USA Today preseason coaches’ poll.

[alskahawk]

I'm a little biased, but I'm picking a dark horse for the Pac Ten.

Arizona is returning 10 offensive starters, including Nick Foles who threw for almost 2500 yards and 19 TD's and showed remarkable poise as a freshman.

If the defense can fill some holes and if they can overcome that embarrassing Holiday Bowl shut out to Nebraska, they have a real shot at the Rose bowl.

They are certainly hungry enough.

Arizona is a team to watch. When Iowa played them last year they had a great secondary and at the time Grigsby was the second leading rusher in the nation. They will play Sept 18 in Arizona. Should be a very good game. Iowa will have one of the top defenses in the country, Nick Foles may have some trouble moving the ball against them.

Oregon should be interesting this year. Both of their backups are familiar with the system, but have limited game experiance. Nate Costa being out w/surgeries (2 years ago?) and Darron Thomas a sophmore.

[jimson]

Arizona is a team to watch. When Iowa played them last year

I remember that game well. That was before Foles was named the starter and the offense was really struggling under Matt Scott.

Not that AZ would have won with Foles, but they made steady improvement after that game.

Depending on how AZ's defense responds, Sept 18th might be a pretty good game.

[grizz441]

If the defense can fill some holes and if they can overcome that embarrassing Holiday Bowl shut out to Nebraska, they have a real shot at the Rose bowl.

I wouldn't feel too bad about that loss.  Nebraska was playing with a chip on their shoulder after a heart breaking b12 championship loss to Texas.  They finally put it all together in that game once the pressures of the season were gone.  That's why they are going into this season ranked in the top ten.

[Hoarach]

Thing is with Oregon though is they still have a strong RB in LaMichael James.  If he has another strong season, Oregon will be successful.