Going, going … gone?

Everybody seems to agree that coach Rick Neuheisel is going to be the next Pac-12 coach to be fired, after his Bruins were embarrassed in a nationally televised 36-point loss to Arizona last week.

Everybody except Neuheisel, anyway.

"I've made it clear to everybody I work for, I'm not going to give up," he told The Associated Press. "There is absolutely zero in the way of a throw-up-your-hands-type mentality if you're asking about me and anybody that works for me. I am committed. I am still as positive as ever. This is nothing more than camouflaged opportunity, and we are going to find a way to get this thing done right."

Scant evidence it can happen, though.

The Bruins are 18-26 in four seasons under Neuheisel — 3-4 this year — and in that time they have never beaten a league opponent that has gone on to finish the season with a winning record.

Game of the week

They say the USC Trojans don't have anything to play for, banned from the postseason for all their rules violations.

Yet here comes Stanford.

There might not be a team in the whole country that the Trojans would love to run off the field more when they meet on Saturday, after what the Cardinal did to them in their last two visits to the L.A. Coliseum.

Four years ago, the Cardinal used a backup quarterback making his first start to stun the Trojans 24-23 as 41-point underdogs and herald their transformation from doormat to powerhouse under coach Jim Harbaugh. Two years ago, they blasted the Trojans 55-21 — their worst loss in 44 years. The Cardinal scored four touchdowns in the fourth quarter, needlessly attempted a two-point conversion, and effectively ended an era of USC dominance under coach Pete Carroll, who soon beat the damning infractions report out of town.

Now under new coach David Shaw, the Cardinal are ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25 and riding a 15-game winning streak behind quarterback Andrew Luck and a relentless running game that punished Washington for a school-record 446 yards last week.

"It's a very abnormal situation," USC coach Lane Kiffin said. "I don't think very often — if ever — do you have a quarterback who's one of the best to ever play the game … yet they're a running football team. That usually doesn't happen. That's why they're so good."

Under the yellow flag

Conference of champions?

Maybe the Pac-12 should call itself the conference of penalties, considering that nine of its teams rank in the bottom 30 percent nationally in penalty yards per game, and only one — Stanford, at 36th — ranks in the top half. California, Colorado, Arizona State and Oregon State are four of the five most-penalized teams in the country:

Rank Team Ypg

36 Stanford 45.29

68 USC 52.43

70 Utah 52.57

85 Washington State 59.29

86 UCLA 59.57

98 Arizona 64.00

103 Oregon 65.57

107 Washington 66.14

116 California 73.43

118 Colorado 75.75

119 Arizona State 76.43

120 Oregon State 77.86

Down and out

Two of the league's most-heralded players won't be suiting up anytime soon.

USC's Dillon Baxter has been booted from the team, while Oregon's Cliff Harris has been suspended indefinitely after another round of traffic trouble.

"Very disappointing," Oregon coach Chip Kelly said.

Harris is the star cornerback and punt returner stopped by police over the summer for driving 118 mph on the interstate — his famous answer to the officer who smelled marijuana in the car: "We smoked it all" — who was stopped again and cited for driving with a suspended license and other infractions just two days after a forgettable performance in a 45-2 win at Colorado.

Baxter had clashed with coach Lane Kiffin over playing time and endured several suspensions since arriving as one of the nation's top running back recruits. The team said he was leaving the team to "focus on his academics," though the Los Angeles Daily News reported that Baxter did not travel to USC's 31-17 win at Notre Dame last weekend because his girlfriend was due to give birth.