The Pac-12 went 9-3 in Week 1. The three losses were by Colorado to TCU, Oregon to Georgia, and Utah to Florida. Unfortunately for the conference, those three games represented the only Power Five vs. Power Five games on the opening week’s slate. And when you get throttled in Atlanta the way the Ducks got throttled, you’re going to have to deal with a week of people once again getting their jokes off about your conference.

It was a bad week for the top of the Pac-12. There’s no hiding from that. But Utah went toe-to-toe with one of the most talented rosters in the country… in their own house… and against a quarterback who looks like the only Gator worthy enough to wear the No. 15 since Tim Tebow left. USC also looked every bit the point-scoring machine we thought it would be. Don’t bury the Pac-12 yet.

Let’s get to the Power Ranking.

A note: this is not a prediction of where each team finishes the season, it is a snapshot of where each team is at right now. It’s meant to be reactive.

12. Colorado Buffaloes

Prev. rank: 12
Week 1: 38-13 loss to TCU
Week 2: at Air Force

Head coach Karl Dorrell took the quarterback competition up to kickoff. He had Brendon Lewis and he had JT Shrout. Dorrell and his staff had a full season’s worth of tape to see how Lewis fared in live situations. He looked largely the same quarterback. Then Shrout was inserted into the game, and it finally felt like Colorado had some semblance of a threatening offense. Shrout finished with the same number of completions as Lewis, and he had twice the yardage. He also engineered the only touchdown. There are exactly zero reasons that can be given to justify playing Lewis over Shrout at this point.

11. Cal Golden Bears 

Prev. rank: 10
Week 1: 34-13 win over UC Davis
Week 2: UNLV

UC Davis had a 7-0 lead over the Golden Bears after the first quarter of Cal’s home-opener. For the game, UC Davis averaged 6.2 yards per run (adjusted for sacks) and just about matched the Golden Bears’ offense yard for yard. Lots of work needed. Defensive end Xavier Carlton was the standout with 1.5 sacks.

10. Arizona State Sun Devils

Prev. rank: 11
Week 1: 40-3 win over Northern Arizona
Week 2: at Oklahoma State

There’s a chance for ASU to really jump in these rankings next week. They’re on the cusp. I think Xazavian Valladay is going to be a major headache for opposing defensive coordinators this season; the first-year Sun Devil running back had 116 rushing yards and two scores in his team’s blowout win. The defensive front was active. Oklahoma State — after scoring 58 in its opener — will provide a revelatory stylistic test for this ASU team that wants to run the ball and play hard-nosed defense. Oklahoma State wants to run. If ASU can wrangle the Cowboys in one of the tougher places to play, we’ll need to do a mea culpa on this team pretty quickly.

9. Washington State Cougars

Prev. rank: 5
Week 1: 24-17 win over Idaho
Week 2: at Wisconsin

In retrospect, the Cougars’ previous ranking looks a little over-inflated. Consider this my big Week 1 overreaction. So much of my excitement around the Cougs was born out of their offensive renovation. Cameron Ward came in after lighting the FCS ranks on fire. The Air Raid returned to the Palouse. But a seven-point win over Idaho was not what anyone anticipated. Just 24 points in the opener certainly wasn’t either. Ward went 25-for-40 for 215 yards and three scores. Not bad. Things looked shaky though for much of the first half.

8. Stanford Cardinal

Prev. rank: 8
Week 1: 41-10 win over Colgate
Week 2: USC

When a game opens the way Stanford’s game against Colgate opened, take everything else with a grain of salt. Cardinal tailback EJ Smith took the opening play from scrimmage 87 yards for a touchdown. That is always going to change the complexion of a game, tilting it significantly in favor of the team that just scored. Stanford would have beaten Colgate regardless of how the opening play ended — Tanner McKee and his pass-catchers looked deadly — but we need to see it sustained.

7. Arizona Wildcats

Prev. rank: 9
Week 1: 38-20 win at San Diego State
Week 2: Mississippi State

The Wildcats kicked off 2022 with as impressive a road win over the Aztecs as they could have possibly put forth. The talent upgrade wasn’t just obvious, it made sense all over the field. The Wildcats were better at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football, dangerous in the red zone (!!!), and deadly when the ball was in Jacob Cowing’s hands. The duo between Cowing and quarterback Jayden de Laura looks like it’ll be a productive one. I expected Arizona to be improved in every facet, but I didn’t think it’d immediately translate to winning in this way. If the Wildcats manage a win over the Bulldogs at home next week…

6. Washington Huskies

Prev. rank: 7
Week 1: 45-20 win over Kent State
Week 2: Portland State

The Huskies’ first game of 2022 had everything everyone in Seattle wanted to see. The defense created takeaways, three of them to be exact. The offense looked night and day compared to a year ago. Washington scored more than 45 points once under Jimmy Lake. It went over 500 yards of offense in a game once. (The same game, a win over Arkansas State last year.) And, woah boy, did Michael Penix Jr. look strong in his first start.

5. Oregon Ducks

Prev. rank: 3
Week 1: 49-3 loss to Georgia
Week 2: Eastern Washington

If you play that game again five times over, I’m not convinced it looks as bad as it did. The problem for the Ducks is that they don’t get five cracks at Georgia. They got one. And they got whipped. However, a complete demolition at the hands of the defending national champions — a team whose recruiting output has been matched only by two other teams in college football over the last five years — is not the indictment on the state of Oregon football or the power of the Pac-12 that it’s being made out to be in the aftermath of the game. This is classic Week 1 overreaction stuff. Oregon got hammered. Lots of teams will get hammered by Georgia this season if its quarterback, Stetson Bennett, plays like that. Georgia has a LeBron James-sized tight end hurdling defenders along the sideline for crying out loud. That team warps everything. All that being said, coach Dan Lanning has a ton of work to do. The defense missed its spots all day, be it tackling or fitting. The quarterback looked bad. Bo Nix will be able to get away with ill-advised throws against the Cals and Colorados on the schedule. But Oregon wants to win some trophies, and the wait it played on Saturday won’t get it done.

4. UCLA Bruins

Prev. rank: 4
Week 1: 45-17 win over Bowling Green

The 13 fans who were in the stands to watch the Bruins open the 2022 season booed the offense after a possession. When quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson was picked off on the third possession, things looked a little toxic on social media. UCLA rebounded for a gross start adequately, rolling past a Bowling Green team that was well inferior. The Bruins had nine tackles for loss. Bowling Green averaged less than 3 yards a play. The defense did its job.

3. Oregon State Beavers

Prev. rank: 6
Week 1: 34-17 win over Boise State
Week 2: at Fresno State

The most impressive showing of the weekend was Oregon State’s win over Boise State. The Beavers took a 24-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. Oregon State had eight tackles for loss and two sacks. It averaged nearly 5 yards a carry and 8 yards a play. In the first half, Boise had 23 rushing yards on 18 attempts to go with four turnovers. The Beavers’ reconfigured defense looked excellent under Trent Bray.

2. Utah Utes

Prev. rank: 1
Week 1: 29-26 loss to Florida
Week 2: Southern Utah

Florida hadn’t lost a home-opener since 1989 — 32 straight. While this was a team that went 6-7 a year ago and fired its head coach, the 247Sports Team Talent Composite paints a different picture of team strength than what the preseason narratives did. Everyone had questions about Florida’s quarterback spot. Anthony Richardson is special, and he could lead the Gators to a strong year. Utah lost by three points against that team in one of the toughest places to play in all of college football after it had a drive at the end to possibly win the game or at least tie. Utah doesn’t want to be the kind of program that takes comfort in moral victories amid heartbreaking losses, but if you’re out on this Utes team after that performance you were never really in to begin with. Utah’s offensive line was entirely made up of underclassmen, and it more than held its own. That felt like an SEC-on-SEC game. Utah’s defensive front didn’t play up to standards, but that group is young too. Utah remains one of the top teams in the Pac-12.

1. USC Trojans

Prev. rank: 2
Week 1: 66-14 win over Rice
Week 2: at Stanford

Rice was woefully overmatched. The Trojans could have won this game big at 50% effort. The offense looks how we expected it to look — potent. The defense was gettable, but equally opportunistic. Defensive coordinator Alex Grinch won’t be able to rely on three pick-sixes every time his defense touches the field. For anyone watching, pointing, and laughing at the USC defense, though, just know that you’re going to have to outscore the USC offense and that ain’t gonna be easy. USC is going to put up 40 while sleepwalking through games. Quarterback Caleb Williams has just a disgusting amount of skill talent around him in the City of Angels.