Too much love for UCLA in this thread. What did they do of any significance last year that would warrant them being #1? I'll answer that question myself: Nothing much at all. I don't know who should currently sit at #1 but UCLA does not belong there.
UCLA should be good, but . They have a bunch of starters returning, and have recruited well, but we'll see. The OL should be better, but they lost their best guy from it to the NFL. It was a dreckfest last year. I'm not sure how good it can get in a year. Maybe it's still another year away? It will be comprised of mainly sophomores and true juniors. Hundley regressed a little last year, mostly because of the OL, but as we saw with Price, getting hit a lot can cause bad habits. Their defense was not great last year. It lost three of the top 5 guys on defense too (Barr, Zumwalt, Marsh). They have recruited well to replace them, but their defense will need to take a step to be a legit title contender.
I think they win the South because they will have the luxury of losing two games. I like UCLA, but they could end up being overrated. Are they a top 10 team, or are they still a 15-25 team? It should be an exciting season, because a lot can happen. Was Oregon's late season slide a bad sign of things to come? Can UW and UCLA take the next step? Can Stanford replace Murphy, Skov, and the OL? Will anyone surprise and be somewhat of a threat (Arizona, USC, WSU)?