By Jay Jones on June 3, 2008
Here’s Phil Steele’s 2008 Pac-10 Al Conference selections. You can take a look at the entire list here.
If you’re only interested in Oregon players on the list, here you go.
Phil Steele’s 2008 Pac-10 All Conference
1st Team Offense
C Max Unger, Oregon
OT Fenuki Tupou, Oregon
2nd Team Offense
RB Jeremiah Johnson, Oregon
WR Jaison Williams, Oregon
TE Ed Dickson, Oregon
3rd Team Offense
None
4th Team Offense
None
1st Team Defense
DE Nick Reed, Oregon
CB Walter Thurmond, Oregon
CB Jairus Byrd, Oregon
SS Patrick Chung, Oregon
2nd Team Defense
None
3rd Team Defense
P Josh Syria, Oregon
4th Team Defense
DT Will Tukuafu, Oregon
LB Jerome Boyd, Oregon
Here’s how the numbers break down:
USC 23
Arizona 14
Oregon 12
ASU 11
Cal 10
Stanford 10
UCLA 9
OSU 8
UW 8
WSU 7
Bottom-line:
For the sake of this blog entry, let’s say that Phil Steele is the smartest man in the world, and can predict the future.
If these numbers are indicative of the talent on each of the Pac-10 teams, then Arizona’s Mike Stoops better win some games this year. Steele rates Tuitama as the second best in the conference. Just yesterday, the Sporting News’ Matt Hayes ranked Tuitama as the tenth best in the all of the BCS conferences.
And it looks like Stanford has some players, as well. Although, I don’t think the pressure is on Stanford’s Jim Harbaugh, in only his second year.
Is it any surprise that USC has the most talent? I don’t think so.
And it looks like Oregon State’s Sammie Stroughter is the only player that’s listed on both sides of the ball…and on the first teams.
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jtlight Says:
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:51 am
I think that Steele’s assessments are incredibly fair to Oregon, and he is one of the top analysts in college football.
I was a bit surprised to see our secondary with 3 of the top 4, just because most people haven’t done that, but I’m not going to argue. I think we have the best tackling secondary that I’ve seen, and all 3 of those guys are playmakers. If we even get adequate play out of Ward, the secondary will be stellar.
BigDucky Says:
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:58 am
Wait!….I read earlier this week that Dickson was the best TE in the conference and in the top 5 in the BCS conferences. Steele has him ranked 2nd team? What’s the deal?
nate in albany Says:
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:58 am
TJ Ward was a MONSTER last season on special teams. The kid was a tackling machine. He made plays all over the field. If I remember correctly he’s a former CornerBack?
I read where MB said he was doing really well in Spring Ball and really starting to get a grasp of the Defense. I think Ward will be a welcome addition to the DB’s.
Jay Says:
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:06 am
BigDucky -
Steele has Dickson #2 in the conference. And Hayes has him as one of the best in the country.
Hayes also lists Tuitama as a Top 10 QB. While Steele has ASU’s Rudy Carpenter as the Pac-10’s best.
Just a slight difference of opinion.
Jay
DSN
Will5 Says:
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:50 pm
To take the analysis a step further I weighted the importance of having so many 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th team players per team just to see how it looked, so I awarded each team’s 1st team players with 4 points each, 3 for 2nd team, etc.. Here’s the order and number of points for Offense/Defense/Combined:
USC - 21/40/61
Oregon - 17/20/37
Arizona St. - 16/14/30
Arizona - 23/6/29
California - 9/16/25
UCLA - 3/20/23
Oregon St. - 11/10/21
Stanford - 6/14/20
Washington - 10/7/17
Washington St. - 8/5/13
Jay Says:
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Will5 -
I like the initiative! Nice work.
Again, Coach Stoops is going to have some explaining to do if he doesn’t win this year.
Jay
DSN
DuckD Says:
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Will5-
The thing that really strikes me about your breakdown is that I could seriously see that being how the conference shakes out this year 1-10.
Will5 Says:
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Jay -
You’re right about Stoops; it looks like he’s going to rely heavily on his offense to keep the team afloat, but when his offense goes against a strong defense like USC’s (or Oregon’s), it’s going to show Arizona’s weaknesses big-time.
DuckD -
I know. Depending on Steele’s criteria for choosing which players make more (or less) impact, this number could be approaching a more (or less) scientific level of accuracy.
Of course factors like underrated players stepping up or freshman making unexpected impacts will change the accuracy of these predictions. But hey, that’s what makes college football fun!