There's the oft-cited adage about sitting down at the poker table and figuring out who the easy mark is, and if he's not obvious, it's you.
Well, welcome to Pac-10 football, 2005 and beyond edition. Stanford's hiring of Walt Harris and Washington's decision to bring Tyrone Willingham back to the league should make every hand worth watching.

Check out Harris. He was 52-43 in eight seasons at Pitt and has posted three consecutive seasons with at least eight victories. A conflict with his bosses over his demand for a contract extension had him looking for an exit from the Big East, and he found it at Stanford. Let's see if Pitt can improve itself in replacing Harris.

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For Stanford, it's an obvious upgrade over Buddy Teevens, who was 10-23 in three seasons on The Farm, which itself was an improvement over his 11-45 record at Tulane.

Yes, why did Stanford hire Teevens?

Well, sometimes a school does better after it learns from a mistake. For examples, there was Arizona blowing it with retread John Mackovic before turning last year to the energetic Mike Stoops, and California going from the unworthy promotion of Tom Holmoe, despite questions about his ability as a coordinator, to Jeff Tedford, who had proven himself as a coordinator at Oregon.

Harris, by the way, is scheduled to coach his Pac-10 opener Oct. 1 at Autzen Stadium. That will come after Stanford plays games at Navy and against Cal-Davis, with a bye before the Cardinal meet the Ducks.

Then there's Willingham. Beyond the debate about his ouster at Notre Dame, the simple fact is this: He won at Stanford, taking the Cardinal to four bowls in seven years, including their lone Rose Bowl of the past three decades. In the two seasons before Willingham, genius Bill Walsh went 7-14-1 at Stanford, and in the three years after Willingham left, there was Teevens.

Note, also, these dates in 2005: On Sept. 10, the Pac-10 opener is California at Washington, and Willingham in seven years at Stanford never lost to the Golden Bears. On Sept. 24, the Huskies will play host to Notre Dame. Washington, alas, doesn't play Stanford next fall.

Fight on, at USC

There remains one head coaching vacancy in the Pac-10. That's the USC basketball job, which saw Henry Bibby fired last week after four games.

There's not a lot of purpose in dwelling on the oddity of the timing. After all, Bibby became interim coach of the Trojans in the 1995-96 season when Charlie Parker was fired by Mike Garrett, the USC director of athletes.

Bibby gave an early indication of how he'd handle his players on a road trip to the Willamette Valley when he disciplined a couple of regulars for being late to a meeting by holding them out of the first half of a game at Oregon. It was like "training puppies," he explained of bringing discipline to the Trojans.

And guess what? He often treated players like dogs, throwing them out of practices or finding other ways to embarrass them. He once took the Trojans on a trip to a Midwest site for a game, and then didn't play the Trojan from that city, to teach him a lesson about earning his time on the court.

And now Garrett seems surprised by it all?

"I think Henry did that too often," Garrett said.

So now, who?

The popular rumor is that USC will go for former Utah coach Rick Majerus, and there's also USC alum Paul Westphal over at Pepperdine. What are the criteria?

"You have to be a head coach and have great credentials," Garrett said.

"This is not a place to come and learn."

Ohhhhkay then, explain elevating Jim Saia to replace Bibby? The 40-year-old Saia was hired over the summer to be an administrative aide to Bibby, since Saia couldn't find a coaching job.

Until he was promoted to be the head coach, he was across the hall from the USC coaches.

"I'll have to earn people's respect," Saia said. "I want people to see that USC basketball plays hard and that Jim Saia is a competent coach."

There is this: Saia was on the UCLA staff in 1996 when Steve Lavin was suddenly promoted to head coach after Jim Harrick's abrupt firing amid the reporting of NCAA violations.

"That experience, I think, will really help me for this," Saia said. "I got a chance to watch the way Steve handled it."

The next change

There will be no shock in the Pac-10 when WSU coach Dick Bennett decides to retire ... again.

As he told a radio interviewer last week, his intent when he was hired by the Cougars was to set in motion his son Tony becoming a head coach, "and hopefully he'll get it here."

Bennett, to his great credit, has always been brutally honest, whether about his team or his emotions. That 52-point loss to Oklahoma State "was very hard. You don't go from (coaching Wisconsin in) the Final Four to getting beat by 50 and just say ho-hum."

And then the Cougars go out and almost beat Gonzaga.

They are 4-3 after a win over BYU, and there is that talented group of freshmen, though which Bennett should they assume they'll be playing for in future years?

Said the elder Bennett: "All of them know they're likely to finish their careers with (Tony as head coach). We've been very up front about that."

The better Bear

Might California junior Rod Benson be the league's most improved player? He's gone from averaging 2.6 points in the 21 games he did play last season to double-figure outputs in four consecutive games for the Bears, with a high of 25 points and 10 rebounds against Colorado.

Some of it can be traced to simply more playing time, which comes with less fouls. In the first three games of this season, the 6-foot-10 Benson was averaging a foul every four minutes, and averaged only 5.1 points in those games.

Since then, Benson has had a foul every 18.5 minutes, and scored an average of 19.3 points in those four games.

"I purposely tried to come out and be calm," Benson said. "I realized I can play well without having to be so crazy."

Good thinking, said Cal coach Ben Braun: "He's less in a hurry. He seems more poised. He was kind of hyped up early in the season."

Source: The Register-Guard