Stephen Vilardo’s Week 8 Matchups by the Numbers

Posted on October 22, 2021


  By Stephen Vilardo, SuperWest Sports

Oregon and UCLA share the college football spotlight for their meeting in the Rose Bowl.

Pac-12USC and Washington State step out of the Conference.

The Trojans will try to gain possession of the jeweled Shillelagh for the first time since 2016. The Cougs do battle with their namesake as BYU tries to improve to 4-0 against Pac-12 opponents on the season.

Washington and Arizona open the weekend with a Friday night meeting in Tucson as the Wildcats will try to break their 18-game losing streak.

Colorado and Cal meet in Berkeley and will surely hope to light the scoreboard first. While Utah and Oregon State match strengths of tackles for loss for and against in Corvallis.

A lot of these notes and more as we get you ready for this week in the Pac-12.

Washington football pac-12
Arizona football Pac-12
Washington Huskies at Arizona Wildcats

ESPN2 | Clay Matvick, Rocky Boiman & Tiffany Blackmon | Friday, 7:30 pm PT

Series: Washington leads 23-11-1 and 9-7-1 in Tucson

• Washington is one of just three teams that are still perfect in the Red Zone. 

• Arizona’s 18-game losing streak is the longest in the nation. 

• Arizona has lost their last 15 conference games by an average of 22 points per game, 39.3-17.3

• Washington has allowed just one play of at least 40 yards from scrimmage, tied for the second fewest in the nation. 

• All three of Washington’s conference games this season have been decided by seven points or less

• Arizona has only had three plays this season cover at least 40 yards, that is 111th in the nation.

• Washington and Arizona rank first and second in the Pac-12 in passing defense with the Huskies allowing 153.2 per game and the Wildcats allowing 169.7. Those numbers rank fourth and 10th in the nation.

• Washington has gone 81 games in a row without allowing an opponent to score more than 35 points, it is the Huskies’ longest such streak since an 83-game streak from 1975-1982. That streak ended on October 23, 1982.

• Race Porter ranks eighth in the nation with a 47.6-yard punt average.

• 264 of Stanley Berryhill’s 445 yards this season have been after the catch.

• Arizona has forced just six turnovers this season.

• Jalen McMillian is averaging 3.8 receptions per game, the 10th-most of any Freshman in the nation.

BYU Cougars at Washington State Cougars

FS1 | Cory Provus and Mark Helfrich | 12:30 p.m. PT

Series: BYU leads 3-1, this is the first meeting in Pullman

• Washington State has forced 15 turnovers this season, tied for the ninth-most in the nation and the most in the Pac-12.

• WSU’s eight forced fumbles are the third-most in the nation.

• BYU 3-0 against the Conference of Champions, with wins over Arizona, Utah and Arizona State earlier this season. 

• Puka Nacua ranks third nationally with an average reception of 22.2 yards.

• Tyler Allgeier has nine rushing TDs this season, the ninth most in the nation.

• Ryan Rehkow is averaging 49.0 yards per punt this season, the fourth-best in the nation.

• Jaren Hall has thrown for at least 300 yards in each of the last two games.

• Jayden de Laura has 3 straight games with 3 passing TD and leads the Pac-12 with 15 passing TD this season

• Max Borghi has 25 career rush TD, tied with Jerome Harrison for 2nd most in WSU history

• Jahad Woods is fifth in Washington State history with 364 career tackles.

• Jayden De Laura is responsible for 16.0 points per game, the 19th most among FBS players.

• De’Zhaun Stribling is tied for ninth in the nation among Freshmen with three receiving TDs.

Colorado Buffaloes at California Golden Bears

P12N | Roxy Bernstein and Lincoln Kennedy | 12:30 p.m. PT

Series: Cal leads the series 6-4 and is 4-0 vs the Buffs in Berkeley 

• Cal has outscored Colorado 154-84 all-time in their four meetings in Berkeley.

• The team that scored first in this series is 8-2 all-time.

• Last week was Colorado’s first shutout over an FBS opponent since a 34-0 win at Oklahoma State on Oct. 1, 2005.

• Four of California’s five losses this season are by seven points or less.

• Nate Landman leads the nation with 7.2 solo tackles per game.

• Last week was just the second time in their last 10 games that Colorado threw for more than 200 yards.

• Colorado has only allowed two plays this season of 40+ yards, tied for the fourth fewest in the nation.

• Chase Garbers needs two yards to tie Joe Kapp for the most career rushing yards by a Cal QB with 931.

• Chase Garbers has 38 plays of 15+ yards in 2021.

• Cameron Goode has 25.0 TFL (tackles for loss) since the start of 2019, the fourth-most of any active Power 5 player.

• Nikko Remigio is 15th in the nation with a kickoff return average of 27.2 yards.

Oregon Ducks Logo Pac-12
Oregon Ducks at UCLA Bruins

ABC | Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Holly Rowe | 12:30 p.m. PT

Series: UCLA leads the all-time series 40-30 and 25-13 at home

• Oregon is 8-1 in their last nine against UCLA.

• UCLA’s last win over a Top 10 ranked opponent in a game played in the Rose Bowl was in 2007 against No. 9 Oregon. 

• The last Bruin win over a Top 10-ranked program was in 2010 at No. 7 Texas.

• Oregon is 3-0 under Mario Cristobal in games played in Southern California, 2-0 at USC and 1-0 in Rose Bowl (vs Wisconsin).

• Oregon is outscoring opponents 72-31 in the fourth quarter this season.

• Johnny Johnson and Jaylon Redd have combined for 31 career receiving TDs the second most of any Power 5 teammates.

• Last week, Travis Dye became the only FBS running back this season to have at least 140 rushing yards and 70 receiving yards in a game, and the first Pac-12 player to achieve that feat since Christian McCaffrey in 2016.

• Verone McKinley III leads the nation with four interceptions this season.

• Noah Sewell is averaging 10.2 tackles per game in the last four games.

• Kayvon Thibodeaux has 26.5 TFL since the start of 2019, the third-most of any active Power 5 player.

• UCLA has outrushed its last 13 opponents which is the longest school streak since a 15-game stretch over the 1984-85 seasons.

• Dorian Thompson-Robinson is 15th in the NCAA with a Pac-12 leading 14.05 yards per completion.

• Dorian Thompson-Robinson leads the Pac-12 and is 24th in the nation with a passer rating of 156.1.

• Kyle Philips ranks 12th in the nation with a Pac-12-best six receiving TDs this season.

• Greg Dulcich is fifth nationally among TEs with 17.8 yards per reception.

• UCLA has run for at least 200 yards in six of their seven games this season.

usc logoUSC Trojans at Notre Dame Fighting Irish

NBC | Mike Tirico, Drew Brees & Kathryn Tappen | 4:30 p.m. PT

Series: Irish lead 49-37-5 and 27-14-1 in South Bend

• Brian Kelly is 7-3 vs USC as head coach of Notre Dame.

• USC has won eight straight road games, the second-longest active streak in the nation. The Trojans last road loss was at Notre Dame in 2019.

• USC has not won in South Bend since 2011

• Notre Dame has won 36 straight games against unranked opponents.

• USC is 98-47-4 in regular season games following a bye.

• All-time, USC is 5-1 against Notre Dame following a bye week.

• USC has scored at least 20 points in 216 of its past 249 games.

• USC has allowed 11.7 points per game in their three wins this season and 43.0 in their three losses.

• Drake London has four-straight games with 100+ receiving yards, becoming the first Trojan to do that since Nelson Agholor in 2014.

• Drake London ranks second in the nation in receptions per game with 10.7 and receiving yards per game with 138.7.

• The Trojans are seventh nationally with a Red Zone success rate of .960.

• Kyle Hamilton is tied for 20th in the nation with 1.2 passes defended per game.

• Hamilton is tied for seventh nationally with 0.7 interceptions per game.

• Notre Dame has been ranked in the AP Top 25 for 70-consecutive weeks, the longest such streak for the Irish since the 1994 season and the third-longest active streak in the nation.

• Notre Dame has outscored opponents 76-48 in the fourth quarter this season.

Utah Utes at Oregon State Beavers

P12N | Ted Robinson and Yogi Roth | 4:30 p.m. PT

Series: Tied 11-11-1 all-time with the Beavers owning a 6-5-1 edge in Corvallis

• The Utes have won five in a row over the Beavers, and three in a row over OSU in Reser Stadium

• Utah has won their last six Pac-12 games, the longest streak of any team in the conference and tied for the sixth longest active conference winning streak in the nation.

• Oregon State is 3-0 at home this season, their best start at home since winning the first five in 2012.

• Avery Roberts of Oregon State ranks fourth in the nation with 10.3 total tackles per game while Utah’s Devin Lloyd is sixth with 10.2 per game.

• Devin Lloyd leads the nation with 2.2 TFL per game.

• Utah is looking to start 4-0 in conference play for the first time since joining the Pac-12.

• Utah ranks first in the Pac-12 and 18th in the FBS in team tackles for loss (7.0) and sacks per game (3.0).

• Utah has limited opponents to 103.3 rushing yards per game in their last three games.

• Oregon State is allowing just 3.0 TFL per game, the third-fewest in the nation and the best mark in the Pac-12.

• OSU has intercepted 10 passes this season, tied for the most in the Pac-12 and fifth most in the nation.

• Oregon State is converting on 51.4% of third downs this season, the sixth-best rate in the country.

• Rejzohn Wright is tied for 20th in the nation with 1.2 passes defended per game.

• B.J. Baylor has nine rushing TDs, tied for the ninth most in the country.

• Baylor has run for at least 100 yards in his last three games.


Byes: Arizona State and Stanford

Follow Stephen on Twitter @StephenVilardo and his organization @SERCenter.

Visit his website at sercstats.com.




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