Ball Quarter

By Sam Allen

Pac-10 Picks

Posted September 4, 2008

The Bruins can bask in the glory of Monday's shocking 27-24 win over Tennessee this weekend, but every other Pac-10 team will play. Here's a quick look at those games, with predictions.

No. 15 BYU at Washington

Tyrone Willingham's Washington team stumbled out of the gate, falling 44-10 at Oregon. The Huskies need a much better performance from quarterback Jake Locker if they want to hang with BYU. Expect UCLA to watch this game very closely; the Bruins play at BYU on Sept. 13 and at Washington Nov. 13.

BYU 52, Washington 34

Oregon State at No. 19 Penn State

Call it the very-poor-man's USC-Ohio State. A week before the defending champs of the Pac-10 and Big-10 meet in Los Angeles, two solid teams from those conferences will meet in State College, PA. If the Beavers can avoid the silly mistakes that cost them in week one at Stanford, they have the secondary to stop Penn State's passing attack.

Penn State 31, Oregon State 20

Utah State at No. 18 Oregon

Oregon trounced a decent Washington team in week one, when running back Jeremiah Johnson's 124 yards and two scores erased any worries about replacing Jonathan Stewart. Utah State is one of the worst teams in Division 1, and lost last week to UNLV.

Oregon 59, Utah State 7

Cal at Washington State

Pullman, Wash. is not an easy road trip for the boys from Berkeley, but Cal managed a 38-31 win against Michigan State and should be able to cruise past a rebuilding Wazzu team.

Cal 41, Washington State 13

Toledo at Arizona

Arizona head coach Mike Stoops must have heard all the rumors about his job security; he coached the Wildcats to a 70-0 win against Idaho last week. Arizona has an all-cupcake schedule before it faces the Bruins on Sept. 21, but you really never know with the Wildcats history of mercurial play.

Arizona 35, Toledo 27

Stanford at No. 15 Arizona State

Game of the week. Stanford surprised a lot of us with its win over Oregon State in week one, now it could really shake things up in Tempe. A win over Northern Arizona wasn't much of a preparation for the Sun Devils, and they may have their hands full with a very experienced Cardinal team.

Arizona State 31, Stanford 28

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Andrew Howard was very impressive last week. He picked four of the five Pac-10 games correctly, including his pick that UCLA would win by three points. We'll see if I can beat him.