5 biggest surprises so far in 2022 college football season

Pac-12 resurgence

The Pac-12 has been viewed as the weakest Power-5 conference in college football for years and the league has sent a team to the College Football Playoff since Washington in 2016.

Yet, the conference is looking as strong as it has in years with Lincoln Riley leading USC back to prominence. Oregon also notched an impressive win over BYU this past weekend and other teams such as Washington, Washington State, and Arizona have notched impressive wins.

Washington State, led by transfer quarterback Cameron Ward, won at Wisconsin, while Washington got a really solid win over Michigan State. People don’t want to give the Pac-12 its due but those are two good wins over ranked, Big Ten teams.

Michael Penix Jr. is going to start getting some Heisman attention and has been outstanding at quarterback for the Huskies. Even Oregon is back in the top 15 and the Pac-12 has four teams total ranked in the top 18 of the AP Poll.

The highest of those is USC and so far, the Trojans look every bit like a playoff contender. Not many saw a playoff team coming from the West Coast but after a few weeks, it doesn’t look so far-fetched, especially with the way Caleb Williams and company are rolling.