On a weekend full of Pac-12 conference games involving Top 25 teams, there’s a good chance we’ll come away with a better feel for the league’s playoff contenders and pretenders.
The action kicked off Friday night, with No. 21 Stanford beating Oregon State 42-24. The Cardinal (3-1, 2-0) lost their opener to Northwestern, but won at Southern California and now Oregon State.
In Saturday’s games, No. 9 UCLA is at No. 16 Arizona (ABC, 8 p.m.), No, 18 Utah visits No. 13 Oregon (Fox, 8:30 p.m.) and No. 19 Southern Cal travels to Arizona State (ESPN, 10:30 p.m.).
The Bruins and Wildcats are each unbeaten in three games coming into their conference opener. Coach Jim Mora’s Bruins are 3-0 against coach Rich Rodriguez’s Wildcats. Surely, this won’t be a defensive struggle, so look for lots of scoring. Oddsmakers are: The over/under is 65 1/2 points.
If nothing else, tune in to see who starts at quarterback for the Utes (3-0, 0-0) and the Ducks (2-1, 0-0). For Oregon, it’s Vernon Adams (broken right index finger) or Jeff Lockie, who started for Adams in last week’s win. For Utah, it’s Travis Wilson (sprained left shoulder) or Kendal Thompson, who started for Wilson in last week’s win.