FanHouse Lyle Moevao

So is this the year someone besides USC wins the Pac-10 title and gains the automatic BCS bowl berth?

If there is ever a year for USC to get chased from behind and caught, this is this year. The Trojans are breaking in a new quarterback in Aaron Corp and replacing several departed starters to the NFL draft.

So who's it going to be? Cal? Can the Golden Bears overcome early-season trap games and win the games they are supposed to and make it interesting? Can Oregon beat USC at home and win difficult road games and take the title? And how about Oregon State? Do Mike Riley teams always have to start 1-3 before getting into high gear?

And what about the rest of the field? Is this Stanford's breakout year? Is UCLA ready to become a Pac-10 factor again? And is Arizona really the third worst team in the conference as it was picked by the media? These are all intriguing questions that will be worked out in the coming weeks.

Our standings preview and records predictions are after the jump.

LOS ANGELES -- USC was picked to win the Pac-10 football title for the seventh consecutive year by the media, and yet the coaches from all nine competitors -- including Arizona's Mike Stoops (right) and even USC coach Pete Carroll -- touched on the uncertainty of the Trojans this season.

USC received 28 of the 32 votes with California receiving three while third-place Oregon collected one vote. The Trojans will be breaking in a new quarterback and several new defenders since 11 players were taken in the NFL Draft. Perhaps this is the year another school emerges and takes the crown out of Los Angeles, but they approached Thursday precariously and with respect. There were no declarations that USC is going down or the reign is over -- not even from UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel.

College Football Spring Storylines 2009 looks at the key developments and big news from spring ball.

Since 2002, the Pac-10 has been derisively called USC and the nine dwarves. Its more than a little unfair, but that's the prevailing wisdom. Although the conference is consistently among the deepest and most competitive around, USC's monopolized that top spot. Any chance of that changing this year begins with decisions those programs make this spring.

With their 65-38 win over the Oregon State Beavers tonight, the Oregon Ducks became heroes to a lot of people in some far-flung places. Boise, Idaho is one of those places, as well as Columbus, Ohio, and a lot of other locales in Big Ten country.

The Ducks left little doubt about who was the better team tonight, rolling up almost 700 yards of offense. Two guys named Jeremiah were at the center of it all. Running back Jeremiah Johnson ran for over 200 yards, while quarterback Jeremiah Masoli passed for 277 more, including three touchdowns. Not even 13 penalties against them could slow down the Ducks.

The loss ends Oregon State's hopes of making it to the Rose Bowl. That's unfortunate. Beaver quarterback Lyle Moevao was as brilliant tonight as he has been all season long, passing for five touchdowns against two interceptions. Throw in two lost fumbles and a Duck offense playing completely over the moon and it's not hard to figure out how Oregon wound up winning so convincingly.

Now Southern Cal will head to the Rose Bowl to face Penn State in a matchup that absolutely no one outside of LA or State College will be looking forward to. Oh, and there's a BCS at-large slot open now.

Just two days before a big game with Oregon State, Joe Paterno announced tonight that three Penn State football players have been suspended for this weekend's game (he didn't say why, but you can connect the dots yourself), while another has been kicked off the team for that all too familiar "undisclosed violation of team rules." I'm pretty sure this makes Penn State your early season Fulmer Cup leader, in case you're keeping track at home.

Backup DB Willie Harriott is now an ex-Lion. While no official reason was given, his departure may be related to a November arrest for DUI and speeding. No team wants to lose depth at any position, but the overall impact of Harriott's departure should be minimal.

Of far more concern, at least for this week, is the suspension of defensive linemen Maurice Evans and Abe Koroma, both key contributors to the Lions defense, as well as tight end Andrew Quarless (pictured above right). All three are significant contributors to the team, though only Evans and Koroma are starters. But how much will the Nits miss these three guys?

If Mediocrity had a football team, its mascot would most likely wear a giant foam Mike Stoops head

Ahhh, mediocre college football. Three words that go together like turkey, gravy, and stuffing.

While the majority of space here at FanHouse and on every other college football publication will be focused on the Top 25, season after season a huge slice of the college football fan pie (mmmm...fan pie) find themselves supporting a team who would most aptly be described as thoroughly mediocre, at best. I'd venture to guess that for every legit contender, there are probably three teams with a couple of flaws so glaring that only those blinded by the partisanship of homerdom can pretend their team's downsides won't inevitably sabotage any hopes of playing in a bowl of even moderate respectability.

And therein lies one of the most cruel realities of the college football landscape: winning 6 or 7 games is no small feat, and yet every year coaches and players around the country will be abused for achieving that very milestone. Of course, when you play in a conference like the Pac 10 -- who rewards its third place finisher with a December 31 game in El Paso's Sun Bowl -- can you really be that surprised when fans and pundits are critical of barely topping out above .500?

Who from the Pac 10 will slide to the middle of the pack in 2008? Here's a quick rundown of the leading candidates for Pacific time zone mediocrity this season.

Just when it looked like Sean Canfield was putting away the starting QB job, challenger Lyle Moevao got things rolling late in yesterday's spring game. The White team's rally against the Black team fell short, as Canfield led his side to a 20-14 win over Moevao's squad.

Overall Canfield put up his best performance yet in scrimmage situations, hitting on 17-of-30 for 224 yards and a score, with one interception. Moevao started slow as his side fell behind 20-0 before rallying for a couple of late scores to make things interesting. Moevao finished 13-for-28 for 168 yards, including a TD pass, and showed his competitive side that coaches love:

"I wish we would have had 10 more minutes," lamented Moevao, talking about a White team comeback from a 20-0 deficit. "I would have been on a roll. . . . I was getting all the guys together for our red ball (two-minute offense)."

After a drizzly scrimmage number two yesterday in Corvallis, the biggest question of Beaver spring ball is still without an answer - who will be the starting QB? At this point, it's too close to call, as Sean Canfield nor Lyle Moevao have separated themselves as the clear-cut number one guy.

Canfield was six-for-12 with 65 yards passing, but the biggest thing for him was leading the offense down the field on a 16-play, 70-yard scoring drive to get the scrimmage started. However Moevao was an efficient four-for-six passing for 109 yards and a 70-yard scoring drive of his own. But it must be noted that 65 of those passing yards for Moevao came on a short pass that turned into a long run by young tight-end Brady Camp, who came up one yard short of a spectacular TD.

Overall the best surprise of the second scrimmage of the spring was the improved play of the tight ends. Many descriptions after the first scrimmage had the offense out of synch, but the group of young tight ends in the race for playing time looked a bit overwhelmed. But Brady Camp yesterday was just one highlight, and four of the six candidates for the tight end spot had catches yesterday.