Athlon Sports polled Pac-12 football coaches anonymously to get their truthful opinions on each of their conference opponents this season. The results were pretty interesting.
Athlon Sports had this entertaining feature Wednesday in which its editorial staff talked to football coaches up and down the Pac-12 and asked everyone for their frank opinions about each team in the league to put together this anonymous poll.
The idea, of course, is that everyone is more likely to be truthful and less likely to give you generic, boring coach-speak if you allow them to speak freely without attaching their names to their comments.
The main takeaways:
1 — Stanford is everyone’s choice as the team to beat in the Pac-12 North.
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2 — UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen is a big reasons why the Bruins will be the frontrunners in the Pac-12 South.
3 — One consensus is that WSU quarterback Luke Falk is the real deal.
4 — The other consensus is that UW is going to be tough to beat this year.
Here’s a look at the comments these coaches made about the Cougs. Notice how it’s very Falk-centric. There’s no doubt about the fact that WSU is Luke Falk’s team going into 2016, and their fortunes will live or die with his.
“I would predict they’re going to be a good team.”
“Luke Falk is the real deal at quarterback, and they’ve got a ton of good receivers back. Getting Gabe Marks to come back was huge. He’s very productive, hard to cover with one guy.”
“Falk got hurt at the end of the year, and they weren’t the same, but if they can protect that quarterback and keep him healthy, they have a chance to win the division.”
“I just think Falk understands the offense — he’s smart, he’s got a good, quick release. He gets rid of the ball, and those receivers have been with him a couple years so they have good chemistry.”
“They’re always going to throw it a bunch, but they can run the ball when they need to and they’ve got a lot of weapons and different ways to get those guys the ball.”
“They’re underrated defensively. I know they lost a couple interior linemen, but their front seven was one of the best in the league last year and their secondary was really active, really aggressive trying to force turnovers and they didn’t give up very many big plays.”
“[Mike] Leach is a strange bird, but he’s getting it done. He sticks with his system and his system works and those kids have been in it now for a few years, so he just plugs guys in and now he’s got someone who can throw it. He’s got it going now like he did at Texas Tech where they’re not going to be the most talented team in the league, but he’s going to find guys who play with an edge and develop them and get the most out of them.”
Now, here’s a look at the comments made about the Huskies. The praise is more evenly distributed. Jake Browning draws comparisons to Chris Petersen’s former quarterback at Boise State — Kellen Moore. The offensive line and the defense also earned kudos.
“I think this is their year to break through.”
“You look back at them last season, they struggled a little bit on offense, but they were good on defense and the quarterback [Jake Browning] kept getting better and better. I see a lot of similarities with him and the kid they had at Boise, Kellen Moore. He’s really accurate throwing the ball and he’s kind of got the ‘it’ factor.”
“I like the running back and if [John] Ross comes back healthy that gives them an explosive playmaker on the outside they didn’t have last year.” “Their offensive line is experienced. They’ve got a lot of good young pieces and they’re going to have that thing rolling pretty soon. I’m telling you, watch out for them.”
“Their defensive staff did a great job last year. Everybody talked about the guys they lost to the draft, but they plugged in a bunch of new guys and didn’t look back. I think that speaks to the great job they’ve done in recruiting. They’re killing it in California, they came into Arizona and got Byron Murphy who is going to be a big-time corner. They’re getting the good players in the state to stay home so they’re back to where they used to be. The facilities there are good now.”
“[Chris Petersen] has done a really good job pulling everything back together. I think there were some personalities and culture issues they had to root out, so now they’ve gone through the growing pains. They may be a year away from winning the division, but I think they’re going to be a force.”
One thing’s for sure, the Apple Cup could have some Pac-12 title implications this November.