Some quick notes to get you through the hours until Saturday. Many thanks to ESPN Stats & Information.
Arizona is 3-0 for the first time since 2001 and is looking for its first 4-0 start since 1998 when it won its first five games. At No. 14, this is Arizona's highest ranking since 1999.
California is 6-2 in Pac-10 openers under Jeff Tedford (since 2002). After winning six straight (2003-08), the Bears lost last year’s conference opener 42-3 at Oregon.
Cal has won five of the past seven meetings with the Wildcats. However, Arizona has won the past two meetings in Tucson.
Last week at Wisconsin, Arizona State had 261 kick return yards (including a 97-yarder and 95-yarder), more than either their rushing total or passing total in the game. For the season, ASU has almost as many kick return yards (443) as rush yards (467). The Sun Devils are second nationally in kick return average (behind Indiana).
Though Arizona State leads the overall series 16-14, Oregon has won five straight meetings and scored 42.4 points per game over those five meetings. The five-game win streak is Oregon’s longest ever against Arizona State.
Oregon has scored 114 unanswered points (finished Week 2 against Tennessee with 45 straight plus a 69-0 win last week) and has managed 189 points in 180 minutes of football this season. Of the three games in which a team has scored more than 65 points this season, Oregon has two.
The Ducks haven’t allowed a point in their last 104 minutes and 21 seconds (almost seven straight quarters). They’ve allowed only one touchdown all season, something that only Alabama can also claim.
Oregon State leads the all-time series with Boise State 4-2, but the series is tied 2-2 since Boise State moved to FBS (then I-A) in 1996. Since then, the home team has won all four meetings.
The Beavers have won each of their past three games against AP top-3 teams, beating USC in 2008, California in 2007 and USC in 2006.
Boise State is 5-1 vs BCS AQ-conference teams over the past four seasons, starting with their 2006 win vs Oregon State. Prior to that, they were 2-16
Boise State’s 63-2 home record since the start of the 2000 season is best in FBS.
James Rodgers needs 61 all-purpose yards to set the Oregon State career record, passing Ken Simonton. Rodgers leads FBS with 226.5 yards per game this season and is second among active players in career yards to Tulsa’s Damaris Johnson (209 yards behind).
Oregon State has yet to turn the ball over. The Beavers had the second-fewest turnovers in the nation last season (11).
Notre Dame has dominated the series with Stanford, holding a 17-7 series edge. Stanford, however, snapped a seven-game losing streak against the Fighting Irish with last year’s 45-38 comeback victory in Charlie Weis’ last game as the Fighting Irish’s head coach.
Notre Dame has dominated Stanford at home, winning 10 of the 12 matchups in South Bend. The Cardinal’s two wins at Notre Dame were very memorable, however. In 1990, unranked Stanford edged the top-ranked Irish 36-31. Two years later, in the first season of Bill Walsh’s second stint as coach, the 18th-ranked Cardinal scored 33 unanswered points to turn a 16-0 halftime deficit into a shocking 33-16 win over No. 6 Notre Dame. It was the Irish’s only loss that season and Stanford’s last win in South Bend.
Notre Dame has lost its past 10 games against opponents ranked in the AP Top 25, including four straight at home. The Irish’s last win over a ranked team came Sept. 9, 2006 against No. 19 Penn State (41-17) at South Bend. The Notre Dame defense has been torched in those games, allowing 35-plus points in five of those matchups and 40-plus points in three of them.
Stanford is looking for its first 4-0 start since 1986. That season, the Cardinal finished 8-4 and lost the Gator Bowl (27-21 to Clemson).
This is Stanford’s highest AP ranking three games into the season since 1972, when the Cardinal were ranked 15th.
UCLA and Texas are meeting for the first time since 1998 and have split four meetings. The last time Texas faced a Pac-10 team outside of a bowl game was 2000, when they lost at Stanford.
UCLA’s last visit to Austin was a 66-3 win in 1997 that became the beginning of the end for Texas head coach John Mackovic. Mack Brown was hired to take his place a few months later.
Texas plays Oklahoma in the Red River Shootout on Oct. 2. Since 2000, Texas has lost the game before the Shootout only once. That happened in 2007, when they lost to Kansas State.
Texas leads FBS in rush defense this year, allowing 44.0 rush yards per game (almost 10 full yards ahead of second-place Boise State). UCLA is rushing for more than 200 yards per game.
UCLA is playing a ranked team for the third straight week (L vs 25 Stanford, W vs 23 Houston). Later in the season it also plays three straight games against (currently) ranked teams – at No. 5 Oregon, vs. No. 14 Arizona, vs. No. 24 Oregon State.
USC head coach Lane Kiffin is trying to become the first USC coach since Jess Hill in 1951 to begin his Trojan career 4-0. Hill’s Trojans started 7-0, before finishing 7-3.
USC is looking to start 4-0 for the first time since 2007. Prior to the last two seasons (3-1 starts), the Trojans started at least 4-0 in every season from 2004-07.
USC has won the past seven meetings with Washington State, averaging 44.4 points per game. The Trojans’ average win margin in those seven games is 32.6 points.
The Trojans have committed 31 penalties through three games (third most in FBS) and have racked up 321 penalty yards, most in FBS.
Washington State true freshman Marquess Wilson has posted two 100-yard plus receiving games, only the second true freshman to do that for the Cougars. He ranks fourth in the Pac-10 with 93.7 yards receiving per game.