Dan Mullen reveals 2023 Pac-12 predictions

Dan Mullen’s Pac-12 football takes were just too hot for the internet to handle.

The former SEC head coach posted his preseason rankings for the Pac-12 on his Twitter page recently, but then later deleted the tweet. Alas, the post was still up long enough for people to jot down his predicted order of finish for the 12 west coast powers in their final year as one Pac-12 family.

So, below you can see Mullen’s prediction on how the Pac-12 will shake out in 2023:

Dan Mullen’s Pac-12 rankings

1. USC
2. Washington
3. Oregon
4. Utah
5. Oregon State
6. UCLA
7. Washington State
8. Arizona
9. Arizona State
10. Stanford
11. Colorado
12. California

Recap

There you have it from Dan Mullen. After coming up just short a year ago, he predicts Lincoln Riley will summit the mountain and win the conference in his second season as USC head coach — a prediction which is likely motivated by the return of Heisman-winning quarterback Caleb Williams back into the fold.

Meanwhile, Mullen foresees a pretty steep drop for Utah to fourth place. Now, fourth out of 12 in a power conference is nothing to scoff at, but after two straight league titles, the Utes will feel disrespected by drop that far, especially with nine defensive starters and star QB Cam Rising all back.

The offensive talent of Washington and Oregon must dazzle Mullen because he is high on both squads, placing the Huskies second and the Ducks third — two teams that return fifth-year QBs that had excellent first seasons in the Pac-12 in ’22, plus 1,000-yard receivers. It’s Troy Franklin for Oregon and the duo of Jalen McMillan and Rome Odunze for Washington.

After them comes the Beavers and Bruins rounding out the top half to give, in Mullen’s estimation, the Pac-12 the same six teams occupying spots 1-6, just in a different order. Then it’s Washington State and the Arizona schools coming in after that.

Towards the bottom, the final takeaway is Dan Mullen’s low ranking of Colorado. That’s not a surprise given the Buffaloes’ statistical projections or betting odds, but Deion Sanders certainly has not talked about his team like they’ll come in 11th out of 12 in the conference. Of course, most pundits and projections, including Mullen’s, predict otherwise.

Overall, it’s not an outlandish set of predictions and, besides the big Utah drop, they pretty closely resemble how the actual final standings shook out last season.