Pac-10 promoters looked at this weekend as a grand opportunity to prove a point about their football conference. Several big intersectional games were on tap, and icing the cake hopefully would be Arizona with a chance to beat no. 9 Iowa in the desert.
West Coast hopes went downhill faster than a runaway 18-wheel truck charging off the Continental Divide.
On Friday, California was crushed 52-31by Nevada from the WAC. Pac-10 tail-dragger Washington State started well at Southern Methodist until losing 35-21. Arizona State acquitted itself rather well on the road against Wisconsin and had a good chance to win until a late-game tying extra point kick was blocked by the Badgers in their 20-19 victory. The Washington Huskies, a team considered by many of the west's wishers and hopers to be considerably better this year, got tattooed 56-21 by super-fast Nebraska. Huskies poster-boy Jake Locker hit one dandy touchdown pass, but otherwise passed disastrously: 4-20 for 71 yards and 2 INTs.
This Pac-10's weekend was turning as bad as Locker's stats. And then clocks in the east reached midnight, and the Pac-10 stunningly redeemed itself.
UCLA, bitterly destroyed by the media all week after two losses, out-charged, outhustled, and out-thought Houston's well-regarded Cougars in a 31-13 romp that showed off aggressive lines on both sides of the ball, the shifty running of soph TB Johnathan Franklin, and the maturing play of QB Kevin Prince. Houston suffered a second quarter knee injury (while chasing a UCLA interceptor) to QB Case Keenum. Don't simply chalk up Houston's loss to the loss of its top-drawer passer; UCLA already was well in command when Keenum went down.
Stanford dropped a surprising 68 points on visiting Wake Forest. QB Andrew Luck, a veteran O-line, a committee of young running backs, and dangerous WR Chris Owusu make the Cardinal a squad capable of scoring 68 on almost everybody.
Late at night, Arizona delivered the Pac-10's knockout punch. But, it wasn't easy. After jumping all over Iowa with a blocked punt, a long interception TD off a tipped pass, and a coast-to-coast TD return on a kickoff, Arizona gradually sunk into second half trouble after leading 27-7 at halftime. In the fourth quarter, the Hawkeyes trimmed the deficit to 27-21 on QB Ricky Stanzi's third TD pass, and DE Broderick Binns soon followed with a shocking TD run-back of an interception. Even though Iowa's go-ahead extra point was blocked, it felt very much in quiet Arizona Stadium like the Cats trailed by a touchdown at 27-27.
Wildcats QB Nick Foles directed a winning TD march, and when the Hawks got the ball back, the Cats got their crowd reignited with four straight sacks of Stanzi. Case closed; the Pac-10 was back.
--Bob Boyles
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