On Saturday, Arizona beat Oregon 37-10.
In any normal year for the Pac-10 conference, that would be
viewed as a monumental upset. This year, considering all of the
upsets that have already come, it is merely another footnote in one
of the most competitive Pac-10 years in recent memory.
Arizona, a seemingly mediocre team that lost to UCLA 27-7, has
beaten Cal, Oregon, Washington State and Washington. Stanford, a
seemingly awful team that has yet to crack 100 points scored in
conference play, managed to limit Washington to 3 points en route
to a 20-3 victory. Oregon State managed to knock off USC and then
went on to lose to UCLA by 18 points.
In a year when every weak team has been a threat and every
strong team has had some weakness, the Bruins have gone 4-4 in
conference play for a 6-5 overall record. They have been a
middle-of-the-pack team like six other teams in the conference.
“The Pac-10 was good this year,” linebacker
Christian Taylor said. “Everyone, all of a sudden, just
decided to get good. Stanford even beat Washington when we thought
there was at least one bad team. You can lose any game.
You’ve got to come ready to play every week.”
The Bruins have had their fair share of odd losses. They lost to
Washington after holding a 16-point lead and lost to Washington
State by 22 points. The other two conference losses came, as
expected, to Oregon and Cal, although both of those teams do not
appear to be as strong as they did at the beginning of the
year.
The only team to come out of the weeks of conference play
relatively unscathed is USC, which now has a 7-1 record in the
conference. Even so, they did lose to the Beavers.
If the Bruins have anything going for them in two weeks when
they take on the Trojans, it will be how crazy this year has been
for the Pac-10. They will have the momentum from two straight wins,
one (Oregon State) over a team that beat USC.
HARWELL RE-ENERGIZED: Junior defensive tackle
Brigham Harwell, a former star recruit who had a seemingly very
quiet first nine games of the season, has come into his own in the
last two games, which has played an integral role in the
Bruins’ defensive line putting more pressure on the
quarterback.
“I was kind of feeling sorry for myself (for a while this
year),” Harwell said. “The team was in need of an
emotional leader, and I just wanted to come out and show them I
could be a leader. We’re playing really well as a unit now,
and we’ve been stepping up ever since last week.”
Harwell had two tackles against Arizona State on Saturday
including a tackle for a loss; against Oregon State, Harwell had
six tackles including three tackles for a loss and a sack. In both
games, Harwell and defensive tackle Kevin Brown did a good job of
eating up the three interior offensive linemen of the opposing
team, allowing defensive ends Bruce Davis and Justin Hickman to get
around the tackles to pressure the quarterback. Davis and Hickman
have combined for four sacks in the last two games.