2023 PAC12 Football Prognostication (ok, guess)

No replies needed. It’s all correct here. Haha, not really. Just my guesses. All for entertainment. Flame away.

Keep in mind that we have like 5-6 of the top 10 qbs in the nation in the PAC12. Offenses will be flying. Multiple qbs will have 4,000+ yards. There will likely only be 1 or 2 RBs over 1,000. Both of those are hot takes. Enough games will be of the 58-56 variety that everyone will be hopped up on PAC12 but it will again be the conference of cannibals. When playing out-of-conference foes with decent defenses, those teams won’t fair as well (esp. if they turn it over a couple times). OR WHEN THEY MEET UTAH’S DEFENSE. That’s the main thing we have going for us. A good/great defense in a conference of offenses.

Spitballing here …

Arizona will make a few improvements with a new coach but don’t have depth yet and are at least a coupel years off. De Laura will keep them in some games. They’ll suck. 3 conference wins, with 1 suprise win over an upper-level team at home.

Arizona St. is a dumpster fire and as sun/scum devils, they can burn in hell anyway. Pyne at QB isn’t enough. 3 conference wins

UCLA will regress with DTR and Cabaret [sic] gone. 5 conference wins

USC will outscore most but drop at least one high scoring game that comes down to timing of a last drive and also loses some road game. 7 conference wins

Colorado. Primetime has to pull in jv players and fans with a few varsity playing both ways to field a full team. 0 conference wins.

Utah’s defense will lead the conference in points and yards. Our offense will be good but not great. Our style of game (with lots of 11, 12 packages – heavy on the run, play-action, an occassional qb scramble) will lead to enough 6-8 minutes drives to keep other’s offenses off the field. We will have a suprise loss (likely on the road) and a legitimate team will also beat us. 7 conference wins.

Washington St. Meh. 4-5 conference wins

Washington. Penix will thrust the team forward. They have Oregon and Utah at home but USC, Utah back to back. I still see 2 losses, so 7 conference wins.

Stanford will suck. 1 conference win

Cal won’t be good. 3 conference wins over the cellar-dwellers

Oregon. Bo knows Ducks. Oregon will be a tough team again. Glad we have them at home. They have a stretch of UW, home game, Utah, home game, USC (home game). They could get caught looking forward, Bo can be old Bo (INT), etc. so again, 7 conference wins.

Oregon St. Good program now has DJ Uiagalelei who could either be great or see why he lost his job at Clemson. They lost some good players, so won’t quite have the talent and will end their conference campaign with 5-6 wins.

So, without divisions, here’s where I predict. It’s a 4-horse race. One of these will be 8-1, one likely 6-3. I’m 1 win short here (53/54 conference wins accounted for). Tiebreakers will be critical (again). No playoff teams. Rose bowl is part of the playoffs. So, fighting for an at-large spot (Fiesta? Cotton?) or Alamo?

Washington 7-2
Utah 7-2
Oregon 7-2
USC 7-2
Oregon St. 6-3
UCLA 5-4
Washington St. 4-5
Cal 3-6
AZ 3-6
Az St. 3-6
Stanford 1-8
CU 0-9