Pac-10 Prepares For Landing

Please bring your seat backs and tray tables to their full and upright positions. The high-flying days of the Pac-10 are over.

Done. Fini. For this year, at least.

Gone are the DC-10 expresses racing over the expanse of Autzen Stadium. Kaput are the 747 direct flights from McNown to Farmer.

The landing gear is down. Turn in your wings. Prepare to be on the ground.

“This year the running backs will dominate the offenses.”

That was your captain, Mike Price, speaking.

Now before you start thinking the Washington State coach belongs with that group of major airline pilots that tipped back too many a few years ago, consider this: Eight of the league’s top 10 running backs are back on campus. Three of the top four quarterbacks from last year are drawing paychecks.

So it’s run, baby, run. Three yards and a cloud of dust. And a tip of the hat to the middle-America teams that have been doing it this way for decades.

Leading this little parade back to 3-hour games and 25-carry days is the university that should be leading the conference when all those clouds of dust settle - Arizona.

The No. 4 Wildcats have Mr. Busta Move - along with a couple of defenders’ ankles - Trung Canidate, at their disposal.

“He’s a real big-time back,” said Penn State’s Joe Paterno in his pre-Pigskin Classic press conference. “When he gets his hands on the football and sees a crack, he can really accelerate. He makes all of those hidden yards.”

And some that aren’t so hidden either.

Canidate averaged 7.4 yards a carry last season. The next closest in the nation was TCU’s Basil Mitchell at 6.7. Canidate led the Pac-10 with 1,225 yards. Nobody else was within 150 yards. And he missed two games.

“He’s like a missile out of a rocket,” said UA quarterback Ortege Jenkins.

He may be the biggest missile out of the most high-powered rocket but he is not the only projectile that will be blasting holes in Pac-10 defenses.

At Oregon State, 1,000-yard rusher Ken Simonton is back. USC has Chad Morton and his 967 yards of experience lining up behind QB Carson Palmer. Arizona State’s J.R. Redmond may just stiff-arm his way to the Heisman. DeShaun Foster, seventh in Pac-10 rushing last year, narrowly beat out Jermaine Lewis, ninth in the Pac-10 last year, for the starting spot at UCLA. And Marcus Fields, the sixth-best rusher in the league a year ago, is back at California.

If all that isn’t enough proof, how about this? The top four finishers in the Pac-10 last year (UCLA, Arizona, Oregon and USC), finished in the top five in rushing offense. So even when teams around the league were racking up frequent flyer miles, it was the ground game that got them to bowl destinations.

Things don’t sound too good for the also-rans.

This year the Pac-10’s lower tier of teams won’t change much. Fields won’t be able to carry Cal into the first division. Same with Simonton at Oregon State.

Stanford averaged 75 rushing yards per game and is down to two healthy backs, one a freshman, heading into its opener.

Last year, Washington State running back Kevin Brown ran away from everybody on the field, but couldn’t do the same off it. The Pullman police chased him down in May. And Price chased him out of the program when he pled guilty to residential burglary in June.

Brown, who ran for 1,046 yards last fall, will be replaced by either Jeremy Thielbahr, Adam Hawkins, Brad Philley or Deon Burnett.

And then there is Washington. The last time they had a 1,000-yard rusher was 1996. The Huskies finished second that year. The past two years, they have finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

This year the Huskies are relying on unspectacular sophomores Willie Hurst and Braxton Cleman and freshman Paul Arnold. That may not matter, though, because UW’s new coach, Rick Nueheisel, likes the ball in the air.

In his four years as coach at Colorado, Nueheisel never developed a 1,000-yard rusher. The Buffs finished 88th nationally in rushing last season, and that just won’t cut it in the Pac-10. Not this year anyway.

Oh well, hope everybody enjoyed their flight while it lasted.

1. Ranking the field: Best of the Pac-10 2. Pac-10 capsules