Wednesday, November 12, 1997
Pac-10 Notebook
FOOTBALL
The thorny road to the Rose Bowl
There seems to be a countless number of scenarios that could
decide who will be the Pac-10 representative for the Rose Bowl.
Washington is the only team that controls its own destiny. With
victories against UCLA and Washington State, at worst, the Huskies
would be tied with Arizona State and would win the tie-breaker
because of Washington’s Oct. 4 victory over ASU.
The Bruins, the Cougars and the Sun Devils all need help in
order to clinch the Pac-10.
UCLA will go if and only if Washington State loses one of its
last two games to either Stanford or the aforementioned
Huskies.
Arizona State needs two victories and losses from both
Washington and UCLA. To be more exact, the winner of the
Husky-Bruin match-up this Saturday must lose next weekend.
Washington State needs to be tied with at least one team other
than Arizona State – who holds the head-to-head tie-breaker. The
Cougars would go to the Rose Bowl in case of any three-way ties and
in the rare case of a four-way tie, the winner of the Apple Cup
(Washington vs. WSU) would go to the Rose Bowl.
Bruins jump ahead of Huskies
The loss by previously No. 6 Washington to Oregon this past
weekend has UCLA (No. 9) as the first Pac-10 team to be ranked
ahead of the Huskies this season.
The No. 13 Huskies are just ahead of No. 14 Washington State in
the Associated Press poll, while Arizona State is closing in at No.
15. Oregon and USC both received enough votes to tie them at No.
38.
Trojans don’t make it to TV
For the first time in 111 games, the USC game will not be
televised.
The Trojans have struggled greatly under John Robinson this
year, and a game against lowly Oregon State was not deemed
important enough to be televised.
Pac-10 announces stars of the week
In offense, Akili Smith of Oregon gets the nod. His
three-touchdown, no-interception performance spearheaded the Ducks’
31-28 victory over Washington. Smith had a 10-play, 73-yard drive
in which he found a diving Pat Johnson for a touchdown with less
than three minutes left to hand the Huskies their first Pac-10
loss.
In defense, another Duck was honored. Inside linebacker Peter
Sirmon, only a sophomore, is tied for the Pac-10 lead in total
tackles with 82 (a 9.1 tackle-per-game average) and has amassed 4.5
sacks this year. This is his second Pac-10 defensive player of the
week award – the first coming on Sept. 6.
In special teams, Washington State senior punt-returner Shawn
Tims came out on top. He caught two passes for 55 yards and the
Cougars raked up 223 return yards as a team — with only two
kickoff returns. In his 28 returns this year, Tims averages a
Pac-10 leading 14.5 yards — including one touchdown.
Wild game makes new rule
Although the UC Berkeley-Arizona game is unlikely to have any
bowl implications, it will be intriguing to see how these two teams
match up after the wild game in which both teams were involved last
year.
In quadruple overtime, the Golden Bears were 56-55 winners at
Berkeley last year.
The teams combined for 1,254 yards in total offense – including
921 yards passing. Berkeley quarterback Pat Barnes threw for 503
yards and a record eight touchdowns with no interceptions.
The regulation time ended with a score of 45-45. The teams
traded touchdowns in the first two overtimes and failed to score in
the third.
Finally, in the fourth OT, the Bears scored a TD and Arizona was
stopped on its fake extra-point attempt.
Thanks largely to this wild game, the overtime rule has been
changed to force both teams to go for two-point conversions after a
TD beginning in the third overtime.
Compiled by Vytas Mazeika, Daily Bruin Staff.