Pac-10 teams ride an emotional rollercoaster

Every week, Pac-10 teams climb aboard an emotional rollercoaster, buckle themselves in and hang on tight.

It's anybody's guess where how this wild ride will end. But think about how it started.

Drubbed by Boise State 19-8 on national television on Sept. 3, Oregon endured further embarrassment when tailback LeGarrette Blount punched out a Broncos player after the game. One month later, the seemingly bereft Ducks have climbed to No. 13 after beating two ranked opponents and burying their first two Pac-10 opponents by a combined score of 94-9.

Who are these guys?

California fans are asking the same thing about their beloved Golden Bears. In eight dizzying days, Cal plummeted from No. 6 in The Associated Press Top 25 to ninth place in the Pac-10.

After taking an early 3-0 lead at Oregon two weeks ago, Cal watched the Ducks reel off the next 42 points, and one week later Cal fell behind USC 23-0 on its way to a 30-3 loss.

A team with national title dreams is searching for answers after being outscored 65-0 during most of the two biggest games of its season.

Paging Dr. Phil...

Meanwhile, the Arizona State Sun Devils went down to Georgia on Sept. 26, looking for a game to steal. Late on a rainy night, ASU lined up for the potential winning field goal, but the Bulldogs blocked the kick, then won the game with a field goal in the final seconds.

One week later, the Sun Devils sleepwalked to a 21-3 second-quarter deficit against Oregon State and were booed off their own field in a 28-17 loss. Suddenly, a team that might have been a field goal away from the Top 25 two weeks ago is wondering if it can beat lowly Washington State.

It seems as if coaches sometimes need a psychologist more than an offensive or defensive coordinator.

"The game of football, in any league that you're in - whether it's high school, whether it's college or whether it's the National Football League - there are emotional ups and downs," Arizona State coach Dennis Erickson said. "I mean, you see it all the time. That's why there are a lot of upsets."

Emotion is important in the NFL, but veterans become accustomed to the highs and lows of a 17-week season. And a paycheck is a powerful motivator.

In the college game, some players are only a year or two out of high school and still adjusting to life on campus. They're learning to live on their own at the same time they're learning the playbook.

"You've got so many other things going on with school, maybe personal life issues," Arizona senior nose tackle Donald Horton said. "A mature, older man has seen it all, done it all. He'll say, 'OK, I know how to get through this,' whereas a young guy, it's all fresh and brand new to him. That stuff really does transfer over to the field."

There's no frame-of-mind statistic. But there's little doubt it matters as much as time of possession on any given Saturday.

"I think it's incredibly important," UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said. "It's a very passionate game. Passion feeds upon itself."

Emotion can contribute to some head-scratching results.

Sept. 12: No. 3 Southern California 18, No. 8 Ohio State 15.

Afterward, Trojans coach Pete Carroll had a ready answer when he was reminded that his team had gone belly-up at Oregon State after a rousing victory over the Buckeyes last year.

"I already started in the locker room," he said. "We went right at that."

Sept. 19: Washington 16, No. 3 Southern California 13.

The Pac-10 is so balanced this year that an emotional edge can often mean the difference on the scoreboard. Good luck finding the edge.

"Coaches are always trying to pull the right levers and push the right buttons to get their team to play at a level they're capable of," Neuheisel said. "It's a fine line. I'm not sure anybody's got the exact answer."

Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said he thinks players take their emotional cues from the coaches. "In my opinion, it starts with the staff," he said.

Erickson, by contrast, puts the onus on his players to be emotionally prepared.

"You can be a coach and do backflips and whatever, (but) they've got to do it themselves," Erickson said. "That comes from within, obviously."

Washington knows how fast an emotional edge can disappear.

One week after upsetting USC, U-Dub strutted into a game against Stanford at Palo Alto with a ranking next to its name for the first time in six years. The good feelings lasted until the opening kickoff, which the Cardinal returned for a touchdown en route to a 34-14 beatdown of the soon-to-be-unranked Huskies.

The skeptics figured Washington, winless last year, would revert to futility. But the Huskies pulled themselves together and played well enough to win in a 37-30 overtime loss at Notre Dame last week.

Which Huskies team will show up for this week's home game against Arizona?

Every coach asks the same question about his team every week. Few seem to know the answer until the whistle blows on Saturday.

Erickson said he was puzzled by ASU's flat start against Oregon State last weekend, and several days later he still didn't have an answer.

Even after 21 seasons as a college head coach, Erickson finds himself guessing at how to control his team's emotions.

"If a guy had the answer for that, I'd love to talk to him for a long time, because it's hard," Erickson said.