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 Zemmick Colokay,
it's the latest edition of Get Off My Pylon College football podcast. This is
your host, Matt Zemming. Week two is has come and gone, and
you know, there's not a lot to look forward to in week three of
this college football season. You've probably noticed, regardless of which part of the
country you're from, whether it's in the West and the Pac twelve, which
we cover here on Get Off My Pylon, or any other part of the
country, pretty slim pickings in terms of the schedule offerings for this week going.
That's why ESPN College Game Day went to Colorado State Colorado, a game
in which Colorado was favored by twenty four points. If that's the game day
game, you know it's a very very light slate. LSU Mississippi State could
be a little bit interesting. You know, Washington at Michigan State. You
know, teams that are going to be in the Big Ten next year together
that could be interesting. Of course, you know the melt Tucker drama at
Michigan State. You know, that lends a little extra element of intrigue to
that particular game. But yeah, it's a pretty light slate, and of
course, you know, just around the bend after week three, then you
get into week four. Week four is spectacular. Week four, September twenty
three, You're going to have Florida State, Clemson, Notre Dame, Ohio
State, Alabama, Ole, miss lots of other showcase games, Ucla,
Utah, Uh, you know, Oregon, Colorado. Week four is going
to be spectacular. But Week three not a lot to look at really in
Western college football or really college football across the country. So we're just gonna
focus on week two and what has come and gone in the PAC twelve.
Here it get off my pilot. So I think one of the big overall
talking points, one of the big overall stories we face in the PAC twelve
after two weeks, obviously, conference doing really well, twenty one and four
overall record. One conference game was played that was USC Stanford, So non
conference PAC twelve twenty and three after the past weekend and Arizona almost beat Mississippi
State, took the Bulldogs to overtime in Starkville, despite committing a ton of
turnovers like Arizona committed four early turnovers. That game frankly should have been a
blot. So Arizona competed extremely well, you know, overcoming its mistakes and
nearly coming out of Starkville with a win. But gosh, Jaden Laura like,
you have to cut down the turnovers, man. You have to find
a way to display better ball security. Arizona ceiling rises if Dolora can ever
figure out that part of the equation. But nevertheless, Arizona with a good
showing, very nearly upsetting Mississippi State, Arizona State, you know, in
a total rebuild under Kenny Dellingham. Losing to Oklahoma State at home, I
mean it's a It's not a bad loss in the sense that Arizona State was
expected to be at the bottom of the Pac twelve, but there is a
sense to a degree that this was a fish that got away because Oklahoma State
was shuttling through quarterbacks Mike Gundy like a mad scientist, and this was not
in a good way. Gundy seemed to have some momentum in that game,
and then he switched quarterbacks at seemingly the worst or at least the most confusing
possible moment. Oklahoma State made that game more difficult on itself than it should
have been, and Arizona State had a chance to win. That game was
consistently close, but the Sun Devils could not come up with the win.
And the Sun Devils have several offensive linemen out like that was the big limitation
there. So I'm not gonna say Arizona State should have won, but it
could have one. But nevertheless, being competitive with Oklahoma State, you know
that's that's certainly not a terrible result for Dillingham. Like being competitive with Mike
Gundy's Oklahoma State program, you know that that's uh, that's somebody for Dillingham
and his staff to build on as as the season goes forward. Now here's
the one where the Pac twelve really should have won a game but didn't.
Cal outplayed Auburn and Hugh Freeze most of the night in Berkeley, but what
happened missed three different field goals. Cal had the ball inside the Auburn forty
on seven different drives during this game and scored ten total points. And that
is just a that's hard to do. That is hard to do. Even
if you have a bad offense seven times inside the forty and you get only
ten points for the whole game. And yes, the three missed field goals,
but there were a couple of other possessions that got inside the forty and
didn't score, not even a single point, and Auburn was able to get
You know that one second half touchdown, put together one good second half drive.
That's all Auburn did in the second half. The rest of the night,
Auburn was horrible on offense, but one good touchdown drive in the second
half was enough for the Tigers to go into Berkeley and win. So you
know, that is the game that the Pack twelve really should have won,
and it didn't come up with a victory. In Week two, But on
the other side of the equation, you had Pac twelve teams in trouble and
they were able to pull a win out of the fire. And the foremost
example of this is Utah cam Rising not healthy, not healthy enough at least
to play against Baylor in Waco against Dave Randa. You can say what you
want about Dave Randa as a head coach, that's up for debate, but
no question that His defensive chops are elite. You know, he's a great
defensive tactics tactician, and he had Utah bottled up for almost all of that
game, Baylor leading thirteen to three in the second half and seemingly on its
way to victory. But then what happened the Utah staff just in the nick
of time. I mean, this game was just headed for defeat. Excuse
me, it was slipping away. And then Utah removed the removed Bryson Barnes.
Bryson Barnes, you know who played in two different Rose Bowls. When
Cam Rising got hurt. He started in the Utah win at Washington State on
a Thursday night season. He started the Florida game in Week one of this
season. This was not his first rodeo. Like Bryson Barnes has had plenty
of experience starting, not just playing, but starting for Utah football. And
you know he's he's no Cam Rising, but like he's a decent competent quarterback
in general. I mean that's that certainly was the larger read on him going
into this game against Baylor. But against Baylor for whatever reason it was,
and this was an eleven am local time kickoff and Waco heat index was high.
Heat index was over a hundred, the temperature was ninety seven or so,
and humidity was considerable. So not comfortable conditions. And we've all gone
through a day when morning heat, you know, is higher than we'd like.
I mean, I've certainly been through a lot of these days in my
lifetime living in Phoenix, you know, so the heat might have just really
gotten to Bryson Barnes. The conditions were certainly uncomfortable. For whatever reason,
Bryson Barnes was just really really slow in processing, throwing, basically doing everything
that a quarterback is supposed to do. The game was just way too fast
for him. He was not thinking, reacting, responding clearly. And you
know, athletes have to get to a point where but you know, whatever
you do, whatever it is that you're trained to do, it comes naturally.
You're not thinking about it. You just automatically respond. The body automatically
does what it's been trained to do. What that training was not emerging for
Bryceon Barnes. So Utah staff down thirteen three in that second half. They
had to go to Nate Johnson. They had to go to their faster quarterback
with much more considerable running capabilities, and sure enough, getting Nate Johnson loose
for some rushing yards on some quarterback keepers that made Baylor's defense finally hesitate,
And just that little bit of hesitancy, a little bit of uncertainty in terms
of whether Nate Johnson is going to throw or run or hand the ball off
Utah finally created a little bit of confusion on the Baylor defense. The offense
opened up for Utah, so the youth's score. And then at the very
very late in regulation, Baylor was going with a backup quarterback in this game
as well, and this is where Utah figure to have an advantage because Bryson
Barnes was supposed to be, you know, the proven backup. Baylor's quarterback
was not a proven backup, and sure enough, late in the game,
Baylor's you know, untested backup quarterback throws a very bad interception. The Youths
are able to punch the ball in with sixteen seconds left. Now they let
Baylor get behind the secondary on Baylor's last possession. In those final sixteen seconds,
they allowed Baylor to get behind the defense for a huge game. Baylor
had one play from the twenty one yard line with one second left, Utah
able to defend it, and it could have been pass interference on Utah.
But you know, the Baylor receiver didn't really fight for the ball. He
kind of gave up his position. If the Baylor receiver fights for the ball
more effectively, a better chance that there would have been a defensive past interference
call. So I mean, you could have thrown the flag there. Like
if the flag had been thrown, I would I would not have viewed it
as a bad call. It was certainly possible and reasonable for the Rests to
throw a flag. But the note, the non call hardly the worst a
non call of defensive past interference that I've seen. So like Utah fans shouldn't
say like like oh, like they really got out of jail, But I
mean they still did do some dumb things the utes and constantly put themselves at
risk, but they ultimately get out of Waco with a win twenty to thirteen.
And so you know that the big non con frinds road game for Utah.
It's been a stumbling block under Kyle Whan. We've seen it a number
of times. You saw it last year in Gainesville against Florida a Florida team
which you know, over the course of the full season did not turn out
to be especially strong. Utah couldn't finish that win on the road in Gainesville
last year. So this win in Baylor, uh, you know, in
Waco against Baylor, while while the Bears don't look particularly impressive, nevertheless it's
early September. You don't have everything figured out as a football team. You're
playing with a backup quarterback. You have to go to your second backup.
All sorts of adversity, all sorts of problems for Utah, the US are
able to overcome that. And that is that is a mature program, that's
a top tier program. It's the kind of win you have to come up
with if you want your season to reach its goals, to reach its aspirations.
Utah is able to get it done as ugly as it was. Utah
is able to get it done in Waco against Baylor. So more pack twelve
notes observations from Week two. But first Ticket Smarter is your companion for the
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games in college football this season. So as we continue, where to look
at Pac twelve football after Week two? You know the other really big escape
drop the Houdini not not miraculous, but still it was like it was this
was a bumpy ride. You could certainly draw a comparison with Utah at Baylor
in Waco, well down in Lubbock, also in the state of Texas,
also against a Big twelve opponent. You had Oregon in a dog fight with
the Texas Tech Red Raiders, and you know there are there is certainly caused
for a concern with the Ducks and and for Dan Lanning because Dan Lanning is
a defense first guy. You know, he was be Smarts defensive coordinator at
Georgia in twenty twenty one when the Dogs won the national championship. And you
know, you would think that Dan Lanny, being a defensive expert, that
he would have that side of the ball figured out, but hasn't really happened.
And you know his defensive coordinators, Tash Lupoy will who you know,
people will remember. You know that he was the defensive coordinator for Nick Saban
at Alabama in the twenty eighteen season. And we remember Clemson and Trevor Lawrence
just absolutely dominating Uh Tasha's Alabama defense in the National championship game. That was
the game played in Santa Clara at Levi's Stadium, home of the forty nine
ers. Alabama's defense just looked really, really bad in that twenty eighteen seasons.
Big Well I was about to say BCS the the overall College Football Playoff
National Championship game, and so tash Lupoy, Okay, I'm not gonna say
he's the worst defensive coordinator in the Pac twelve. That goes to another defensive
coordinator over at USC, a guy named Alex Grinch. So I'm not going
to say that there's a changing of the guard for worst defensive coordinator. But
but if you're an Oregon fan, let's be honest here, do you feel
comfortable in any way to any degree about going up against Michael Pennocks and Washington
in a month? You know that is a month away October fourteenth in Seattle
Husky Stadium. Is Oregon remotely ready for what's coming with Washington on Montlake in
a month? Now? Now the Ducks, do you have a month to
get ready for that? They have a month to get their defense up to
speed. Do you really, as an Oregon fan, if you're there any
organ fans listening here to get off my pilot College Football podcast, do you
really think that Oregon in a month will be developed enough, prepared enough,
polished enough on defense to meet the challenge of Michael Pennox. Boy, it
is really hard to answer that in the affirmative. Well, Oregon has a
lot of work to do. Tyler Shuck, the Texas Tech quarterback, who
you know, not a great passer, but he's a competent runner and he
certainly made some plays with his legs. I mean, Texas Tech was able
to move the ball fairly regularly against that Oregon defense in Lubbock. And if
Tyler Shuck is having a pretty decent night, and I know that he transferred
from Oregon, he really had had this game circled. This game was really
important for him, so you know, motivation was there. But even then,
if Tyler Shuck is having a good night against you, boy, what
does that mean when Michael Pennox plays you? What does that mean? When
Caleb Williams plays you? What does that mean? When you know a healthy
Cam Rising plays you? You Oregon will have to go to you, tak
later this season. There are a lot of questions have to be asked of
the Oregon defense and where that ship is sailing undertash Lapoi, under Dan Lanny.
However, all of that being said, this team was This Oregon team
was struggling. It was fighting up hill for a good portion of this game
against Texas Tech. Made some important stops in the second half and was able
to get the late interception to tuck away that game. Win thirty eight thirty
get out of Lubbock at night, which is not easy. It's not easy
for Texas. It hasn't been easy for Oklahoma either or being able to meet
that challenge. And so, you know, if we're gonna say that it's
a great win for Utah to get out of Baylor with a victory, even
though Baylor is OZ and two, and even though Baylor lost to Texas State
in week one, we also have to come right back and say, you
know, this is a good win for Oregon to beat Texas Tech even though
the Red Raiders lost in Week one to Wyoming, even though the Red Raiders
might not be a particularly good football team this year. We'll we'll, we'll
wait and see. But you know, Texas Tech has not had a good
start to it season. But you don't say that that wind doesn't mean anything
for Oregon. You know, wins on the road at night against power five
opposition, Uh, you know, in front of a rowdy crowd. Uh,
you know, in front against a quarterback Tyler Shuck who was really motivated
to beat you and play well against you. You know, lots of things
working against Oregon in this game, the Ducks found a way, and so
that points to this larger reality of the PAC twelves, big hitters, they're
all holding serve, they're all doing fundamentally what they're supposed to do. And
this doesn't mean that these teams doesn't don't have significant flaws. They do,
like Oregon's defense, significant flaw. US. These defense, you know,
looked good the past two weeks, but Stanford and Nevada are horrible. So
we really can't assign too much value, too much importance to what US's defense
has done the past few weeks. Of course, these defenses, you know
Colorado's as well. You know, Nebraska just has a terrible quarterback, terrible
offensive play. Can't really learn too much about Colorado's defense from this game against
Nebraska. But when when each of these teams US, Colorado, Oregon play
each other and play other really high quality quarterbacks and offenses later in the season,
whether it's Utah, whether it's Washington, you know, it's possible that
Djangola, you know, has figured it out at Oregon State under Johnathan Smith.
We'll have to wait and see. I mean, Oregon State's played San
Jose State and UC Davis. That doesn't give us too much of an indication
of where Uyamgolay really is in terms of his progression and development. But it's
possible. It's possible that dj could be really really good. And if so,
like that changes the equation for Oregon State, it changes the balance of
power in the PET twelve. But that is really the big overall storyline,
folks. You know, how will these defenses, which have so many question
marks, how are they going to respond when they go up against big league
quarterbacks and really really good offenses. That's the dominant and central question of the
conference through week two. You know, Washington doesn't figure to get much of
a test from Michigan State's offense. You know, Michigan State watched Keyon Coleman.
It's a receiver. Go to Florida State and Keyon Coleman has Jordan Travis
to throw the ball to him down in Tallahassee with the seminoles. Like,
that's a really good situation for Coleman. He got out of East Lansing just
in the nick of time. You know, So Washington doesn't figure to be
tested by Michigan State. But you know, how will Washington defense reacts when
it goes up against Boonix and Oregon in that October fourteen game that I've mentioned.
All these PAC twelve teams. You know, you're gonna have the tests
coming up in a few weeks, you know, Oregon Colorado on the twenty
third, USC Colorado on September thirty in Boulder. We're gonna be learning more
about these PAC twelve teams in future weeks, not so much Week three,
but certainly in future weeks, and so we can make really specific claims and
statements about how good these PAC twelve teams are or aren't in the present moment.
I don't think we have to put too much weight on any of these
statements. I don't think we have to put too much emphasis on how would
you rank the PAC twelve right now, nationally or just as a conference itself?
How would you rank the teams one through twelve. We're all on the
very preliminary stages, and we're not going to get many, if any revealing
moments from Week three. On September sixteenth, it begins to shake out.
It's going to begin to become clearer. You know what the pecking order,
what the power structure is in the PAC twelve. When we get into September
twenty three, Oregon, Colorado, UCLA, Utah, Oregon State, Washington
State as well, then things are going to begin to, you know,
emerge. Then then the race really begins as teams jockey for a position and
really try to establish themselves as top tier contenders. And we'll see if there
are any pretenders that emerge. But right now, it's kind of quiet,
and it just comes down to these coaches and particularly their defensive coordinators. They
need to coach up their players right now. They need to be looking at
film, identifying the weaknesses, identifying the mistakes, getting these things corrected,
because pretty soon the action's gonna heat up and you're not going to have mediocre
quarterbacks. On the other side. You will have to defend the pass,
you will have to defend the downfield vertical strikes reasonably well, and if you
can't, you're gonna get buried in an avalanche. And so, whether it's
Eugene and Loupoi, or whether it's USC with Alex Scringe, whether it's Colorado
and its own defense, the challenges are just around the bed. The challenges
are about to come. That's really the main storyline of the Pact twelve.
The other really big story that we can't ignore for sure is Washington State beating
Wisconsin. Wisconsin coach by Luke Fickle. He is a college football playoff head
coach. We need to remind ourselves of that took Cincinnati to the playoff in
the twenty twenty one season. And you know, obviously there are high hopes
at Wisconsin this year with Fickle, you know, bringing a new approach,
having Phil Longo as his offensive coordinator, you know, trying to get off
Wisconsin's offense to go past berry ball, passed the Berry Alvarez smash mouth style,
not completely abandoning the run game, of course, but involving some of
the spread concepts in the passing game that the Badgers haven't generally adopted over the
past few decades. Was so Wisconsin's attempt to modernize its offense while having Luke
Fickle's acumen as a defensive tactician. That marriage of you know, the new
offense and elite defense was supposed to be the recipe for the Badgers, but
Washington State was clearly the better team in that game. Washington State created a
hefty lead, watched Wisconsin make a second half push, and you know,
if you're a PAC twelve veteran, you know all about Kugan, it Cougan,
it blowing a big lead, letting a game slip away. Washington State
did that last year against Oregon, you know, squandered a fourth quarter lead.
I was classic Cougnet. And so when Wisconsin made its big rally got
within two points, you know, it was easy to think that, you
know, another episode of Cougnet was about to unfold in Pullman. But no,
Washington State held firm, stood its ground and and thwarted the Badgers in
the final ten minutes to grab a very big win. So let's put this
in perspective. If you followed the PAC twelve preseason media polls, and if
you look at you know, the Coach's poll and the AP poll, the
various other polls, the various other outlets and predictions, and you know,
all the entities and outlets that have been trying to guess the power structure and
the balance of power in the PAC twelve, they generally put Washington State seventh.
That was generally where Washington State was landing in preseason and early season projections.
You know, some might have had the Cougars sixth, maybe even fifth,
but certainly no higher than fifth, and some as low as eight or
nine. So generally it was seventh. You know, give or take one
or two spots for the Cougars. If that is your seventh place team,
if that is your seventh best team, beating Wisconsin and Luke Fickel, that
right there really speaks to the depth that the Pac twelve has this season.
And it's a it's such a shame that the Pac twelve is so good in
football right now, or at least if you're not willing to say the Pac
twelve is really good in football, we can at least say things look really
promising for the PAC twelve in football. There is a lot of potential here.
There is so much room for growth. So many teams have a chance
to do something special. Now, whether they will that's a different question,
but certainly a lot of potential will exists for the Pac twelve to have a
special, memorable football season. You could very realistically see four or five teams
in the Pac twelve winning ten games, uh, you know, including a
bowl game. I mean, you could have four teams win ten games before
the Bulls. In terms of getting a fifth or maybe a sixth team of
ten wins, Yeah, that would probably require the bowl game to do that.
You'll you'll get like a one or two nine and three teams and they'll
have to win the game ten in the Bulls. But at least three or
four teams could go ten and two or better in the regular season. I
mean, they're the range of possibilities for Pac twelve success is considerable. Like,
this isn't just about pinning your hopes on one team, which is really
where we are in the ACC with Florida State, Like Clemson already looks bad.
Now Duke might look good, but Duke does play Florida State later in
the season. So like, if you're thinking about the playoff for the ACC,
it's all about the Knowles, It's all about Florida State. PAC twelve
not really that simple, It's or not really that limited. I should say
it could go through USC, but Oregon has a path, Washington has a
path. Utah because it got through Baylor and you're gonna get Cam Rising healthy
and subsequent weeks just in time for the Pac twelve season. I mean,
Utah has a path as well. And you know what if Oregon State is
special, what if dj Uyangoloway is really good, Oregon State could go eleven
and one. It really could if it's quarterback is the real deal. So
you have a lot of different teams with a chance. I'm not gonna say
likelihood, though I am privately, you know, pretty bullish on these teams.
But let's just say, for you know, the national listeners here on
the Get off my Parlor on college football podcasts, let's just say that these
teams have a realist a chance. We don't need to say likely, we
don't need to say probable, but it's realistic. It's right out there,
like several teams could win ten eleven games, put themselves in the mix heading
into late November early December, you know, with a shot of going to
the PAC twelve championship game and playing for very high stakes in Las Vegas.
Such is the outlook for a PAC twelve in which the seventh best team just
dusted off Wisconsin and Luke Fickle. So that's that's the read on the PAC
twelve after Week two. Again, not a ton to talk about for the
upcoming week three. But after Week three's over Oregon Colorado, Ucla, Utah,
Washington State, Oregon State. We're definitely going to be looking at those
games next week on the Get Off My Pylon College Football Podcasts. We're part
of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast network. A reminder visit tickets dot
com the ticket Smarter mobile app ten dollars off at one hundred dollars purchase,
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Get Off My Pilot College Football podcast. Thanks for listening.