UCLA Football – RIVALS RUNDOWN

If this is your first time checking out our rankings here at the Rundown, there are a couple of things that you need to know. The first thing is that we have a West Coast and Pac12 biased. Yep, that’s right we are in Pac12 Country and watch a lot of late night College Football on Saturday Night’s (Sometimes we even watch Hawaii). Now, the second thing you should know about our rankings is that we don’t care about where teams might have been ranked the week before, every week we wipe the slate, look at the teams across College Football and we rank based off of what’s in front of us. Why is this important? It becomes relavent when a team like Virginia Tech loses to Duke or Stanford loses to Utah, in some polls voters don’t want to move someone out or down too far because that is accepting the fact that they were wrong the week before, us, we don’t give a @#%#$^. So, with the side notes out of the way, we present to you our Week 9 College Football Rankings…

1. Alabama 8-0
“To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best.”
When we sat down to put together this weeks edition, we really honestly thought that Florida State should be here based off of the body of work but looking back at each teams wins, losses, and the overall performance in all games…’Bama is still #1.

2. Oregon 8-0
We know, we know… I just said that I was going to rank Florida State #1, well not just yet. Remember when I said we are biased, yep that’s right! Oregon is the second best team, now with the games coming up, this will be settled within the next week.

3. Florida State 7-0
The SEC is the best conference, then the PAC 12, then the ACC right? Well we think that it’s actually a tie between the ACC and BigXII, the reason all comes down to the Duke upset of Virginia Tech, it to some street creed away from the ACC’s depth. Back to Florida State, if they Miami, they will jump Oregon until the Ducks face off with Stanford after their bye week.

4. Ohio State 8-0
The Buckeye’s have an easy schedule, it’s not all their fault that, oh wait yes, yes it is. Scheduling Buffalo and Florida A&M is not going to help your National Title hopes in a year that the Big Ten as a conference is down. The Buckeye’s however have a better chance then the top three teams of going undefeated in the regular season. With a light challenge from Indiana and Michigan left, a back to back perfect regular season is in the sights, now let’s see how they close.

5. Baylor 7-0
The Bears have done what was needed for them to be here, they are putting up impressive and shocking numbers. They made it to the bye week perfect and now have a breather before the schedule turns and they face a gauntlet of Big XII teams. We ‘ll talk more then…

6. Miami 7-0
The Hurricanes return to a National Title Game rests with the Florida State match-up. If they win they stay in the conversation, a loss and they will drop based off of a weak ACC schedule. We’ll also watch for a let down against a tough Virginia Tech defense.

7. Clemson 7-1
We look at who Clemson beat and lost and they deserve to still be ranked the highest of the one loss teams. They beat Georgia before Georgia suffered for a ton a injuries and even though they got destroyed by the Seminoles, they have still only loss to the #3 team in our rankings.

8. Stanford 7-1
The Cardinal will see if they can steal our dream of a ‘Bama vs Oregon National Championship and also become the best one loss team in the country. We think that Oregon will win this time and Stanford will drop to a top 15ish team.

9. Missouri 7-1
Laces Out!!!

10. Auburn 7-1
We have no faith in this team but their one loss is to a solid LSU team and puts them a in the top 10…for now.

11. Oklahoma 7-1
Another team that is hard to read and with a little luck and an extra week to prepare for Baylor, The Sooners could find themselves moving in the right direction.

12. Texas A&M 6-2
With a nice break in the schedule right now, the Aggies are retooling and getting ready for the final stretch after they see if they can beat the spread on UTEP.

13. LSU 7-2
Can’t wait to see what happens when the square-off against ‘Bama.

14. Texas Tech 7-1
The Red Raiders showed they could play to the last minute against the best, now with a big stage game behind them, let’s see if they can put the finishing touches on what could be a special season.

15. South Carolina 6-2
Still hangin tough…

And the Rest…

16. UCLA 5-2
They have lost only to Stanford and Oregon, we’ll see if it breaks them like it did Washington or if the rise back to win to Pac 12 South

17. Fresno State 7-0
We have proof of one thing, if Carr and the Bulldogs are in games late, they have the ability to win and they believe they will win no matter what. Carr should be in the Heisman talk based on his performances winning games for his team.

18. UCF 6-1
Only loss to South Carolina and a nice win against a team we had going undefeated, we’re not going to discount them and no way rank them below Louisville, that’s just disrespectful.

19. Oklahoma State 6-1
After one trip-up let’s see how the Cowboys finish the season…

20. Louisville 7-1
Here’s the thing, Louisville has enough talent that we serious believe they could compete in a bowl against anyone but the question is: with BCS in question, can the Cardinals keep focus and finish out the year.

21. Northern Ill. 8-0
Not sure if we’re buying the Huskies as a top team but we respect what they’ve done so far.

23. Michigan State 7-1
Could this be the year the Spartans finally break through?

24. Notre Dame 5-2
Since the loss to Michigan, Notre Dame has become a better team. Now what for the Golden Domers?

25. Arizona State 5-2
The Pac 12 South should come down to UCLA and the Devils, can ASU win on the road and close out the season?

Just outside:

Wisconsin, Michigan, Oregon State, BYU, Texas,

2013 Pac 12 Conference Preseason Top 5* Rundown

The PAC 12 has quickly risen to the second toughest conference in all of BCS Football. The diehards of every conference, well at least the major ones, will make an argument for their conference supremacy, so we here at the Rivals Rundown, will make the argument that the PAC 12 is the toughest conference top to bottom…ok not really, but the PAC is clearly the number 2 conference behind the SEC and here is why, welcome to our PAC 12 Conference Top5* Rundown:

1. Oregon Ducks11-1 (PAC 12 Champions) (North Champions)

No real surprise here to us although it might be to some, considering 7 out of 16 major preseason publications have Stanford winning the PAC 12. We here at the R&R see it a little different, with the fact that Oregon or Stanford both would’ve been a better show in the National Championship game last year, the only real difference this year, revenge. Oregon will be like an unstoppable rocket heading directly for Stanford with only a trap game on the road to Washington standing in their way. That’s right, we’re ignoring road games against UCLA and Virginia, seeing Washington as the only team that could trip Oregon before the Stanford showdown. Oregon is loaded with 9 returners on offense and 7 returners on defense, with tons of top recruits ready to be plugged into the Ducks system. We don’t think that Oregon can survive a complete year undefeated but we will be cheering for them if it comes down the stretch and they are the PAC’s best chance to represent in the National Title Game.

2. USC Trojans 10-3 (South Champions)

If you look around, everyone loves Stanford at this spot, we don’t but we also don’t love USC. We just think that they are too talented and have too easy of a schedule not to finish 10-3. Anything less then 10-3, with the roster they have, with a schedule bypassing Oregon and Washington from the north, and home games of Stanford and UCLA, Coach Kiffin better do the right thing and just quit if they can’t reach double digits. Look for a September match-up with Arizona St. to let everyone know who is in the driver seat for the South Title. (Secretly we will be cheering for this pick to be wrong and for the Sun Devils to win the South, the PAC 12 and the National Championship…but we do that every year!!!)

3. Oregon State Beavers 9-3

Sometimes preseason rankings make no sense to us, this is the case with the national media’s treatment of Oregon St. So, last year the Beavers weren’t on anyone’s preseason radar to have the type of season they produced. They had solid wins against Wisconsin, UCLA, BYU, Arizona St, and suffered two of their four losses (including the bowl game to Texas) to Stanford and Oregon…this year the Beavers have a non-conference schedule featuring Eastern Washington, Hawaii, and SDSU, they get Stanford, USC and Washington all at home…yet everyone has them on the outside looking in. Well, not us here at the Rundown, we like the Beavers to have a chance to ruin Oregon’s BCS title game hopes on the last game of the regular season thus giving Oregon St. a shot at the PAC 12 Title. Now, let’s clarify one thing, we are picking Oregon but we’re taking Oregon St over Stanford.

3. Stanford Cardinal 9-3

The Cardinal have posted double digit season for the past three years, since then, the Coach who got them there is now coaching in Super Bowls, the QB who got them there had one of the best rookie seasons in NFL history and yet the Cardinal is now being talked about as a “reload” type of program and 2013 is the year they can prove it… we don’t think so. The 2013 campaign to us looks a lot like a season that will be successful for Shaw and the Cardinal but not up to the level of the last three. We like the chances for USC and Oregon St to take back wins against the Cardinal as well as Oregon, that leads us to drop the Cardinal to this position, although we think they are a better overall team than Oregon St, we like the Beavers in the head to head game.

4. Arizona State Sun Devils 9-3

(Homer Alert) So yes, ASU is our home team here at the Rundown but being fair we think some of the preseason hype surrounding the Devils right now needs to calm down just a little bit. The Devils need to get through one of the toughest stretches in all of college football, in-fact, we challenge you to find one tougher then Wisconsin, Stanford, USC, and Notre Dame. If the Sun Devils get through that 2-2 it’s a win and with Oregon St and Washington at home, we like the Devils to make it to December with a chance to play for the PAC 12 Title. (Now, our hearts say the Devils are going undefeated and I better get tickets and book a trip to the National Championship game…but that’s what I want every year)

5. Washington Huskies 8-4 & UCLA Bruins 8-4

Before we get ahead of ourselves and cover every team in the PAC 12 that could have a winning season, we are going to lump these two programs together, maybe we should’ve done that with the Ducks and Cardinal. Anyways, Washington and UCLA both are on the verge of bringing their programs back to national relevance, if that happens, then the PAC 12 will have an argument that they are the second best conference in college football. We will call these two teams, our sleepers for the 2013 season, now we know that a lot of people are talking about UCLA winning the South but we need more proof, this year would be it. UCLA is facing a revenge schedule, meaning, last year UCLA got wins against Nebraska, USC and ASU, we don’t see that happening two years in a row. For the Huskies, they will break in a brand new stadium on opening day against, Boise St, if they can take that game, which might be a blow out for the Huskies (not kidding here) then look out for them to go 4-0 riding a ton of confidence into Stanford, Oregon, and Arizona St. Those three games will determine if the Huskies are back. And that’s why UCLA and Washington are our sleepers.

Tag: UCLA Football

College Football Week 9 Power Rankings

Our @PAC12 2013 Preseason Top5* Rundown