After disassembling Arizona in last year’s Pac-12 championship, the Oregon Ducks were left out of discussion as potential reigning Pac-12 champions. Rather, the media proclaimed that the USC Trojans (9-4, 4th in the South Division), winners of the 2014 Holiday Bowl over Nebraska, will walk away in the upcoming season as conference champions.
Southern Cal received a majority of first-place votes (44), while defending Pac-12 champion Oregon covered the second spread in the same category with 17 votes. Other schools perceived as potential division and Pac-12 champions are Arizona State, UCLA and Stanford.
Not performing dominantly in neither offense (29th) nor defense (76th) in 2014, this year’s Trojans roster features new legs in the backfield (four freshmen, two sophomores) and a relatively experienced corps of receivers led by junior Juju Smith, who’ll likely be Kessler’s prime target. Returning players on defense includes DB Su’A Cravens (2014 – 17 TFL, 3 INT, 68 tackles) and LB Anthony Sarao (2014 – 74 tackles, 2 INT).
While posting a second-best in wins accumulated in bowl games (5), the Pac-12 conference of 2015 will witness obvious cosmetic changes in a majority of position players after losing talent to the 2015 NFL Draft, including picks Marcus Mariota, Nelson Agholor and Jaelen Strong.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
