Pac 12 Coaching Changes

It has been a whirlwind week in the Pac 12, making the Conference's first championship game seem a bit anticlimactic. Here is a summary of what happened:

Rick Neuheisel of the UCLA Bruins was fired following last weekeend's 50-0 loss to No. 9 SoCal.

Dennis Erickson was fired from Arizona State around the same time.

Paul Wulff was dismissed from Washington State while the Cougars hired Mike Leach, former Texas Tech coach.


Rick Neuheisel is headed for his last game with the Bruins (6-6, 5-4), and a challenging one at that as he faces the Oregon Ducks (10-2, 8-1).

Arizona State's James Brooks Leaves Team

Arizona State's defensive end James Brooks is leaving the team for personal reasons and it was announced by the school today. Brooks was going to be a senior and had started at defensive end for the team the last two seasons. He recorded 25 tackles and 7.5 tackles for loss last season. He also blocked two field goals in the game against Arizona. Brooks is a 6 foot 5 280 lb beast. Coach Dennis Erickson had this to say:

"James has done a lot of great things for our football program. We will continue to help him in any way we can."

This is a huge blow to the Sun Devils who were many people's preseason favorite to win the Pac 12 south. They had already lost four starters form the 2010 team including All Pac 10 cornerback Omar Bolden and starting quarterback Steven Threet. The defensive end position was supposed to be the Sun Devil's strongest but it does not look like that will be the case anymore.

Pac 12 Football Star Watch: Vontaze Burfict

One thing is for sure when talking about this years Arizona State Sun Devils, this team goes as Vontaze Burfict goes. Burfict is by far the best player on the Sun Devils. Burfict, was recruited by USC, but opted to play at Arizona State because he wanted to be a star. Well, I've got some news for you Vontaze, you were definitely going to be a star even if you had gone to USC. Burfict is so intense and fast that he has been compared to Ray Lewis in terms of his physical skills as well.

Arizona State is a potential top 25 team next season. There is a lot of speculation that Dennis Erickson is on thin ice there so maybe his players can crank it up and try to have a really good season for him.

If you love a team in the Pac 12 and are playing Arizona State, keep your eyes on Burfict. He'll be the guy who is flying around the ball making a ton of plays. No team is safe from an upset against the Burfict led Sun Devils because of the effect he has on a game.