Pac 10 Football Forecast for 2010

Being the sports fan that I am, especially at the high school and college level, and being a grad of the University of California system (Cal, UCLA, UCSB), and a long time fan of USC…I am partial towards the Pac 10. This year, not a lot of national excitement about the Pac 10 teams, but, being the optimist that I am, I think the Conference will ”hold its own”. However, pre season pundits are not giving much credit, but a reporter for the Orange County Register, Marcia Smith, has done one of the best brief comments on the Pac 10 teams and what we can expect. Next week I will see Cal and can see how her evaluation of the Golden Bears holds up…but here is her well done analysis:

The Pac-10 has entered a new era, adopted a more modern-looking logo reflecting the West’s mountains and ocean and taken a more aggressive national stance thanks to second-year Commissioner Larry Scott’s bold steps to get coast-to-coast exposure and erode the not-so-mythical East Coast Bias.
Scott says 2010 is going to be a special season for the “Conference of Champions.”


USC quarterback Matt Barkley and UCLA defensive back Rahim Moore will help lead their respective teams into the 2010 college football season. Click on the PHOTO to see the predicted Pac-10 finish.
•The state of Oregon boasts both league programs with the best chances of making national runs. The loaded Oregon Ducks (No. 11 in both the AP and the USA Today Coaches’ Poll) and the Oregon State Beavers (No. 24 AP), powered by brothers Jacquizz and James Rodgers, look to turn heads to the Pacific Northwest.•The Pac-10′s spectacle team, USC, enters without the charismatic, win-forever coach Pete Carroll, without a top six in the preseason ranking for the first time in six seasons and without being the favorite to win the conference title. Instead, the Trojans have a generous No. 14 AP ranking, a new coach in Lane Kiffin, NCAA sanctions to work within and all the turmoil that comes with being in the NCAA doghouse. They have the talent but might lack the numbers to get through a season that could go either way if key players don’t stay healthy.
•Potential 2010 No. 1 NFL overall draft selection Jake Locker returns for a senior season at Washington for unfinished business. The talented quarterback has yet to guide the Huskies to a bowl game or a winning record.
•Arizona State’s Dennis Erickson and Washington State’s Paul Wulff open the season on the coaching hotseat while Cal’s Jeff Tedford needs to figure out how to guide the Golden Bears closer to meet their expectations.
•Talented quarterbacks Nick Foles at Arizona and Andrew Luck at Stanford hope to lead their teams back into the national conversation with creative offense.
•And UCLA, despite coming off a victory in a minor bowl, will continue Rick Neuheisel’s rebuilding project, with Westwood eager to see the Bruins finally get over the hump.

So, it all starts next week. In the meantime I have to live with my good friends from Oregon…..and see the Green and Gold from Oregon one day and the black and orange from Oregon State the next. But, I stay true…Go Bears!