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California is off, having opened the season in Australia last week, but otherwise this is the opening weekend for Pac-12 football teams with two games Thursday, two Friday and seven Saturday.  Thursday's games  Southern Utah at Utah, 6 p.m. MDT, Pac-12 Network I'm sticking to my theory that this game would have been more of a genuine test for the Utes if SUU had their defensive stars of 2015. Just the same, SUU is a good enough Big Sky Conference program to give the Utes some credibility, assuming new quarterback Troy Williams his receivers post some big numbers.  Utah may not show everything in this game, with BYU up next, but needs to field-test its passing game and build some confidence. The pick: Utah 45, Southern Utah 14.  Oregon State at Minnesota, 7 p.m. MDT, Big Ten Network The Beavers have a weird schedule, opening on a Thursday, then having an open date before playing Sept. 17. So they'll have to live with this outcome for quite a while.  The big question is whether OSU has strengthened itself on the defensive line enough to withstand a traditional Big Ten rushing attack. The Beavers couldn't stop anybody up front last season.  Offensively, this will be a good opening-game test for quarterback Darell Garretson, who shouldn't be overwhelmed. As a fill-in starter in 2014, he took a Utah State team into BYU's stadium and won. So the Beavers should rack up some points, just not enough to win. The pick: Minnesota 34, Oregon State 24.  – Kurt Kragthorpe