The final main weekend of non-conference play for the Pacific-10 Conference should provide a lot of answers as to how good the league stands up on a national level.
Four teams play opponents ranked in the Top 25 and two others play undefeated teams from major conferences.
“Any time you’re playing ranked teams, BCS opponents, you have a chance to make a name for yourself,” Oregon coach Mike Belotti said. “This week we’ll know more about the Pac-10 and the way it’s shaking out.”
The Ducks (2-0) are one of the teams who face a major challenge this week, playing host to No. 25 Fresno State (1-0). Oregon State (2-0), coming off of a victory over Boise State, travels to No. 10 Louisville (1-0) for the first meeting between the schools. UCLA (2-0) hosts No. 17 Oklahoma (1-1) and Arizona (1-1), which lost at Utah in its season opener, hosts No. 11 Purdue (1-0).
In addition, No. 15 California (2-0) hosts 2-0 Illinois and No. 22 Arizona State (1-1), coming off of a loss to LSU, hosts Northwestern (2-0).
“It’s going to be great exposure for our conference,” UCLA coach Karl Dorrell said. “TV games, playing against ranked opponents. I would say it’s a pretty big week for the Pac-10 and hopefully we’re all successful.”
Still, with three teams in the Top 25, it isn’t like the Pac-10 is starving for attention.
“When you have the back-to-back national champion, you already have some respect,” Belotti said. “It’s the rest of us that need to step up and see what we can do.”
What’s Grambling’s deal? Washington State coach Bill Doba said Grambling, this week’s opponent at Qwest Field, refused to trade game tape with the Cougars, and Doba says that means he isn’t sure what to expect this week.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever been around in college football where they don’t want to trade a video,” Doba said. “I imagine they probably got ours off of ESPN.”
Of most concern to Doba are Grambling’s top wide receivers, who are junior college transfers and don’t show up on tape of Grambling from last season.
“We’re not sure what those kids are going to be like,” Doba said. “They scored 44 points in their first game, that has to tell you something. Looking at last year’s tape, they have good speed and the offensive line is huge.”
Koetter talks about fake: Arizona State coach Dirk Koetter explained Arizona State’s fateful fake punt against LSU last week by saying sometimes a team needs to take a chance.
“It wasn’t a straight fake punt,” Koetter said. “It was a run-kick option. When you’re playing in a game you have to make some plays happen.”
Koetter said his team had executed the same play in practice so he had no problem calling for the play in a game. LSU ended up with the ball, taking the lead in the fourth quarter and shifting the momentum.
“Plays like that are what got us in the lead in the first place,” said Koetter, who also noted that ASU took the lead two more times after the fake punt. “You’ve got to take risks. We take risks all the time in this offense. When you take any kind of a risk, as a coach, they’re great if they work and not so great if they don’t.”
OSU adjusts practice time: With Oregon State’s game at Louisville kicking off at 9 a.m. Saturday, coach Mike Riley adjusted his practice schedule, getting the team on the field early in the morning this week.
“I don’t know if it helps or not,” Riley said. “But we’re going to do our physical work in the morning. We’re going to try to start getting used to that a little bit.”
Martinez rolling: Oregon kicker Paul Martinez is on a roll. He is 11-for-12 on field goals this year and leads the nation in field goals made. He tied the school record with five field goals in Oregon’s first game, then broke it last week by going 6-for-6, also tying the Pac-10 record.
“Paul Martinez is obviously a great weapon to have,” Belotti said. “But we’d like him to kick a lot more extra points.
Keller special from the start: Koetter said he knew quarterback Sam Keller was special from the time he first practiced as a freshman.
“He went from fifth to second on the depth chart in two weeks,” Koetter said. “We’ve never had a guy learn that fast.”
Keller leads the Pac-10, averaging 334.5 yards a game and has eight touchdowns.
Drew suffers loss: Bruins star running back Maurice Drew’s grandfather had a heart attack in the stands of the Rose Bowl during UCLA’s game against Rice Saturday and later died, and Dorrell said Drew is doing as well as can be expected.
“He obviously has a heavy heart,” Dorrell said. “His grandfather was his biggest fan, he never missed a game. It’s devastating for him and his family.”
Dorrell did say that all five of his players from the New Orleans area reported that all of their family members are safe, though there was damage to their homes.
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