Three teams are taking the week off in the Pac-10 conference for what everyone agreed was a needed break at the midpoint of the season.
California was beat up coming off a nail-biting 31-24 victory at Oregon, which also has a bye. Washington, which lost to unconvincing USC, is the other team getting a break.
“Thank God it’s a bye week because we need it to work and stay healthy,” Cal linebacker Worrell Williams said.
The Golden Bears (5-0, 2-0) jumped from No. 6 to No. 3 in the rankings with the victory over the Ducks. It is the highest ranking for Cal since 1952, when the Bears were No. 3 for consecutive weeks midway through the season.
Cal quarterback Nate Longshore sprained his right ankle in the game, but the injury does not appear to be serious. Longshore completed 28 of 43 passes for 285 yards and two touchdowns. He was injured in the fourth quarter, when he was hit by Oregon linebacker Kwame Agyeman. Longshore was replaced for a couple of plays by backup Kevin Riley, but then returned.
Afterward, X-rays were negative. But the bye came at the right time for Longshore.
Next up for the Golden Bears is Oregon State.
“We’re going to look at Oregon State, do some recruiting, and try to get our kids healthy. Do some work on fundamentals and try to get better on the football field,” coach Jeff Tedford said.
Next up for No. 14 Oregon (4-1, 1-1) is Washington State.
Coach Mike Bellotti said he’d have a couple of practices in shells, and a rookie practice this week, before giving everybody this weekend off.
The Huskies (2-3, 0-2) were coming off the hard-fought 27-24 loss to USC, which contributed to the Trojans’ drop to No. 2 in the rankings.
“It’s always good to have a chance to rest and reflect and this one comes at a pretty good time,” Washington coach Tyrone Willingham said. “It’s nice every now and then to have that break in-between.”
Pac-10 action is also trimmed a bit by winless Notre Dame’s visit to UCLA in a late non-conference game.
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HONORS: California receiver DeSean Jackson, UCLA cornerback Trey Brown and Arizona State kicker Thomas Weber have earned the league’s player of the week honors.
Jackson caught 11 passes for 161 yards (career highs) and two touchdowns in the Golden Bears’ 31-24 victory at Oregon. He was also awarded national player of the week honors by the Walter Camp Foundation.
Brown intercepted two passes and made eight tackles, seven solo, in UCLA’s 40-14 victory at Oregon State.
Weber, a freshman, was four-of-four on field goals in Arizona State’s 41-3 win at Stanford. He connected from 41, 32, 38 and 18 yards, and also hit all three extra points.
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KIDNEY STONES: Arizona coach Mike Stoops made it to last Saturday’s 48-20 victory at Washington State, although kidney stones nearly kept him away.
Stoops was at Arizona’s University Medical Center last Friday, where doctors determined that kidney stones were the cause of abdominal pain. He originally thought it was appendicitis.
The pain came back Sunday night but Stoops said drinking water helped. He’s scheduled to get treatment for the condition again this week before the team leaves for Saturday’s game at Oregon State (2-3, 0-2).
The Sun Devils are 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the Pac-10.
Considering Arizona’s victory, one reporter joked that perhaps the kidney stones were a good omen.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?” Stoops joked back.
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HITTING THE ROAD: Stanford is embarking on something new: A road game.
The Cardinal (1-3, 0-3) have opened the season with four games at home. Now, they finally venture out of Palo Alto into hostile territory: The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, home of the USC Trojans.
Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh was undaunted, calling the game “a tremendous opportunity for us to play, compete and improve.”
The Trojans (4-0, 2-0) are the third straight unbeaten team that the Cardinal have faced. They hosted Arizona State last weekend and Oregon the week before.
Stanford’s lone win this season came against San Jose State. The Cardinal are coming off a 41-3 loss to Arizona State last weekend.
Stanford was also hit when quarterback T.C. Ostrander suffered a seizure at a restaurant on Sunday. He was hospitalized for about seven hours and released when doctors for no abnormalities, but he will not play against the Trojans. Sophomore Tavita Pritchard will make his first career start in his place.
“At this point it’s about competing, a genuine love for the game and the opportunity to do that against the finest team in the country,” Harbaugh said.
Last year USC shut out the Cardinal 42-0 at Stanford Stadium. But last weekend the Trojans looked vulnerable in a 27-24 victory at Washington. The loss dropped them out of the top spot in the polls to No. 2, behind LSU.
The Trojans have not lost at home in 35 straight games.
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FAKE TICKETS: It is a fan’s worst nightmare. You’re about to enter the big game and you’re suddenly surrounded by a cadre of police officers. Sorry, pal, that ticket is fake.
That happened to a few fans last weekend trying to enter Autzen Stadium for the game between Oregon and visiting Cal.
About 30 fans were denied entry because their tickets were fake. Scanners at the gates rejected the bogus tickets.
Police officers were called in, but not to arrest the disappointed ticket holders. It is not illegal to buy tickets from secondary sellers off school property. The officers were there to get information so they could try to recover the ticket money spent by the duped fans.
The Cal game was the first time the scanners were used at Autzen.
Police continued to investigate the scam.
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