2010 Midseason All Pac-12 Team

Time for our first annual Mid-Season team and you can already see some shakeups from our preseason team, most notably Jake Locker getting cut from the team. Locker’s numbers would probably look better if Jermaine Kearse didn’t lead the Pac in drops with 9, but you take the good with the bad and he’s been productive when he holds onto the ball. The tight ends in the conference haven’t been used as much as they have in the past, but Coby Feleener of Stanford has been consistent catching the ball and solid in run blocking.

1st Team

Offense

QB	Andrew Luck	Stanford
RB	LaMichael James	Oregon
RB	Shane Vereen	Cal
WR	Juron Criner	Arizona
WR	Jermaine Kearse	Washington
TE	Coby Fleener	Stanford
OL	Bo Thran	Oregon
OL	Adam Grant	Arizona
OL	David DeCastro	Stanford
OL	Butch Lewis	USC
OL	Ryan Taylor	UCLA

Perhaps the biggest surprise on the first team defense is the freshman Justin Washington making the team. He benefits from playing alongside two of the best defensive ends with Brooks Reed and Ricky Elmore, but he’s taken advantage of his opportunities. Mason Foster will lead the conference in tackles this year, because the Husky defense will struggle to get off the field, but Akeem Ayers plays a bigger role in the success of UCLA. Sophomore Cliff Harris of the Oregon Ducks leads the conference with 4 interceptions and has a couple punt returns for touchdown this year so he makes the list as a corner back and punt returner.

Defense

DL	Brooks Reed	Arizona
DL	Jurrell Casey	USC
DL	Justin Washington	Arizona
DL	Kenny Rowe	Oregon
OLB	Mason Foster	Washington
MLB	Vontaze Burfict	Arizona St
OLB	Akeem Ayers	UCLA
CB	Cliff Harris	Oregon
CB	James Dockery	Oregon St
S	Rahim Moore	UCLA
S	TJ McDonald	USC
PR	Cliff Harris	Oregon
KR	Travis Cobb	Arizona

For the 2nd team, Matt Barkley got the nod over Nick Foles. Barkley has been impressive in his last few games and absolutely torched a solid Cal defense yesterday. Leaving JacQuizz Rodgers off the list might surprise some people, but he just hasn’t produced like the team needs him to. Part of the problem is the offensive line and combined with an inconsistent passing game, opposing defenses can stack the box. Robert Woods makes the list over his teammate Ronald Johnson and he’s quickly becoming one of the top wide receivers of the conference.

2nd Team

Offense

QB Matt Barkley USC RB Johnathan Franklin UCLA FB Stanley Havili USC WR Jeff Maehl Oregon WR Robert Woods USC TE Joe Halahuni Oregon St OL Zane Taylor Utah OL Carson York Oregon OL Chase Beeler Stanford OL Mitchell Schwartz Cal OL Colin Baxter Arizona

2nd Team Defense

DL	Ricky Elmore	Arizona
DL	Brandon Bair	Oregon
DL	Travis Long	WSU
MLB	Shane Skov	Stanford
MLB	Mychal Kendricks	Cal
MLB	Casey Matthews	Oregon
OLB	Sean Westgate	UCLA
CB	Omar Bolden	Arizona St
CB	Darian Hagan	Cal
S	Delano Howell	Stanford
S	Lance Mitchell	Oregon St
PR	Ronald Johnson	USC
KR	Kyle Middlebrooks	ASU

NASPAQ : Pac-12 Stock Report – Week 6

At the midway point of the season we can now see that 9 teams will be competitive in the conference this season. Although Washington State is making great strides, they’re still a year away from winning a couple games in conference play.

Quarterbacks

According to Chinese Zodiac week six is the week of the quarterback and based on the performances this week that holds true. Ryan Katz (KATZ) had his coming out party by torching the Arizona defense with the long-ball and an accurate, strong-armed, intermediate passing game. The Beaver quarterback finished the day with 22 completions on 31 passes for 393 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. We thought that Katz would struggle after James Rodgers (JROD) went out with an injury, but he didn’t miss a beat. Every year Oregon State gets blown off the line of the race to the championship, but Mike Riley is a long-strider that picks up his pace in conference play.

The top three quarterbacks of the NASPAQ all had big days. Nick Foles (FOLE) threw 35 of 46 for 440 yards with 3 touchdowns, one interception. In Palo Alto Stanford’s Andrew Luck (Luck) (20-24, 285 yards, 3TD’s) and USC’s Matt Barkley (BARK) (28-45, 390 yards, 3TD’s) saw two of the worst secondaries in the country and capitalized on their opportunities. This game felt like the last team with the ball would win the game, and for the second straight week USC went down to a game winning field goal. If you’re a fan of big time passing games, then the other Bay Area game between UCLA and Cal would have put you to sleep. Kevin Riley (RILE) just hasn’t made the improvements he needed to this season and Kevin Prince (PRNC) has a lot under achieving potential at wide receiver.

	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Andrew Luck	Stanford	LUCK	↑ 25	16%	$175.00
Nick Foles	Arizona	FOLE	↑ 20	14%	$160.00
Matt Barkley	USC	BARK	↑ 20	15%	$150.00
Jake Locker	UW	LOCK	↑ 10	10%	$110.00
Jordan Wynn	Utah	WYNN	↑ 10	15%	$75.00
Kevin Riley	Cal	RILE	↓5	7%	$65.00
Darron Thomas	Oregon	DARR	↑ 10	18%	$65.00
Tyler Hansen	Col	HANS	↑ 5	11%	$50.00
Ryan Katz	UCLA	PRNC	↑ 25	100%	$50.00
Jeff Tuel	WSU	TUEL	↑ 5	14%	$40.00
Steven Threet	ASU	THRE	↑ 15	300%	$20.00
Kevin Prince	OSU	KATZ	↓10	40%	$15.00

Running Backs

With all the great performances we saw at quarterback this week one would expect the running back numbers to drop, but the top three guys keep on going over the 100 yard mark. It should be noted that no roster has both a top three quarterback and running back on their roster. LaMichael James (LMJ) continues to set the pace each week and playing Washington State was another opportunity for him to climb on the Heisman ballots. James had 142 yards and 2 TD’s on 25 carries and added an 84 yard touchdown reception on a wheel roue where he blew right by the defending linebacker. Shane Vereen (VERE) had almost identical rushing numbers with 25 rushes for 151 yards and 2 TD’s against the Bruins. A surprisingly poor performance came from USC’s tandem of Allen Bradford (BRAD) and Marc Tyler (MARC). The duo combined for 16 carries and 44 yards. Kiffin has always favored the passing game, but their offensive line is stacked with five star offensive lineman and they’re not running the ball with consistent success.

	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
JacQuizz Rodgers	OSU	JQR	↑ 5	4%	$130.00
LaMichael James	Oregon	LMJ	↑ 10	6%	$160.00
Shane Vereen	Cal	VERE	↑ 10	10%	$105.00
Chris Polk	UW	POLK	↑ 5	5%	$90.00
Johnathan Franklin	UCLA	FRNK	↓10	20%	$40.00
Allen Bradford	USC	BRAD	↓5	11%	$40.00
Stepfan Taylor	Stanford	STEP	↑ 5	20%	$30.00
Deantre Lewis	ASU	DEAN	↓10	28%	$25.00
Kenjon Barner	Oregon	BARN	↓10	40%	$15.00
Nic Grigsby	Arizona	GRIG	↓5	40%	$15.00
Marc Tyler	USC	MARC	↓10	40%	$15.00
Derrick Coleman	UCLA	COLE	↓10	40%	$15.00
Cameron Marshall	ASU	MRSH	↓10	50%	$10.00

Wide Receivers

For the second straight week the highest wide receiver stock has moved around on the NASPAQ. Juron Criner (CRIN) took back his number one position with a 12 catch 179 yard, 1 TD performance and former #1 – Jermaine Kearse (JERM), has been battling drop like symptoms the past few weeks. True freshman Robert Woods (WOOD) had the best game of the year for Pac-12 receivers with his 12 reception 224 yard, 3 touchdown performance. Perhaps even more impressive than his numbers is that the majority of the youngster’s yards came against Stanford’s senior corner back- Richard Sherman. The Ducks Jeff Maehl (MAEL) also had a big game with ten receptions for 119 yards and a TD.

	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Juron Criner	Arizona	CRIN	↑ 15	21%	$85.00
Ronald Johnson	USC	ROJO	↑ 5	7%	$70.00
James Rodgers	OSU	JROD	↑ 5	7%	$70.00
Jeff Maehl	Oregon	MAEL	↑ 15	27%	$70.00
Jermaine Kearse	UW	JERM	↓10	13%	$65.00
Robert Woods	USC	WOOD	↑ 30	100%	$60.00
Marvin Jones	Cal	MARV	↑ 10	22%	$55.00
Doug Baldwin	Stanford	BALD	↑ 20	80%	$45.00
Devin Aguilar	UW	AGUI	-	-	$25.00
D. Christopher	Utah	DEVO	↑ 10	66%	$25.00
Jared Karstetter	WSU	KARS	↑ 5	25%	$25.00
Keenan Allen	Cal	KEEN	↑ 5	33%	$20.00
David Ausberry	USC	BERY	↓10	50%	$10.00

Defensive Players Market

Our top defensive player, Akeem Ayers (AYER) finally saw his stock take a hit  with only three tackles in the loss at Cal, but the other two UCLA linebackers (Westgate & Larimore) combined for 21 tackles. The biggest defensive star in the game just happened to be on Cal’s roster as Darian Hagan (HAGN) had five tackles, two sacks, and an interception to be the conference’s defensive player of the week.  Delano Howell (HOWL) at Stanford was jarring the ball out of receivers hands and forced a fumble. While the USC defense looked terrible, at least their cheerleaders destroyed the Stanford cheerleaders. If Stanford has another game on TV this year I think their coeds might crack my television set.

		Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Akeem Ayers	UCLA	AYER	↓5	4%	$120
Rahim Moore	UCLA	MOOR	↑ 5	5%	$105
Mason Foster	UW	FOST	↑ 10	10%	$105
Jurrell Casey	USC	CASE	↑ 5	5%	$100
Omar Bolden	Arizona St	BOLD	↑ 5	11%	$100
Vontaze Burfict	Arizona St	BURF	↓5	5%	$95
Casey Matthews	Oregon	MATT	↑ 10	11%	$95
Kenny Rowe	Oregon	ROWE	↑ 5		$90
Stephen Paea	Oregon St	PAEA	↓5	5%	$85
Mike Mohamed	Cal	MIKE	↑ 5	6%	$85
Brooks Reed	Arizona	REED	↑ 5	6%	$85
Mychal Kendricks	Cal	MYCH	↑ 5	6%	$80
Delano Howell	Stanford	HOWL	↑ 15	23%	$80
Trevin Wade	Arizona	WADE	↓5	6%	$75
Tony Dye	UCLA	DYE	↑ 5	7%	$75
Spencer Paysinger	Oregon	PAYS	↑ 5	7%	$75
James Dockery	Oregon St	DOCK	↑ 5	7%	$70
Darian Hagan	Cal	HAGN	↑ 20	40%	$70
Cliff Harris	Oregon	CLIF	↑ 10	18%	$65
Malcolm Smith	USC	SMIT	↓5	9%	$50
Shane Skov	Stanford	SKOV	↑ 10	25%	$50
TJ McDonald	USC	TJMC	↓5	10%	$45
Owen Maracic	Stanford	OWEN	↑ 5	12%	$45
Richard Sherman	Stanford	THOM	↓10	20%	$40
DJ Holt	Cal	HOLT	-	-	$25
Michael Thomas	Stanford	THOM	↑ 5	25%	$25
Patrick Larimore	UCLA	LARI	↑ 5	25%	$25

Defensive Units

You know how the saying goes when you face the pistol, “You shoot me once, shame on you, you shoot me twice…..” well the Bears weren’t fooled this time. After giving up nearly five hundred yards to Nevada they held UCLA to a paltry 144 total yards and only 26 yards on the ground. Mychal Kendricks was outstanding at linebacker for the Bears and he’s now tied for the most sacks in the conference with 4. In the USC vs Stanford game both teams looked like they were playing touch football in the secondary. The Trojans are athletic, but undisciplined and lack fundamentals in their tackling. As previously discussed about Stanford, they are slow and with the exception of Delano Howell, they’re poor tacklers. Arizona State had the best defensive performance going on the road and shutting down the Husky offense. Holding Jake Locker to just 14 points at home is impressive and Vontaze Burfict seems like he got the message of cutting back on his penalties, but that could be because he played less. And although she’s not in any UCLA apparel, we need more Rachel Lorraine.

	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Oregon Defense	ORED	↓ 5	4%	$120
Arizona Defense	ARID	↓ 10	11%	$75
Utah Defense	UTAD	↑ 5	6%	$85
ASU Defense	ASUD	↑ 15	18%	$95
Cal Defense	CALD	↑ 20	30%	$85
USC Defense	USCD	↓ 5	8%	$55
Stanford Defense	STAD	↓ 5	8%	$55
UCLA Defense	UCLD	↓ 5	16%	$50
OSU Defense	OSUD	↑ 5	11%	$50
Colorado Defense	COLD	↓ 5	12%	$35
UW Defense	UWD	↓ 5	12%	$35

NASPAQ – Pac-12 Stock Report : Week 5

I could have told you before the season that the top games in the country will be coming from the Pac-12 this year, but the entire nation got to see the national forecast on Saturday – Oregon Reign!

The Ducks have proven twice this year that sitting on a lead is a recipe for disaster against them. The Oregon Reign comes without warning, causes flash floods and can pour all game long. Andrew Luck had trouble seeing through the green haze and was struck by lightning trying to tackle Eddie Pleasant after he returned a fumble to the Stanford three yard line.

Even worse than the loss for Stanford is that Oregon exposed weaknesses throughout their team. Last year the Cardinal had a slow defense with a weak secondary and they did little to dispel those notions. Despite Stanford’s success in the red zone and Stepfan Taylor’s (STEP) 113 yards rushing, they didn’t have much success running the ball up the field. The key to beating the Ducks is a strong run defense and controlling the clock, and Stanford wasn’t able to do either. Despite all the points there were some great defensive performances during the game. Cliff Harris (CLIF) had two interceptions and his stock would have gone up even more if he didn’t fumble away a kickoff. Oregon’s defense continues to give up yards in bunches, but their defense matches the offense’s big play ability by forcing turnovers. James Dockery (DOCK) saw a 44% increase in his stock after getting two interceptions and the game clinching interception two out of the last three games.

Defensive Players Market

		Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Akeem Ayers	UCLA	AYER	↑ 10	8%	$125
Rahim Moore	UCLA	MOOR	-	-	$100
Vontaze Burfict	ASU	BURF	↑ 5	5%	$100
Mason Foster	UW	FOST	↑ 10	11%	$95
Jurrell Casey	USC	CASE	↑ 5	5%	$95
Omar Bolden	ASU	BOLD	↑ 5	5%	$90
Stephen Paea	OSU	PAEA	↑ 10	12%	$90
Casey Matthews	Oregon	MATT	↑ 5	6%	$85
Mike Mohamed	Cal	MIKE	-	-	$80
Trevin Wade	Arizona	WADE	-	-	$80
Brooks Reed	Arizona	REED	-	-	$80
Tony Dye	UCLA	DYE	↑ 5	7%	$70
James Dockery	OSU	DOCK	↑ 20	44%	$65
Malcolm Smith	USC	SMIT	↑ 5	10%	$55
Cliff Harris	Oregon	CLIF	↑ 15	37%	$55
Richard Sherman	Stanford	THOM	↓5	9%	$50
TJ McDonald	USC	TJMC	↑ 5	11%	$50
Owen Maracic	Stanford	OWEN	↑ 5	14%	$40
Shane Skov	Stanford	SKOV	↑ 5	14%	$40
DJ Holt	Cal	HOLT	-	-	$25
Michael Thomas	Stanford	THOM	-	-	$20
Patrick Larimore	UCLA	LARI	↓5	20%	$20

Washington’s defense looked good coming off a bye week and forced Matt Barkley into some bad passes in critical situations down the stretch. With Arizona State coming to town they will have a chance to see their stock rise even more.

Defensive Unit Market

	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Oregon Defense	ORED	↓ 5	3%	$125
Arizona Defense	ARID	-	-	$85
Utah Defense	UTAD	-	-	$80
ASU Defense	ASUD	↑ 5	8%	$80
Cal Defense	CALD	-	-	$65
USC Defense	USCD	↓ 10	14%	$60
Stanford Defense	STAD	↓ 10	14%	$60
UCLA Defense	UCLD	↓ 5	7%	$60
OSU Defense	OSUD	↑ 10	28%	$45
Colorado Defense	COLD	↑ 5	14%	$40
UW Defense	UWD	↑ 5	14%	$40

Quarterback

The Stanford Cardinal finally ran out of Luck this weekend, but it wasn’t entirely the quarterback’s fault. His stock went up $5, because of his solid play in the first half, but Luck will need to prove that he can produce when the running game is not working. Jake Locker (LOCK) has finally played like the game breaker that he was touted as  in the off-season. Now that they have the road win off their backs they’re looking like a much more confident team. They have a tough game this weekend against Arizona State, but we’re bearish on (LOCK) for the next couple weeks.

	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Andrew Luck	Stanford	LUCK	↑ 5	3%	$150.00
Nick Foles	Arizona	FOLE	-	-	$140.00
Matt Barkley	USC	BARK	↑ 5	4%	$130.00
Jake Locker	UW	LOCK	↑ 20	25%	$100.00
Kevin Riley	Cal	RILE	-	-	$70.00
Jordan Wynn	Utah	WYNN	-	-	$65.00
Darron Thomas	Oregon	DARR	↑ 20	57%	$55.00
Tyler Hansen	Col	HANS	↑ 5	12%	$45.00
Ryan Katz	UCLA	PRNC	↑ 10	66%	$25.00
Kevin Prince	OSU	KATZ	-	-	$25.00
Steven Threet	ASU	THREE	↓5	33%	$10

Wide Receiver

There was some movement at the top of the wide receiver list with Jermaine Kearse (JERM) overtaking Juron Criner in total value at $75. J-Kearse had six catches for 92 yards, but had a couple drops in the game.  His teammate Devin Aguilar (AGUI) hauled in 5 balls for 83 yards and a 46 yard touchdown pass.  Robert Woods (WOOD) didn’t record any catches but his 56 yard kickoff return prevented his stock from falling. Ronald Johnson (ROJO) continues to impress this season, but hasn’t been able to find the end zone at the same rate of his week one performance when he caught three touchdown passes.

	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Jermaine Kearse	UW	JERM	↑ 5	7%	$75
Juron Criner	Arizona	CRIN	-	-	$70
Ronald Johnson	USC	ROJO	↑ 5	8%	$65
James Rodgers	OSU	JROD	-	-	$55
Jeff Maehl	Oregon	MAEL	↑ 10	22%	$55
Marvin Jones	Cal	MARV	-	-	$45
Robert Woods	USC	WOOD	-	-	$30
Doug Baldwin	Stanford	BALD	-	-	$25
Devin Aguilar	UW	AGUI	↑ 10	66%	$25
David Ausberry	USC	BERY	↑ 5	33%	$20
Keenan Allen	Cal	KEEN	-	-	$15
DeVonte Christopher	Utah	DEVO	-	-	$15

Running Back

We had three performances this week with running backs going over 200 yards. LaMichael James (LMJ), Allen Bradford (BRAD), and Johnathan Franklin (FRNK) all eclipsed the number and scored touchdowns. Bradford saw the largest increase in stock by going up 80% in USC’s loss to Washington. If Lane Kiffin knew how to call a game he would have run Bradford more and taken him closer to the 300 yard mark.

	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
JacQuizz Rodgers	OSU	JQR	↑ 10	8%	$125
LaMichael James	Oregon	LMJ	↑ 20	15%	$150
Shane Vereen	Cal	VERE	-	-	$95
Chris Polk	UW	POLK	↑ 10	13%	$85
Kenjon Barner	Oregon	BARN	↓10	28%	$25
Johnathan Franklin	UCLA	FRNK	↑ 20	66%	$50
Nic Grigsby	Arizona	GRIG	-	-	$25
Allen Bradford	USC	BRAD	↑ 20	80%	$45
Cameron Marshall	ASU	MRSH	-	-	$20
Marc Tyler	USC	MARC	↑ 5	25%	$25
Deantre Lewis	ASU	DEAN	↑ 5	16%	$35
Stepfan Taylor	Stanford	STEP	↑ 10	66%	$25

IPO’s

One player that’s made a huge impact for his team in the past few weeks has been Derrick Coleman (COLE) of UCLA. He had 185 yards and three touchdowns against Washington State and 94 yards and a touchdown in the upset over #7 Texas. He’ll face a salty defense against Cal this weekend where the Bruins haven’t won since the 90′s. Two wide receivers have caught our attention lately, the 6’5″ Jared Karstetter (KARS) of Washington State, and Kerry Taylor (KERY) of Arizona State. Karstetter uses his size well and lit up UCLA’s talented secondary. Taylor has great body control and concentration to haul in tough grabs. His over the shoulder catch against Oregon was a thing of beauty.

	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Derrick Coleman	UCLA	COLE	-	-	$25
Jared Karstetter	WSU	KARS	-	-	$20
Kerry Taylor	ASU	KERY	-	-	$15

NASPAQ – Pac-12 Stock Report : Week 4

Someone once said “To be the best you need to beat the best” and that’s precisely what the Pac-12 did with the non-conference schedule. If anybody saw the BigTen last week you would notice that they didn’t play a single compelling game. There were no ranked teams, and zero BCS opponent on the BigTen schedule. Meanwhile, the Pac-12 has beaten top ten teams in back-to-back weeks.

On to the action!

Defensive Players Market

Starting with the defense this week, if you purchased stock in Akeem Ayers (AYER) like the Week 1 NASPAQ suggested then you should feel pretty good about yourself. He sacked Garrett Gilbert so hard that it looked like a level 5 tornado hit him which forced a fumble. Ayers later had an interception to help the Bruins upset then #7 Texas. Another Bruin that contributed the biggest momentum shift in the game was Sean Westgate (WEST). His forced fumble on special teams gave UCLA the ball at the three yard line and they were much more confident after getting on the scoreboard. Stanford’s Owen Marecic (OWEN) had a moment during the Notre Dame battle that was reminiscent of Reggie Miller scoring 6 points in 4 seconds against the Knicks. Marecic scored on a one yard dive play, but since he starts at both linebacker and fullback he was right back on the field intercepting Dayne Crist and returning it 20 yards for a defensive touchdown.

	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Akeem Ayers	UCLA	AYER	↑ 20	21%	$115
Rahim Moore	UCLA	MOOR	↑ 10	11%	$100
Vontaze Burfict	ASU	BURF	↑ 10	11%	$95
Jurrell Casey	USC	CASE	↑ 5	5%	$90
Mason Foster	UW	FOST	-	-	$85
Omar Bolden	ASU	BOLD	↑ 10	13%	$85
Mike Mohamed	Cal	MIKE	-	-	$80
Trevin Wade	Arizona	WADE	↑ 5	6%	$80
Brooks Reed	Arizona	REED	↓ 5	6%	$80
Casey Matthews	Oregon	MATT	↑ 10	14%	$80
Tony Dye	UCLA	DYE	↑ 10	18%	$65
Richard Sherman	Stanford	SHER	↑ 5	10%	$55
Malcolm Smith	USC	SMIT	-	-	$50
TJ McDonald	USC	TJMC	↑ 15	50%	$45
Cliff Harris	Oregon	CLIF	↑ 10	33%	$40
Owen Maracic	Stanford	OWEN	↑ 15	75%	$35
Shane Skov	Stanford	SKOV	↑ 10	40%	$35
Michael Thomas	Stanford	THOM	↑ 5	25%	$25
Patrick Larimore	UCLA	LARI	↑ 5	25%	$25
DJ Holt	Cal	HOLT	↑ 5	25%	$25

Defensive Units

A week after Cal was lit up for 500 yards and 52 points against Nevada, they look like the best defensive team in the conference by holding Arizona to ten points. The Bears were dominant for the first 57 minutes of the game before giving up a 51 yard pass to Juron Criner that set up the game winning score. If their offense and defense ever click during the same game they could be a great team. We’ll find out more about Oregon’s defense this week, but they looked porous against Arizona State as they gave up 600 yards of offense. The seven turnovers are an indicator that this an aggressive unit, but they may be prone to giving up big plays.

	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Oregon Defense	ORED	↓ 5	3%	$130
Arizona Defense	ARID	↑ 10	13%	$85
Utah Defense	UTAD	↑ 10	14%	$80
ASU Defense	ASUD	↑ 15	23%	$80
USC Defense	USCD	↑ 10	16%	$70
Stanford Defense	STAD	↑ 10	16%	$70
Cal Defense	CALD	↑ 15	30%	$65
UCLA Defense	UCLD	↑ 15	30%	$65
Colorado Defense	COLD	↓ 10	-	$35
OSU Defense	OSUD	↓ 5	12%	$35
UW Defense	UWD	-	-	$35

Quarterbacks

This was an off week for our quarterbacks based on the numbers, but that could have been a result of the competition this week. Matt Barkley (BARK) has looked great in the box scores, but he could easily have thrown 10 interceptions this season. His style reminds our analysts of the Chicago Bears Jay Cutler in that he has too much confidence in his arm strength and tries to squeeze the ball in tight spots. His stock continues to rise, but we see this as a bear market after the game against Washington. Down in the desert Steven Threet (THRE) had better numbers than Nick Foles (FOLE), but their teams are headed in opposite direction. The Sun Devils have played top ten opponents each of the past two weeks and can’t seem to pull it out at the end, while Arizona has been clutch with game winning drives in their last two. Jordan Wynn (WYNN)  is back from injury and looks like he’ll be competing for top quarterback in the conference next year. The coaches across the conference should fire their recruiting coordinator’s who were in charge of his area.

	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Andrew Luck	Stanford	LUCK	↑ 5	3%	$145
Nick Foles	Arizona	FOLE	↑ 5	8%	$140
Matt Barkley	USC	BARK	↑ 5	4%	$125
Jake Locker	UW	LOCK	-	20%	$80
Kevin Riley	Cal	RILE	↓ 5	6%	$70
Jordan Wynn	Utah	WYNN	↑ 10	18%	$65
Tyler Hansen	Col	HANS	-	-	$40
Darron Thomas	Oregon	DARR	↑ 5	16%	$35
Kevin Prince	UCLA	PRNC	↑ 5	25%	$25
Ryan Katz	OSU	KATZ	↓ 5	33%	$20
Steven Threet	ASU	THRE	↓ 5	33%	$10

Wide Receivers

There weren’t too many big performances this week, but Jared Karstetter of Washington State might be showing up on the IPO’s next week after his 8 receptions for 87 yards and two touchdowns.  Mike Williams of Arizona State had a big game against the Oregon Ducks secondary hauling in 5 receptions for 74 yards and two touchdowns, but his teammate Kerry Taylor had the best catch of the weekend. James Rodgers (JROD) didn’t have much success catching the ball, but his punt return for a touchdown boosted his stock by 22% after a couple off weeks.

	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Juron Criner	Arizona	CRIN	↑ 5	7%	$75
Jermaine Kearse	UW	JERM	-	-	$65
Ronald Johnson	USC	ROJO	↑ 5	9%	$60
James Rodgers	OSU	JROD	↑ 10	22%	$55
Marvin Jones	Cal	MARV	-	-	$50
Jeff Maehl	Oregon	JEFF	↑ 5	12%	$45
Robert Woods	USC	WOOD	↑ 5	20%	$30
Doug Baldwin	Stanford	BALD	-	-	$25
Keenan Allen	Cal	KEEN	↓ 5	25%	$15
DeVonte Christopher	Utah	DEVO	↓ 5	25%	$15
Devin Aguilar	UW	AGUI	-	-	$15

Running Backs

LaMichael James (LMJ) continues to rip off highlight reel runs to separate himself from the rest of the running backs in the conference while JacQuizz Rodgers (QUIZ) is struggling to gain yardage. The Oregon State offense needs an accurate quarterback for their pro-style offense to be effective, but Ryan Katz (KATZ)has struggled with his consistency. The Arizona State offense has impressed me with their running back by committee. It seems like every week a new player emerges with a hundred yards on the ground and this week it happened to be Deantre Lewis with 11 carries for 127 yards and a touchdown. Stanford continues to be impressive in the red zone and Stepfan Taylor (STEP) looks like he’s going to be the one to carry the load for the Cardinal. We’ll see how they do this week against the Oregon defense. This matchup last year was a coming out party for Andrew Luck as the Ducks were stacking the box to stop Toby  Gerhart.

	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ %	Total
LaMichael James	Oregon	LMJ	↑ 10	19%	$140.00
JacQuizz Rodgers	OSU	QUIZ	↑ 5	4%	$115.00
Shane Vereen	Cal	VERE	↑ 5	5%	$100.00
Chris Polk	UW	POLK	-	-	$75.00
Kenjon Barner	Oregon	BARN	↓10	18%	$35
John Franklin	UCLA	FRNK	↑ 10	50%	$30
Nic Grigsby	Arizona	GRIG	↓10	28%	$25.00
Allen Bradford	USC	BRAD	↑ 5	33%	$25.00
Cam Marshall	ASU	MRSH	↑ 5	33%	$20.00
Marc Tyler	USC	MARC	↑ 5	33%	$20.00
Stepfan Taylor	Stanford	STEP	↑ 5	50%	$15.00

Pac-12 – Week 4 Players of the Week

We are a quarter of a way through the season with the most challenging non-conference schedule behind us. Some teams came out losers (Oregon State & Washington) some teams came out winners (Arizona & UCLA) and the jury is still out on a few teams (Cal, ASU, USC).

Players of the Week

Starting with the Leader of the Pac MVP this week, Johnathan Franklin finally made the UCLA offense worthy of being called the pistol. Franklin carried the ball 19 times for 118 yards and a touchdown against the former #1 ranked rush defense in the country. He did a great job of using his blockers, finding the gaps, breaking tackles, and extending plays with his tough running style. The special teams and Bruin secondary will be good enough to keep them in most games, but back-to-back wins against ranked teams is a great sign for a young team still searching for its identity. Kevin Prince had a a beautiful 38 yard touchdown run and he passed for another. A UCLA cheerleader deserves to be here on the blog today, but I’ll take the last opportunity to post a Texas girl this season.

The other big performance from a running back came from Stanley Havili of USC. Full backs don’t usually have the type of impact that this guy does, but his 59 yard rushing touchdown looked like something I do in Madden. He also caught the ball four times for 88 yards and a 58 yard touchdown. From a day when Matt Barkley was inconsistent Havili gave them the spark they needed on offense. From the defensive side of the ball Nickell Robey looks like a future Pac-12 star. He picked off two passes and returned one for a touchdown.

One of my favorite players of the conference is back with Jordan Wynn returning from injury. Utah is one of the most exciting teams in the country with this guy slinging the ball around and his hand doesn’t look to be bothering him as he completed 14 of 18 passes and two touchdowns.

Bust of the Week

The Cal versus Arizona game looked more like the BigTen than the exciting brand we love in the Pac-12. To play that style of game you need to minimize mistakes , play strong defense, and capitalize on special teams play. Cal was in control of the game for 57 minutes and as they were driving down field up 9-3 they got into the field goal range. The Italian imported kicker, Georgio Tavecchio lined up on his money spot – the right hash. The kick went up and sailed wide right with two minutes and some change to play. On the next play Nick Foles connected with Juron Criner for a 51 yard pass the put them in a position for the go-ahead score.

NASPAQ – Pac-12 Stock Report : Week 2

The defensive side of the NASPAQ is starting to shape up after some incredible performances this week. The Leader of the Pac – Defensive MVP this week goes to Mike Mohamed (MIKE) of the Cal Bears for his 14 tackles and an interception returned 41 yards for a touchdown. Mohamed is third in the conference in tackles with 21. He is the leader of the #1 total defense in the country with Cal yielding only 160 yards per game. Our bullish trend this week is wide receiver of the Washington Huskies – Jermaine Kearse, after putting on a show of 9 receptions and 179 yardsin their victory over Syracuse. His stock is up 30% and he’s tied for the highest wide receiver stock with Juron Criner of Arizona at $65 per share.

Defensive Players

	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Akeem Ayers	UCLA	AYER	↑ 5	6%	$85
Mason Foster	UW	FOST	↑ 5	7%	$80
Mike Mohamed	Cal	MIKE	↑ 10	14%	$80
Rahim Moore	UCLA	MOOR	↑ 5	7%	$80
Jurrell Casey	USC	CASE	↑ 5	7%	$80
Tony Dye	UCLA	DYE	↑ 5	10%	$55
Malcolm Smith	USC	SMIT	↑ 5	10%	$55
Richard Sherman	Stanford	SHER	↑ 5	12%	$45

IPO’s

We’ve had some IPO’s pop up on our radar starting with Cliff Harris (CLIF) of the Oregon Ducks. We don’t know how we missed his two touchdowns on special teams last week (Punt 1, Punt 2), but he caught our analysts attention when he pick-sixed Tennessee’s Matt Simms. His stock opens up at $25 and we see this as a bull market if you invest early enough.

	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Darron Thomas	Oregon	DARR	-	-	$25
Devin Aguilar	Washington	AGUI	-	-	$25
Robert Woods	USC	WOOD	-	-	$15
Marquess Wilson	WSU	MARQ	-	-	$15
Michael Thomas	Stanford	THOM	-	-	$15
TJ McDonald	USC	TJMC	-	-	$25
Cliff Harris	Oregon	CLIF	-	-	$25

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Running Backs

The Oregon Ducks also had some of the top offensive highlights this week from their backfield. LaMichael James (LMJ) is back on the NASPAQ after his suspension and saw a 5% rise in his stock to $105. Kenjon Barner didn’t replicate his four touchdowns of week one, but he had an 80 yard punt return for a touchdown. The Ducks quarterback – Darron Thomas (DARR) IPO’d at $25 dollars this week after managing his first road game like a veteran.-

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	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ %	Total
JacQuizz Rodgers	OSU	QUIZ	-	4%	$120
LaMichael James	Oregon	LMJ	↑ 5	5%	$105
Chris Polk	UW	POLK	↑ 5	6%	$80
Shane Vereen	Cal	VARE	-	-	$75
Kenjon Barner	Oregon	BARN	↑ 5	10%	$55
Nic Grigsby	Arizona	GRIG	↑ 10	28%	$45
Cameron Marshall	ASU	MRSH	↓ 5	20%	$20
Marc Tyler	USC	MARC	↓ 5	20%	$20

From our positional markets there were a couple outstanding defensive performances this week, most notably from Cal and Stanford. Their defenses were aggressive and applied pressure on the opponent’s quarterbacks to force turnovers. Both of their defensive units saw some coaching turnover and replaced their defensive coordinators with experienced NFL coaches. Cal is currently #1 in total defense nationally, while Stanford is #6, but the Bears will face the #1 total offense in the country against Nevada this week so we see this as a bear market that has topped out.

Defensive Market

	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Arizona Defense	ARID	↑ 10	60%	$65
Cal Defense	CALD	↑ 10	20	$60
Colorado Defense	COLD	↓ 10	25%	$30
Oregon Defense	ORED	↑ 10	9%	$125
Oregon State Defense	OSUD	-	-	$40
USC Defense	USCD	↑ 10	20%	$60
UCLA Defense	UCLD	↓ 20	33%	$40
Stanford Defense	STAD	↑ 15	42%	$50
Utah Defense	UTAD	↑ 5	8%	$65
UW Defense	UWD	↑ 5	12%	$45

Quarterbacks

Week 2 wasn’t as kind to our quarterbacks as the first week with Matt Barkley, Andrew Luck, and Kevin Riley looking like they needed to shake off some rust. Jordan Wynn sat out this week with an injury, but the Utes were able to win with their backup. Tyler Hansen was sacked six times and committed four turnovers in the first Pac-12 game between Colorado and Cal. Jake Locker finally had some success and received an 11% bump in his stock to get back to triple digit stock prices.

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	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Nick Foles	Arizona	FOLE	↑ 5	4%	$125
Andrew Luck	Stanford	LUCK	↓10	7%	$125
Matt Barkley	USC	BARK	↑ 5	4%	$120
Jake Locker	UW	LOCK	↑ 10	11%	$100
Kevin Riley	Cal	RILE	↑ 5	6%	$85
Jordan Wynn	Utah	WYNN	-	-	$55
Tyler Hansen	Col	HANS	↓10	25%	$30
Kevin Prince	UCLA	PRNC	↓ 5	25%	$15
Ryan Katz	OSU	KATZ	-	-	$10

Wide Receivers

Robert Woods (WOOD) is the newest wide receiver on the NASPAQ, and even though he hasn’t found pay dirt he’s been consistent and at times looks like Barkley’s first target. Jermaine Kearse (JERM) was the top wide receiver of the weekend with 9 catches for 179 yards and three touchdowns.

	Team	Symbol	Δ	Δ%	Total
Juron Criner	Arizona	CRIN	-	-	$65
Jermaine Kearse	UW	JERM	↑ 15	30%	$65
James Rodgers	OSU	JROD	-	-	$55
Ronald Johnson	USC	ROJO	-	-	$50
Marvin Jones	Cal	MARV	↑ 5	14%	$40
Keenan Allen	Cal	KEEN	↑ 5	20%	$30
Doug Baldwin	Stanford	BALD	-	-	$25
DeVonte Christopher	Utah	DEVO	↓ 5	20%	$20
David Ausberry	USC	BERY	↓10	40%	$15

Pac-12 Week 2 Predictions

Started off pretty well last week with a 9-1 record, but Jake Locker let me down as the Huskies were held scoreless in the second half against BYU. Lots of good games this week and one conference game with Stanford traveling to UCLA.

Colorado at Cal: The newest member of the Pac-12 should receive some rookie hazing as Cal looks to impose its offensive firepower at the skill positions. Look for Shane Vereen to run in the 150 yard range and the Kevin Riley to Keenan Allen connection to continue. Our special guest from The Office - Dwight Schrute, picked the score this week. Bears 34 – Buffs 23

Stanford at UCLA: The new UCLA pistol offense looked like a SuperSoaker last week and Stanford has a QB with a cannon for an arm. Andrew Luck will be facing the top secondary in the conference, but his offensive line should give him plenty of time against a young Bruin front seven. Stanford 31 – UCLA 23

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Virginia at USC: Lane Kiffin has seen better tackling in Pee Wee football and he sent a message to his players this week. Look for them to come out more aggressive and wrapping up when they tackle. The NASPAQ report shows that the USC defense hit the market bottom this week and many of our analysts see it as a bull market moving forward. USC 45 – Virginia 14

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North Arizona at Arizona State: The Sun Devils are on the cupcake diet and facing their second FCS team this season. Steven Threet benefited from a lot of explosive plays out of Cameron Marshall against Portland State. Look for them to have some longer drives this week. Sun Devils 34 – Lumberjacks 10

Oregon at Tennessee: Darron Thomas’ first road game with 105,000 orange clad cousins cheering against him will be a lot easier with the James and Barner in the backfield. Justin Wilcox out-schemed Chip Kelly last year when he was Boise State’s Defensive Coordinator, but the young Tennessee defense won’t have the same discipline of the Broncos. Ducks 34 – Vols 20

The Citadel at Arizona: The Citadel forced four interceptions last week against a team I’ve never heard of (Chowan), but they didn’t have to face Nick Foles. Arizona will be looking to fine tune their offense before Iowa visits next week, Foles throws for 300 yards and Criner gets another TD. The Arizona University 55 – The Citadel 7

Syracuse at Washington: Nobody needs a strong performance this week more than Jake Locker. The Huskies played much better at home last year and expect that trend to continue. Chris Polk should eclipse the 100 yard mark for the first time this season as the Huskies cruise. Dawgs 31 – Orange 20

UNLV at Utah: I loved watching this Utah team knock off Pitt last week in overtime and without tooting my horn too much, my prediction was spot on. The NASPAQ shows that Jordan Wynn stock is growing strong. Utes 41 – UNLV 17

Montana State at Washington State: The Cougars are about to get their first win of the season as Jeff Tuel throws for 300 yards in this game. Cougars 34 – Bobcats 20

2010 Prediction record 9-1

Pac-12 – Week 1 Players of the Week

Players of the Week

We had some awesome performances by our athletes this week and it started on Thursday night with Utah’s DeVonte Christopher who hauled in 8 receptions for 155 yards and a touchdown.

Following that up was USC against Hawaii and they have two players that deserve mentioning. Matt Barkley led the way for the Trojans on an 18-23 performance for 257 yards and 5 touchdowns. The biggest problem with Barkley last year was forcing balls into tight coverages, but he was fortunate that the one time he tried to force one in the game it was dropped by the Hawaiian linebacker. Here are the USC highlights.

Barkley’s favorite target was Ronald Johnson who caught 7 balls for a meager 59 yards and three touchdowns. I thought his touchdowns of 1 and 3 yards were the result of Lane Kiffin trying to pad Matt Barkley’s stats by throwing in running situations, but he was the beneficiary. His stat line normally wouldn’t have him on my player of the week list, but his beautiful 89 yard punt return warrants making the list.

The MVP this week belongs to Kenjon Barner of the Oregon Ducks with his 17 carries for 149 yards and 4 touchdowns. He also caught one pass for 60 yards and another score and was on ESPN all day long with highlight reel runs which you can find here.

I thought that Barkley would have had the best numbers of all Pac-10 QB’s, but Nick Foles was even better on Friday night throwing 33 of 37 for 360 yards and 2TD’s. They showed a graphic during the game that essentially showed his first ~20 passes were under fifteen yards, but he was quick with his reads and accurate in his delivery.

Another Wildcat that makes our Player of the Week list is the recipient of the Nick Foles aerial assault, Juron Criner. The 6’4″ receiver caught 11 passes for 187 yards and a touchdown. Criner gained quite a few YAC yards and also hauled in a beautiful one handed catch which shows up about 20 seconds into these highlights.

If you have the ComcastNet Sports Channel you might have been able to see a future Pac-12 star in Keenan Allen for the Cal Bears today. His four 4 receptions accounted for 120 yards and a 48 yard touchdown reception. Allen also had 3 carries for 38 yards with his best play coming on an end around play designed as a pass, but he quickly reversed field and cut back 20 yards for the touchdown. You can check out the Keenan Allen highlights here.

Stanford’s Andrew Luck put some separation between the Luck-Locker debate when he went 17 of 23 for 360 yards and four touchdowns. This was the one game I didn’t watch, but the numbers are phenomenal. Andrew Luck reminds me of Aaron Rodgers with his ability to make quick decisions, accuracy, and strength throwing the ball. He had a couple beautifully thrown deep balls in the Stanford highlights.

Bust of the Week

On the flip side of the list is the Pac-12 bust of the week which has to be Jake Locker of the Washington Huskies. This was supposed to be one of, if not the best offense in the conference. Locker was good in spurts, but his offensive line gave him very little time to get his feet set in the pocket and Sarkisian didn’t do him any favors with the play-calling. His Heisman hopes are dashed as he had the opportunity to take what would have been the game winning score on three separate drives, but failed to score any points in those possessions.

Pac-10 Blue Chip Team Scores

I had a lot of trouble with the formatting of this article, so I just had to put the information into excel and made some jpeg files out of the information which look blurry on the blog, but will be clear if you click on them. Mike Lombardi came up with this blue-chip formula to determine how much talent is on each team in the NFL, but I only follow former Pac-10 players and wanted to see how our conference would look applying the same scoring system. The outside linebackers account for 2.5 more points than the middle linebackers, which makes sense for the NFL where most teams are using a 3-4 defense, but the majority of teams in college are still using a four man front and the middle linebacker can impact the game more than an outside linebacker – think Casey Matthews of Oregon and Vontaze Burfict of ASU. I was also concerned that the red chip secondary players received the same 7.5 points as the blue chip players. There are many talented players in the NFL secondaries, but in college there aren’t that many cornerbacks and safeties that would make as big of an impact as many of the blue chip players at other positions.

Arizona has a total of 80 points with a good mix of offensive and defensive players, with points coming from both the skill positions and in the trenches. Arizona State only has 30 points with 22.5 of those coming from the defensive side of the ball, so don’t expect them to be lighting up the scoreboard any time soon. Cal surprised me with 82 points, but Tedford has recruited as well as any coach in the conference not named Pete Carroll.

Arizona	Points	Arizona St	Points	Cal	Points
Nick Foles	12.5	Lawrence Guy	7.5	Mitchell Schwartz	10
Adam Grant	10	Vontaze Burfict	7.5	Cameron Jordan	10
Ricky Elmore	10	Omar Bolden	7.5	Anthony Miller	7.5
Juron Criner	7.5	Thomas Weber	7.5	Matt Summers-Gavin	7.5
Colin Baxter	7.5			Mike Mohamed	7.5
Trevin Wade	7.5			Bryan Anger	7.5
Robert Golden	7.5			Mychal Kendricks	7.5
James Brooks	7.5			Sean Cattouse	7.5
Nic Grigsby	5			Kevin Riley	7
				Shane Vereen	5
				Marvin Jones	5
				Chris Guarnero	5
				Derrick Hill	5

Oregon brings 82.5 points with strength in the trenches. I think Casey Matthews is more valuable to their defense than the 7.5 points he’s allotted, but Paysinger received a higher rating in the formula and evened out the same number of points I would have given them combined. Oregon State has a lot of skill players, but without much depth in the trenches their team only accounts for 55 points so this tells me that they should be relying on the big plays this season. Stanford brings almost all of their 67.5 points on the offensive side of the ball. Chris Owusu probably would have made the list as the next red-chip wide receiver, but he gets 7.5 points for his kick return abilities.

Oregon	Points	Oregon St	Points	Stanford	Points
Bo Thran	10	JacQuizz Rodgers	7.5	Andrew Luck	12.5
Kenny Rowe	10	James Rodgers	7.5	David DeCastro	7.5
Spencer Paysinger	10	Joe Halahuni	7.5	Chris Owusu	7.5
LaMichael James	7.5	Stephen Paea	7.5	Chase Beeler	7.5
Carson York	7.5	Lance Mitchell	7.5	Delondo Howell	7.5
Casey Matthews	7.5	Justin Kahut	7.5	Ryan Whalen	5
John Boyett	7.5	Michael Philipp	5	Jonathan Martin	5
Talmadge Jackson	7.5	Alex Linnekohl	5	Owen Maracic	5
Jeff Maehl	5			Andrew Phillips	5
Mark Asper	5			Shane Skov	5
Brandon Bair	5

UCLA will be carried by their defense and special teams this year, but that’s two thirds of the game so maybe they’ll do better than the 8th place finish the media projected them for. Still, they are only bringing 45 points to the table and having a kicker be the most dangerous weapon on your offense is never a good sign. USC is stocked with talent throughout the roster so it’s no surprise that they are the Leader of the Pac with 84 points in the blue chip scoring. The Washington Huskies totaled 42.5 points and will be relying on a strong passing game to win some games for them, but there’s not much talent on the offensive or defensive lines.

UCLA	Points	USC	Points	Washington	Points
Akeem Ayers	10	Tyron Smith	10	Jake Locker	12.5
Kai Forbath	7.5	Butch Lewis	7.5	Mason Foster	10
Rahim Moore	7.5	Kris O’Dowd	7.5	Desmond Trufant	7.5
Jeff Locke	7.5	Jurrell Casey	7.5	Jermaine Kearse	7.5
Sheldon Price	7.5	Shareece Wright	7.5	Chris Polk	5
Nelson Rosario	5	Malcolm Smith	7.5
		Michael Morgan	7.5
		Matt Barkley	7
		Nick Perry	7
		Ronald Johnson	5
		Stanley Havili	5
		Chris Galippo	5

Here’s all of the team points in alphabetical order and these are pretty consistent with my conference predictions which were posted a month ago.

	Points
Arizona	80
ASU	30
Cal	82
Oregon	82.5
Oregon State	55
Stanford	67.5
UCLA	45
USC	84
Washington	42.5

2010 Preseason All-Pac-10 Team

The first annual Leader of the Pac All-Pac-10 team is completed, a second team will probably appear in the next couple weeks.

First team offense

QB- Jake Locker – Washington

RB- Jacquizz Rodgers – Oregon St

RB- LaMichael James – Oregon

WR- Jermaine Kearse – Washington

WR- Juron Criner – Arizona

TE- Anthony Miller – Cal

OL – Adam Grant – Arizona

OL – Bo Thran – Oregon

OL- Kristopher O’Dowd – USC

OL- Butch Lewis – USC

OL- Mitchell Schwartz – Cal

K- Kai Forbath – UCLA

KR- Chris Owusu – Stanford

PR- James Rodgers – Oregon St

I had a tough time picking a quarterback for the first team, because I think Andrew Luck, Matt Barkley, and Nick Foles actually have better mechanics and accuracy than Locker and two of their teams (USC and Arizona) I have projected to have a better season than Washington. The deciding factor for me was Steve Sarkisian’s ability to put Locker in the right situation and the improvement that comes along with having the same person calling the plays in consecutive years.

Wide receiver was also a tough position to pick and leaving James Rodgers off the list was the hardest part of the team, but I think his numbers will drop significantly this year. If I make a second team list, that’s where I would put him along with Ronald Johnson.

The offensive line was tough for me, because as badly as I wanted to put some Stanford guys on the list I think they’re going to have a much tougher time protecting the QB this year. They would have multiple second team guys on my list.

First Team Defense

DL- Kenny Rowe – Oregon

DL- Stephen Paea – Oregon St

DL- Jurrell Casey – USC

DL- Cameron Jordan – Cal

LB- Vontaze Burfict – Arizona St

LB- Mike Mohamed – Cal

LB- Mason Foster – Washington

CB- Trevin Wade – Arizona

CB- Omar Bolden – Arizona St

S- Rahim Moore – UCLA

S- John Boyett – Oregon

P- Bryan Anger – Cal

For the defensive line I almost went with Arizona’s Ricky Elmore, but I think he’ll have a tougher time with Arizona losing their defensive tackles from last season.

At linebacker I wanted to put Akeem Ayers on the team, but with the loss of Brian Price and Reggie Carter I’m expecting him to be the guy that offenses plan around. I think Mason Foster and the Husky defense will have a hard time getting off the field, so look for his tackles to increase this year.

This is a rather weak year for secondary players in the Pac-10, at least when it comes to name recognition, but Rahim Moore is on every All-American list and leads the pac. There are better cover guys than John Boyett, but he’s a tackling machine and ended up with 90 last year.