Cal Sports Report

Pac-12 Football Notes: Colorado Fans Storm Field Before Game Ends

Utah's controversial ending. Pac-12 quarterbacks' amazing completion percentage. Conference rules top 25 in its final season. Rise of the Pac-2

Jake Curtis

Things that caught my eye on Saturday in the Pac-12:

---Colorado won a game that did not last the full 60 minutes.  That's because Colorado students stormed the field before Nebraska could kick off with one second left. Officials said the heck with it and ended the game. Coming onto the field with time remaining is odd, but so is fans storming the field in the second game of the season when their team was favored against an unranked 0-1 team. Things are different in Boulder this season as evidenced by the fact that this was Colorado's first sellout crowd in 15 years.

---The block Colorado’s 6-foot-8, 320-pound Savion Washington (No. 78) put on Nebraska 5-foot-9, 175-pound defensive back Malcolm Hartzog on this touchdown run seems unfair.

---Colorado and Coach Prime remain the talk of college football after the 36-14 win over Nebraska.

---Utah probably should have been called for pass interference in the end zone of the final play of the Utes’ eight-point win over Baylor, but no official wants to make that call. If interference had been called Baylor would have been given one more play from the 7-yard line (not the 2-yard line as some have claimed), and would have needed a touchdown and a two-point conversion to force overtime.

Here are the last few minutes, with the controversial final play at the end:

---True freshman quarterbacks take over.  Utah will start true freshman Nate Johnson at quarterback this week against Weber State if Cameron Rising is still not ready to play. Johnson led the Utes’ comeback win over Baylor, completing 6-of-7 passes and rushing for 32 yards and a touchdown. He would be one of three Pac-12 true freshman quarterbacks scheduled to start this week, along with UCLA’s Dante Moore and Arizona State’s Jaden Rasheda.

--It was not long ago when anything over 60% completion percentage was considered pretty good. Seven Pac-12 quarterbacks are completing better than 70% of their passes through two games (three for Caleb Williams), and four quarterbacks are completing better than 75%:

Caleb Williams, USC -- 78.6%

Shedeur Sanders, Colorado – 77.5%

Bo Nix, Oregon -- 77.5%

Cameron Ward, Washington State – 75.5%

DJ Uiagalelei, Oregon State – 73.7%

Michael Penix Jr., Washington – 73.1%

Jayden de Laura, Arizona – 71.4%

Three quarterbacks across the nation have completed more than 80% of their passes.

Williams, Sanders, Nix, Uiagalelei and Ward have combined to throw 31 touchdown passes with 0 interceptions this seasons.

---Eight Pac-12 team are in the AP top 25 this week. That’s two more teams than the conference has ever had ranked before, and it’s three more than any other conference has in the top 25 this week.

---Pac-12 teams have a 20-3 record against nonconference opponents, the best by any conference. It could be 22-1. Arizona lost in overtime at Mississippi State when a video review determined Wildcats quarterback Jayden de Laura was stopped inches short of a first down on a fourth-down run. And Cal let Auburn get away with a 14-10 win in a game the Bears controlled most of the way, but made just one of four field-goal attempts and had a made 51-yard field goal nullified by a holding penalty.

---The oddity is that the Pac-12's unexpected success comes in the final year of its existence, with 10 of the 12 teams headed for different conferences in 2024.

To which ESPN.com says in its national Week 2 recap:

The knowledge of this is unceasing, the black cloud omnipresent, which is annoying when you notice just how damn fun and awesome the Pac-12 has been so far this year.

And:

Guess what: This conference is absolutely crushing it right now.

---The Pac-2 is living large. Washington State and Oregon State, the only two Pac-12 schools that do not have a conference home for next season, are both 2-0 and are both ranked in the top 25 this week, Oregon State at No. 16 and Washington State at No. 24.

“We belong in the Power 5,” WSU coach Jake Dickert said after Saturday’s 31-22 victory over then-No. 19 Wisconsin.

---This week’s best game: Washington at Michigan State. The Spartans are 2-0 but their head coach, Mel Tucker, is suspended for the game.

---This week's freakiest game: Sacramento State at Stanford.  Cardinal head coach Troy Taylor faces the team he coached to the FCS playoffs and a 12-1 record last season. The Hornets went 16-0 in the Big Sky conference the past two seasons under Taylor. Stanford gave up 49 first-half points against USC on Saturday.

.

Pac-12 Player of the Year Standings

1. Quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Colorado -- Two standout performances against decent teams.

2. Quarterback Caleb Williams, USC -- He leads the nation in TD passes (12) and passer rating (240.50)

3. Quarterback Bo Nix, Oregon -- Leading the comeback win to end Texas Tech's 23-game home winning streak counts for a lot.

4. Quarterback Cameron Ward, Washington State -- He led WSU's upset of then-No. 19 Wisconsin and had two important scrambles in a key fourth-quarter drive.

5. Defensive back/wide receiver Travis Hunter, Colorado -- Three receptions for 73 yards on offense, and four tackles and a pass defensed on defense against Nebraska.  But Michael Penix Jr. will move up if he has a big game against Michigan State.

.

Top Five Pac-12 Teams

(We rank based on which teams have had the best results, not what we believe are the best teams)

1. Colorado (2-0) -- Wins over decent Power 5 schools TCU and Nebraska keep the Buffaloes on top.

2. Washington State (2-0) -- We're not saying the Cougars are the second best team, but they are unbeaten and handled No. 19 Wisconsin.  

3. Utah (2-0) -- The Utes pulled out a road win over Baylor after beating Florida, both without quarterback Cameron Rising.

4. USC (3-0) -- The dominance of the Trojans while averaging 59.3 points albeit against mediocre opposition cannot be ignored.

5. Washington (2-0) -- The Huskies' season-opening win over Boise State keeps them ahead of Oregon by a razor-thin margin.

.

Follow Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

Find Cal Sports Report on Facebook by going to https://www.facebook.com/si.calsportsreport

Published
Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

Home/Football