West Coast Feed

Mid-week notebook clean-out

Mack Brown and the Texas Longhorns lost more than a game to UCLA and its No. 7 ranking last Saturday on their home field in Austin. The stunning defeat to the unranked Bruins also caused Brown to lose the ear of the pollsters whom he has lobbied and cajoled for votes ever since his Vince Young-led team won the national championship in 2006.

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add UCLA: It's hard to believe that the Bruins were looking ahead to the Longhorns when they were buried by Stanford, 35-0, two weeks ago. After that blowout, the question of whether Rick Neuheisel would survive as coach was being whispered in the media. Now a resurrected UCLA is has evened its record at 2-2 and should have little trouble on Saturday against Washington St at home.

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Without question, the Pacific 10 is one of the strongest conferences in the country, with Oregon and Stanford breaking into the Top 10 this week. Stanford traveled to South Bend, Ind., and handily beat Notre Dame. Oregon played a night game in Tempe, Ariz., and outlasted Arizona State in a high-scoring contest. Timing is everything because the Cardinal play the Ducks on Saturday and whoever wins will have a clear path to the Rose Bowl New Year's Day.

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add Pacific 10: It will be payback time for USC when the Trojans play Washington at the Coliseum. Last season, Steve Sarkisian's Huskies, who were 0-12 in 2008, upset USC in the conference opener at Seattle. That loss was the beginning of the end for Pete Carroll and now Lane Kiffin meets Sarkisian, his old USC colleague when both were on Carroll's staff as co-offensive coordinators after Norm Chow left Troy.

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2nd add Pacific 10. It was announced last week that Colorado and Utah will join the conference next season, a year sooner than the original 2012 date The Utes should make an immediate impact in football, but the same can't be said for Colorado. The Buffaloes were walloped by California earlier this season in Boulder.

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last add Pacific 10: Biggest surprise after one month: Arizona, who has beaten Iowa and Cal on consecutive weekends. Biggest disappointment: California's Golden Bears, who have lost to Nevada and last Saturday night to Bob Stoops and the Wildcats in Tucson.