Out of title picture, time for new goals
Without saying it directly, USC head coach Clay Helton said exactly what everyone else in the conference was thinking.
“We’ve got to move on,” he said Tuesday. “We’ve got an opportunity to win a Pac-12 championship.”
The national title is off the table for USC and everyone else in the Pac-12 after the Trojans’ 49-14 drubbing at Notre Dame on Saturday.
The Pac-12, already verging on being outside of the Power 5 conferences for the four-team College Football Playoff, now has independent Notre Dame ranked ahead of all its teams.
Either Washington or Washington State still could finish with one loss, but it’s inconceivable that either could jump the six undefeated teams and the five one-loss teams currently ranked ahead of the No. 12 Huskies.
That means it’s time to move on and chase different goals.
The Pac-12 division races are actually a thing of great intrigue.
Stanford (4-1 Pac-12), Washington State (4-1) and Washington (3-1) are all in a virtual lock in the North Division, and the same is true for the South: USC (4-1), Arizona State (3-1) and Arizona (3-1).
Better yet, they all play each other in the season’s closing weeks.
Stanford plays at Washington State and hosts Washington, the Huskies host the Cougars, USC plays at Arizona State and hosts Arizona, and the Wildcats close the regular season at ASU.
“It’s interesting, because there are a lot of teams that kind of control their own destiny,” Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez said. “I don’t know if it’s ever been like this at this point in the season where there are so many teams in both divisions that control their own destinies.” As Tate would have it: Forgive UCLA head coach Jim Mora for failing to come up with a comparison for Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate .We don’t see something like this very often.
Tate won the conference’s Offensive Player of the Week award for the third consecutive time, something that hasn’t happened since Rodney Peete did it for USC in 1988. Tate has compiled 1,162 yards of total offense and 11 touchdowns during the span.
“I can tell you what makes him hard to defend: just the combination of speed, quickness, elusiveness, toughness and then, still having the ability to throw the football,” Mora said. “It’s like defending the wildcat (offense) all day against a guy who can also throw the ball effectively. It makes it really hard to play defense. …
“I just think he’s really something special.” Welcome back: Utah receiver Darren Carrington will play Saturday against Oregon, the team that “parted ways” with him after a DUI charge in July.
The graduate transfer had nearly 2,000 receiving yards for the Ducks, but he also missed the 2014 national championship game because of a failed drug test.
“Darren will always be a Duck,” Oregon head coach Willie Taggart said. “He graduated from here, had done a lot of great things here, and he’ll always be a friend. …
“Unfortunately, he had a mishap that caused him to no longer be on our football team. It was unfortunate for us and for him. But it seems like he’s bounced back, and our team kept moving. … It’s good to see him having some success. We just hope he doesn’t have success this week.”