Beaten Bruins. UCLA came into Palo Alto last
week riding high: Undefeated, a top-5 ranking, National title
hopes, a stingy defense, a Heisman Trophy front-runner. By late
afternoon on Saturday, all those accolades and goals were ancient
history. Stanford scored often and early on a defense that had
not allowed more than 17 points in any previous game. The
Cardinal shut down DeShaun Foster and knocked two Bruin
quarterbacks out of the game. Now, after Cory Paus's poor first
half and Scott McEwen's strong effort after half-time, Toledo
should stop whining about last week's zebras and instead try to
focus on who should quarterback his team at the Pallouse this
week.
A Dam Ready to Break? Perhaps OSU tailback
Ken Simonton can break out of his season-long slump this week:
Last year against Southern Cal, Simonton sparked the Beavers by
rushing 37 times for a career-high 234 yards (6.3) and three TDs
as OSU broke a 26-game losing streak to USC. Still, the River
Rats have not left Los Angeles with a W since 1960. Last week,
the porous Beaver run defense yielded 225 yards on the ground to
a suspect Cal offense which lost its main
rushing threat in the first quarter. Still noteworthy was the
performance of OSU's OLB Nick Barnett who recorded a Gordy
Ceresino-like 18 tackles (11 solo).
Cougar Collapse? By allowing 446 rushing
yards to Oregon, the Cougars plummeted from 1st to 6th in the
Pac-10 in rushing defense. In its last two Div 1-A games, the WSU
defense has been scorched to the tune of 665 rushing yards. In
its first five Div. 1-A games (and I am using the term Div. 1-A
loosely here as we are talking about Idaho, Boise State, Cal, Arizona and OSU), Wazzou had only given up a
total of 299 yards on the ground. Want further warning signs? WSU
is 9-28 in November games coached by Mike Price.
The Berkeley Bowl. Arizona at Cal
this weekend features the two true cellar-dwellars of the
conference. Neither team has won a league game. The Wildcats are
sporting a 10-game conference losing streak while the Bad News
Bears have lost 10 straight overall. Just for kicks, Cal's 0-7 start is the worst in school history.
BTW, more and more, it seems like Cal has
started over already. Last week, they started an unheralded frosh
at QB and even though Kyle Boller is back this week, a starter
for Saturday has not been named. With Joe Igber injured (and now
out for the season), true freshman Terrell Williams is the new
starter at tailback - he ran for 104 yards against the Beavs last
week (although please note that OSU is the worst run defenders in
the league). Further, a defensive back (LeShaun Ward), who only
shifted to receiver a few weeks ago, is now the featured wide-out
in the offense. Makes you wonder why they haven't yet started
over at another key position - head coach?