Column: Utah, Stanford rise in Pac-12 after getting little respect in preseason

That was then (summer):

• Utah was picked by the media to finish fifth in the Pac-12 Conference’s South Division.

• Oregon had hopes that quarterback Vernon Adams, a graduate-student transfer, could help lead the Ducks back to the national title game.

• Banana slug, boring, conservative Stanford was looking to increase the role for tailback Christian McCaffrey, who had only 42 carries as a freshman.

• USC was picked to win the Pac-12 because it had the best talent — returning and incoming — and was finally free of NCAA sanctions that kept it from competing for national titles.

• UCLA was going to buck history and succeed at the highest level despite starting a freshman quarterback.

This is now:

• Utah is 6-0 and ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press media poll.

• Oregon is 4-3, unranked, and has been reduced to the role of spoiler.

• Stanford is 4-0 in Pac-12 games with an electric offense that has scored 40 points or more in four consecutive victories. McCaffrey set a school record with 369 all-purpose yards last week against UCLA. He is the league’s clear-cut most valuable player at this point, and has a chance to do what no Stanford player has done since Jim Plunkett in 1970: win the Heisman Trophy.

• USC has lost twice at home to teams from what was supposed to be the weaker Pac-12 North, fired coach Steve Sarkisian and lost at Notre Dame.

• UCLA has surrendered a total of 97 points in consecutive defeats while coming to grips with this: no team that has started the season with a first-year freshman at quarterback has won the national title.

Josh Rosen’s production for UCLA is a little ahead of what Matt Barkley’s was for USC when he was a freshman quarterback in 2009.

Rosen has 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions through six games. Barkley had seven touchdowns and five picks at the same point. He finished with three losses as a starter, 15 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.

As with Barkley, there is nothing wrong with Rosen that game experience won’t cure.

So, did we miss anything as we summarized missing mostly everything?

We’re still in for an exciting Pac-12 finish, just not for any of the suspected reasons.

The football gods must have seen this coming by not scheduling Stanford and Utah to meet during the regular season. The Cardinal and Utes appear on course to meet for the Pac-12 title with a berth in the College Football Playoff on the line.

Stanford will be forgiven for its early-season loss at Northwestern if it goes undefeated through a power league. The Cardinal, with one loss, would likely be given the playoff nod against any undefeated Big 12 Conference champion, whether it be Texas Christian, Baylor or Oklahoma State.

Unlike arbitrary Bowl Championship Series computer rankings, the selection committee actually uses context as a guide and understands teams can improve. It gave Ohio State a mulligan last year for its early-season home loss to Virginia Tech.

Utah is ranked higher the polls, and rightfully so, but Stanford is probably the Pac-12 team to beat.

The emergence of McCaffrey has given Stanford a legitimate home run hitter. His performance against UCLA on Thursday was a grand slam.

Some people are wondering why Coach David Shaw kept McCaffrey under wraps as a freshman. Remember that old joke about Michael Jordan: “Who was the only person to hold Jordan to under 20 points a game?”

Answer: “North Carolina coach Dean Smith.”

Shaw stubbornly stuck to his policy of requiring his tailbacks to be proficient pass blockers before they get significant playing time. A year later, Shaw loosened his grip and it has been fun to watch.

McCaffrey’s average of 253 all-purpose yards per game leads the nation. If it holds, it would eclipse the modern-day Pac-12 record. Only four players since 1978 have eclipsed the 200-yard average: USC stars Marcus Allen (232.6, 1981), Reggie Bush (222.3, 2005) and Marqise Lee (206.4, 2012), and Stanford great Glyn Milburn ( 202.0, 1990).

Milburn was a teammate of Ed McCaffrey, Christian’s father.

The younger McCaffrey definitely inherited some skill from his dad, but his speed likely came from Dave Sime, his maternal grandfather, who was an Olympics sprinter in the 1950s.

Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan said McCaffrey defies labeling.

“He’s just an incredible football player,” Hogan said after the UCLA win. “He does everything. He does it well. He’s very hard on himself and then he brings the best out of everyone.”

Stanford has put behind its opening-game 16-6 stumble at Northwestern, where McCaffrey had only 12 carries and 89 total yards.

“A lot of people were against us and we remember that. ... We easily could have folded,” McCaffrey said. “We come to work every single day with a chip on our shoulder.”

The schedule favors Stanford over Utah, which still has to prove it can survive a season-long gantlet of Pac-12 play. The Utes close with six consecutive league games, including trips to USC and Washington.

Stanford, which hosts Washington on Saturday, has only two remaining road games, at Washington State on Oct. 31 and Colorado on Nov. 7.

It finishes at home against Oregon, California and Notre Dame.

The wild card in the race is Oregon. The perennial title contender is 4-3 but must be judged differently with Adams back at quarterback. Adams was the key to the Ducks’ preseason hopes but has sat out most of the season because of a broken finger. He returned Saturday to lead Oregon to its 12th victory in a row over Washington.

The Eugene Dream Wreckers?

“I haven’t thought of it that way,” Coach Mark Helfrich said on Tuesday’s Pac-12 coaches’ conference call. “I know a lot of people were trying to spoil our business the last few years. But we’re so focused on improvement and a million other things we need to get better.”

Follow Chris Dufresne on Twitter @DufresneLATimes