Pac-12 Week 0 Power Rankings: USC holds strong despite shaky defensive performance

USC holds at No. 1 despite a shaky defensive performance vs. San Jose St. Behind the Trojans, the rest of the Pac-12 jockeys for opening positions.

Football season has finally returned.

While not everyone in the nation kicked off action over the weekend, we did get a handful of Week 0 games to wet our beaks. In just a handful of days, we will have a full college slate fit with some incredible matchups across the nation.

For the Pac-12, the USC Trojans got things underway over the weekend with a 56-28 victory over the San Jose State Spartans. While the offense under Caleb Williams and Lincoln Riley was as expected, the defense under coordinator Alex Grinch continued to raise some concerns.

Going into Week 1, there are some notable games in the conference, including Utah’s Thursday bout with the Florida Gators, Colorado’s matchup with the TCU Horned Frogs, and Washington’s game against the Boise State Broncos.

Other teams in the conference have relatively light season-openers, with the Oregon Ducks hosting Portland State, UCLA hosting Coastal Carolina, and Arizona hosting Northern Arizona.

Every week of the season, we will keep track of the balance of power in the conference based on previous results and projections going forward. It should be noted that these power rankings are meant to be a snapshot of  where things currently stand, and not an end-of-season prediction for where things will shake out.

A week from now, we will have a much better sense of where the power is held in the conference based on finally being able to see some highly-anticipated gameplay. For now, though, here’s how things stand going into Week 1.