Legends’ Take: Oregon, Stanford best of Pac-12

Stanford became the first Pac-12 team to crack the top 5 of the Scripps Legends Poll this week. On Monday’s teleconference, the Legends Coaches discussed the state of the Pac-12 five weeks into the season.

Don James: Thursday night Oregon has California at Oregon and they’re a three-and-a-half touchdown favorite. I’ve seen California and Oregon and I can’t believe now that anybody’s going to get close to Oregon in our league. They appear to be the best with Stanford. The thing that scares me a little bit about Stanford is they’re starting to become a running team and not using Luck a whole lot, in passing which is his strength. His strength is running around, actually running the ball and throwing the ball. I’d like to see them open up and using more of the passing game because I think they’re going to need it down the road.

Moderator: What are you thoughts on Arizona State and USC?

James: Arizona State, they’ve got some talent. You’re just never sure which team’s going to show. I don’t see USC as a strong team. The quarterback finally had a good game, but their defense isn’t what it used to be.

Terry Donahue: I agree with Don. I think the two best teams in the league are Oregon and Stanford. I’ve seen them both play in person. And Arizona State, I’ve seen them play, as well. I would rank those teams kind of in that order, Oregon, Stanford, and Arizona State. And I’m not sure that Stanford won’t beat Oregon. Stanford is a very good team and surprisingly a much more physical and much tougher team than years past. I think Jim Harbaugh brought a change of attitude and change of culture to that program and I think it’s continued under David Shaw.

The thing about Oregon, Oregon doesn’t appear to me to be as good defensively as they were a year ago. I thought last year they had kind of an underrated defense and were a pretty good defensive football team. I thought that helped them win some games and their offense gets all the notoriety. But I was impressed with their defensive team. This year, I’m not as impressed with their defensive team. I’m more impressed with Stanford’s defensive team. Although I think Stanford has really suffered from the loss of Skove, their outstanding linebacker and emotional team leader on defense. That’s affected them, but I think Stanford’s got the best group of tight ends that I’ve seen in the country. I don’t think I’ve seen a team either on television or in person that can rank with Stanford in terms that they’ve got probably four tight ends. One plays fullback for them, but he’s really a tight end. But they play a different kind of game that a lot of teams don’t see right now. They run a power running game, they run an off tackle play 50 times, it seems like, from different formations and unbalanced and all this other stuff. I do agree with Don I think at some point in a game with Oregon you’re going to have to put a lot of points on the board to play with Oregon because it isn’t time of possession because Oregon will score in two minutes. One minute or less, it doesn’t matter. And if you put points on the board and you’re behind, time of possession doesn’t help you that much. So, I don’t know, I think that Andrew Luck is a really talented player and I do agree with Don that at some point their throwing game is going to have to help them win a couple of big games this year.

Donahue: Yeah, the tight ends are spectacular from Stanford. And when I say spectacular they’re big, physical, rugged guys and they can catch, they’re athletic as they can be. I would say, for sure, that two of them and probably three of the four will be playing in professional football.

John Ralston: I think this is not a good Stanford team; it’s a great Stanford team.

Moderator: What’s the vibe about Arizona State in Tempe?

Frank Kush: Well, in my opinion, being at all the games, they do not have the talent. And, again, I think their inconsistency is attributed to their lack of physical capabilities and I think they mentally – defensively they could be one of the best teams in the country, but offensively, just because – well, let’s take the poor quarterback, he’s just inconsistent in his technique. So, attribute it to that. He does have great foot quickness. So, again, he could look good one minute and then look like a nickel/dimer, well, maybe a nickel/penny the next couple of seconds. But I would say the best team that I’ve seen in the Pac-12 is Stanford.

Moderator: Do you like Stanford better than Oregon?

Kush: Well, Oregon to me has just done a commendable job as far as getting the maximum out of what they have from the standpoint of talent. I would say, that’d be a hell of a game between Stanford and Oregon.

Moderator: Do you think that more Pac-10 teams should schedule Boise State? Wouldn’t that benefit both sides?

James: I think our coaches and AD’s are too smart for that. You don’t want to play Boise State out there, I guarantee that. As Terry said, the stadium is not big, they’ve got the blue carpet and they’re good. They’re a little bit like Fresno. Every three or four weeks they could play the best team in the country and compete with them, but not every week.

(Image courtesy of Flickr, PalmerJZ)

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