ESPN College Football

The beauty of the nine-game conference schedule -- at least from a fan’s perspective -- is that almost every week we’re going to see great football. But from a team perspective, that means every week is going to be a grind. And there are those multiple-game stretches that can be brutal. Teams that survive those stretches usually emerge atop the standings. Those who don’t are usually home in December doing some self-scouting. Here’s some of the brutal stretches for the Pac-12 North, which should stake its claim as one of the toughest divisions in all of college football in 2013.

California

The Bears have a very tough schedule, arguably the toughest of all the conference teams based on their opponents' winning percentage in 2012 (93-60, .588). But the way it plays out isn't as brutal as some of their Northern brethren. In most cases, they have (what is perceived to be) a winnable game in between their tough showdowns. Portland State separates Northwestern and Ohio State. Washington State separates Oregon and UCLA. Colorado breaks up USC and Stanford. They do hit a four-game stretch from Oct. 12 to Nov. 2 when they travel to UCLA, are home to Oregon State, at Washington and home to Arizona. That could be the roughest consecutive stretch. Of course, the sum of all the parts still includes potentially three national championship hopefuls, so it might be tough going in Sonny Dykes' first year, regardless of what order the games come in.

Oregon

The Ducks should again blow out of the gates with a soft first five games against opponents that combined for a 14-45 record last year. Then three of their next four should provide much stiffer tests. They visit Washington on Oct. 12, and while the Ducks may very well make it 10 in a row over the Huskies, Washington is expected to push the Ducks harder than it has in recent years. Then a home game against Washington State (a team that gave them a nice 30-minute run last season) stands between back-to-back games against UCLA and at Stanford. Because the Stanford game is on a Thursday night, they get extra time to prep, but it's still back-to-back games against last year's division winners. It's also the first time they'll see the Bruins in the Jim Mora era. If the Ducks get through that stretch, it likely means they are on BCS championship pace heading into the Civil War.

Oregon State

Like their in-state counterparts, the Beavers should jump out to a very good record in the first half of the season. Their first seven opponents were a combined 35-52 last season and only two (FCS Eastern Washington and San Diego State) were on the north side of .500. Then things get nasty. Really nasty. Stanford, USC, Arizona State, Washington and Oregon with one breather after the USC game. If the Beavers are as good as many think, they should start 7-0. But they'll be tagged as paper lions until the strength of schedule ramps up. This might be the toughest stretch in the league. And if Oregon State can weather it with a few wins, it should be positioned nicely for another upper-tier bowl game (if not something bigger).

Stanford

The Beavers have some company for the toughest stretch, however. The Cardinal have a trying schedule top to bottom, but the final five will make or break Stanford's season -- or at the very least, their national championship hopes. The defending conference champs have plenty of early tests, including San Jose State (an 11-win team last year), Arizona State and Washington in the first half of the slate. But the final five includes UCLA, Oregon State, Oregon, USC, Cal and Notre Dame. Cal is the only team in that group that didn't have a winning record last year, but it's still a rivalry game. Of course, the premier matchup of the bunch is the showdown with Oregon, which many feel will determine the North champ. That's two 12-win teams from last season, two nine-win teams, a USC game that has recently been tight and a rivalry game with one break in between for the Thursday night game against Oregon. If the Cardinal repeat, they will have earned it.

Washington

How legit is Washington? We'll find out some when it hosts Boise State in the season opener. But we'll really know what this team is made of from Sept. 28 to Oct. 19. That's a four-game stretch, no byes, that includes Arizona, at Stanford, Oregon and at Arizona State. We know what happened last year against the Wildcats. And then it's back-to-back games against Stanford and Oregon. Washington topped Stanford in 2012, but the last trip to the Farm in 2011 didn't go so well. And then there's the whole Oregon thing. Plus the Huskies pick up with a game in Tempe after a two-year hiatus from the Sun Devils. These four games will likely define Washington in 2013.

Washington State

Like every other team in this post, by virtue of playing in the North, the Cougars have a tough schedule. But it ramps up right in the middle of the season with four of five games against the projected top half of the power rankings. They meet Stanford on Sept. 28 in Seattle, then at Cal before three straight against Oregon State, at Oregon and then a week and a half later they host Arizona State on Thursday night. By the way, the week before Stanford they host bordering Idaho, and we know there's no love lost there. After an inconsistent first season under Mike Leach, the Cougars could certainly shuffle the North standings if they are able to take a game from one of the division's big three.

We're 100 days away from the start of the college football season, so what better time to check in with our conference bloggers on the state of their teams heading into the summer?

Join us at 1 p.m. ET as we go conference-by-conference taking your questions until 3 p.m. See you there.

All players are equal, but some players are more equal than others. That's the basis of our Most Important Player series.

First off, quarterbacks are excluded to make things more interesting. It goes without saying, for example, that Oregon's Marcus Mariota is the Ducks' most important player.

And most important doesn't necessarily have to be "best." An All-American's backup can be pretty darn good, too.

Our most important guys are players who could swing a win total one way or the other, based on their living up to expectations. Or their absence.

Stanford: LB Shayne Skov

2012 production: Led the Cardinal with 81 total tackles while recording nine tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks.

Why Skov is so important: You could easily make an argument that whoever wins the running back competition could occupy this spot. After all, Stanford's offensive philosophy is ground-and-pound and that's not going to change with the departure of Stephan Taylor. But the fact that Stanford will take much more of a by-committee approach in 2013 than it did in 2012 leaves that point open for debate.

There is no debate, however, about what Skov means to this team. Before his season-ending knee injury at Arizona in 2011, he was slotted as a potential first-round draft pick. He returned in 2012 and was very good. But not quite back to where he was pre-injury.

He is now. And that bodes very well for one of the top defensive units in the country.

"Talking to him at the end of spring, he estimated that he was between 90-95 percent and you could see when he got back for our second session in April, he was passing guys again like he used to," said Stanford coach David Shaw. "He was passing up other defenders on his way to the ball.

"He was excited to feel that explosion back. To feel that speed back that he never really felt all year. He was healthy all year. He had the strength all year. He wore the knee brace. But the knee could protect itself and he was not at risk of injury. It was just that explosion is always the last thing to come back. And everybody is different when that does come back. I think it's finally back and he's going to start training camp at 100 percent and hopefully better than ever."

And offensive coordinators around the league just felt a chill down their spines.

Skov is obviously impactful for what he does on the field -- especially if he truly is 100 percent. Because an 80-percent Shayne Skov in 2012 was still pretty darn good. But what he can do off the field is just as inspiring.

Watch some of his locker room speech before the USC game and you'll get an idea of what Skov does for this team.

He is the kind of player who can motivate the entire team with his play on the field and inspire them with his fire off it. Flanked by a front seven that was No. 5 nationally against the run, No. 2 in tackles for loss and the best in the country at tallying sacks, Skov will be looked upon again to be the leader of a defense filled with leaders.

Skov's decision to come back -- made in congress with outside linebacker Trent Murphy and defensive end Ben Gardner -- gives the Cardinal three of the top players nationally at their positions in the front seven. The defense is expected to be even better than it was in 2012. And there's little doubt that a 100-percent Skov will be its leader on the field and in the locker room.

Stanford coach David Shaw talks about spring practices and the upcoming college football playoffs.

Kevin Gemmell and Ted Miller wrap up the Pac-12 meetings.

Unlike last year, there is no quarterback competition at Stanford. But the recently released post-spring depth chart does reveal some potentially interesting developments to eye-ball heading into fall.

Starting on offense -- there are only two running backs listed -- Anthony Wilkerson "or" Tyler Gaffney as the starter. Both are trying to replace three-time 1,000-yard rusher Stepfan Taylor, though it's widely believed the Cardinal will take more of a committee approach than they did last year, when Taylor led the Pac-12 with 322 carries. There is plenty of depth, albeit mostly inexperienced, behind Gaffney and Wilkerson.

Also of note offensively is the addition of Kevin Danser on the depth chart at center. He's slated to start at right guard, though there is also an "or" separating Khalil Wilkes, Conor McFadden and Danser at center. It will be interesting to watch in the fall if Danser continues to get work at center. And if he wins the job, it would allow the Cardinal to insert Josh Garnett into the starting rotation at guard. That would give the Cardinal a starting front of Andrus Peat (LT), David Yankey (LG), Danser (C), Garnett (RG) and Cam Fleming (RT).

With the news of Josh Nunes' retirement yesterday, Evan Crower is locked in as the backup to Kevin Hogan and, for now, Devon Cajuste looks like he'll start opposite Ty Montgomery at receiver.

Fullback Geoff Meinken also announced he'll retire after struggling to return from a knee injury that kept him out of 2012.

At tight end -- Stanford's go-to receiving position the last couple of years -- Luke Kaumatule and Davis Dudchock are separated by an "or." However both will probably get a ton of work in Stanford's two-tight-end sets.

Defensively, there are only two "ors" on the depth chart. Henry Anderson and Josh Mauro have a good competition going at defensive and Blake Lueders and James Vaughters are undecided at the outside linebacker spot to release Chase Thomas. Though the Cardinal rotate backers and defensive linemen so frequently that "starter" is more of an honorary title.

Worth noting also that Devon Carrington, who has spent his career at safety, is also listed as a backup with Usua Amanam at right cornerback behind Wayne Lyons. Amanam is Stanford's go-to nickelback and Carrington is also backing up Ed Reynolds.

Looking at the specialists, up for grabs is the punter, which could go to either Ben Rhyne or Conrad Ukropina. Montgomery looks set at kick return while it's a four-way race between him, Kodi Whitfield, Keanu Nelson and Barry Sanders to return punts.

You can see the complete depth chart here and interpret it as you see fit.

Stanford's post-spring depth chart was released Monday, and it revealed that sophomore quarterback Evan Crower is now Kevin Hogan's backup.

A big reason for that was revealed that Josh Nunes, who started the first eight games of 2012 before being beaten out by Hogan, has been forced to retire due to injuries, the school announced.

The injury that has ended Nunes' career was not announced, but it is believed to be a biceps muscle injury on his throwing arm that he suffered while lifting weights in January, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Nunes passed for 1,643 yards with 10 TDs and seven interceptions last season. He was the starter when the Cardinal upset then-No. 2 USC 21-14 on Sept. 15, a performance that will be his career highlight. He also led the Cardinal to a comeback win over Arizona.

Dallas Lloyd is expected to be the Cardinal's No. 3 QB. Neither Crower nor Lloyd have game experience.

Ted Miller explains how a pair of Stanford Cardinal linemen could be breakout stars on each side of the trenches.

Six Pac-12 players made the initial 28-player Heisman Trophy Watch List, published by the Heisman Pundit blog.

The Pac-12 players are:

Ka'Deem Carey, Jr., RB, Arizona
Kevin Hogan, So., QB, Stanford
Brett Hundley, So., QB, UCLA
Marqise Lee, Jr., WR, USC
Marcus Mariota, So., QB, Oregon
De'Anthony Thomas, Jr., RB, Oregon

Makes sense. And if you were making a list of the top 10 candidates, both Lee and Mariota would surely be on it.

You potentially could add Arizona State QB Taylor Kelly and Washington RB Bishop Sankey to the list, but these six probably already register in the minds of Heisman voters even outside the West Coast.

Obviously, guys will be added and subtracted from the list as the season wears on.

Every game counts. But some games count more. Or tell us more.

We're going through the Pac-12 and picking out one game that seems most important -- or potentially most revealing -- for each team from our vantage point today.

And then we'll let you vote from a list of potential options.

We're going in reverse alphabetical order.

Stanford

Most important game: Nov. 30 vs. Notre Dame

Why it's important: Now wait a minute before your heads explode.

Yes, Stanford's Nov. 7 visit from Oregon is the Cardinal's most important game. Without question.

It very likely will determine the Pac-12 North Division crown. It also seems possible the winner will thereafter become a participant in the BCS title game.

So, yeah, Stanford-Oregon on Thursday night will be about as big as it gets among all 2013 college football games. That unassailable idea is the very reason I am typing this and not Kevin, who I could feel smirking through the phone at me while I made the case for Notre Dame.

Then why the heck am I typing this? Well, a big reason is that on Wednesday we'll do the "Most Important game: Oregon," and then we'll hyperventilate about the potential Ducks-Cardinal Game of the Century.

About 60 percent of this is an avoidance of redundancy.

But blogging expediency is not the only reason. There is concrete grounds for this. Really!

Here's the logic: 1. Stanford has played in three consecutive BCS bowl games, so getting to another will not represent a significant step forward; 2. Last year, Stanford beat Oregon, won the Pac-12 outright and won the Rose Bowl, so doing that again will not represent a significant step forward; 3. There is only one significant step forward the program can take.

Stanford, which could begin the 2013 season ranked in the top three, almost certainly will need to beat Oregon to play for the national title. The same, of course, could be said for the Ducks.

But if you compare Oregon's and Stanford's schedule, you might notice something. While the Ducks have a nice home game with Tennessee the first month of the season, they do not play a marquee nonconference game against a potential top-10 team.

And so we have Stanford.

Not only does the Cardinal have a marquee nonconference game against a potential top-10 team, it has the game ON THE LAST DAY OF THE REGULAR SEASON.

And, well, it's Notre Dame, which makes it bigger, at least in terms of aesthetics, than if it were, say, against a top-10 West Virginia squad. Yes, aesthetics matter. If Stanford ends up in a beauty contest with another FBS team with the same record for a spot in the title game, beating Notre Dame, which played for the national title last year, to end the regular season probably would hold significant sway with voters.

And what if the Fighting Irish are in the national title mix, too?

Wait... there's more!

I seem to remember Notre Dame and Stanford playing last year. How did that end? Lookie here: Revenge angle. That's fun.

Further, let's just say Stanford goes unbeaten until losing to Notre Dame the final weekend of the season. Then the Cardinal win the Pac-12 title game -- yeah, that game also would stand between Stanford and a national title game berth -- and the Rose Bowl over a Big Ten team.

What would folks across the country say and write? Notre Dame > Stanford. Stanford > Pac-12. Ergo, Notre Dame > Pac-12.

So the Pac-12's self-respect also could be on the line (unless, of course, USC beats Notre Dame).

The way to look at this is 1A (vs. Oregon) and 1B (vs Notre Dame).

For a magical season to happen, Stanford needs to win both. Losing either will feel horrible. And losing to Notre Dame after beating Oregon might actually feel worst of all.

We can consider that bridge if we get there.

Michele Steele and Mark Schlabach preview what to expect from the BCS meetings in Pasadena, Calif., this week about the future college football playoff.

Everybody loves rankings lists, and college football fans -- by necessity -- seem to like lists even more than average folk.

So we have Athlon making another list. First it ranked Pac-12 coaches. Now it ranks all 125 coaches for FBS programs.

Obviously, any ranking like this is highly subjective, as Kevin noted with his notes on the Pac-12 coach rankings.

I really like Athlon's top three. That would be mine. If Chip Kelly were still at Oregon, I'd rank him third, but he is not.

After that? Well, there were some head-scratchers.

LSU's Les Miles way down at No. 24? New Arkansas and former Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema buried at No. 25? Vanderbilt's second-year coach James Franklin way up at 17? Three words: No, No, No.

There is no conceivable way to rank Franklin ahead of Miles, WHO HAS WON A NATIONAL TITLE!, nor is it reasonable to rate Franklin over Stanford's David Shaw, WHO HAS WON A ROSE BOWL, nor Bielema who owns THREE BIG TEN TITLES and won 68 games in seven years at Wisconsin.

Franklin? He's done some nice things at Vandy, making a terrible program respectable, but please identify for me a signature win from 2012? Or 2011. I'll wait here.

Yep. Nada.

Just last season, Shaw, who is No. 1 in the Pac-12 but only 20th in the nation, beat Oregon, which finished ranked No. 2, and WON THE ROSE BOWL. He's a muffed field goal away from winning consecutive BCS bowl games.

Vanderbilt, winners of the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl over the doughty NC State a year after losing to Cincinnati in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, took advantage of a weakened SEC East, and it's notable that the one adventurous nonconference tilt ended up a double-digit loss at Northwestern. You know: The so-called slow Big Ten.

And I think Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald is a bit high at No. 12, too.

(Deep breath) OK ... I'm OK.

Anyway: Here's how Athlon ranked the Pac-12 coaches in the nation (national rank).

1. David Shaw, Stanford (20)
2. Mike Riley, Oregon State (21)
3. Rich Rodriguez, Arizona (22)
4. Todd Graham, Arizona State (29)
5. Mike Leach, Washington State (31)
6. Mike MacIntyre, Colorado (44)
7. Steve Sarkisian, Washington (45)
8. Jim Mora, UCLA (54)
9. Kyle Whittingham, Utah (55)
10. Sonny Dykes, California (56)
11. Lane Kiffin, USC (57)
12. Mark Helfrich, Oregon (73)

Here's a question I bet you know the answer to: Which team has led the Pac-12/10 over the past three seasons in turnovers forced? And which team has led the conference in fewest giveaways?

Oregon fans just started shouting "Oregon" maniacally over and over again, as they are wont to do when any college football question is asked, and that makes them more than half-right in this case. Stanford fans looked up from the Wall Street Journal, took a nibble of their croissant and smugged (Cal fans tell me Stanford fans can make "smug" into a verb), "Stanford, of course."

Yes, we wish to annoy before we salute.

Oregon and Stanford have owned the conference for the past three years. The biggest reason is better players and better coaching. But turnover margin also tells a notable portion of the story.

It's just that the programs go at turnovers from a different lead direction.

Oregon has forced 106 turnovers over the past three seasons. It forced 40 in 2012, which led the nation. It forced 38 in 2010, which ranked second. It ranked 19th in the nation with 29 in 2011.

No other Pac-12 team forced more than 79 turnovers over the past three seasons.

Then there's Stanford. The Cardinal have surrendered 52 turnovers over the past three seasons. They gave away 18 last year, which tied for No. 1 in the Pac-12 and ranked 29th in the nation. They gave away 17 in 2011, which ranked first in the conference and 14th in the nation. Stanford gave away 17 in 2010, which ranked 16th in the nation.

No other Pac-12 team gave away fewer than 63 turnovers over the past three seasons.

Here's the cool kicker, though: Guess who that 79 and 63 are?

That's right: Sanford tied Arizona State for second with 79 forced turnovers over the past three years. And Oregon's 63 turnovers over the past three seasons ranks second to Stanford.

Oregon is plus-43 and Stanford plus-27 in turnover margin over the past three years, which concluded with BCS bowls for each. The next best Pac-12 teams are Arizona State (plus-9) and Washington (plus-8). Utah, which led the Pac-12 in 2011 with a plus-10 margin, is plus-14 over the past two seasons.

College football analyst Phil Steele is well-known for foreseeing teams' turnover margins reducing to the mean -- turnovers=turnaround! -- and thereby swinging teams in negative and positive directions from the previous season. His numbers are compelling.

But most teams aren't Stanford and Oregon, winners of 35 and 36 games over the past three seasons.

If you want to play around with these numbers -- or any others -- this is an excellent place to do it.

Here's how the Pac-12 stacks up over the past three years:

1. Oregon (106 takeaways, 63 giveaways): +43
2. Stanford (79, 52): +27
3. Arizona State (79, 70): +9
4. Washington (75, 67): +8
5. Oregon State (74, 70): +4
6. USC (75, 74): +1
7. California (65, 71): -6
8. UCLA (71, 80): -9
9. Arizona (61, 71): -10
10. Washington State (60, 74): -14

As noted, Utah is plus-14 over the past two season, while Colorado is minus-23, including minus-19 in 2012, which tied for second worst in the nation.

Stanford has announced that through an anonymous donation, its defensive coordinator position has been endowed and will be known as the Willie Shaw Directorship of Defense.

The position is named for the former Stanford defensive coordinator and father of head coach David Shaw.

"Gifts like this make it possible for us to attract and retain the best coaches in America," David Shaw said in a statement from the school. "Also, it is important to recognize how vital our defensive performance has been to our recent success, helping to elevate this program to the upper echelon of college football."

This is a common practice at Stanford. David Shaw's official title is the Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football. Last May, another anonymous donor endowed the offensive coordinator position as the Andrew Luck Director of Offense.

All 85 of Stanford's football scholarships are endowed and there are 10 other head coaches at Stanford in different sports who have endowed positions.

Derek Mason, who is in his fourth year with Stanford and third as coordinator, is Stanford's first Willie Shaw Director of Defense.

"The honor of this endowed position is all about these kids, this staff and this program, with what we have achieved, worked toward and aspired to become: one of the best defensive units in the country," said Mason. "What our defense has been able to accomplish has been nothing short of a blessing. People are now starting to take notice that Stanford's brand means playing physical, unrelenting football on both sides of the ball."

Last season, Stanford's defense was No. 1 nationally in sacks, No. 2 in tackles for a loss and No. 5 nationally in rush defense. While going 12-2 and winning the Pac-12 championship and the Rose Bowl, Stanford ranked 11th nationally in scoring defense, allowing 17.2 points per game on average. Over its final six games last season, Stanford held opponents scoreless in the fourth quarter or overtime.

The Cardinal enter the 2013 season riding an eight-game winning streak and they are expected to be a top-five team in the preseason rankings.

With recruiting behind us and spring well underway, the Pac-12 blog thought it would be fun to examine each team's chances of winning its respective division.

This is not whether the team of the day can win the Pac-12. And we're not predicting any winners. Rather, this is our take on the team's chances of winning the North or South.

Buy or sell Stanford winning the North?

Ted Miller

Buy: Sure most of you saw this coming. My feeling as we sit today is the winner of the Oregon-Stanford game on Nov. 7 will play for the national championship. Not to get your juices flowing or anything.

And, by the way, that will only be the greatest ESPN Thursday night game in the history of ESPN Thursday night games. So you probably need to start planning where and with whom you will watch the game right now. As in stop reading and fire off some emails.

Vegas?

OK. So back to the buy rating on Stanford.

It's pretty simple. There is little to suggest Stanford won't be a top-5 team in 2013. The Cardinal welcomes back 16 starters from a team that finished 12-2, won at Oregon, won the Pac-12 and won the Rose Bowl. Among those starters are QB Kevin Hogan, four starters from an outstanding offensive line and eight starters from the Pac-12's best defense, including All-American candidates such as OLB Trent Murphy, ILB Shayne Skov, DE Ben Gardner and FS Ed Reynolds.

Stanford has a strong, established culture. There's no reason to anticipate complacency or some sort of massive, USC-2012-like underachievement. My strong feeling is the 2013 Cardinal will be better than the 2012 version, and that might mean getting a date to Pasadena.

Kevin Gemmell

Buy: Just as any conversation about buying Oregon has to include Stanford, any conversation about buying Stanford has to include Oregon. The Cardinal fixed their Oregon problem in 2012. The question is, was it a one-year booster shot? Or a long-term vaccination?

Maybe Mark Helfrich has his "hello-world" moment against the Cardinal, breaking down Stanford's fortification with schematic brilliance brick-by-seemingly-unbreakable-brick. Maybe Stanford rolls to a double-digit win? Enjoying the kind of victory at home their fans thought they would have in 2011 -- before the Cardinal forgot their football fundamentals.

Everything Ted says is true. About the wealth of returners. About the epic Thursday night showdown. And did somebody say Vegas?

I'm a slight Stanford lean right now in my personal power rankings -- because of the defense, and because of the grand return of running back Tyler Gaffney, who I characterized as a potential "game-changer." And I firmly believe he will be. He's the kind of hard-nosed back Stanford needs to grind out close games in the fourth quarter.

Speaking of close games...

One Stanford stat I continue to hammer home is their record in close games last season. The Cardinal played in 10 games that were decided by a touchdown or less and went 8-2, including 2-1 in overtime games. Some people might see that as cautionary. But with so many veteran returners (potentially 19 juniors and seniors in the starting 22), that tells me this is a team that knows how to win and doesn't panic or press when things get tight.

Unlike 2011, when it seemed like their whole season was contingent on what happened against Oregon, they are measuring their year by what happens against San Jose State. And then Army. And then ASU. And so on and so on...

Five of their last six games will be against probable top 25 teams -- and the sixth is rival Cal. It's a vicious second half, for sure. The Cardinal will probably provide investors with plenty of edge-of-their-seats moments. But there's also a good chance Stanford will be the smartest Pac-12 investment you can make in 2013.