Pac-12 Football: Five burning questions for 2015
Nov 13, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; General view of the Pac-12 logo at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before the NCAA football game between the California Golden Bears against the Southern California Trojans. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
College football kicks off the 2015 season on Thursday, September 3rd, and with the bliss of another campaign so close, it is time to examine the five biggest questions facing the Pac-12 conference this year.
Going into the 2014 season in the Pac-12 conference, there were plenty of questions. Is USC ready for prime time? Can Stanford maintain its dominance of Oregon? Is this the year that UCLA and senior quarterback Brett Hundley finally get over the hump? Those and many other fascinating questions were zooming around the minds of west coast football fans everywhere in late last summer.
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Those questions were answered. USC was not ready, shown by their close losses including the infamous last second “Jael Mary” pass from Arizona State backup quarterback Mike Bercovici to wide receiver Jaelen Strong. That touchdown pass handed USC one of many excruciating losses. While the talent seemed to be there, the team never gelled the way head coach Steve Sarkisian had hoped. Eventually, the Trojans would finish just 6-3 in conference play.
Stanford meanwhile, also flopped during the 2014 schedule, going an inexplicable 5-4 inside the Pac-12, including a dismal defeat to those same Trojans in a game where the Cardinal clearly outplayed their competition. David Shaw, after a nice two-year run, is suddenly feeling his start to warm up just a bit and is in need of a bounce-back season.
Meanwhile, the trifecta of disappointment ended in Los Angeles, where the UCLA Bruins started conference play with an impressive 62-27 pounding of South division rival Arizona State. However, Brett Hundley and company followed up that victory by losing two in a row to Utah and Oregon.
Nevertheless, this team was poised to go the Pac-12 championship game if not for a humbling 31-10 stomping by the Stanford. Overall the team took a major step forward, but could not get to the heights expected of Hundley’s final season at UCLA.
The 2015 season, meanwhile, features all kinds of mystery and intrigue with new coaches, new quarterbacks, and six teams ranked in the AP preseason top 25. Another wild season on the gridiron starts Thursday, but until then we can salivate over the biggest questions of the Pac-12.
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