2013 Pac-12 football preview countdown: Bill Connelly on every team, one by one

Confused? Check out the glossary here.

With Chip Kelly as head coach, I would have absolutely, positively put this team at No. 2 in the country heading into the season. And with enough time and overthinking, I could have probably talked myself into considering No. 1. With each progressing year, Kelly’s squad got deeper, faster, and simply better, and this might be the deepest, fastest, and best yet.

Confused? Check out the glossary here.

The order matters. Obviously it does. But it’s funny to think about what the story lines would be for 2013 if USC’s 2011 and 2012 seasons were reversed. After a year of scuffling in the wake of serious NCAA sanctions and Pete Carroll’s departure, and despite scholarship limitations creating a thin (and getting thinner) roster, Lane Kiffin’s Trojans surged to 10-2 in 2011, 12th overall in the F/+ rankings. In 2012, however, with a projected first-round quarterback and perhaps the best 1-2 receiver punch in the country, the Trojans sank to 7-6 and 27th.

Confused? Check out the glossary here.

Hey, did you hear I wrote a book? I wrote a book! It has a cover and everything, and soon you’ll be able to actually purchase it! Buy my book!

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They had done all of this from a mid-major conference, and now they were going to start recruiting at a major level? Utah’s ceiling seemed awfully high.

Confused? Check out the glossary here.

To the fans of teams like Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, maybe Virginia Tech, and other schools that have made a recent habit of taking lower-ranked recruits and producing higher-level results before fading in 2012, know this: There is hope. If Oregon State can bounce back from a mighty stumble, so can your team.

Confused? Check out the glossary here.

Whoops. In Rich Rodriguez’s first season as head coach in Tucson, he not only sneaked out a 7-5 season, he won an eighth game (the bowl win over Nevada) and, with three close losses, came close to even higher heights.

Confused? Check out the glossary here.

Arizona State head coach Todd Graham is a man in a hurry. His off-the-field caricature tells you that, as does the team he puts on the field. In an effort to find the right job (for the right salary), Graham jumped from Rice (2006) to Tulsa (2007-10) to Pittsburgh (2011) to Arizona State (2012). Including high schools -- Midwest City (OK), Carl Albert and Allen (TX) -- he has been a head coach in six places, and in three of them, he stayed just one season. He earned his opportunistic reputation.

Confused? Check out the glossary here.

December 12, 2001: California hires Oregon offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford to replace Tom Holmoe, who had won just 16 games in five season in charge of the Golden Bears. His 2001 team was, according to Sports-Reference’s SRS ratings system, the worst Cal team of all-time.

Confused? Check out the glossary here.

I wrote that last year, right before UCLA went out and beat USC, 38-28 (its first win over USC by double digits since 1998), to claim the Pac-12 South title.

Confused? Check out the glossary here.

In the Adj. Points measure I use below, the idea is to take a team’s performance in a given week and gauge what would have happened if that team had played a perfectly average opponent that week instead of whoever it played. It is an attempt to adjust for schedule and look at a team’s in-season trends. But really, it could also be titled “WashingtonScore.” because Washington has spent most of the last eight seasons as an almost perfectly average team.

Confused? Check out the glossary here.

We had grand visions. Mike Leach was back! There’s more fun in college football again! Let’s set up a Leach vs. Holgorsen series at Football Study Hall! Leach’s return to college football was a joyous time for the blogger community.