Tag: Pac-12

USC football’s Pac-12 greatest hits — Arizona

USC won a game over Arizona’s head coach nearly four decades ago. That Arizona coach then moved to USC.

The USC-Arizona football series hasn’t had many memorable encounters in the Pac-12 era. One was last year, with the Trojans winning a multi-overtime thriller. However, USC did not have a season which magnified the significance of that victory. It was merely an interesting footnote in a failed year. USC and Arizona simply haven’t had many high-stakes collisions, the kinds of games which linger in the public memory. If you were to choose a significant USC-Arizona Pac-12 game, one choice rises above the others.

We wrote about the 1986 USC-Arizona game, which was ugly and poorly played, but which was won by the Trojans and therefore created a chain reaction which influenced the next several years for both schools:

“(Larry) Smith’s 9-3 Arizona team in 1986 might have finished 11-1 had it handled USC. As it was, the Wildcats fell short of their goal. They finished the season in the top 15 of the polls, a great achievement for the program relative to its barren history, but lacked the prestigious bowl game to show for it.

“When USC fired coach Ted Tollner after the 1986 season, guess who was willing to spring from Tucson — and was offered the USC job? Yep, Larry Smith, who promptly made three straight Rose Bowls at USC before his tenure quickly lost steam in the early 1990s.

“If Arizona had beaten USC in 1986, Tollner still would have been fired … but the Wildcats might have taken a very different turn. This is the USC-Arizona game which still contains an element of fascination many years later. USC’s victory didn’t lead to any riches in 1986 … but it did in 1987, 1988, and 1989.”

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USC football’s Pac-12 greatest hits — Stanford

The years when great USC teams survived lesser Stanford teams were crucial moments for the Trojans.

Stanford is an interesting Pac-12 football program for USC and its fans to consider. The Cardinal have had some short bursts of time in which they were very, very good, but it has been hard for this program to become an annual threat over whole decades. The most sustained period of excellence at Stanford football in recent memory was the Jim Harbaugh-David Shaw period from 2009 through 2018. Stanford was really good for roughly a decade. Before that, it’s hard to find a prolonged period of quality for the Cardinal in a 75-year span. The last 10-year period in which Stanford was generally excellent — or close to it — was 1926 through 1935.

Because Stanford has rarely been elite, USC hasn’t had that many epic games or showdowns versus the Trees. Some of the more notable USC-Stanford Pac-12 (Pac-10, Pac-8) games were not meetings on the mountaintop. They were games in which USC had a ton to play for and Stanford tried to pull an upset.

We wrote about the 2004 Stanford game:

“This one was too close for comfort. USC squeaked by Stanford, 31-28, on September 25. The Trojans got away with a relatively shaky performance, the kind of game they couldn’t solve in other seasons when they stumbled on the road in the Pac-10 (such as 2006 and 2008 at Oregon State).”

The 1972 game was somewhat similar, although Stanford was coming off consecutive Rose Bowl wins that year. Nevertheless, it was USC’s least impressive performance of the season. The 1972 Trojans, regarded as the greatest football team in school history, beat Stanford by only nine on The Farm. No other USC opponent that season came closer than 17 points.

These two wins over Stanford, in 1972 and 2004, preserved unbeaten seasons and led to national championships.

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Pac-12 gets snubbed and SEC gets rewarded one last time

The SEC thrives at the Pac-12’s expense. It’s a tale as old as time.

The USC Trojans were snubbed for the NCAA Baseball Tournament one year ago in 2023. This year, another team from the Pac-12 got snubbed. The Cal Golden Bears got the short end of the stick. Florida, on the other hand, got into the tournament despite a 28-27 record of undeniable mediocrity in the SEC. One last time, SEC favoritism trumped Pac-12 merit. It’s a story we know all too well here in the West.

Gators Wire has more on Florida making the NCAA Baseball Tournament despite its mediocre record:

“Florida will face regional No. 2 seed Nebraska and Oklahoma State will face Niagara in the opening round on May 31. The Gators get the early game. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET and will air on ESPN+. The winners and losers of the first two games will play on Saturday. The regional bracket is double elimination.

“The winner of the Stillwater Regional will go on to face the winner of the Clemson Regional, which features Vanderbilt, Coastal Carolina and High Point University.

“A record 11 SEC teams made the Field of 64.

“Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas A&M are hosting regionals. Alabama, LSU, Mississippi State and South Carolina are the other at-large bids.”

Florida did play a tougher schedule than Cal. There’s no argument there. The whole discussion revolves around the idea that a .500 team (or close to it) deserves a bid over a team which went 36-19, as Cal did. Strength of schedule matters, but if a team doesn’t win many games, what’s the point of playing games? Cal was 17 games above .500. Florida was one game above .500. Much as the NFL frankly shouldn’t allow sub-.500 teams into the playoffs, and the NBA should do the same, college baseball shouldn’t allow teams in if they aren’t at least five games over .500. That is not too much to ask.

Oh, well: The SEC gets favorable treatment at the Pac-12’s expense. One more for the road.

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USC football’s greatest Pac-12 hits: Washington

USC and Sam Darnold beat undefeated Washington in 2016, but that’s not all.

USC football is easily the most accomplished program in the history of the Pac-12. Nothing can ever change that. No other program comes especially close to matching the Trojans’ body of work over the full length of the Pac-12’s existence. One of the few other programs which can boast a national championship and a significant presence in the top tier of the Pac-12 is Washington. The Huskies aren’t in the same league as USC, but they have established themselves as one of the best non-USC programs in the conference.

As the Pac-12 comes to an end, what are some of USC football’s best wins against Washington? One of them has to be 2016, when Sam Darnold went into Husky Stadium and sillenced the previously unbeaten Huskies. That win enabled USC to make and eventually win the Rose Bowl over Penn State.

Another top win is 1984, which we wrote about:

“Has USC ever prevented UW from winning it all? The answer is yes.

“In 1984, Washington finished No. 2 behind No. 1 BYU. The reason why the Huskies couldn’t rise above the Cougars in the final rankings — even though they had a much tougher schedule and bigger wins, such as the 1985 Orange Bowl victory over Oklahoma — was that USC dealt Washington a loss. The Trojans defeated Washington, 16-7, on November 10, 1984, in the Los Angeles Coliseum. The year 1984 was marked by the Los Angeles Olympics. This was a final mountaintop moment for the venerable Coliseum in a landmark year for L.A. sports.”

The win was big for another reason as well: It enabled USC to win the Pac-10 title and go to the 1985 Rose Bowl, where the Trojans defeated Ohio State. This was USC’s only Pac-10 title in a seven-season span from 1980 through 1986.

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USC football’s greatest Pac-12 hits: Washington State

USC has three particularly memorable and resonant wins over Washington State in Pac-12 history.

The end of the Pac-12 is making us nostalgic. Let’s taste some misty, watercolor memories of the way we were at USC. When we think of the Trojans’ best moments, we obviouly start with the Rose Bowl wins and the national championships, followed by the conquests of Notre Dame and UCLA. Yet, there’s a whole conference USC competed against, not just the rivals or the New Year’s Day bowl opponents. In remembrance of the dying Pac-12, let’s look at USC football’s greatest wins against each Pac-12 school. We start with Washington State.

The three wins which stand out the most for USC are 1929, 1932, and 2003.

You probably can recall 2003. Bill Doba had a 10-win team that year. Pete Carroll’s Trojans hammered those Cougars on the road to a national championship.

Let’s not forget 1929 — when Washington State was 10-2 — or 1932, when Wazzu lost only once. WSU had great teams in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In those two years, 1929 and 1932, USC beat the Cougars each time.

We wrote about the 1932 USC team, an unbeaten national champion:

“The 1932 team is special because it was the first unbeaten USC team coached by both Howard Jones and assistant coach (defensive coordinator) Sam Barry. Jones and Barry were great teammates on the football staff, but beyond that, they are the two most important figures in the entire history of USC athletics. Jones built the football program. Barry built the basketball and baseball programs. Both men reached the summit in their respective fields of expertise. Jones won national championships with Barry’s help. Barry won the College World Series championship and reached the NCAA Final Four. Both men are legends — Jones in football, Barry in basketball and baseball.”

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Bill Walton couldn’t live in a world without the Pac-12 Conference

Bill Walton won’t see his beloved UCLA play a Big Ten game, and he never did want to, anyway.

It is lost on no one that Bill Walton, easily the most prominent and public ambassador for the Pac-12 Conference, died shortly after the league’s last sporting event, the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament, ended. Walton died on Memorial Day weekend, right after the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament ended on Saturday night with Arizona beating USC.

The Pac-12 Baseball Tournament marked the last live-game broadcast for the Pac-12 Network, which signed off on Friday night. Play-by-play man Roxy Bernstein offered a farewell address of sorts on the air. One night later, for ESPN2 — in what was ESPN’s last Pac-12 game broadcast — Bernstein offered a similar, albeit shorter, final on-air note. Bill Walton worked with Bernstein, Dave Pasch, Ted Robinson, and other broadcasters on Pac-12 games. His death, by preceding the first USC, UCLA, Washington, or Oregon game in the Big Ten (and the first Arizona or Arizona State game in the Big 12), is eerie and remarkable in that regard.

It certainly makes us all reflect on how connected we are to the passions that drive our lives. Rest in peace, Bill Walton. You were a foremost champion in the Conference of Champions.

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Oregon goes to the Santa Barbara Regional in NCAA tournament

Oregon baseball stays on the West Coast and will head to sunny Santa Barbara to play in the NCAA tournament this weekend.

This is why being on the bubble is so difficult. You have to wait to see when your name is called, if your name is called.

The Oregon Ducks baseball team had to wait nearly the entire selection process until their name finally showed up on a four-team regional bracket on the ESPN2 telecast.

But their name was called and the Ducks will stay on the West Coast as they will head down to play in the Santa Barbara Regional this weekend. Oregon (37-18) will open up with the San Diego Toreros (40-13), the champions of the West Coast Conference, on Friday.

This is Oregon’s fourth straight tournament appearance. The Ducks were able to host a Super Regional last season after winning the Vanderbilt Regional, but lost to Oral Roberts.

Also in the UCSB Regional along with the Gauchos (42-12) is Fresno State. The Bulldogs (33-27) won the Mountain West tournament and became that league’s automatic qualifier.

USC’s last Pac-12 season frequently ran into — and through — Arizona

USC and Arizona have brought down the curtain on the Pac-12 on multiple occasions.

The USC Trojans have completed their last college sports cycle in the Pac-12 Conference. Their last baseball season in the Pac-12 just ended. Basketball ended in March. Football ended in November (regular season, not the bowl game). A lot of USC endings in the Pac-12 have involved the Arizona Wildcats and, in some cases, the state of Arizona.

USC baseball’s last Pac-12 game was against the University of Arizona on Saturday night. The game was played in the state of Arizona, given that Scottsdale was the host city.

USC men’s basketball played its last Pac-12 game against Arizona, both in the regular season and in the Pac-12 Tournament. USC men’s basketball and baseball both faced Arizona in the final Pac-12 game ever played by those two Trojan teams, both in the Pac-12 Tournament.

USC women’s basketball played its last Pac-12 regular season game versus the Arizona State Sun Devils, and the Women of Troy did so in Tempe.

USC and Arizona will play in separate conferences next season. They walk out the door of the Pac-12 having met in a lot of important conference finales.

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The great lamentation about Oregon and USC in the Pac-12 football era

USC-Oregon football in the Pac-12 era is a story of missed connections.

USC fans might hate Oregon, but there is a part of the shared story of USC and Oregon football which has left something to be desired. Neither USC nor Oregon fans like it when the other school succeeds, especially in this modern era defined by NIL and Phil Knight’s massive investment in Oregon athletics. However, even the most ardent Oregon-hating USC fans and the most resolute USC-hating Oregon backers can agree on one thing: This football matchup very rarely reached its full potential in the Pac-12 and Pac-10.

Oregon has had some great teams this century: 2001, 2010, 2014. USC has had some great teams this century: 2003-2005, 2008. Those listed years don’t include other Rose Bowl or Pac-10/12 championship seasons. Yet, you can see that Oregon and USC football have very rarely been great at the same time. It has usually been a case of one program being great one year and then the other program being great the next. Oregon had its fantastic 2001 season, then USC rose to prominence in 2002. Oregon made the national title game in the 2010 season, USC had a bounce-back year in 2011. Oregon made the title game again in 2014, USC then had its great two-year Sam Darnold burst in 2016 and 2017. It really is lamentable that these two programs, which have both had a lot of great teams this century, haven’t met on the mountaintop.

Ducks Wire editor Zachary Neel talked to us about this in our recent podcast:

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USC’s total humiliation of Washington makes Huskies’ rise more impressive

UW Huskies Wire talks to us about how one embarrassing loss to USC makes Washington’s improvement that much sweeter.

Washington football achieved in 2023 what USC football fans have not yet tasted over the past 10 years. Washington made the College Football Playoff, won a semifinal game, and played in the national championship game. USC, in 10 years of playoff competition, has not yet participated in the event. The Trojans won the Rose Bowl in the 2016 season but were never in real playoff contention due to three early-season losses. The 2017 team won the Pac-12 championship but was similarly never a factor in the playoff chase after a midseason blowout loss to Notre Dame. The closest the Trojans came to making the playoff was in 2022, when they fell one win short in the Pac-12 Championship Game against Utah in Las Vegas.

These are rough times for USC, but if you think these are bad moments for the Trojans, compare that to what Washington Huskies fans endured in 2008. That was the 0-12 season under Ty Willingham. UW hit rock bottom. Roman Tomashoff is the editor of UW Huskies Wire. He grew up in Los Angeles. He was at the Coliseum for a 56-0 USC win over that terrible U-Dub team in 2008. USC led 35-0 with nine minutes left before halftime. Tomashoff talked to us about how that miserable 2008 experience makes Washington football’s return to prominence that much sweeter.

Here’s the full show with UW Huskies Wire:

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