Arizona football roundtable: Thoughts on the Pac-12 to this point

What’s the most surprising thing in this conference?

Through the first half of the season, the entire Pac-12 is topsy-turvy. Let’s start with the fact that both teams that were in the 2014 Pac-12 Championship Game are 0-3 in conference and go from there.

Stanford has fallen off the last couple of weeks, Washington State has made a run, and Colorado is still tied for first in the South.

So what is THE MOST surprising thing we’ve seen so far? Here are our thoughts:

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Gabe Encinas: I’m still trying to decide on whether it’s a deep conference from top to bottom or if there just isn’t a group of top teams. As of now I’m thinking it’s the latter.

The Pac-12 South has a lot talent but at the same time it doesn’t seem like that highly competitive scene that has been there the past two years. Arizona is playing close games with some of the better teams in the conference and they don’t even have a healthy quarterback, running back corps or stable offensive line.

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Drake Horner: The Pac-12 cannibalizes itself every year which is a good and bad thing. It’s very amusing, but also bad for the conference as we’ve seen good teams not get a chance for a national championship. They don’t get the benefit of an extra non-conference game like some conferences do. Washington is the only hope for the playoff, but I’m sure someone will upset them at some point. We just have to hope they don’t get to two losses. It’s interesting and fun to watch unfold, but also bad for the conference in general.

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Alec Sills-Trausch: Depending how you look at it, the parity in the league is surprising. I mean it’s good that these games have been competitive and the outcomes uncertain, but it’s looking like Washington, as Princess Leia would say, “is our only hope” at reaching the College Football Playoff. That could be a bad thing because as parity would suggest, Washington could lose any week going forward.

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James Schlittenhart: The precipitous drop of teams that otherwise were so dominant in the past. I would not have predicted the swift demise of Stanford and Oregon in 2016. One could ostensibly blame the shift on the loss of starting quarterbacks for both programs, but it’s the defensive woes for both teams that are problematic. That isn’t necessarily surprising for Oregon, but to see Stanford rolled over by Washington and Washington State in consecutive weeks is shocking. USC can be lumped into this as well; for a team that is still able to recruit top-tier talent, they can’t translate this into positive results on the field. It’s been a very unwelcome surprise to see the supposed class of the conference fail so badly.

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Ronnie Stoffle: The most surprising aspect of the Pac-12 season thus far is that Washington is the consensus best team. It isn’t too surprising that the Huskies are at the top through week six, but their undeniable supremacy in the conference is. I expected UCLA, USC and Stanford to all be close to the top. Granted, these three could still turn it around. Stanford can still make it to a respectable bowl game. USC or UCLA are still capable of winning the South. However, none of them are currently ranked in the top five, and they all have two conference losses.

Overall, it feels like a down year for the conference. I don’t believe the Conference of Champions will be represented in this year’s College Football Playoff, and that is, once again, disappointing.

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Ryan Kelapire: I think the surprising thing is that only one team — Colorado — has outperformed expectations. Washington has been great, but I think a lot of people expected it to be. USC and UCLA have been underwhelming, Oregon has been a dumpster fire, Stanford already has two losses, and Utah has been about as good as expected.

Usually there’s some sort of surprise team in the Pac-12 — last season it was Washington State — but this season it looks like Colorado is the only hope for that title, and the Buffaloes just lost this weekend.

As a whole I just don’t think the conference is that good this season, and the scary part is, despite that, Arizona might be the worst team.

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David Potts: To piggyback off Ryan’s point, the surprising thing to me is how nearly every team in the conference has underperformed. In addition to Colorado, though, there’s one other team that has outperformed expectations: Arizona State.

To be honest, I still don’t think Arizona State is very good, but they’re sitting at 5-1 and are tied for first in the Pac-12 South. The advanced statistics hate them - they’re ranked 55th in S&P+, barely ahead of 66th-ranked Arizona - but they’ve managed to pull out wins and are still a threat to make noise in the conference. While almost everyone else has disappointed, the Sun Devils have not.

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Steve Apter: I am most surprised by the play of Stanford and Oregon. We may be seeing a shift of power in the North. What has been most impressive about Washington’s rise is they have been powered by so many underclassmen; Jake Browning is a sophomore and the Huskies only have six seniors starting on offense and defense.

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Brandon Combs: Colorado has been a surprise along with Stanford and Oregon. Colorado has exceeded expectations while Oregon and especially Stanford have not.

The Buffs have competed with every single team they've played, including Michigan. Even after Sefo Liufau went down with an injury they've still played quite well. Steven Montez has been able to take control of the offense and make it an effective machine -- so much so Colorado is leading the South.

The North has gone a different direction as well. Jake Browning and the Huskies have dominated everyone, except Arizona. Stanford’s woeful defensive play has them falling. Oregon’s defense is even worse. They also can't seem to find any rhythm on offense. Doesn't help when your head coach calls for two point conversions after every touchdown on the road.

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Jason Bartel: I actually like David’s point of ASU. I would have gone Colorado, but I think some people saw this as the year they would start winning some of those heartbreakers they’ve had before, but they’ve done it in a different way without Liufau.

The Sun Devils are 5-1 though. No one saw that coming. Moving into the second half of their season, they’re going to have to rely on their fourth-string quarterback, but a lot of teams in the South are well into their depth charts as well. It’s going to be interesting to see if ASU can hang on and be in the mix for the South when they make the Tucson trip this year.

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