2009 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PREVIEW
Deep, experienced USC has just two spots to fill on offense starting with quarterback, where sophomore Aaron Corp (6-foot-4, 205 pounds) edged out a pair of national high school players of the year – true freshman Matt Barkley and junior Arkansas transfer Mitch Mustain. |
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2009 PAC-10 PREVIEW
The Pac-10 bills itself as “The Conference of Champions,’’ and backs that boast up almost everywhere that college sports are played these days – everywhere but one. |
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2009 WASHINGTON STATE PREVIEW
They Cougars return eight starters on offense: so far, so good.
The problem is, that’s from a 2-11 team that was outscored 453-77 in the Pac-10, beating only non-Bowl Subdivision team Portland State and a Jake Locker-less Washington team at home in double overtime in the Apple Cup. |
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2009 WASHINGTON PREVIEW
One way to tell the difference between the bottom-of-the-BCS barrel programs at Washington and Washington State is simply this. |
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2009 ARIZONA PREVIEW
True freshman Matt Scott must come through for Arizona to have a chance to build on last season’s first real step of coach Mike Stoops vision for his program; if, that is, the fan favorite can win the job from challenger Nick Foles. |
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2009 ARIZONA STATE PREVIEW
No offense, please, we’re the Arizona State Sun Devils…and no, Dennis Erickson’s first team two years ago almost certainly wasn’t as good as that 10-win, season-long ranked group that greeted his arrival in Tempe. |
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2009 STANFORD PREVIEW
Third-year coach Jim Harbaugh chose not to make a change but to stay, opting to look past all the NFL interest in him and extend his contract on The Farm. |
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2009 OREGON STATE PREVIEW
Is Mike Riley smiling? Well, if the nation’s most underrated great coach isn’t, he should be, every time he thinks about what he’s got coming back on offense to Corvallis. |
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2009 UCLA PREVIEW
After going 4-8 the first season back at his alma mater last fall, UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel has been pulling out all the stops for the Bruins ever since. |
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2009 CALIFORNIA PREVIEW
Jeff Tedford has always had players, from quarterbacks to ball carriers, from receivers to the “big uglies up front,’’ to implement his sophisticated offensive schemes. |
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2009 OREGON PREVIEW
Offense won’t be where the Ducks, top 10 in both final polls a year ago after whacking Oklahoma State 42-31 in the Holiday Bowl, will have to find their way. The man who made the offense go, coordinator Chip Kelly, has assumed the reins as one of the Pac-10’s two new coaches, with Mike Bellotti moving on up to athletic director as he was always planning to do to. |
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New Pac 10 Commish has an Open Mind
by Dennis Dodd
Two words have kicked off the Larry Scott era as Pac-10 commissioner.
More than three months before he officially takes office, Scott has raised eyebrows and maybe some blood pressure with a three-syllable sentence fragment.
Open mind. |
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Kelly looks to put his stamp on Oregon
When a well-wisher tried to congratulate him on Tuesday, Chip Kelly interrupted. Oregon's new head coach had more pressing business to discuss:
"Happy St. Patrick's Day!" exclaimed the new top Duck, who, it turned out, was making up for lost time. He'd forgotten it was St. Paddy's Day until a post-lunch staff meeting. "I saw it in my day planner," he said. "It's not like [defensive coordinator] Nick Aliotti's gonna remind me." |
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Bellotti stepping down as Oregon football coach
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- Mike Bellotti is stepping down as Oregon's football coach to become the school's athletic director, and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly will be promoted to head coach. |
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Carroll Finds Humor in the BCS
"The more we win the worse we get," USC Coach Pete Carroll said of his team's slide in the BCS standings.
Carroll injects some levity after the Trojans drop from No. 5 to No. 7 in the aftermath of their third shutout victory in four weeks. |
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Game of the Week: Ohio State at Southern California
by Jim Gumm
Jim Tressel and his highly ranked Ohio State Buckeyes travel to the Los Angeles Memorial
Coliseum to take on Pete Carroll's top ranked Southern California Trojans in a
much anticipated match-up between two of college football's premiere programs. |
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