I'm SO glad we have Cristobal and his staff, because, if we still had Taggart (or Helfrich) we'd be behind the curve in the PAC12 North and falling further behind every season. The landscape is changing and, IMO, it's trending upward in a hurry.
OSU hit a major home run with Johnathan Smith (IMO). The Beavs are not a good team, but darned if they don't LOOK like a team now. They know what they're doing and they work hard at it. With the transfers and better recruiting, Smith (again, IMO) will have them respectable within a couple more years.
California, too, is coming on. As should be expected with Wilcox as the HC, their defense is their strength, but, as they add more pieces to the puzzle, they're going to become a thorn in everyone's side. Give the Bears a couple good recruiting classes and they'll be firmly in the mid-zone of the conference.
I think Oregon is making ENORMOUS strides. We had (and still have a few) some BIG holes in our depth chart. The last two classes have helped and the current class (assuming we sign them - which I fully expect) several of those holes will be taken care of. This program is being built for long-term success, not short term fireworks, and I think the rest of the Conference (and the country) is going to be facing an offensive AND defensive team of top quality year in and year out.
I see UW being a consistent 9-10 win team. Stanford should be in the 8-10 win range, too. I see the Ducks being a consistent 10+ win unit. I think those three teams (with OSU, Cal and WSU maintaining or regaining their competitive level) will dominate the conference for the foreseeable future.
The South has issues. USC has all the talent in the world - except in their coaching staff. UCLA is a hot mess and it's going to take a total revision of Chip's recruiting philosophy (and some changes to his staff) to get them back on the right track. Utah and Colorado will be competitive. ASU and AZ should be good, but I don't think Sumlin has what it takes to raise them to a top team and Edwards (although he's doing an amazing job so far) still has a lot of work to do in rebuilding the Sun Devils.
I see the SEC West, the Big10 East and the PAC12 North being the top Divisions in CFB, and I don't think that's going to change (other than I think the North will get even stronger fairly soon).
What do the rest of you see or think?
OSU hit a major home run with Johnathan Smith (IMO). The Beavs are not a good team, but darned if they don't LOOK like a team now. They know what they're doing and they work hard at it. With the transfers and better recruiting, Smith (again, IMO) will have them respectable within a couple more years.
California, too, is coming on. As should be expected with Wilcox as the HC, their defense is their strength, but, as they add more pieces to the puzzle, they're going to become a thorn in everyone's side. Give the Bears a couple good recruiting classes and they'll be firmly in the mid-zone of the conference.
I think Oregon is making ENORMOUS strides. We had (and still have a few) some BIG holes in our depth chart. The last two classes have helped and the current class (assuming we sign them - which I fully expect) several of those holes will be taken care of. This program is being built for long-term success, not short term fireworks, and I think the rest of the Conference (and the country) is going to be facing an offensive AND defensive team of top quality year in and year out.
I see UW being a consistent 9-10 win team. Stanford should be in the 8-10 win range, too. I see the Ducks being a consistent 10+ win unit. I think those three teams (with OSU, Cal and WSU maintaining or regaining their competitive level) will dominate the conference for the foreseeable future.
The South has issues. USC has all the talent in the world - except in their coaching staff. UCLA is a hot mess and it's going to take a total revision of Chip's recruiting philosophy (and some changes to his staff) to get them back on the right track. Utah and Colorado will be competitive. ASU and AZ should be good, but I don't think Sumlin has what it takes to raise them to a top team and Edwards (although he's doing an amazing job so far) still has a lot of work to do in rebuilding the Sun Devils.
I see the SEC West, the Big10 East and the PAC12 North being the top Divisions in CFB, and I don't think that's going to change (other than I think the North will get even stronger fairly soon).
What do the rest of you see or think?
