Pac-12 Week One The Good, The Bad & The Unknown: Pac-12 stagefright?

The Good

Utah's muscle on opening night - The Utes were the first Pac-12 team to take center stage and they may have put together the best performance of the week in one of the biggest games in program history. The offense didn't do much, but they weren't expected to and the defense took care of business much like they did last season. The Utes showed that last season wasn't a fluke by beating a solid program.

Oregon's offense and Vernon Adams - Adams looked the part of the kind of QB that can take care of business in the Oregon offense with efficient grace. Even if it was against Adams' former FCS comrades, the Ducks made putting up 61 points look easy the way only they can and without Marcus Mariota.

Josh Rosen - Rosen had as good of an opening game for a true freshman at any position that I can remember and he did it against a defense that actually really frustrated UCLA last year. Based on the massive sample of one game against one of the college football's worst programs from a major conference, Rosen looks like he could end up being much better than Brett Hundley.

USC not having a hangover - The Trojans and Steve Sarkisian could not afford to follow up weeks of intense preseason controversy with a sloppy performance in their opener against a very over-matched opponent. The Trojans did just what they needed to do to try and put Sark's issues  in the rear-view mirror and focus on their season.

The Bear Raid - Yes, it was against an FCS opponent, but the Bears looked like they have an offense that could be right up there with Oregon and USC this season.

The Bad

Pac-12 stagefright? Maybe all of the off-season talk of the Pac-12 surpassing the SEC got to the conference's head because the Pac-12 wasn't great in week one. Stanford got upset by a low-level Big Ten opponent, Washington State got beat by an FCS opponent, Arizona State got gashed late in the conference's most high profile game,Colorado got upset by Hawaii and Arizona, Oregon and Oregon State won, but showed a lot of flaws against poor opponents.

Washington State - The Cougars are dead on arrival in 2015. It's one thing to get beat by an FCS team, it's another to get beat by one like Portland State that has been destroyed even by bad Pac-12 teams almost every time they have met. It has to be pretty dark in Pullman.

The North - The division looks like it could be an utter mess outside of Oregon and maybe Cal.

Stanford and Kevin Hogan - Any hopes for Hogan finally turning the corner are probably dead. Any hopes for Stanford finally coming back down to Earth as many have predicted for years are rising.

Colorado's late night luau - Losing at Hawaii is no longer excusable, especially for a program that really needed to sweep their soft non-conference schedule to have a shot at making a bowl game and showing improvement on paper.

Arizona State's fourth quarter - The Sun Devils weren't looking great, but they were right in the thick of it in maybe the nation's premier game for week one before the sky fell in the fourth quarter. Most concerning were the struggles of an Arizona State offense that had some high expectations.

Oregon's defense - Yes, Eastern Washington has carved up Pac-12 defenses in the past, but never a team that is the level of Oregon. It looks like the Ducks' pass defense could cost them down the road if it doesn't improve and imagine what would have happened had Eastern Washington's best player not been suiting up for Oregon.

The Unknown

Washington? The Huskies had a truly putrid first half against Boise State, but scratched and clawed on defense and special teams to nearly take a ranked team to overtime on the road with a true freshman quarterback.That sounds good on paper, but can Washington compete with an offense that looked as limited as they did? And how good Boise State really?

Can Colorado/Stanford/Washington State recover? Nothing takes the air out of a season faster than an opening week upset. Can these programs get over their opening week belly flops and fulfill their potential. I am especially worried about Colorado and Washington State, who came into the season with coaches who were already heading towards hot seats.

Is Oregon and Adams ready for the big time? The Ducks showed that they can still smoothly rip off 61 against a very good FCS program with Adams, but Michigan State in East Lansing is a whole nother ball game. Are the Ducks ready to fight to keep their seat among the nation's elite?