ESPN's Bellotti Picks His Top 5 Pac-12 Teams, Leaves Off Arizona

Just another ESPN analyst making Pac-12 predictions which do not include Arizona as a top team in the conference. This time it is ESPN college football analyst Mike Bellotti, name sound familiar?

Jul 31, 2015; Burbank, CA, USA; Southern California Trojans quarterback Cody Kessler at Pac-12 Media Day at Warner Bros. Studios. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Here is Mikes list in reverse order with his reasoning:

5. Stanford – Kevin Hogan back at Quarterback, Offense has to be better
4. Arizona State – Todd Graham has done a great job, deep at running back, a lot of returning starters
3. UCLA – Talented team, Miles Jack at running back, destroyed USC for a couple of years in a row
2. Oregon – Have been an elite team in the nation for many years, doesn’t know about the quarterback
1. USC – Cody Kessler returning starting quarterback, knows where to go, has a lot of weapons, SC mystic coming back, will win for the first time in six years

Watch the segment ‘College football analyst Mike Bellotti ranks the top five teams in the Pac–12‘ for yourself:

Well isn’t that special.

Who is Mike Bellotti you ask? His name should ring a bell. I think it is important to know who is doing the predicting, and what their experience is. This type of ranking usually comes as a result from SEC and ACC football centric media, but not Bellotti, he’s a Pac-12 expert from the inside:

"Robert Michael “Mike” Bellotti (born December 21, 1950) is an American college football analyst for ESPN and ABC. He was with the University of Oregon’s football program for over 20 years serving as offensive coordinator for six years, head coach for 14 years, and athletic director for one year. Bellotti is the winningest coach in Oregon football history and is credited with building the program into a major football power. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2014."

Dec 31, 2014; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats quarterback Anu Solomon (12) throws during the second half against the Boise State Broncos in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl at Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

The shocker for most folks is that Mike does not pick Oregon as becoming the Pac-12 champion this season. What is more shocking to me is that Arizona, the Pac-12 South champion from last year isn’t even in the conversation.

Once again, I am finding myself making the case for Arizona Athletics, this time the football team.

He cites the reason he is foreseeing USC as winning the Pac-12 is because they have a returning experienced quarterback.

Excuse me, but wouldn’t that be the argument for Arizona? Anu Solomon is returning and coming of a stellar freshman season making 313 out of 540 passes and throwing for a total of 3,793 yards, making 28 touchdowns and only sacrificing nine interceptions.

UCLA made his list and they aren’t starting an experienced quarterback. In fact, Mora was chewing out his QB Josh Rosen yesterday, “”You’re not at … Bellflower St. John Bosco anymore!” Mora screamed. “That’s why you have not been named the starter.” That’s rough! Mora said he wanted to toughen him up and didn’t care who was watching, that’s how he is in practice.

Anu is also a dual threat quarterback, and been given this title by many in sports media. USA Today’s Dan Wolken feels the Pac-12’s 2015 starting quarterback class may rank with its best and names Anu as the single Dual-threat quarterback in the Pac-12:

"But the glut of talent entering 2015 is staggering, whether it’s legitimate pro prospects (USC’s Cody Kessler, California’s Jared Goff, Stanford’s Kevin Hogan), dynamic dual-threats (Arizona’s Anu Solomon), veterans who are primed to capitalize on starting opportunities (Arizona State’s Mike Bercovici) and potential stars (UCLA’s Josh Rosen)."

Just to be fair, Wolken also mentions that Cody Kessler was overlooked because of the over the top season Marcus Mariota was having.

Arizona State made the list because they have a lot of returning starters. That can go both ways though. Either they are experienced and they come in guns blazing, or there are no surprises and a good coach can find weaknesses in their players because they have all the tape from the previous season as well as lessons learned. Sometimes new blood isn’t a bad thing.

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Since Rich Rod is going into his fourth year, there are still players left from the Mike Stoops era, so we really haven’t yet seen an entire team of Rich Rod recruits, the type with something to prove and who were mostly overlooked or felt slighted on star assignment during the recruiting process.

In my opinion, since Oregon is in the Pac-12 North division, they will have an easier time making it to the Pac-12 Championship game. Seems like Stanford will be their biggest obstacle according to a number of sports writers.

In the Pac-12 South, it’s going to be a war with many huge battles fought. Even former Buckeye and Minnesota Viking ESPN analyst Robert Smith stated on the morning sports show ‘Mike and Mike’ that he felt the SEC, then the Pac-12 South would be the toughest divisions in the NCAA next season. Smith did not include either Oregon or Stanford in his top two.

Bolletti does speak about coaches influence on his ranking, but never mentions Arizona Head Coach Rich Rodriguez. One would think after last season’s performance, he would at least give a special mention to what he accomplished last year much to everyone’s surprise, but no, nothing was said.

ESPN’s Bellotti Picks His Top 5 Pac-12 Teams and Leaves Off Arizona

By Shereen Rayan | Aug 21, 2015

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