Happy Friday!
Leading off
As we do every Friday, we focus our attention on some picks. Only two weeks left (not counting the bowl games). Six are already bowl eligible, two more will punch their ticket this weekend (the winners of the Stanford-Cal and Oregon State-Washington games becomes bowl eligible). So we'll have at least eight. But nine or 10 are still mathematically possible. But we'll worry about that when we have to.
The Pac-12 blog released its picks Thursday morning. Chantel Jennings went against the grain in a couple of picks and Kyle Bonagura likes the Trojans. Other than that, pretty unanimous.
As we do every week, here are some predictions from folks who cover the conference and college football nationally.
The Fox Sports tandem of Bruce Feldman and Stewart Mandel both like the Bruins in a tight game. Here's what Feldman had to say:
Brett Hundley wrecked the Trojans last season with his legs and arm, and he was very sharp in carving up USC two years ago. Despite how well Cody Kessler, Nelson Agholor and Buck Allen are playing, my hunch is the Bruins have enough athletes on defense to contain them to get away with a win. UCLA 31, USC 30.
Here are some other thoughts:
If you're looking for the kind of picks where points matter, Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News says take the Cougs.
The Sports Illustrated gang is mostly split on the Arizona-Utah game.
Jacob Thorpe of the Spokesman-Review likes Cal, regardless of the points.
The Athlon folks are split on Cal-Stanford.
Halliday update
Injured Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday spoke about the specifics of his injury for the first time Thursday. We had one report here on the blog. He also shared his frustration over the injury and the hope that he'll be playing football again within five months, which would put him in line to participate in WSU's pro day.
Here's a quote from Halliday from a story in the Spokesman-Review:
I think the hardest thing was just how close I was to being healthy throughout the year, going to the combine, getting to do all that stuff. That’s what I’ve been dreaming about since I’ve been able to dream so that was the frustrating thing: I was just three games away from that.
Halliday was putting up monster numbers. We know this because he's still leading the Pac-12 in passing with 3,873 yards and 32 touchdown passes. Here's the full transcript of Halliday's conference call with the media.
News/notes/team reports
Scooby Wright is (rightfully so) gaining a lot of national attention.
ASU seniors are preparing for their final home game.
Jared Goff has grown into Cal's golden boy. (Sonny Dykes' words, not ours).
Some questions and answers about the Buffs heading into the Oregon game.
What do the new playoff rankings mean for the Ducks.
Some over/under predictions for OSU-Washington.
Despite a great defense, Stanford's season has been a disappointment.
A look at how the Bruins can crash the playoff party.
The Trojans have their sites set on stopping Paul Perkins.
Hackett for Heisman probably won't pan out, but Utah's punter is one of the best in the country.
The Huskies are doing some shuffling on the offensive line.
Just for fun
The Cal band continued its annual tradition of invading the San Francisco Chronicle, which is kind of funny.
I don't know what this is or what it does ... but I think I want one.