Pac-12 Football

The No. 7 USC Trojans were upset by the No. 20 Utah Utes 43-42 on Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City to fall to 6-1.

The Utes took the lead with 48 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter when quarterback Cameron Rising rushed in for a one-yard score and converted on the two-point attempt. It was a risky call, as an extra point would have tied the game, but the decision to go for two paid off for Kyle Whittingham's squad.

The Trojans tried to respond on the final drive of the game, but two false starts made it nearly impossible for USC to get into field goal range for a potential game-winner.

It was a tough loss for the Trojans as quarterback Caleb Williams threw for 381 yards and five touchdowns in the loss. However, the offense wasn't a problem. The issue was the USC defense allowing 562 yards of total offense—including 424 yards passing—to the Utes.

Rising finished having completed 30-of-44 passes for 415 yards and two touchdowns, in addition to rushing for 60 yards and three scores. Wide receiver Devaughn Vele also completed one pass for nine yards.

Tight end Dalton Kincaid led all receivers with 16 catches for 234 yards and one touchdown.

Things may have gone differently for USC had they had star wide receiver Jordan Addison available for the final drive. Addison exited the matchup late in the third quarter with an apparent lower-body injury.

A Utah defender landed on the 2021 Biletnikoff Award winner's leg while making a tackle, and he was later seen on the sideline with crutches. Addison caught seven passes for 106 yards and one touchdown before exiting.

Addison's status moving forward is unclear, though he'll luckily get an extra week of rest as the Trojans aren't back in action until Oct. 29 against the Arizona Wildcats.

The Utes, 5-2 on the year, also will not be in action next weekend and will return Oct. 27 to face the unranked Washington State Cougars.

USC wide receiver Jordan Addison was seen on crutches after suffering an apparent ankle injury during his team's 43-42 road loss to Utah on Saturday evening.

Addison had seven catches for 106 yards and a touchdown in addition to two runs for 27 yards before departing in the third quarter. His final play was a 10-yard run on a reverse.

Shotgun Spratling of the Los Angeles Times provided more details.

Ryan Abraham of USCFootball.com did as well:

Addison, who transferred from Pitt to USC this season, has 39 catches for 585 yards and seven touchdowns this year. That followed a 100/1,593/17 stat line the year before.

Thanks in part to his efforts, USC has jumped out to a 6-1 start while averaging 40.5 points per game.

The Big Ten's pursuit of Oregon, Washington, Cal and Stanford has led industry sources to believe that the potential expansion could lead to the collapse of the Pac-12.

That news is per Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports, who noted that Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren is looking for an offer from Amazon or another media partner for more football media rights revenue.

"An offer deemed substantial enough would likely convince Big Ten presidents that California, Oregon, Stanford and Washington would be valuable additions to the league from the Pac-12," Dodd added. "That figure is believed to be less than $100 million annually."

"If the Big Ten makes such a move, it would almost certainly increase the likelihood the Big 12 is able to get some combination of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah from the Pac-12, thus crushing the Pac-12 and hanging Oregon State and Washington State out to dry."

A Big 12 source also told Dodd that the Big Ten domino could lead to potential expansion for its conference.

"If that [Big Ten move] happens, I think the other [four Pac-12] schools will want to jump to our league," the source said.

The Pac-12 is already losing USC and UCLA to the Big Ten in 2024. Meanwhile, the Big 12 is losing Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC in 2025, but the conference is also reloading with Cincinnati, BYU, Houston and UCF in 2024.

Dodd also reported that Big Ten presidents and athletic directors are evaluating whether expansion for the league is "financially viable" in addition to exploring if potential candidates are considered a "cultural fit."

Brett McMurphy of Action Network reported in August that both Oregon and Washington had talks with the Big Ten about joining the league.

The Big 12 and Pac 12 discussed a potential merger over the summer, but they did not go anywhere, per ESPN's Pete Thamel. A Big 12 source told Thamel the deal didn't go through for a "multitude of reasons."

Now it appears the Pac-12 could be in danger of disappearing entirely. Industry sources told Dodd that Oregon State and Washington State would likely be headed to the Mountain West if they need a new league.

Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff expressed "significant concerns" about UCLA's impending move to the Big Ten in 2024.

Kliavkoff wrote a letter to the University of California Board of Regents on Thursday, suggesting the conference change will negatively impact student-athletes' mental health while also leading to increased travel and operational costs, per ESPN's Kyle Bonagura.

"Any financial gains UCLA will achieve by joining the Big Ten will end up going to airline and charter companies, administrators and coaches' salaries and other recipients rather than providing any additional resources for student-athletes," Kliavkoff said.

The Big Ten announced in June it voted to accept UCLA and USC, a Pac-12 school that is a private university, as new members beginning in August 2024.

Kliavkoff's comments about the potential negative impact on student-athletes are in direct contrast with UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond, who said the move will help Bruins players.

Jarmond explained on ESPN's SportsCenter in July (via Derek Peterson of Saturday Out West) the increased "national exposure" from playing in games with more reasonable start times for people in other time zones is a huge plus for possible NIL deals.

"So, in a name, image and likeness era, and a student-athlete finding their voice and their brand and what's important to them, this gives them a national platform, that they can be seen in ways that we haven't been able to," Jarmond said.

He added: "We want to position our student-athletes at UCLA to be the best and to be in a position of strength."

Kliavkoff also stated UCLA faces a minimum of a 100 percent increase in travel costs to play in the Big Ten (up to $16.2 million from $8.1 million) and the overall cost could rise to $31.1 million if the school relies solely on charter flights rather than commercial.

Internally, the athletic department is expecting an uptick in travel costs between $6 million and $10 million annually, per Bonagura.

A UCLA spokesperson declined comment to ESPN about Kliavkoff's letter.

It's unclear whether the University of California Board of Regents has any power to block the school's planned conference change amid meetings about the move.

UCLA and USC are among a growing number of schools expected to change conferences over the next few years amid widespread college sports realignment.

Losing two of its most storied programs would be a major blow to the Pac-12, especially if it can't find suitable replacements amid the evolving landscape.

A 21-year-old University of Utah student was arrested Wednesday for allegedly making a threat to blow up a nuclear reactor on campus if the Utes football team lost Saturday's game to San Diego State.

KSL's Pat Reavy reported a police booking affidavit stated the unnamed woman posted the threat on the Yik Yak app, saying she was "going to detonate the nuclear reactor that is located in the University of Utah causing a mass destruction" if the team lost.

Police also wrote the woman, who remains under investigation for allegedly making a threat of terrorism, is "aware of where the reactor is located and attends class in the same building where the reactor is housed."

The Utes won the game 35-7.

It's the second time in less than a month the University of Utah campus was the focus of a violent threat on the Yik Yak app.

A 19-year-old male student was arrested Aug. 26 for allegedly making a bomb threat against one of the campus buildings, per Reavy. When questioned, the man stated the post was a "joke and said he had no intent to carry out the threat."

There were two other reported bomb threats on the Utah campus this year, one in January and another in May.

The school hasn't released a statement on Saturday's alleged nuclear threat.

Utah plays a road game Saturday against Arizona State before returning home to Rice-Eccles Stadium for an Oct. 1 clash with Oregon State.

Despite the departures of UCLA and USC, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff is far from panicking.

Kliavkoff said he does not feel any pressure to add more teams to the conference and believes the 10 remaining members will be sticking around.

"I don't feel any sense of urgency at this point," Kliavkoff said on the Canzano and Wilner podcast (h/t The Athletic's Stewart Mandel). "No one's going anywhere, we're all together, we're focused on doing this. … We have runway to do it right, as opposed to doing it quickly."

Oregon and Washington have reportedly met with Big Ten officials regarding a potential move, but no deal appears imminent. USC and UCLA announced in July their intention to switch conferences in 2024 as realignment once again puts major college sports in flux.

The announced departure of Texas and Oklahoma for the SEC set off a domino effect as other conferences either attempted to save themselves from extinction (Big 12) or worked to keep pace in the super-conference era (Big Ten).

The Pac-12 appears to be in a middle-ground flux, able to subsist as a 10-team conference but on the precipice of ruin if more schools depart. Oregon is by far the most important remaining member of the conference, thanks to its success in football and men's basketball and the school's long-standing relationship with Nike.

Adding Oregon and Washington would not only add to the Big Ten's cache but also give the conference an opportunity to better divide its divisions in the future. Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern and Iowa could shift over to the East Division without much trouble while the four ex-Pac-12 schools would be the leaders of a new-look West Division. Adding just USC and UCLA creates a potential scenario where one Illinois-based program is in the East and the other is in the West.

Still, Kliavkoff seems confident that the programs will stick around.

"Listen, I think if schools would have left for the Big Ten, they would have left for the Big Ten already," Kliavkoff said on the podcast. "Also, I'm very focused on things that are in my control."

USC will be without wide receiver Gary Bryant Jr. for the rest of the season and perhaps beyond that.

Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley told reporters Bryant is expected to redshirt for the remainder of the 2022 campaign.

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport noted he "was a potential top prospect for this year's NFL Draft" and will "strongly consider transferring and will be highly sought after if/when he does."

Bryant arrived at USC as a 4-star prospect in the 2020 recruiting class, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

While he wasn't much of a contributor as a freshman, he turned the corner as a sophomore with 44 catches for 579 yards and seven touchdowns along with one rushing touchdown. He was third on the team in receiving yards and tied Drake London with the most touchdown catches.

Considering London is now on the Atlanta Falcons, Bryant seemed like a logical candidate to put up monster numbers in 2022.

Yet he had just two catches for 15 yards in USC's first three games even though the offense had no trouble scoring points in three blowout wins. He was behind Pittsburgh transfer Jordan Addison and Oklahoma transfer Mario Williams in the wide receiver pecking order and now may look elsewhere to continue his collegiate career.

The Trojans hit the transfer portal hard this offseason after hiring Riley away from Oklahoma, notably bringing in former Sooners quarterback Caleb Williams amid a number of moves.

Caleb Williams already had an established rapport with Mario Williams from their time in the Big 12, and Addison is arguably the best wide receiver in the country. That didn't leave much room for Bryant to take the next step from an individual perspective, and it appears his time at USC may be coming to a close.

The University of Oregon released a statement Sunday apologizing to Brigham Young University after Ducks fans chanted "f--k the Mormons" during a 41-20 win.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox retweeted a video of the NSFW chants Sunday:

"In Oregon, we strive to be a welcoming, inclusive state to all, regardless of race, religion, gender, or background," the state's governor, Kate Brown, added in a tweet. "Our state and nation have an ugly history of discrimination and bigotry. The chant at yesterday's Oregon-BYU game was unacceptable. We must do better."

Last season, USC fans directed offensive chants toward BYU fans during a 35-31 Cougars win at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The school said in a statement at the time that the chanting "does not align with our Trojan values. It was distasteful and we apologize to the BYU program."

The Arizona State Sun Devils will be searching for a new head coach.

The school announced Sunday that Herm Edwards will no longer be its head coach following Saturday night's loss against Eastern Michigan that dropped the team to 1-2 this season. Edwards was hired as head coach in December 2017.

ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that Arizona State players were brought in earlier in the day to be informed of the school's decision.

The Sun Devils surrendered 458 total yards to the Eagles on Saturday, 305 of which came on the ground, for Eastern Michigan's first win over a Pac-12 team in program history. It was Arizona State's second straight loss allowing over 450 yards of total offense, following last week's 34-17 clunker against Oklahoma State.

Edwards ends his run at Arizona State with a combined record of 26-20 over four-plus seasons, including 17-14 in conference games. He was also 1-2 in bowl games.

When Edwards accepted the position with the Sun Devils, it had been nearly a decade since he was involved in coaching. The 68-year-old was head coach of the New York Jets from 2001 to 2005 and then the Kansas City Chiefs from 2006 to 2008 before transitioning to an analyst for ESPN.

Edwards' tenure coming to an end is not without some controversy. Arizona State is under investigation by the NCAA for alleged recruiting violations. Five coaches parted ways with the program amid the investigation, and it also impacted the team's recruiting class this year.

The Sun Devils have not yet announced who will serve as interim coach. Arizona State returns to action against No. 13 Utah on Saturday.