12-08-2024, 09:49 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-09-2024, 04:46 PM by CompSci87.
Edit Reason: Spelling in title
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From Bruce Jennings in today's SFChron:
From the memorable scenes in Berkeley to the desolation of Stanford Stadium, the Pac-12 football conference drew the full spectrum of attention in its recovery from disaster.
The script was written ahead of time; in one way or another, every team was coated in the stain of abandonment. As we focus on the six teams that fled to powerhouse conferences — six that really represent “Pacific,” not some interloper from Arizona or Utah — the report card goes this way, in descending order of success:
1. Oregon. Ascended to the nation’s No. 1 ranking and could win the postseason tournament. Took advantage of a relatively weak Big Ten and beat rival Washington after going 0-3 against the Huskies under head coach Dan Lanning.
2. Washington. Packed an awful lot of fun into a 6-6 season, knocking off Northwestern, Michigan, USC and UCLA along the way. This team typically recovers, from everything, and will do so again.
3. Cal. Hold on a minute, you might say. The Bears choked away their season with that incomprehensibly hapless four-game losing streak, after all. And they blew a chance to actually be relevant in the ACC. But people figured Berkeley would be a veritable football wasteland with the Bears lodging themselves so far away. Instead, students started arriving at midnight before the Miami game. ESPN’s “GameDay” crew was there, with thousands of happy people milling everywhere. And the Big Game brought not only a packed house, but a 98-yard, game-winning drive that had fans storming the field. Heartwarming stuff — and by the way, if the ACC is going to list five quarterbacks on its all-conference team, including honorable mention, Cal’s endearing Fernando Mendoza has to be on there.
4. UCLA. The Bruins looked doomed from the start, on Media Day, when new head coach DeShaun Foster couldn’t put a coherent sentence together as he addressed the gathering. What followed was a season of utter nothingness, and now they’re losing at least 13 starters to the transfer portal. Maybe school executives will acknowledge the cowardly nature of their money-grabbing ways and return to the Pacific-12 (or whatever) someday. They might even be forgiven.
5. Stanford. Cal fans kept the faith, but the Stanford people just gave up. Heck with the ACC. Too many obstacles with the NIL and the transfer portal. Lousy team, too. On some days, it looked like about 38 people were there for home games. A very positive thing happened, though, with the hiring of Andrew Luck as the collegiate game’s first-ever “general manager.” He cares, deeply. He knows how great this program can be — he was part of it, under head coaches Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw — and how a few key moves can change everything.
6. USC. This is harsh, but make no mistake, it was the Trojans who destroyed the Pac-12. For a few extra bucks — a financial windfall that won’t mean a damned thing when reality sets in — the Trojans’ executive airheads pulled the plug and launched a spirit-crushing exodus. They deserved to go 0-12, and it almost felt that way after a 6-6 season as head coach Lincoln Riley’s overall record fell to 25-14. It’s a sad, paltry affair for this once-proud program, but Pac-12 justice has been served.
From the memorable scenes in Berkeley to the desolation of Stanford Stadium, the Pac-12 football conference drew the full spectrum of attention in its recovery from disaster.
The script was written ahead of time; in one way or another, every team was coated in the stain of abandonment. As we focus on the six teams that fled to powerhouse conferences — six that really represent “Pacific,” not some interloper from Arizona or Utah — the report card goes this way, in descending order of success:
1. Oregon. Ascended to the nation’s No. 1 ranking and could win the postseason tournament. Took advantage of a relatively weak Big Ten and beat rival Washington after going 0-3 against the Huskies under head coach Dan Lanning.
2. Washington. Packed an awful lot of fun into a 6-6 season, knocking off Northwestern, Michigan, USC and UCLA along the way. This team typically recovers, from everything, and will do so again.
3. Cal. Hold on a minute, you might say. The Bears choked away their season with that incomprehensibly hapless four-game losing streak, after all. And they blew a chance to actually be relevant in the ACC. But people figured Berkeley would be a veritable football wasteland with the Bears lodging themselves so far away. Instead, students started arriving at midnight before the Miami game. ESPN’s “GameDay” crew was there, with thousands of happy people milling everywhere. And the Big Game brought not only a packed house, but a 98-yard, game-winning drive that had fans storming the field. Heartwarming stuff — and by the way, if the ACC is going to list five quarterbacks on its all-conference team, including honorable mention, Cal’s endearing Fernando Mendoza has to be on there.
4. UCLA. The Bruins looked doomed from the start, on Media Day, when new head coach DeShaun Foster couldn’t put a coherent sentence together as he addressed the gathering. What followed was a season of utter nothingness, and now they’re losing at least 13 starters to the transfer portal. Maybe school executives will acknowledge the cowardly nature of their money-grabbing ways and return to the Pacific-12 (or whatever) someday. They might even be forgiven.
5. Stanford. Cal fans kept the faith, but the Stanford people just gave up. Heck with the ACC. Too many obstacles with the NIL and the transfer portal. Lousy team, too. On some days, it looked like about 38 people were there for home games. A very positive thing happened, though, with the hiring of Andrew Luck as the collegiate game’s first-ever “general manager.” He cares, deeply. He knows how great this program can be — he was part of it, under head coaches Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw — and how a few key moves can change everything.
6. USC. This is harsh, but make no mistake, it was the Trojans who destroyed the Pac-12. For a few extra bucks — a financial windfall that won’t mean a damned thing when reality sets in — the Trojans’ executive airheads pulled the plug and launched a spirit-crushing exodus. They deserved to go 0-12, and it almost felt that way after a 6-6 season as head coach Lincoln Riley’s overall record fell to 25-14. It’s a sad, paltry affair for this once-proud program, but Pac-12 justice has been served.
Life is too short to waste on crap football.
