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Pac-10′s top 10 non-conference football games of 2010

by on Jan. 05, 2010, under Sports

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The Pac-10 released its 2010 football schedule on Monday, including a couple of special TV games for Arizona — Friday, Nov. 26, at Oregon and Thursday, Dec. 2, vs. Arizona State.

There are still two games unaccounted for on the official Pac-10 release, although one of them is expected to be a blockbuster of an opening-week game — Oregon State vs. TCU at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Later in September, the Beavers play at Boise State. Yep, TCU and Boise State … the two teams that just played in the Fiesta Bowl. How’s that for a cool non-conference schedule?

In fact, as usual, the Pac-10′s out-of-conference schedule is full of intriguing games.

It kicks off with USC at Hawaii on Thursday, Sept. 2. OK, that in itself isn’t that all that interesting, but it’s worth pointing out because it’s an extra non-conference game. The NCAA allows teams that play at Hawaii to play 13 regular-season games.

So, the Pac-10 will play 31 non-conference games next season, only one of which — an ASU non-conference game — that is TBA. Six of those games will be against lower-division foes, including The Citadel at Arizona on Sept. 11, but there is plenty of meat on the bone.

Here is one opinion on the league’s top 10 non-conference games:

1. Oregon State at Boise State, Sept. 25
The Broncos are 49-4 in the past four years and lose just two senior starters from the team that just finished the season 14-0.

2. UCLA at Texas, Sept. 25
The last time these teams met in Austin it was the “Rout 66″ game as the Bruins won 66-3 in 1997. To the surprise of nobody at Arizona, Texas coach John Mackovic was fired after that season.

3. Oregon at Tennessee, Sept. 11
The Ducks will be rid of LeGarrette Blount, and the Vols don’t have anybody named Terrelle Pryor.

4. Oregon State at TCU, Sept. 4 (Arlington, Texas)
If the Beavers have their usual slow start to the season, it will be an unhappy home-state homecoming for OSU stars James and Jacquizz Rodgers.

5. Nebraska at Washington, Sept. 18
Arizona did its part to convince the Cornhuskers that the Pac-10 is soft. You’re welcome, Huskies.

6. Notre Dame at USC, Nov. 27
New Irish coach Brian Kelly couldn’t possibly be as bad against USC as Charlie Weis was.

7. Iowa at Arizona, Sept. 18
Nick Foles gets to start at quarterback this time as Wildcats try to avenge 27-17 loss in Iowa City.

8. Washington at BYU, Sept. 4
Jake Locker returned for his senior season at Washington. Max Hall is done at BYU. Big quarterback edge to the Huskies.

9. Stanford at Notre Dame, Sept. 25
The Cardinal beat the Irish 45-38 late in the 2009 season, but won’t have RB Toby Gerhart around to save the day. (Still, Stanford will be a much tougher team than Notre Dame.)

10. Houston at UCLA, Sept. 18
If Houston QB Case Keenum doesn’t turn pro, it will be interesting to see how the Bruins stop the Cougars offense after losing DT Brian Price, LB Reggie Carter, CB Alterraun Verner and others.

ARIZONA’S 2010 SCHEDULE
Sept. 4 — at Toledo
Sept. 11 — vs. The Citadel
Sept. 18 — vs. Iowa
Oct. 2 — vs. Cal
Oct. 9 — vs. Oregon State
Oct. 16 — at Washington State
Oct. 23 — vs. Washington
Oct. 30 — at UCLA
Nov. 6 — at Stanford
Nov. 13 — vs. USC
Nov. 26 (Friday) — at Oregon
Dec. 2 (Thursday) — vs. Arizona State

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 2:06 am and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Mark B. Evans

    My knee-jerk predictions for next year even though I don’t know things such as whether  Gronk will be back, how many players will leave Oregon early or whether Harbaugh will stay at Stanford or if Dykes will still be our O-coordinator:
     
    at Toledo   W
    vs. The Citadel   W
    vs. Iowa   W
    vs. Cal   W
    vs. Oregon State   W
    at Washington State   W
    vs. Washington   W
    at UCLA   W
    at Stanford   L
    vs. USC   L
    at Oregon   L
    vs. Arizona State   W
    Final record: 9-3
     
    If Gronkowski’s back and Grigsby’s healthy all year, we’ll have the best offense in the Pac-10, potentially. I think Cal will be better than last year and Oregon State worse, but since we’ve got them both at home, I put them in the win column. I think Washington will be better, especially since Locker is coming back, but it’s a home game, so I flipped a coin and it came up Cats.  I think UCLA will be better next year and Stanford worse, but they’re back-to-back road games and I can’t see us winning both. Plus, if all the preceding games were wins as I predict, then the Cats will be ranked in the top 10 and I think Stoops and Co. fold under the pressure of that high of a ranking and being on the road.
     
    I think USC and Oregon will both be better than this year. We might be able to beat USC at home but I can’t see us winning in Eugene, not when the Pac-10 and a BCS berth would be on the line.
     
    ASU loses a lot of defensive players to graduation and its offense was awful this year and will be again, so that’s a win.
     
    So, a better record than this year, depending on the breaks. Could be Stoops break-through year in which the Cats are 10-2 or even 11-1 and get into the BCS. Or it could be a 7-5 or 6-6 year if Gronk leaves for the NFL and guys like Jahvid Best and Jacquizz Rodgers don’t.
     
    Is it August yet?

  • Glenn

    Correction: 

    2. UCLA at Texas, Sept. 25
    The last time these teams met it was the “Rout 66″ game as the Bruins won 66-3 in 1997. To the surprise of nobody at Arizona, Texas coach John Mackovic was fired after that season.

    Actually, its half right.

     The Rout 66 game was the last time that the Bruins met Texas @ Austin.  The Bruins and Texas played in the Rose Bowl in ’98 – (from memory) with the Bruins jumping out to a 35-0 lead and Texas fighting back to make the game respectible. 

    • Anthony Gimino

      Glenn,
       
      You are correct. The teams played in Pasadena in Sept. 1998, with the Bruins winning 49-31.

  • http://burningchips.com Travis

    I like how the schedule sets up for next year.  Assuming Gronk comes back, and even if he doesn’t, we will be absolutely loaded on offense.  I think Dykes will only leave for the Texas Tech job, which I would too, but either way the offense and four straight home games (when did we join the Big 10 or SEC?) should hold us over while the defense replaces the coordinators and 6 starters.  With Stoops at the helm, I’m never concerned with the defense.  They’ll always play hard (cough– Holiday Bowl–cough).

    You could make the case with Gronk’s return and Foles’ progression, this has the potential to be Arizona’s most talented offense ever.  You’re looking at about 5 deep at RB and 6-7 deep at WR.  Quality depth is nice.

    Granted it’s still UA, so there will be a heart breaking deflection in there somewhere.

    My forecast:

    at Toledo   W
    vs. The Citadel   W
    vs. Iowa   W
    vs. Cal   W
    vs. Oregon State   W
    at Washington State   W
    vs. Washington   W
    at UCLA   W
    at Stanford   L (The token upset)
    vs. USC   W
    at Oregon   L
    vs. Arizona State   W
    Final record: 10-2

    Finish 2nd in the Pac 10, earn a BCS at-large berth in the Fiesta Bowl (I think the fans will travel for that) and face Nebraska… On second thought.

  • Mark Johnson

    Mark, I am with Travis. I think they can win the Stanford game and go 10 and 2. If we get lucky and the wrong USC team shows up at home, AZ could go 11-1. If Oregon shows up every game, they play for the national title and AZ goes Rose Bowling.

    But we are all greedy AZ fans. 8–4 is a solid season; rewind two years and we would be begging for that.  Now it is not enough.

    But I do agree, we need to add 1 loss due to some double pass, ball shoe bouncing hitting the ground thing. It is AZ.

    Foles to Gronk will be really hard to stop. Grigsby and Antolin with Gronk blocking is automatic 6 yards. O-line will be good again; Colin Baxtor should be up for a center award.

    We will however need Mr Dykes to introduce a few new plays; jeesh!! I was calling the plays during the NE game and everyone around me started laughing as I was about 90%. Dyles wasted 3 weeks by not driving thsi as a new spring practice to learn something new. Shameful at D1 level. NE certainly came with new stuff; that is what that time is for, not executing file tape. Game was on Dykes; no one else.

    • Mark B. Evans

      I agree that there’s a 10-2 team there depending on the breaks.
      I just don’t think we have a 10-2 coach. I hope he proves me wrong.
      Even Lute got a blown out now and again, but he never got out coached. Stoops and staff were out coached Dec. 30.
      I think the best thing that could happen in the coming decade is Stoops has a 10-2 season in the same year that Kirk Ferentz takes a job at Pitt or UConn (or somewhere) and then Iowa hires Stoops. Then we can try again to find a coach to put us over the hump.
       

  • ean

    The Vols may not have Pryor but the do have Bryce Brown… another highly touted recruit that the Ducks just missed out on.

  • Devin

    I think we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. Luckily for Arizona, Iowa’s players are capitalizing on a great season and bolting for the NFL. We should be able to beat the next season. Here’s my outlook…

    at Toledo   W
    vs. The Citadel   W
    vs. Iowa   W
    vs. Cal   W
    vs. Oregon State   W
    at Washington State   W
    vs. Washington   L (Arizona can’t contain mobile QB’s…maybe something will change w/ a new defensive coordinator, but I’m not counting on it. Locker is legit)
    at UCLA   W
    at Stanford   W (Luck is still there, but w/out Gerhart keeping defenses honest they’ll struggle)
    vs. USC   L
    at Oregon   L
    vs. Arizona State   W
    Final record: 9-3

    Probably another Holiday berth for U of A. Maybe the Alamo Bowl (which I think is taking over our #3 spot???). A top-3 Pac-10 finish again would be huge for the production of an up and coming program. I still feel that 9-3 is pushing it and we’ll probably struggle along the way and drop an inexplicable game (maybe UCLA on the road?). But this is much better than the 3-9 seasons we’ve been used to before Stoops
     

  • floriduck

    “The Ducks will be rid of LeGarrette Blount. . .”  That has a ring of negativity to it.  Am I correct??????????

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