Pac-10 has a biggie as well in Cal-USC

After a loopy, lurching season of Pac-10 football — Oregon State dead, buried, reincarnate; Arizona ditto; Stanford somehow slinking into the victory circle — we've arrived at precisely the point most people anticipated back in August.

California at USC, Saturday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, BYOB for the BGOC — Best Game Outside Columbus.

The buzz seems somewhat muted. Perhaps that's what happens when Ohio State-Michigan dwarfs everything in the Western world. Or maybe it's the aftermath of Cal's loss at Arizona last week.

But the stakes are not trifling. A victory by USC keeps the Trojans on a course that very likely puts them in the BCS title game if they win out. A triumph by Cal is worth the Bears' first trip to the Rose Bowl since 1959, or almost back to rumble seats and raccoon coats.

Prevailing wisdom is that these two programs are like ships passing in the night — USC finally on an uptick after a sleepwalking October, Cal trending downward after a strong first half. But in the Pac-10, prevailing wisdom has usually been akin to crumpled pari-mutuel tickets underfoot at the horse track.

The player on whom falls the greatest burden Saturday is Nate Longshore, the Cal quarterback. He's symbolic — in more ways than one — of Cal's recent slide to looking pedestrian, and of the reality that Bears coach Jeff Tedford, for all his magical chemistry with that position, can't always work miracles.

Tedford has been the most proximate threat to USC's reign under Pete Carroll. But last year, Cal came up short with Joe Ayoob at quarterback. And after Longshore rebounded from the Tennessee disappointment and played strongly, he has been Joe Average lately, throwing six interceptions and seven touchdown passes in the past five games.

"There are going to be days like that," Tedford said this week, referring to Longshore's three picks at Arizona. "He's a young guy, doing a great job. He's just got to keep his head up and keep working at what he's doing."

Tedford sounded like a guy knowing his only chance is to squeeze confidence back into his quarterback.

Who knows? It's possible Longshore may find himself against the Trojans, but he's going against the Pac-10's premier defense statistically (290.1 yards allowed per game).

"They're the best defense we've played against all year long," said Oregon coach Mike Bellotti. "SC's defense is better, Cal's offense may be better. SC, at the line of scrimmage, is maybe a better football team."

Surprisingly, the Bears are only ninth in Pac-10 defense, allowing 378.5 yards per game. That suggests an opening for a USC offense that's hardly spectacular, yet effective.

The Trojans seemed dead in the water vis a vis the national title after they lost to Oregon State, until The Saturday That Was last week. Looking back, Carroll grudgingly concedes that perhaps the OSU setback was something his program needed.

"I hate to think that's what you need," he said. "We have to admit that, I guess."

Besides Longshore, here are two ways Cal can get it done: It has the league's best turnover margin at plus-8, while USC is plus-1.

And then there's the DeSean Jackson factor. The Cal wideout/punt returner has suddenly become the conference's successor to Reggie Bush's wondrousness. Jackson, who chose Cal over USC two years ago, leads the nation in punt returns and just set the Pac-10 record for season scores (4) on them.

"He's just had a huge year," said Carroll.

Fair to say, the same description is still within the grasp of either program.

Ty's guys

No doubt there are nuances in the strange saga of Washington players Michael Braunstein and Chris Hemphill to which those of us on the outside are not privy.

But a question of Tyrone Willingham's controversial decision last week seems reasonable.

First, know that players are "offed" from programs all the time, especially in basketball. Meanwhile, Willingham is attempting to resurrect Huskies football with an approach that doesn't allow for corners cut or standards compromised.

Still: Is it at all hypocritical to allow players to compete this year (and lately, excel) — for the glory of the program, and indirectly, the coach — and yet say that their conduct doesn't merit a chance to return in 2007?

This just in

The bizarre, 15-minute delay in the Oregon-USC game last week did not sit well in the office of Verle Sorgen, Pac-10 supervisor of officials. Instant replay was used to make a ruling, which was then successfully challenged by Ducks coach Mike Bellotti because he introduced new information (a tipped pass).

"I was going crazy up in the press box," said Sorgen, who thinks the NCAA rules committee may implement an NFL-style time limit on replay. "I think two minutes is a fair time.

"This was three hours and nine days."

Still, if poor Gordon Riese, the replay official who erred in the Oregon-Oklahoma game, had taken just a couple of more minutes, he and the league might have spared itself all the derision that arose from that call.

"They wouldn't have learned anything new," Sorgen insists. "They could still be up there right now, and they wouldn't have learned anything new."

Canned and canonized

Nobody ever said everything in college football made sense. North Texas has just fired a football coach who may have the school's practice field named after him.

Darrell Dickey was cashiered last week, to the dismay of wealthy booster Jim McIngvale, who took out a $5,000 ad in the Denton (Texas) Record-Chronicle requesting that the school honor Dickey with his name on the practice field.

He told the Dallas Morning News that he might ask that a $1 million donation to a UNT athletic center be redirected if the school doesn't comply with his request. President Gretchen Bataille says she's all for it.

And what's more ...

• The blown replay call in the Oregon game is looming larger with Oklahoma's unexpected resilience without RB Adrian Peterson. Without the call, the Sooners would be 9-1 and still in the national-title picture, and coach Bob Stoops is making mention of it in a campaign to get OU into a BCS bowl.

• The National Football Foundation is moving its headquarters from New Jersey to Las Colinas, Texas. It runs college football's Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., and there's speculation the hall will follow.

• With the succession of unbeatens falling in the Big East, the next to go might be Rutgers, which faces a decent (5-5) Cincinnati team Saturday on the road.

• Although Arizona coach Mike Stoops hasn't totally stolen thunder from Arizona State's Dirk Koetter, there is this: Koetter has beaten two ranked teams in six years. Stoops did it twice in eight days.

• In an odd bit of timing, USC compliance officials this week interviewed players about meals they had during recruiting trips at Papadakis Taverna, a restaurant owned by Trojans booster John Papadakis. One player, Kaluka Maiava, told the L.A. Daily News he waited about an hour to be interviewed.

• Those wondering about Pac-10 bowl possibilities for 6-6 teams might focus on Indiana-Purdue and Minnesota-Iowa games Saturday. If the Hoosiers and Gophers (each 5-6) lose, the Big Ten figures to be two short of filling its bowl tie-ups.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com