Pac-10 Notebook For 10-27-2006 - College Football News, Tips And Picks

Pac-10 Notebook For 10-27-2006
By Jeff Zell
Posted: 2:00 am PDT 2006-10-27

Washington State has been beaten by its schedule.

Bill Doba's Cougars have beaten the teams they were supposed to, but now have a win worth bragging about after a 34-23 victory over No. 16 Oregon on Saturday.

"We'd still have four games left, but I think a lot of people would be talking about just trying to get to six wins," QB Alex Brink told the Seattle Post Intelligencer on what his team would think if it didn't beat the Ducks. "In the locker room, it's elevated our confidence level even more."

Washington State's three losses have come to three good teams. The opening game 40-14 loss to Auburn looks the worst of the three. But in conference play, Washington State played USC down to the wire, 28-22, and fell to Cal 21-3 two weeks ago.

Washington State is at UCLA this week. The Cougars finish with games against Arizona, Arizona State and Washington. WSU needs a win to be bowl-eligible for the first time since 2003. That year, the Cougars defeated Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns in the Holiday Bowl.

BCS Update: Washington State snuck into the Top 25 of the BCS standings this week with its win over Oregon. The human poll hurt Washington State as it is ranked No. 37 in the USA Today poll, while computers rank it No. 19. The Ducks plummeted from 14 to 23 with the loss. Michigan beat up on Iowa during USC's bye week, dropping USC to the No. 3 spot.

One Stop Short: The Notre Dame Fighting Irish lucked out again, this time over UCLA. The Bruins stuffed a fourth-and-1 from the Notre Dame 35 to get the ball back with 2:25 remaining. Karl Dorrell's squad failed to get a first down, leaving the game in Brady Quinn's hands with 62 seconds remaining. That's never a good sign. "We made them exhaust all their timeouts, but we didn't finish with the first down,"Dorrell told the AP. -We needed one first down to finish the game, and we didn't do that."

Cal Survives: It only seemed like fate that Washington would win in overtime against Cal on Saturday after a Hail Mary pass found its way into Marlon Wood's hands with time expiring. However, Marshawn Lynch got 22 of his 150 rushing yards on one carry in overtime, and Desmond Bishop intercepted Carl Bonnell to seal the 31-24 victory. Lynch's strong effort came on two sprained ankles. It was also his 15th 100-yard game, tying a school record.

A Look Ahead: Week 9 in the Pac-10 has seven teams playing, spotlighted by Washington State at UCLA (UCLA is -1 at WagerWeb.com). ... Oregon State hosts a healthy USC team (Trojans -10.5). ...  Washington likely needs a win at home against Arizona State (ASU -1.5) to put it in place to be bowl-eligible when the Huskies play Stanford in two weeks. ... Oregon tries to bounce back from its loss with a cupcake game against Division I-AA Portland State.

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