Pac-12 thriving on, off the field

It was an 11-0 weekend for the Pac-12 Conference, not a single blemish. Glancing at the schedule and the betting lines, that wasn’t terribly surprising.

What’s remarkable is the way it went down. Stanford and Cal knew they’d be facing a stiff challenge nearly every week of the conference season, but in the categories that can’t be measured — such as heart and raw emotion — the Pac-12 just might lead the nation at this early stage.

USC, Stanford’s opponent at the L.A. Coliseum on Saturday, is a widely reviled school, a bit like Notre Dame in that people resent its powerhouse ways and air of superiority. There was no room for scorn or derision at the conclusion of the Trojans’ 49-31 victory over Western Michigan, when a blind snapper named Jake Olson took the field for the game’s final extra point.

USC head coach Clay Helton had been hoping for such an opportunity, knowing the timing had to be just right. Two days before the game, he called Western Michigan head coach Tim Lester and offered a deal: USC wouldn’t rush the kicker on the Broncos’ first extrapoint attempt if WM backed off

when Olson took the field. Lester, knowing about Olson’s special place in the football community, said he’d be glad to oblige. The exchange went down perfectly, Olson taking the field and delivering a perfect snap with victory well in hand. On Tuesday, he was named the conference’s Special Teams Player of the Week.

“I told my team, ‘You can’t touch him, you can’t yell at him. Everybody get down so it looks like a football play, but nobody move,’ ” Lester said. “What we’re about to do is bigger than the game.”

The aftermath was a heartwarming scene of pride, love and affection, enough to move even the most ardent Trojans detractor. It hadn’t been the finest USC performance by any means — vulnerable defensive front, subpar performance from quarterback Sam Darnold, four drops by his wide receivers — but none of that seemed to matter in the end. Don’t forget, as well, that when the game got perilously close at 28-28, USC turned loose running backs Ronald Jones and Stephen Carr for game-breaking runs that made it seem like a rout.

Stanford’s second Pac-12 assignment will be at home Sept. 23 against UCLA, a matchup that suddenly seems doubly interesting. UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen, who turned off the Stanford people with his arrogance during a high school visit to the Cardinal campus, entered Sunday’s game against Texas A&M in a swirl of doubt about his attitude and field leadership.

Forget all that. Engineering one of the game’s all-time comebacks in a 45-44 win, throwing for 292 yards and four touchdowns in the fourth quarter alone, Rosen grew up as a player and a person. He didn’t save head coach Jim Mora’s job, necessarily, but he staved off the angry socialmedia mob that wanted Mora fired by halftime.

I was thinking of Joe Montana, in his Notre Dame days, as Rosen coolly engineered one last-ditch drive after another. He’d taken a frightful beating over the course of the game, but he didn’t look rattled or discouraged. And he was a prince of humility, in both the postgame celebration and his comments, saying he’d been “lucky” at times — that was certainly the case on two of the Bruins’ comeback touchdown plays — and that “we were an inch away from losing that game probably 10 times.”

As for Mora, who made some key defensive adjustments and watched Rosen take care of the rest, he said of his quarterback, “Josh is becoming a man — and he’s starting to act like a man.”

Great stuff, and pity those UCLA fans who so understandably left the Rose Bowl, or turned off their television sets, when the score (44-10 one point) got impossibly grim. As long as Rosen wears the uniform, they won’t make that mistake again.

Then there was the scene at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, where Oregon took the field for its season opener against Southern Utah. Classes don’t start on campus until Sept. 25, but the festive, jam-packed crowd gave off a mid-November kind of feel — and the Ducks rolled to a 77-21 win.

There aren’t many grand conclusions to be drawn against such an overmatched Big Sky opponent, but the Ducks are definitely back. Their new head coach, Willie Taggart — the man seen sprinting joyously along the sideline as Tony Brooks-James ran back the opening kickoff for a 100-yard touchdown — has radically changed the mood after last season’s disaster.

It wasn’t so long ago that Oregon destroyed virtually every team in its path, the offense a confluence of exceptional talent and pure speed. Many of those elements remain, particularly Royce Freeman — quite possibly the best running back in the conference — and quarterback Justin Herbert.

So much else is in play: the obvious threat in Washington, prolific Washington State quarterback Luke Falk (he opened the game 20-for-20 against Montana State), Utah showing a new look with quarterback Tyler Huntley, and only Oregon State off to a discouraging start. The depth of this conference is matched only by its priceless story lines.