Conference Review: PAC 12

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With college football in full swing, we’ll be bringing you a review of the “Big Five” conferences each and every week. These recaps will feature sections for “Premier Conference Performer,” “Rising Players,” “Falling Players” and a special Freshman spotlight. These weekly reviews will keep you up-to-date on all the happenings in devy leagues and allow you to keep tabs on future dynasty league assets. By the time the NFL Draft rolls around, you won’t see too many strangers.

Premier Conference Performer

Nelson Agholor, WR USC
16 receptions for 216 yards and two touchdowns

Agholor was the Premier Conference Performer two weeks ago when I wrote this column and his performance on Thursday night was so impressive that he deserves to be here again this week. He caught an impressive 16 passes, which totaled 216 yards and two touchdowns and enabled USC to stay in the hunt for the PAC 12 South crown. This performance by Agholor marks the first time in USC history that a wide receiver posted back-to-back 200+ yard receiving games. Agholor is now the nation’s eighth leading receiver with 1,079 yards, 40% of which came over the past two games. USC is hoping Agholor can keep his hot streak going with a pivotal match up against cross-town rival UCLA looming this Saturday, which will likely determine the PAC 12 South title, and which will severely impact the prospects of each team’s bowl invites.

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Rising

Terron Ward, RB Oregon State
19 rushes for 148 yards and one touchdown

Ward was one of two running backs Oregon State used incredibly effectively against a suddenly questionable Arizona State defense. Ward had a very nice rush for 66 yards in the first quarter in which he shot through a narrow hole created by his linemen and then showcased all the skills which make him dangerous, his vision, his burst, his elusiveness and his speed. Ward’s performance went beyond just that run though, he ended the day with 148 rushing yards on 19 carries which gave him a very solid 7.8 yards per rush as he gashed the Sun Devil’s defense for a career high in rushing yards. Ward’s performance helped Oregon State all but crush Arizona State’s hopes for creeping its way into the National Championship playoffs while opening up the PAC 12 South to a the winner of the USC/UCLA match this week.

Storm Woods RB, Oregon State
11 rushes for 125 yards and one touchdown

Here’s the other running back Oregon State featured in its stunning win over Arizona State this weekend. Statistically speaking, Woods’ performance was actually a bit better than Ward’s. Woods rushed for 125 yards on 11 carries and added a touchdown to his stat line. The touchdown came in the first quarter off of another very long Oregon State rush, this time a 78 yard up the gut run in which Woods didn’t even appear to be touched at any point on his way towards the end zone. Woods also had an incredibly impressive 11.4 yards per rush on the day and helped set the tone for Oregon State’s surprising upset very early in the game.

Dwayne Washington WR, Washington
19 rushes for 148 yards and two touchdowns

Washington looked incredible in Washington’s 27-26 loss against Arizona on Saturday posting a very impressive 19 rushes for 148 yards and two touchdown in a heart-breaking loss. Washington’s 7.8 yards per rush would be a great stat line for any player but what really is impressive was his two touchdowns that included a 66 yard break away run which gave the Huskies a 17-7 lead midway through the second quarter. This marks career highs for Washington in number of rushes, rushing yards and ties his career high in rushing touchdowns scored in a game. Washington’s 66 yard touchdown rush was also his longest of the season and second longest of his career. All in all Washington has an extremely good game except for one thing, not being able to secure the win for the Huskies.

Falling

Kevin Hogan, QB Stanford
17 completions for 104 yards 

Hogan hasn’t exactly been burning down the record books this season but he has been effective and has performed well enough to generally avoid the “Falling” section of this series. However, this week that has to change, Hogan’s performance against Utah was really quite pathetic. Hogan threw 17 passes, each of which averaged just 3.9 yards for a grand total of 104 passing yards on the day. To his credit he did have two touchdowns on the day but each of those passes were very short, one of which was only three yards out. What is even more disappointing about this performance is that Hogan actually had more time to increase his statistics with the game going into overtime and yet he still only managed just over 100 yards in passing. Posting a quarterback rating of 29.1. Quite literally, there is very little to be proud of with this performance save for the two touchdown passes.

Freshman Spotlight

Nick Wilson, RB Arizona
30 rushes for 104 yards and two touchdowns

He owned every part of his workhorse role for Arizona in its tight 27-26 win over Washington on Saturday. Wilson rushed a very demanding 30 times for 104 yards and scored two touchdowns to help Arizona squeak out their win at home while keeping their slim PAC 12 South title hopes alive. While not the prettiest of performances the faith placed in Wilson by Arizona was telling as they put all of their eggs in Wilson’s basket and depended on him to go out and win the game for them. Wilson proved to be up to the task despite only averaging 3.5 yards per rush on the game. I fully expect Arizona to lean heavily on Wilson for the remainder of his college career, which should ultimately place him a very good light when it comes time for him to enter the NFL Draft.

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