Kevin Gemmell, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Pac-12 morning links

Happy Friday!

Leading off

All week we've been bringing you the All-America honors as they rolled in.

In total, 14 Pac-12 players were named to a first-team All-America squad. Of those 14, Marcus Mariota, Scooby Wright and Hau'oli Kikaha were unanimous selections. Two other players -- Tom Hackett and Ifo Ekpre-Olomu -- were consensus selections appearing on at least three of the five recognized teams.

This is the eighth straight year the Pac-12 has had a unanimous selection and the first time since 2005 it's had three in one year (Reggie Bush, Dwayne Jarrett, Maurice Drew). The five recognized teams are the American Football Coaches Association, the Associated Press, the Football Writers Association of America, The Sporting News and the Walter Camp Football Foundation.

Here's the final tally among the big five:

Offense

  • QB, Marcus Mariota, Oregon, Jr., AFCA-AP-FWAA-SN-WC (unanimous)

  • OL, Jake Fisher, Oregon, Sr., FWAA

  • OL, Hroniss Grasu, Oregon, Sr., SN

  • OL, Andrus Peat, Stanford, Jr., SN

  • AP, Shaq Thompson, Washington, Jr., AP

Defense

  • DL, Nate Orchard, Utah, Sr., FWAA-WC

  • DL, Danny Shelton, Washington, Jr., AP-SN

  • DL, Leonard Williams, USC, Jr., AFCA

  • LB, Eric Kendricks, UCLA, Sr., SN

  • LB, Hau’oli Kikaha, Washington, Sr., AFCA-AP-FWAA-SN-WC (unanimous)

  • LB, Scooby Wright III, Arizona, So., AFCA-AP-FWAA-SN-WC (unanimous)

  • DB, Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, Oregon, Sr., AFCA-AP-WC (consensus)

  • P, Tom Hackett, Utah, Jr., AFCA-AP-FWAA-WC (consensus)

  • PR, Kaelin Clay, Utah, Sr., SN

Game of the year?

Just before the start of bowl season, the folks at Athlon Sports wanted to look back at the chaos that was the 2014 Pac-12 regular season. We've been running our pivotal plays series all week, so be sure to check that out. But Athlon looked at the top 15 games of the season. Here's their top five.

  1. Oct 2: Arizona 31, Oregon 24

  2. Oct. 4: Arizona State 38, USC 34

  3. Sept. 6: Oregon 46, Michigan State 27

  4. Oct. 25: Utah 24, USC 21

  5. Oct. 4: Utah 30, UCLA 28

You'll note that three of their five are from Week 6. We noted last week in our Roadtrip Revisited post that every game that week was unbelievable. If you click the link, they actually rate 30 games. Fairly surprised the Cal-WSU game (also in Week 6) didn't make the top 10. To each their own.

News/notes/team reports

  • A look at the three JC players who signed with Arizona.

  • ASU signed a touted JC tight end.

  • Former Cal quarterback Zach Kline will head to Indiana State.

  • The Buffs are looking to JCs to boost their defense.

  • Florida State doesn't feel like an underdog.

  • The Beavers lost a TE commit to Boise State.

  • Stanford has some familiarity with Maryland's offense.

  • What does UCLA's roster look like in 2015?

  • What a JC receiver had to say about his commitment to USC. 

  • Hackett more concerned about CSU than his accolades. 

  • Another commitment for the Huskies, plus an updated list of their commits.

  • Jacob Thorpe updates WSU's DC search in his chat.

Just for fun

Really great read from our friend Max Olson on the Big 12 blog about the recruitment of linebacker Malik Jefferson. Some interesting UCLA notes in there.

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