Pac-12 Picks Week 12

We come to the penultimate week of the regular season. It marks rivalry week for the Utah Utes and Colorado Buffaloes and the UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans. The Arizona State Sun Devils have a key game at the Oregon Ducks that has big Pac-12 South implications. The Arizona Wildcats will look to stay alive in the Pac-12 South (though they need help) with a trip to the Palouse to take on the Washington State Cougars, who are fighting to make the College Football Playoff. The California Golden Bears and Stanford Cardinal game was supposed to be played today, but due to the terrible wildfires in Northern California producing unsafe air quality, The Big Game has been postponed to Dec. 1. The Washington Huskies will look to dispatch the Oregon State Beavers at home to setup a winner-take-all Apple Cup in Pullman next week.

Now, I know many will be surprised by my picks, especially the Rumble in the Rockies. Part of the reason for my picks is I am hoping for chaos to vault me up the standings near the end of the season. I really do believe in many of these picks though. Oregon features walk ons on their two-deep at linebacker due to injury and many key injuries on the offensive line. ASU is red hot and motivated to win out to win the South for first-year head coach Herm Edwards. I would not be surprised if USC, who is also banged up, quits on head coach Clay Helton and loses to crosstown rival UCLA.

So, why do I have Utah losing, well there are a few reasons. First, Utah has started slow in their last two road games, and I think the 11:30 a.m. MT start will throw off Utah’s body clocks and lead to another slow start (Colorado will have the home fans to boost their energy to start the game). Colorado is slumping, but stud wide receiver Laviska Shenault, Jr. should be fully healthy and could do damage to a Utah secondary that has given up two-straight 100-yard games. Utah is 1-6 in week 12 games since joining the Pac-12, only coming out victorious in 2011. A loss more than likely would result in Utah failing to win the Pac-12 South, while a win would not guarantee it, but it would help a lot. Lastly, while I was really impressed with how Jason Shelley and Armand Shyne performed against Oregon, Colorado is better statistically across the board defensively and much healthier. It will also be Shelley’s first start on the road.

With all of that out of the way, here are our picks: