How’d I Do

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, September 2, 2006

I’ll try to keep track of my weekly Pac-10 picks here during the season. After all, what’s the point of picking them if you don’t know how you’re doing.

So here’s what I picked, and what happened:

BYU at Arizona: My pick: BYU 35-30; Final result: Arizona 16-13. Not nearly as much offense as I expected. BYU isn’t known as a great defensive team, which may be a concern for the Wildcats, but Arizona’s defense stepped up against a pretty good offense.

Northern Arizona at Arizona State: My pick: Arizona State 60-3; Final result: Arizona State 35-14. Much closer than I expected. Talent won out in the fourth quarter for ASU, but it has to be a bit of a concern that the Sun Devils let a 1-AA school hang in with them for so long. And definitely a concern to me, since I picked ASU to finish second in the Pac-10.

California at Tennessee: My pick: Tennessee 37-14; Final result: Tennessee 35-18. I wasn’t that far off, and I was probably one of the few – at least outside of the SEC – who saw a one-sided game coming. I just don’t like Cal as much as others. A team with a quarterback situation going into the first game scares me, no matter how good their defense or running back is.

Stanford at Oregon: My pick: Oregon 37-16; Final result: Oregon 48-10. I figured the Ducks would win easily, but I didn’t figure it would be that easy. Stanford had some hope this season but Oregon just dominated in every way it could. A great start for a Ducks team I think is a top three team in the league.

Eastern Washington at Oregon State: My pick: Oregon State 49-14; Final result: Oregon State 56-17. No surprise here, as the Beavers got off to a fast start and dominated a game they should have dominated. Not sure we learn a lot from this game, though OSU did look really good, especially on offense.

Utah at UCLA: My pick: Utah 29-27; Final result: UCLA 31-10. The biggest surprise for me. I expected this to be a really down year for the Bruins, and maybe it still will be, but they looked pretty good against the Utes. The UCLA offense in particularl was better than I thought, especially because it is adjusting to a new coordinator.

USC at Arkansas: My pick: USC 27-19; Final result: USC 50-14. Wow, I knew USC was good, but thought it might take a few weeks for the young Trojans to really get going. I guess not. If you go to the SEC and win like that, you’ve got to be happy. I didn’t think USC would lose in the regular season, and I might even be right.

San Jose State at Washington: My pick: Washington 45-10; Final result: Washington 35-29. I thought the Huskies would win much more easily but San JOse exposed a thin Washington secondary. The Huskies offense was better than a year ago, though.

Washington State at Auburn. My pick: Auburn 42-18; Final result: Auburn 40-14. Not too far off, and not a surprise. Auburn is just too good and talented for the Cougars even if they were healthy, which they aren’t.

Season record: 7-2.