A serious knee injury forced Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon to become a cheerleader at the end of the season.

Other articles by Patrick Finley:

35-mile bike ride is a triumph of determination No fooling, he's good Owls finish on top after frenetic final two minutes The Big Game will be a big game for Stanford Vaden's 23 points enough for UAB's five-guard attack 'Logistical challenge' looms to get race off on right foot2 local doctors hope drink will have enduranceSun Devils lead Pac makeover Times changing for league after coaches, stars leave A new crop of stars ready to burst out

General
Prestige Maintenance USA
Area Manager Education
Yavapai College
Teachers Retail
TOTAL WINE & MORE
WINE TEAM MEMBERS, CASHIER & STOCK MEMEBERS Technical
Yavapai College
Analyst Banner Programmer Dental
Apache Dental
Porcelain Techs Health Care
Carondelet Foothills Surgery
Pre-Op Nurse Health Care
SOUTHERN ARIZONA ENDODONTICS I
NSURANCE PROCESSOR

It was the strangest of Pac-10 football seasons.

At the beginning of the year, it appeared almost every team — save Stanford — could make a case for bowl hopes. Cal beat Tennessee, Washington topped Boise State and USC spanked Nebraska. The rest of the nation took notice.

USC, Oregon and Cal were all ranked No. 2 at some point this season; the Trojans were No. 1 until struggling in a win at Washington.

Then reality sunk in. Seven starting quarterbacks missed starts because of injury. UCLA played four quarterbacks. Oregon and Cal spiraled downward.

Annual favorite USC wound up making the Rose Bowl; no other Pac-10 team is in the Bowl Championship Series.

In a season with so many highs and lows, it's easy to pick the best and worst of the season:

Offensive Player of the Year

Dennis Dixon. The Oregon quarterback posted one of the most amazing plays ever — a 39-yard touchdown run in the first quarter against Arizona. What made it so ridiculous?

Dixon was injured later in the quarter, and it was revealed a day later that he had played — and outran the UA secondary — with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee.

Dixon averaged 230.4 passing yards and 61 rushing entering the game against the UA.

Another contributing factor for our vote — Oregon went down the drain without its quarterback. The Ducks scored 188 more points than their opponents while going 8-1 until the moment Dixon got hurt.

After the injury, the Ducks were outscored 81-47 and lost to Arizona, UCLA and Oregon State.

The Pac-10 picked: Dixon, in its end-of-season awards Monday.

Defensive Player of the Year

Antoine Cason. His biggest plays came in the UA's biggest game. The senior cornerback returned an interception for a 42-yard touchdown in the second quarter of an upset win against No. 2 Oregon. Nine minutes later, he returned a punt 56 yards for a touchdown.

Cason intercepted five passes this season and returned them for a conference-best 164 yards. He tied Arizona State's Troy Nolan with two interception returns for a touchdown, and returned a conference-best two punts for scores.

Don't think a cornerback touches the ball enough to be considered the defensive player of the year?

Consider this: Among Cason's five interceptions and 14 pass deflections, he touched the ball 19 times on defense, more than all but two players in the conference.

The Pac-10 picked: USC nose tackle Sedrick Ellis

Coach of the Year

Jim Harbaugh. Admittedly, Stanford was not very good this year. The Cardinal lost four of its last five, and three of those were to Pac-10 basement-dwellers Washington and Washington State, and national laughingstock Notre Dame.

The Cardinal's players were not very good, either. Stanford posted only three second-teamers on the All-Pac-10 list.

But the Trees pulled maybe the greatest upset ever by defeating No. 2 USC 24-23, and won The Big Game on Saturday against Cal.

Harbaugh seems to have returned a certain swagger — as much as a 4-8 team could have — to the Bay Area school.

Under Walt Harris last year, Stanford went 1-11 and lost six conference games by 20 or more points.

This was major progress.

The Pac-10 picked: ASU's Dennis Erickson

Play of the Year

Down seven with 22 seconds to go on Sept. 29, No. 11 Oregon's Dixon completed a 5-yard pass to Cameron Colvin, who stretched the ball over the goal line to try to tie No. 6 Cal.

The ball popped out and went through the back of the end zone, and was ruled a touchback.

Watch it here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=QxOyEKJRWKY&feature=related (http://youtube.com/watch?v=QxOyEKJRWKY&feature=related)

Hit of the Year

The Oregon Duck beat the stuffing out of the Houston Cougar mascot in Week 1, dropping elbows and throwing haymakers on his fuzzy foe.

Watch it here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7_aaYih92ss&feature=related (http://youtube.com/watch?v=7_aaYih92ss&feature=related)

Biggest disappointment

Cal was ranked No. 2 before losing six of its last seven games. It started Oct. 13 with a blunder by backup quarterback Kevin Riley, who scrambled in the final seconds against Oregon State by throwing the ball away and settling for a tying field goal. The Golden Bears would have been ranked No. 1 with a win; instead, they never recovered.

"There's one thing that you kind of learn," Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. "When the expectation is so high, and you're at that level, the fall is even greater."

Biggest surprise

Oregon State was 2-3 entering the game against Arizona, having been destroyed by Cincinnati by 31 and UCLA by 26.

But the Beavers rallied to win six of their final seven to advance to the Emerald Bowl. They played most of their final two games without starting running back Yvenson Bernard or quarterback Sean Canfield.

Best quote

"There's no question in my mind USC is the best football team in the country — and they may be the best team in the history of college football." — Stanford coach Harbaugh, before the season started

Stats of the year

0 — Onside kicks successfully made by any Pac-10 team this season

21-10 — The Pac-10's mark against nonconference foes this season

1 for 18 — The number of instant replay reversals from coaches' challenges in the Pac-10 this year

2 — Number of Pac-10 coaches fired, UCLA's Karl Dorrell and Washington State's Bill Doba

3 — Pac-10 bowl games that will be the first meeting between the schools. Arizona State has never played Texas, Oregon has never played South Florida, and Oregon State has never played Maryland.