The 2023 college football regular season officially belongs to the final year of the Pac 12 Conference as we know it. With USC, Washington and Oregon all being in the top 10 for the past few weeks, the influence of the Big 10 and SEC has lost a lot of its gleam.
Georgia has struggled at times, while both Ohio State and Michigan have faced inferior competition all season thus far. Ohio State’s first true challenge is this weekend against Penn State in Columbus.
Meanwhile, Boulder and Seattle saw both sides of a spectrum, with one all-time classic, and one epic collapse.
Colorado blew a 29-point lead in the second half, losing to one-win Stanford on Friday night in double overtime. All that was missing from Deion Sanders was the Price Is Right losing sound during a press conference throwing his team under the bus.
Instead on Saturday, the Ducks and Huskies treated us to the best game of the season, eclipsing Ohio State/Notre Dame from a few weeks ago. Six lead changes occurred, with the final giving #7 Washington a 36-33 win over #8 Oregon.
As the new AP Poll came out on Sunday night, Washington moves up to #5, Oregon only slid to #9, and USC fell all the way to #18.
In a 48-20 drubbing by the Irish, USC’s Caleb Williams took himself out of the running to win back-to-back Heisman Trophies. Williams was looking to become the first since Ohio State’s Archie Griffin in 1974 and 1975 to win consecutive Heisman’s. Instead, Williams tossed three interceptions for the first time in his stellar career. Washington’s Michael Penix Jr went toe-to-toe with Oregon’s Bo Nix, and the last punch was going to be the deciding factor.
Penix threw for 307 yards, his lowest output of the season to date, while connecting on four touchdowns. His 424.7 yards-per-game average leads all of Division I through Week 7. Nix threw for 337 yards and two touchdowns in the losing effort. It was Penix who connected with Rome Odunze on an 18-yard score with 1:38 remaining, to end a two-play, 53-yard scoring drive that took a mere 33 seconds.
Fox Sports broadcasters Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt immediately began speculating that Washington might have given Nix too much time, with 1:38 remaining, and only needing a field goal to force overtime. Nix drove Oregon 50 yards in nine plays, hitting his first six passes of the drive. His first incompletion was clocking the ball at the Washington 25 with nine seconds remaining. Camden Lewis missed a 43-yard field goal as time expired, which if you add in the San Francisco 49ers, makes the second undefeated team to lose on a missed field goal on the final play this weekend.
Penix has thrown for 20 touchdowns against only three interceptions, with one of those being on Saturday. He has only four yards rushing on nine attempts through six games.
In the King of the Mountain race to win the Pac 12, Washington now has a step up on both of their most fierce challengers. The Huskies essentially get two weeks off against Stanford and Arizona State, but then get ranked USC, Utah and Oregon State the following three weeks. Remember that the Pac 12 went away from the divisional format a few years ago, so the Huskies need just a few more victories to secure their ticket to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on December 1.
Washington and Oregon have been the only two schools from the conference to make the College Football Playoff. Oregon lost to Ohio State in the championship during the inaugural 2014 season playoff, while Washington lost to Alabama in the semifinals (Peach Bowl) in the 2016 season. A victory against USC in three weeks, barring a hiccup, will essentially put Washington into the “quarterfinals” by making the Pac 12 title game.
Penix is very likely to be bringing some hardware to the playoff, if Washington can run the table.
-JC24