West Coast Football Power Rankings for Week 5

4 games into the college football season and we are starting to get a taste of who is good and who isn’t out west. This highly scientific poll based on my personal opinion ranks all the teams in the Pac-12 and Mountain West, + BYU + Weber. 

1. Cal: The mighty Golden Bears of Berkely are the Pac 12’s only undefeated team left and possibly their final hope for making the playoffs (Good luck). They have not entirely over-powered anyone in any game, (ex: Cal 23, North Texas 17), but their victory over Ole Miss and their one-point win over Washington in Seattle puts them number one on the list.
2. Washington: The lightning delay game against Cal was probably a fluke and the Huskies would likely win in a rematch, but we here at PMH respect head to head wins and therefore put Cal ahead. Anyways, Washington QB Jake Eason is playing well, and UW is coming off two impressive victories over BYU and Hawaii and looks like the best team in the Pac-12.
3. Oregon: Oh ducks. Ya blew it. With the whole country watching opening weekend you let a 15-point lead slip away while Auburn Freshman Bo Nix rallied his team to victory. Oregon has played well since then and will give the Huskies a run for their money in the north.
4. Boise State: The highest-ranked G5 team in the country continues to win games, though their week 1 win over Florida St. looks less and less impressive as the season goes on.
5. USC: The Trojans are coming off a signature victory at home against the Utes. Their QB’s are dropping like flies but the backups continue to step up. Just imagine how good their 4th stringer is…
6. Utah: Utah fans are acting like they just got relegated to the FCS after their underwhelming performance in LA. Relax Utes. Depending on Zach Moss’s status, they should be able to bounce back and make a run for the South. Surely a team coached by Clay Helton isn’t going beat them out, right?
7. Utah State: Jordan Love, the pride of Bridgerland, just might be the best QB in this poll. The Aggies had a huge win down in San Diego Saturday night and are looking like a threat in the Mountain West. That lone loss to Wake Forrest in week 1 is going to be one they wish they had back.
8. BYU: The Cougars have had the toughest first 4 games of anyone out west, and came out a respectable 2-2. The worst news out of Provo is that wrecking ball Ty’son Williams is out for the season with a torn ACL.
9. Arizona State: The Sun-Devils just pulled the classic Pac-12 move. Beat a ranked team in Michigan St. and seem like a quality team, and follow it by losing to a mediocre conference opponent on a network that nobody watches.
10. San Diego State: San Diego State’s defense is good, like really good. They held UCLA to 14, USU to 16 (one of the Aggies’ touchdowns was a pick-six) and are not going to bow down to anyone. Too bad their offense can’t seem to get things going.
11. Hawaii: Them Fightin’ Rainbow Warriors are tied with USC for having more Pac-12 wins than anyone else this season. The only downside is that they can’t seem to defend the forward pass. SDSU’s defense and Hawaii’s Offense combined would make a pretty formidable threat.
12. Air Force: The Flyin’ Falcons showed us who runs the Centennial State with a marquee victory over Colorado, but took the L against a better team in Boise St.
13. Colorado: Quality wins over Nebraska and Arizona State are fun and all, but Air Force’s triple-option was a bit too much to handle.
14. Arizona: The Wildcats appear average again this season, but did have a nice win against Texas Tech. Nobody in the Pac-12 can overlook Kahil Tate though.
15. Nevada: That opening weekend win over Purdue was pretty epic. But all the excitement quickly faded away when they got wrecked by Oregon.
16. Washington State: Mike, buddy, c’mon. I know you’re an offensive guru and all, but giving up 67 points to UCLA?? Bro… The Cougars have yet to prove to me that they are better than anyone else ahead of them on this list.
17. Stanford: The Cardinal seem a little down this season and have been taking some licks against some good teams. A trip to Corvallis Saturday may help them regroup.
18. Fresno State: The defending Mountain West champions have yet to do anything eye-opening this season. They were competitive in losses against USC and Minnesota but looked a bit lackadaisical against Sacramento St.
19. Wyoming: Cowboys, I was hoping y’all were legit… Tulsa proved otherwise. But they still have a win over Missouri to hang their hat on.
20. UCLA: The Bruins dropping 50 points in the second half in Pullman to win is single handily the greatest Pac 12 after-dark occurrence of all time. But they are still 1-3 with a ton of question marks.
21. San Jose State: I thought these guys would be hanging out at the bottom of the list next to New Mexico, but the football gods had other things in store, granting them a miracle win against Arkansas. Picking off QB Nick Starkel 5 times certainly helped. Don’t kid yourself though; the Spartans are still awful.
22. Weber St: The Wildcats have a better defense than several Mountain West teams and even some teams from the Pac-12 (Looking at you Wazzou and UCLA). They are that good. But the fact that they’re an FCS school still shows on the offensive side of the ball and keeps them pretty low on the list.
23. Oregon State: Ya know the Beavers might want to see what Dennis Erickson is up to.
24. Colorado State: Getting whacked around by your in state-rival and then by a team that lost to San Jose St. is not a good look.
25. UNLV: The Rebels are hot trash. What else is new in Vegas?
26. New Mexico: The Lobos are terrible. The end.