Everything you need to know about Pac-12 football ahead of the 2022 season in one place.

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Officially, the Pac-12 bills itself as the “Conference of Champions.” Lately, a more accurate motto for 2022 would be something like “The Pac-12: Not Dead Yet.”

Whatever happens on the field – a wide-open question in its own right – it will play out against the backdrop of a conference desperately trying to figure out just how much emphasis to put on that yet. The shock of soon losing cornerstone members USC and UCLA to the Big Ten was a watershed moment in college sports that threw the league’s long-term prospects into chaos in the span of a few hours. The remaining members, facing a future without their two most valuable brands, were left vulnerable in a way they’d never been before and likely hadn’t even considered possible. Very quickly, though, it also forced them to adapt to the new law of the realignment jungle: Eat or be eaten. At this point, with the ACC, Big 12, and Pac-TBD occupying roughly the same uneasy position in the national food chain, it’s still possible to imagine its fate going either way.

So there are the games, and then there’s The Game. The stakes where the latter is concerned are significantly higher this time than during the last major conference realignment cycle circa 2010, when the Pac under the-commissioner Larry Scott was an aggressor. His successor, George Kliavkoff, rang in his first anniversary on the job responding to a crisis largely of Scott’s own making and has been playing defense ever since. At the Pac-12’s preseason media day in July, Kliavkoff accused the Big 12 of attempting to “destabilize” his conference, expressed the requisite confidence in his remaining membership, and suggested for good measure that the Pac might “go shopping” in the Big 12 instead. (More quietly, a couple of Pac-12 athletic directors also reassured reporters there’s no obvious financial upside in a lateral move to the Big 12; the reverse is true, too, at least until the current round of media-rights negotiations plays itself out over the next couple years.) The question he couldn’t answer, and won’t be able to for the foreseeable future, is what happens if – or, in the nightmare scenario, when – the Big Ten decides to take the next logical step toward coast-to-coast consolidation by coming for some combination of Oregon, Washington, Stanford, and Cal.

Now, anyone with half a lick of business sense will tell you that realignment is driven purely by money, not wins and losses, and the recent records at USC and UCLA are a testament to that. In the Pac-12’s case, though, where its suddenly uncertain future coincides with its ongoing irrelevance on the field, it’s not really necessary to make the distinction. It’s true that the L.A. schools, which together have accounted for more conference championships than the rest of the league combined, both deserve a lot of the blame for the void where a recognizable national contender should be. USC is arguably the sport’s most underachieving program of the past decade, while UCLA’s malaise extends well into the previous century. But in their absence from the national conversation, it certainly hasn’t helped that the rest of the country has rarely had a compelling reason to tune in to anyone else.

Almost a decade into the Playoff era, just 2 of the 32 available CFP slots to date have gone to Pac-12 teams, most recently in 2016. In 4 of the 5 seasons since, the conference champ hasn’t even cracked the top 10 in the committee’s final rankings.

Meanwhile, every would-be contender has languished in various states of flux. Oregon will kick off its season on Saturday under its 5th new head coach since 2013; Washington and USC, both coming off midseason firings in 2021, are each on head coach No. 4 in the same span. Stanford, once a beacon of stability under David Shaw, has finished in last place in the North in 2 of the past 3 seasons. In 4 years under Chip Kelly, UCLA is 7 games below .500. The Herm Edwards experiment at Arizona State is in flames amid an NCAA investigation that has already resulted in alarming attrition from both the coaching staff and the roster and seems destined to claim Edwards’ job next. The conference’s one reliable winner across the CFP years, Utah, has only just begun to register east of the Rockies and falls well short of the blue-chip talent base that defines a real national contender. (Sorry, Utes.) In that context, it was hardly a surprise to learn that the Trojans and Bruins did the math and reached out to the Big Ten first rather than the other way around.

Looking back, of course, it’s easy to make the crisis seem more inevitable than it was. In fact, even given the specific circumstances in play no one outside of a handful of corporate suites saw the defections coming until the deal was literally done. Could it have been averted if the last decade had played out differently? If USC had managed to sustain its Pete Carroll-era dynasty on the other side of NCAA sanctions? If Oregon or Washington had made good on their bids to build perennial playoff contenders under Chip Kelly and Chris Petersen? If Stanford or UCLA had taken the next step rather than regressing to the pack? Questions for the alternate history books now.

As for the present, there is still the prospect of a close, compelling race with a wide range of plausible outcomes before the conference as we know it changes for good. Strictly in competitive terms, there’s a case to be made that the absence of a year-in, year-out overlord on the order of an Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, or Oklahoma makes the Pac-12 race more unpredictable and more interesting than the all-consuming obsessions over TV ratings, revenue, and the Playoff gives it credit for. But in a sport increasingly driven by the bottom line, that credit is turning out to be the only kind that counts.

The teams

The front-runner: Utah

OK, enough about realignment! My promise to you, the beleaguered reader: Actual football only from here on out.

On Utah: It’s tempting for outsiders to dismiss the defending champs as a beneficiary of the league’s broader slide into mediocrity. Anyone who actually watched last year’s Rose Bowl run knows better. Despite a shaky start, the Utes were clearly the best team by year’s end, physically whipping Oregon in both the regular season and the rematch in the Pac-12 Championship Game, and rang in the new year by pushing Ohio State to the brink in Pasadena. Much of the core of that outfit is back, including returning all-conference picks at quarterback (Cam Rising), running back (Tavion Thomas), tight end (Brant Kuithe), offensive line (Braeden Daniels), and cornerback (Clark Phillips III). That justified AP voters tabbing them for the highest slot in the preseason poll (7th) in school history.

The question mark on offense: Stretching the field. The Utes tied for 120th nationally in passes that gained 30+ yards, and the top 3 returning receivers are a couple of tight ends (Kuithe and Dalton Kincaid) and a running back (Micah Bernard). On defense: Replacing MVP linebacker Devin Lloyd, the Pac-12’s best defender in 2021 and the 27th overall pick in the draft – not the kind of guy, in other words, whose absence you can account for by plugging in the next man up. In general: Speed. Other than Phillips III, a former Ohio State commit, the secondary was woefully outmanned in the Rose Bowl, coming in on the wrong end of a record-breaking performance by a short-handed OSU offense.

Caveats aside, Utah is the safe pick to repeat mainly due to Rising and the lines, which figure to keep the Utes in every game in their typical, fundamentally sound fashion. Opposite top-shelf athletes, though, real doubts remain. Which brings us to…

The challenger: USC

USC may very well be the most hated team in college football in 2022, which is saying something. But it’s definitely the most interesting, for more immediate reasons than potentially blowing up the conference. Between hiring Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma and dramatically overhauling the roster, the Trojans are banking on an overnight turnaround that renders that concept of “rebuilding” obsolete.

Holdovers on the depth chart from last year’s listless, 4-8 outfit figure to be thin on the ground. Instead, SC invested as heavily in the portal as any team in America, signing 20 incoming transfers representing quality and quantity on both sides of the ball. The gem of the class, sophomore QB Caleb Williams, followed Riley from Oklahoma with a powerful gust of hype at his back and the Heisman in his sights; his presence alone vaulted the Trojans into the running for the Rose Bowl. In July, they added the reigning Biletnikoff Award winner, Pitt transfer Jordan Addison, to a skill-position haul that already included a half-dozen new arrivals with proven Power 5 credentials, including another blue-chip OU refugee, WR Mario Williams. The defense, one of the conference’s worst in 2021, is in the hands of Riley’s counterpart, Alex Grinch, who mostly succeeded in turning Oklahoma’s notoriously flammable D into a respectable unit over the past 3 years. Aside from DL Tuli Tuipulotu, a first-team All-Pac-12 pick in ’21, every position could plausibly be manned by a transfer or underclassman.

The one area where there will be some continuity: The interior offensive line, where seniors Andrew Vorhees (6th year), Brett Neilon (6th), and Justin Dedich (5th) have logged 74 starts and 5,762 career snaps between them. All three posted career-high 85+ blocking grades in 2021 per Pro Football Focus, collectively holding opposing rushers without a sack. The tackles are less settled, but the candidates there have all played. If they hold up their end of the bargain, there should be nothing stopping Williams and the offense as a whole from achieving liftoff.

The dark horse: UCLA

To the extent the Bruins assumed hiring Chip Kelly meant reincarnating the old, up-tempo Oregon attacks that dominated the conference in his last college gig, the results are disappointing. Four years in, Kelly’s UCLA offenses have been relatively standard-issue, and his overall record is a dismal 18-25. Reframe the project as a long-term rebuild, on the other hand, and their patience is beginning to look almost wise. Each of the past 3 seasons has been a little better than the one before it, and last year’s leap to 8-4 was a statement that the Bruins are (finally) ready to compete in the South.

Their bid in ’22 begins with 5th-year QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson, whose trajectory in the starting role mirrors the team’s – much maligned initially, but clearly moving in the right direction. DTR made significant strides in 2021, and keeping him in the fold after Kelly tried (and ultimately failed) to bring in a transfer to compete for his job over the winter was a major offseason win. Along with workhorse RB Zach Charbonnet, the hope is that last year’s explosive finish was just a starting point.

The wild card: Stanford

In their heyday, David Shaw’s best Stanford teams were all cut from the same cloth – retro offense, suffocating defense, emphasis on ball control and winning in the trenches. The offensive line was a perennial strength, paving the way for highly productive workhorses (Stepfan Taylor, Tyler Gaffney, Christian McCaffrey, Bryce Love) in an attack that reliably ranked at or near the top of the Pac-12 in time of possession and third-down conversions. On the other side, from 2011-18 the Cardinal finished in the top third of the league in scoring defense every year.

The past few seasons have been pretty much the exact opposite of all that, with the results to prove it. The 2021 edition, the worst yet, ranked dead last in the conference in rushing offense, next-to-last in time of possession, and posted the league’s worst PFF blocking grade as a team. (Tellingly, Stanford’s former reputation as a pipeline for next-level o-linemen has largely withered, with just two OL drafted in the past six years.) It also ranked dead last in total defense, scoring defense, and yards per play allowed – an outright collapse for a unit that had been trending downward for years. The Cardinal ended the season on a 7-game losing streak, the last 4 coming by a margin of 173 to 46. It was that bad.

So Shaw is back for Year 12, along with both coordinators, Tavita Pritchard (who’s held the OC title since 2018) and long-tenured DC Lance Anderson (who’s presided over the defense since 2014). But the way forward is as uncertain as it’s been at any point in his tenure. On paper, at least, the obvious strength is the passing game: QB Tanner McKee is a former blue-chip prospect in the Davis Mills mold with a full season under his belt, an obvious NFL future – certain draft watchers are already convinced he checks all the boxes to be a franchise pick – and a fully intact group of receivers. The best of the bunch, junior TE Ben Yurosek, is a familiar type in a long line of big, productive Stanford tight ends. The o-line, also intact, is cautiously optimistic in the sense that there’s nowhere to go but up.

Whether any of that potential bears fruit is another story. Statistically, McKee was mediocre at best in ’21, and continued an older trend under Pritchard of counting on his towering wideouts to win too many jump balls in traffic. (The “go up and get it” routine actually worked out in the Cardinal’s midseason upset over Oregon, and pretty much only there.) There’s no indication of anyone who remotely resembles a big-play threat. And whatever progress he makes is likely still going toward offsetting a moribund ground game and rebuilding defense, both of which project as liabilities again. Even if Stanford is willing to bet the farm on McKee’s right arm, making good on it will require a huge leap forward.

The doormat: Colorado

The Buffs were more boring than bad in 2021, posting conference wins over Arizona, Oregon State, and Washington en route to finishing 4-8 – their 9th losing season in 11 years in the league. But with no notable offseason additions in Boulder, and with Zona poised to claw its way out of the South Division cellar, that’s bad enough.

At least an outright abysmal team lends itself to morbid curiosity. Under third-year coach Karl Dorrell — a bland hire made strictly out of necessity in February 2020, just as the pandemic was about to break – Colorado is the embodiment of the kind of low-octane mediocrity that’s all too easy to forget about altogether.

Anyway, what’s going on at quarterback? That’s an open competition between incumbent Brendon Harris, who ranked at or near the bottom of the conference in every major category in his first turn as a starter, and Tennessee transfer JT Shrout. Meanwhile, 18 players transfered out, including last year’s top running back (to Michigan State) and receiver (to USC) and both starting corners (to USC and Oregon). In the spring, Pac-12 expert Jon Wilner wrote that “if the portal was a balance sheet, the Buffs would be staring at bankruptcy,” and that was before one of their top incoming targets at the time, Sam Houston State RB Ramon Jefferson, decided to enroll at Kentucky instead.

Surely something will happen here over the next three months worth acknowledging. Exactly what, though, I can’t imagine.

Projected order of finish

(Old) North

The Pac-12 eliminated divisions for 2022, but the schedules still reflect divisions and we feel sentimental, so …

1. Oregon. Like USC, the Ducks are breaking in a former 5-star quarterback under a new coaching staff. Unlike USC, neither Bo Nix nor Dan Lanning has a track record that immediately moves the needle. Nix is likely an upgrade behind center over the departed Anthony Brown, but turning a good team into a CFP contender will require more consistency than he ever managed at Auburn.

2. Washington. The Jimmy Lake era in Seattle was a bust, with Lake getting shown the door last November after just 13 games as head coach. With that, the Huskies’ upwardly mobile days may be officially behind them. The new boss, Kalen DeBoer, arrives from Fresno State with a good reputation and a mandate to get the arrow pointing up again before it’s too late.

3. Oregon State. At 7-6, OSU came in above .500 for the first time since 2012 and was the only Pac-12 team that exceeded its projected win total in 2021 by multiple wins — tangible evidence of the upswing under coach Jonathan Smith, vindicating all those times somebody vaguely implied they’re “better than their record.” If the new administrations at Oregon and Washington sputter out of the gate, the Beavers have an enormous opportunity.

4. Washington State. The Cougars held it together after the tumultuous midseason exit of coach Nick Rolovich and 4 assistants, finishing 3-3 under interim coach Jake Dickert and snapping a decade-long losing streak in the Apple Cup. Incoming QB Cameron Ward, a highly decorated transfer from the FCS ranks, is one of the most intriguing players in America, as long as you keep in mind that “intriguing” almost always means “hasn’t done it yet.”

5. Stanford. David Shaw has stored up plenty of margin for error over the years, but the Cardinal are stagnant and badly in need of some juice in a window when their football brand could plausibly tip the scales toward getting a Big Ten invite or not.

6. Cal. Golden Bears have held their own defensively under coach Justin Wilcox, but the offense is in for another slog. Transfer QB Jack Plummer (Purdue) does not move the needle.

(Old) South

1. USC. I’m sold, with the acknowledgment that a maximum program overhaul under a new coach is the ultimate “don’t believe it till you see it” situation. Just don’t be too surprised if it actually works.

2. Utah. High floor gives the Utes a real chance to run the table in the regular season, low ceiling likely limits the possibilities beyond that.

3. UCLA. Zach Charbonnet is a fine running back, but broadly speaking the skill talent here under Chip Kelly remains underwhelming, to put it mildly. (The best bet to emerge as WR1 is a transfer from Duke who fits the stereotype that popped into your head when you read the words “transfer from Duke.”) Convincing blue-chip receivers to play an Uber ride away from Beverly Hills should not be that hard.

4. Arizona State. The consensus that Herm Edwards is on borrowed time has less to do with the on-field personnel, where the Devils largely offset the exodus from last year’s roster via the portal, than the grim vibes surrounding an ongoing NCAA investigation into pandemic-related recruiting violations and the subsequent turnover on staff. If his assistants are being held accountable, how can the head coach not be? It doesn’t always work that way, but yet another aimless, 7-5-ish campaign should make answering that question fairly easy.

5. Arizona. 1-11 is 1-11, but at least the Wildcats came out of Jedd Fisch’s first season as head coach feeling like rock bottom was finally behind them. They were competitive in most of the losses, they snapped a 20-game losing streak in November (albeit against a covid-ravaged version of Cal), and they somehow signed a top 25 recruiting class. They upgraded both ends of the league’s worst passing attack at quarterback (Washington State transfer Jayden de Laura) and wide receiver (UTEP transfer Jacob Cowing and top-100 signee Tetairoa McMillan). It might take longer to get back to respectability than it took to lose it, but if nothing this looks like the year things start getting better instead of worse.

6. Colorado. I’m not even going to guess a number, but whatever it costs to make a serious run at Eric Bieniemy the Buffs should spend it.

The players

Offensive Player of the Year: USC QB Caleb Williams

Williams was a long way from a finished product last year, especially in November, when his output notably trailed off against plus defenses from Baylor, Iowa State, and Oklahoma State to close the regular season. At no point, however, was his trajectory in doubt. His first meaningful college snap, a 66-yard, fourth-down touchdown run against Texas, instantly cemented him as a rising star…

…and entering Year 2 all lights remain green. With the job to himself over the second half of the season, Williams went on to finish in the top five nationally in both pass efficiency and Total QBR, accounting for 27 touchdowns to just 4 INTs. Unlike the vast majority of young quarterbacks who move halfway across the continent, he had the advantage of sliding directly into the starting role in L.A. without a second thought about adjusting to a new coaching staff or playbook. There’s no precedent for a quarterback with his combination of production and potential hitting the open market, and with the supporting cast around him, no limit to the possibilities in his new colors.

Defensive POY: Oregon LB Noah Sewell

Sewell followed his older brother, Penei, to Eugene, and he’s right on schedule to follow him out as a first-round pick. Huge, fast, and instinctive, Noah is a natural middle ‘backer who often seems to know exactly where the ball is going before the snap and arrives there with authority.

Like a big cat on the hunt, Sewell’s hair-on-fire style is more suited to straight-line pursuit than changing direction in space – PFF rates him as average at best in coverage and as a surprisingly inconsistent tackler, ringing him up him for 19 whiffs in 2021 alone. But for a big hitter who’s around the ball as often and with as much intensity as he is, the few that get away are a very minor cost of doing business.

MVP: Utah QB Cam Rising

Rising, a transfer from Texas with no meaningful college experience prior to last season, didn’t crack the starting lineup until the fourth game, when he took over for a struggling, nondescript outfit coming off back-to-back non-conference losses to BYU and San Diego State. If he’d been the starter from Day 1, Utah might have been squarely in the playoff conversation. Once installed, Rising was an immediate upgrade over departed starter Charlie Brewer, presiding over a 9-1 record as a starter while leading the Pac-12 in Total QBR. He earned a first-team all-conference nod from opposing coaches, and broke out nationally with a 316-yard, 3-touchdown afternoon in the wildest, highest-scoring Rose Bowl ever.

Although there was no particular weakness in Rising’s game, there was one area where he legitimately excelled: Avoiding sacks. He was dropped just 8 times on 94 pressured dropbacks, per PFF, the best rate among all Power 5 passers.

Most exciting player: UCLA WR/KR Kazmeir Allen

Allen, a former high school track champ, has struggled to stay on the field at UCLA, bouncing between running back and receiver and essentially losing two full seasons to academics (2019) and covid (2020). At full speed, though, he is full speed. As a true freshman, in 2018, he confirmed his big-play potential on a 74-yard touchdown run in his first college game. Finally healthy and back in good standing last year, he carved out a niche as an all-purpose slot back slash return man, culminating in a career-defining afternoon against USC, where he paid off years’ worth of frustration on TDs covering 45, 58, and 100 yards.

On offense alone, Allen scored five times in 2021 on just 25 touches, making a strong case that he deserves a lot more of them in Year 5. Chip Kelly’s offense has evolved significantly from the warp-speed Oregon attacks that helped revolutionize the sport, but if you’re looking for a coach to come up with creative ways to get the ball in the hands of a versatile, undersized dynamo in space he still comes in close to the top of the list.

Breakout POY: Oregon LB Justin Flowe

A 5-star recruit with room to spare, Flowe was marked for stardom in Eugene before he ever set foot on campus. Two years later, the initial hype is still all he has to show for it. Both of his career appearances to date have been cut short by season-ending injuries (a knee in 2020, a foot in ’21), limiting him to a grand total of 67 snaps. Still, while the clock is ticking in Year 3 expectations are intact: Flowe is healthy again heading into Oregon’s season opener against Georgia and by all accounts on track to make up for lost time. A big night against the defending champs would exactly the kind of statement the Ducks have been waiting for.

Fat guy of the year: USC OL Justin Vorhees

Vorhees has been around so long he started out blocking for Sam Darnold as a freshman, and his 37 career starts haven’t exactly aligned with the golden era of o-line play at USC in the meantime. Still, as thoroughly as Lincoln Riley has remade the skill positions through the portal, it’s the core group of 5th- and 6th-year vets up front who will make or break the transition. For his part, Vorhees has largely held up his end of the bargain over the course of his career, manning three positions and holding opposing rushers without a sack in 2021. He was the only FBS player last year to earn 90+ PFF grades for both run and pass blocking, good enough for the best overall grade (90.1) of any returning lineman in the country.

Most valuable tranfer (non-USC division): Arizona WR Jacob Cowing

Cowing, a first-team All-Conference USA pick in 2021 at UTEP, is the gem of the new arrivals in Tucson after averaging 18.4 yards per catch with 13 touchdowns in 3 seasons as a Miner. His marginal size (5-11/170) won’t turn any heads off the bus; beyond that, almost everything else about his game will.

Of the seven FBS wideouts who earned a 90+ PFF receiving grade last year, Cowan is one of only two returning in 2022. The other: Jaxon Smth-Njigba.

Best name: Arizona State RB Xazavian Valladay

Honorable Mention: Arizona DB Ephesians Prysock … Arizona State DL Nesta Jade Silvera … Washington State RB Djouvensky Schlenbaker … Oregon State WR Makiya Tongue.

Best position group: USC’s wide receivers

The Trojans had a case for this distinction before Jordan Addison joined the fold, at which point they already boasted an intriguing mix of productive veteran holdovers (Gary Bryant Jr., Kyle Ford, Tahj Washington) and plug-and-play transfers (Mario Williams, Terrell Bynum, Brenden Rice). Adding arguably the No. 1 returning wideout in the country to the room in June was … well, not the icing on the cake, more like a whole second cake to go with the one that was already there.

There’s a good chance USC is still going to be pretty bad on defense, and at least as good a chance that with Caleb Williams throwing to these guys it’s not going to matter.

Biggest X-factor: Oregon QB Bo Nix

Nix’s 3-year tenure at Auburn was defined by his volatility — not just in a general sense, but in a verifiable, borderline predictable pattern of chaos:

On any given Saturday, you might get “Good Bo” living up to the 5-star recruiting hype by torching LSU or Arkansas, or “Bad Bo” getting benched against Georgia State. If anything, the hype itself always seemed as much to blame for the relentless scrutiny that eventually drove him out of the SEC as his actual skill set, which never quite justified the billing.

In Oregon, he’s reunited with his freshman year offensive coordinator, Kenny Dillingham, who came aboard under new head coach Dan Lanning. (For the record, Nix was never “on” in any of his three meetings against Lanning’s defense at Georgia, although in fairness very few other quarterbacks the Dogs faced in that span were, either.) Ironically, the Ducks’ opener against UGA will mark the first time in Nix’s college career he’s taken the field in Week 1 under a coordinator he’s played for before. After serving under through three different OCs in three years at Auburn — and facing the guarantee of a fourth if he’d stayed — that’s arguably as close as he could get to some degree of continuity. He just had to move 2,700 miles away to find it.

Preseason All-Pac-12 tean

Here’s my personal all-conference lineup for the coming season, based strictly on my own projections for the season. (That is, it doesn’t reflect the projections or opinions of anyone else at Saturday Out West.) If an obviously deserving player from your favorite team didn’t make the cut, it can only be because I harbor a deep, irrational bias against him personally, and certainly not because some of these decisions were tough calls between more credible candidates than I could accommodate.

OFFENSE
Quarterback: Caleb Williams • USC
Running back: Zach Charbonnet • UCLA
Running back: Tavion Thomas • Utah
Wide receiver: Jordan Addison • USC
Wide receiver: Jacob Cowing • Arizona
Wide receiver: Mario Williams • USC
Tight end: Brant Kuithe • Utah
Line (T): Jaxson Kirkland • Washington
Line (T): Braeden Daniels • Utah
Line (G): TJ Bass • Oregon
Line (G): Andrew Vorhees • USC
Line (C): Brett Neilon • USC
– – –
Honorable Mention … QB: Cam Rising (Utah) … Dorian Thompson-Robinson (UCLA) … RB: Travis Dye (USC) … Xazavian Valladay (Arizona State) … WR: Jalen McMillan (Washington) … Troy Franklin (Oregon) … TE: Ben Yurosek (Stanford) … Dalton Kincaid (Utah) OL: Alex Forsyth (Oregon) … Steven Jones (Oregon) … Brandon Kipper (Oregon State) … Marco Brewer (Oregon State) … Joshua Gray (Oregon State) … Justin Dedich (USC) … Victor Curne (Washington).

DEFENSE
Edge (DE): Ron Stone Jr. • Washington State
Line (DT): Tuli Tuipolutu • USC
Line (DT): Brandon Dorlus • Oregon
Edge (OLB): Zion Tupuola-Fetui • Washington
Linebacker: Noah Sewell • Oregon
Linebacker: Merlin Robertson • Arizona State
Cornerback: Clark Phillips III • Utah
Cornerback: Kyu Blu Kelly • Stanford
Nickel: Khoury Bethley • Arizona State
Safety: Daniel Scott • California
Safety: Jaydon Grant • Oregon State
– – –
Honorable Mention … DL: Nesta Jade Silvera (Arizona State) … Tuli Letuligasenoa (Washington) … Popo Aumavae (Oregon) … Kyon Barrs (Arizona)… Edge: Van Fillinger (Utah) … Gabe Reid (Utah) … Mase Funa (Oregon) … Brennan Jackson (Washington State) … Grayson Murphy (UCLA) … Gabriel Murphy (UCLA) … Romello Height (USC) … Korey Foreman (USC) … LB: Darius Mausau (UCLA) … Omar Speights (Oregon State) … Justin Flowe (Oregon) … DB: Christian Gonzalez (Oregon) … Mekhi Blackmon (USC) … Calen Bullock (USC) … Cole Bishop (Utah) … Armani Marsh (Washington State) … Christian Roland-Wallace (Arizona).

SPECIALISTS
Kicker: Tyler Loop • Arizona
Punter:< Luke Loecher • Oregon State
Returner/All-Purpose: Kazmeir Allen • UCLA
– – –
Honorable Mention … K: Camden Lewis (Oregon) … Dean Janikowski (Washington State) … P: Kyle Ostendorp (Arizona) … Ryan Sanborn (Stanford) … KR/AP: Giles Jackson (Washington) … Brenden Rice (USC).