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After last Saturday's wild finish, Arizona is happy to have more time to celebrate and California is glad to be playing again soon.
Arizona rallied for an improbable 49-45 victory in Tucson by scoring 36 points in the fourth quarter, ending with a play that will remembered in Wildcat lore as the "Hill Mary" — Austin Hill's catch of Anu Solomon's desperation pass for a 47-yard touchdown.
Coaches always talk about moving on from the previous game after 24 hours, but Arizona's Rich Rodriguez granted his team 48 hours — or "maybe 52 hours," he clarified — to enjoy the victory. That would mean celebrating until about 3 a.m. Tuesday, so the Wildcats may or may not have used all of the available time.
Arizona's next game is Oct. 2 at Oregon. Cal, meanwhile, hosts Colorado on Saturday. "The good thing about football is you really don't have time to wallow in your own self-pity," said Cal coach Sonny Dykes. "Our guys got over it."
The Bears lost even after taking a 31-13 lead into the fourth quarter and scoring 14 more points. As for the final play, Dykes said he'd like to do "a million things" differently, mainly keeping Solomon in the pocket instead of allowing him to roll out and launch the pass.
Arizona practices the play every Thursday, Rodriguez said, but never against a defense, because all the jostling for the ball could result in injuries. "It's always uncontested, so it better work," he said.
Clarity in the South?
The Pac-12's series of Thursday intra-conference games begins this week with UCLA at Arizona State. The game may help determine an early favorite in the South division race, although it's likely to take a long time for any team to genuinely emerge. Next week's schedule of ASU at USC and Utah at UCLA also will provide some answers.
UCLA would appear to have an edge Thursday, considering ASU quarterback Taylor Kelly has been ruled out with a foot injury. Brett Hundley reportedly has practiced after missing part of UCLA's victory over Texas with an elbow injury. ASU coach Todd Graham is confident that veteran backup Mike Bercovici can fill in well for Kelly, while relying heavily on running back D.J. Foster.
Two-loss semifinalist?
Stanford returns to Pac-12 play this week at Washington, having already lost a conference game to USC. Cardinal coach David Shaw already is wondering how the College Football Playoff committee would treat a two-loss team from the Pac-12, considering a "hellacious" nine-game conference schedule.
"That, to me, is going to determine where this playoff goes," Shaw said.
If such a test case occurs this season, Shaw believes it will affect the future of the nine-game schedule. Having the Pac-12 shut out of the semifinals with a two-loss champion likely would make coaches and athletic directors advocate an eight-game schedule, he said. But if such a team is rewarded, that would validate the nine-game plan.
Causing own problems
Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday shredded Oregon's defense, even though the Ducks salvaged a 38-31 victory. Oregon coach Mark Helfrich blamed his defense's misalignment and mistakes for about 200 of WSU's 499 total yards. "That's simple stuff," he said.
That's also the challenge of facing WSU's "Air Raid" scheme, with receivers spread across the field.