After another week in which the Pac-12’s top teams staved off upset bids from the dregs of the conference, the league enters the final 3 weeks with 5 teams still vying for 10-win regular seasons.

The conference’s top teams have one more weekend to relax before a Week 12 that sees USC square off with UCLA and Utah take on Oregon. That’ll be the biggest week in the conference in quite some time.

But for now, here’s one thing I learned from every Pac-12 team in Week 10.

Arizona: Wildcats show their youth, for better and for worse

After a 1-win season a year ago, tripling up and improving to 3 wins is a feat for this Arizona squad, especially considering how young the Cats are at key positions.

Arizona’s youth was revealed on Saturday once more in a 45-20 loss to Utah, as the Utes piled up a season-high 306 rushing yards and forced 7 fumbles, recovering 4. The Wildcats, meanwhile, fumbled on the first drive, managed just 14 1st downs, finished 3-of-11 on 3rd-down efficiency and had 231 passing yards, after averaging nearly 350 yards through the air in the previous month.

It was a reminder that rebuilds don’t happen in a day, but it was also an opportunity for some of the Wildcats’ younger talent to prove that the rebuild may be complete sooner than later. Freshman Noah Fifita came in for Jayden de Laura and completed 5-of-10 passes for 72 yards and a score, a 2-yard touchdown pass to fellow freshman and former high school teammate Tetairoa McMillan.

The Wildcats fell to a much better team on Saturday, but things are on the mend.

Arizona State: Did Sun Devils turn to Trenton Bourguet too late?

It’s hard to think anything but that after Bourguet had yet another standout performance albeit in a 50-36 home loss to UCLA. The Sun Devils nearly completed a huge comeback, scoring 19 unanswered points to cut a 42-17 UCLA lead to a narrow margin.

A week after completing 32-of-43 passes for 435 yards and 3 touchdowns with an interception in a 42-34 win at Colorado, Bourguet completed 38-of-49 passes for 349 yards and 2 scores with an interception and a 2-point conversion completion against the Bruins.

Bourguet was also terrific in a 45-38 upset win over then-No. 21 Washington on Oct. 8, completing 15-of-21 passes for 182 yards and 3 scores with a pick in relief of Emory Jones.

You’ve got to wonder at this point if starting Jones from the jump this year was a mistake.

Cal: Passing game picks apart Trojans

Maybe Kai Millner’s terrific relief performance last Saturday woke Jack Plummer up.

Plummer completed 35-of-49 passes for 406 yards and 3 scores with 1 interception as he nearly led Cal back from a 34-14 deficit in USC’s 41-35 win over the Bears on Saturday.

Plummer hadn’t sniffed 400 yards since he threw for 420 with 3 scores in a 40-14 win over Maryland in Oct. 2019 while Purdue’s starting quarterback.

Colorado: Mike Sanford doesn’t deserve to keep the gig, but he does deserve kudos

When is a 39-point loss not all that bad?

Colorado’s 49-10 home loss to the Oregon Ducks wasn’t a good performance and it did not instill much hope that the Buffaloes are anything but a multi-year rebuilding project.

But Colorado did some good things on Saturday despite the big loss. The Buffaloes had 20 1st downs and allowed just 21 by the Ducks, and they went 8-of-15 on 3rd downs. Those are not the results of a team that has given up on its head coach, and credit to Mike Sanford for that.

The interim head coach hasn’t turned things around for the Buffaloes, but he does have them playing hard, and that matters.

Not enough to keep his gig, but perhaps enough for a Group of 5 team to give him a chance, if not a Power 5 head coach looking for an offensive coordinator.

Oregon: Ducks finally get off to good start

Opening performances don’t get much better than Oregon’s first quarter against Colorado on Saturday.

Bo Nix hit Kris Hutson for a 58-yard completion on the Ducks’ second play, followed 4 plays later by a 4-yard touchdown pass to Josh

Conerly Jr. Then the Oregon defense stuffed Colorado’s Jayle Stacks for a 1-yard gain on 4th-and-2 at the Ducks’ 16-yard line on the Buffaloes’ first possession of the game. Then Oregon marched 85 yards in 13 plays in 4 minutes, 55 seconds, capped off by a Nix touchdown reception — off a pass from running back Bucky Irving — to put the Ducks up 14-0.

That Oregon got off to such a fast start against the bottom-dwelling Buffaloes isn’t a surprise. That it’s taken the Ducks so long to wake up is a surprise.

Oregon hadn’t scored 2 touchdowns in the 1st quarter since defeating Eastern Washington 70-14 in Week 2. The Ducks had been doing much of their damage in the 2nd quarter the previous 6 games, and they didn’t exactly slow down, scoring another 2 2nd-quarter touchdowns on Saturday.

Oregon State: After aerial attack is grounded, where do Beavers go from here?

It’s not as if Ben Gulbranson was particularly great in a 3-game winning streak over Stanford, Washington State and Colorado, but he did keep Oregon State’s ship afloat, even helping carry the Beavers into the Top 25.

OSU is surely out now, though, as Gulbranson struggled in a 24-21 loss to Washington on Friday.

Gulbranson completed 12-of-19 passes for just 87 yards against the Huskies’ weak pass defense. holstering his big arm to settle for short passes.

What does that mean for the Beavers? With Chance Nolan returning from the injury that put Gulbranson in this position in the first place, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the keys handed back over to Nolan.

Stanford: Cardinal ground game hits a new low

Facing a Washington State run defense that isn’t exactly stout, the Stanford rushing attack bottomed out on Saturday in a 52-14 loss.

It wasn’t just the 71 total rushing yards on 28 carries, nor the 2.5 yard-per-carry average. It wasn’t the paltry 19 first downs. It wasn’t even the 4 fumbles by Stanford ball carriers.

It was the way the Cardinal offensive line was handled with ease by a talented Washington State defensive line, albeit one that Stanford would’ve pummeled in the 2010s. The Cardinal have struggled on the ground for years now, but this was particularly bad.

UCLA: Bruins survive Zach Charbonnet’s absence, but nearly not Bill McGovern’s

Star running back Zach Charbonnet was surprisingly absent from the Bruins’ 50-36 win over Arizona State on Saturday night, but UCLA turned to Kazmeir Allen, Keegan Jones and Colson Yankoff to get things done, and they did, in a big way. The Bruins piled up more than 400 yards on the ground, including 120 by quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, en route to the win.

The absence of defensive coordinator Bill McGovern, though, nearly proved disastrous. McGovern, who has been dealing with an extended illness, missed his second straight game, and the Bruins almost let it slip away.

UCLA led 42-17 but let the Sun Devils creep up to 42-36 and within striking distance. The Bruins ultimately shut the door with a game-clinching touchdown drive, but McGovern’s presence was missed.

USC: Caleb Williams putting up astounding numbers

The hype on USC quarterback Caleb Williams seemed to fade when the Trojans fell to Utah, 43-42, in a blockbuster back-and-forth game. Coming into the season as the most tantalizing transfer in recent history, Williams had all eyes on him early in the year, but the ascension of Dorian Thompson- Robinson and then Oregon’s Bo Nix relegated Williams to the third-most talked-about Pac-12 quarterback for much of October.

Now it almost feels like Williams is under-hyped, considering his remarkable season.

Williams threw 4 more touchdown passes on Saturday in a 41-35 win over Cal, giving him 28 touchdown throws on the year. That number is impressive, but nowhere near as impressive as the 1 interception he’s tossed this year. While Williams isn’t exactly avoiding pressure as he’s been sacked 15 times, he’s been particularly careful with the ball and it shows.

And he’s particularly shined the last two weeks with his top two wideouts — Jordan Addison and Mario Williams — sidelined with injuries.

Utah: Utes return to punishing ground game

The way Utah’s running backs have performed this season, it’s not a surprise that Cameron Rising has seen his usage increase. Even last week with Rising out, Utah still gave backup Bryson Barnes 27 pass attempts and 8 rushing attempts.

And who can forget Utah’s 43-42 win over USC in Week 7, when Rising completed 30-of-44 passes for 415 yards and added 11 carries for 60 yards?

In their 45-20 win over Arizona on Saturday, the Utes played the kind of ground-and-pound football that has become their hallmark. Utah had 55 rushes for 306 yards, with 8 different ball carriers gaining positive yards and 4 players scoring touchdowns.

Washington: Huskies finally hunker down against the pass

Entering Friday’s marquee matchup with No. 23 Oregon State ranked 10th in the Pac-12 against the pass, Washington knew it would have to step up against a Beavers squad that had won 3 straight behind once-backup Ben Gulbranson.

It’s not that Gulbranson has been great — or even good, really. But Oregon State had found a way to get it done without the services of Chance Nolan.

Without getting a ton of pressure on Gulbranson, the Huskies nonetheless toyed with him throughout their 24-21 come-from-behind win over the Beavers. Gulbranson managed to complete just 12-of-19 passes for 87 yards. It was a perplexing effort from the Oregon State passing game, which had just 3 players tally over a dozen yards.

Washington State: Do the Cougars have their lead RB back?

In a Week 1 24-17 win over Idaho, Washington State running back Nakia Watson had 117 yards on 18 carries, the Cougars’ 3rd season-opening 100-yard performance in 4 years.

But unlike Max Borghi, who proved able as Wazzu’s running back after opening the 2021 campaign with 129 yards and 2 touchdowns, Watson hasn’t shown the ability to be the Cougars’ every-down, every-day back.

But after returning from a lower-body injury this week at Stanford, Watson appears ready to roll for Washington State. Watson had 166 yards on 16 carries, including a 65-yard gain, while adding 1 reception for 29 yards. It was the kind of performance that locks in playing time going forward, and it sure helped the Cougars get back on the bowl path.