Not only was 2012 a rough year for my USC Trojans, but it also proved to be my worst season ever in the dozen I’ve been writing my Annual Picking the Winners Pac-12 Preview. My final record of 59-32 (.648) fell just below my final marks in 2002 (55-25, .688) and 2006 (51-25, .671). While the Trojans certainly played a pivotal role in my 2012 downturn, other surprises also hampered my efforts: other disappointments included Cal (picked at 7-5; finished 3-9) and Utah (picked at 9-3; finished 5-7), while surprises included UCLA (picked at 6-6; finished 9-4) and Oregon State (picked at 3-9; finished 9-3). Here’s a quick look back on the final weeks of Pac-12 action, centered around my preview, which appeared prior to the season on USCFootball.com.

Click here to recap my initial picks: Stanford Powers Its Way to Surprising Conference Crown

Week 10

UCLA’s Johnathan Franklin continued his great 2012 campaign in the Bruins’ destruction of Arizona

Oregon State over Arizona State, 36-26 (picked at 16-10); Stanford over Colorado, 48-0 (picked at 41-23); UCLA over Arizona, 66-10 (picked at 23-13); Utah over Washington State, 49-6 (picked at 34-30):  Incredibly, I got an Oregon State pick right for one of the few times in 2012! In my other three wins, only Stanford’s walloping of Colorado was remotely close to my preseason pick, while UCLA and Utah put up surprisingly easy wins. The Bruins’ devastation of Arizona was incredibly complete and — at season’s end — was a signpost for a UCLA program that looks on the verge of becoming a more consistent presence in the conference race.

My two losses — Oregon’s 62-51 track-meet win at USC and Washington’s Friday night win at reeling Cal — were not overly surprising at this point. The Ducks were peaking heading into the Coliseum, while the Trojans were filled with self-doubt after their embarrassing loss at Arizona the week before, while the Bears, by this time, were well on their way to Coach Jeff Tedford’s eventual firing.

Week 11

Keith Price’s 2012 regression didn’t include this TD run vs. Utah.

Arizona over Colorado, 56-31 (picked at 38-17); USC over Arizona State, 38-17 (picked at 43-10); Oregon over California, 59-17 (picked at 31-24); Stanford over Oregon State, 27-23 (picked at 37-7); Washington over Utah, 34-15 (picked at 34-21): While three of the weeks winning picks were reasonable facsimiles of the final outcomes (Arizona, USC and Washington), Oregon came on in the second half — as usual — to blow away Cal and Mike Riley’s impressive 2012 Beaver squad came oh-so-close to winning at Stanford and putting themselves in position to play for a Pac-12 North title.

My only loss this week was — again — predictable by the time the game rolled around, as UCLA trounced Washington State in a not-as-close-as-the-score 44-36 win. I, like many, got a little wrapped up before the season in the idea that Mike Leach could turn Wazzu into a weekly threat much more quickly than it appears he will be able to.

Week 12

The Cardinal’s OT upset in Eugene not only changed Pac-12 dynamics, but the BCS title chase, as well.

Arizona State over Washington State, 46-7 (picked at 31-27), Washington over Colorado, 38-3 (picked at 38-21): It was an unimpressive week, what can I say?

My 2-4 record for the week included USC’s first loss to UCLA in six years, 38-28 in Pasadena. Not only did the Trojans embarrass themselves in defeat, but the game may have also marked the final college snap for QB Matt Barkley, whose shoulder injury kept him out of the following week’s loss to Notre Dame (spoiler alert!) and has him questionable for next week’s Sun Bowl game against Georgia Tech. While Oregon State’s 62-14 whipping of Cal and Arizona’s 34-24 win over Utah counted as losses on my resume, neither was a shock at the time. What was a shock? The Stanford defense absolutely owning Oregon’s heretofore unstoppable offense in a 17-14 overtime win in Eugene — for all intents and purposes ending the Ducks’ three-year run atop the conference.

Weeks 13-14

Notre Dame finished an unexpected undefeated regular season against USC on Nov. 24.

Utah over Colorado, 42-35 (picked at 30-16); Stanford over UCLA, 35-17 (picked at 30-24), Nov. 24; Oregon over Oregon State, 48-24 (picked at 44-24); Oregon State over Nicholls State, 77-3 (picked at 45-10), Dec. 1 makeup of postponed Sept. 1 game: While the Beavers had a great season, they still don’t have the athleticism to match up with a Chip Kelly-coached Duck team. They did, however, get an opportunity to celebrate a good season by getting a makeup date with Nicholls State following that Civil War loss — and their celebration ended up with a 77-point performance. The Cardinal whipped UCLA in Pasadena in a game that most believe the Bruins didn’t go full speed in, between a little bit of a hangover after their win against USC and the logic of not wanting to travel to Eugene again for the Pac-12 title game.

Of course, when UCLA put up a much better performance the following week at Stanford in a heartbreaking 27-24 loss in that championship battle, many felt those beliefs confirmed. I’m counting the Pac-12 championship among my losses as — like most — I had a USC-Oregon tilt penciled in there before the season. Other losses in the final week of the regular season included the Trojans’ incredibly predictable home loss to No. 1 Notre Dame, Arizona State’s wholly unpredictable come-fr0m-behind win in Tucson to snag the Territorial Cup from Arizona, and Washington’s unforgivable fourth quarter/OT choke job in the Apple Cup in Pullman.

Here are the final Pac-12 standings with my preseason predictions in parentheses:

Pac-12 North

Stanford 11-2, 8-1 (10-2,7-2)

Oregon 11-1, 8-1 (11-1, 8-1)

Oregon State 9-3, 6-3 (3-9, 2-7)

Washington 7-5, 5-4 (7-5, 5-4)

California 3-9, 2-7 (7-5, 5-4)

Washington State 3-9, 1-8 (4-8, 2-7)

Pac-12 South

UCLA 9-4, 6-3 (6-6, 4-5)

USC 7-5, 5-4 (13-0, 9-0)

Arizona State 7-5, 5-4 (5-7, 3-6)

Arizona 7-5, 4-5 (5-7, 3-6)

Utah 5-7, 3-6 (9-3, 6-3)

Colorado 1-11, 1-8 (3-9, 0-9)

As we turn the corner into the 2012 regular season’s home stretch, there is still much to be decided on the college football landscape. However, in the Pac-12, there are clear surprises (Oregon State, UCLA and, to a lesser extent, Arizona – especially after its upset of USC last Saturday) and disappointments (the aforementioned Trojans, Cal and – even with their home upsets of Stanford and the Beavers – Washington). Here’s a quick look back on the past three weeks of Pac-12 action, centered around my 12th Annual Picking the Winners Pac-12 preview, which appeared prior to the season on USCFootball.com. To recap my initial picks:

Oregon Takes Charge in the North, While the South is a Free-for-All

I logged an 11-6 overall mark during this three-week period, suffering a pair of losses in each week – thanks mainly to those surprise teams I mentioned above. Let’s take a look back.

Week 7

Not a touchdown. Thanks for everything, Pac-12 refs!

USC over Washington, 24-14 (picked at 37-23); Arizona State over Colorado, 51-17 (picked at 31-14); UCLA over Utah, 21-14 (picked at 23-21); California over Washington State, 31-17 (picked at 35-24): While it was nice to come within five points of my originally picked spread on three of my four wins, I felt that a couple of those scores were a bit misleading. USC was capable of trampling Washington, only to go uber-conservative in the second half and hold off the Huskies. Meanwhile, prior to the season, my UCLA selection felt more like an upset pick. By the time the game rolled around, the Bruins’ seven-point victory was surprising only in that they didn’t steamroll a struggling Utah team giving a freshman his first start at QB.

Meanwhile, my two losses were attributable to two of the college football season’s biggest surprises. Oregon State’s whipping of BYU, 42-24, came with reserve quarterback Cody Vaz at the helm in Provo after Sean Mannion went down with an injury the previous week. Meanwhile, Notre Dame’s 20-13 overtime win against Stanford – while tainted by a shockingly bad no-TD ruling on Stanford’s fourth-down play at the goal line in overtime (called by Pac-12 officials – I know, you’re stunned to hear it) – served notice that the Irish may stick around in the BCS for a while. That notice was confirmed by ND’s impressive win at Oklahoma this past Saturday.

Week 8

There was a lot of this in the Oregon-ASU game on Oct. 18

Stanford over California, 21-3 (picked at 28-24); USC over Colorado, 50-6 (picked at 45-10); Oregon over Arizona State, 43-21 (picked at 38-27): None of my three wins on the weekend of Oct. 20 truly shocked anyone. I mean, sure, Stanford’s physical dominance over Bay Area rival Cal was a minor surprise. And USC’s offense finally broke out a bit against a horrific Colorado defense. However, Oregon’s first-half domination at Arizona State – in the Ducks’ first real road game of the season – was the thing that surprised most people. ASU was simply overwhelmed by UO from the get-go and crumbled in a series of offensive mistakes when trying desperately to keep up. I’d like to thank Chip Kelly for taking his foot off the gas and allowing the score to more closely resemble my preseason call more than it should have.

On the other side of the ledger, a meeting between possibly my biggest surprise team and my biggest disappointment went accordingly, with Oregon State thumping Utah, 21-7, in Corvallis. Without specifically looking at the results, I’d guess these two teams may have combined for more of my losing picks this year than any other pair. Of course, the Huskies have also been a bit of a disappointment, and that continued as UW was absolutely hammered, 52-17, by Arizona in Tucson.

Week 9

The fact that this photo could even be taken is an indictment of USC’s preparation to play in Tucson on Oct. 27.

Oregon over Colorado, 70-14 (picked at 63-14); Stanford over Washington State, 24-17 (picked at 35-20); Utah over California, 49-27 (picked at 30-17); Washington over Oregon State, 20-17 (picked at 41-14): Again, kudos to Chip Kelly for laying off the hapless Buffs in the second half (Oregon led 56-0 at halftime) to nearly mirror my preseason prediction! I don’t know if I’ve ever come so close to nailing the scores of blowouts so often as I have in 2012 – and, trust me, getting close when picking an obvious blowout is much harder in the preseason than nearly nailing what many expect to be a close game. Utah finally came through for me this week, with the help of perennial disappointment Cal. When will the Bears finally say enough’s enough with Jeff Tedford? And Washington continued Steve Sarkisian’s record of pulling off a big upset or two every year (on the way to a .500 record) by beating Oregon State in Seattle. Husky fans also became the first group of fans not from Oregon ever to rush a field after beating the Beavers.

My two losses for the week featured the L.A. schools, as UCLA’s 45-43 win over Arizona State is emblematic of the improved Bruins’ new resolve, while USC’s self-inflicted debacle of a 39-36 loss at Arizona has many (including me) questioning what Lane Kiffin needs to do to grow into the scope of the job as Trojans’ head coach. There’s no questioning his recruiting prowess – something that will keep the upper reaches of USC’s depth chart stocked with good players through the next two seasons of sanctions – but his game preparation, game planning and in-game adjustments continue to baffle at times. Only time will tell if Kiffin is able to mature into what the USC program needs him to be.

Record through nine weeks: 44-21

Enjoy this weekend’s games!