Five burning questions for the kickoff of Pac-12 football:

1. Who will start at quarterback for Washington?

If you’re reading the tea leaves, the most probable choice is true freshman Jake Browning. UCLA’s Josh Rosen overshadowed Browning throughout the recruiting process and, for the most part, to this point, since they both enrolled in January. But Browning was actually the more decorated high school player. Not that awards or records are the most reliable way predict anything, but they do provide reason to be excited. Think about how many people have played quarterback in high school football. Browning threw more touchdowns passes in his career (229) than all of them. For me, that’s really intriguing. -- Kyle Bonagura

2. Is Vernon Adams going to live up to the hype?

There are few players who have had as much written or said about them before ever taking a snap at the Division I level. Heck, no one outside of the Oregon locker room has even seen him take a practice snap in a Ducks’ uniform. (Side note: Are we sure -- really sure -- he even exists?) He was named the starter after being with the team for two weeks, which means Mark Helfrich and Scott Frost are confident he’s their guy. If they weren’t, it would’ve been easy to go with Jeff Lockie, the blue-collar guy who has been in their program forever. But Adams will get his first test this weekend and try to prove to everyone that this was the right move for him, his family and their future. He also might be the only player in the country that wishes his team’s first game was against a top-25 team instead of an FCS school. -- Chantel Jennings

3. Will Arizona State look like a College Football Playoff contender?

Much like UCLA a year ago, the Sun Devils have become a hot pick leading into the season. We could argue their merits either way, or we can just wait until Saturday because it’s boom or bust. A win against SEC darling Texas A&M during prime time on the first Saturday of the season puts ASU firmly in the playoff conversation. That’s the natural byproduct of that kind of win. A loss, though, silences that and would represent a blow, fair or not, to the growing notion that the Pac-12 is at the same level as the SEC. -- Bonagura

4. What team will finish fifth in the Pac-12 South?

One thing is for certain: Whatever team does actually end up in that spot won’t deserve to feel like a fifth-place team. Arizona might’ve been voted there by the media in the preseason poll, but they were picked fourth in 2014 before going on to win the South. Utah was the team that finished fifth in 2014 with wins over UCLA and USC. If there were such a thing as a championship assist, that -- for Arizona -- was it. So that brings us back to the initial question: what team will finish fifth in the Pac-12 South in 2015? There are legitimate reasons why it could be every team from Arizona to ASU to UCLA to USC to Utah. It’s anyone guess. -- Jennings

5. Can Cal or WSU stop anyone?

We’ll probably have to wait another week because they’re both playing FCS teams, but either one of these programs will be scary to play if they can field even slightly-below average defenses. It feels like that has been a standard assessment for both programs over the past few years, but this time there is legitimate optimism in Pullman and Berkeley. It will be interesting to see how the Cougars look under new defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and if Cal’s secondary can come together. -- Bonagura