Who are the 2020 PAC12 playoff contenders?

[Ghost of the HEB]

Washington — They were a young team this year, which likely led to a lot of their inconsistent play. They looked like a juggernaut at times, and then they’d go and lose to Cal and Colorado. If Eason stays and becomes more comfortable with his WR’s I could see them sniffing playoff contention next season. They’ve had very strong recruiting classes for multiple years in a row. We’ll see what Petersen’s departure does to them.

Oregon — I’m not sure what their QB situation will look like with Herbert gone. I can’t imagine their cupboards are bare. They’ve also had strong recent recruiting classes, and will return a lot of talent on O and D. They will be VERY good in the trenches. If the dumbasses didn’t lose to ASU then they’d be in the playoffs this year and Utah in the Rose.

USC — They’re ranked low in this years recruiting class, but overall their roster is still loaded with 4 and 5 star talent. If Slovis can have a big year and their defense can figure it out, don’t be shocked if they’re in it at the end. However, Helton has shown he can’t maximize that talent. So I wouldn’t bet on them.

Utah — I want to get on board with “not rebuilding, only reloading”, but I’m apprehensive. The offense should be fine. The young O-Line got a ton of experience this year, and Bam will have a full spring and fall to get quicker. Rising and Bentley have arm talent that we haven’t had in a long time. Kuithe and the receivers will be better. The RB room is stacked. But the defense? Gonna be counting on a lot of inexperience and youth. CP3, Carlton and Fillinger will likely have an immediate impact, but they have some huuuge shoes to fill replacing Anae and Jaylon. Who will replace Leki and John? Who will replace Francis? Who will replace Blackmon and Burgess? Is Redding the guy to stick with? Major question marks to overcome if we’re talking playoff contention.

ASU— Daniels showed flashes of being great, and he will be better going forward. Anyone know how much they lose outside of Benjamin? They seemed to also have a lot of youth returning.

[Eric]

Regarding Utah: We will be a really good team. I dont think we truly understand how good Moss really is though. Yes the guys we have are really good and will have a good seasons, but Moss was the best back we have ever had. Our O will have lots to makeup and will need to be much better in other ways to be as good as we were this year because we dont have him anymore. Moss was THAT good.

Oregon and USC are my picks

[Great1Ute]

I agree with Eric here.  How many of our explosive plays on offense were due to Moss?  Half?  We always have great backs, but Moss was special and will be missed.

[EagleMountainUte]

Kuithe is a hard cover to. Wilmore also looked like a Freshman Moss. 
Something else I have observed is Utah keeps getting better a little at a time at each position offensively. Maybe Wilmore breaks Moss’ records.
 The true X factor was Huntley though. When he didn’t have time against Oregon and didn’t keep his eyes downfield Utah’s offense really struggled. 
Moss was also a bit of a non factor in short yardage situations. Maybe it wasn’t just the Oline block. Don’t get me wrong I love Moss but I will forever remember that Cal loss where he took the wrong gap in his youth. Feels like he would do well in most short yardage but for the most part Oregon stuffed critical short yardage situations. 

[Trailgoat]

Good team next year. Utah defense going in with a lot of players to replace seems always seems to get it done every year. Utah defense having players to replace will still be rock solid. Upside is offense is getting better not relying on defense to hang on through a bunch of 3 and outs. This year showed a strong offense makes the defense so much more effective. Agree, losing Moss is huge. Excited to see Rising and Bentley step up. Oline should be even better next year.

IMO, biggest concern is still WR because Utes will need a better pass game next year while the new RBs develop. Since Carrington and Scott, Utah has lacked a go to WR athlete in need of big play. Sone solid experienced guys coming back and a couple solid recruits so interesting to see who steps up. A healthy Covey and Thompson will help. Ludwig will adjust to the teams strengths. I think the Utes will be better than we may think.

[chinngiskhaan]

I completely disagree as far as Washington is concerned. Also, I’m not sold on Oregon being a contender either. IMO, if anyone is going to make the playoff, it’ll be USC, and I don’t think they will either. 

Oregon’s defense will be great, but they are losing Herbert and their run game is mediocre.

Washington with or without Eason will be inconsistent at best at QB. They are mediocre at best in the running game. Without Myles Gaskin back there, they are just a good team.

ASU: PUH-LEEEZ, they are not going to the playoff. Daniels is good, but come on, they are losing the guy that has been their best player for 3 years… and they weren’t very good this year.

Utah: Nope, not happening. We’ll compete, and be better than we were after we lost Wilson to graduation, but we aren’t going to the playoff. We might win the south again, I could see that, but we won’t win the Pac12 championship.

As far as Utah’s defensive line goes, we have a ton of talent behind the guys that you mentioned. We have Tafua and Tupai on the ends (not sure either of the new guys will start over them, they are both nearly as good as Anae). We have a ton of guys at DT that can play as well, most notably Pita Tonga. We should be good at LB as well with Lloyd, Carlson, Lund, Mata’afa, and others. I think where we will see the biggest drop off is in the secondary. I still think we’ll be one of the better secondary units in the conference, we are losing A TON of very experienced talent from that unit. We are losing two guys that have been our two best DBs for the last three years… plus virtually everyone else around them (minus guidry). We have the horses at safety, but we had one of those guys go down with what was likely a bad injury, and if he is back, he will have missed an entire offseason. Sewell looked awful in his minutes, and I know nothing about any of the other guys. I know Shelley is switching to safety, but I wonder if he’ll ever be even close to ready enough to lead that unit.

I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect the offense to be every bit as good as they were this year. Huntley’s improvement this year was at least 50% Ludwig. Rising could be every bit as good, or better. I have VERY VERY VERY little faith in our offensive line due to their horrendous play against Oregon and USC… but they were very young, and with an extra year (and a brain transplant for Ford), they might be pretty good (like actually able to block on obvious passing downs).

The receivers will be better just for the simple fact that we are losing Simpkins (who was targeted a lot by his best buddy Huntley even though he was clearly the worst receiver that saw the field). Thompson will be back and great again, Dixon, Covey, Enis, Nacua, and of course Kuithe. I don’t see any of those guys making any huge strides in talent level… but they aren’t Simpkins, so that is a net gain (Simpkins probably had more bad plays than the rest of the receivers put together this year… drops and fumbles galore). All the returning guys will get just as open as they did this year, and most of the throws that Huntley made were not that difficult.

Running backs: I honestly don’t know anything on this one. I’m confident that they will be at least decent due to our offensive line’s ability to run block (except when it matters of course). I really really really am not a fan of Brumfield. He’s not fast, he doesn’t run with violence, and he isn’t shifty. I don’t know what they see in him. Watching him try and gain positive yards was painful. Luckily, we have at least three dudes other than him that actually know how to make people miss. Not sure what to think about Willmore. He had some good runs… He was as good as Moss was when Moss was a frosh I guess. We’ll see what happens there. I think we need to use Green more. He is the most athletic of our backs.

 

[chinngiskhaan]

Moss reverted to that against Oregon. Constantly cutting one way when he should have cut the other.

[Tony (admin)]

Moss and Huntley “reverted” because the o line was getting blowed up.

[chinngiskhaan]

That was definitely most of it, but Moss did cut the wrong way on several short yardage runs that would have resulted in first downs 

[EagleMountainUte]

Oregon’s dline is legit and that Thibodeaux is only a freshman. 

[User Suspended]

They just landed LB Justin Flowe – The top ranked LB in the nation. Oh, and the also landed Noah Sewell, the second ranked LB in the nation.

Let’s just say, this Defense will be elite for years to come  

[Trailgoat]

Other than the P12 Championship game (doubtful Utes going back soon), does Utah play Oregon next year or the year after?. 

[utefansince79]

It goes in 2 year cycles.  We play same 9 teams in 2020 as this year with venues switched.  Home games against USC, Washington, Arizona, and Oregon State.  Travel to UCLA, Wazzou, ASU, Cal, and Colorado.

 

[Charlie]

No reason to panic. Players behind all the stars are at a greater starting point than the stars were when they were unknown. The talent is great, the experience is short but will grow. Ludwig does not start from scratch this spring which will help but he will be working with new pieces. The defense also has lots of new pieces but that will make the competition ferocious on both sides. It becomes a question as to how fast the ever increasing talent catches up to the experience level we had last year. The playoffs, for any Pac 12 team, will remain like catching lightning in a bottle. It will need to be a special season for a very good team to get that done.

[Distantute]

Usc and asu will be heavy favs in the south. Both teams return a lot of talent. Id pit usc 1 given how young they were. Asu Number 2 given how young they were and they will have a top 20 class when all done this year. I think wr are neck and neck with ucla. Ucla will be a lot better next year given their youth and recruiting. I think we are right there in the mix but will finish 3rd or 4th in south next year.

[Swoop Doggy Dogg]

USC will be the team to beat in the South. They aren’t losing much talent.

ASU is losing most of their offensive line, Eno Benjamin and their top WRs. I think their offense is going to have trouble and Daniels will be running for his life. Defense should be solid again.

UCLA will be better, but lose their LBs and RB. Not easy groups to replace.

Utah will come down to the secondary and QB. If we get strong QB play and Phillips turns out to be a solid corner, Utah most likely nine wins or so.

Oregon’s Oline will be decimated. Only returner is Sewell. No Herbert. I think they drop off, but run game and defense will keep them in a lot of games.

Washington and Wazzu should be better. And Stanford should bounce back from am anomaly.

[Hellhound152]

I disagree on USC (make no mistake the “network” and media will go back to that trough as they do every time if the picture is unclear).  Pittman, Vaughns, and Jones will be playing in the league taking with them almost all of the offensive production from this season.  That leaves St. Brown and some “stars” that are largely untested.  Bama is going to destroy SC game one.  That means Helton is back to getting fired at any second, it killed recruiting and doesn’t bode well for a great season.

[Utesbyfive]

Playoff team? The Utes?

No. Sorry, no.

[EutawStreet]

looking at next year’s schedules, I would say Oregon has the best chance:

Oregon has Ohio State at home.  Also USC, Washington and ASU all at home.

USC plays Alabama @ATT staduim, Notre Dame at home.  @Oregon, @Utah, Washington and ASU at home.

Washington has Michigan at home.  @Oregon, @USC, @Utah.

ASU @Oregon @USC, Utah at home

Utah has USC and Washington at home, @ASU.

 

 

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