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 Zemi. Welcome
to the latest edition of the Get Off My Pilon College Football podcast. This
is your host, Matt Zemmi. So this podcast, as you know,
during college football season, looks at PAC twelve football, the PAC twelve conference
and uh, you know, a light weekend in terms of significant news stories
from the PAC twelve. I mean, you know, most of the stories
coming from Colorado, Like that's where the big news is emerging. Travis Hunter
out for a few weeks, so he's gonna miss the Oregon and USC games.
But you know, you had the dirty hit on Travis Hunter by Colorado
States Henry Blackburn, and that's been a point of controversy. And also Dion
Sanders may his second appearance on sixty Minutes, the CBS news show in a
year. He was interviewed by John Wortheim last year when he was at Jackson
State. He gets interviewed on the season premier of sixty Minutes. I mean
that gives you an indication of how much the media ecosystem, the media beast
craves anything and everything, dion standers. We also have the news that the
USC Colorado game in Boulder on September thirty, if it's a big neon Saturday
game, a USC had to agree to that, had to agree to the
early kickoff, and the Trojans did, like they enjoy publicity, you know,
they enjoyed not having to deal with pactrowelve network anymore, so they signed
off on that. And so that's Calas's third big Neon Saturday game of the
season, but more specifically, it's going to be Carle's third big Neon Saturday
game of September. And of course ESPM College Game Day was in Boulder this
past weekend for the Buffalo's game against Caliole State. So like just everyone wants
a piece of don everyone wants to be in on this action. Of course,
with Clarole being three and oh, just that hype train is going to
continue. The Buffaloes get the prime ABC treatment in the featured three thirty Eastern
window that game and asten Stadium against Oregon this upcoming weekend. And by the
way, you know, so I'm the editor of Trojan's Wire as most,
if not all, of you know follow the folks at Buffalo's Wire and Ducks
Wire for complete coverage of that Colorado Oregon game. So Colorado is the main
news generator on a national level in the PAC twelve, but elsewhere, you
know, this was the final cupcake weekend. This was the final main non
conference weekend, and now we head into Pac twelve play for everybody in Week
four and beyond, there's been only one conference game played in the PAC twelve.
That was USC Stanford, But now everyone gets in on the act in
Week four conference play. Gonna preview those games in a separate episode of Get
Off My Pilon, But really just want to take stock of the PAC twelve
after non conference play. I mean, the USC Order Dame is a non
conference game, and so you know, so they're just and Stanford Order Dame
also a non conference game. But other than that, non conference play is
done for the PAC twelve this season for the last time, and the results
were rather remarkable. Twenty nine and five for the Pac twelve and thirty four
non conference games. That's pretty remarkable. And of those five losses, three
were from either Stanford or Arizona. State. The two worst teams in the
conference, Arizona State losing to Oklahoma State in Fresno State, Stanford losing to
Sacramento State. Those are easily the two worst teams in the PAC twelve.
So but other than those two bottom feeders, only two non conference losses across
the other ten schools in the PAC twelve. One was Cal out playing Auburn
most of the night in Berkeley but missing three field goals, losing by four
points fourteen to ten, and then Arizona nine point underdog at Mississippi State,
committing four turnovers and still taking Mississippi State into overtime on the road in Starkville.
So really, like the PAC twelve, barely put a foot wrong,
Like, barely did anything of note that was wrong or substandard in non conference
play. You know, the weaker teams had a few bad moments and losses,
but like none of the eight I mean eight. You have eight unbeaten
teams through non conference play, and you have Washington State facing Wisconsin, a
game that the Cougars were expected to lose. You had, you know,
other teams. You know, Washington went into East Lansing and it didn't just
beat Michigan State. I mean it was expected to do that, but just
totally wiped the Spartans off the field, getting a massive lead and cruising to
a blowout victory. Michael Pennock's able to sit basically the whole second half.
That's a great thing for Washington to be able to rest that many starters with
that Oregon game not too far away on October fourteen, and USC's going through
a similar situation that the Trojans need to be blowing people out as much as
possible right now so that their starters are fresh and healthy for Notre Dame on
October fourteenth. And also you tak on October twenty one. So the big
hitters in the PAC twelve plus you know those middle tier teams, Washington State,
Oregon State, UCLA, they're all handling their business like no team from
the PAC twelve that was expected to be good or very good or great.
None of those teams expected to be really good have stumbled. They've all done
the job. Yes, Oregon wobbled a bit at Texas Tech, but got
it done. Good teams go into those tough road environments early in the season
and managed to come away with the win. It's not supposed to be purty,
it's not supposed to have a lot of style points. Just go into
that hostile road environment in Texas late at night, early September. It's hot,
it's not comfortable. Just get the win that that's really all that matters.
Oregon able to do that. Utah did something very similar at Baylor in
Waco in week two. So you have PAC twelve teams all passing, you
know, not those headliner type tests. You know, those showdowns they're going
to come soon enough, but those tricky tests, those games that you're supposed
to win. You know that you're the better team, but it's early in
the season and you do have the rough edges and you're trying to learn how
to play together. It's gonna be a little bit of a bumpy ride,
but ultimately you just need to get the result. Pack twelve teams have been
getting the results. So what can we say on a deeper level about the
conference in this twenty nine and five non conference start. What seems like the
really salient points to make and what are the important questions to ask. It's
interesting that a few key details are interconnected with each other. An unexpected plot
point in terms of evaluating the entirety of the PAC twelve in twenty twenty three,
is the Cars State Rams. Now I think about it that that is
definitely an unexpected plot point, but the Colorado State really does emerge as a
notable discussion point in terms of how we assess various teams in the PAC twelve.
Now, why is that? Well? First off, Colorado State has
played both Washington State and Colorado, two of those really good mid tier teams
that are playing better than expected. You know, Washington State was not supposed
to beat Wisconsin, but it did. Colorisle was not supposed to be three
and zero, but it is. Both teams played Coloradle State and Washington State
beat Colorado State like a drum fifty to twenty four in Week one. And
that's part of why Calorisle State was a twenty three point underdog to Colorado in
Week three. But Calirale State certainly didn't play like a twenty three point underdog.
Calisle State outplayed Calorisle most of that game, and the Rams were up
twenty eight seventeen with eleven minutes left, and it certainly looked like in that
moment they were going to win. Still looked like they were going to win
when they were up by eight points with three minutes left, and you know,
Klara had to thread the needle. You get a stop, get the
ball back, then drive the length of the field, and then get the
two point conversion. Was able to do all those things with no margin for
air. Shuder Sanders played a pretty mediocre game for the first fifty minutes,
but in the final ten he was magical. He was outstanding, and of
course he didn't have Travis Hunter to throw to now. Shuder Sanders really struggled
with his decision making for most of the game, and it's interesting he finally
began to scramble in those last ten minutes. He finally began to use his
legs, which you know, he's a skilled runner, he's a legitimate dual
threat quarterback. Finally began to use his legs. That opened up Karole State's
defense. You know, it's akin to what Utah did with Nate Johnson against
Baylor, you know, not using that added weapon for most of the day,
but finally doing it when you know, the urgency of the moment brought
forth more resourcefulness. So Shader Sanders put it all together in the final ten
minutes. Offensive coordinator Sean Lewis drew up some great two point plays, the
one that tied the score at twenty eight in the final minute of regulation.
You had side motion stretching the defense horizontally, but then you had the tight
end running inside the seam and Carros State was running toward the perimeter. You
had you had the pass in the middle of the field. It broke wide
open. Great play design from Sean Lewis to rescue Colorado on a night win.
Again. Colorado State carried the run of play for most of the night.
Carrale State committed a ton of penalties, almost two hundred total yards and
penalties in fact, and yet the Rams were leading or tied for most of
that game and Colorado was chasing the game. Colorado was fighting pill Now,
the Travis Hunter injury had a lot to do with that, but even then,
Colorado does have better athletes than Colorado State across the board. But you
know, the Buffs were very emotional in this game, like they weren't fully
focused. And let's remember Colorado even in its previous wins against Nebraska TCU didn't
really run the ball all that much. This is a This team is almost
entirely built on the passing games on the offensive side of the ball, and
not being able to run like that is a limitation which figures to harm the
Buffs you know, before too long, especially as they head to Austen Stadium
and Eugene this coming week. But still, Colorado does have better athletes than
Colorada State, and the Buffs clearly looked like a team that was distracted,
not really focused that you know, all the talk during the week, all
the publicity, the hype, the war of words involving the Colorado State at
all seemed to get Colorado off its game. And so, you know,
we could say that Colorado is going to be more focused, more prepared for
future weeks. But it also has to be said that, you know,
Colorado State did carry the run of play for most of this game. Colorado
was able to steal it late, tying it at the end of regulation time,
and then being able to win in overtime. So Colorado State blown out
by Washington State, but then able to outplay Colorado in Boulder for much of
the night. So we have to ask ourselves how good is this Colorado State
team? How good is it's going to be. That's going to be a
measuring stick, like we're going to keep referring to Colorado State. We're gonna
be monitoring the RAMS progress in the Mountain West this season, and we're gonna
just, you know, continually continuously use that as a reference point in terms
of how good these various Pack twelve teams are and how much progress these PAC
twelve teams make in their overall evolution and where are you know, in late
October early November, how how much value are we going to assign to Washington
State for blowing out Pile State by twenty six points in four collins? How
much value are we going to assigned to Colorado for escaping the RAMS in overtime?
It's going to be fascinating to see how that all comes together. There's
there's one other Mountain West evaluation point, and that is Boise State. Boise
State lost at home to UCF a week ago. How good is that Boise
State team going to turn out to be? Because that affects Washington's resume?
You know, how how much value will we put to Washington's blowout of Boisey
State in week one and Washington State just hammered Michigan State. How bad.
Are the Spartan's going to be? You know that that was a team.
Now, as you know, mel Tucker got suspended before that game, and
the news has broken as we record this week's podcast, that Michigan State intends
to fire Meltucker with cause. But you know, at kickoff time on Saturday
afternoon in East Lansing, the you know, the official status for Tucker was
that he had been suspended, probably on his way out the door, yes,
but you know, nevertheless, officially he had not been fired yet,
and so you wondered how was Michigan State going to emotionally respond to that situation?
And the Spartan's put up very little fight, So that that's that's an
eye opener. Not saying this I'm surprised, not saying like that was unpredictable.
It was just we didn't know which way Michigan State was going to respond,
and we got a very clear answer. So, you know, while
Washington just stomped on Michigan State from the get go and acted the way an
elite team should act on the road against a grossly inferior opponent, it does
remain just you know, just how much can we say that was Washington being
great, that there was certainly a considerable element of Michigan State being bad,
and that is something we've talked about with USC and with Oregon other Pack twelve
teams that have played some really cushy schedules so far this season. I'm not
referring to Texas Tech in Oregon's case, but playing Portland State, you know
eight scored eighty one points, big whoop? You know, okay, scored
eighty one points against an FCS team, the Portland State Vikings, and then
Oregon just a jog through another glorified scrimmage against Hawaii. So while Oregon,
you know, did what a good team should do, we still don't know
how good the Ducks really are, and that that process of discovery begins with
the Colorado game and it's going to continue throughout the Pac twelve season. The
same for USC. I mean, Stanford just lost to Sacramento State, So
USC beat Stanford, Okay, you know, beating Stanford by ten trillion points
does not mean that USC is a national championship contender. And then USC beating
Nevada, a team that lost by twenty seven at home to Idaho a couple
of weeks ago, and Nevada did put up a better fight against Kansas.
Kansas did play a horrible game, but nevertheless Nevada did put up a much
better fight. But it still remains that USC's schedule San Jose State, Stanford,
Nevada. You know, there's just a lot of empty calories there,
and that's not necessarily the Trojan's fault, but just in terms of a resume,
just in terms of a list of opponents, like, there's no there
there, and we don't know really how good USC is. We won't know
how good USC is until the Trojans get at least some degree of a test,
at least some measure of resistance and pushback. That also applies to Oregon,
though you know Texas Tech was something of a test. It very much
applies to Washington as well. Now, Washington probably is the eye test leader
of the PAC twelve, playing teams that are, you know, probably a
little bit better than what USC has played and dominating them. You know,
if you're going by the eye test, you'd probably put Washington first, US
and second at this point, not that it means a ton. You know,
we're getting into conference play and we're going to get into bigger, better
battles that are going to reveal more about these teams. But you know,
it's going to be interesting. How good is Boise State, How good is
Colorado State? How good are the opponents of these Pac twelve teams? How
will they evolve over the course of the season. How are we going to
evaluate resumes a month two months from now? Because you know, if we
get into a college football playoff conversation and Washington and or USC are on the
fence, they're in the mix, but you know, not clearly in the
lead, then these early season results that we've seen are going to become noticeable
talking points. The other big story, and we've we've alluded to it a
little bit is Colorado And it's not so much about coach Prime, you know,
Deon Sanders or anything like that, but just how good are the Buffs?
And obviously Travis Hunter being injured will hurt them, But if we take
Travis Hunter out of the equation, you know, just how good is this
team and watching Colorado State outplay the Buffs. It's worth known in Calosle State
did not play on September nine, so Calorosle State had two weeks to game
plan for the Buffs. That obviously helped ColorOS State and coach at Jay Norvelle
in their preparation. But even then, you know, before the season began,
Colorado figured to beat Colorado State like that was one of the three four
games that everyone thought, Okay, that Carl is going to get that one.
Now, most people thought Klos was going to beat TCU. Of course,
the Buffs were twenty point underdogs there. And then, of course Nebraska
has the horrible opener against Minnesota, while Colorado surprises everyone against TCU. So
Colorado became a hefty favorite against Nebraska. But you know, in early August,
most people were thinking, oh, Matt Rule against this new Dion Sanders
team. In early August, Nebraska was considered to be a solid favorite over
Colorado. Obviously, people discounted the Jeff Simms factor, Nebraska getting brutal quarterback
play yet again. And it's it's notable that Matt Rule wasn't able to come
up with a better answer at quarterback then Jeff Simms. But that point aside.
You know, just the conventional wisdom in early August, well before the
season began, was that Nebraska would beat Colorado. Obviously, during the week
leading up to kickoff for that game, Colorado was a three point favorite,
and Colorado you know, covered the spread with ease, winning by twenty two
points thirty six fourteen. But the larger point is that Calias was expected to
be owned to by a lot of people and Carras State was supposed to be
the win. And yet as things have turned out, you know, Colorado
State was the team that gave Colorado the roughest ride. Car Asle State was
the team that looked the best against Colorado. So it's it's interesting how just
things have been flipped upside down that, you know, in terms of preseason
expectations, car Ale State was supposed to be the easiest of these three games
for Colorado, and yet it turned out to be the hardest of the three
games. And this what we saw against Carrale State, Like this was the
card team most of us expected to see before the season began. Like this
was the team with rough edges. This was the team that you know would
be limited on offense in terms of run pass balance, and teams would just
try to shut down the deep ball, make Shader Sanders work the ball in
down the field in short passes, and then of course Colorado's defensive line not
particularly strong. Karole State was able to protect its quarterback very consistently, and
the Rams were able to just throw short passes into the short flats to tight
ends and end receivers very consistently, and the Buffs never truly adjusted. I
mean, they got some stops and key moments, but Calarole State really,
you know, had the upper hand for nearly all of regulation time before Colorado
scrambled late to forge that tie send the game into overtime. So it's just
interesting that this was more like the calad team most of us were expecting to
see. Now, you don't have Travis Hunter in the lineup, that's true,
but like Calau had over four receivers catching at least one hundred ten yards
worth of passes against TCU. So it's not as though those other receivers are
a bunch of chumps. Calole State was able to take the deep ball away
from you know, those other three Colorado receivers. It's not as though any
one of them really was able to stand out. And that might be a
commentary on just how much this team depended on Travis Hunter to stretch the defense
and create opportunities for his teammates. But even if you account for that,
you know, all the other players on that Colorado offense weren't locked in,
weren't playing their best, and it does raise questions about, you know,
where this Coloradle team is going to go. Now at three and l it's
looking extremely likely that Colorado will go to a bowl game. Which let's just
get this on the record here, Caladle goes to a bowl game. That
is a fantastic achievement. Like most people expected three and nine before the season.
If you're projected to go three and nine and you instead go to a
bowl game, that's amazing. That is tremendous. But I do think what
this Colorado State game did is that it did douse the flames. It kind
of it cooled down the fire in terms of all right, this is not
a Pac twelve contender. This is not a team that's gonna go to a
New Year's six bowl game. This is not a team that's gonna be in
the top tier of college football. That seems pretty safe, especially with Oregon
and USC coming up in consecutive weeks. It would be a stunner, a
stunner if Calad gets even one of these next two games against the Ducks and
the Trojans. So that reorientation of Colorado's season, it's trajectory, it's possibilities.
That's obviously a significant story to come for a week three in the Pac
twelve conference. Right, get off my pylon. We're sponsored by ticket Smarter.
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ticket Smarter and ticket smarter dot com. In terms of other stories from the
PAC twelve, you know, Cal fell behind Idaho seventeen. Nothing did rally
to win, but you know, not a particularly impressive performance from Cal.
And yet that Cal team outplayed Auburn most of the way. And it's interesting
to now look back on that Cal Auburn game in light of what Cal did
against Idaho, you know, struggling with the Vandals virtually the whole game,
managing to rally enough to win, but hardly impressing anyone in the process.
Uh that like that should that should be a very sobering occasion for an Auburn
fan ends who might be listening to this podcast. Arizona State, Like,
if you're looking for a team that's been swamped by injuries in the first three
weeks of the season, Arizona State is that team. I'm counting over fifteen
players, fifteen notable players out for the upcoming game against USC. There were
close to ten players out before this past Saturday's game against Fresno State. Eight
or nine more got injured during the Fresno State game. ASU is looking at
having to put in a fourth string quarterback Jacob Conover against USC because Jaden Rashata,
the first stringer, he's out several weeks. Trenton Borgette he got injured
against Fresno State. Drew Pine then order name transfer, he got injured against
Fresno State. Now there's a chance that Pine and or Borgette can play.
There hasn't been a final statement on their status from the ASU program as we
record this podcast early in the week. You know, if you're listening to
this later in the week, there might be fresh news. But as we
record this podcast early in the week leading up to kickoff, there's been no
statement as of yet, but ASU could very possibly have to send out a
fourth string quarterback. And then Arizona State is missing five offensive lineman five offensive
lineman out for the Fresno State game. And you saw the results of that,
hey, as you scored zero points, barely passed for over one hundred
yards. You know, the offense just absolutely punchless. And that's not a
criticism of any of the coaches. They just don't have bodies. That is
a completely hollowed out roster. You know, this is year one under Kenny
Dillingham. It's a total rebuild to begin with, and now you're losing all
these bodies on the offensive line and at quarterback, like you No, no
team in an equivalent position suffering all these injuries would be able to make a
go of it. So this is not like anyone's fault at Arizona State.
It's not even the fault of athletic director Ray Anderson, who should be fired
for a very different set of reasons. This is just Arizona State has been
hit as hard as any team by the injury bug through three weeks. It's
just kind of remarkable. How you know, when it rains, it pours,
not really in Phoenix, but metaphorically. That's definitely the case with the
Sun Devils. UCLA, you know, put put a thumping, but it
put a thumping on North Carolina Central. So I don't know how much you
can learn about that. You know, the Bruins have looked very good,
but they've they've played mediocre opposition. And this actually brings up one more plot
point, one more reference point from the Mountain West. You know, we've
already talked about Carle State in Boise State, the other notable reference point for
multiple pack twelve teams because it's played multiple pack twelve teams, San Diego State.
San Diego State played UCLA in Week two and then played Oregon State in
Week three. UCLA looked a little bit better than Oregon State did against San
Diego State, if you're going to compare those two games. But you know,
fundamentally, San Diego State has a terrible offense, So I'm not sure
how much we should say UCLA has improved on defense. But you know,
the Bruins did their job much as Oregon State did. We didn't have to
note that dj Uyangelola, Oregon State's quarterback, the key to the Beavers season
under head coach Jonathan Smith, he did not look sharp against San Diego State
this past weekend. Now, San Diego State is a good defense, no
offense team, So like, if you struggle against San Diego States defense,
it's not that bad, it's not that alarming an indicator of where you are
in your evolution this early in the season. But by the same token,
Uiangolay by not playing his best, he has certainly allowed the media commentators such
as myself to say, well, you know, if we're talking about a
situation in which a quarterback is checking all the boxes, he's earning top grades,
and he's ready to be the best version of himself with Uyangololay is not
allowing for that conversation. He is certainly allowing skepticism to persist. And that's
that's going to be fascinating to watch for the Beavers as this season continues.
So through three weeks, you know, the Pac twelve has done what it's
supposed to do. But by the same token, we do have to admit
Pac twelve teams have gone up against opponents that have bad offenses and not very
good quarterbacks. And that's gonna that conversation is going to change. You know,
these Pac twelve teams, the ones that are unbeaten, they're eight of
them that are unbeaten. They are going to have to go up against good
quarterbacks very soon. And while it is true that there are a lot of
good teams in this conference and you're gonna have teams beating each other up,
you know, because there is so much depth, there is also the argument
to be made that some of these teams might just be overrated because they've played
bad offenses and that's gonna stop, or at least it's going to become less
frequent as the season goes along. So those are the unanswered questions. Those
are the lingering plot points for Pac twelve teams at the end of non conference
play heading into Week four, and the true beginning of conference play for every
team in this final season of Pac twelve football. This is to get off
my Pilon College Football podcast, part of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast
network, presented to you by ticketsmarter dot com and the Ticketsmarter mobile app.
Thank you for listening.