Opening The 12 Pac, August 26th: Fulfilling Destiny, Texas's Ego & Arizona ACLs

Darren Rovell on WhoSay

QUACK QUACK DARK SIDE QUACK QUACK. Oregon's newest jerseys for their opener against LSU are probably their best since their old-school 90s duds, and its symbolically Imperial black to signify the first stirrings of empire. After years of trying to gain acceptance as the feel-good story of college football, Phil Knight has finally released a Revenge of the Sith-type set to get rid of all the Attack of the Clone-Shirts. Dark and downbeat, strong with the dark side they are.

Now, if only Knight could get George Lucas to rerelease the original series in HD and acknowledge Greedo shot first, we could all move on. We all know you have the clout Phil. It is your destiny.

Oh yeah football news. Hroniss Grasu won the starting spot at center to replace Jordan Holmes. Although he's been given high praise from the dean of Pac-12 O-line coaches Steve Greatwood, expect the frequency of outside passing plays and outside zone run plays to increase next Saturday until Grasu proves he can hold the line.

Or Chip Kelly will just order four straight quarterback sneaks. To prove a point, that's all.

It's the Willie Lyles Bowl again! And someone who had nothing to do with Willie Lyles is getting punished! The NCAA could win Nobel Prizes for Obfuscation a hundred years in a row, which is probably why the award doesn't exist.

Arizona, the Purdue of the West. Everytime you think the Wildcats are ready to turn a corner, someone has to go and manually rip out their ACL, this time perhaps the best defender in all of fall camp. Jonathan McKnight is the fifth Wildcat to go down to a torn ACL since spring. What I'm trying to figure out is how Mike Stoops hasn't torn any of his ACLs yelling at everyone ingame.

UCLA might have a quarterback soon. And by soon, I mean real soon! Like maybe tomorrow! Until it changes because it always changes! I'm thrilled to be reporting on this story every day for the rest of my life.

Texas, you can't have everything you want. There have been "bridge too far" moments for the Longhorns this past year, particularly when it comes to the Pac-12. Nevertheless, trying to take away the Notre Dame-USC game from Thanksgiving weekend is their Arnhem, and the counteroffensive from the Trojan/Irish faithful will not be easy to handle. Hopefully the Longhorns have enough bags of parsohns to throw around, or they're going to have to consider option 2: Rice.

Around SB Nation

• Addicted to Quack talks about Oregon's offensive line, and how they're not quite ready to concede the edge to LSU in the trenches quite yet. Looks like one of the Oregon guard spots will be the big question mark with Ramsen Golpashin and Ryan Clanton rotating.
• Block U talks about how Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham has grown up right before their eyes. No word yet on whether they'll get him a cake.
• Building the Dam has the new Oregon State depth chart. The theme of the offense is HOLES, because there are a lot of new faces.
• California Golden Blogs discusses how much they love the Cal defensive line, because this part of California football has been good when few other things have been.
• CougCenter is putting up Craigslist ads for tight ends in the local Pullman area. This might be your time to shine, random 18-23 year old!
• The Ralphie Report likes Colorado's defensive flexibility, despite losing their top two corners.
• Reintroduce yourself to the UCLA veer play at Bruins Nation.