Pac-12 North Betting Preview

One way or another, we will see the Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies battle for the Pac-12 North championship this 2021 College Football season after having last season’s matchup canceled due to COVID-19 protocols as the Huskies’ battle with the pandemic meant that they wouldn’t have the proper number of scholarship players available to play.

Although Washington finished 3-1 and Oregon was 3-2, the Huskies couldn’t play in the Pac-12 Championship the following week which gave the Ducks the title and the subsequent Pac-12 title in a win over USC.

Washington is more than a solid challenger to the Ducks this season with a myriad of talented, athletic players on both sides of the football.

There’s a drop-off between these two teams and Stanford and then another monumental chasm between the Cardinal and Cal, Washington State, and Oregon State.

Both Mario Cristobal of Oregon and Washington’s Jimmy Lake have had a direct hand in bringing both programs back to the level where they can compete for the Pac-12 title. Both came to their schools by route of being a defensive coordinator.

Incidentally, Cristobal hired Oregon’s sixth defensive coordinator in nine years when he tabbed former UCF DC Tim DeRuyter for the post. Lake did the same at UW where he tabbed his inside linebackers coach Bob Gregory as his defensive coordinator as Gregory had been on the Huskies’ staff for the last seven years.

1- Oregon Ducks

The Ducks won their second consecutive Pac-12 title albeit in the direst of circumstances in the jaws of the COVID-19 pandemic. Oregon finished 4-3 with a 31-24 win over USC in the Pac-12 Championship game before a 34-17 loss to Iowa State in the Fiesta Bowl.

Coach Mario Cristobal is in the process of resurrecting this program back to where it was when it was playing for national championships under Chip Kelly as he is 25-10 over the course of three years.

Interestingly the Ducks lost Tyler Shough, who looked like a national championship-caliber quarterback in his tenure at Oregon. He had a tough last two games against the Trojans and Cyclones where he completed only 15-of-24 passes for 170 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Maybe Shough left for Texas Tech because he heard the footsteps of 5-star quarterback Ty Thompson who could win the job over former Boston College transfer Anthony Brown.

Regardless, there will be solid supplementation in the backfield from C.J. Verdell, (65-285-3) who returned as he was the second-leading rusher behind Travis Dye in what is potentially the most solid two-pronged running back attack in the nation. Dye led in rushing with 64 carries for 443 yards and a score but was even more of a problem out of the backfield with a 9-239 compilation with four touchdowns.

There will be five returning starters on an offensive line that has depth as it helped push the Ducks to 167 yards per game.

Wide receiver is also a deep position with Devon Williams returning where he led Oregon in receiving yards with 286. Jaylon Redd also had 25 catches for 281 yards while Johnny Johnson, III, ended up with 19 for 267 and two scores.

Oregon needs to ramp up more of a pass rush as it had only 11 sacks and just five picks in the seven games. Kayvon Thibodeaux could be the best athlete on the defensive side as the junior linebacker led the Ducks with 9.5 tackles for loss and three sacks last season.

Oregon boasts a talented linebacking group as Isaac Slade-Matautia (49) and Noah Sewell (48) were one-two in tackles. The Ducks have a deep secondary as well with corner Mykael Wright checking in with nine deflected passes and speedster Verone McKinley, III charted 41 tackles.

2- Washington Huskies

The Huskies went 3-1 and had three games canceled as the debut of coach Jimmy Lake was over almost before it started. Lake is a stellar defensive mind and will accentuate that mantra as UW’s head coach and the figure-head of the program.

Washington will be a run-first team in the beginning as the Huskies averaged 176.1 yards with Sean McGrew back as the leading rusher from last season as he netted 43 carries for 227 yards and four touchdowns in the Huskies’ four-game slate.

Lake gets a solid Dylan Morris at quarterback where he completed 60.9 percent of his passes for 897 yards at 8.2 yards per attempt. Morris’s wide receiver group needs to develop around tight end Cade Otton who posted 18 catches for 258 yards and three touchdowns.

Most people around the program in Seattle say that Colorado State transfer Patrick O’Brien could give Morris lots of competition for the starting job, especially if Morris proves he can’t sustain a consistent downfield passing attack.

On the defensive side of the ball, Washington held its four opponents to 185 yards per game (13th/CFB) as they allowed only 346.2 total yards (27th/CFB).

The Huskies will lean on the pass rush out of the linebacker position where Zion Tupuola-Fetui who had seven sacks and junior Edefuan Ulofoshio led UW with 47 stops and two fumble recoveries. The group will operate behind a deep defensive line which will help get push up front.

Cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Kyler Gordon lead the secondary as Gordon was fourth in tackles with 18.

Washington created a playmaking opportunities defense in just those four games as the Huskies turned their opponents over eight times.

File away Nov. 6 because that is when the Pac-12 North will likely be decided as the Huskies battle Oregon at Husky Stadium.

3 – Stanford Cardinal

Coach David Shaw produces nice physical offenses with the big drop-back quarterbacks and now as Davis Mills is off to the NFL, the position will be filled in a pair of drop-back passers in Jack West and Tanner McKee.

Both quarterbacks saw the field last season as West completed 13 of his 19 pass attempts for 154 yards. He would have the lead based on experience, but McKee is a solid enough talent to wrestle away the position in fall camp.

The running game will be solid with the return of a strong one-two punch in Austin Jones and Nathaniel Peat. Jones had 126 carries for 550 yards and he had 21 catches for 156 yards out of the backfield as he is clearly the most versatile player on the offensive side of the ball. Three offensive linemen return as well which should give the rushing attack even more stability.

Whomever the quarterback, he will have three wide receivers in Brycen Tremayne (14-265), Michael Wilson (19-261), and Elijah Higgins (15-176). The dynamics of the. Wide receiver group should help either quarterback grow into his position and develop confidence.

The defense needs help in many areas. It gave up 31.7 points (T/77/CFB) as Stanford was actually outscored by two points on average despite the 4-2 ledger.

Not being able to stop the run showed up immeasurably in the opener vs. Oregon and it never got better as Stanford was 112th in college football vs. the run plus they gave up a 51.3 percentage on third down (122nd/CFB).

Junior linebacker Lavani Dumani is the best of the bunch of defense as he is the leading returning tackler with 42.

He will operate behind a huge defensive line which early depth chart show Dalyn Wade-Perry fitting solidly as the nose man and defensive end Thomas Booker checking back in as he had 21 tackles last season.

Safety Kendall Williamson will lead a secondary that needs playmaking ability as the Cardinal only picked off two passes in their six games while registering 11 sacks. Both of those picks came from linebacker so the secondary starts on the ground in that category.

4 – California Golden Bears

The Bears’ offensive struggles have been well chronicled. Take into consideration last season where they were 114th in college football in total offense with only 319.5 yards as they scored only 20.2 points (110th/CFB).

They had three games canceled as California finished at 1-3 with a surprising 21-17 win over the Oregon Ducks in their last game.

Chase Gerbers returns as quarterback for coach Justin Wilcox as he completed 62.5 percent of his passes although the Bears want him to get the ball down the field more as he averaged only 5.7 yards per attempt.

Damien Moore with a nice grab (via Cal Football’s Instagram) #GoBears pic.twitter.com/ZYvlCpCoLt

— Write for California (@WriteForCal) March 9, 2021

California will return its top two rushers in Damien Moore and Marcel Dancy who will operate behind an offensive line that welcomes back four starters. Moore had 38 carries for 188 yards as neither player could get over 200 yards total in four games.

Kekoa Crawford was the Bears’ top producer at wide receiver where he had 19 catches for 232 yards and two scores in tying Nikko Remigio who had two touchdown catches as well.

The Golden Bears’ defense was strong against the pass but had hard overall issues against the run as it only allowed 197.8 yards through the air (23rd/CFB). The Bears are hoping to get their opponents off the field more readily on third down as they had a 40.7 percent conversion rate (68th/CFB).

Linebackers Kuony Deng and Cameron Goode spearhead a defense that returns most of its pieces. Dang led the Bears in tackles with 31 while Good was the fifth leading tackler, but led in tackles for loss with 8.0 which included 3.0 sacks.

Cal feels like a team that will improve this season because the team only played four games and then two of the three losses were by one to Stanford and by four to Oregon State.

If Wilcox and company can develop skill people to go around Gerbers, this could be a six or seven-win team.

5 – Oregon State Beavers

The Beavers went 2-5 as they were able to get alls even of their games in. They picked off Cal by four and then took a 41-38 win over Oregon before losing their final three games by an average of a little over a touchdown.

Coach Jonathan Smith had a competitive group of Beavers as the running game was its calling card with 197.6 yards per game (33rd/CFB). Leading rusher Jermar Jefferson left for the NFL, so B.J. Baylor is next in line along with South Carolina transfer Deshun Fenwick.

Quarterback Tristan Gebbia completed 62 percent of his passes and had 6.4 yards per attempt, but as we stated in the Colorado preview, Buffaloes’ signal-caller Sam Noyer is heading to Corvalis and will give Gebbia competition for the spot.

Oregon State has a deep receiving corp which is led by Trevon Bradford who caught 24 balls for 239 yards while Tyjon Lindsey checked in with 11 for 159 as he and Zeriah Beason had three touchdown catches each.

Oregon State also gave up 224 yards through the air (55th/CFB) as the Beavers only tallied seven sacks and five picks.

Avery Roberts (69) and Omar Speights (63) will anchor the unit from the linebacker spot as they were the top two tacklers on the team.

Safety Jaydon Grant led the Oregon State secondary with 29 tackles and two interceptions.

6 – Washington State Cougars

The Cougars had the same covid issues as most as they had a 1-3 record and three cancellations in Nick Rolovich’s first season.

It looked like Washington State potentially found a quarterback for its near future in Jayden de Laura as he completed 60.5 percent of his passes for an average of 6.9 yards per completion; however, former Tennessee signal-caller Jarrett Guarantano found his way to Pullman and will vie for the starting position with de Laura and potentially Common Cooper. It feels like this will be a quarterback battle with window dressing only as de Laura put Wazzu in good places last season.

Travell Harris and Renard Bell are a solid pair to lead the wide-out room as Bell had 33 catches for 337 yards and two touchdowns while Harris also had two TD catches with 29 receptions for 340 yards.

Deon McIntosh will carry the load at running back where he averaged 6.2 yards per carry and scored three TDs. Max Borghi and Wisconsin transfer Nakia Watson offer change-ups.

Defensively, the Cougars couldn’t stop anybody as opponents averaged 461.8 yards (111th/CFB) as they lit up the secondary to the tune of 307 yards per game (124th/CFB).

• Daniel Isom was the leading tackler out of the secondary last season with 32 as the Cougars had only six sacks and two interceptions.
• Linebacker Jahad Woods defensive end Brennan Jackson resembled potential playmakers as Woods had 4.5 tackles for loss while Jackson posted 3.5.

This was another team that couldn’t get its defense off the field on third down as opponents converted 39.2 percent of their opportunities (71st/CFB) and they also converted 88.9 percent of their red-zone chances against the Cougars (T/102/CFB).