It’s hard to watch certain schools take the field during college football season and not think of classic West Coast rivalries that ruled the landscape for many decades. It’s still going to take some time to get used to Stanford playing in the ACC, Arizona playing in the Big 12, or USC doing battle on the Big 10 gridiron.
Even though the Pac-12 or Pac-10 Conference is no longer in existence, its longstanding football tradition should not be overlooked as the years unfold.
We’ll look at the three best players who cut their teeth in the conference during the 21st century.
Reggie Bush
Has anyone in college football, let alone the Pac-12 Conference, with more electric game tape footage than Bush in recent memory? Despite the controversy he later found himself embroiled in, Bush was nothing short of box office every time he touched the football. There was always a chance he could do something that no one had ever seen on a football field, as his athleticism seemed to tower over the abilities of his opponents.
It’s hard to single out one play from his dynamic career, but perhaps his most famous carry wasn’t one that featured a sizzling cutback or a burst of speed. The University of Southern California narrowly escaped a road game against Notre Dame in 2005 thanks to the “Bush Push,” in which quarterback Matt Leinart was pushed into the end zone by his running back.
Marcus Mariota
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Although his NFL career hasn’t exactly lived up to the hype, Mariota was all that and much more during his time at the University of Oregon. His numbers from 2012 through 2014 were nothing short of mind-blowing. He threw for 105 touchdowns and just 14 interceptions, and some felt he had a case as the most outstanding college quarterback ever.
That’s without mentioning the dynamic scrambling ability Mariota flashed with the Ducks. He scored 29 touchdowns on the ground in that same span, including 15 rushing scores in a magical 2014 campaign. Some might think Chip Kelly’s notoriously fast-paced offenses aided Mariota, but his best statistical years came with Mark Helfrich as head coach. As if any more context was needed, Oregon averaged 45 points a game during the 2014 college football season.
Terrell Suggs
We will round out our immaculate Pac-12 top three with a defensive menace who would later affect NFL lines with his supreme pass rushing ability with the Baltimore Ravens. It was pretty clear that Suggs would be a force for years as he rag-dolled offensive linemen to the side in his brilliant career at Arizona State.
Suggs rewrote the NCAA record books in 2002, logging 24 sacks. He also tied for the conference lead in forced fumbles, as taking down ball carriers behind the line of scrimmage clearly wasn’t enough. He might not get the same due as his offensive counterparts, but Suggs was a cut above in college.
