DEFEAT ROBS L.A. OF BIG STAGE
It would have been thrilling to see Los Angeles as the beating heart of a college football Saturday, with UCLA and USC playing as top-10-ranked teams for the first time since Troy Aikman and Rodney Peete were quarterbacking their respective universities.
After UCLA’s shocking 34-28 loss to Arizona in the Rose Bowl late Saturday night, the thrill is gone.
Simply put: What a bad loss. Ironically, with UCLA administrators praying for the University of California Regents who meet Wednesday to let them leave for the Big Ten without real punishment, the Bruins could not have behaved more like a Pac-12 football team that suddenly had legitimate aspirations for the College Football Playoff.
What is more Pac-12 than losing a home game to a 3-6 team (now 4-6! Bear Down, Wildcats!) at the exact moment that a clear path to national relevance opened up?
Somehow, in mid-November, it was all there for UCLA, whether the Bruins were actually playoff good or not. Hold serve against Arizona, win the biggest crosstown rivalry game in recent memory against a beatable USC squad, hold serve against that jilted Berkeley bunch and then play the game of their lives against Oregon or Utah in the Pac-12 title game.
The upsets of Nov. 5 — Clemson and Alabama, the most dominant programs of the last decade, both fell out of reasonable playoff contention — paved the road for a one-loss Pac-12 champion to make the field.
UCLA wasn’t alone in exhibiting extreme Pac-12 behavior Saturday night. At least Oregon, which carried a No. 6 CFP ranking into its devastating 3734 loss to No. 25 Washington in a sullen Autzen Stadium, is actually a card-carrying Pac-12 member, performing its annual role of boosting hopes at conference headquarters only to lose a
November head-scratcher.
You could write an entire column about the obvious blunders that Ducks’ first-year head coach Dan Lanning made to cost his team a victory.
With Oregon and UCLA out of the playoff picture with two losses, only one Pac-12 team controls its own destiny to become the first league team to receive a CFP invite since 2016: Lincoln Riley’s USC Trojans.
Can they actually do it? Beating UCLA, Notre Dame (which escaped with a 35-32 win over Navy) and Oregon in the Pac-12 title game over the next three weeks sure seems more realistic after Saturday. It could be Utah waiting for USC in Las Vegas for the conference title, and anyone who watched the Utes’ 43-42 win over the Trojans in Salt Lake City knows USC should win a rematch.
It’s sad to only be talking about USC’s hopes of a magical run to the sport’s national championship event. UCLA ruined what could have been L.A.’s
return to the big stage — beyond literally hosting this year’s CFP championship game Jan. 9 at SoFi Stadium.
Top of poll unchanged
No. 1 Georgia leads an unchanged top five in The Associated Press college football poll. The rest of the Top 25 has been shuffled around after eight ranked teams lost. The Bulldogs received all but one of the 63 firstplace votes in the AP Top 25 for the second straight week. No. 2 Ohio State received the other first-place vote.
Saturday’s late results
No. 13 Utah 42, Stanford 7: Tavion Thomas rushed for a career-high 180 yards and Cameron Rising threw for three touchdowns to lead the host Utes to a win over Stanford. Utah (8-2, 6-1 Pac-12) started slow on a belowfreezing night in the shadow of the Wasatch Mountains, but scored 42 straight points after trailing 7-0 to Stanford (3-7, 1-7).
Oregon State 38, California
10: Ben Gulbranson threw for two touchdowns and ran for a score, and the Beavers’ defense turned in another strong performance in a victory over visiting California (3-7, 1-6 Pac-12). Oregon State (7-3, 4-3) got a 55yard punt return for a touchdown from Anthony Gould, and did enough offensively to control the game.
Boise State 41, Nevada 3:
Taylen Green passed for a touchdown and ran for another score in the first quarter, George Holani finished with 17 carries for 115 yards and two TDs to help visiting Boise State (7-3, 6-0 MW) beat Nevada (2-8, 0-6).
Utah State 41, Hawaii 34:
Cooper Legas threw three touchdown passes — including one to Calvin Tyler Jr., who finished with 25 carries for 113 yards and a TD — to lift the Aggies (5-5, 4-2 MW) past host Hawaii (2-9, 1-5).