Gold: Which Pac-12 teams have the most to gain—and lose—in 2022?
So much is on the line in this promising Pac-12 season. Looking to secure a College Football Playoff berth for the first time since 2016, the league has two teams with legitimate shots and two more with an outside chance. On the flip side, there are programs reeling from sanctions and worse, from poor recruiting and coaching.
Which teams have everything on the line in 2022?
Take a look below for the teams with the most to gain and lose in the upcoming season…
Everything to gain
Utah — From Pac-12 title to CFP?
Is there a team with more to gain this season than the Utes? One season after advancing to its first Rose Bowl, Utah has everything lined up for a special season. But they’ll need to answer some questions early.
After Utah started the 2021 season at 1-2 with an unsettled quarterback position, plenty of people counted the Utes out. Then what did they do? Oh, just go 8-1 in the Pac-12 before defeating Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship.
That slow start damaged Utah in the polls, holding the Utes back from their first top-10 season since a 13-0 2008 campaign. Ranked No. 8 in the preseason coaches poll, its highest ranking of all time, the Utes can play themselves into the top five with early season wins over Florida and San Diego State. From there, it is anyone’s ballgame. Utah has one really tough stretch—at UCLA and hosting USC in back-to-back weeks—but aside from that, the Utes have a favorable schedule.
Can they break the Pac-12 jinx and make it to the CFP? Things are sure lining up nicely.
USC — Getting their swagger back?
Everyone around the Trojans is saying championship or bust, but those aren’t realistic expectations for a team that went 4-8 last year, no matter the offensive talent infusion. USC still has real depth issues on the offensive line and some holes defensively, as well as a schedule that includes road games at Utah and UCLA and a season-ending home game against Notre Dame.
What the Trojans really need to attain is far less tangible.
Under Clay Helton, USC lost its sense of superiority over the rest of the Pac-12 and in some ways, the rest of the college football world. When the Trojans were steamrolling Pac-12 rivals on the regular for more than a decade, they had an attitude that translated onto the field and to the recruiting trail. Absolutely shredding the transfer portal went a long way toward reminding the bluebloods of college football that the Pac-12 exists.
Washington State — A sense of stability?
Had Nick Rolovich taken over the Washington State football program at any other point in modern history, there is a good chance he would still be head coach of the Cougars. But instead, Rolovich got the job right before the emergence of a global pandemic. As a result, he was faced with a set of questions and circumstances the likes of which had never been seen, and Rolovich was constantly in the news for his contradictory stance on restrictions, the vaccine, and everything COVID-19 related.
This, of course, followed the Mike Leach era, which brought its own brand of unintentional comedy. Whether it was Leach’s dissertations on pirates or soliloquies about the War of 1812, it wasn’t exactly quiet up in the Palouse.
With new head coach Jake Dickert—whose interim tag was removed after a 3-3 finish, complete with a rout of Washington in the Apple Cup—a sense of normalcy has set in, a sense of calm. Dickert is no taskmaster; this is not a “no-nonsense” approach. But, truthfully, it sounds like the Cougars are done with the nonsense.
Everything to lose
Colorado — In danger of bottoming out?
It seems like eons ago, but there was a time when Colorado was a regular top-five fixture, one of the enviable programs in the west. The Buffaloes under Bill McCartney won 78 games from 1989-1996, topping 10 wins five times, including twice under Rick Neuheisel in 1995-96.
But Colorado fans who thought the wheels came off the wagon under Gary Barnett have sorely missed his standard of seven wins.
The Buffaloes dropped in the late 2000s under Dan Hawkins then bottomed out under Jon Embree, going 1-11 in 2012.
Could that happen again this year under Karl Dorrell?
After a 4-8 season, Colorado has a mess of a passing game, a defense with myriad holes, and a head coach fighting for his job after just two years. With a less-than-forgiving schedule that includes road dates at Air Force, Minnesota, Arizona, Oregon State, USC, and Washington, plus home matchups with TCU, UCLA, Oregon, and Utah, things aren’t looking promising for Dorrell.
Arizona — Stunted progress?
Of all the teams that “won” the offseason, Arizona ranks pretty high. Head coach Jedd Fisch may still be a question mark on the field but he is most certainly winning on the recruiting trail, and maybe more importantly, he’s winning over Tucson.
There hasn’t been an Arizona coach this engaged with the community since Dick Tomey. Maybe since Lute Olsen. Kevin Sumlin was the opposite of a figurehead. Rich Rodriguez couldn’t get past his disdain for other human beings. Sean Miller was corrosive with the media. Mike Stoops was a bore.
Fisch is truly killing it in the community, and that matters to Arizona fans.
And so do wins. The Wildcats can absolutely not afford to stub their toe on the field this year. Another one-win season would start the clock on Fisch, and no one with the program wants to see that. Four, even three wins provide something he can sell after the crushing disappointment of the last two seasons. Anything less, and all that charm goes out the window.
Stanford — Can the Trees regain their toughness?
The first cracks showed in 2018. Bryce Love, coming off a Heisman Trophy runner-up finish, was hobbled throughout his senior campaign behind a Stanford offensive line that was vastly inferior to previous versions. In one year, the Stanford rushing attack fell from 202.6 yards per game to 107.9. Love fell from more than 2,100 yards to 739, almost one-third.
Somehow in 2019, the Cardinal were worst, gaining just 105.7 yards per game on the ground. After a marginal improvement in 2020 back up to 133.2 rushing yards per game, Stanford collapsed in 2021, averaging 87.3. Opponents averaged 237.6 on the Cardinal, a margin of minus-150.3 per game.
It’s almost inconceivable. The Cardinal used to be defined by their strong running game under David Shaw. And now this?
Unless Stanford can right the ship on both sides of the line, Shaw’s résumé might need polishing.