USC Rises, UCLA Falls in Week 7 Pac 12 Power Rankings
Saturday Blitz Pac 12 Power Rankings Week 7
Stanford could be higher after such a great win against Washington State, and it’s clear this team could be undefeated right now if not for a couple of terrible, mistake-prone games. But we are going to keep the Cardinal in the bottom half of the Pac-12 for now until they can prove themselves a little bit more.
The Cardinal defense has certainly proven itself, this time holding Connor Halliday and the Mike Leach led Washington State offense to less than 200 yards passing. That’s enough to celebrate right there, and with a defense like that it makes you question how this team isn’t undefeated. Kevin Hogan is still an incredibly efficient quarterback, and the running game is right where you need it to be. This team can still accomplish a lot this year with the talent around it.
But they have quite a few huge tests coming up. Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, and Utah are the next four games, and all of them are tough ones. Then they close out the year with a road game against UCLA. So this team could easily fall to 8-4 or 7-5. But David Shaw is also good enough as a coach to help lead this team to 10-2 and win out, so we will have to be in wait-and-see mode.
For now, though, they belong at No. 7 in the Pac-12.