Checking 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, that Zimo. Welcome to
the latest editionion of to Get Off My Pilon college football podcast. This is
your host, Matt Zena. Now you might know that I'm the editor of
Trojans Wire covering USC football, USC athletics, and I generally try to put
a wall between you know what I do here at Get Off My Pilon,
focusing more on the PAC twelve less on USC. But you know, this
is not the week on which that's really reasonable or tenable. Like the USC
is the big story. It's not for good reasons, but it is the
big story. I'm recording this podcast part of the College grid Iron Coast to
Coast podcast Network. I'm recording this Monday night. If you're listening later in
the week, you know, maybe things will have developed changed. But one
of the one thing that's happened just in the few hours before I sat down
to record this podcast on Monday Monday night, is that Lincoln Riley did not
appear for his USC radio show. Now could be absolutely nothing and US two
four seven sports reporter Shotguns Brattling, who by the way, is excellent,
does an excellent job covering USC. He said that Lincoln Riley was visibly under
the weather late last week. So when Lincoln Riilly ducked out of this,
you know, it was it decided that, you know, he was not
feeling well and he didn't appear, so like, you know, it's not
it's not nothing in the sense that like, he wasn't feeling all that well
a few days ago, so it's not like a complete concoction to be sure.
However, however, we have the reality that in twenty twenty one,
roughly three weeks before he actually took the USC job, left Oklahoma, Lincoln
Riley did not appear on an Oklahoma radio show. That's something that Oklahoma Beat
writer John Hoover has picked up on a few other people have noted that within
the Oklahoma orbit, Oklahoma circles seen a lot of regular Oklahoma tweets. You
know, people I follow, people you know who follow Oklahoma very closely,
whom I've known on college football Twitter for several years. Like they are taking
note of this, and they are saying, oh, we've seen this before.
We've been down this road before. I'm not going to make any predictions
about what Lincoln Riley's going to do, but I can say with considerable confidence
that Lincoln Riley is going through not necessarily a personal midlife crisis, but he
is going through a football crisis. That much can be said, I think
pretty clearly. And this goes back to not just you know, making players
unavailable for the media on Saturday night after the loss to Utah, but there
is a pattern of Lincoln Riley get becoming very closed, very withdrawn after particularly
painful, irritating losses like this is hardly the first time this has happened.
After the Cotton Bowl debacle against Tulane, he feeled a very small amount of
questions, very small postgame media availability, and then he folded up the tent
that was it like he does. He does not deal well with losses.
He's not a guy who you can say stands there faces the music, you
know, talks generously and at length in terms of really owning his mistakes,
his failings, his shortcomings. And Lincoln Riley is has said, you know,
where did the narrative start that usc was coult for financial championships. Well,
he talked about setting a championship standard when he came to USC. So
like, that's a really odd disconnect, Riley suddenly backing away from expectations he
always knew existed at USC. So we've seen this before, but you know,
there is something new about all of this. And the new part is
that if you followed Lincoln Riley since the Oklahoma days, and you know he
was offensive coordinator for two seasons under Bob Stoops before he took over his head
coach in twenty seventeen, this would be the first regular season so not counting
the bowl game, it would be the first college football regular season in which
Lincoln Riley was a head coach that his team will lose more than two games.
If USC loses to either Washington or Oregon, or to anyone else on
the remainder of the schedule, it will be the first time he will have
lost more than two regular season games. As you as a college football head
coach, he never lost more than two with Oklahoma, and he won eleven
and one with USC last year in the regular twelve. Then he lost a
second game in Game thirteen the Pac twelve. Jamie's your game but like before
the Bowls, Lincoln Riley's never lost more than two games in any season he's
been a college head coach, so this is new, and this is certainly
a much higher degree of failure than anything he has previously encountered. You know,
he had Caleb Williams, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, coming back for
another season, had a number of other important players such as center Justin Diditch,
running back Austin Jones, receiver Taj Washington, a number of other important,
notable players coming back. And then USC felt it had upgraded its defense
with Mason Cobb, the linebacker from Oklahoma State, and with Bear Alexander from
Georgia and some other pieces on the roster. And let's just be honest about
this. Confronting the truth, being honest direct is the only mature response to
any kind of crisis or complicated situation. In August, like, let's not
have revisionist history about this. USC was the pick to be the Pac twelve
champion us He was considered in the preseason the PAC twelve favorite. Not maybe
not by a lot, but USC was the majority pick to win the Pac
twelve and to at least be right in the thick of the college football playoff
chase, like that was at least the expectation win the Pac twelve be in
the mix for the playoff. That was the standard. It wasn't nine to
three, that's for darn shirt like. It was generally an eleven and one.
Like if last year's could be eleven to one, this year's team was
at least expected to be that good, if not better, because Kayla Williams
was coming back and was gonna make this offense so absolutely unstoppable, which it
looked like in the first three weeks. But the first three weeks San Jose
State, Nevada, Stanford, three Tomato Cans, and this USC team feasted
on those cupcakes and never really seemed to get into a mindset of, Hey,
we know the competition is going to get better. We can't just look
at these games and think, ah, we have it made. We need
to be growing and evolving and improving consistently, and that has never happened.
That has not really happened in any game this season, except with the slight
allowance for the Colorado first half coming off a sloppy Arizona State performance. On
September twenty third, US he then goes to Boulder on September thirty, and
you know, busts out to a thirty four to seven lead over Colorado on
the first half. Like USC was ready to play that game at the start.
Second half was a disaster. Defense got lazy, unfocused, and that
game became a little uncomfortable at the end. But USC was ready to play
that game. You know when the game started, it was at ten am
or ten ten am kickoff local time in Boulder. USC did not have a
body clock problem for that game, and it was ready got out to a
twenty seven point lead. That that game was a game in which the team
was ready at the opening whistle, the opening kickoff. But you couldn't say
that about the Arizona State game. You couldn't say that about the Arizona game
in which USC fell behind seventeen to nothing. You couldn't say that about the
Motor Game game in which the tropan has got blasted by twenty eight points and
Caleb Williams through three first half interceptions. And USC wasn't entirely ready for this
game, not on defense at least, Utah scoring easily on its first drive
out of the locker room. USC's offense, it's aren't well, and they
reconfigured the offensive line, reshuffled a couple of positions. It seemed to bear
some fruit. But after two perfect opening drives for USC fourteen quick points,
the Tropans did not put together another sustained touchdown drive. There are only other
offensive possession which led to a touchdown started at the Utah eleven yard line thanks
to a long late punt return by Zachariah Branch. So the offense really got
contained through the final three and a half quarters and so like, the USC
has not played a complete football game since the early part of the season against
those cupcakes in early September. So you know, this has by far been
the worst season of Lincoln Riley's coaching career. It's a it's a season in
which you have not seen growth and evolution from offensive player. I mean,
Marshawn Lloyd in many ways was the best USC offensive player through the first six
games of the season, better than Caleb Williams. Caleb Williams, you know,
struggling against Arizona, struggling against Arizona State, Marshawn Lloyd was actually better.
But then we've seen Marshawn Lloyd struggle the past few weeks, and against
Utah, you know, he bobbled a swing pass. It was almost ruled
a fumble, you know, a pass he easily should have been able to
gather. And then and then he made a fumble, and he's not He
did not play nearly as well as anyone expected. He did not played nearly
as well as USC needed him to. So even us he's best offensive player
regressed in this loss to Utah. Lincoln Riley, you know, he has
the Alex Grinch problem. He has the well documented defensive problem. But his
offense is not even making the great like his Oklahoma offenses. If you take
away the the twenty twenty one season in which Spencer Ratler struggled at the beginning.
Caleb then had to come in. You know, made some great plays,
had some great moments, but you know, as a freshman, was
up and down. If you take away twenty twenty one, if you also
take away twenty twenty, which really, you know, the pandemic season was
an outlier for a lot of college programs. But if you if you look
at Riley's Oklahoma offenses from twenty seventeen through twenty nineteen under a Baker Mayfield,
Kyler Murray and then Jalen Hurts and then also twenty twenty two. Those four
seasons, you never had like a full month of mediocre football the way we've
seen with this USC team from the Arizona State game, to the Arizona game,
to the Notre Dame game to the Utah game. You know, four
really subpar games in a five game stretch, the Colorado game being the only
really good one. It's you have not seen Lincoln Riley's offense continue to struggle
like this, so like this is a new low, and you know,
Lincoln Riley set the bar so high in his career that a new low means
what looks like to me an eight and four. Season eight and four is
looking like rock bottom now. It certainly is a disaster for USC, given
all the expectations, given all the talent. Let me be clear on that
this is a disaster eight and four. He's not paid by USC to go
eight and four, But eight and four, if that is your rock bottom
in seven seasons of being a college head coach, you know, that's very
different from Clay Helton, who was four and eight in twenty twenty one.
It was five and seven in twenty eighteen. Lots of coaches, most coaches
would kill to have eight and four be their rock bottom year, their rock
bottom season. But for Lincoln Riley, it really is rock bottom. It's
a it's a higher level of failure than he's ever had before. And so
when I when I reference those previous games like the cotton ball against Tulane and
other instances in which he basically, you know, shuts off the media of
you know, like just a couple questions after the game and doesn't make his
other players available and just you know, closes inward. You know, we've
seen that pattern before. But it does reflect that when Lincoln Riley suffers a
stinging loss, uh, he doesn't handle it well. And part of this
is he's not used to losing this much like that, that is a just
a real thing. Like that's not exaggerated, that's not hyperbolic. That's true.
He's about to have his first three loss regular season as a college head
coach. He's about to have the first really crushing disappointment like when he went
when he lost two games in the twenty twenty season, he still won the
big twelves, still got to a new year six Bowl game. In other
seasons twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, he was still making the College Football Playoff,
like you know that that's something that USC fans were really hoping, Like,
you know, USC fans were hoping that, you know, when Lincoln
Riley got settled at USC, might not have might not have won the national
championship, but like the floor, not the ceiling, but the floor was
going to be a two lost season and a playoff semi final loss like that
would have been a real big step forward for USC football given the program struggles
since the end of the Pete Carroll era. Like you know, obviously,
winning national championships is what USC aspires to, but you know, making the
playoff regularly losing twice, you know, going twelve and two, compared to
what USC fans have endured over the past fifteen years, that's great, and
fans were definitely expecting to get into that kind of territory on a regular basis
when Lincoln Riley came within one win of the playoff last year. If US
he beats Utah on the Pac twelve title game, Trojans would have been in
the twenty twenty two seasons, certainly reaffirmed those expectations for USC fans. And
so now this year possibly eight and four, maybe nine to three. That's
a crash and burn. It isn't a crash and burn for most coaches,
but Lincoln Riley isn't most coaches. He's making a lot more money than most
coaches. He's at a place where most coaches would love to be, but
he's the guy in charge and he's not handling it well. And this is
certainly an internal emotional crisis for Lincoln Riley. One of the things I always
get on my US he shows the YouTube shows that I do with Mark Rodgers,
who is the host of the Big Ten Paradigm podcast that's part of the
College grid Iron Coast Coast podcast network. But when I do my YouTube shows
with Mark Rodgers, people in the chat, people in the comments section say,
Lincoln Riley's never going to change, He's never going to be a national
championship head coach, and like that might be true, but all of that
hinges on the idea that he's never going to make tough choices. He's never
going to fire his buddies, he's never going to cut loose his friends,
like he's going to stick to Alex Grinch and also his strength coach Benny Wiley,
through thick and thin, no matter what, and he's not going to
allow his athletic director to fire them or to force him to fire them.
Baked into the assumption that Lincoln Riley's never going to win a national title,
it's that idea that he's never going to change his ways. But one would
think after this Utah loss that this has to be the end for Alex Grinch.
This has to be the end of the line for him, and realistically
it also has to be the end of the line for Benny Wiley, a
strength coach who keeps producing USC players who get shoved around by Kyle Whittingham and
Utah USC and Riley. Oh and three against Winningham and the utes, USC,
which handled Utah in La in the Coliseum for a very very very long
time, has now lost two straight to Utah and the Colisseum. In toy
twenty one, it was Clay Elton in his last year and it was actually
after he got fired. Dante Williams was the interim, but that still went
on Helton's record us He's results for the twenty twenty one season went on Helton's
record, but now us he's lost at home in the Coliseum under Lincoln Riley,
uh to that same Utah team and Riley oh and three against Winningham,
and he's not going to get another chance, uh because to play him.
Because even if Utah makes the Pack Both title game, which is unlikely,
it's still probably gonna be Oregon Washington, but uh, you know, USC
and Utah probably not going to meet in Vegas. So that's it. Lincoln
Riley might be zero to three all time against witning Haam unless USC and Utah
played a bowl game yours down the line, when Utah's in the Big twelve
and USC's in the Big ten. But like this was Lincoln Riley's last realistic
chance to beat Kyle winning Ham and he couldn't do it, and Utah was
better. Utah was tougher. Utah with a walk on quarterback Bryce and Barnes,
beats Caleb Williams, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, on the road,
without Cam Rising, without great tight end Brant Queethey and other players. Utah
shorthanded, USC not nearly as shorthanded, and it didn't matter. Utah is
the tougher team because it has the better strength and conditioning program, it has
the better coach, it has the better defense, it has a better winning
mindset and makeup than USC does. So you put that all together, Lincoln
Riley has to make significant changes on his coaching staff, and you know it,
it kills him to have to do that. You know, it pains
him to face up to the reality that, oh, I have to fire
my friends, and that to me, you know, says a lot about
you know, why he's so inward turned at this moment, why he's shutting
out the media, why he's being so defensive. A lot of it is
just that, like this is all new for Lincoln Riley, who, by
the way, still just forty years old. Like I'm seven years older than
Lincoln Riley is. You know, he is still learning how to be a
coach, and this is this is his most difficult, painful learning experience to
date. And whatever is going through his mind like it's stormy, It is
stormy in there. And that brings up the point that, you know,
all the things that he's going through, never having faced them previously in his
coaching career, not on this scale. It does bring some uncertainty into the
equation. Now, I'm not going to predict what Lincoln Riley is going to
do. I I you know, I am. I have said that,
like he does have to make changes, like that just seems so obvious,
it's so in his face. But is he really going to make them?
And I guess we can't really say that it's a guarantee, right because we
haven't really seen him turn over a new leaf, show that he's willing to
admit that his methods are wrong or at least incomplete. We haven't yet seen
him have that come to Jesus saw on the Road to Damascus type moment where
you know, the scales are removed from his eyes and he finally sees things
clearly. He's finally able to make mature decisions. We haven't seen him actually
make those moves yet, and you can just feel the the the gears grinding
inside his mind like he's agonizing over all of this and that that's part of
it. But maybe maybe I'm not predicting anything here, but maybe this means
that he's going to retire from coaching. Maybe this means he's going to go
to the NFL with Caleb Williams. Not predicting anything, but when a relatively
young coach or a young professional in any high stress, high pressure situation is
suddenly confronted with failure on a larger scale than he's ever known before, we
cannot know exactly how that person is going to react. And that's why USC
has suddenly become a very big soap opera and a place where Oklahoma fans are
saying, oh, I've noticed this before. Lincoln Riley panicking, Lincoln Riley
feeling uncomfortable where he is. Maybe he might get out of town. Not
making any predictions, but the situation at USC does feel certainly more volatile than
it has in quite some time, and it's going to be really interesting to
see how Lincoln Riley handles all these wins swirling around him. We work with
ticketsmarter dot Com and ticket the ticket Smarter mobile app. Get in the game
with ticket Smarter for the best prices on the secondary market for a very painless,
easy ticket purchasing process online to get you into the biggest games of the
college football season out here in the Pac twelve. We have that Oregon Utah
game in Salt Lake City on October twenty eighth coming up this week Week nine,
We have Washington at USC November fourth in the Colisseum. That's going to
be a four to thirty pm Pacific game primetime on abc USC at Oregon on
November eleven. That's another showcase game. Hey, if you want to get
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the dominant story. We also have to give flowers to Kyle Whittingham and the
UTS. I mean I kind of wove that into the USC crisis, is
that, you know, Kyle Whittingham takes these takes, Bryson Barnes a backup,
a walk on, and he beats kayleb. Williams with him in Los
Angeles kind of says it all. And Kyle Whittingham, you know, ever
since twenty nineteen, you know, he's just been getting better, better,
better as a head coach. You know, in twenty eighteen, when Utah
lost ten to three to Washington Pac twelve Championship game, that was really a
continuation of Utah just not having the quarterback play, not having the offense needed
to complement the defense and become a complete program. But in this thirty four
to thirty two win over USC, and in last year's forty three forty two
win over USC, in the forty seven to twenty four win over USC in
the Pac twelve title game, you know, Utah's offenses have gotten better.
And Kyle Winningham, you know, he had Cam Rising for last year's wins,
but this year he didn't have all of his tools. He didn't have
Brant Queethe as I mentioned, but he's still with Andy Ludwig putting together a
better offense, a more integrated team with a with a full philosophy like Utah
used to lean all entirely on its defense, and you know, like the
opposite of Lincoln Riley leaning entirely on his offense. When Utah's now a balanced
program, Utah is now a balanced team. And that is so much of
the battle in terms of why Utah has elevated itself as a program. I
mean, Utah is probably not gonna beat Oregon or Washington, but you know,
Utah looks like a team that's gonna finish nine to three without Cam Rising
for all twelve games. That would be that would still be an amazing,
amazing coaching job from Winningham. And if cam Rising comes back next year twenty
twenty four, with Oklahoma and Texas off to the SEC, Utah would be
the clear Big twelve favorite if cam Rising does come back. The other story
worth learning from the PAC twelve. The other really big story Washington not scoring
an offensive touchdown against Arizona State really rather remarkable that. You know, Washington
and Arizona State, if you go through the recent history, they always seem
to play one score games. It's really actually crazy, like this ASU team
decimated by injuries first year head coach Kenny Dillingham. You'd think Washington would have
absolutely blown as s U to smithereens. Now what helped, ask you a
little bit. Washington had that draining game against Oregon, so this was a
hangover and Washington was favored by twenty seven and a half. If you pounced
on SU plus twenty seven, you had a very easy cover. But no
one was expecting Washington to score just fifteen points and not score an offensive touchdown
like that's ridiculous. And Michael Pennix had that substantial Heisman Trophy lead. That
lead is gone and it's going to be fascinating to see how Michael Pennox and
Washington bounced back from that particular game. So we're almost at November, almost
in the home stretch of the Pac twelve race. Oregon State at Arizona is
the really, really interesting game in addition to Oregon Utah this week, and
we will have plenty to talk about after those particular showdowns on the Get Off
My Pylon College Football podcast. So remember at ticket Smarter and ticket Smart ticket
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Pylon College Football podcast, part of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast network.
This is Matt Zemeck. Thanks for listening.