PAC-12 Football Power Rankings week ending 9/19
Chip Clark
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Every week for the remainder of the college football season, Pacific Northwest Sports will put out our weekly Pac-12 power football rankings. Entering conference play, here’s how the teams stack up.
Conference play begins in earnest this week. Pacific Northwest Sports begins our PAC-12 football power rankings for the 2022 season. We will run this feature through the last bowl game.
Early this season, the Pac-12 suffered some difficult non-conference losses. It’s gotten better over the last two weeks. But there is still a gap to be closed.
Here are our PAC-12 Power Rankings for the week ending September 18, with a Pacific Northwest twist.
12. Colorado Buffaloes (0–3)
Last Game: Another week, another loss for CU. This time the Big Ten got a little payback. Minnesota absolutely crushed the Buffaloes in Minneapolis 49-7. Colorado’s lone score didn’t come until almost halfway through the fourth quarter, when they were down by 7 touchdowns.
This Week: The Buffs host UCLA. It’s a good time for an upset, and Head Coach Karl Dorrell is confident that his team is poised for a turnaround. But that seems unlikely this week.
11. Arizona State Sun Devils (1–2)
Last Game: Things did not go as expected last Saturday. Eastern Michigan chewed up the Sun Devils to 305 rushing yards. ASU couldn’t stop running back Samson Evans. The senior, who never had a 100-yard rushing game in college, carried the ball 36 times for 258 yards and a touchdown.
Sun Devils running back Xazavian Valladay had a good game in his own right, rushing for 127 yards and on 16 carries. Valladay’s big play came in the fourth quarter when he busted through the line and went untouched for a 44-yard touchdown run.
This Week: Arizona State has to be demoralized after suffering an embarrassing home loss to EMU and the subsequent firing of their head coach, Herm Edwards. It’s going to be a bumpy debut for new coach Shaun Aguano. His career begins with a visit from defending Pac-12 champion Utah.