Colorado & Cal football: Mike MacIntyre & Sonny Dykes with impressive debuts

Anthony Cassino, UW Dawg Pound: Right now, I'm pretty skeptical of Dykes's apparent plan of having a true freshman throw the ball a thousand times this season. It's a numbers game; even a great QB is going to throw a bunch of interceptions if he's throwing 60 passes a game. I think Dykes is going to find out that it's pretty hard to win in this conference if he doesn't shift the playcalling balance a bit.

David Piper, Addicted to Quack: Positive on both counts. Cal's offense is going to be really potent, and that game was close save for a couple of tipped pick-sixes. They'll only get better as Jared Goff gets more experience and they implement more of the playbook. The talent cupboard is hardly bare in Berkeley. Meanwhile, Colorado looked like a competent team in their opening win over Colorado State. Competent was never something that you said around Colorado in the Jon Embree era.

Jack Follman, Pacific Takes: I wasn't able to catch the full game for either coach, but I would say, at initial impressions, they look to be what I figured they would be. Dykes' team can move the ball through the air, but struggled on defense and McIntyre's team looked improved, but not overly so.

Jason Bartel, AZ Desert Swarm: MacIntyre man, he's going to bring some kind of excitement to Colorado that hasn't been there in a while. Saw a lot of last year's San Jose State team in the Buffs on Sunday. Don't think their defense will be able to stop any of the slightly decent offenses in the PAC, but they'll score some points and hang with some people. Dykes looked like a genius for the first ten minutes or so of the third quarter. Having a freshman QB will be interesting there. But they both definitely make the conference as a whole more competitive.

Connor Pelton, Building the Dam: I said during the offseason that these were two of the best hires in the nation, and even though Dykes suffered a tough loss to Northwestern, I'm standing by that statement. The Bear Raid was fun to watch and Colorado looked like a transformed team against in-state rival Colorado State. Both teams will be an interesting study in 2013.

Patrick Flower, Pacific Takes: Great for the conference and great for their programs. New, exciting, and competitive coaches who further the Pac-12's offensive-minded persona. Things will get better in both Berkeley and Boulder.

Jeff Nusser, CougCenter: Both teams were better than I think most of us expected, so that's a positive sign.