Pac-12 Power Rankings: UCLA takes a dive in Week 2

Maybe this is a bit knee-jerky, but maybe it's just eliminating herd mentality of last weeks' opening Pac-12 power rankings column.

1. Oregon Ducks -- : Destroying South Dakota wasn't surprising but until there's reason to move them down, that's how it's gonna be.

2. Stanford Cardinal ↑↑: Last week, I mentioned that I worry about disrespecting David Shaw, and I already feel like I've done that by putting him No. 3 to open the season. Stanford didn't have many issues beating UC Davis, but it still looked in midseason form. No mistakes, few cracks and a lot of fine individual performances.

3. USC Trojans ↑↑: Steve Sarkisian's more new-age offense looks good in cardinal and gold. Against Fresno State, quarterback Cody Kessler looked like he's taken to the new offense very well with two deadly receivers. Marqise Lee may be gone, but Nelson Agholor, freshman JuJu Smith and the run game looked darn good. And that defense, as usual, was tough to beat.

4. UCLA Bruins ↓↓: Moving UCLA down two spots is tough because a 28-20 win over Virginia is 1) still a win and 2) perhaps a result of it being a 9 a.m. PT game away from Los Angeles. I feel like I'm questioning jumping onto the bandwagon of a team that didn't even win the Pac-12 South last year. There were huge concerns that a team needed three first-half defensive touchdowns to reach that 28 points. Virginia, picked to finish in the bottom of the ACC, might not be as bad as projected -- in fact the Cavaliers looked pretty good on defense especially -- but the fact is Brett Hundley got hit way too many times and plays broke down too much to feel good about the Bruins. Fun game for the casual fan: name one target of Hundley's. Now, name two. Three? If you made it this far, you impress me.

5. Arizona State Sun Devils ↑↑: ASU's defense didn't look too shabby save for a few silly penalties. D.J. Foster looked bigger and ready to carry the No. 1 running back load. The offense was solid as expected.

6. Arizona Wildcats ↑↑: RichRod's team takes the leap with its rivals. UNLV might be bad, so this could also be a another knee-jerk type of move, but Anu Solomon looked pretty darn promising. At the least, Arizona looked like it wont' regress too much from last season. Clearly, the offense is completely revamped with the ability to air it out, and that seemingly keeps Rodriguez ahead of the Pac-12 defensive coordinators just as they might've figured him out.

7. Washington Huskies ↓↓: Cyler Miles will start at quarterback in Week 2 after being suspended for the opener, a nervous 17-16 win at Hawaii. That very well could move the Huskies back up the board, but that was another scary game for the Pac-12.

8. Utah Utes ↑↑: Might have Kyle Whittingham made a great move by going with an up-tempo offense? The Utes were unstoppable against a not-so-great Idaho State team. Travis Wilson threw just 18 passes before stepping aside in a blowout.

9. Oregon State Beavers ↓↓: The Beavs shot themselves in the foot with 13 penalties but handled Portland State pretty well anyways. The penalties played a part in being 3-for-14 on third downs, but they fall a spot from last week because those issues will kill when playing better opponents.

10. Washington State Cougars ↓↓: Not a good look by Mike Leach's team dropping its opener to Rutgers. The run defense was atrocious by giving up five yards per carry and 173 alone to Rutgers back Paul James, while the Cougs themselves averaged 0.4 yards per rush. They were outrushed 215 to six -- seriously.

11. California Golden Bears ↑↑: Hey, a win's a win. California may have beaten a not-so-great team from a not-so-great conference and allowed a rally, but it's about little steps forward.

12. Colorado Buffaloes ↓↓: Not sure if a 31-17 loss to Colorado State is all that bad, but the Buffs won't have an easy time picking themselves out of the cellar if they get outmuscled by a one-dimensional, run-heavy team. The reasoning for Cal at 11 and CU at 12? Cal won despite faltering down the stretch.

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