By
Ryan Finley
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Conference hopes to win games, regain reputation
After a disastrous 1999, a season in which only one team - Oregon - won a bowl game, the Pacific 10 Conference is hoping to reestablish itself as one of the nation's premier football divisions.
The Pac-10 - which continues to call itself the "Conference of Champions"- must now recapture the respect and allegiance of a skeptical national football community.
Only through aggressive scheduling, clutch performances, and individual accomplishments can the Pac-10 return to the position of prominence it once occupied.
According to UA Athletic Director Jim Livengood, the league's reputation following last season's disappointments was unfairly tarnished.
"I think it was absolutely undeserved," he said. "(The Pac-10) had a down year. We just didn't play well. We might not get all the way back this year, but, I'll tell you what, this conference can play good football."
Mike McHugh, Oregon's Director of Football Operations, agreed.
"While our record indicated that some of it was deserved, don't judge it on one year," he said. "(The Pac-10) is right up there with everybody else. We're not dead and out of the water like some commentators would say. We have a good schedule."
While Southern California's 24-5 victory against Penn State on Sunday saved the conference from another black eye, it's clear that 2000 will be a make-or-break year in the eyes of the national media.
The teams
According to Livengood, USC's victory against the Nittany Lions was a step in the right direction.
"With Penn State, they don't rebuild as much as they reload," Livengood said. "They were a very different Penn State team (Sunday), but it was obvious that USC just pounded them. They're still Penn State."
Returning starting quarterback Carson Palmer, running back Sultan McCullough and linebacker Zeke Moreno make the Trojans one the teams to beat in the Pac-10 this season.
"USC sure looked good on TV," California offensive coordinator Steve Hagen said.
Rob Ianello, UA's wide receiver coach, agreed.
"They showed yesterday that they are going to be talented," he said. "They have a lot of confidence."
Washington, which represented the conference in the Holiday Bowl last season, should also compete for the title.
Second-year starting quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo leads a Husky team that finished second in the conference in rushing last season.
Overall, the Trojans and Huskies have the best chance of representing the Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl.
"USC and Washington are right there," McHugh said. "But with USC having played and beaten a formidable opponent, (the Trojans) have an advantage."
With the exception of both teams occupying the top two spots in preseason polls, the rest of the conference appears to be up in the air.
In four of the past seven seasons, the team that represented the conference in the Rose Bowl was predicted to finish sixth or lower in the preseason polls.
According to Livengood, the conference is as much of an enigma as ever.
"This is as wide open as the Pac-10 has ever been," he said. "Everybody's looking to Washington and USC, but I don't think that there's a team out there that's a definite favorite."
The players
If the conference is going to return to prominence, it will have to do so on the shoulders of a handful of individual players.
Tuiasosopo, who became the first player in NCAA Division-I history to pass for 300 yards and run for 200 yards against Stanford last season, is one of the conference's premier players.
"He has all the athletic ability and leadership," McHugh said. "How he rallies his team and is a leader helps. He played just a perfect game against us last season."
Arizona's Ortege Jenkins will also be one of the conference's leading players as he helped lead UA to its best offensive season in school history in 1999 and should electrify football fans this season.
Seemingly cut from the same cloth as the athletic Tuiasosopo, Jenkins enters his first season outside of a platoon situation.
Sophomore California quarterback Kyle Boler should impress Pac-10 fans this season as well. While the Wildcats do not play the Golden Bears this season, Hagen is quick to praise his quarterback.
"He's my quarterback," the Cal offensive coordinator said. "He's just great."
Either way, the conference's players will have to reach the forefront of national prominence somehow - not since Marcus Allen of USC won the Heisman Trophy in 1981 has a Pac-10 player won the country's most revered award.
Rebuilding the reputation
Most pundits became critical of the conference last season following embarrassing losses to teams from other conferences.
Penn State embarrassed UA, 41-7, last season, while Stanford, the conference's Rose Bowl representative, lost 69-17 to Texas and dropped a 44-39 game to lowly San Jose State.
This season, however, the conference has a chance to right itself.
Southern Cal's defeat of Penn State helped bring some respectability back, but aggressive out-of-conference scheduling will show whether or not the West Coast's teams can compete with the nation's top football programs.
The Wildcats host perennial powerhouse Ohio State, Washington hosts Miami (Fla.), and Oregon travels to Wisconsin - all on Sept. 9.
According to Livengood, aggressive non-conference scheduling is the best way to rebuild a reputation tarnished by embarrassing losses.
"What all the prognosticators are saying is totally untrue," he said. "(The conference) just needs to play a good non-conference schedule. Oregon-Wisconsin, Miami-Washington, and (Arizona)-Ohio State - all will be great games."
Should the "Conference of Champions" prevail in any of the three games, the Pac-10 will likely improve its reputation among national football fans.
UA head coach Dick Tomey is intent on repairing the conference's lost reputation.
"We just need to show them that the Pac-10 is not as people saw it last year," he said.
Livengood agreed.
"People on the East Coast don't get a chance to see a lot of your games," he said. "Still, I like (the conference's) chances (to return to prominence). It's still the 'Conference of Champions'. Whether it's the conference of football champions, we don't know yet."
Neither does the rest of the nation.
