Around the Pac-12: Media Gets The Shortstick, LA Has Two Schools and Oregon Finds Bad Juju

Arizona had a good week. Great. Grand, even. But they're not the only Pac-12 schools pumping their fists and telling the Big Ten, Big 12 and everyone but the SEC to screw off.

UCLA literally clubbed Nebraska over the head with Johnathan Franklin, Oregon State somehow managed to win a bruising, low-scoring game against Wisconsin -- the Badgers thereafter relieved their offensive line coach -- and ASU blasted past Illinois.

Overall, the Pac-12 is bipolar. Colorado does indeed stink, and Utah's Week 1 domination turned into disaster, but THAT IS WHY WE PLAY THE GAME.

Apparently we don't need to know about injuries: In the past few days, the athletic departments for the Washington Huskies and the USC Trojans have clenched their fists and thrown punches at the media. Bob Condotta blogs that there will be no writings of strategy or injury reports without the risk of suspension from team practices -- the few that are made available as is. It's a copycat move by the athletic department at UW (Note: not by Coach Sark, who had previously been open and willing to share news about injuries) to a similar issue at USC, where Conquest Chronicles writes about the dark, dangerous road of censorship following an LA Daily News' columnist's suspension from practice. Don't think these issues aren't threatening the media in Tucson.

Just like that, UCLA is relevant again: It didn't take long for the Los Angeles media to show some love to the Bruins following their upset of then-No. 13 Nebraska. OK, sort of. I mean, they tried. Bruins Nation aptly calls this "The Local Media Discovers A Second Team In LA." Watch the video embed and the description; some USC-loving TV reporters were assigned to Bruins practice, it seems, and the results smell of ignorance and confusion. That, or they are just pretty-faced TV reporters.

Oregon fans question amount of hubris: The dudes over at Addicted to Quack are suddenly worried about that time they dismissed other-worldly powers to lead their Ducks to a Rose Bowl. After a rash of injuries hit Chip Kelly's team this week -- safety John Boyett and offensive lineman Carson York both got hurt -- do the Oregon fans bring down the tone of cockiness and outright feeling of "We'll kick anyone's ass"? Both sides are weighed. But according to the poll at the bottom of the post, 81 percent are still with the latter.

ASU looking for receivers: The ASU Sun Devils are putting up points thus far, but they're still leery of the fact that no wide receiver has separated himself from the others. Many of the passing yards are going to the running backs, and while that's part of Todd Graham's offense -- as it is with Arizona and Ka'Deem Carey at times -- ASU would like to find its next excellent pass catcher like Aaron Pflugrad or athlete like Gerell Robinson. Or both. Or neither.

Can Colorado be worse than last year: It appears that may be the case. At least, from our standpoint, they can. If you remember from last season, the Buffs made the Wildcats look like, well, the Buffs themselves. Now they're losing to Sacramento State and the like. At least Steve Physioc is no longer on the play-by-play for these. As Avinash Kunnath writes at Pacific Takes, that whole winning on the road thing alludes them, meaning that getting back on track seems less likely than Rihanna putting out a hit single this week.

Max Hall visits the depths of Hell: Former BYU quarterback Max Hall is apparently returning to Utah, where fans are apparently very mean. The guys at Block U don't think it's possible people are that cruel. Coming from Arizona, I can say that it's definitely not out of reach to say some crowds get belig. -- see water bottle throw vs. Oregon, or ASU fan bleeding all over after entering the ZonaZoo -- but I have no context to this situation. Either way, there's a funny cartoon for you.