Check it out college football on the West Coast. This is Get Off My
Pylon, a look at the PAC twelve and more, part of the College
Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast network. Here's your host, Matt zemmi Welcome to
the Get Off My Pylon College Football podcasts. This is your host, Matt
Zemmick. So, another week in the PAC twelve, and this one is
you know, on the surface, you know, nothing terrifically surprising, Like,
are you really surprised us you gave up a ton of points to Colorado?
Not really right? And are you really surprised that Washington struggled against Arizona?
Remember Washington, Washington goes to the state of Arizona. Weird things happen.
Now, Yes, Washington struggles more with Arizona State in Tampede than with
the University of Arizona in Tucson. But even though, uh, you know,
Washington is now on seventh straight in Tucson. A lot of these games
have been bumpy rides, and it was no exception on Saturday night, Washington,
you know, struggling to put Arizona fully away. I mean, what
you know, Arizona didn't have a chance to win the game late, but
it was a lot like USC Colorado, with the game staying kind of sort
of close, Arizona pulling within seven late, but Washington, you know,
running the clock out, very similar to USC Colorado. But Washington, you
know, didn't have a particularly good game and just somehow always seems to happen
in Tucson. It's something similar with Oregon. Oregon also struggles when it goes
to the State of Arizona. Ducks have suffered upset losses to the University of
Arizona also suffered. You might remember an upset loss to Arizona State and Herm
Edwards a few years ago that knocked the Ducks out of the running for the
college football playoffs. It's just really weird how that stuff happens. But like
if you know the history, you're not all that surprise. If you if
you follow Pact twelve football and have followed the conference for you know, a
couple of decades, you know that when Washington goes down to the Grand Canyon
State, weird things often happened. So not an absolute shocker that the Huskies
weren't at their very best. And of course, the next game on the
schedule for Washington is that Oregon game. So you know that was kind of
sort on players minds. I know that game isn't for another two weeks until
October fourteenth, but nevertheless, you know, nineteen twenty year old athletes,
that is human nature. That is part of the story. And so nothing
terrifically surprising in the PAC twelve from this past week. Are you surprised that
Oregon State beat Utah? And are you surprised that Utah's offense played terribly without
Cam Rising shouldn't have been a surprise, like if you if you have watched
this Utah offense slog along under Bryson Barnes and Nate Johnson, Like let's remember,
even at home in Salt Lake City, Utah struggled to score on offense
against UCLA just one offensive touchdown, and so you know, even even in
Rice Eckel Stadium, it's not as though Utah has played particularly well on offense
this year. And then of course away from home now at Baylor, Utah
very fortunate to get a win there. Baylor was playing its backup quarterback in
that game against Utah and the youth barely got out of Waco intact with win.
So like going into Corvallis on a Friday night short week and Oregon State
coming off a loss. So like, the Beavers absolutely had to have that
game. If they lose, they're absolutely done in the Pac twelve title chase
before the NF September, So they really needed that one. Their defense is
good, their defense is gonna do well, you know, against a team
which can't stretch them vertically, Like that's what Washington State did. Cam Ward
just smoked the cam Ward was able to throw the ball aggressively. Washington State's
passing game functioned well. Utah doesn't have a downfield passing game if cam Rising's
not there. Like Nate Johnson's thing is a running quarterback, a dual threat.
You need some run pass options, get the defense on a swivel.
You know, is he gonna run? Is he gonna throw? But you're
playing the game in a phone booth. You're playing the game in a ten
to fifteen yard box. There's no vertical threat, there's no ultimate speed merchant
that Utah has a wide receiver. And let's remember Brant Queefy, excellent tight
end, he's still hurt. Like they need him. He Queethy needs to
be the Dalton Kincaid guy. I mean, Quefy was the excellent tight end
before he got hurt, and Kincaid stepped into that role last year. He
told the USC. Of course, so Utah extreme limited on offense going into
the Corvallis or in its nest. Also worth noting, you know, Research
Stadium was being renovated last year. Only half of that stadium was available for
spectators, for for purchase tickets. You know, when USC went to Corvallis
for the Oregon State game, it was just you know, fans were just
on one half, you know, one side of the stadium, so you
had under thirty thousand in the yard. Well, now you have the full
newly renovated Research Stadium, you have over fifty thousand in the ballpark. And
on a Friday night like that, that was just a viper's nest that Utah
was walking into. I was kind of surprised that, you know, just
you know, referring to betting lines, not because of I'm recommending you know,
that you should gamble, or recommending that you should pick certain teams,
but just in terms of measuring how Vegas and how the markets and how the
public money sized up this matchup, felt it was surprising that Oregon State was
you know, a relatively small point spread favorite. You know, it was
just a handful of points. I was thinking Oregon State might be favored by
a touchdown, maybe even eight or nine, but it was less than that.
And uh, because you know, as soon as Cam Rising was reported,
you know, not gonna play in this game, I thought, oh,
that line's gonna move way up, and it didn't. That was very
surprising, but like no one should be shocked at all that Oregon State not
only won that game, but won that game fairly comfortably with because Utah.
Utah's offense just isn't there without Rising. And it raises the point. You
know, Utah's staff, I think, in in the off season in the
summer, you know, they hope Cam Rising would be available for the Baylor
game in Week two. And so obviously Cam Rising's progression in terms of his
health status and availability it hasn't gone on the way that the Utah coaches hoped
it would. But even if you as a coach, as a leader of
a program, have an ideal timetable for you know, one of your most
important players in the off season, you do have to be prepared for the
eventuality or the possibility I should say, if that medical timetable doesn't pan out.
And you know, I'm not going to be too harsh on Kyle Weddingham
because he's done a phenomenal job the past few years. And if you followed
me for the past several years, you know, like into through twenty eighteen,
twenty nineteen, you know that I was a skeptic of Weddingham for a
long time, and that in twenty eighteen I was thinking, you know,
you just can't keep going into big games without a big time quarterback. And
you know kis we found Cam Rising was able to cultivate him as a quarterback,
you know, finally getting that baller that that really good quarterback is what
Utah was missing. Cam Rising took that program to the next level. So
if you're in the off season, if you're thinking, you know that Cam
Rising could be available starting in week two, and you think that you can
handle Florida in week one, and we also, you know, we've all
seen how mediocre Florida is on offense. So you know, if Kyle Winniham
was getting feedback from his medical team for a number of months, that hey,
Cam Rising is probably not going to play against Florida, but he could
be available in week two. You know, you know, I can I
can be I can accept that. You know, he was relying on that
prognosis. He was relying on that timetable for Cam rising. So I'm going
to give him a pass on this. But but for the future, and
I'm sure other coaches are taking notice of this. If your star quarterback or
another really really important player has any significant medical questions in the off season,
you need to go into the transfer portal, make sure that you have an
insurance policy, that you have a significant plan B, you have a really
good option for that position. And that note carries over into other programs across
the country, like at Ohio State. Okay, Kyle McCord is being groomed
as the successor to c. J. Stroud, you know, the next
quarterback in the pipeline. But if you're Ohio State, why wouldn't you go
into the portal and seek that insurance policy, seek that option. Let's remember
Justin Fields was a transfer, all right, Joe Burrow of LSU, he
was a transfer. You don't go into the portal get your solid quarterback if
you have a freshman coming in, or if your main guy, such as
Utah's Cam rising Hat faces medical uncertainties going into the portal for an insurance policy.
That is something that coaches at a lot of different programs need to look
at. They need to think about how they do business for USC. You
know, next year when Caleb Williams leaves, are you going to entrust your
program to Miller Moss or Maliki Nelson? You know, the guys who are
you know, waiting their turn, waiting in the wings to be the next
guy. Maybe. But if I'm Lincoln Riley, I'm thinking, you know,
like I don't have a moral obligation to give Miller Moss the starting quarterback
job next year. I have a season opener against LSU in Las Vegas.
Lincoln Riley needs to think about going to the portal for an elite transfer quarterback
next year. Just because he recruited a five star Maliki Nelson, that doesn't
mean like he's owed the job. It doesn't mean that there is some kind
of moral or ethical obligation to just give one of the two in house quarterbacks
the job. If Lincoln Riley's paid to win football games and win championships,
he needs to think about the portal for a quarterback edition for next year.
So that's something that a lot of PAC twelve teams really need to be thinking
about. It's not just Cam Rising at Utah, but Cam Rising does bring
up that point that if Kyle Widingham had had to do it all over again
in terms of mapping out his offseason, you know, maybe he should have
been in the portal in uh January, you know, when he knew that
Cam Rising was facing a long rehab, and maybe that might have hurt Cam
Rising's feelings. But you know, if your job is to win championships,
and if you're at Utah and you want to get over that hump, you
want to win a Rose Bowl, you want to you know, take that
next step up the ladder. As a program, you need to think about
all options on the table. That that is something that's very worth noting in
the PAC twelve. So our show is brought to you by ticket Smarter.
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right, we're gonna talk about Washington State and uciling a little bit, but
let's hit on you know, we've hit on Utah, on Oregon State.
Let's now discuss you know, the three giants, uh, you know,
USC, Oregon, and Washington and how they all relate. After week five
of the season, now everyone saw USC Colorado, or at least you know,
USC Colorado was the highly visible game, big noon Saturday Breakfast and Boulder
with the Buffs, USC playing that body clock game, and actually USC was
ready. USC did not have a problem with the body clock, but it
might have had a problem with the altitude. Colorado had ninety overall snaps and
as the game wore on, USC's defense might have gotten tired to a certain
extent. But really, and you're not going to get sugar quoting here,
there's no excuse for a forty eight twenty one lead to become forty eight forty
one. You know we've seen this with USC's defense, uh, you know,
throughout the Alex Scringe tenure. You know, we saw it last year
in which USC led Cal by twenty points that became a six point game forty
one thirty five. We saw USC get a big lead over Arizona, which
got whittled down to eight, and so the Trojans you know, had comfortable
or at least seemingly comfortable leads uh in second halves in fourth quarters, and
the defense just basically takes a vacation and the league gets chopped down to one
score and USC either needs to recover an on sidekick or get one last first
down to seal the game. And it's just a lot a game is a
lot more of a headache than it ever should be. And let's keep in
mind, like like kay USC one and that's good and that is the main
thing. But these things carry a cost. And last year, because USC
wasn't finishing games in the fourth quarter, what did you have? You had?
You had starters playing longer than they should have. You know, starters
could have been out early fourth quarter. But because the Trojans weren't able to
put games to bed, because they weren't able to kill games off early,
starters were playing deep into the fourth quarter. And what did you have in
the pactual change game. You had Killer Williams hurt, You had Andrew Vorhees,
the elite offensive lineman hurt. You had you had other guys hurt as
well, And that wear and tear. You know that attrition caught up with
USC. The the the lack of depth on the roster that became a real
problem for USC late in the season. So you have to wonder if those
games were put to bed a lot earlier and starters accumulated fewer snaps, maybe
that dynamic would have been different. So, you know, it a win's
a win, and that's true to a certain extent, But not being able
to finish games earlier it carries a cost. And in this case it's not
so much about guys getting hurt, but because the game was on Big New
Saturday, because the game had such a big national stage and profile so visible
on Fox, you know, the national narrative changed surrounding both USC and Colorado
based on the forty eight twenty one second half lead turning into a forty eight
forty one final. You know, Dion Sanders was saying after the game,
how fun it was to coach against Lincoln Riley and compete against Caleb Williams.
He's not saying that if USC wins by twenty or twenty seven, and sports
Riders, you know who appropriately questioned USC's defense and Lincoln Riley's commitment to winning
because he's because he stands by Ox Grinch. Sports riders would not be writing
about USC's defense. If USC wins this game by twenty twenty five and puts
the game to bed, early sportswriters would not be ryan about that. But
because the league got all the way down to seven, and because in a
USC wound up having to cover an on side kick in a game it led
by twenty seven, you know, the narrative of this game was not,
Wow, look at Caleb Williams, look at how great he is, look
at how awesome the USC offense is. No, that was not the narrative.
That was not the main headline. It was, Oh, USC's defense
is not ready to win, not even the national championship. It's not even
ready to win the PAC twelve championship. Columnists from the PAC twelve footprint,
people who cover the conference regularly, we're saying, us, he's not even
gonna get to Las Vegas, US, He's not even gonna make the PAC
twelve championship game, let alone, you know, not even win the PAC
twelve title, let alone not make the college football playoffs. Like that's how
much the Colorado will come back against USC, dented USC's brand, It dented
USC's national identity. Like that, the main focus that national pundits and commentators
half is USC can't be taken seriously. I'm not, you know, arguing
with that. I'm just telling you what the NAT national narrative is. If
USC wins by twenty that's not the conversation. So even though USC one that
comeback really shape reshape a lot of people's minds. But now here's the other
thing. Here's the other half of the story. So Oregon and Washington they
didn't play well either. Oregon got shut out in the first half at Stanford.
Oregon scored only fourteen points in the first half at Stanford. Oregon didn't
play well. Okay, Oregon pulled away from Stanford in the second half.
Okay, fine, great, But like you know, USC played Stanford a
hell of a lot better than Oregon, did you know, So people are
comparing Colorado between USC and Oregon. Yeah, of course, Oregon played Colorado
a lot better than USC did. But USC played Stanford a whole lot better
than Oregon did. And you know, Oregon played a bad first half and
a very very strong second half against ambered well. USC played a great first
half against Colorado, got up thirty four seven, and then played a really
bad second half, or more specifically, a really bad final twenty minutes after
going up forty eight twenty one. You know, midway through third quarter,
USC is still up twenty seven. It didn't really go sideways until late in
the third quarter and then throughout the fourth quarter. USC not scoring a point
in the fourth quarter. But like, you know, so Oregon played better
on the back end, USC better on the front end, But in the
end, it's it's the same, Like they both played one good half and
one bad half, and then you have Washington struggling against Arizona. You know,
you can you can split that game apart in a lot of different ways.
And you know, again, Washington was not in immediate danger of losing,
much as USC was never an immediate danger of losing, Like the USC
recovers an on sidekick late up seven, So like Colorado never had the ball
with a chance to tire or take the lead, but nevertheless, like it
never should have gotten to that point. But you know, very similar with
Washington and Arizona, Like the Huskies didn't were not in danger of actually losing,
but they did they certainly made that game a lot more of a headache
than it needed to be. But here's the thing. So USC was playing
on Big News Saturday. All the media credentials, all the high profile shows,
talkers, commentators, Carnival Barkers, celebrities, they were all at that
game. Oregon in Washington, both on PAC twelve network. Very few people
could see either one of those games. Uh did not have, you know,
any any real visibility compared to the stage that USC had. So like,
USC is gonna get a lot of attention for its terrible defensive performance.
Oregon in Washington hardly any publicity for what were very mediocre performances. So USC's
gonna grab the headlines and USC's been it was written about a lot more than
Oregon in Washington were. But all three of them didn't play well. I
mean, at least all three of them played mediocre to subpar football for large
portions of their Week five games. So you know, in in the early
afternoon you had John Gonzano and I'm not I'm not even disagreeing with it.
I'm just I'm just basically pointing out what he said. John Conzana, the
very good PAC twelve journalists. The guy who broke the story on you know
what the actual uh twenty twenty two ESPN media rights deal was, you know,
thirty million a year. He scooped that story. Does a great job
covering the PAC twelve I love him, he said. He tweeted out after
the or when the USC car game was ending, he said, you know,
right now, I think the PAC twelve title games going to have two
teams from the Pacific Northwest. I mean, and that's pretty logical. That's
like, that's a logical response to everything that's gone on. Like you look
at USC's defense and you have to say that the events is not ready to
beat Washington and November four, it's not ready to beat Oregon on November eleven.
So that's a very very logical point from gonzal So I'm not even disagreeing
with him, but that statement was made at the end of a very high
visibility game. Oregon and Washington didn't play, you know, basically in the
woods. They basically play in the wilderness on PAC twelve network, and no
one was saying, oh, I don't think Oregon's ready for the PAC twelve
title game. I don't think Washington's ready for the pac twelve title game.
It's not a media criticism so much as a difference in media visibility. All
three of Oregon, USC, and Washington played mediocre to subpar games, but
only USC is getting the media hit. And I'm not blaming the media.
I'm just talking about the difference in coverage and visibility that because USC had the
bigger stage, more people are gonna walk away from Week five thinking, oh,
USC is clearly a cut below Oregon and Washington. That that may be
true because of Adlex Gridge's defense, but Oregon and Washington didn't really set the
bar really high in Week five, and so like in the afternoon, it
was probably logical to say, oh, Pacific Northwest is definitely going to have
both representatives in the PACTROL title game. But then eight hours later, are
you still thinking that you are you still of that same mindset. What you
saw in Palo Alto with Oregon and what you saw on Tucsa on with Washington
did not really move the needle in that direction. It probably moved the needle
back forward. USC, Oregon, and Washington are pretty much standing on the
same ground, the same footing heading against the month of October after week five.
So I'm not I'm not gonna sit here and say, you know what,
USC actually has the advantage. USC still has the inside track. I'm
not going to tell you that. But I also I'm not going to say,
oh, it's clearly Washington Oregon ahead of USC right now. I'm not
going to tell you that either. Now I'm not optimistic about US AND's chances,
but I'm also not going to say, oh, like Washington Oregon are
clearly setting the bar higher based on Week five, that that's really not the
cave. So that there it is worth making those particular kinds of distinctions about
the balance of power in the PAC twelve. So final thing is that the
big game in week six coming up. You know USC with Arizona that's not
a particularly big game, it's not expected to be close, and you have
Colorado at Arizona State. The bus should get healthy. That's certainly a game
they need for their Bowl bid chances with Dion Sanders and Arizona State just lost
to Cal so like Colorado should be able to take care of business in tamp
But the big one, the big game in week six, Washington State at
UCLA. So let's lay it on the table here. Washington State, if
it gets by UCLA, most of the Cougar's schedule is very favorable. Washington
State does not play Utah on its schedule, Washington State does not play usc
The Cougars avoid the Utes and the Trojans, So that those are that's a
that's a huge pair of breaks. That's a that's a big stroke of good
fortune for Jake Dickert and UH and Wazoo. So if Washington State gets by
Ucla, there is a very strong chance that Washington State can win at least
ten games. And then if Washington State can win all the games it's supposed
to, then this assumes a'll win over UCLA in Pasadena. That that's gonna
be tricky. But if Wazoo gets past the UCLA test and then wins all
the other remaining games it is supposed to, then we have a situation where
if Washington State can just split Oregon and Washington, if it can win one
of those two, the Cougars are going to be eleven and one, folks
eleven and one, and they will be eight and one in the PAC twelve.
And if you are eight and one in the PAC twelve, that very
very likely means you are going to be in the PAC twelve Championship game in
Las Vegas. So before the PAC twelve season began, you know, Oregon
State was kind of the dangerous floater the team viewed as, you know,
the school that could bust up a meeting of heavyweights, the heavyweights being Utah,
the two time defending PAC twelve champion USC you know, the PAC twelve
runner up last year, Oregon, you know, which played Utah on the
twenty twenty one PAC twelve Championship Game and very nearly made the pactwelve title game
last year before the late collapse against Oregon State. Oregon would have been in
the PAC twelve title game had it beaten Oregon State and protected a seventeen point
lead in Corvallis. Could not, but like Oregon was very close and then
Washington. Washington would have been in the PAC twelve tag game last year if
it hadn't stepped on a rake against Arizona State. Mansioned earlier in the show
Washington State or Washington I should say this has an incredibly hard time beating Arizona
State in tampe one of the most mystifying losing streaks in all of college football.
So Oregon State was viewed as the team that could get in the way
of a USC Washington or an Oregon Utah Pac twelve championship game. But it's
turned out, you know, with Washington State beating Oregon State, the Cougars,
not the Beavers, are now that team that could bust up the heavyweight
matchup, the anticipated matchup between two of the consensus top four teams in the
PAC twelve. So if Washington State can beat UCLA, the Cougars significantly elevate
their chances of making the PAC twelve champion game. And that would be quite
a plot twist. And if Washington State can go eleven and one, you
know, then the Cougars could be in the hunt for a BCS Bowl.
And just briefly a brief digression from the PAC twelve, which is our main
focus here on get off my pilone. You know, if Duke had beaten
Order Dame, Duke would have had wins over Order Dame and Clemson, and
you know, Duke's figures to lose to Florida State. But if Duke had
Beaten Order Dame, Duke would have been in a really good position for a
New Year's Six Bowl, you know, and just imagine a world in which
Duke and Washington State play in New Year's Six Bowls in the same season.
We almost we almost had that, or at least we were almost looking at
a strong possibility of Duke and Wazoo both being in New Year's Six Bowls had
the Blue Devils been able to stop Order Dame and Sam Hartman on that fourth
and sixteen. But anyway, that tells you the stakes involved for Washington State
Ucla in Week six in Pasadena. And in terms of, you know,
breaking open the keys to this game, well, you know, Donte Moore,
you can see the talent, you can see the arm talent. It
was visible on a few throws against Utah, but it wasn't consistent. And
of course UCLA's offensive line got absolutely massed, absolutely dominated by sack Lake City
and Kyle Wallingham's Utah defensive front. But if, if, if Washington State's
offensive line, which played really well against Oregon State, can protect cam Ward,
and if cam Ward is able to light up the sky once again,
that might set the bar higher than what Dante Moore and UCLA's offense are able
to achieve. So really, often the offensive lines and their ability to protect
the respective quarterbacks represent the key to this game. You'd have to think that
right now, Kim Ward's floor, not the ceiling, but the floor is
higher than Dante Moore's floor. And can Dante more reach a much higher ceiling
than anything we've seen to date. Can he reach back and find something special?
And can UCLA's omensive line give him the time needed to hit strikes down
the field? To me, the omensive line quarterback relationships, how well the
old lines are able to protect their respective quarterbacks. Those are the centerpiece elements
of this coming Washington State UCLA battle. So it's a very interesting place in
the PAC twelve and you know the Oregon Washington super showdown just around the corner.
We're gonna have a lot of that on next week's edition, but right
now, it's Wazoo at UCLA taking the spotlight heading into week six, coming
out of week five. That is the focus on this edition of the Get
Off My Pylon College Football podcast, part of the Awe Grid Aaron cost to
Coast Network. Remember with our friends at ticketsmarter dot com and the ticket Smarter
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stay in the game with the Get Off My pylone College Football Podcast. This
is Matt Zemmick. Thank you for listening to another episode of our show.