Pac-12 Football 

Vilardo: Week 5 Pac-12 Football Notes and Milestones

, 5 min read
Oregon State QB Chance Nolan runs up field against USC | Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Posted on September 30, 2021


  By Stephen Vilardo, SuperWest Sports
Last week, we looked at interdivisional matchups inside the Pac-12, and one of those played last week was Oregon State at USC.

It was the third such game for the Trojans this season, and the Beavers came away with a historic victory in the Coliseum. For how historic it really was, let us take a closer look at some of the facts from that one.

• Oregon State had not beaten USC in Los Angeles since the 1960 season, a string of 24 consecutive wins for the Trojans.

• This was the sixth victory at any location for OSU over USC since 1960; five of those six wins have come since 2000, however.

• The 45 points that Oregon State put up against USC last weekend were the most ever by a Beaver team against USC.

• The previous highest scoring game for OSU in the series was 38 points scored in 1914, the first time the teams had ever met. That 1914 game was a 38-6 OSU win in Tacoma, WA.

The Beavers celebrate after beating USC | John Cordes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

• The most points the Beavs had ever put up on a USC team in Los Angeles was 36 in 2009.

• In fact, this was just the second time OSU had ever topped the 30-point mark against the Trojans in L.A., and just the third time the Beavs have scored 29 points or more in L.A. vs a USC team.

• This was only the fifth time OSU has ever cracked 30 points on USC regardless of location.

The win is significant in the series history between the two schools but also overall for Oregon State. A few more noteworthy achievements from last Saturday for the Beavers:

• OSU has now scored at least 40 points in three straight games for the first time since a three-game stretch in 2013 vs Colorado, Cal, and Washington State.

• 2013 was also the last time the Beavers opened Pac-12 play with a win.

• OSU is riding a three-game win streak for the first time since the 2014 season.

This week the Trojans have another opponent with whom they have a lopsided series. This time the opponent is Colorado, and the Trojans are a perfect 14-0 against the Buffaloes and have won on all seven of their trips to Boulder.

USC has never lost to Colorado | Dustin Bradford/Getty Images

• Colorado has only cracked the 30-point barrier on one occasion against the Trojans and that was in their last meeting in 2019, a 35-31 USC win at Folsom Field.

The Trojans perfect record against the Buffs got us thinking about all Pac-12 series records, so we compiled a list.

Now, for sake of space here, rather than listing each team’s record against all 11 other opponents we will instead list each Pac-12 team’s most successful and least successful opponent.

Most Successful Against

SchoolTeam vs.Record%
ArizonaWSU
27-17-0.614
ASUColorado9-3-0.750
CalWSU48-28-5.623
ColoradoArizona16-7-0.696
OregonUtah23-10-0.697
OSUUtah11-11-1.500
StanfordOSU59-25-3.695
UCLAOSU43-17-4.703
USCColorado14-0-01.00
UtahStanford5-3-0.625
WashingtonUtah13-2-0.867
WSUOSU53-40-3.568
Least Successful Against

SchoolTeam vs.Record%
ArizonaUSC
8-36-1.182
ASUUSC13-24-0.351
CalUSC26-70-4.280
ColoradoUSC0-14-0.000
OregonUSC21-38-2.361
OSUUSC10-62-4.158
StanfordUSC31-61-3.356
UCLAUSC32-51-7.394
USCUCLA51-32-7.606
UtahWashington2-13-0.133
WashingtonUSC30-51-4.376
WSUUSC10-61-4.160
Where Pac-12 Players and Teams Rank in a few National Stats
Nolan

• Chance Nolan has the nation’s fourth-best passer rating at 189.0

• Drake London is leading the nation with 9.8 receptions per game and 135.0 receiving yards per game

• Verone McKinley III is tied for the national lead with 1.0 interceptions per game while his teammate Bennett Williams is tied for the third-most with 0.8.

• Rajzohn Wright of Oregon State and Kyu Blu Kelly of Stanford lead the Pac-12 and are tied for seventh in the nation with 1.8 passes defended per game.

• The Pac-12 has a pair of players near the top of the national ranks in return yards this season with Britain Covey averaging 19.8 per punt return for Utah, third in the country. Cal, meanwhile, is getting good starting field position from Nikko Remigio, who is third in the nation, averaging 37.0 yards per kickoff return.

Lloyd

• Devin Lloyd continues to be a monster on defense, averaging 11.2 tackles per game, tied for the second-most of any player in the country.

• Oregon State leads the nation as a team with 7.75 passes defended per game.

• Stingy defense will be the name of the game for ASU and UCLA on Saturday night—well sort of. The Bruins are fifth in the nation against the run, allowing 64.0 per game while the Sun Devils are limiting opponents to 124.2 through the air, also the fifth-best in America.

• UCLA is, however, getting torched through the air this season, allowing 330.2 passing yards per game—126th in the nation.

• Oregon has an NCAA leading turnover margin of +3.0 per game. On the season the Ducks have 13 takeaways to just one turnover lost.

• A big part of the Ducks’ turnover margin is the fact that they are tied for the national lead with nine interceptions this season. Oregon State is just behind them with eight on the year for fourth in the nation.

Oregon Ducks Logo Pac-12• When the Ducks and Beavers are not picking off passes, however, the results are not great. Oregon is allowing 268.5 yards passing per game, 117th in the nation while OSU is 115th, allowing 279.5.

• California gives the Pac-12 five teams among the bottom 15 in the nation in passing yards allowed, yielding 297.0 per game for 120th nationally.

• On the other end of things, Arizona is turning the ball over 1.75 times more than their opponents per game. That is tied for the third-worst turnover margin in the nation.

Follow Stephen on Twitter @StephenVilardo and his organization @SERCenter.

Visit his website at sercstats.com.



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