Speaker 1: Welcome to the latest edition of Get Off My Pylon
college football podcast, part of the College grad Aroon Coast
to Coast podcast network. This is your host, Matt Zemmon.
Do check out College grad Aeron Coast to Coast at
Apple and the other places where you listen to your podcasts.
Also on Twitter at Gridiron Coast covering the acc You
have Jason Powers with his Florida Football Insiders podcast covering
college football in the state of Florida, and the various
other podcasts which are part of the College Gradiron family
of college football podcasts. You want to check all of
them out. College Grade Aron Coast to Coast so we
focus on western college football in the United States, and
naturally after the weekend that was two games at the
forefront of the national conversation in the West. USC and
Penn State go to overtime. We'll have something on that
in a bit, but the main event and it lived
up to the billing. You could say it exceeded the billing.
Ohio State in Oregon Attson Stadium in Eugene. It felt
like a heavyweight fight, It felt like a game. It
looked like a game between two of the top three
teams in the country. Felt like a game that's going
to have a rematch at the Big Ten championship game
in Indianapolis, Oregon thirty two, Ohio State thirty one. Plenty
of layers to peel away from this game. One of
the points of discussion about the end of that game
was Dan lanning Nut seeming to indicate not directly saying it,
but seeming to indicate that, yes, he intentionally had twelve
men on the field as a penalty. I'm going to
devote a separate get off my pylon just to that
one play. But I'll give you the cliff notes version here.
It does reflect an evolved thought process, all right, Like
you know, at the very end of the game, go
ahead and have twelve men on the field. Much as
you know if you're trying to defend a two point
play or if you're trying to defend like a a
fourth and goal that you know, there are certain situations
in which, okay, you know, commit pass interference, right, you know,
like if you're if you're beaten on a play at
the very at the very end of a game, committing
pass interference can save you the game and you get
another shot on defense. You know, those kinds of endgame
conversations don't come up very often, and so, you know,
Dan Lanning, I give them credit for thinking about this. However, however,
the play was at the Ohio State or the Oregon
forty three yard line, that five yard penalty. You know,
the real discussion here is apparently Ohio State doesn't have
a kicker that right and Day trusts from fifty five
yards out. And you know, in the NFL these days,
we're seeing kickers boom through, you know, fifty five fifty
seven yard field goals like they're nothing. And Dallas's kicker, Aubrey,
you know, he's making sixty yarders like they're nothing. The
thing that's not being talked about enough is Ohio State
apparently doesn't have a kicker that can reach the goalpost
from fifty five yards out. So, you know, all the nil,
all the resources that Ohio State was devoted to recruiting
didn't include a kicker for big moments such as that.
That that's something that we need to note. And the
other point is be precisely because the ball was in
Oregon territory, not that far away from field goal range,
Let's not give Dan Lanning too much credit. Okay, he
was thinking ahead, and I've given him credit for that
just now. But like that, if Ohio State did have
a kicker like that penalty could have proved decisive. And
the other part of this, obviously, is that if Will
Howard slides or gives himself up just a couple seconds earlier.
His slide began with like one and a half maybe
two seconds left. By the time his slide was completed,
the game was over. I'm not saying there should have
been one second on the clock, no, But if Will
Howard does slide just a little bit earlier, if he
slides at the thirty one instead of the twenty nine,
Ohio State does have a play. And so the buck
guys really did watch that. The end of that game
was more about how Ohio State failed than how Oregon was,
you know, being so brilliant. Okay, Lanning was thinking ahead.
But I'm not sure that's the best application of that
automatic twelve men penalty. Probably a better application is if
Ohio State needed a touchdown right then you have the
twelve men on the field, you have that extra body
in the end zone, you get just a five yard penalty.
So you know, if you're disorganized, you know, then you
can go back with eleven men and then reorganized. Also,
the other idea is, you know, let's say the ball
was not at the Oregon forty three. Let's say the
ball was at the fifty, or maybe it was just
slightly on Ohio State side of the field. Then I
would say, wow, that's a perfect application of the twelve
men penalty because in the five yard penalty doesn't get
Ohio State into field goal range. But Landing kind of
played it close with this, and there were still six
seconds left after that penalty, such that Ohio State did
have a chance to get several more yards. And again
Will Howard did get several more yards, but he slid
way too late. So it was more about Ohio State
failing than Oregon succeed. But we'll get we'll go deeper
into that one play on a separate standalone edition of
Get Off My Pilon. That's something that you're going to
see at Patreon later this week, so keep an eye
on that. I'll be tweeting it out at my Twitter account.
Matt Zemeck separate standalone episode on that one play at
the end of Ohio State organ plenty more to say
about Buckeys and Ducks. And the one thing we really
have to drill down and emphasize here, and this is
where Dan Lanning again deserves a lot of credit, is
Oregon's offensive line. Oregon's offensive line kept Ohio State's defensive
line at bay. The big reason that Ohio State was
number two entering this season. It was not the offense,
it was the defense. This was supposed to be a
skull crushing Ohio State defense, and an Oregon offense which
looked very pedestrian in the first few weeks of the
season against Idaho and then against Boise State, looked very average.
In those early season games, Oregon really developed and specifically
on the offensive line. Oregon's offensive line came ready to
play neutralized Ohio State's defensive line. Ohio State fans, obviously
they're upset at Ryan Day for losing yet another big game.
You know, Day didn't coach that poorly. And if Ohio
State doesn't get called for that offensive pass interference, which
you know, this is the thing I keep Let's just
briefly deal with that offensive pass interference penalty. Two things
one I don't think it should have been called. Three things.
One I don't think it should have been called. Two.
The Penn State USC game, in terms of pass interference
was officiated completely differently from Oho State Oregon. In Ohio
State Oregon, every little thing was being called. In Penn
State USC, practically nothing was being called wildly and consistent,
and so you did not get any consistency from Big
Ten officials in those two featured Big Ten games on Saturday.
And if you're a USC fan, and of course I'm
at Trojan's wire, you just have to be going, you know,
bonkers over how USC could not buy any kind of
call with significant contact from Penn State defensive backs. And meanwhile,
Oregon is getting every little touchbow against Ohio State. So
Oregon gets the gets the call, USC doesn't. Part of
that part of a miserable day for USC. That's kind
of a tangent, but it is worth noting that the
officiating on pass interference in Ohio State Oregon was very tight.
That was part of that late pass interference call on
the Buckeyes, And again I don't think it was past interference.
But here's the third point. I've you know, if you
follow me on Twitter, you know that i've recently the
last two years or so have finally gotten hooked on
soccer now. The Premier League in particular, just just didn't
feel a soccer with something I'd ever really know that
much about. Why invest my time kind of an object
of curiosity. I decided to go deeper these past few years.
I've become hooked on the game, the drama. I won't
say I'm like a tactical you know, insider now, I'm
not gonna say anything like that, but like I do
have an appreciation, much more of an appreciation for what
goes into winning soccer now that I've you know, you know,
spent plenty of time, you know, studying the Premier League
and the fixtures and table and all that. One of
the big lessons I've learned from the Premier League is that,
like when you have a one goal game or a
tie game eighty sixth eighty seventh, eighty eighth minute and
a game gets decided, whether it goes from a tie
to a win and loss, or from you know, one
team having a sure win that becomes a draw. You
have these big swings at the top of the table
with Arsenal and Liverpool and Man City. One of the
central lessons I've learned is that you know when a
questionable penalty gets called in like the eighty eighth minute.
The calls are often bad, but you can certainly see
an element of the play in which you know the
defender in the penalty box, he's sticking out his arms,
sticking out his leg. You have to let that go
in the eighty eighth minute, right, you know, like the
in the tenth minute or the thirtieth minute, it might
be a little different, But in the eighty eighth minute,
you're either trying to protect that lead or you're trying
to protect that draw. You want to make sure you
don't lose that you at least get a point instead
of none. Like you just can't stick out that leg, right,
you can't stick out that arm. You can't give the
ref a reason to call a penalty. And again the
call might be bad. But if you just didn't stick
out your arm, if you didn't stick out your leg,
the ref has no chance to call a penalty. But
if you stick out that arm, you stick out your leg,
stick out your hand, you at least give the referee
a chance to make a bad call. So the soccer
and the Premier League have really drilled down that idea
for me. They've really hammered home that particular point, and
that's what's going on with that Ohio State offensive pass
and furnace. Again, I don't think it was a good call.
Thought it was TICKI ten, all right, But the Ohio
State receiver did not need to put his hands out,
and the Oregon defensive back sold the play, sold the
action like it was a flop. Like I'm Ohio State fans,
if you're listening to this, I think it was a flop.
But the hands were extended, so I'm not calling it
a foul. I'm just saying the hands being extended, like
Ohio State was at the Oregon twenty eight, you're well
within field goal range, so you obviously do want to
get closer make the field goal more manageable. But if
you're a receiver running a route, you can't have your
hands extended like that, not in that situation. You know,
if the ball was at midfield, okay, and you're not
in field goal range yet, then maybe you do need
to push off discard to get separation, because you absolutely
need to get the reception and get into field goal range.
But if you already are in field goal range man.
You just cannot have your hands and arms out in
front like that. And the Oregon dB to you know,
sold the call, sold the flop. The official bought it again.
It wasn't past interference, but the Ohio State receiver created
the visual impression that he was pushing off. I don't
think he did, but he gave the impression. And so
when the organ defender flops, there comes the yellow laundry
and the game completely changes. So like these are timeless lessons,
these are lessons about what you need to do in
a given moment, in a given situation. And Ohio State
just wasn't smart. And we saw Will Howard, you know,
just starting way too late on his run. You know,
if he was going to run the ball, he needed
to give himself up earlier than he did. You know,
he wouldn't have gotten an extra two to three yards,
but he would have gotten some yards, you know. He
Will Howard wanted a forty five yard field goal or
forty six yard field goal, so he slid at the
twenty nine. You know, you just got to slide at
the thirty one, pal and be willing to live with
a few more yards. You know, forty eight yards forty
nine yards on the field goal attempt instead of forty six.
Ohio State just was not situationally aware and that goes
into the end of that ballgame and that pass interference penalty.
One final thing, and you know, I know we're focusing
on the West, so like we should be focusing more
on Or but you know, we're talking about this game
and what went down and whyatt went down, and of
course Oregon's down the Big Ten. If Oregon and Ohio
State do have a rematch in the Big Ten championship game,
and you know, Ohio State versus Penn State, that might
be the game which determines which team does play Oregon
in that rematch. But you know, the Buckeys or the
Nitney Lions, it looks like Oregon versus Penn State or
Ohio State. You know, Iowa's in the mix still after
beating Washington. But if it is Oregon and Ohio State
in a rematch, if Ohio State does beat Penn State
and you do have a rematch with Oregon, the game
is going to be decided by the Oregon offensive line
against the Ohio State defensive line. And as upset as
Ohio State fans are at Ryan Day. They're also upset
at Jim Knowles, the Ohio State defensive coordinator whose unit
you know did not really rise up. But even more
than Jim Knowles, the other Ohio State assistant coach who's
really in the crosshairs right now for Buckeye fans is
Larry Johnson. Larry Johnson is the defensive line coach and
the anger from Ohio State fans at Larry Johnson. That
is also a testament to how well Oregon's offensive line played,
and it's a testament to how that Oregon offensive line
so mediocre against Idaho and Boise State. That group has
come a long way in the next several weeks since
the start of the season. So, you know Oregon and
Dan Lanning, you know, when they have a bad game,
and like it's not as though like they've been dominating
throughout the whole season, like they started very slowly, But
when they have a bad game, they get things fixed,
they do make adjustments, they get their house in order.
That's why Dan Lanning's doing such a good job that
when something bad happens, a problem gets fixed. That's a
big reason why. And Dylan Gabriel, you know, Dylan Gabriel
did not play great football the first several weeks of
the season. He played great against Ohio State. He was
definitely at a higher level. Oregon fixes problems, and that
really is the story of the Ducks win overall House
State by so many talking points from that game. And
again you're gonna get more on that twelve men on
the field penalty and a separate standalone edition of Get
Off My Pylon over at Patreon. Now, this notion of
Oregon fixing problems, it's really the perfect segue into that
other big Big ten game with a West Coast flavor,
Penn Stay at USC in the coliseum, Penn State wins
thirty three thirty in overtime. And so USC, unlike Orgon,
is not fixing problems. You know, USC has labored under
some very specific burdens and shortcomings this season under Lincoln Riley.
And when when something bad happens that USC, the problem
does not get fixed. It might get slightly improved, but
the problem does not get fixed. The problem does not
get nipped in the bud it lingers. And so with USC,
you know, it seemed at the start that some problems
were getting fixed against Penn State because USC had been
a terrible first half team this season. Finally we saw
USC play a good first half in USC. Bad first
half against Michigan, bad first half against Wisconsin, bad first
half against Minnesota, and you would see USC play really
well in the third quarter. Then you know, didn't play
great in the fourth quarter against Michigan or Minnesota, and
that's why the Trojans lost those games. But USC was
an excellent third quarter team in all three of those
games Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota. So USC would play a bad
first half, would make good halftime adjustments, would come out
roaring in the third quarter, and play a really strong
fifteen to twenty minutes like USC from halftime to the
ten minute mark of the fourth quarter, lights out against
all three teams over the previous few weeks Michigan on
September twenty one, Wisconsin September twenty eight, Minnesota October five.
USC owned the first twenty minutes of the second half
in all three of those games, so USC was making
the halftime adjustments. So in this Penn State game, US
he finally plays that elusive quality first half it had
been searching for. Up twenty to six. Drew hour of
Penn State looked terrible. Penn State's defense looked soft. USC
was able to begin to run the ball against Penn State.
So USC had everything going its way. And so you think, Okay,
this has been a good second half team, it's been
a great third quarter team. Finally USC's putting it all together,
Finally us he's going to play that complete game that
the Trojans have been struggling to play. Nope, you know,
just when USC finally plays the good first half, the
team gets blown out in the in the third quarter,
gets outplayed in the second half. So what does that
tell you? What does that tell you about USC? That
whatever the program does, whatever the team does on the field,
the bad cancels out the good. You know that USC
basically is able to play well in spots, but it
can't play that complete game, can't play with any consistency.
If good habits emerge for a twenty or twenty five
minute block of time, they're not carried through to the end.
Either Either we have to see the Trojans play a
bad first half or they finally get it right in
the second half, or if they start well as they
did against Penn State, it doesn't carry through. It doesn't
continue for the whole game. And so you know, you
could say that USC is just a few plays away
from being six and zero. But how many other teams
can can say that? How many other teams are we're
muttering to themselves right now, Well we could be undefeated
except for this play in that game or that play
in the other game. No, no, no, no. Winners do not
talk that way. Winners do not say, well, if we
just made a couple of plays, we'd be great. That's
the whole point. Winning teams make the final plays. Winning
teams finish the job. Winning teams leave no doubt. And
one of the talking points I've had for USC all
season long, if you lead by ten or fourteen points
late in the game, one or two bad calls won't
sink your ship. You know, if you lead by two possessions,
that really bad call. And I mentioned this earlier, like
USC got some terrible calls from the Big Ten officiating
crew on pass interference, like mackay Lemon of USC wide
receiver clearly got interfered with late in that Penn State game.
No call, again, it was a bad call. No one's
disputing that. But I'm not here for the excuses. I'm
not here for well, we got screwed by the refs.
You know, if the refs had made better calls, would
have won. Hey, USC had a fourteen point lead, if
USC had maintained that lead, if it had played well
in the third quarter, that had maintained consistency over the
course of a full game you had, those calls late
in the game wouldn't have mattered. And so us He
is always playing within the margin of air where one
bag call swings the needle in the wrong direction, and
USC should be good enough it that one call doesn't
determine the outcome of its games. And you just can't
keep playing games close to the vest one score, one
possession at the very end of the fourth quarter, and
USC is playing to the competition every week two. USC
was definitely better this week against Penn State compared to
how it was against Minnesota. The loss to Penn State
is obviously a stinger in the fact that USC blew
a fourteen point lead is obviously cuts deep. But in
many ways this game, you know, USC playing a solid,
a flawed, but generally solid game against Penn State. This
game shows how poorly us He played against Minnesota and Michigan.
You know, Michigan lost at Washington. Michigan's not very good.
Michigan can't throw the football. USC really had no business
losing that Michigan game, and it had no business losing
to a Minnesota team, which you know, if we look
at the past weekend of results outside of the you know,
the feature games, Minnesota barely beat Ucla. Minnesota needed a
touchdown with twenty seven seconds left to beat Ucla, So
basically Minnesota beat USC and Ucla in the last minute.
So Minnesota beat USC and Ucla pretty much in the
same way with the same degree of difficulty like for
USC to lose to that Minnesota team. A Minnesota team
which almost lost to Ucla and Ucla is very probably
the worst team in the Big Ten. I mean, Northwestern
is in the discussion, Purdue is in the discussion, but
Purdue actually put up a fight against Illinois. Purdue scored
forty nine points at Illinois, so Purdue might actually be
getting a little bit better. Minnesota barely beat Ucla, and
yet USC lost to that Minnesota team. So this Penn
State game magnifies how awful it is and was that
USC lost to Minnesota just absolutely no business losing that game.
And so for the Tropans to be three and three
with losses coming to Michigan and Minnesota like that is
drastic underperformance. And I know that USC doesn't have an
elite roster, and I know USC doesn't have an elite team.
That's why USC lost to Penn State. But you can't
really say the same thing against Michigan and Minnesota. Those
are two dramatically flawed teams, and USC couldn't be either
of those guys like US, he should not going to
say US he should be six and zero, but US
he should be five and one, And for the Tropans
to be three and three, like, you can whine about
bad calls in close games all you want, but this
team has definitely underachieved, and that, like that point I
don't think can really be debated. You know, this is
a competitive sport. If you're continuously losing close games late,
it's not just like, oh, the ball bounced the wrong way. No,
there were tangible things you could have done, and specifically
with its USC team. To drill down a little deeper,
if you look at all three of the Trojans' losses
so far this season, you can point to an offensive
possession that went wrong precisely when the Trojans had a
chance to win against Minnesota. It was that drive early
in the fourth quarter, second and five at the Minnesota
thirty six. Just getting a field goal would have given
USC a ten point lead. USC led seventeen to ten.
The offensive line gets blown up on two straight plays,
the second of which produces an interception. Minnesota drives down
the field, USC's defensive line picks up an injury to
Anthony Lucas Minnesota scores ties. The game then goes ahead.
You know, the offensive line failed precisely when USC was
on the verge of winning that Minnesota game. The USC
offensive line failed got blown up by Michigan's front four
when USC led Michigan twenty four to twenty, had the
ball with five minutes left. If the offensive line steps
up on that drive and USC gets two first downs, ballgame,
but the offensive line faltered. And then against Penn State
at the end of regulation, and then in overtime, offensive
line gave up pressure on Miller Moss the pass rush
was able to, you know, make life more difficult for
USC's quarterback, and the Trojans don't get points on either
of those drives, and they lose a ballgame to Penn State.
USC's offensive line had its moments against Penn State. You know,
play well for about twenty five thirty minutes, but that's
the point. USC is a thirty minute team, the offensive
line included, and in the biggest moments, USC shrinks instead
of rises, and that's why the Trojans are where they
are at three and three. Okay, sough about USC, and
we've also done Ohio State. Oregon also ducked in a
word about Ucile Minnesota. Other games of note, so Washington
part of our focus on western college football in the
United States. Washington goes to Iowa, and so once again
we have a team that's traveling multiple time zones and
gets throttled and the Huskies just can't put it together
on offense. And we saw once again they drove seventy
three yards early in the game did not get points.
And that has just been happening so often to the
Huskies this season. It's really kind of crazy how much
of a broken record it is for Jed Fish. He
watches his offense move the ball down the field, but
they can't finish a drive in the red zone, the
field goal unit fails. Washington has one of the worst
kicking units plays kicking units in college football. So just
the Husky just keep blowing scoring opportunities early in games,
and like the house is going to fall down when
that stuff keeps happening early in games. That's just not sustainable.
And we saw the Huskies lose steam after that. I
wul taking over. The Hawk guy's hammering the Huskies in
the second half. Like Washington just has to, you know,
solve these problems. We talked about, you know, USC not
fixing problems. Whereas Oregon does fix problems, Washington is very
much along there with USC. It's a team and a
coaching staff that's not fixing problems, the same problems that
keep propping up week after week. That's why Washington is
mired and mediocrity, losing to Iowa as it labors into
the middle third of its Big Ten season. Okay, other
Western college football teams, we have to look at the
Big twelve game presented to you by the Pac twelve
Utah and Arizona State last Friday, and so you know,
cam Rising, it's sad, but it's just what else is
there to say at this point, cam Rising just can't
stay healthy, and Utah being the Big twelve favorite depended
on cam Rising being healthy, being himself, you just don't
have that same team with the Utes. But you know,
as much as Cam Rising is, cam Rising's lack of
health is responsible for Utah not being very good right now.
The Utah defense, you know, was able to pick up
the slack, you know, win at Oklahoma State a few
weeks ago. That Utah defense was not able to pick
up the slack against Arizona State, the Sun Devils were
able to run ball really well. Uh you know, so
Kenny Dillingham, the work that he's done with that team,
especially on the offensive line, and like, the offensive line
is the nerve center for a football team. Like we
have to just put that out there. I mean you
probably already sense that, but you know, the offensive line,
whether it's for better or worse, it's really the heartbeat
of these teams that we analyze. Arizona State's offensive line,
which was crushed by injuries a year ago, so much
better this year under Dillingham. Uh. The Sun Devils do
not have a dynamic passing attack, but they're able to
run the game. They're able to get big home run
rushing plays, and so that's why ASU is, you know,
just about to clinch ball eligibility. A tremendous success for ASU.
And let's see if the Sun Devils can make a
run at the Big twelve championship game. They're definitely in
the mix right now with Ohio State or Ohio State,
Iowa State being out in front in that Big twelve
race BYU as well well, but Arizona State is in
the hunt. An amazing job by Kenny Dillingham in the
desert this season with Utah. Now you know, Utah's big
goals are basically dashed and it's just unfortunate that Cam
Rising could not stay healthy. Colorado. Colorado had a brief
lead over Kansas State, and you know Kansas State earlier
in the year at BYU controlled most of the first half,
then committed a bunch of mistakes, fell behind, and the
game unraveled for the Wildcats. We were seeing something similar
against Colorado. The difference being that whereas Kansas State faltered
in the first half against BYU, Kansas State faltered in
the second half against Colorado. And so late in the
game Colorado is up by four. Kansas State was staying
at another really bad loss, but the Wildcats were able
to rescue themselves this time, and so Colorado came close
to stealing another win. You know, Colorado stole one win
against Baylor hail Mary touchdown at the end of the
game to force overtime and then beat the Bears in
the extra period. Well, not this time. Colorado was not
able to steal another win. I give Colorado and Dion
Sanders' credit, like they've been better and more competitive than
I thought they would be. But the weakness in Colorado's
line play on both sides of the ball catching up
with the Buffs, and you have to think that that's
going to continue to happen. The main thing for Colorado
get to a bowl game, get those bowl practices, give
coach Prime a chance to develop the roster, teach technique,
grow some better habits for the off season. That's obviously
going to be important. But of course, you know in
twenty twenty five, Calao's not going to have Shader Sanders
at quarter. He's going to head off to the NFL,
one would think, So that's going to probably place a
limitation on what Colorad can do next year. So it's
important for Colorado to be able to shrug off this
Kansas State loss, look at the good things SeeU as
doing and make sure you clinch Bowl eligibility in the
coming weeks. So it's a missed opportunity for Colorau, but
also in many ways reality check, like you can't keep
expecting to steal games late with rallies. Kylora is gonna
need to get on top of these games a little
bit more often, kind of like how it did against UCF.
But that's been the exception more than the rule, and
so Colorad still has some work to do to clinch
Bowl eligibility and make the improvements that Deon Sanders is
hoping for in Boulder. Elsewhere in western college football in
the United States of Boise State, Ashton gent and the Broncos,
they went at why but it was a struggle. You know,
the Hawaii treated that game as its super Bowl. You know,
that was the game where Hawaii went all in. You
saw a great effort from Hawaii on defense. Boise State
was stuck at thirteen points deep into the second half.
Boise State is finally able to put together a late
touchdown drive to turn a thirteen to seven game into
a twenty one to seven game. But man, it took
a long time for Boise State to get going. It'll
be interesting to see, you know, is that a sign
of any kind of erosion mid season weakness for the
Broncos as they pursued the Group of Five championship in
a spot in the college Football playoff. Obviously, Boise State
and UNLV are going to play each other. That's gonna
be a point of focus in the Group of five race.
Of course, you also have Army and Navy in the
hunt for the Group of five. That's a fascinating talking point.
But in terms of you know, the Western in the
United States, Boise State and UNLV are the two central
points of focus. And so UNLV and Barry coach Barry Odom,
they're gonna look at that Boise State Hawaii film and
look at things that Hawaii did to slow down the
Boise State offense. It's gonna be an interesting plot point
when UNLV and Boise State eventually do meet. Elsewhere in
Western college football. We also have to touch on the
Arizona Wildcats. They get crushed by BYU, BYU having a
great season, unbeaten in the Big Twelve and Arizona has
been ordinary. Arizona has been mediocre. The offense scores just
nineteen points. You know, Noah Fafita, Teturoy McMillan coming back,
as you know, presumably one of the elite pitch catch
combinations in the United States. But like they they don't
have a lot else around them, and defenses have been
able to take away the deep shot. They've been able
to take away a significant measure of Arizona's offensive potency.
And so what we've said earlier on this podcast over
the course of the season is just worth saying again.
And it might seem like a broken record, but like
it's just the obvious truf that's out there just can't
be ignored. While Jedfish did not bring Fafita and McMillan
to Washington, which is what he ultimately wanted to do,
it's what he ultimately hoped to do, he still did
bring a lot of players from Tucson to Seattle, and
those players, those role players, part of that supporting cast.
It turns out that Arizona is missing those players more
than the Wildcats hoped would be the case. Even though
the Wildcats kept their star quarterback and their star receiver. Yeah,
the supporting cast really mattered, and the erosion of the
roster has still been significant enough to drag down the Wildcats.
The replacements that Brent Brennan I had to bring in
haven't been up to the same standard. That's why Arizona
is where it is at this point in the college
football season. So obviously you can tell a lot going
on in Western college football in the United States. Are
really compelling games, some really interesting plot points. That pretty
much rounds out our show for this week. But before
we go, as always college football fans, the season is
now at it's midpoint. Lots of big games ahead, whether
it's you know, Arizona State in Colorado in the Big Twelve,
you know, chasing their season goals, or whether it's Oregon
closing in on a college football playoff and playing some
of the bigger games that are coming down the pike
later in the year, like Oregon's at Wisconsin. That should
be a really interesting game. Let's see how cold the
weather is in Madison for that game. Oregon Michigan as well.
So any interesting games still left in the season, which
is basically at its midpoint, we want to make sure
that you take advantage of how to get into a
big college football game at an affordable price with an easy,
painless purchasing process. And you do that by going to
ticket smarter and their mobile app. So buying college football
tickets online requires trust. Ticket Smarter as partnered with more
than one hundred universities and twenty four conferences as an
official ticket resale marketplace. They've partner with ESPN Events as
an official ticket resale partner with the best selection of
NCAA football tickets. Ticket Smarter make sure fans all over
the country experience the power and excitement of college football live.
So purchase your tickets quickly, securely, and at the best
prices on the secondary market with the ticket smarter mobile
app or at ticketsmarter dot com. And here's an offer
for everyone listing here on college Ground Coast to coast.
Take five percent off your purchase of one hundred dollars
or more with our promo code at Gridiron twenty two.
That's Gridiron two two er five percent off your order
of one hundred dollars or more. And it's not a
one time thing. It's for use throughout the rest of
the college football season. So check out the selections and
pricing now with tickets Smarter and remember our code Gridiron
two to two, think smarter at ticket Smarter, go to
ticket smarter dot com or the ticket Smarter mobile app.
So that's all for this week's College Gridiron Coast Coast
episode of Get Off My Pylon coming Western college football
in the United States. This is Matt Zenk. Thanks for listening.
We will see you next week.