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Fun and games

The Washington Huskies are preparing to face the USC Trojans on Saturday, and coach Steve Sarkisian made sure there was no shortage of gamesmanship by saying that if he was an NFL coach, he would draft USC's Matt Barkley ahead of Stanford's Andrew Luck, the presumptive No. 1 pick of the NFL Draft.

"Obviously, he's already played Andrew Luck or else he wouldn't have made that statement he made," USC coach Lane Kiffin said.

Barkley responded by saying Sarkisian — who recruited the quarterback to USC — was "just pouring on the sugar," while Kiffin went on to tease his friend and former colleague with the Trojans.

"He's never been an NFL head coach, remember?" Kiffin said. "He turned it down. Made me go."

Kiffin coached the NFL's Oakland Raiders for a disastrous 20-game stint — the Raiders were 5-15 under Kiffin — before his acrimonious firing. He joked that his friendship with Sarkisian is "going downhill" because Sarkisian keeps talking up the Trojans as the most talented team in the league.

Game of the week

You can have your Game of the Century, and all those field goals, both made and attempted.

The Pac-12 Conference has Oregon and Stanford squaring off at Stanford Stadium on Saturday in one of the most intriguing games of the season.

In all likelihood, points will be scored.

The Cardinal are unbeaten and ranked No. 3 in the AP Top 25, riding a 17-game win streak and poised to reach the Bowl Championship Series title game if they run the table with their power offense and star quarterback Andrew Luck. Standing in their way? The speedy Ducks, ranked No. 6, beaten only once, and aspiring to win the North Division and reach the inaugural league title game.

It's only the fourth time in 25 years that two league opponents ranked in the top 6 will meet, and everybody is talking about the contrast in styles.

Yes, the Cardinal have Luck, but they also have a power running game and a bunch of big tight ends that physically wear opponents down. The Ducks are the fastest team in the league that averages almost 300 rushing yards per game with an offense takes almost no time between plays and strikes fast with big plays.

The Ducks handed Stanford its only loss last season, too, so the Cardinal have been waiting for this. It should be a good one.

All in the family

Senior defensive tackle Bo Moos will get the chance to play in front of his father Saturday, when Arizona State plays at Washington State, where Bill Moos is the athletic director.

Next week, it will be Taylor Embree's turn.

The senior receiver at UCLA will play the Colorado Buffaloes, in their first year of being coached by his father, Jon Embree, who was an assistant coach for the Bruins from 2003-2005.

Striking a balance

Nobody in the Pac-12 Conference runs more and throws less — as a percentage of their offensive plays — than the UCLA Bruins:

Team Rush Pass Ratio

UCLA 356 213 63/37

Oregon 384 234 62/38

Stanford 355 284 56/44

Utah 316 245 56/44

Washington 324 278 54/46

Cal 328 333 50/50

Arizona St. 322 334 49/51

USC 295 343 46/54

Colorado 298 355 46/54

Washington State 301 361 45/55

Oregon State 245 382 39/61

Arizona 248 424 37/63

From worst to ...

Coach Paul Wulff's job could be in jeopardy at Washington State, with the Cougars having lost five straight games after winning just five in his previous three seasons combined.

But Wulff offered a colorful defense for himself.

"This was the worst BCS football program in America by a long, long, long ways when I got here," he said. "That's just fact. … We have great young recruiting classes that are still young. It's a young football team that has a bright future. I think anybody within the program that's been around here knows it.

But "it takes time when things are in bad, bad shape," Wulff added. "I didn't make it. I'm here to fix it. And things like this don't get fixed in three years and four years, to the level they want."