Washington coach Steve Sarkisian is doing some real soul searching this week with his offense struggling to move the ball and score points in his fourth season on the job.

And some Colorado fans want Jon Embree and Eric Bieniemy fired after just 15 games?

It should be noted that Washington has started the season with one of the tougher schedules in the conference in the first two weeks facing San Diego State and traveling to perennial defensive powerhouse Louisiana State. But the Huskies rank 11th in the Pac-12 in scoring offense, rushing offense and passing offense, and they're last in total offense.

It's tough to swallow for Washington fans who expected more from Sarkisian and his team, especially after some strong recruiting classes. Sarkisian was hired away from USC four years ago where he oversaw an offense that produced Heisman Trophy winners and competed for national titles.

"It's hard when you pride yourself on offensive football and quarterback play and all those things," Sarkisian said on his weekly radio show. "It tears at your pride a bit because this is my livelihood. I love what I do. I'm passionate about it. So you just exhaust yourself in every analytical approach of 'what can we do to make this better and make our players more successful.' "

The numbers ought to improve in the second half of the season and they will definitely get a bump this week against Portland State, but the Huskies face Stanford, Oregon and USC in the first three weeks of conference action.

I still see this team as a darkhorse contender for the conference title but only if the offense gets better in a hurry.

Graham deserves credit

The season is still young and there is plenty of time for Arizona State to fall apart, but two games in to his tenure in Tempe, coach Todd Graham has pushed all the right buttons.

The Sun Devils lead the league in scoring at 54 points per game and the culture of a program that just could stop the self-inflicted wounds under former coach Dennis Erickson seems to be changing. ASU is the least penalized team in the league in the early going. It has been flagged just five times in two games.

Graham's teams are known for being disciplined. In his one year as head coach at Pittsburgh, the Panthers ranked 39th nationally in penalties per game last season. During his final two years at Tulsa in 2009 and 2010, his teams ranked in the top 10 in the nation for fewest penalties per game.

It would be easy to believe this is all just smoke and mirrors if this team was producing these results against lightweight competition, but the Sun Devils crushed Illinois in Week 2. We'll see if the trend continues this week in their first road game at Missouri.

Heisman watch

It's obviously very early to be talking about who might win the Heisman Trophy, but it's let's do it anyway.

A poll of ESPN experts this week has four Pac-12 players among the top six with three players who were darkhorse candidates at best when the season began.

USC quarterback Matt Barkley has done nothing but reaffirm his status as the frontrunner by leading the nation with 10 touchdown passes in two games. But UCLA running back Jonathan Franklin, Oregon running back De'Anthony Thomas and USC wide receiver Marqise Lee are all off to great starts.

Franklin is the real surprise. He already has run for 431 yards averaging 11 yards per carry, and he has scored four times.

Cougars' safety suspended for "cheap shot" The Pac-12 suspended Washington State strong safety Deone Bucannon on Tuesday for a hit the ESPN Pac-12 blog dubbed "a pretty bad cheap shot" in the Cougars' victory over Eastern Washington last week.

Commissioner Larry Scott's punishment doesn't necessarily meet fit the crime if it was, in fact, a cheap shot. Bucannon will miss the first half of the Cougars game this week at UNLV.

"While Mr. Bucannon was penalized on the field, I have deemed it necessary to add a half-game suspension," Scott said in a statement. 'This disciplinary action was part of our weekly review of all targeting and unnecessary roughness hits."

Fast starts It's no surprise that Oregon has one of the most prolific offenses in the nation, but what does jump out so far this season is the need for opposing defenses to be at their best from the opening kickoff.

The Ducks have scored 43 first-quarter points in their first two victories and have cruised to easy wins over Arkansas State and Fresno State. The Ducks are on pace to score 600 points in the regular season. This week's victim is Tennessee Tech.

Follow Kyle on Twitter @KyleRingo