“Pac-12 Power Rankings” is a column by Will Camardella ranking the Pac-12 football teams on a week-to-week basis.
Just three weeks remain in the 2023 college football regular season, and it is becoming increasingly clear that the Pac-12 is a two-team race. Only Oregon and Washington have fewer than two conference losses, and both teams had very strong showings over the weekend. The middle of the pack in the conference continues to be up and down; Oregon State and Utah had big bounce-back wins while USC and UCLA once again failed big tests. Meanwhile, Arizona continues to win games, and there is a strong chance we see the Wildcats ranked on Tuesday night.
With so few games remaining on the schedule, I punished the teams that have yet to have their signature win. Every single group has had at least one opportunity to take down a team I think highly of, and, if a team has not done that yet, it tells me that they are not a contender regardless of what their record says. With all that in mind, here are my rankings for Week 11.
1. Oregon Ducks (8-1, 5-1 Pac-12) | Last Week: 1
Oregon continued to absolutely roll in a 63-19 drubbing of Cal on Saturday. The nation’s top-scoring offense had nearly 600 total yards and averaged over seven yards per play at Autzen Stadium. What was remarkable about this game is that the Ducks got to 63 points in this game despite having one of its less clean offensive performances. Oregon had a lost fumble and an interception in the first half, and the team lost nearly 100 yards in penalties. Very few offenses in the country could put up a number like the Ducks did playing their cleanest football game.
Washington may have had a more impressive win this weekend beating USC in Los Angeles, but Oregon has been a well-oiled machine that has barely had to sweat in the toughest conference in America.
Despite having lost a game, Oregon is second in the NCAA in average scoring margin, defeating its opponents by an average of 31 points per game. That stat is even more impressive when you consider that Michigan, who ranks 53rd in the FBS in strength of schedule, is the only team ranked ahead of the Ducks, who have had the 11th toughest schedule in the nation.
2. Washington Huskies (9-0, 6-0 Pac-12) | Last Week: 2
As flawed as I believe this Washington team is when held to the scrutiny of a National Championship contender, it is impossible to deny that it has risen up to every major challenge it has faced. One thing the Huskies were missing from their resume heading into the weekend was a ranked win on the road, but they got one in epic fashion on Saturday.
If its performance against USC is sustainable, Washington may be a lot closer to becoming a team that can make noise in the Playoff than I had thought. In weeks past, a game where Ja’Lynn Polk and Rome Odunze had a combined 134 receiving yards with just one touchdown would have been sure to doom the Huskies. However, Dillon Johnson finally broke through in the running game with a sensational 256-yard and four-touchdown performance.
Yes, the Trojans have had trouble defending the run all season, but the difference in offensive approach is the true point of encouragement from Washington’s perspective. Despite having favorable opportunities to run the ball in previous outings, the Huskies had stayed reliant on the deep shot to succeed. Johnson had the same number of rushing attempts in the USC game than he had in the previous two games combined. A more balanced offense will be critical for them to have a chance to unseat Oregon again in September.
3. Oregon State Beavers (7-2, 4-2 Pac-12) | Last Week: 3
Oregon State picked up an important win on the road in Boulder in a week where it desperately needed to bounce back. The win was only by seven points, but the most positive sign in the last two weeks for Jonathan Smith is that the Beaver’s defense is finally traveling. The unit allowed a combined 78 points in its first two Pac-12 contests away from Corvallis, but it has cut that number to 46 in the Beavers’ two most recent road games.
When Oregon State is at its best, its defense is winning up front, putting pressure on the quarterback and allowing DJ Uiagalelei to play with a lead. On Saturday night, Colorado’s leading rusher was held to 17 yards, the Beavers sacked Shedeur Sanders four times and the Beavers never trailed.
Uiagalelei is far from the top of the list of quarterbacks I would most want leading my team. He ranks ninth among 10 qualified Pac-12 quarterbacks in completion percentage. However, he has some really strong playmakers around him such as running back Damien Martinez and a defense that dramatically increases his margin for error. He will need to raise his game significantly if OSU is to knock off one of my top two teams to close out the season, but the rest of the team is solid enough to get the job done.
4. Utah Utes (7-2, 4-2 Pac-12) | Last Week: 5
Losing in Salt Lake City has been a rare occurrence for Utah over the past five years, so you do not want to be the team to play them the week after one of those losses occurs. The Utes showed no mercy to Arizona State on Saturday, dropping a 55-point offensive performance I genuinely did not believe they were capable of.
Only Utah can put up 55 offensive points with as little flash as possible; it primarily relied on a physical run game that the Sun Devils could not even come close to stopping. Four rushers for the Utes, including quarterbacks Bryson Barnes and Nate Johnson, had at least 50 yards on the ground as they accumulated a whopping 352 rushing yards on 49 carries.
The Utah defensive performance, in which they held ASU quarterback Jacob Conover to five – yes, five – completed passes on 22 attempts accounted for one of the largest yard differential I have ever seen. The Utes outgained Arizona State 513-83. This game reminded the country how few other teams in college football can impose their will on an opponent in the way we saw this weekend.
5. Arizona Wildcats (6-3, 4-2 Pac-12) | Last Week: 6
The most disrespected team in the Pac-12 just pulled off another big win in its home building, as Arizona knocked off UCLA by three scores on Saturday night. The Wildcats’ defense may rank in the bottom half in scoring in the conference, but it is hard not to be impressed with what the unit has done on a week-to-week basis.
Arizona held Washington to 31 points, 10 below its season average, and is allowing just 13 points a game in its past three contests. The Wildcats held the Bruins to less than five yards per passing attempt and outgained them by 158 yards.
Noah Fifita played another excellent football game, completing 25 of 32 passes for 300 yards and three touchdowns. In a conference filled with outstanding quarterback play, Fifita ranks second in completion percentage at 76%, only behind Bo Nix. The freshman has grown up in a hurry in his starting role, as Arizona continues to stack wins, and are now only behind Washington and Oregon in the loss column in the conference standings. With two of their final three games against Colorado and Arizona State, an 8-4 season is very much on the table for Jedd Fisch.
6. USC Trojans (7-3, 5-2 Pac-12) | Last Week: 7
Despite a maddening 52-42 loss to Washington that led to the long-awaited dismissal of defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, I elevated USC’s position in the power rankings for the first time all season. Obviously, the Trojans’ defense continues to be a disaster; a Washington offense near the bottom of the Pac-12 in rushing offense compiled over 300 ground yards on Saturday. However, I moved them up a spot because of my renewed confidence in what was always supposed to be the strength of this team: the offense.
USC has put up high-scoring totals in previous weeks, but this was the first time since the Colorado game that I felt the offense truly looked in sync. Caleb Williams played one of his best games in a Trojan uniform, throwing for 312 yards and 3 touchdowns while slipping out of multiple near-sacks. It was the sort of quarterback performance that led NFL scouts to believe Williams would be the top pick in April in the first place. Austin Jones averaged 11 yards per carry in his first game as the lead running back in 2023, and USC got touchdowns from Raleek Brown and Darwin Barlow.
I know how limited the Trojans are as a football team with a defense that is likely to finish as the worst in the history of the school. However, an offensive game like this finally made this team look closer to the one I expected to see before the season. Instead of being a really good offensive team with a horrible defense, at least they are an elite offensive team again. Any team with a unit that dominant should be in the top half of the conference in my eyes.
7. UCLA Bruins (6-3, 3-3 Pac-12) | Last Week: 4
UCLA may sit three games over .500, but we are still waiting to see Chip Kelly pull off a signature win. The Bruins’ three Pac-12 wins are over teams that have a combined conference record of 4-15, and every time they have an opportunity to prove they can be a contender, their offense falls completely flat.
This time, UCLA found the end zone just one time in Tucson in a loss that is likely to drop them out of the College Football Playoff Top 25. I thought the switch from Dante Moore to Ethan Garbers at quarterback had a chance to fix the Bruins’ road woes, but Garbers struggled mightily on Saturday, only throwing for 143 yards and leaving the game in the fourth quarter due to injury.
It has been a very backwards season for Kelly, once considered one of the best offensive minds in the sport. He has a top-three scoring defense in the conference, but his offense is only outscoring Utah, Arizona State and Stanford. UCLA will have three winnable games down the stretch, but its matchup in two weeks against USC will be its final chance to earn a win worth talking about.
8. Colorado Buffaloes (4-5, 1-5 Pac-12) | Last Week: 9
Colorado certainly did not look great in a loss to Oregon State — it entered the fourth quarter with a grand total of five points. Shedeur Sanders continues to run for his life, and the Buffaloes cannot run the football. However, it is worth pointing out that Colorado’s defense, which clearly seemed to be the liability early in the season, has made some strides in recent weeks.
The Buffaloes allowed at least 35 points in five of their first seven games, but are only allowing 27 points per game in their last two matchups. The return of Travis Hunter — with a bye week before the UCLA game to help get him acclimated — has done the secondary a lot of good. They held the Beavers to a completion percentage below 50%. Hunter also continues to contribute on the offensive side, hauling in eight catches for 98 yards and a touchdown, all team highs.
I still do not consider Colorado to be a bowl team this season; the offense has too many weaknesses and has not looked right in nearly a month. However, their defensive improvement shows the Buffaloes could be moving in a better direction as the season finishes out, which is a lot more than the team I had them jump can say.
9. Washington State Cougars (4-5, 1-5 Pac-12) | Last Week: 8
I am running out of ways to be shocked at how bad Washington State has played since conference play began. After a 4-0 start and a signature win over Oregon State that positioned them as a Pac-12 dark horse, the Cougars have dropped five straight games with their last two losses coming against some of the worst teams in the Power Five conferences, This week, Cam Ward and the WSU offense mustered up just one touchdown against the 3-6 Stanford Cardinal.
Washington State gained just 57 yards in the entire second half with an offense that once looked like it could go toe to toe with some of the conference’s best. The Cougars continue to be bad situationally, going 5-for-15 on 3rd down conversion attempts. Stanford’s defense has allowed 34 points per game this year, and Washington State could not crack double digits.
Despite this losing skid, the Cougars can still get into a bowl game with Colorado and Cal still on the schedule. However, if this team cannot play a complete game on both sides of the ball, I would not be remotely shocked to see either of those teams continue to pour it on them.
10. Cal Golden Bears (3-6, 1-5 Pac-12) | Last Week: 10
Cal’s era of good feelings after nearly upsetting USC was short-lived, as the Golden Bears allowed a season-high 63 points to Oregon in Eugene. Cal has played six conference games this season, and allowed at least 50 points in four of them. On Saturday, the defense allowed Bo Nix to throw for over 380 yards, the Ducks to run for another 150 and failed to record a single sack.
In a Pac-12 with no shortage of suspect defenses, the Golden Bears have allowed the most points per game of any of them, giving up almost 37 per game. Fernando Mendoza was not special at quarterback, completing just 52% of his passes, and Jaydn Ott was not as special as he had been the week prior, failing to reach 100 rushing yards. If Ott does not have a massive day on the ground, the Cal offense is simply not going to have success.
The good news for the Golden Bears is that they play Washington State and Stanford in the next couple of weeks. They have not had a loss yet this season to a team they should have beaten; these next two weeks will be a chance to keep it that way.
11. Stanford Cardinal (3-6, 2-5 Pac-12) | Last Week: 12
Given that it won the race against Arizona State for a second Pac-12 win, I moved Stanford out of the bottom spot in my rankings. The Cardinal have had plenty of embarrassing results, especially early in the season, but they have acquitted themselves well in three of their last four games. Holding Washington State to single digits is a feat worth being proud of, especially given offenses like USC, Washington and Oregon have had their way with the Stanford defense over the course of the season.
Offensively, the Cardinal continue to be really inconsistent. In the last five games, they have gone back and forth between games where they score at least 30 points and games where they fail to find the end zone more than once. Strangely enough, they lost the game where they dropped 33 points on Washington but won the game where they barely squeaked out double-digits. Troy Taylor is an offensive head coach, so any signs of progress shown on that side of the ball would be welcome for Stanford fans.
12. Arizona State Sun Devils (2-7, 1-5 Pac-12) | Last Week: 11
As I’ve written before, I find it utterly embarrassing when a team knows exactly what an offense is going to do to it going into a game and still cannot stop it. That’s what happened on Saturday, when Arizona State allowed Utah, an offense that had not yet scored 35 points this season, to put up 55 against it. I highlighted the yardage disparity already when discussing the Utes, but suffice it to say that sort of differential puts a damper on all of the progress that Kenny Dillingham was supposedly making in his first season as head coach.
It was one thing to take embarrassing losses early in the season, but getting blown out like that to Utah later on bothers me a lot more. This is the time in the year when every team should be playing its best football, and a blowout like this is a stark reminder of how far away the Sun Devils are.
“Pac-12 Power Rankings” runs every Monday.