Kevin Gemmell, ESPN Staff Writer 10y

Pac-12 Ultimate Road Trip: Week 8

Media days are behind us and the road trip resumes!

Gas up the family station wagon and hit the Holiday Road. The Ultimate Road Trip is back! Over the next couple of weeks we're going to look at each week during the 2014 season and pick the can't-miss game (and maybe for Thursday/Friday games, we'll work in two).

Start planning accordingly. The Ultimate Pac-12 Road Trip continues.

Welcome to Week 8.

Thursday, Oct. 16

  • Utah at Oregon State

Saturday, Oct. 18

  • Stanford at Arizona State

  • Colorado at USC

  • UCLA at California

  • Washington at Oregon

  • BYES: Arizona, Washington State

My choice: Stanford Cardinal at Arizona State Sun Devils

Why: This is another one of those "tough one" weeks. I almost wish the Ducks and Huskies would be playing on Thursday night so we could get both games in. But alas, we have to choose one.

So why this game over the always frosty rivalry of Oregon-Washington? For starters, the Ducks have won 10 in a row over the Huskies -- all by at least 17 points. A decade, people! How many of you have gotten married, had kids, changed jobs in a decade?

I get that it's a big deal.  I've been covering the conference long enough to recognize how passionate both of these fan bases are about this game. But at some point Washington needs to show up and make it a rivalry again. Maybe Chris Petersen is the guy to do it. Maybe not. But Washington needs to start being more competitive before we can once again elevate this game to must-see status.

The mailbag is open, Washington fans. Bring it (by the way, I'll be off for a couple of weeks, but I promise I won't ignore your letters of love and encouragement and agreement).

So, to the game at hand… It's a rematch of last year's Pac-12 championship game, which Stanford won 38-14. Of course, the Cardinal also won earlier in the year 42-28 in Palo Alto.

This game features some very intriguing matchups. You have the Cardinal, who are rebuilding their running game with a new committee of running backs and four new offensive linemen. Then you have the Sun Devils on the other side who are rebuilding their defense with nine new starters.

By the time we get to this point in the season, we'll have a better idea of what both of these teams are going to look like. But as of today, it's question mark vs. question mark.

Not a question, however, is the potent potential of ASU's passing attack vs. the Stanford secondary. The Cardinal return three starters in safety Jordan Richards and cornerbacks Wayne Lyons and Alex Carter. They'll be tested by an explosive ASU offense that features quarterback Taylor Kelly, wide receiver Jaelen Strong, running back D.J. Foster (who they also love to use as a slot receiver) and three of five starting linemen.

So you have experience vs. experience.

Is it possible this game ends in a blowout? Of course, there is always a chance. Is it possible that Washington beats Oregon and we got it wrong this week? Sure. But as far as storylines go, this one has a chance for more intrigue -- especially after the defending division champs are feeling a bit slighted after not being picked to repeat.

^ Back to Top ^