Best Teams of the Pac-12 Era
WoolleyDoog
Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 2,569
As the resident shitty Jon Wilner with no outlet anymore to share my Pac-12 autistic lists and the conference winding down, everyone asked for me to put some listicles to debate in the offseason here from the era 2011-2023.
Let's start with best teams:
- 2023 Washington - There's a conversation about the Top 3 in my opinion. I give the edge to DeBoer's boys because of the Herculean accomplishment of running the table in the Pac-12 plus a championship game rematch. I think 2016 UW might be more talented (particularly on D) and 2014 Oregon has that blowout win over Florida State and both have a usual margin of victory advantage I just really think 23 UW needs to be recognized for what they did, and in what was hyped up as like the best Pac ever.
2. 2014 Oregon - It's almost eerie how similar things ended for 23 UW and 14 Oregon in the first and last of the final four against the only Big 10 teams to win it both losing by 20 plus in games everyone forgets or acts like weren't one-possession games in the fourth with both their star QBs getting banged up and struggling down the stretch. Dinged for losing to Arizona at home. Points for blowing out Florida State in the Rose Bowl.
3. 2016 Washington - Maybe the most complete team of this era. They ran up against a historically great Bama defense in the CFP and an ultra talented USC team took them out and exposed Cobra Jack's weaknesses.
4. 2012 Oregon - I will always say this is actually the best Oregon team of all-time (better than 2014) they just ran into maybe Stanford's best team of all-time who was due to beat them. They had Chip over Helfrich here but also Mariota was only a freshman and they might have been lifted up by a historically shitty Pac-12.
5. 2012 Stanford - Oregon gets the edge for not starting the season like ass and losing to Sark and UW in the Clink because they started the wrong QB. This team was frightening by the end of the season.
6. 2016 USC - How do you put them below UW when they beat them? You have to consider the full season in college football and USC started terribly. Beating SaQuon and Penn State in the Rose Bowl with Darnold taking flight made them probably the third best team at the end of the season and they could have been competitive against Bama or Clemson. Like 2012 Stanford, started the wrong QB to start the season.
7. 2015 Stanford - Another weird slow starting team who lost to Northwestern somehow then were super close to making the CFP. Bonus points for knowing how legit McCaffrey really was.
8. 2011 USC - Slow starts slow starts slow starts. This team was a wagon with Matt Barkley, Matt Kalil and Robert Woods and Marqise Lee late in the season. They were sanctioned or would have done damage in a bowl game.
9. 2011 Oregon - Having Chip Kelly and De'Anthony Thomas makes this team almost scarier than 2014 Oregon to me. Having Darron Thomas instead of Mariota limits them though.,
10. 2011 Stanford - How did this team lose to Okie State? Wait…Okie State damn near ran the table that year.
Honorable Mentions
2019 Oregon, 2022 Washington, 2023 Oregon, 2021 Utah, 2018 Washington
Comments
teams 7-10 kind of blur into the memory so I’ll just ask it this way: 2022 Washington vs any of them?
Can you follow up with a bottom 10 teams of the PAC-12 era?
Yeah and thankfully I don't think an UW teams make it.
I think 2022 plays with any of these teams and could easily beat them.
Fun hypothetical (ILTDIHTWILTD), how far does 2022 go with Nacua and Latu?
That’s a pretty shitty list tbh. No natty fucking loser conference. Good riddance.
I think it's the same with or without but much more likely with. I think their ceiling if their had been a 12-team playoff was losing to Georgia in the championship. They have a much better seed if they have them.
This is true. I don't know think any of these teams crack a Top 10 of the conference all-time. No one was within 20 points of winning a title. Only one ran the table in years the conference had a lot of struggles.
I mean, if it avoids 1 loss then it plays USC in the P12 title game, beats USC and then goes to the playoff, which puts it Top 4 on this list. Nacua wouldn't avoid a loss but Latu might have.
USC entered Champ week #4 in the CFP, with tOSU 11-1 at #5 and not playing for the B1G. #3 TCU lost, so had #6 11-1 Washington beaten #4 11-1 USC we probably get to #3 ahead of TCU, and then TCU gets slaughtered by Georgia and we play Michigan in the Fiesta.
Also might have been enough to win Penix the Heisman this year since he would have been more nationally known.
Well at least we aren’t TCU!
I think we definitely win the UCLA game with Latu on this end and not harassing Penix. May beat ASU with those two as well.
The downside to this hypothetical is I'm not sure everyone comes back for 2023 in that event. But I think 2022 could have very easily been national runner up with those two guys still here.
Good list. Two things.
Marquis Lee was indeed fucking balls in college and I thought he would be a perennial pro bowler in the NFL. USC, even under Pete, has produced a sneak-long list of guys who looked like world beaters in college whose game just didn't translate to the NFL. They've produced the good kind as well; so don't twist and lose respect. But a lot of vaunted players, especially from Pete's earlier teams, just didn't work out in the league. BMW is a classic example of a guy who absolutely throttled everybody in college and did shit in the NFL. But I digress and am being a bit disrespectful.
The Nose Picker - a criminally underrated passer. Serviceable enough carrying the ball, but a very accurate and clutch passer. He fucking destroyed the Stanford Harbaughs in Palo when Jimbo really had those guys rolling. Nobody ever talks about him or really remembers him, but I always thought he was a good QB.
remember when you guys went 0-12
In the Pac 10
The downside to this hypothetical is I'm not sure everyone comes back for 2023 in that event. But I think 2022 could have very easily been national runner up with those two guys still here.
I’ll see your hypothetical and raise it.
If the 2022 team makes the playoffs and those guys go to the NFL, is Fats still coaching at UW?
*I tried quoting @dnc but Vanilla sucks donkey dicks and doesn’t appreciate characters.
What was ASU's best season: 8-5 Herm Edwards in 2019 or 8-5 Herm Edwards in 2021?
Only the cougs remember.
Jake The Snake in the Rose Bowl.
If you're going Pac 10 it is John Cooper winning the Rose Bowl and heading to Ohio State
Pac 12 era it was their 2013 team where Norvell was the OC, they won their division and then got their asses kicked by Stanford at home before they did neutral site championship games.