2012 Pac 12 North and South Division Predictions: Predictions and Analysis of North Division: Washington AND South Division: Arizona State, Colorado, UCLA and Utah
2012 Pac 12 North and South Division Predictions: Predictions and Analysis of North Division: Washington AND South Division: Arizona State, Colorado, UCLA and Utah
Pac – 12
North
Oregon – 11 – 1
Stanford – 11 – 1
Washington State – 8 – 4
California – 5 – 7
Washington – 5 – 7
Oregon State – 5 – 7
Washington
Head Coach: Steve Sarkisian
Predicted 2012 Record
Overall: 5 – 7
Pac-12: 3 – 6
Number of 2012 Cupcake Opponents: 1 (Portland State)
Commentary: Before Norm Chow was STUPIDLY fired by USC head coach Pete Carroll after the Trojans 2004 Bogus BCS National Championship (In our opinion Chow was fired by Carroll because Pete thought Norm was getting too much credit for USC’s success and he wanted to elevate Sarkisian and Kiffin which was a DUMB move Pete) two younger members of Carroll’s USC staff, Steve Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin, would often talk with each other about what jobs they would like to have one day have in the Pac-10/12 Conference and now Sarkisian (Washington) and Kiffin (USC) have head coaching jobs in the Pac-12 with Kiffin coming out much better as the head coach at USC because at USC any random MORON can win lots of games which is most certainly not the case at Washington.
Yes, it was only 5 years ago in January 2007 when Steve Sarkisian turned down Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders head coaching job which led to Davis hiring Lane Kiffin which started the…
Lane Kiffin the WORSE I do the BETTER jobs I get Choo-Choo Train
…which was highlighted by Al Davis running Lane Kiffin off from the Raiders, Tennessee STUPIDLY hiring Lane Kiffin (see HERE), and then USC CRAZYILY hiring Lane Kiffin when Pete Carroll took off for Seattle and now Steve Sarkisian must be sitting in Seattle thinking….
“I guess if I fail here at Washington I will be up for the Dallas Cowboys job!”
Whatever road that has led to Steve Sarkisian being the head coach at Washington and Lane Kiffin at USC 2012 could be the year when Kiffin’s working at a place where any beach-bum surfer from Huntingdon Beach could win 9 games a year will pull ahead of Steve Sarkisian’s very tough task of restoring Washington football that…
LOST 51 games in the 7 years
…before Sarkisian got to U-Dub which is an average of losing more than 7 games a year!
Washington has a very tough schedule in 2012 with a game at LSU in Week 2 and Stanford, Oregon and USC in order in Weeks 4, 5 and 6 which means the Huskies fate may very well be determined by the time USC game ends on October 13 because Washington could very well be…
2 – 4
….after that USC game with next up a trip to play at Arizona and against new Wildcats head coach Rich Rodriguez.
OUCH!
Since in our opinion Washington has No Chance In HELL of beating Oregon in Eugene the Week 4 game against an Andrew Luck-less Stanford team could be the Game of the Year for Sarkisian and Washington so if we were Steve Sarkisian we would work hard to win in Week 1 (San Diego State), just try and survive in Week 2 in Baton Rouge (LSU), win an easy one over Portland State in Week 3 and then prepare, prepare, prepare and prepare for Stanford in Seattle in Week 4 which we can tell Steve is going to be HEAVY DOSE of Pop You in the Mouth and Make You Like It and of course the Huskies better be ready for that new wrinkle to the Stanford offense…..OH….we better not say anything about that!
Pac – 12
South
USC – 10 – 2
Utah – 10 – 2
Arizona – 7 – 5
Colorado – 6 – 6
Arizona State – 3 – 9
UCLA – 1 – 11
Arizona State
Head Coach: Todd Graham
Predicted 2012 Record
Overall: 3 – 9
Pac-12: 1 – 8
Number of 2012 Cupcake Opponents: 1 (Northern Arizona)
Commentary: New Arizona State head coach Todd Graham has been on a fast rise through the college head coaching ranks with stints at Rice (1 year), Tulsa (4 years), Pittsburgh (1 year) and now on to ASU and Graham arrives in Tempe on the heels of four straight seasons under Dennis Erickson where the Sun Devils LOST…
6 or MORE Games EVERY season!
If you go back over the last 11 seasons under Dirk Koetter and Dennis Erickson ASU football put up the records of..
Overall: 71 – 65
Pac-10/12: 42 – 52
….and Graham’s task will be to lift Sun Devils football out of the MEDIOCRITY that it has been wallowing around in for the last decade plus and in a Pac-12 Conference that is getting tougher everyday which means Graham’s task is not going to be an easy one.
Arizona State will play one of the toughest schedules in the country in 2012 with games against Illinois at home, Missouri on the road and a Pac-12 conference schedule which includes Utah and Oregon at home and Cal, USC and Arizona on the road which probably will add up to very few wins in Graham’s first year at ASU and that will only make our friends in the desert even hotter under the collar about their Sun Devils and turn up the pressure on Todd Graham to turn things around.
Colorado
Head Coach: Jon Embree
Predicted 2012 Record
Overall: 6 – 6
Pac-12: 3 – 6
Number of 2012 Cupcake Opponents: 1 (Sacramento State)
Commentary: After a lot of talk in Boulder, Colorado about the CU football team returning to something akin to the “Bill McCartney-era” the 2011 football schedule stood-up and bit the Buffs in the ass as head coach Jon Embree and his coaching staff learned first-hand that talking about winning lots of game and ACTUALLY winning lots of games are two different things entirely.
After a very tough early season loss in overtime to Cal in Week 2 the Buffs ended up beating woeful team Colorado State and Arizona and got a shocking win over Utah to end the season to finish at…
Overall: 3 – 10
Pac-12: 2 – 7
….in 2011 and if Embree and his Buffs hope to do better in 2012 they will have to beat Colorado State again (who has a first year coach), beat Fresno State on the road (who has a first year coach) and win the games at home that they should win against UCLA (who has a first year coach), Arizona State (who has a first year coach) and Washington (who may have a coach on the Hot Seat by late November) and finally if CU can beat Utah in Salt Lake City last season they should be able to beat the Utes in Boulder to end the 2012 season as well.
We do see a slight improvement to Colorado football in 2012 and an actual shot at a bowl game, but those last two home games at Washington and Utah may very well determine whether CU ends up at 6 – 6 and is heading to a bowl or finishes at 4 – 8 or 5 – 7 which would not be the big-step forward that Embree needs to make in Boulder in Year 2 to try and gain some kind of advantage in a conference that among 12 teams has 4 new head coaches on the job in 2012.
UCLA
Head Coach: Jim L. Mora
Predicted 2012 Record
Overall: 1 – 11
Pac-12: 0 – 9
Number of 2012 Cupcake Opponents: ZERO
Commentary: The new UCLA head coach Jim Mora Jr. or Jim L. Mora or whatever Jim is being called these days was on the San Francisco 49ers staff from 1997 to 2003 which here at Coaches Hot Seat as part of the….
Dark Days of 49ers football
….with NO Super Bowl Championships, NO Super Bowl appearances, ONLY two NFC West Division Championships and ONLY four playoff appearances (Yes, our expectations for San Francisco 49ers football are very HIGH and they should be very HIGH) so we believe we know Jim Mora Jr pretty well and although there’s no doubt that Jim knows the game of football actually winning games as the head football coach at UCLA which is a place where a good or great coach can WIN BIG but an average coach will struggle mightily is going to very Damn difficult for Jim.
The TRUTH is that UCLA football will probably have to hit bottom before it can bounce back up and it is nowhere near the bottom yet and when one takes a look at UCLA’s 2012 schedule….
at Rice
Nebraska
Houston
Oregon State
at Colorado
at California
Utah
at Arizona State
Arizona
at Washington State
USC
Stanford
….the tone of the Bruins season may very well be set by their first three non-conference games at Rice, Nebraska and Houston because there is a very good chance that UCLA will be 0-3 entering Pac-12 play against Oregon State in Week 4.
With Jim Mora Jr. taking the UCLA football team out to San Bernardino to start fall camp which is Hell on Earth compared to the cool Pacific Ocean breezes in Westwood on the UCLA campus we believe what Jim is finding is that he has taken over a very soft Bruins football team that are very undisciplined as well and probably the very worst thing a head coach can have as a football team is…
Soft + Undisciplined
…..because that almost always equals….
Soft + Undisciplined = LOSERS
Yes, Jim Mora Jr. is at least trying to do something about the Soft + Undisciplined Bruins football team he has taken over….
Bruins Coach Jim Mora gets angry when practice gets chippy, Chris Foster, Los Angeles Times
…..BUT the path that Jim is now on will be very painful one and it will probably be long (2 to 3 years at least; Jim Harbaugh went 4 – 8 and 5 – 7 in is first two years at Stanford) and our UCLA alum friends aren’t really in the mood for giving yet another coach “some time” to again “rebuild” UCLA football and that means Mora better get things moving in the right direction in Westwood…..and fast!
Utah
Head Coach: Kyle Whittingham
Predicted 2012 Record
Overall: 10 – 2
Pac-12: 7 – 2
Number of 2012 Cupcake Opponents: 1 (Northern Colorado)
Commentary: Kyle Whittingham has done an nice job with Utah football after the departure of Urban Meyer to Florida after the Utes went undefeated in the 2004 season and with three-straight TEN wins seasons before entering Pac-12 play last year it will be up Whittingham to take Utah up another notch if they hope to compete for Pac-12 Conference championships in the future.
Save an embarrassing loss to woeful Colorado at home to end the 2011 regular season Utah would have been playing in the Pac-12 Conference Championship Game last year and that would have been a nice start for the Utes in the Pac-12, but what’s past is past and what matters now for Utah football is the 2012 schedule and a very tough schedule it is.
Before Utah gets to Pac-12 Conference play they have three games that the Utes should win…
Northern Colorado, at Utah State and BYU at home
….which should launch Utah into conference play with some momentum which will see the Utes play four teams with First Year Head Coaches (Arizona State, UCLA, Washington State, Arizona) and two teams with Head Coaches on the Hot Seat (Oregon State, California) which is a schedule that will in our opinion Utah a chance to get back to that double-digit win total in 2012 and this time make a real statement about Utah’s entry into the Pac-12 Conference.
2012 Coaches Hot Seat Team and Coach Predictions, Coaches Hot Seat
Coaches Hot Seat Number of CUPCAKE Opponents Teams Are Facing In 2012, Coaches Hot Seat
