Seattle Post Intelligencer: Pac-10 football loaded for '07

By TED MILLER

Read the entire article here.

 

IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL, USC is here.  And everyone else is here. Or here -- stuck at varying degrees below the Trojans.

<snip>

Meanwhile, California's Nate Longshore figures to hang up huge numbers with perhaps the best receiving corps in the nation. He could join Booty as a Heisman candidate, particularly if the Bears reap vengeance against visiting Tennessee on Sept. 1, or he could help turn receiver DeSean Jackson into one.

<snip>

At Cal, spread guru Mike Dunbar bolted for Minnesota after one season. Offensive line coach Jim Michalczik was promoted to coordinator, but head coach Jeff Tedford will call the plays, as he did his first four seasons in Berkeley.

The runaround: Cal's Marshawn Lynch, who led the Pac-10 in rushing a year ago, entered the NFL draft a year early, but he and Arizona's underachieving Chris Henry are the only two of the conference's top-10 runners who aren't back.

<snip>

PAC-10 SPRING PECKING ORDER

 

1. USC: Loaded Trojans will be preseason No. 1

 

2. CALIFORNIA: Dynamic offense, holes on defense

 

3. UCLA: Just about everyone back from team that beat USC

 

4. OREGON STATE: QB only big question for Beavers

 

5. ARIZONA: If the new spread offense works, Wildcats go bowling

 

6. OREGON: Will Dixon bounce back? Can Stewart stay healthy? And the D?

 

7. ARIZONA STATE: Talent, schedule here for fast turnaround under Erickson.

 

8. WASHINGTON STATE: QB Brink leads solid offense; big questions on defense

 

9. WASHINGTON: Does the Locker Era (and UW rebirth) begin?

 

10. STANFORD: New coach Jim Harbaugh has huge rebuilding project

<snip>

 

CALIFORNIA

2006: 10-3, 7-2 Pac-10

 

SPRING GAME: April 14

 

STARTERS BACK: 8 offense, 5 defense, 2 specialists

 

SPRING ISSUE: The Bears have dynamic talent on offense, but the defense has been gutted of star power, with the loss of cornerback Daymeion Hughes and five of the 2006 front seven.