Can Matt Scott help the Cats keep pace with the Ducks?
Photo by David Wallace/The Arizona Republic

The Oregon Ducks are now at a point where simply winning a second consecutive Pac-10 title may be viewed as a disappointment.

The Ducks are in the driver’s seat for a berth in the BCS championship game. Does the extra incentive make them more dangerous or does the added pressure make them more vulnerable?

Vulnerable means nothing if there isn’t anybody good enough to take them down. Who has the best chance of beating Oregon for the Pac-10 crown? This week’s Survivor Rankings have the answer.

1. Oregon
2. Washington
3. Oregon State
4. ARIZONA
5. Cal
6. Stanford
X. Arizona State
X. UCLA
X. Washington State
X. USC

The Beavers and Wildcats have significant injury losses. The Huskies are #2 by default but they do have wins over OSU and USC.

Cal came this close to dropping from #3 to banishment but their next three games look winnable: ASU, at one-Rodgers OSU, and at WSU. Of course, all three of those teams are looking at the Cal game as winnable too.

Stanford remains stuck in 6th because every team above them still has a crack at earning the head-to-head tiebreaker with Oregon. But, hey, they have the best tackling quarterback in the league.

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The bowl bubble watch is back and the water’s getting muddy at the bottom.

ALREADY IN:
Oregon (6-0)

THE KEY IS IN THE LOCK:
Stanford (5-1)
Arizona (5-1)

BUBBLE IN:
OSU (3-3)
Cal (3-3)
Washington (3-3)

BUBBLE OUT:
UCLA (3-3)
ASU (2-3*)

(*ASU’s second FCS win not included.)

It is really a toss-up with all these 3-3 teams. Each of them could get hot and make the postseason, or all of them could end up 5-7 and leave the bowl bids for the MAC.

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There’s a Thursday night game this week so it’s time for a TWIT-Pac Lite:

UCLA (3-3 / 1-2) at Oregon (6-0 / 3-0)
The game is at 6 p.m. Pacific/Arizona time on ESPN and ESPN3.com. Every eye that cares about college football will be watching this game, and most of them will be rooting against the Ducks.

Who do Wildcat fans want to win?
UCLA. Not that it matters this week. Although, does anyone remember the last time Oregon played on a Thursday as the #2 team in the BCS?

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Rapid-fire thoughts from the Washington State game:

The Cougars came out of the gate fast by starting the game with an onside kick and converting a 4th down at midfield on their opening possession. There will come a time this year when Arizona needs to make equally bold moves to pull off a big win. Will the Wildcats have the courage of a 1-5 team?

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In the 2nd quarter Jeff Tuel tried to scramble but he ran into a referee and fell to the turf. As Oregon State demonstrated, you want the ref to be a blocker, not a tackler.

Speaking of Wazzu’s running Tuel, he picked up a first down with his feet on 3rd and 15 and came up just short on a 3rd-and-19 run. Through the air he converted 3rd downs of 11, 13, 12, 10 (the touchdown), and 20 yards. Add in the Ryan Katz Show from the previous week and Jake Locker has to be downright giddy about facing this pass defense.

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WSU stuffed Arizona on 4th-and-inches when the score was 21-7 early in the 4th quarter. If the Cougar running back doesn’t decide to throw the ball directly to Brooks Reed things could’ve gotten interesting, and by interesting I mean very uncomfortable.

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I have given Keenyn Crier plenty of grief so I have to give him credit this week. Pinning three punts inside the 20 is a strong showing. He could be a valuable weapon in the second half of the season if the passing game is limited.

Speaking of the limited passing game, Juron Criner dropped two passes from Matt Scott. Those two need to spend every waking moment together until they’re in sync.

Lost in the hysteria surrounding Nick Foles’ knee is the fact that Criner didn’t finish yet another game. In the Toledo and Oregon State games he had a total of 22 receptions. In the other four games he only had 11 catches.

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It was a sign of confidence when freshman cornerback Shaquille Richardson took Antoine Cason’s old uniform number. Young Shaq is off to a good start in living up to the #5 with two interceptions (and a Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Week award) in his first career start. Mr. Cason probably wouldn’t approve of giving up that 83-yard reception though.

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Just in case you were over the OSU loss, if the Cats had beaten the Beavers they would be the #6 team in the country.

In happier ranking news, it was exactly one year ago that the UA was surprisingly included in the first BCS standings. Improving on that 4-2 start and appearing in the BCS top 25 for the second straight season is a tribute to the work Mike Stoops has done and it shouldn’t be ignored.

Stoops and his staff can win even more fans if they can bring out the best in Matt Scott. What does the best Matt Scott look like?

1-0 would be a great start.

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(Kings and queens of the internet! Join the fun on Facebook and Twitter!)

No, Mana, now you have two wins.
Photo by Chris Morrison/US Presswire

The Pac-10 won every possible game last weekend so there aren’t many changes to the Survivor Rankings. Remember, this isn’t entirely based on what has happened but what has the best chance of happening once league play begins.

1. Oregon
2. Stanford
3. ARIZONA
4. Oregon State
5. Cal
6. Washington
7. Arizona State
8. UCLA
9. Washington State
10. USC

I was tempted to bump Cal ahead of OSU based on quarterback play but we have to give the Beavers time to do their annual transformation back into a quality team. It’s also worth noting that this year’s Bears/Beavs gave is in Corvallis.

Only one conference game has been played and it was enough to eliminate a team from championship consideration. You don’t get shut out at home if you expect to come anywhere near a league title.

You want another bad sign? Bruin QB Kevin Prince’s passer rating is lower than Nick Foles’ completion percentage. ¡Adios, UC-Los Angeles!

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More thoughts from The Citadel game and beyond…

The blue jersey win streak is now at 9 games. One of these days the Cats will wear the lucky blues for a big game but it won’t be this week. It doesn’t make any sense to call for a “Red Out” and have your team wear a different color. The red jerseys will have to attempt to shake off the funk of last year’s Oregon game. Perhaps the striped white helmets will provide the missing visual spark.

I do think the new wider stripes look much better on the white pants than the blue. I expect we’ll get to see if the red pants are ready for prime time Saturday night.

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Masked by the splendor of a 93-8 combined score in the first two games is the fact that punter Keenyn Crier has gotten off to a slow start. He hasn’t had a lot of work (you don’t score 46 points per game by punting a lot) but he’s currently dead last in the Pac-10 in net punting. He wasn’t even the best punter on the field against The Citadel. You should not be getting outkicked by an FCS punter named Cass. Something to keep an eye on as the close games are upon us.

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It’s interesting that among the teams joining the Pac-12 Colorado looks like the program that will be stepping up from a smaller conference. Utah wouldn’t lose 52-7 to anybody.

It makes you wonder why the Big 12 is sticking to its financial guns in keeping the Buffaloes around an extra year. If Washington State was looking to leave wouldn’t you be more than happy to cover their moving expenses? Or at least pay for their boxes?

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Expanding on my Twitter post here are Iowa’s last ten non-conference games west of the state of Iowa:

Year	Opponent	Result	Score
2004	Arizona St.	L	44-7
2000	Nebraska	L	42-13
2000	Kansas St.	L	27-7
1998	ARIZONA	L	35-11
1996	Tulsa	L	27-20
1994	Oregon	L	40-18
1992	Colorado	L	28-12
1988	Kansas St.	W	45-10
1988	Hawai‘i	L	27-24
1987	ARIZONA	W	15-14

Yes, Manhattan, Kansas is west of Iowa. Either way you have to go back a long way to find a Hawkeye victory on the western front.

Westward Ho!

Holiday Bowl week is here!

The Las Vegas Bowl trip was an absolute blast and I’m looking forward to more of the same this year. I do hope we make this bowl game thing an annual tradition.

Although, looking at UA history the return bowl trip shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Dating back to the ‘80s every time the Cats broke a bowl draught they made it back to the postseason the following year. Now, going bowling again next year would be a bigger accomplishment as the Wildcats have only played in a bowl three straight years one time (1992-’94).

Arizona’s all-time bowl record is 6-7-1 so a win on Wednesday would even things up. That wouldn’t be bad at all considering the school went 65 years between its first bowl game (1921) and its first bowl victory (1986).

This is the first time we’ve played a school in a bowl game a second time. In our previous 14 bowls we played 14 different teams, from the obscure (Centre and Drake) to the name brand (Auburn, Georgia and Miami), but Nebraska is the first rematch.

The ’09 Cornhuskers are known for three things: defense, defense, and defense. In their last seven games Nebraska has only given up more than one offensive touchdown twice. They kept the other team’s O completely out of the end zone three different times. The Huskers intercepted 14 passes over their final six games.

This is not a game for Nick Foles to try and buy time with his feet. Holding the ball against these guys is a turnover waiting to happen. The game plan has to be read-read-read-throw it away.

I would love for our guys to score two quick TDs and coast but we’re probably going to see a game similar to the last two we played. What we need to not see is a third quarter like the last two. Just one first down in the opening period of the second half against both ASU and USC. What’s the opposite of halftime adjustments?

Sustaining long drives is going to be difficult so the Cats have got to look for a couple opportunities to take a shot deep with Juron Criner. We need to get the ball into #82’s hands as often as possible (remember the huge inside screen against Oregon) but it makes a lot of sense to try and set up a quick score or two with a one-on-one jump ball deep.

Field position is crucial in defensive struggles so Keenyn Crier needs to come up big. Thirteen-yard punts aren’t going to cut it. Along the same lines Alex Zendejas can’t miss any short field goals. Hopefully his kick against the Sun Devils will have him ready in case more 4th-quarter heroics are needed.

The fans won’t like it but I don’t see Mike Stoops doing a lot of gambling in the red zone. Yes, touchdowns are huge in this game, but field goals are semi-huge.

I will say this: One act of well-timed deception could make all the difference. I’m thinking something along the lines of going for it on 4th-and-inches, lining up in the “Hey! We’re running a quarterback sneak!” formation…and then passing. If that happens I will leave my nosebleed seat, storm the press box and lift Sonny Dykes onto my shoulders myself.

So word must have gotten out about our poor record wearing white jerseys and white pants. It’s like someone said, “Uniform stats, shmooniform stats. I see your fear of White-on-White and give you White-on-White-on-White.”

Whatever Arizona wears the program will be trying to finish a season ranked for just the sixth time in the Pac-10 era. A win would also give the Cats a rare year-ending win streak. Since leaving the WAC Arizona has only won three or more to end a season four times, with three-game streaks in 1984 and ’88 (no bowl game either year), a four-game streak to end 1997 and the seven-game run that took us to our first Holiday Bowl in ’98.

That’s a lot at stake for the guys from Tucson. What’s not at stake is a successful season. Mike Stoops has already proven that last year was no fluke and he’s providing solid evidence that he’s building a program with staying power.

Because of that it’s a perfect opportunity for the Wildcats to come out relaxed, confident, and ready to play their very best.

Grab your beef jerky and let’s ride.