whatttttttt, would love to hear your reasoning behind this comment
1) It's not like they are world beaters. They lost to Utah and USC and won by one score against Washington, Washington State, Oregon, and ND. Notre Dame would have beat them this year with Golson, IMHO.
2) I think their QB is very mediocre
3) I think the defensive losses will be harder to replace than people think.
4) They lost a very good DC who was another part of the Harbaugh culture.
5) I think they are incredibly predictable, but no one in the Pac 12 was built to defend them.
6) USC built its defense to stop Oregon while Kiffin was there, and between that mistake and the sanctions, they ended up screwing themselves over and getting pushed around by the "Harbaughed" Stanford. They are already back up to their level.
7) Oregon, for whatever reason, seems to act like it is completly shocked to be playing a smash mouth team in the first half of its recent Stanford games, but can score on them once it gets its act together. I doubt they'll do that 3 times in a row.
8) UCLA was somewhat embarassed, but they seem to be ready for a run.
9) I think Washington is going to be interesting.
So I think they are still in the top tier of the Pac 1, but things are getting more difficult for them.