Category: PAC-12

REPORT: Utah quarterback Nate Johnson no longer with program and intends to transfer

The redshirt freshman has played in 11 games for the Utes and has been one of the more effective dual-threat quarterbacks in the Power 5.

Utah quarterback Nate Johnson is no longer with the Utes program and intends to transfer, according to a Friday night report from KSL Sports.

Johnson, a former four-star recruit, has played in eleven games across his two seasons with Kyle Whittingham’s program. He split time with Bryson Barnes this season with Cam Rising lost to an ACL tear. So far in 2023, he’s completed 39 of 72 passes for 499 yards and three touchdowns.

Even with his small sample size, Johnson is one of the most effective dual-threat quarterbacks in the nation. He added 232 yards and four touchdowns on the ground in his 58 rushing attempts. The redshirt freshman competed in track and field in high school.

Utah is set to play Colorado at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday.

The Apple Cup survives: Washington and Washington State announce future rivalry dates

The rivalry, played every year since 1945 outside of 2020, will extend at least through 2028 with the additional dates announced Sunday.

The Pac-12 might splinter after the 2023 college football season, but the Apple Cup will live on. Washington State and Washington announced on Sunday that the annual rivalry will continue at least through 2028.

The Cougars and Huskies will meet at a neutral site in 2024 before alternating between each team’s home stadium. Washington State will host in 2025 and 2027, and Washington will host in 2026 and 2028.

Outside of the COVID season in 2020, the Apple Cup has been played every year since 1945. Washington announced it would join the Big Ten for the 2024 football season, however, throwing the classic rivalry into question.

The 2023 edition of the rivalry will be played in Seattle on Saturday, November 25, with kickoff scheduled for 4:00 p.m.

Utah’s not just playing spoiler this year, coming for the Pac-12 title again

The Utes weren’t just playing spoiler for USC this weekend. Kyle Whittingham and his team have their eyes on a three-peat.

If I told you a team with two consecutive conference titles was written off early in the season because of an injury to their star quarterback but found a way to reach 6-1 with multiple ranked wins, you’d probably groan about the inevitability of it all. You’d conjure images of Alabama in your head, or maybe Clemson‘s decade of dominance in the ACC, a broken record always destined to end atop the mountain no matter how the season transpires.

If I told you Utah would win the Pac-12 again, would you have the same reaction?

Yes, we’re a long way from the Utes taking the conference crown for a third straight year. They need to get through Oregon this weekend first, and it’s been confirmed that quarterback Cam Rising isn’t playing this season. ESPN FPI still has Utah with just a 7.7% chance to win the conference.

But Kyle Whittingham’s squad has the 10th-best strength of record in the country. The Utes are allowing 15.0 points per game, behind only UCLA in the conference, and that number only increases to 20.0 points per game against ranked opponents. Only 11 teams in the country are allowing 20.0 points per game or fewer to ranked opponents, and Utah is the only one of them that has played more than two ranked teams. The Utes are the nation’s No. 6 rushing defense and have a top-50 aerial defense to boot.

We’ve grown so used to Utah, which plays a physical brand of football mostly unseen among today’s top programs, taking it to playoff teams that it’s become a punchline.

While there are certainly worse reputations to have in football, this is a team with back-to-back Rose Bowl appearances. They ended the USC playoff dream last year with a 47-24 beatdown, their second win of the season over the Trojans. Two years ago, when Oregon beat Ohio State in September, the Ducks were 9-1 and the No. 4 team in the country when they came to Utah. The Utes beat them 38-7, then beat them again 38-10 in the conference title game just for good measure.

The Utes get Oregon at home again this weekend, where they have a 27-game win streak. The Ducks are probably the most complete team in the Pac-12, top 20 in the nation both offensively and defensively. Utah is averaging just 23.4 points per game, probably not enough to do any serious damage or garner any playoff buzz even if they win out. But with Washington the only defeated team left in the conference and looking mighty mortal against Arizona State, why not the Utes?

If that home win streak extends to 28 on Saturday? Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Pac-12 Football: Shedeur Sanders, Bucky Irving headline Week 7 top performers

Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Oregon’s Bucky Irving headline the Pac-12’s top performers in Week 7

Week 7 of the college football season in the Pac-12 was an exciting one. From start to finish, the conference, whose in the midst of its final season as we know it, put together a spectacular weekend of action.

On Friday night, Colorado and Stanford had a game for the ages. After the Buffaloes got out to a 29-0 lead, the Cardinal would storm back in the second half, forcing overtime before knocking off Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes 46-63.

On Saturday, Washington and Oregon picked up right where Stanford and Colorado left off, delivering a classic in Seattle. The two undefeated teams went back and forth before the Huskies ultimately pulled out the win 36-33.

USC traveled to South Bend for a Saturday night showdown and saw their perfect season end with a 48-20 loss to the Fighting Irish. In Corvallis, Oregon State improved to 6-1 with an impressive 36-24 win over UCLA while Utah defeated Cal 34-14 in Salt Lake City.

Finally, the Arizona Wildcats went to Pullman and completely dominated the then top-25 Washington State Cougars 44-6 to improve to 4-3 on the season.

Below, College Sports Wire looks at the top performers from across the Pac-12 that helped decide this week’s games.

Oregon vs Washington headlines big Week 7 for the Pac-12

Oregon vs Washington is the top game of Week 7 in an exciting Week 7 for the Pac-12

There will be few conference schedules this season that can match the Week 7 schedule for the Pac-12.

From top to bottom, the Pac-12 is full of intriguing matchups this weekend. The slate gets underway on Friday night with Stanford and Colorado in Boulder, the most lackluster matchup of the weekend.

On Saturday, however, Pac-12 fans should be ready for non-stop action throughout the day. The day starts off with California taking on Utah in Salt Lake City and ends with UCLA traveling to Corvallis to take on Oregon State in one of the more underrated matchups of the week.

In between those two games is a top-10 matchup between Oregon and Washington, Arizona looks to deliver Washington State their second straight loss, while USC and Notre Dame have their annual rivalry matchup in South Bend.

College Sports Wire looks at the four best games of the Pac-12 schedule in Week 7 below.

Pac-12 Football: D.J. Uiagalelei makes big jump in QBR race

Oregon State’s D.J. Uiagalelei made a big jump in this week’s Pac-12 QBR standings

The Pac-12 QBR race has tightened up after Week 7 and there is a new quarterback at the No. 2 spot.

Oregon State’s D.J. Uiagalelei is now ranked second in the Pac-12 in QBR according to ESPN after a five-touchdown performance against Cal this past Saturday. The former five-star prospect only trails Washington’s Michael Penix Jr, 5.1 points behind the Huskies signal caller.

USC’s Caleb Williams remains in the top three, dropping to the third spot this week. Oregon’s Bo Nix and Washington State’s Cameron Ward round out the top five. Finally, the only other quarterback with a QBR above 70 is Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders who sits at No. 6 in the rankings heading into Week 7.

Week 6 QBR:

Rank Quarterback Team QBR
No. 1 D.J. Uiagalelei Oregon State 97.9
No. 2 Caleb Williams USC 78.3
No. 3 Noah Fifita Arizona 76.9
No. 4 Fernando Mendoza California 73.9
No. 5 Shedeur Sanders Colorado 61.3
No. 6 Trenton Bourguet Arizona State 50.9
No. 7 Cameron Ward Washington State 32.8
No. 8 Dante Moore UCLA 31.4

Full season QBR:

Rank Quarterback Team QBR Last Week’s QBR (Ranking)
No. 1 Michael Penix Jr Washington 91.6 91.6 (No. 1)
No. 2 DJ Uiagalelei Oregon State 86.5 80.1 (No. 5)
No. 3 Caleb Williams USC 86.2 88.5 (No. 2)
No. 4 Bo Nix Oregon 82.7 81.6  (No. 4)
No. 5 Cameron Ward Washington State 77.1 86.4 (No. 3)
No. 6 Shedeur Sanders Colorado 70.1 72.3 (No. 6)
No. 7 Jayden de Laura Arizona 48.1 47.5 (No. 8)
No. 8 Nate Johnson Utah 46.8 45.7 (No. 9)
No. 9 Ashton Daniels Stanford 44.4 43.9 (No. 10)
No. 10 Dante Moore UCLA 42.7 49.5 (No. 7)
No. 11 Sam Jackson V Cal 32.8 32.1 (No. 11)
No. 12 Justin Lamson Stanford 22.3 20.7 (No. 12)

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Oregon remains heavy FPI favorite in Pac-12 heading into Week 7

The Oregon Ducks are still the heavy favorite to win the Pac-12 according to ESPN’s FPI.

The Oregon Ducks remain the heavy favorite to win the Pac-12 according to ESPN’s FPI.

The Ducks, 5-0 on the season own the sixth-best FPI in the country, three spots ahead of the Washington Huskies, the only other Pac-12 program within the top 10. While Washington is also in the top 10, the Ducks’ chances to win the conference are at nearly 50%, sitting at 47.8%. Their chances of making the College Football Playoffs are similar at 40%.

This weekend will be a pivotal matchup in the Pac-12 race with the Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies meeting in Seattle. The winner of the matchup between the top 10 programs will allow one program to gain the inside track to get to the Pac-12 title game. ESPN’s matchup predictor gives Oregon a 54.8% chance to win on Saturday.

The Southern California Trojans sit at No. 3 in the conference and 13th nationally but own just a 19.6% chance to win the conference. Lincoln Riley’s program has narrowly avoided being upset in each of the last two weeks. Oregon State, Utah, and UCLA all have chances above 1% according to the model to win the conference.

Here’s how ESPN’s FPI views the rest of the Pac-12’s programs entering week seven of the season.

RANK TEAM W-L CONF W-L FPI WIN CONF. % MAKE PLAYOFF %
No. 1 Oregon 5-0 2-0 24.0 (6) 47.8% 40.0%
No. 2 Washington 5-0 2-0 20.3 (9) 25.7% 22.1%
No. 3 USC 5-0 4-0 17.7 (13) 19.6% 9.3%
No. 4 Oregon State 4-1 2-1 13.2 (20) 4.4% 0.7%
No. 5 Utah 4-1 1-1 10.1 (26) 1.1% 0.1%
No. 6 UCLA 3-1 1-1 8.9 (30) 1.0% 0.1%
No.7 Washington State 4-0 1-1 5.7 (41) 0.3% 0.0%
No. 8 California 3-2 1-2 4.0 (46) 0.0% 0.0%
No. 9 Arizona 3-2 1-2 3.9 (47) 0.1% 0.0%
No. 10 Colorado 3-2 1-2 -0.1 (64) 0.0% 0.0%
No. 11 Arizona State 1-4 0-3 -7.1 (98) 0.0% 0.0%
No. 12 Stanford 1-4 0-3 -10.1 (105) 0.0% 0.0%

 

Arizona Wildcats, UCLA Bruins dominate Pac-12’s top performers in Week 6

College Sports Wire takes a look at the top performers in the Pac-12 from Week 6

It was a small slate of action in the Pac-12 this past weekend, with just four games taking place. That being said, it was an exciting four-game slate, all four games featuring intense action.

The headline game of the weekend was USC surviving an upset attempt by the Arizona Wildcats, using three overtimes and a Caleb Williams two-point conversion to win 43-41. UCLA, a few weeks removed from a missed upset opportunity over the Utah Utes, didn’t miss a second time, beating No. 13 Washington State 25-17.

Oregon State and Cal had an unexpected shootout with the Beavers coming out on top in Berkley 52-40, while Colorado avoided losing their third straight game with a 27-24 win over Arizona State.

Here are Week 6’s top performers from the Pac-12.

Dan Lanning, Kyle Whittingham are the Pac-12’s highest paid coaches

Oregon head football coach Dan Lanning is the Pac-12’s highest paid coach for the 2023 season

The highest-paid head coach in the Pac-12 according to the the USA TODAY Sports coaches salary database is Oregon’s Dan Lanning. The second-year head coach is making $6.6 million to lead the Ducks and has the highest-known buyout in the conference at $44.3 million.

The second highest-paid coach in the conference may be a surprise to some as it is Utah’s Kyle Whittingham. The 63-year-old Whittingham has been the head coach in Salt Lake City since 2005 and has led the Utes to back-to-back conference championships while owning a career 158-75 record.

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders is the fourth highest-paid coach in the Pac-12 in his first year with the program, making $5.5 million this season. He notably has quite a low buyout at just $18.3 million.

Two Pac-12 head coaches’ salaries are not available in the USA TODAY database. Those two head coaches are Southern California’s Lincoln Riley and Stanford’s Troy Taylor. While there are limited details about Riley’s contract known, it is likely that his salary would not just make him the highest-paid head coach in the Pac-12 by a large margin but also one of the highest-paid head coaches in all of college football.

Check out the full listing for Pac-12 head coaches.

Head Coach Team FBS Rank Salary (millions) Buyout (millions)
Dan Lanning Oregon 19 $6.6 $44.3
Kyle Whittingham Utah 23 $6.3 $12.2
Chip Kelly UCLA 27 $5.9 $8.7
Deion Sanders Colorado 32 $5.5 $18.3
Jonathan Smith Oregon State 37 $4.8 $17.5
Justin Wilcox California 40 $4.4 $20.7
Kalen DeBoer Washington 44 $4.2 $32.2
Kenny Dillingham Arizona State 52 $3.8 $15.8
Jedd Fisch Arizona 54 $2.8 $9.1
Jake Dickert Washington State 61 $2.7 $3.7
Lincoln Riley Southern California – – –
Troy Taylor Stanford – – –

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Pac-12 FPI: Oregon holds strong lead over rest of conference

ESPN’s FPI is very high on the Oregon Ducks entering Week 6 of the college football season

After five weeks of the 2023 college football season, ESPN’s FPI is very high on the Oregon Ducks, giving Dan Lanning’s program a nearly 40% chance to win the conference and a 20% chance to make the College Football Playoffs.

Oregon’s FPI of 23.8 ranks sixth best in the country and is only one of two Pac-12 teams to be ranked in the top 10. Also ranked inside the top 10 nationally is the Washington Huskies, who is ranked ninth nationally with a 21.2% chance to win the conference and an 8.8% chance to make the CFP.

USC is off to a 5-0 start, including 3-0 in conference play, and has the 12th best FPI nationally but just a 13.8% chance to win the conference and just a 5.7% chance to make the CFP according to the FPI.

The only other program ranked inside the FPI’s top 25 is the Oregon State Beavers who are 4-1 and are coming off an upset win over the Utah Utes last Friday. The Beavers alongside Washington State notably still do not know their fate for the 2024 season and beyond when it comes to conference affiliation.

Here’s how ESPN’s FPI views the rest of the Pac-12’s programs entering week six of the season.

TEAM W-L CONF W-L FPI WIN CONF. % Make Playoff %
Oregon 5-0 2-0 23.8 (6) 39.9% 19.7%
Washington 5-0 2-0 19.9 (9) 21.2% 8.8%
USC 5-0 3-0 19.3 (12) 13.8% 5.7%
Oregon State 4-1 1-1 12.8 (20) 0.5% 0.1%
Utah 4-1 1-1 10.3 (26) 0.2% 0.1%
UCLA 3-1 0-1 9.6 (29) 0.1% 0
Washington State 4-0 1-0 6.4 (39) 0.2% 0
California 3-2 1-1 4.5 (43) 0 0
Arizona 3-2 1-1 1.9 (54) 0 0
Colorado 3-2 0-2 0.3 (60) 0 0
Arizona State 1-4 0-2 -7.4 (98) 0 0
Stanford 1-4 0-3 -10.3 (105) 0 0