The Pac-10's 'nine dwarfs' have grown up, now challenging USC

It's not yet clear who will supplant USC as the Pacific 10 Conference champion, the scenarios still needing to play out over the next 2½ weeks.

But you don't have to look at this week's conference or Bowl Championship Series standings to realize that most of the teams sometimes referred to as the Nine Dwarfs have closed the gap — recruiting and on the field — with USC.

Trojans coach Pete Carroll admited as much Saturday after Stanford walloped his team, 55-21, at the Coliseum. Before that, Oregon routed USC at Autzen Stadium.

Tuesday, Pac-10 coaches credited Carroll for forcing them to become better.

"SC set the bar and everybody's working like crazy to rise up to that standard," Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh said during a Pac-10 coaches' conference call.

Oregon State coach Mike Riley, whose teams defeated USC twice in the last four seasons, cited the current stability of Pac-10 staffs as one reason for the recent surge.

Riley and Cal's Jeff Tedford have been in their jobs nearly as long as Carroll. Oregon's Chip Kelly was on the Ducks' staff before succeeding Mike Bellotti. Arizona Coach Mike Stoops, in his sixth season in Tucson, also has "entered right into the picture and just muddied the waters," Riley said.

"A few years back, if people didn't rise up, we were just going to fall further and further behind," Riley said. "There's stability, it seems like, so people have had time to recruit to their systems."

First-year Washington coach Steve Sarkisian spent seven seasons at USC. The former offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach said Carroll molded teams that ran the ball, played tough defense and took shots with the passing game to create big plays. Other programs have followed suit, said Sarkisian, whose team defeated USC in September.

UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said the Pac-10 was stronger than at any time he could remember as a former player and assistant coach.

He also said California high schools and junior colleges were capable of stockpiling the entire conference with enough talent to continue making it successful.

Arizona State coach Dennis Erickson agreed that the distance between USC and the rest of the conference has narrowed, but he is not convinced that it's permanent.

"I still think SC has a gap on everybody," he said.

• BIG GAME TWIST — The Big Game between Stanford and Cal has a slightly different look than in recent years with the Cardinal sporting a better Pac-10 record than the Golden Bears. Both are 7-3 overall, but Stanford is 6-2 in conference play, Cal 4-3. "They're one of the hottest teams going right now," Tedford said. "That definitely gets our attention."