Pac-12 Football: Stanford leads four remaining unbeatens out West
By Dana Becker
It’s hard to imagine a scenario where the season could have gone worse for UCLA and head coach Chip Kelly than the one they are currently stuck in.
The Bruins are 0-3, lost starting quarterback Wilton Speight, are coming off a 38-14 defeat to Fresno State and now have in-house fighting among new quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson’s father and Kelly.
Needless to say, the proverbial ship needs plenty of righting heading into a much needed bye week for UCLA.
Given the extra practice time, if all hands are on deck, Kelly should be able to figure things out on the offensive side of the ball at least.
The Beavers battled, but were unable to score their second victory of the season at Nevada, falling by two points. Once again, Jermar Jefferson was a star, rushing for 106 yards and scoring two touchdowns.
A missed field goal, though, doomed Oregon State.
Jake Luton returned from his injury to complete 23 of 35 passes for 284 yards, with Conor Blount throwing for another 175. Both had interceptions, though, offsetting the 459 yards passing.
It will be back to home this week as the Beavers welcome Arizona for a key league showdown.
All it took was a meeting with Southern Utah for Arizona fans to get a glimpse of the old Khalil Tate.
Tate threw for a career-high 349 yards with five touchdowns, completing 13 of 20. He ran for just 19 yards, as he has yet to flash that speed with his legs under Kevin Sumlin that he did with Rich Rodriguez last year.
The Wildcats did run for 268 yards, with three different backs gaining at least 54.
Of course, the defense surrendered 31 points to an FCS school, which will likely keep Sumlin up most of the week as they prepare for a Pac-12 battle with Oregon State.
It’s been difficult to get a read on the Utes this year.
They looked good – not great – in the first two weeks, and were done in by a strong Myles Gaskin performance vs. Pac-12 favorite Washington this past Saturday, 21-7.
Zack Moss was bottled up to the tune of just 67 yards, as Tyler Huntley completed 20 of 38, but for only 138 yards.
Utah will need much, much more from both moving forward if they want to get back in the race. The Utes are off this coming week before heading to Washington State.