Check it out college football on the West Coast. This is Get Off My
pilone, a look at the PAC twelve and more, part of the College
Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast network. Here's your host, that's Zimo. Welcome
to the latest edition of to Get Off My Pilon College football podcast. This
is your host, Matt Zena. We're part of the College gridirn Coast to
Coast podcast network, coming at you, and we're not that far away from
Thanksgiving, not that far away from the end of the regular season in college
football, the PAC twelve, the Mountain West Western college football, that's what
we focus on. Herrett, Get Off My Pilon. Plenty to talk about
in the middle of November, and let's start with the top of the pack.
The Washington Huskies still unbeaten. They're ten to oh and you'd rather be
ten and o than nine to one. Obviously, Washington because it's unbeaten because
it passed another test, albeit only slightly against the utah Utes. Being ten
and oh being unbeaten in the PAC twelve means that Washington can lose once and
still be in the PAC twelve championship game. That's that's the really big advantage
that the Huskies have and with Washington State, uh, you know, going
from four and oh to now four and six, you know the Apple Cup
that that's a game that the Washington is gonna host in Seattle against Wazoo.
You know, you figure that's gonna be a win. So the Huskies pretty
much nailed down their spot in the PAC twelve change a game it's not official,
but highly likely to be in Las Vegas on Friday, December first.
And so you know, you definitely would rather be Washington than Oregon or anyone
else in the PAC twelve. But in the same breath, while we're gonna
we're we're gonna say that Washington is certainly in the driver's seat, we also
have to say in the same breath that Washington's not looking very convincing. And
and you want to juggle those two tensions. And it's noteworthy that, you
know, I said earlier this year that when USC was unbeaten in the first
half of the season, you know, you'd rather be unbeaten than not.
However, early in the season, being five and oh, six and oh
is a different deal from being ten and oh. Like you know, when
you're five and oh, you still have a lot of season left. You
have challenging games on the back end of your schedule, and there's there's much
greater cause for concern when you're just in the middle of the season and you're
still trying to find your way. But when you're ten and oh, you
know, you can look at the warts and the flaws and everything else on
your team and you know you can still acknowledge them, you can still be
honest about them and yet realize, hey, ten and Oh is ten and
Oh, We're so close to achieving a lot of our goals. So you
know, in mid November, being unbeaten feels very different from how it feels
in early October when you're unbeaten, you know, and and it's and coaches
obviously want to play better, they want to fix their flaws. But when
you keep finding ways to win, and you keep doing that over the course
of a full season. Looking outside Pac twelve for a moment, we're seeing
Florida State do that. You know, we're seeing Georgia do that. We're
seeing not Alabama. Alabama has one loss, but you know, we're we're
seeing some teams go through the entirety of the season and they're avoiding every single
land mine. Washington Florida State really on very parallel tracks. They're not dominating,
but they are winning. And when you keep doing it, at a
certain point, the focus stops being on the flaws and it and it starts
being on finding ways to be successful, at least successful enough each week.
So the Huskies are on that fine line because they are finding ways every week.
That game against Utah felt very perilous. Utah had the lead and the
ball in the third quarter, and then later on Washington had a narrow lead,
but Utah was, you know, in the red zone, very close
to taking a fourth quarter lead, and then Washington got what should have been
a pick six, and then you know, another Deshaun Jackson moment. And
why why football players drop the ball at the one or in this case,
the two yard line. It's just such a brainbuster, Like you don't get
any extra points, extra credit, History doesn't remember you fondly if you dropped
the ball as soon as you get to the goal line. It's just the
most baffling thing, absolutely the most baffling thing. And this this really was
the worst I've ever seen. It looked like the ball was dropped on the
two, maybe even the two and a half yard line, just absolutely unfathomable.
Wh was able to get a safety on the next play. And that's
kind of a typifies the Husky season that they've made some really sloppy, ugly
plays, Like they were not sharp against USC on defense, allowing forty two
points. They allowed thirty three points to Stanford. Against Arizona State, their
offense did not score touchdown, but their defense dominated. Their defense got to
pick six and they did run the ball all the way under the end zone
on that one, and they were able to win that game fifteen to seven.
So each week it's a different aspect of the Huskies picking them up.
So they are ten to zero and that's fantastic, and Kalin de Boer looks
like exactly the right man for the job on Montlake. And yet and yet
you look at that team you go each week is such a highly flawed performance.
How long is this going to continue? And next up for Washington the
trip to Reeser Stadium Corps Vallas. Jonathan Smith has the Beavers in the top
ten. I don't know if they deserve a top ten rank. You know,
this team lost to Washington State and Washington State is a four and six
team also lost to Arizona, which is a very good team, but nevertheless
a three loss team. So I wouldn't put Oregon State in a top ten.
But the Beavers eight and two certainly, you know, have a chance
to win eleven games. So john and Smith, you know, has that
program at a high level. It's you know, similar to the level that
Mike Riley had the Beavers roughly fifteen years ago, you know, two thousand
and six through two thousand and nine, that period of time Oregon State was
competitive in the top tier of the PAC twelve, wasn't winning the conference championship,
but was right in the mix in mid November. So Jonathan Smith has
been able to recreate that and it's and that's very impressive. But you know,
Oregon State is going to really kick itself, in particular, not so
much for the Arizona loss, because Arizona is good, but Washington State that
to the Cougars back in September. Man the Beavers would really love to have
that one back. They'd really love the mulligan if they had won that game.
This game in Corvallis would be so much bigger than it is. And
it's a big game, but it would be even bigger had Oregon State not
tripped up in the police to Washington State. So very interesting as we record
this podcast on Monday evening, Oregon State was initially a slight underdog but has
moved on the lines to a one point favorite. Pretty interesting. And moreover,
I don't think that's wrong. I don't think that's wild at all.
I think this does set up extremely well for Oregon State. It's gonna be
a hugely jacked up crowd at Reeser Stadium in Corvallis and Oregon State. You
know, these were the two games circled on the calendar. Washington this week
in the Civil War against Oregon on Thanksgiving weekend. These are the two games
that they are going to define Oregon State season. Oregon State didn't play USC
played Utah early in the season when the Uts offense was just absolutely terrible,
a non factor. Ucla, you know, lost Arizona State. We're going
to talk about that game in a little bit. You know, beating UCLA
at home, that was expected, nothing more, nothing less. These are
the two games that are going to define Oregon State season. So you you
know, this game is like Oregon State super Bowl, or you could say
that this game's the conference championship game and next week against the Ducks is the
super Bowl. So I certainly like the way this game lines up for Oregon
State against Washington, and with the way that the Huskies are playing, you
know, Washington's gonna have to tighten things up. Washington will definitely have to
tighten up the screws and and weed out the penalties, weed out the mistake.
Let's talk a little bit about that Utah game a little bit more that
you know, there were penalties almost every play in the second half. It
was. It was a very ragged game. Washington botched a field goal late
that gave Utah another chance to tie the game. Washington's defense got absolutely smoked
in the first half by Utah. Now, credit credit that same Washington defense
for adjusting in the second half, getting more of a pass rush, getting
more of a push up front, finding ways to frustrate Utah. But you
know, Bryson Barnes, who had a great time against USC, he had
a very great, really great time as well in that first half against Washington.
The Huskies are not that robust in their front seven right now. They're
not physically imposing what does Oregon State like to do. Oregon State likes to
lean on its offensive line. Play smash moouth football, run the ball,
run the rock, set up play action for downfield shots. With dj Ula,
who's been solid this season, I wouldn't say spectacular. We're gonna learn
about dj u A in these games. You know, how does he play
against the very best UH in the Pac twelve Washington Oregon. It's gonna define
his Oregon State season and it's probably gonna reshape how we think of him and
his career as a college quarterback. Transferring from Clemson and Dabbos swinging. And
you know, just another word about Uiangalawa that with his with Clemson's struggles this
year under Cade club Nick, you know, uian Galaa is certainly thinking privately
UH in his free moments, in his spare time. I'm sure that he's
thinking, wow, I made the right choice. I made the right call
going from Dabbo uh to Jonathan Smith. Now, you know, we'll never
know what it would have been like if uiangla had played for Garrett Riley,
whom Dabbo brought in as his new offensive coordinator at Clemson. So it's not
as though ugl would have been playing for the coordinators that he had a year
ago. Dabo decided to make a change. But nevertheless, it's a what
if. It's a real what if for Uygilay, what if he had been
with Garrett Riley? Will never know, but I'm sure that ultimately Uiangilay thinks
he made the right pall transferring from Clemson to Oregon State. So many storylines
involved in that, and one other storyline attached to Washington Morgan State and really
you know, flowing through the PAC twelve because the PAC twelve is Heisman central?
What about the Heisman race? Where does it stand right now? A
lot of people will say that Bonix should be leading. I think that's a
reasonable analysis, but I would ultimately disagree. I think, right now,
present moment, I'm not predicting the future here, but present moment, where
things stand right now, it should be Michael Pennix still ahead of Bonix.
Pennix made clutch to deliver Washington a win over utahm was a high scoring game.
I mean, he played it was brilliant, but he was good against
a tough, hard nosed Utah defense. That is certainly more than what bo
Nicks did against USC, and it's Swiss cheese defense. Now, Knicks was
good, he was certainly good. He wasn't fantastic if he throws were off
the mark. Oregon scored only thirty six points, left a lot of points
on the field. USC's secondary was absolutely atrocious, very soft coverage, particularly
on third downs. I mean, Knicks made easy throws and a number of
Oregon's touchdowns were yards after the catch. More about Oregon's receivers and us He's
not very good secondary than anything bo Nicks did. Like bo Nicks did not
make amazing plays in that USC game. He made the place he was supposed
to make, and that's good. Again, he didn't play poorly. He
was good, but he wasn't spectacular. He didn't do anything so impressive that
oh I would move him up over Michael Pennix in the Heisman race. Look,
Pennix made big plays, more big plays head to head against boon Nicks,
and he beat him. So Penix should have the lead. Now for
a new Oregon fans listening in not saying this race is over. I'm not
saying Penix has a commanding lead because he doesn't. It's all very close.
It's all very fluid. But if bo Nicks gets a rematch with Pennix in
Washington in the PAC twelve Championship game on Friday, December first, that's bo
Nicks's chance to alter the conversation. That is Boenix's chance to take that award
away from Michael Pennock. So Bonix is going to have his say. Bo
Knicks will be able to make his case. But you don't put bo Nicks
number one right now, like that is the trade off that Penix leads right
now, but Nicks has the chance to change everything. That's the way to
look at the heis and race one of the Heisman notes. Just because Penix
and Knicks, two PAC twelve players are involved. Going outside the PAC twelve
people are saying Jayden Daniels should be the highst winner. Stop stop please.
He got out played by Jalen Milroe head to head against Alabama, all right.
He was outplayed by Jordan Travis in the second half of that game against
Florida State. Now, yes, let's use defense as horrible, all right,
and you shouldn't you shouldn't penalize a player too much. However, Daniels
was not spectacular in games where he needed to be spectacular. You know,
do you do you do that? Do you do do you reward a player
in spite of not being his absolute very best in the biggest games on his
schedule? Okay, he lit up Florida's defense. Whoop de doo? All
right, like we should not be throwing a ticker tape parade for lighting up
a bad Florida defense. Florida got smoked by kJ Jefferson in Arkansas one week
earlier. I'm sorry, stop it, Jade, and Daniel is not the
Heisman front runner because he lit up Florida like a Christmas tree. Stop at
Billy Napier. Is his coaching Florida poorly? He doesn't have a good team.
Come on now, let us tap the brakes now. I think,
you know, if you were to make the Heisman case for Jayden Daniels,
I think a real comparison could be made to Robert Griffin the third RG three
and Baylor in twenty eleven. But the difference there is that in twenty eleven,
Baylor was It was when the twenty eleven season began, Baylor was a
nobody in college football. You know, he did not have any kind of
a stablished brand, and Art Brows, I mean cat put off of his
personal failing failings and scandals to the side. Art Brow's good, really good
X and no coach, and he was developing Baylor at the time. Baylor
was beginning its upswing and rounding into a form as a powerhouse Big twelve program
in those years, but entering twenty eleven, Baylor really hadn't put itself on
the map just yet. So when RG three helped Baylor win nine ten games
in twenty eleven, that was a huge accomplishment, all right, was that
was an amazing feat. So even though Baylor wasn't a conference champion or anything,
much as Jaden Daniels and LSU are not going to be a conference champion,
it was still amazing for Baylor to have that kind of a season at
the time. Now, in twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, it was expected
that Baylor would win eleven games per season, but not in twenty eleven.
What RG three did, it was totally out of the blue in terms of
Baylor's history Baylor's expectations. That was an amazing team accomplishment that RG three was
centrally responsible for, all right, But Jayden Daniels is presiding over an LSU
team that's gonna that's lost three games and was expected to be a college football
playoff contender. So LSU's nine to three this year and Baylor's nine and three
in twenty eleven two totally different things, all right, So let's keep that
in perspective. No, you shouldn't automatically give the Heisman Trophy to a conference
champion or a college football playoff team. It's like, I'm not arguing that,
but when if you have several candidates for the Heisman and a bunch of
them have at least one conference championships or are in conference championship games, and
another team not only is not playing for a conference championship, but has underachieved
overall within the context of its season, like Kayleb Williams and USC would be
in a similar boat. All right. When you have underachieving teams at blue
blood programs, you don't give the Heisman to those kinds of players. You
don't give the Heisman. Two, that quarterback of a blue blood team that
has significantly under a cheat now RG three at Baylor. Different dynamic. So
let's keep that in perspective when we're talking about the Heisman Trophy race much more
on the PAC twelve of the Mountain west to Colu on the other side of
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app. Get in the game with ticket Smarter. All right, So more
to discuss in the Pac twelve. Also the Mountain West, So Arizona.
You know, after two very taxing, physical, tough close football games against
especially Oregon State, and then also UCLA goes on the road, plays at
altitude against a desperate Colorado team which frankly really needed to win this game to
have any remaining hope of a bowlgame. Now, Colorado can still win out
and it might beat Washington State, but good luck to those Buffs against Utah
that's going to be a really tough game. So Colorado really needed to beat
Arizona. I think, I think a lot of other experts shared my point
of view. Needed to beat Arizona to have a good chance of getting to
a bowl game. And it was close. Colorado started well, Buffalo scored
thirty one points. Their offense did look better than it has in some time.
But Arizona got the late game stops and Noah Feafida once again just such
an amazing leader for this team. And let's just all sit back and contemplate
a world in which Jedfish has Noah Fafida as his day one, opening week
starting quarterback instead of Jaden Delora. Remember, USC and Clay Hilton started Max
Brown over Sam Donald at the beginning of the twenty sixteen season. Donald didn't
come in until late September, and by that point USC had already lost three
games, But Donald ran the table the rest of the way, and USC
was able to go to and then win the Rose Bowl. Was playing some
of the best football in the United States at the end of that twenty sixteen
season. Imagine if Arizona had Noah Faefeeda starting from day one. It's going
to be one of the great what ifs. But at least next year,
Arizona knows that it will have Noah Fafita there on day one when it goes
into the Big twelve, Arizona football has a chance to go nine to three
and then win a tenth game in the regular season. That would be absolutely
spectacic. Or for Jedfish and that Arizona program. They beat Colorado and they
are on track to do something extraordinary relative to preseason expectations. I think in
the preseason, you know, if you told Arizona six and six bowl game,
they would have been happy. Seven to five. Wow, that would
be amazing. Arizona could be nine to three with a chance to go ten
to three in a bowl game under Noah Flafida and head coach Jedfish. Absolutely
spectacular what that team is doing. And let's keep in mind that Arizona is
not yet fully eliminated from the Pac twelve championship race. If a few things
break in Arizona's direction, one of those things is going to be Oregon State,
whom you know, Arizona has the tiebreaker over the Beavers because it beat
them head to head. For Oregon State takes down Oregon, you know,
and and Arizona is able to win out, Arizona could be in the Pack
twelve Ima game. Still, that's pretty remarkable. Another big story in the
PAC twelve from the past weekend, UCLA with the absolute stink bomb, the
absolute clunker at home against Arizona State. The Bruins scored just seven points.
They got stopped on three different fourth downs, two of them inside the Arizona
State ten yard line. An absolute disaster for Chip Kelly. And then you
know the final score seventeen to seven for Arizona State. The Sun Devil's hugely
undermanned, and yet coach Kenny Dillingham was running a swinging gate and the stack
formations that basically took his offensive line out of play. And it's really genius.
It's a genius move by Kenny Dillingham. You don't have an offensive line
because you have seven eight however many offensive linemen injured, so you just don't
have traditional traditional plays with a net, with a traditional formation, you basically
turn it into seven on seven football. Genius move. Kenny Dillingham is coaching
his butt off for Arizona State this year. Got to give him a lot
of credit. And yet let's then step back. However, for as resourceful
as Kenny Dillingham was with his offense getting seventeen points against a good UCLA defense,
you give up seventeen points, you should expect to win. You should
be able to score at least twenty. Arizona State gave up fifty five points
to Utah a week ago, UCLA scores seven. And I know that the
Bruins have injuries at quarterback, but you know, this was a team that
was supposed to have depth at quarterback because Dante Moore was the freshman and he
hasn't really hanned out. You know that great, But you also had Ethan
Garber's you also had Collin Schlee and he's the guy who got the start against
Arizona State and he's transferred in from Kent State. So like Trip Kelly had
some options. Now maybe they weren't Cadillac options, you know the end.
But of course it does fall on Chip Kelly that he of his player evaluations
didn't pan out the way he hoped, so he has to bear some responsibility
for that. But even then, like Colin Schlee was not supposed to be
third string quality as a quarterback, like he was supposed to provide value to
this UCLA offense to the extent that you can at least get twenty points against
Arizona State in November, but he didn't. And and also if you if
you watch that game, I know it was on Pac twelve networks, so
most of you probably didn't, but UCLA was just handing the ball off in
the middle of the line on fourth down. In short, no creativity,
no flexibility, no diversity from Chip Kelly. You know who you know.
When Dorian Thompson, Robinson and Zach Charbonay were back there last year, you
saw us offense do great and dynamic things and Kelly got a lot out of
his talent. UCLA had a really good offense that was not an easy offense
to play against. Kelly is making his twenty twenty three UCLA offense very easy
to play against. It felled at times as though Chip Kelly was just mailing
it in or he was just trying to emphasize, hey, we're the more
physical team, so we're just going to run it up the gut. But
like tactics strategy, they pretty much went out the window. I would also
add that, you know, UCLA got stuff on a fourth and goal at
the one of entirely appropriate and entirely appropriate for ucle to go for it in
that situation. But let's remember this game against Arizona State. It was three
nothing well into the third quarter. Kelly needed to know he needed to realize,
Okay, this is a defense first game. So when he had a
fourth and one at the nine at the Arizona State nine ten yard line.
Later in the first half, he needed to kick a field goal. He
needed to collect some points, and realized that, hey, this is a
defense dominated game. It might be like ten, three, ten, six,
thirteen to ten. I need to collect points. So not gonna knock
him for going forward and fourth and goal from the one. You should pretty
much always do that. But fourth and one at the ten, still down
three to nothing a little bit before halftime, chip Kelly needed to kick that
field goal, and he needed to collect points. He needed to do things
to, you know, make sure that his team was not trailing. A
three to three tie feels a lot different from three to nothing when your offense
is struggling the way UCLA's was. Chip Kelly did not read that game the
way he should have. He did not go along with the game flow to
the extent that he needed to, and so fire Chip Kelly is now a
drum beat among a large portion of the UCLA fan base. It's certainly a
legitimate question, what do I think I think that you know, after five
years of DTR, five years of Dorian Thompson Robinson under center, this year
was going to be a transition, all right. So as much as chip
Kelly has failed and as much as chip Kelly has wasted UCLA's defense this season,
the fact that he made a good hire at defensive coordinator and he got
his defense to improve, that should that should not be ignored here. But
now chip Kelly needs to go into the transfer portal because Dante Moore doesn't look
like a quick fix. That looks like a project. You know, should
should Ucla be going all in with Dante Moore in his sophomore season in twenty
twenty four in Big ten? I don't think so Ucla and Chip Kelly,
you need to go into the transfer portal get a big time quarterback, and
if they do, UCLA might have something for next season. So I do
think that based on you know, the five years of dtr and this year
being an unavoidable transition. I you know, a lot of people were high
on UCLA going to the season. I was thinking, you know what,
after having the same quarterback for five years, it's bound to be tough sledding
season if you don't have a proven, established quarterback. And really that's the
mistake chip Kelly made, not getting a rockstar transfer in the portal for this
twenty twenty three season. But given that he didn't, this was always going
to be tough for UCLA. So I think, and you know, hey,
I work at Trojan's Wire. I blog there, and people will say,
oh, well, of course you want chip Kelly to come back.
You're a usc blogger. Let's really cast that to the side and let's just
be as objective as possible about this. I really do think that Chip Kelly,
who has figured out the defensive half of the ball at UCLA, you
give him one more year, but obviously he is he has to be on
the hot seat for twenty twenty four. He has to deliver better results overall
and on offense. But if he does, like if you give chip Kelly
the formula and he figures out offense, which you know he used to be
able to do and which she actually did pretty well a year ago, like,
I don't think UCLA is that far off from being good. But chip
Kelly does have to go out and get that elite quarterback for twenty twenty four.
But if he gets it, UCLA has the ingredients to do something really
good. And when you look at the Big ten, you look at all
these unwatchable games with these terrible offenses. If UCLA gets a quarterback, Bruins
are going to be better than the Iowa's and the Purdues and the Illinois and
the Indianas and so many of these middling Big Ten teams. Their line play
is decent. I don't think you fire Chip Kelly, but I think if
you're Martin jarmon the UCLA A D you do have a conversation with Chip and
say, hey, you need to go get yourself a quarterback, all right,
and you need to deliver better results at twenty twenty four or in the
Big Ten. We're gonna give you one chance in the Big ten to prove
yourself and then we'll see. I think that's really the best way for UCLA
to handle Chip Kelly. I haven't mentioned USC Oregon game yet, and it's
because I don't think there was much to talk about. Oregon was the far
better team, didn't really show it on the scoreboard, you know, nine
point game. You might think if you didn't watch it, oh that was
competitive. Well, Oregon was up by twenty two points and then let USC
back in the game a little bit. But USC was not within one score
pretty much throughout the whole second half, and yet Oregon left a ton of
points on the field, watched a missed field goal, some fumbles that it
managed to recover but which forwarded drives. A holding penalty prevented Oregon from getting
a first and goal with the three, which it almost certainly would have converted
into a touchdown. Oregon was ragged. Oregon committed over one hundred and fifteen
yards in penalties. The Ducks, you know, and their fans, like
USC was a was wounded and not playing well heading into this game. I
know a lot of Oregon fans. I mean, I did some USC YouTube
shows last week, as I always do. Oregon fans were in the chat
room on these shows, and they were just out for blood. And I
didn't blame him like they were thinking, Hey, twenty five thirty thirty five
point beat down, We're just gonna absolutely dump it on USC. Oregon didn't
do that. And Oregon had the much better team in a much better,
more favorable position, and yet didn't really play that great. But there was
still, of course, an obvious significant difference between the two teams. Kayleb
Williams scrambling for his life all night USC's offensive line just not able to be
a fortress. USC's offensive line a very significant reason the Trojans haven't been as
good this year as projected. The train for portal acquisitions for Lincoln Riley have
not hit the mark at all. US He's receivers, you know, Taj
Washington has been great. He's been a great USC receiver this season. Not
not anybody else really. That receiver corps has not stepped up. Jorian Singer
continues to be a bust. And you know, Arizona has really good receivers.
Jorian Singer turned out to be not nearly as good as we thought.
I thought he was gonna be a lot better, but he just hasn't brought
anything extra. USC really misses Jordan Addison from last season. He was such
a difference maker. I think we can all see that and appreciate that a
lot more now. So USC just a shadow of its former self. And
its defensive line was okay, like Oregon didn't really you know, totally overpower
USC. But the secondary, the USC secondary abysmal. I mentioned this earlier
with bo Nicks. He was just making easy throws. He did not have
to make hard throws in this game. US. He's covered very soft,
particularly on third down. So this was one of the most lopsided nine point
games I've seen. And so USC gets to end it season mercifully and move
on to its defensive coordinator search. With jimbo Fisher getting fired at Texas A
and M, with Zach Arnett being fired as head coach at Mississippi State,
and with other developments in the coaching carousel, it's going to be interesting to
see, you know what, defensive coordinator candidates for USC are going to look
at those different jobs, whether it's head coach at A and M, defensive
coordinator at A and M, defensive coordinator, head coach at Boise State,
defensive coordinator, head coach at Mississippi State. With those and other openings emerging,
how's that going to affect the candidate pool for USC. One particular point
that's worth noting, what if Mike Elko, who used to be at an
M as defensive coordinator under jimbo Fisher, What if Mike Elko takes the Texas
A and M job. Now Mike Elko has a young defensive coordinator, Tyler
Santucci, very highly thought of, been doing a great job. He obviously
gets his duke players to be very physical, very tough. Well, you
give Tyler Santucci USC talent, USC resources, he could be really good as
a defensive coordinator. But with the A and M job opening up, if
Elko goes to A and M, is Tyler Santucci a company, Elco to
an M to join his staff, that or is USC able to pick him
off and bring him to Los Angeles. Just one of the dozens and dozens
of potential plot points that USC, like any other school, needs to consider
in terms of the carousel, the job market, being able to anticipate moves,
being able to get in front of situations before other schools make their own
move. And let's make one other note about the coaching carousel while we're at
it. You're seeing all these coaches get fired right now. This is the
new world. The schools are not waiting until the end of the regular season.
They know they have to act sooner rather than later. Transfer portal window
opens December fourth, So these schools need to get the word out like they
need to broadcast the fact, Hey, we're making changes, we're serious about
getting better, and time is of the essence. They can't wait, they
want recruits and portal prospects to know now, not later, now that they're
going to be making changes, they're going to be increasing the quality of their
coaching. Like that's why USC fired out Sprinch earlier rather than later. It's
why a M's moving earlier rather than later. And of course you bundle nil
with all of these things. This is the new normal in the industry.
Firings before the end of the regular season. Why wait, make the move
now. Make sure that portal prospects know what is coming around the bend,
all right, So we also have to spend a little bit of time on
the Mountain West Man, what happened to Fresno State? And this was a
weird betting line, Like this game was roughly a toss up a pick them.
I think San Jose State went off as a one maybe two point favorite
over Fresno State, despite Presno State, you know, having just beaten UNLV
and Boise State to rise to second place in the Mountain West behind Air Force
and San Jose State just dog walks the Bulldogs. That was a decisive win
for San Jose State and then one slot above Fresno State. Air Force.
What's happened to air Force. The bottom has fallen out after being unbeaten.
Air Force gets thumped decisively, beaten like it wasn't even close by Army and
now Hawaii, Wow, absolutely out of nowhere. And like I know,
air Force has had quarterback injuries, but air Forces line play, air Forces
physicality was first Raid through those first eight games. What's happened the last two
times? Like these games again they were not especially close. Air Force just
total implosions each of the last two weeks. And of course Army was not
a conference game, but this game against Hawaii on the island, that was
a conference game. So the Mountain West with some late unexpected plot twist,
It's going to be interesting to see if Fresno State and Air Force can recover
to the point that they can maintain their collision course in the Conference chamionship game.
You have UNLV right there beating Wyoming and still in the hunt. You
know, if Fresno State loses another game, the Rebels can vault past the
Bulldogs. Surprisingly, but it would happen. Other notes in the Mountain West,
it's really a busy week in terms of the Mountain West scene. In
football, Brady Hope retiring at San Diego State, so that job is coming
up, is coming open, and then Boise State again not waiting until the
end of the regular season. The Broncos fire fire Andy Avolos, and we
have to ask, does this mean that Brian Harrison gets to go back to
Boise State. I think a lot of Boise State fans will be okay with
that, not saying it's universal or unanimous among those fans, but you know,
Boise State could certainly do worse. And Brian Harson, after his miserable
years at Auburn, if he goes back to Boise he you know, that
probably would be appealing to him. It would probably be a situation where he'd
like to go back, but would Boise State want to go back? And
Boise State needs to consider what other candidates are out there on the open market.
So a lot going on in the Mountain West. Well is the PAC
twelve final word? Washington Oregon State prediction. I don't have a lot of
predictions, but it's late in the season, the games are bigger, the
national spotlight is more centrally on Washington. Do the Huskies remain unbeaten? No,
I'm picking Oregon State to win that game. So We will see if
the Huskies are able to refute me. But it's going to be very interesting
to see what happens in Corvallis for that very big game. All right,
that's the latest edition of Get Off My Pilot College Football podcast looking at college
football in the Western United States, and it's really exciting because the Pac twelve
has teams in the College football Playoff. Hunt Mountain West Race is exciting and
chaotic until the very end. We are part of the College GRIDIRN Coast to
Coast podcast network. Look for your favorite college football podcast across the country,
covering the Big Twelve, the Big Ten, the service academies. We have
all those angles covered with your favorite College Gradiron Coast to Coast podcast presentation.
You can find College Gridiron Coast to Coast at Apple Podcasts and the other outlets
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for your favorite College GRADEIRN Coast to Coast podcast. This is Matt Zemeck.
Thanks for listening to another edition of the Get Off My Pylon College Football podcast.