Marsh Power Rankings (week 10)

[David Marsh]

So I'm pretty late putting this together this week. It's been a crazy week on my end so this is really the first time I have had the chance to actually put this together. At this point the Pac-12 is really broken down into three distinct sections and I'm going to do a top-down order this time rather than a bottom-up. There are also three distinct tiers of teams in the conference at this point and there probably won't be any real movement of teams between these tiers. 

 

Top Tier 

 

1. Oregon (8-1) - Oregon is just doing what they need to do, win. Bo Nix should be getting an invite to New York for the Heisman even if he may not actually win it. This Oregon team is the best the Pac-12 has to offer right now and now the Ducks get ready to enter the final stretch of their schedule where they will face at least 3 ranked teams, and possibly 4. We will have to see if the Beavers can sneak back into the rankings. 

 

2. UCLA (8-1) - The Bruins are still the No. 2 team in the Pac, even if the polls have USC ahead of them. The big difference is that UCLA beat up Utah and USC lost to Utah. That alone is why UCLA should be ahead of USC. 

 

3. Utah (7-2) - Utah is not out of the Pac-12 race at this point though it feels like they have been written off at this point. This is mostly because everyone is expecting Oregon to get revenge on them in a couple weeks. If Oregon knocks out Utah then Oregon and safely write their ticket to Vegas. It also feels safe to have Utah at No. 3 because it appears that Cam Rising is back at starting quarterback.  

 

4. USC (8-1) - USC is a hype machine this year more than ever. They are ranked inside the top 10, again, and yet they have only played one ranked opponent to date and that resulted in their only loss. With that said USC is still a good and dangerous team. However, their defense is suspect as they gave up 35 points to Cal, a team woefully lacking an offense this year and those Cal points were not garbage time points, Cal was in this game but couldn't quite put together an upset. 

 

The Middle Tier 

 

5. Washington (7-2) - In all honesty you could rank these three teams in any order you want and it would be acceptable. These teams all feel equal and it all just comes down to who has home field advantage and a little luck. Washington has a good offense but their defense is woefully lacking. I think we are all looking forward to the Ducks demolishing the Huskies this Saturday and also the Huskies don't have a good track record of traveling the past few seasons. 

 

6. Oregon State (6-3) - The quarterback position comes back to haunt Oregon State. They should have beat Washington last Saturday but sub-par quarterback play meant they couldn't put the game away. Their defense is probably the best in the Pac but they still need to score points. 

 

7. Washington State (5-4) - WSU beat a bad Stanford team and look like they are finding their early season fire power again. Washington State sits in the middle of the Pac at this point along with Washington and Oregon State and it feels about right. 

 

The Bottom Tier 

 

8. Arizona (3-6) - Status quo here, Arizona has some of the least amount of talent in the conference but their offense is deadly. They just lack the defense to actually win games, but this place in the rankings is tenuous for Arizona as they will need to beat Arizona State to really hold onto it. Granted this is the top of the bottom tier of the conference so it's not saying much. 

 

9. Cal (3-6) - Is Cal finding some offense towards the end of the year? Well maybe a little but they still aren't that good but they did push USC to the end of the game losing in the Colisium by only six points. It is difficult to say how good Cal will be next year but at this point it feels safe to say that Cal isn't making a bowl game this year with games against Oregon State and UCLA still remaining on the schedule. Even their match-up against Stanford isn't a guaranteed win at this point. 

 

10. Arizona State (3-6) - What to actually make of this ASU team is difficult. They aren't good, that's clear but they aren't devoid of talent either. They put up a strong fight against UCLA, though it never looked like they were going to upset the Bruins, and earlier in the year they hung close with USC until the fourth quarter. This team has talent and needs some strong coaching and some stability to get them back on track. However, they are really going to be a rebuild and take several years to get back to being a competitive football team, but for now it is clear they aren't the worst team in the Pac-12. 

 

11. Stanford (3-6) - How did this team beat a Notre Dame team that just defeated an undefeated Clemson team? Well, that's college football. Stanford just can't seem to put it all together and probably wont this year and maybe not next year. They are, however, better than Colorado even though they won't play Colorado this year. 

 

12. Colorado (1-8) - No surprises here. 

 

[Charles Fischer]

Great stuff David, and after pondering--I agree with your rankings at the top, although a number of national pundits would not.  USC gets a lot of love for such a skinny portfolio...

[DUCati855]

On 11/9/2022 at 3:33 PM, Charles Fischer said:

USC gets a lot of love for such a skinny portfolio...

Charles, you have a way of putting my thoughts into politically correct terms. Thank you.

[Mic]

On 11/9/2022 at 2:58 PM, David Marsh said:

At this point the Pac-12 is really broken down into three distinct sections and I'm going to do a top-down order this time rather than a bottom-up.

 

The Middle Tier 

 

5. Washington (7-2) - In all honesty you could rank these three teams in any order you want and it would be acceptable.. 

 

6. Oregon State (6-3) - The quarterback position comes back to haunt Oregon State. They should have beat Washington last Saturday but sub-par quarterback play meant they couldn't put the game away. Their defense is probably the best in the Pac but they still need to score points. 

 

I absolutely agree with your rankings but I snipped out these two in particular.  You've nailed it, David.  OSU could very well be in your "Top Tier" and not just one slot below Washington in the Middle Tier were it not for the unfortunate situation with their QB.  This will probably be a year where the Beavs will look back and say "Oh, what might have been"!  They clearly have a defense to compete at the highest level in the Pac-12.

 

And for those who remember all the friendly "arguments" we had back in the day on Glenn Hanna's Duck Dugeon about what wins Championships (Defense Wins Championships - No! - Offense Wins Championships) the Beavers are the poster children of why a team must have both to win Championships.  To say "Defense wins Championships" is really only seeing half of the picture.  After all, at the end of the game, the team with the most points is the "Winner".  Always has been, always will be.

Edited November 10, 2022 by Mic

[David Marsh]

On 11/9/2022 at 4:11 PM, Mic said:

And for those who remember all the friendly "arguments" we had back in the day on Glenn Hanna's Duck Dugeon about what wins Championships (Defense Wins Championships - No! - Offense Wins Championships) the Beavers are the poster children of why a team must have both to win Championships.  To say "Defense wins Championships" is really only seeing half of the picture.  After all, at the end of the game, the team with the most points is the "Winner".  Always has been, always will be.

Especially in the day and age where you need to consistently post 40 points per game to win.