.


All in all, most of the questions I have about this Utah team is the change in coaching. How will they respond to the change? That remains to be seen. Most of these players are returning, so you would think that they have a fairly veteran team who won't let it make a difference. Can they win the South. Yes, in fact, they are my sleeper pick to win the South. While Arizona State, USC, or Arizona get the majority of talk about winning the Pac-12 South, don't sleep on these Ute's. There is a monster brewing in the Great Salt Lake and they don't want you to overlook them. Many of you will, so you have been warned. Go Ute's!

Quick Hit: Coach Graham Doesn't Waver

Yesterday I went on about how coaches have to put a line down in the sand about these players who commit domestic violence, drug offenses, or theft. Today, a coach finally said enough is enough and sent a player packing. I mentioned Todd Graham, head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils and his line in the sand mentality with his players.


Coach Graham is a man of principle, and he wants his players and staff to act accordingly with those principles that he lays down for his team. Graham wants his players to go to class, to act with class in public, and to be on time to practice and team meetings. Nothing that is considered crazy by any normal thinking person. Everybody has a boss that tells you what is expected of you on a daily basis at work. College and college football are the jobs of these football players and by adhering to Grahams rules, they are setting themselves up for success and in the end isn't that what a coach and college is out there for these young men?


Let's face it, most of these players on a college football squad are not going to hit it big at the next level, so they have to have some discipline instilled in themselves to help get through the rest of their lives. Coach Graham is instilling this train of thought in their brains now, so that they experience success in their lives.


Who doesn't Todd Graham put up with? He doesn't put with former ASU linebacker Davon Durant, who was dismissed from the Sun Devil team for his domestic violence and aggravated assault charge that he pled guilty to. Durant was rated as one of the top Junior College players when he came to Arizona State. He was rated the number 1 inside linebacker and the number 6 prospect overall in junior college. Now, he will be lucky if he gets ANYBODY to take him on their team. As I stated before, coaches hate distractions like kids hate broccoli. Granted he is talented, but at some point second chances won't happen for players like this because they just won't be worth the headache they bring to a football program.


"He's done," said Graham, "We parted ways. He put himself in that position. It's a bad deal, but you got to have accountability. We just don't talk about character and discipline. We live it."


How refreshing is that? To me, it's extremely refreshing in a time where players get slaps on the wrist and get chance after chance after chance. Those of us in the real world get fired if we did something like what Davon Durant did.


Kudos to Coach Graham for laying the law down and not wavering from his beliefs on how to run his football team. Hopefully more coaches catch on with this type of discipline and want less and less distraction for their program. Phenomenal job Coach Graham!

Quick Hit: Discipline Problems

Coaches hate losing and distractions the most. When those two things happen during the course of the season, and they do, it drives them crazy. Well, down in Tallahassee, Florida there seems to be daily distractions for Florida State Head Coach Jimbo Fisher. To say that this is not an issue would be to say that Pete Rose doesn't gamble. What do coaches have to do to correct things like this?


The fights, domestic violence, drugs, or any other type of felonies that are broken are the result of bad decisions made by the player, not the coach, but what kind of responsibility do the coaches have? As a person who coaches young people, it all comes down to setting the ground rules and making them stick for everybody. Regardless of importance to the team. The third string offensive lineman gets the same consequence as the first team lineman. What brings down a teams chemistry quicker than most things is when the players see the difference in consequences between players on a team. This has to be something that coaches now have to adhere to at some point.


Jimbo Fisher is going to have to institute some type of team self monitoring where the upperclassmen keep the younger players from making some stupid mistakes. He may even have to have some of his coaches go out and monitor there player whereabouts on a Friday night. That may be a very tough thing to do because players are so mobile nowadays that finding any of them on any given night may prove fruitless.


However, these discipline problems are the players problems. When I see the Florida State quarterback in a bar and he is underage I think to myself, "Why?" Why does this person want to put themselves in a situation where they can lose their scholarship and really have no recourse or choice after that. Why do they want to punch a woman? What is inside them that says punching a woman is okay in ANY circumstance? Nobody knows except the player that perpetrates any kind of assault like that. I heard something the other day that has crossed through my mind a few times in my life when I've seen this kind of violence happen. A friend of mine said, "If the boss says 'don't go to the bar' you don't go to the bar." I absolutely agree with that statement. These players/kids are over the age of 18 and that means adult consequences with whatever negative actions they decide on doing. By not following what the coach or boss says, you are saying to your coach and team that you are bigger than the team. Which is incorrect. If the coach found you to play for him, he can find another player just like you that won't make stupid decisions and won't cause him or the school any headaches.


In the end, these coaches need to start taking a hard line with these kids who think they are above the law or the team (Jameis Winston). When coaches like set tough ground rules down and actually follow them for every player regardless of talent they will see team chemistry is much better and that these distractions that they despise simply go away. Just saying...

Myles Jack: Pac-12 Player to Watch

Everybody has a guy on their team that they take their lead from. Down in Westwood, that player for the 2015 season is Myles Jack. This is young man that possesses a unique ability to bring the heat in terms of hits and has the ability to cover first round draft picks in pass coverage, just ask Nelson Agholor about Jack's coverage ability...


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Duck Power: Royce Freeman

For the Oregon Ducks the last few years have been the best in school history. They have battled for the National Championship twice, gone to Rose Bowls, had a Heisman winner last year, and have had their "brand" explode across college football. One of the constants in this success has been a tremendous running attack. The Ducks run the ball all over the field and have had phenomenal talent in the backfield and this upcoming year will be no different. Royce Freeman is another in a long line great Duck running backs and he looks to improve on his freshman year.


Freeman ran for 1,365 yards last season and had 19 touchdowns to go with all those yards. People have to remember that Royce is only going to be a true sophomore. With a break out year like he had, there is talk of how Freeman can get into the Heisman race for 2015. Can he get in the race? Sure he can, but would voters go for a player from the same university as the year before? Probably not, but that has happened before. It has happened four times, with the last school winning back to back Heisman Trophy awards being another Pac-12 team in USC. Matt Leinart winning in 2003, Reggie Bush in 2004.


What will he have to do to get into the race? Obviously he is going to have to have a similar year if not better than 2014. The Ducks are going to have to win and win like they have in the past 5-7 years. He's going to have to have Heisman "moments", which means big, long runs as he is breaking tackles. Highlight type of runs, which means Sportscenter highlights in the Top 10 on a lot of Saturday nights. He has to become the star of the offense like Mariota was the last couple of years for the Ducks. The way running backs are chosen for this award, Freeman is going to have to have a season for the ages. He's going to have stand out like crazy especially playing on the West Coast where most writers on the East Coast have already turned off their t.v's and have gone to bed and won't see his accomplishments in real time and in context with the entire game.


It's been six years since a running back has won the award. Mark Ingram, from Alabama, was on the best team and was truly the best player on that team. Here's one more thing that Ingram had in common with the other Heisman running backs... He had over 2,000 yards on the ground. Like I stated earlier, he needs a "season for the ages".  Now, having a huge season doesn't guarantee the Heisman because there have been plenty of running backs who have had around 2,000 yards and came up short in the Heisman voting. Melvin Gordon comes to mind, but he was competing against Mariota.


In the end, Royce Freeman is a guy that every defensive coordinator takes seriously and if he is successful in 2015, the Ducks will be successful. If you asked him what he thinks about winning the Heisman, he would probably say he doesn't think about that stuff and that getting another shot at the National Championship is what he is all about. It'll be interesting to watch the Ducks this year and how they make Royce Freeman the centerpiece of their offense. Go Ducks!
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In Coach Andersen We Trust

Change. It's what was needed by Oregon State after another season of mediocrity. However, the person that caused the change is now at Nebraska. Mike Riley up and left for Lincoln last Decemeber and it left huge questions in Corvallis. Low and behold, we got a coach that we never saw coming. Gary Andersen from Wisconsin, yes, Wisconsin decided to take the job at Oregon State....


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ASU Football Pump Up 15-16 (HD)

Alright Sun Devil fans, this is for you... Fear The Fork!

Oregon State | Pump Up 2015-2016 | HD |

With 62 days left until kickoff to the 2015 season, here is something to get you a little fired up! Go Beavs!