Like a schoolgirl with a crush, I am smitten with Pac 10 football this year. The crazy games. The dynamic players. The gutsy coaches. The balance, apart from rebuilding Washington State, is excellent and more than half the teams in the league have looked like the Pac 10's best at one point in the season. Of course by beating each other up the conference will get only one team, the winner of next week's Oregon-Oregon State game, into a BCS game, but that's okay. They should do well in the Holiday Bowl, Sun Bowl and other aligned post-season games. And with a host of young talent, the league looks strong for next season.My favorite Pac 10 player this season is Stanford RB Toby Gerhart, who is sitting on 1,531y rushing and 23 TDs with Notre Dame's 80th-ranked rush defense upcoming Saturday. Although Gerhart's uses his 235 lbs well, he has better moves than expected. I really do not understand why he is not getting enough Heisman attention. Wait, I do know. The prejudice against Pac 10 teams not named Southern California.
Defensive player of the year in the conference has to be UCLA junior DT Brian Price, who has 20.5 tackles for a loss and 7 sacks despite playing the interior line and getting double and triple teamed on virtually every play. He has a formidable challenge this weekend against USC's great interior blocking so tune in to see if no. 92 disrupts the Trojans offense.
The big story in the conference this year may be all of the kid QBs. With players like Matt Barkley of USC, Kevin Prince of UCLA, Nick Foles of Arizona and Andrew Luck of Stanford, the conference will be well stocked at the sport's premier position for years to come.
This is shocking, Guido. I can't believe how far you've come in your opinion of the Pac-10. I can almost see you blush as I read it. It's about time you gave the conference some recognition.
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