QUICK HITS
THE BEST.. AROUND: After 3 top 25 matchups last week, the Pac-12 has 6 teams in this week’s AP Top 25, the 4th straight week with at least 6 teams in the rankings. The conference is home to 4 teams in the Top 10 this week, the most in conference history.
4 and OH!: The Pac-12 has 5 teams entering this week at 4-0, the first time in conference history that has happened. The last time the conference had 4 teams start 4-0 was in 2017. The Pac-12 is one of 2 conferences this season to have at least 5 teams start 4-0 and the only 12-team conference to do it in last the last 10 years.
PSYCHED WARD: After leading Washington State to its 6th 4-0 start in the last 90 years, QB Cameron Ward racked up a bevy of national awards including the Maxwell Award Player of the Week, Walter Camp Offensive Player of the Week, Davey O’Brien QB of the Week, Reese’s Senior Bowl Offensive Player of the Week as well as the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award. Ward was 28-of-34 passing for 404 yards and 4 touchdowns in the air while adding another score on the ground. It’s the 2nd time this season he’s topped 400 yards passing and the 2nd straight week with 4 passing TD.
Ward becomes the 1st Pac-12 quarterback since at least 1996 to reach 1,300 pass yards (1,394) with 13 pass TD and 0 INT through their team’s first 4 games. He’s just the 5th Power 5 QB to reach those numbers in that span, joining Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa (2019), Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield (2017), West Virginia’s Geno Smith (2012) and Purdue’s Kyle Orton (2004). The Washington State QB has the most pass attempts without an interception in FBS this season (141), 1 of just 7 FBS QBs to have 100+ attempts without an INT this season.
He also earned the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week, becoming the 4th different QB to win that award in the first 4 weeks.
JONAH’s WHALE OF A GAME: Utah DE Jonah Elliss was honored nationally as the Walter Camp Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in a 14-7 win over UCLA. Elliss totaled 10 tackles with 5 TFL and 3.5 sacks in a dominant performance. The sack total is the most by a Pac-12 player since Arizona’s Kylan Wilborn had 4.0 against UCLA in 2017 and the most by a Ute since Hunter Dimick had a school-record 5.0 sacks against Arizona State in 2016.
CAMPBELL SEMIFINALISTS: The William V. Campbell Trophy, college football’s “premier scholar-athlete award”, named its 201 semifinalists for the 2023 award with 9 of the Pac-12 schools making the list. The last Pac-12 student-athlete to win this award was Oregon QB Justin Herbert in 2019.
WEEK SIX: Game times and TV networks announced this week:
Saturday, October 7th
– Oregon, Stanford, Utah, Washington bye weeks
