After most Pac-10 teams opened the season last week, its easy to see that USC's a little better and Washington's a little worse than most people thought. But how about the reworked Arizona team, who's Oregon's starting QB, and what's a Price-less life looking like in Pullman? And who's Vince Young? Let's find out...

(This is the second in a series of columns that will look at Cal, it's upcoming opponent and each of the teams in the Pac-10 - primarily by picking out elements that stood out from the previous week's box scores and statistics of both the team involved and its prospective opponent.)

	Colorado State (0-1)	This Week: at California (1-0)
		Last Week: L, 42-35 vs. Colorado
	Key Stat: Bradlee Van Pelt, 339 yards passing, 77 yards rushing vs. Colorado
	How will Colorado State follow up its emotional rollercoaster of a game against its instate rival? Van Pelt had the game of his life last week, and as talented as he is, it's hard to imagine him repeating the performance. Last year the Rams threw for more than 250 yards three times - against Louisville, Nevada, and San Diego State.  Last Saturday, Colorado State had 4 scoring plays of more than 30 yards - which could be bad news if the Bears bring the defense that was repeatedly torched by Kansas State.  The Ram defense can get beat by the long pass, as they surrendered TD passes of 82, 78, 45, and 10 yards. The defense ended the first half by giving up 4 TDs in consecutive possessions, but made the Buffaloes punt on seven of their first eight 2nd half possessions.

	Arizona (1-0)	This Week: vs. Louisiana State (1-0), TBS - 7 p.m.
		Last Week:  W, 42-7 vs. Texas El Paso
	Key Stat: New OC + New DC = 446 yards, 42 points, and a first-half shutout.
	After last year's near-mutiny, Arizona head coach John Mackovic replaced both coordinators, and after one game, albeit against a likely WAC doormat, so far, so good.  The Wildcats, who averaged 43 yards a game rushing last year, ran for 217 yards against the Miners. UTEP's lone touchdown came on an interception return. The game was over early as Arizona led 35-0 and gained nearly 300 yards by halftime.  LSU which is expected to contend for the SEC West title along with Georgia and Alabama, didn't break a sweat in beating Louisiana-Monroe 49-7 last Saturday. LSU continues their tough preseason schedule when they host Western Illinois next week.

	Arizona State (8-6 2002, 5-3 Pac 10)	This Week: vs. Northern Arizona, (1-0)
		Last Week: IDLE
	Key stat: The Sun Devils face the top-rated QB (in Division I-AA) in the country on Saturday
	Arizona State is the second Pac-10 team to open with a Division I-AA school. The Sun Devils face Northern Arizona and their freshman quarterback Jason Murrietta who went 16-of-21 for 287 yards against St. Mary's last week.

	Oregon (1-0)	This Week: vs. Nevada, (1-0)
		Last Week:  W, 42-34 at Mississippi St.
	Key stat: Kellen Clemens 14-of-21 for 247 yards, Jason Fife 8-of-8, 111 yards.
	Mississippi State led the SEC in pass defense, but that has to be taken with a grain of salt because a) most teams were able to run at will against them and didn't need to pass and b) strong SEC passing attacks were few and far between last year.  Oregon blitzed the Bulldogs, jumping out to a 28-0 first quarter lead. In the early season, Oregon's going to rotate QBs, Clemens opened up going 7-of-8 for 183 yards in the first quarter before being replace by Fife who promptly led the Ducks to another score.  With Saturday's game, the Duck defense has given up more than 30 points in 8 of their last 9 games. Nevada encountered considerable difficulty in beating I-AA Southern Utah 24-23 last weekend.

	Oregon State (1-0)	This Week: at Fresno State, (0-1), Friday ESPN - 4 p.m.
		Last Week: W, 40-7 vs. Sacramento State,
	Key fact: Why?
	There's no stat or fact that can come from Oregon State's trouncing of I-AA Sacramento State that will shed any insight into how the Beavers will do the rest of the year.  Usually the worst that can happen is that someone hopelessly pads their stats in a game like this and ends up atop the NCAA statistical leaders for a couple of weeks.  Fresno State wasn't able to do much of anything in its trip to Tennessee last week - the punt team did get a good workout though, with 11 kicks.

	Stanford (2-9 2002, 1-7 Pac 10)	This Week: vs. San Jose State, (1-1)
		Last Week: IDLE
	Key stat: Two
	San Jose State's played two games this year - a big win against Grambling and a shellacking at the hands of Florida. With two games under their belt, they'll have a little bit more game readiness than the Cardinal, although it's hard to say exactly what benefit comes from chasing Gator WRs through the secondary all afternoon.  While the Cardinal haven't played a game yet - aside from the UC Davis scrimmage - they'll need a good showing on Saturday to keep their spirits up - their next three games are away, at BYU, Washington, and USC.

	UCLA (8-5 2002, 4-4 Pac 10)	This Week: vs. Colorado, (1-0), ABC - 12:30 p.m.
		Last Week: IDLE
	Key stat: The Colorado pass rush: 40 pass attempts, 1 sack
	The Bruins should be eager to take a crack at the "kick-me" defense that Colorado tried to put up against Colorado State last Saturday. The Buffaloes couldn't stop the run and couldn't stop the pass. Colorado State's five TD drives were Autobahn-quality: 8 plays for 81 yards, 4 plays for 82 yards, 2 plays for 41 yards, 8 plays for 74 yards, and 3 plays for 38 yards. UCLA's offense won't be nearly as potent as Colorado State's; but with new offensive coordinator Steve Axman having helped shepherd Washington's Cody Pickett to a Pac-10 record 4,458 yards last year, the Bruins should have a new wrinkle or two.

	USC (1-0)	This Week: vs. BYU (1-0), ABC - 5 p.m.
		Last Week:  W, 23-0 at Auburn
	Key Stat: Auburn - 62 plays, 164 yards.
	Auburn was returning their starting QB, top four running backs, and four out of five starting offensive linemen; they play in one of the nation's toughest conferences, and there was no reason for anyone to think that USC would throttle them last Saturday. The heralded Cadillac Williams was limited to 40 yards, and Jason Campbell was 12-of-26 for 121 yards and was sacked 6 times for -46 yards. The net passing effort of 75 yards in 32 plays was even worse than the net rushing effort of 89 yards in 30 plays.  The Trojans will be a tough team to beat this year if their offense is marginally functional. This Saturday, USC's Mike Williams (8 c, 104 yds. vs. Auburn) will be matched up against BYU corners who are listed at 6-2 and 6-2, denying him his usual 5-inch height advantage against his counterparts.

	Washington (0-1)	This Week: vs. Indiana (0-1), FSN - 1 p.m.
		Last Week: L, 28-9, at Ohio State
	Key Stat: 257 to 76
	If one looked at the box score after the Washington-OSU game, one might have thought that the Huskies played the Buckeyes fairly even - the yardage broke down 345-262 in favor of Ohio State, and Washington punted 10 times compared to Ohio State's 9. Don't believe it. In the first half, the Buckeyes had two long touchdown drives and took advantage of a short Husky punt.   Washington punted on its first six possessions and had time expire on its seventh, at which point they were trailing 21-0. Of their 262 yards, the Huskies gained 130 of them in the fourth quarter.  The Huskies should get better this weekend against an Indiana team which is on the threshold of implosion - losing 34-10 at Connecticut and giving up over 500 yards was a disastrous way to open the season. The Hoosiers only chance of avoiding an 0-11 season will come next week when they host the mighty Sycamores of Indiana State.

	Washington State (1-0)	Next Week:  at Notre Dame (0-0), NBC - 11:30 a.m.
		Last Week:  W, 25-0, vs. Idaho
	Key Stat: Four FGs, 13-of-23 passing for 127 yards
	Idaho's finished last in the Sun Belt Conference the last two years and are a solid choice to make it three straight, due largely to a porous defense. Yet the Cougars were somehow forced into kicking four field goals as drives stalled on the 29, 25, 12 and 18 yard lines. QB Matt Kegel was used conservatively as Washington State ran for 339 yards; but even against a bad team, averaging less then 10 yards a completion isn't very good.  By comparison, the Cougars' lowest passing yardage total in 2002 was 239 yards.  Although the two schools are just miles apart, last Saturday's game was played in Seattle and drew a very respectable crowd of 50,113.

	Great Googly Moogly #1	Texas QB Vince Young vs. New Mexico St.
		5 carries, 61 yards, 2 TD; 1-for-1 passing, 60 yards
	Great Googly Moogly is an expression used by Grady (played by Whitman Mayo) on Sanford and Son, when he couldn't find any other words to describe a situation.
	OK, OK, it was against a tired, not very deep New Mexico State team that was in the middle of being blasted 66-7, but freshman QB Vince Young had one of the most ridiculous debuts of any freshman in the country. First of all, at 6-5, 225, he's bigger than the usual QB. Add in quick feet, elusiveness, a rocket arm, and he's what you're trying to accomplish when you're in create-a-player mode on the Playstation. He made his debut in the fourth quarter, and managed to lead the team in rushing for the game while running for two TDs and complete his only one pass - which was a 60-yard rocket.  All this in two possessions which lasted nine plays. While calls to make him to starting QB are premature - it was against a bad and beaten team - if you're looking for a frontrunner in the "next Michael Vick" sweepstakes, he's in Austin and he wears #10.

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