Purely looking at returning rosters, their athleticism, skill and experience level including depth, QB play and STs YET assuming their current coach does not impact their play at all, here's how I have the ranked. I'll follow that with coaches who I believe are +, - or = to their power ranking
1.) USC
2.) UCLA
3.) Oregon
4.) Stanford
5.) ASU
6.) Cal
7.) Utah
8.) Arizona
9.) UW
10.) WSU
11.) Colorado
12.) Oregon State
Coaches:
+ (Coaches who will likely get their teams to outperform their power rankings):
Todd Graham
Rich Rodriguez
Kyle Whittingham
Gary Anderson
Chris Petersen
= (Coaches who will likely get their teams to perform to their power rankings):
Mark Helfrich
David Shaw
Jim Mora
Sonny Dykes
Mike Macintyre
Mike Leach
- (Coaches who will likely underperform their power rankings)
Steve Sarkisian
What does this mean for Cal?
Our schedule (based purely on power ranking comparisons)
Grambling + (we clearly have a higher power ranking)
SDSU +
Texas =
UW +
WSU +
Utah =
UCLA -
USC -
Oregon -
Oregon State +
Stanford =
ASU =
That gets me to 5-4-3 as a record. Add in coaching and I see a potential upset of USC and a likely loss to ASU. Texas, Stanford, Utah are big swing games.
Looks like 7-5 with a bowl to get to 8 wins. Of course, we could learn that Mora and Shaw are not ='s in the coaching column and that Sonny is a + but right now that's what I see.
1.) USC
2.) UCLA
3.) Oregon
4.) Stanford
5.) ASU
6.) Cal
7.) Utah
8.) Arizona
9.) UW
10.) WSU
11.) Colorado
12.) Oregon State
Coaches:
+ (Coaches who will likely get their teams to outperform their power rankings):
Todd Graham
Rich Rodriguez
Kyle Whittingham
Gary Anderson
Chris Petersen
= (Coaches who will likely get their teams to perform to their power rankings):
Mark Helfrich
David Shaw
Jim Mora
Sonny Dykes
Mike Macintyre
Mike Leach
- (Coaches who will likely underperform their power rankings)
Steve Sarkisian
What does this mean for Cal?
Our schedule (based purely on power ranking comparisons)
Grambling + (we clearly have a higher power ranking)
SDSU +
Texas =
UW +
WSU +
Utah =
UCLA -
USC -
Oregon -
Oregon State +
Stanford =
ASU =
That gets me to 5-4-3 as a record. Add in coaching and I see a potential upset of USC and a likely loss to ASU. Texas, Stanford, Utah are big swing games.
Looks like 7-5 with a bowl to get to 8 wins. Of course, we could learn that Mora and Shaw are not ='s in the coaching column and that Sonny is a + but right now that's what I see.
