Speaker 1: Check it out college football on the West Coast. This
is Get Off My Pylon, a look at the PAC
twelve and more, part of the College Gridiron Coast to
Coast podcast network. Here's your host, Matt zemon Okavin.
Speaker 2: Latest edition of Get Off My Pile on college Football podcast.
This is your host, Matt Zemmit. Get Off My Pylon's
part of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast network.
Find us on Gridiron Coast, on Twitter, and wherever you
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and Spotify. Those are the main places where you can
find all your favorite college Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast shows,
whether it's Yards and Stripes on the Service, Academies, Pigskin
and Burnt Ends, Noah Drury with Big Ten Paradigm, no
he is going to be talking a lot about Penn
State Indiana. I'm gonna be talking a lot about Oregon
and Iowa since Oregon the West Coast team is part
of the mix. But Noah with Big Ten Paradigm will
have a lot more on the Big Ten showdowns. The
throwers that were part of the past weekend in college football.
You have Jason Powers and the Florida Football Insiders podcasts.
You know, the drum beat to get Mike Norvel out
of Florida State. It's going to be louder after that
lost to Clemson. So follow Jason Powers for that. Also
South Florida staying in the mix in the American for
the Group of five, a lot for Jason to talk to.
This has been a really interesting year in the state
of Florida. So Florida Football Insider is a great podcast
to check out. And then there's the All Sports Discussion
podcast on the ACC and the carnage and that acc
wheel of destiny type flavor that we're so used to,
very much in evidence right now after Virginia and Louisville
losing at home his favorite. So the All Sports Discussion Podcast,
we'll have plenty on that, Florida State, Clemson and the
other goings on in the So so many different shows
to give you a taste of what's going on in
the different corners of the country, the different parts of
the larger national college football experience. There's a show for
every vantage point and for every fan at the college
grad down Coast to Coast podcast network. Of course, get
off my pilone we focus on college football in the
West and how it's gone this season. You know, we
usually try and get the smaller, less noteworthy conferences out
of the way early, and then we basically wind up
talking about Big twelve and Big ten in the Western
teams in those conferences. It's no different this week. Oregon
State in the two PAC loses to sam Houston State.
Sam Houston State gets this first win of the year.
If you stayed up to watch that game on the CW,
just an absolutely atrocious football game. The team's trading interceptions
in the final two minutes. You know, Sam Houston showed
why it's an er to eighteen, throwing interception with under
two minutes left, Oregon State gets the ball at the
twenty eight. Oregon State threw an interception just moments earlier,
but the Beavers take over at the twenty eight and
you think, well, nope, Sam Houston is still not gonna win.
Oregon State can't miss this one up right, No, Oregon
State fails to even get a first down, gets five
yards and four plays. That's it. Oregon State also dropped
a wide open fourth down pass at the Sam Houston
ten that would have been a touchdown. If that pass
is caught. Oregon State out gained sam Houston State by
over three hundred yards, still managed to lose, and sam
Houston State got two special teams touchdowns for its twenty
one points in a twenty one to seventeen win. So
just Oregon State worked really, really hard to lose that game.
Just another embarrassment for the Beavers. And you know, let's
just consider one thing. Oregon State beat Washington State at home.
I mean, Washington State fans have to be going nuts.
We couldn't beat this horrible two to eight Oregon State team,
a team that lost to sam Houston at home. We
couldn't beat these guys, you know. So Oregon State, you know,
its defense is actually playing really well, but the offense
and special teams both absolute disasters. So a forgettable year
for the two pack Washington State and Oregon State. You know,
Washington State made those improvements but then lost to Oregon State,
and then Oregon State does this against sam Houston State.
So not a happy time in the Pacific Northwest for
those two schools the Mountain West. I've said it all season,
it still applies. The less set about this conference, the
better San Diego State was the one team that had
a real chance going into the weekend for the Group
of five championship. That's over done. The Aztec's not only lose,
they get boat raced on the island, just getting absolutely
dismantled by Hawaii. So that's it for the Mountain West.
No shot the Group of five champion and College Football
Playoff representative is going to come from the American and
that several teams scramble at the top. The Mountain West.
Just an abysmal year. And now you of course have
realignment into a very new look Mountain West and a
new look PAC twelve for twenty twenty six. It can't
really get much worse than it's been this year. And
that is a noteworthy story that realignment really has not
worked out for a lot of these schools that got
broken up in the dissolution of the old PAC twelve
as we knew, it really has not worked on a
pervasive level. That's a really interesting story to get into.
You have to wonder if there's buyer's remorse from a
lot of these schools. That's really a bigger issue than
what we have time for. But it's just worth noting
that realignment in the West has not worked out on
a general level across the board, with maybe one or
two exceptions. Speaking of that realignment, now, CAL does go
to Louisville and upsets the Cardinals. Cal with an eighteen
and a half point underdog, but the Bears defense dug
in like that game was really really close. Throughout the
second half, Louisville continued to get good field position and
that CAL defense stood tall, getting pressure on the quarterback.
And Louisville's quarterback, Miller Moss he used to play at USC,
so like he's seeing Cal play and yet he really
wasn't up to it. Took some really bad sacks that
hurt Louisville late in that game. And then Louisville gets
a field goal, a forty nine yard field goal. Like
Louisville lost seven yards or excuse me, not seven yards, yeah,
seven yards on its overtime possession, but is at least
able to make the forty nine yard field goal. Calvin
gets the ball with a chance to win. Cal gets
stopped at the three and faces fourth and goal from
the three down a field goal in overtime, and most
coaches would just kick the ball and go to a
second overtime, Justin Wilcox of Cal decides to roll the
dice and a little fake end route, then going back
out to the pylon. Here on get off my pilon.
Cal catches the ball just inside the pylon for a touchdown.
So Brass balls stones onions from Justin Wilcox and Cal.
They get the twenty nine to twenty six win over Louisville.
Col's Bowl eligible. I've watched a decent bit of Cal
football this year. I don't think that's a particularly good team,
and so Justin Wilcox getting that team to a bowl,
that's that He's done some really good coaching this year
given what he's had to work with. You know, Cal's
receivers are bad. They drop so many any passes. Cal
needs to soup up that roster. You know, if Cal
wants to become like a nine or ten win program
needs some dudes. You know, a player acquisition is really
the thing. You know, Ron rivera longtime NFL coach coordinator,
he's the general manager in Berkeley. He needs to go
get some dudes. Uh. You know, Cal failing to become
a top tier program, it's not just a coaching thing.
In fact, I wouldn't say it's primarily a coaching thing.
Then cal needs players, uh, and yet Calus is able
to go to a ball so justin Wilcock is doing
a really good job there. The other Bay Area ACC team, Stanford,
put up a fight. Defense played really well, but the
offense got sworned by a North Carolina defense that's actually
playing really well right now. You know under Bill Belichick, Uh,
North Carolina has become a good defensive team. It's not
a good team overall because the offense is still pretty,
but that defense has become legitimately good. Stanford got ground
into fine powder in its trip to Chapel Hill. So
that the you know, that's the outlook in the smaller
conferences Mountain West two pac uh and the Bay Area
teams from from the ACC. So now we go to
the two conferences that we always focus on more here
I'll get off my pilon, the Big twelve and the
Big Ten. So the Big Twelve, you know, this was
a simple story. BYU gets its butt kicked by Texas Tech.
That game did not set up well for BYU, except
for the fact that you know, it was coming off
an idle week. So BYU did have two weeks to prepare.
But you know, we've talked about this, BYU falling behind
by double digits on the road this season. Did it
at Colorado, did it at Arizona, did it at Iowa State.
You know, if BYU was going to continue to do this,
it was bound to get smoked, bound to get burned.
That's exactly what it happened. There was no second half
rally this time. That Texas Tech defense kept by U
and quarterback Bear Bachmeyer in jail the whole way. And
bear Bachmeyer has had a really good season, but he
is a freshman and going into Lubbock College game day,
you know, Patrick Mahomes on hand, just a carnival atmosphere
in Lubbock. You know, that was a Lion's debt, and
it just figured that BYU's freshman quarterback, and BYU is
a team overall that you know, all those first half deficits,
Texas Tech was gonna make b YU pay if that
pattern continued. It did continue. Texas Tech absolutely demolishes BYU
in the game, which was never ever close. So that
game went as a lot of people expected it would.
And now the outlook of the Big Twelve is such
that you know Texas Tech has a favorable schedule remaining
and would be it would be a big surprise if
Texas Tech is not one of the teams in the
Big Twelve Championship game playing for a spot in the
College Football Playoff. The real intrigue is going to be
that second spot. And so BYU after this loss, not
in a bad position, but no longer in the commanding
position that it had. But here's the thing, you're wondering,
what are the big games in the Big Twelve coming up?
Well later this month BYU Cincinnati, and the winner of
that game, likely not guaranteed, but likely is going to
face Texas Tech in the Big Twelve Championship game. But
here's now the plot twist in that BYU Cincinnati, it's
not this weekend, it's later in November. But you know
who wins that game, that's gonna determine whether Arizona State
and Houston, you know, the trailing teams also in Utah,
whether those teams have a shot or tune you know,
so which team wins that is going to affect tiebreakers.
Let's let's look at Utah. For instance, Utah a team
that being in the West, we follow here and get
off my pylon. Utah beat Cincinnati, but Utah lost to BYU,
so you can do the math. Utah really needs Cincinnati
to win that game against BYU, and then Utah is
gonna need Cincinnati to lose elsewhere. But you know, so
very clear rooting interests in terms of the tie breakers,
and you know Utah and Arizona State trying to find
their way into the mix in the Big Twelve championship game.
It's unlikely that the Utes and Sun Devils will be
able to get that far because because of the losses
they've picked up, but if they want to have any
chance down the stretch, the outcome of that BYU Cincinnati
game is going to be very influential, especially from the
Utah side of things, in terms of the Big Twelve
tie breakers. If there is a three or four way tie,
those tie breakers could shake things out for the opponent
that's likely to face Texas Tech. Texas Tech with the
high ground, it's now Texas Tech with the inside track
in the Big Twelve. But BYU, Utah, Arizona State all
part of that jumble. BYU controls its destiny because if
BYU beat Cincinnati like that, that would cement the Cougars
atop the conference and earning a rematch with Texas Tech.
But if BYU loses to Cincinnati, it becomes a little
bit more fluid, and BYU loss, you know, would give
Utah some measure of hope for the remainder of the
Big Twelve race. So a lot of football still left,
but those are some of the plot points to consider
in that conference. So on the field, Arizona beats Kansas, Arizona,
you know, the defense continues to do the job for
that team. And I would say, you know, relative to
late August when we sat here pre season, what did
we think Brent Brennan was gonna do at Arizona this season?
In early November, I'd have to say that Brent Brennan
has exceeded a lot of Twusonians expectations that the folks
in Tucson, you know, we're nervous about how this season
was going to play out. Didn't really come out of
the gates roaring, But Arizona has showed that it's a
pretty resilient team. It's won a number of close games
and let BYU slipway, and that might be the game
that Arizona fans really regret from this season. But for
the most part, like Arizona has been pushed, Arizona has
been tested. You know, that game was going Kansas's way
for a while, Arizona able to turn it around. So
you know, on balance, pretty respectable season from Arizona, and
now Arizona gets a crack at Cincinnati. That game is
going to be interesting. It's obviously it's going to be
important in the Big Twelve race. But I'd say Arizona
has not merely met, but slightly exceeded expectations this season.
Like the program has not fallen off the map, and
that was certainly a worry for some time and it
really hasn't materialized. So Brent Brennan has at the very
least like he has stabilized that Arizona program after the
departure of Jedfish to Washington. We'll talk about Jeed Fish
in a little bit, but you know, Arizona not no
meteoric rise, but also no collapse. The bottom has not
fallen out. This has been a step forward for Arizona
this season. The win over Kansas really just affirms that point.
In Tucson, so the other Big Twelve team we haven't
talked about Colorado. Colorado puts up a fight against West
Virginia but loses in Morgantown. And you know, coach Prime
Deona Sanders, he's riding with his freshman Julian Lewis. So
Colorado is in a mode where it is preparing for
next year. And that's that's the wise course. You know,
this Colorado team just you know, the losses of Travis
Hunter and Sdar Sanders to the Pros. It had every
bit the impact that a lot of people thought it would.
And the bus have been caught in between at quarterback
and you know they've been shuffling around at that position
this season. They don't have the line play to compensate
for the limitations at quarterback. So yes, give give reps
to the young guy. Uh give you know, give him
a lot of film to accumulate and learn from and
then go into next season, make some investments in the
offensive line, h in the transfer portal, and see where
this thing can go. So this season has not gone
the way Colorado and Coach Prime had hoped. So basically
on the season and letting the younger guys play. It's
the right call because you're now looking to twenty twenty six.
You're trying to turn the page. You're seeing what you
have with your younger players. It's the right move by
Dion sanderws but in the short term, a lot of
paying for Colorado, another loss, another failure in a season
that has spiraled off the tracks. All right, so now
let's go to the Big ten and we'll get to
Oregon Island because that's the future presentation, of course, and
we'll also get to Washington and that step on the
rake lost to Wisconsin. Let's start with the smaller stories.
UCLA gets pounded by Nebraska. The final score was twenty
eight twenty one, but if you watch that game, Nebraska dominated.
The final score did not reflect the extent to which
Nebraska dominated that game. Nebraska gets a twenty eight to
seven lead, was in control the whole way. You know.
Nebraska's quarterback TJ Latif did not look good at all
in relief of Dylan Reyola against USC one week later,
he looked a lot better, but it was all because
Nebraska's offensive line was firing off the ball dominated UCLA's
defensive line. UCLA, falling behind by twenty one, did not
quit in this game like it was. It was impressive
that UCLA fought back and made this game as close
as it was on the scoreboard. But in many ways,
Nebraska completely owning this game the first two and a
half quarters. It was as though UCLA had regressed back
to that September level under Deshaun Foster. You know, UCLA's
coaching staff has called some creative plays like UCLA did
call up another fake punt. Ucla and under Tim Skipper,
the interim coach, likes to do some real leave fun
special teams plays. There was an on side kick that
worked against Penn State. Like there seems to be a
fake punt or some kind of special team's trick play
in every game that UCLA plays under Tim Skipper saw
another one Saturday night against Nebraska. So like that coaching
staff is still able to come up with some clever things.
But UCLA, when it forged that three game winning streak
midway through the season, beyond the Bruins became respectable in
the trenches. You know. They they dominated Michigan State, they
were good against Penn State, they held their own against Maryland.
UCLA's line play really improved in those three games. But
when UCLA was awful. Back in September. It was just
getting overpowered up front, and we're seeing that return in November.
We saw it against Indiana and we saw it now
against Nebraska. So that's kind of the reality for UCLA football.
The Bruins do not have elite line play. They too
easily get tossed around like rag dolls in the trenches.
That is where UCLA really needs to fortify and reinforce
its football program. The new head coach when he comes in,
that has to be priority number one. Building from the
inside in the middle between the hash marks in the
tackle box, and then building from outside. You know, the
receivers and skill players are nice, but if you don't
have that foundation up front, the rest of it's not
gonna work out. UCLA is grossly inferior line play both
sides of the ball. Nebraska just push the Bruins around
for the vast majority of this game. That is where
UCLA needs to look in terms of finding a way
out of the darkness. The other big news for UCLA
was not so much the game against Nebraska, but reports
on late Saturday early Sunday that the university is about
to finalize the agreement to move to Sofi Stadium out
of the Rose Bowl. There's a lease with the Rose
Bowl that runs through the twenty forty three season into
the year two thy forty four for almost twenty years,
and UCLA is going to have to pay up to
get out of that. And let's keep in mind, ucle
is paying calimony, you know that ten million dollar penalty year.
These close to ten million dollars every year as a
consequence of leaving for the Big ten, So sending money
to Berkeley that's already on UCLA's tab. It's going to
cost UCLA to get out of this lease agreement with
the Rose Bowl Stadium. The Rose bul has sued UCLA
for wanting to break that lease agreement, so UCLA has
to reckon with the financing year and the overall penalties
connected to all of this. The Bruins might want to
go to Sofi Stadium next season and expedite this process,
but the dollars involved, the costs involved, might put the
brakes on that. So this is this should not be
seen as a done deal or a finalized situation. Uh,
there is some litigation and there is some money to
be disputed and to be thought over. With the Rose
Bowl stadium before before this thing actually happens. But let's
just entertain for a moment the idea or the possibility
that UCLA does play in Sofi Stadium next season twenty
twenty six. Uh, if I'm USC, and we're gonna talk
about us scene a little bit here. If I'm USC,
I'm going to schedule one game of year at the
Rose Bowl. So now I'm not gonna move from the Coliseum,
but I am going to schedule one game. Uh, so
that you know, the USC can be part of the
market in Pasadena and fans get to experience that. And
you know, the Rose Bowl has over ninety thousand seats,
so like it's a chance for USC to sell a
lot of tickets, but at a different venue. Like you're
not going to play your premium games at the Rose Bowl,
but something like Northwestern, you know, a mid or lower
tier Big Ten team one game a year, it would
make sense. And I have a colleague at Trojans Wire.
His name is Ethan Enman. He's written a calm with
a lot of interesting ideas about you know what a
UCLA move away from the Rose Bowl could open up
for USC. One is that when the Olympics go to
Los Angeles in twenty twenty eight, which is and you
know they're going to have to they're going to redo
the track inside the LA Coliseum so that that venue
might not be there for USC football in twenty twenty eight.
USC could actually play football games at the Rose Bowl
in the twenty twenty eight season. But there's more than that, Like,
if USC and either Stanford or want to revive their
old Pac twelve rivalry, they could play a non conference
game at the Rose Bowl. Would probably be really fun
for both fan bases. That's something they could do down
the line, and so many other interesting things that USC
could do with the Rose Bowl if UCLA successfully vacates
and is no longer a tenant. A little history on
this in case you're interested. UCLA and USC shared the
Los Angeles Coliseum for decades way back when they did
so through nineteen eighty one. UCLA moved to the Rose
Bowl became a tenant at the Rose Bowl Stadium beginning
in nineteen eighty two. The UCLA USC football rivalry was
played in the Rose Bowl in the nineteen eighty two
season after being annually at the Coliseum every year for
quite some time. So this would be a forty three
year run coming to a close. And you know, if
UCLA is also able to make the move, it would
mean that, you know, this year, USC hosts UCLA at
the Coliseum, so next year they could play at Sofi,
and that would mean you know, a large seating capacity
for the USC UCLA rivalry in Los Angeles. You know,
last year twenty twenty four, UCLA hosted the USC game
and the Bruins still put tarps over large sections of
seats at the end of the Rose Bowl Stadium. In Sofi,
presumably there would be no tarps and you could get
a lot more fans in the building just for the
USC UCLA football rivalry. That move to Sofi Stadium, if
it happens, could actually be beneficial for the rivalry because
tens of thousands of additional fans would be able to
buy tickets for that game and watch UCLA. Putting tarps
over seats at the Rose Bowl has limited the overall
attendance for that game when it's played in Pasadena, So
the move to Sofi could actually enlarge the attendance significantly
just for the USC UCLA game. So a lot of
scheduling and logistical possibilities open up if UCLA moves to Sofi,
but I'm not saying it's a good move, and I
don't think it's a good move. UCLA. Abandoning tradition and
abandoning an iconic college football venue doesn't make sense to me.
And UCLA is not gonna just suddenly get a lot
more fans to Sofi Stadium just because it's a new
and modernized facility. UCLA football needs to actually be good.
That's how UCLA is going to get more fans. I
think a much more sensible approach here would be to,
you know, play most of your games at the Rose Bowl,
but sure play one or two games so Fi. You
know that's okay, But you don't want to be moving
your whole program to Sofi every season. You want to
be playing at the Rose Bowl, one of the great
venues in sports. Does the Rose Bowl Stadium need renovations?
Is it old? Yes? No one's arguing that, and I
think the Rose Bowl Stadium wants to make some upgrades.
So like the Rose Bulls willing to play ball there,
But I don't think you pack up and leave entirely.
That just seems shortsighted. UCLA losing what vestige of college
football tradition it already has. That's not the way to go.
So a lot of difficult realities surrounding UCLA football. The
move to Sofi Stadium, if it happens, that's going to
be very big news and it's going to represent a
very big change going into the twenty twenty six college
football season. All Right, So that's probably more UCLA talk
than you were probably prepared for, but that is a
pretty significant side story off the field for the Bruins.
Let's now move on to USC, and I'm not going
to talk a lot about the Northwestern game, but I
am going to talk about the play that has everyone talking,
and that's that fake punt. And so USC has a
punter who wears number eighty, but USC's third string quarterback,
Sam Heward, he wore number eighty, and he was brought
onto the field for what seemed to be a punt.
You know, this was fourth down, so it seemed to
be a punt. But Sam Heward throws a pass converts
the fake punt. Now, the rule book says I'm not
directly quoting, but I'm just gonna you know, this is
the substance of the rule the College Football rule Book
says you can't have two players playing the same position
wearing the same number. That is the rule. Okay. Now,
so a lot of people will say, and I get it,
that this was a penalty and should have been called.
It wasn't, but it should have been. I get that.
I understand that. But I think USC and Lincoln Riley
just I'm just talking about this play and drilling down
about the rule book because I am I am very
bigue on the notion that the college football rule book
is not written. Well, it's not written precisely, and a
lot of rules just don't make sense and are very inconsistent.
There's gonna be another rule I'm going to talk about
a little bit later on the show when we get
to that Oregon Iowa game. But first, let's just chop
up this rule about the two players playing the same
position wearing the same number. That is illegal. But when
we say that two players are both punters, Okay, how
does that get defined exactly? You know, just because Sam
Heward lined up like twelve to fifteen yards behind the
line of scrimmage, does that make him, by rule, a punter.
Just think about that, all right, now? He lined up
generally where a punter would line up in a formation.
But does that mean he is, as a point of fact,
a punter, And you can say, yes, I'm not gonna
tell you that you're wrong. I'm gonna say though, that
us he exploited a loophole here because the guy who
might have lined up where a punter normally lines up,
he didn't punt the ball, right, So you're not a
punter unless or until you punt the ball. You know,
if I snap the ball to someone who's standing twelve
yards behind the line of scrimmage, all right, I might
think that he's likely to punt the ball, and of
course it's fourth down. But he has to punt the
ball to be a punter. Okay, so do you see
what I'm getting at here? If two players wearing the
same jersey number both actually punt in a game, that's illegal,
and no one's disputing that. There's absolutely zero argument. There's
no way you can talk around that or avoid it.
Two players punted the ball, so two players can't have
the same jersey number. But Sam Hewart, he didn't punt
the ball. He threw a pass. And so one specific
nuance here in terms of the rule book, is there
is no rule you know that part of the rule
book is defining players or defining you know, what makes
this situation applicable to a given rule or code or
subsection whatever. You know. Definitions are part of any rule book,
and so to my knowledge, there's no definition in the
college football rule book which says you are a punter
if you line up x yards behind the line of scrimmage.
I'm not aware of any rule saying that you have
to line up more than five or seven or eight
yards behind the line of scrimmage in order to be
defined definitionally per the rule book as a punter. You
know what if you have your quarterback find up ten
yards behind the line of scrimmage instead of five. You know,
not all shotgun snaps are the same length. Now, most are,
but I've seen teams use longer shotgun snaps. I've seen
teams use shorter shotgun snaps. Are they all exactly four
or five yards in length? I mean most of them are,
but not all of them are. I've seen longer and
shorter snaps than the standard distance that we're used to.
So that reinforces the point because a guy is standing
twelve yards behind the line of scrimmage instead of six.
Does that inherently make that player a punter? You know?
And you can and again you can say yes, And
I would totally understand that line of reasoning that the
working assumption is that he's gonna punk the ball if
he's lined up twelve yards behind the line of scrimmage.
But definitionally, in terms of the rule book, does it
make it so it's open ended like that. It does not.
The rule book does not nail down that, Oh, because
he's twelve yards behind the line of scrimmage, he has
to be considered a punter. I can snap the ball
twelve yards behind the line of scrimmage and throw a pass,
and that player's a quarterback, not a punter. Like, there's
nothing stopping me in terms of how the rule book
is currently written to just say, hey, you know, it
doesn't matter where my quarterback takes the ball behind the
line of scrimmage. If he's throwing a pass, he's a quarterback,
not a punter. So I think USC successfully exploited a
loop hole in the rule. This rule is not precise enough.
I do think you shouldn't have players wearing the same
jersey to confuse the opposition, like there's no question Lincoln
Riley did want to deceive Northwestern and throw Northwestern off balance.
Like I'm not arguing that point, but what I am
saying the rule needs to be a little bit more
buttoned down here. And if you want to say in
the rule book for purposes of definitions and for purposes
of identifying because positions of players, if you want to say,
the quarterback cannot take a snap more than ten yards
behind the line of scrimmage. Otherwise he's a punter, you know,
and that way, you know, if you snap the ball
nine yards, well, then he's a quarterback who could punt
the ball if he wanted to. That's one possibility. But
I think actually the best way to reform this rule
and to write the rule more precisely, I would do
it this way, that you can't have two players with
the same jersey numbers who play more than one phase
of football, Like you could not have someone who plays
offense and special teams you can't, And you can have
someone who plays defense and offense, Like if you're a
defensive lineman, you cannot then be a tackle eligible or
a full back. You can't you're not allowed. You know,
an offensive lineman could be a tackle eligible or could
be a fullback, but not a defensive lineman. So no
Refrigerator Perry, right, no William Perry allowed. You know, just
for the purposes of we're trying to close the door
on allowing coaches to deceive opponents with same jersey numbers
for multiple players and being able to trade them in
and out. You get to play just one phase of football.
And some people would say, well, you can't have Travis
Hunter anymore. You know what, I'm okay with that, you know,
like the and actually strike that like Travis Hunter, He's
able to play both sides of the football, and you
just have no one else wearing the same jersey number
as he does. So actually you can. You can have
two way players. It's just that you can't have double numbers,
you know, changing sides of the ball. You can't be
mixing and matching. So if you have a number seventy
two on defense, you can't have a number seventy two
on offense. Is tackle eligible? That is the point. So
I kind of got stuck a little bit there in
making my argument, but that is where the rule book
needs to change. That you can't have double numbers switching sides.
You know, so if you have double numbers just on
one side of the ball, okay, you can't have double
numbers on different sides of the ball, so that you
swap uh and create that kind of deception. That that's
where that's where the rule book needs to be more precise,
better defined. Just there are certain definitions and elements of
precision that need to be tended to, and USC exploited
the rule book because it's not fully buttoned down, fully
precise on these various points. So that's my read on
the USC fake punt in spirit, you know, spirit of
the rule that the general principle. I don't like what
Lincoln Riley did, you know, but I'm also going to say,
you know what, this is not technically illegal. It's not
technically a penalty because the definition of a punter, the
definition of a quarterback, and where players line up on
the field. You know, the rule book does does not
drill really deep in creating an airtight seal. USC worked
around that airtight seal for what it's worth, all right.
So that's a play a lot of people have been
talking about. I had to get in my two cents
on that one. Now let's move forward with the rest
of our show here on Get Off My Pilot. Washington
at Wisconsin. Now, we have talked about this a lot
on our show this season, that the Washington Huskies, you
get them at home, they can be really good. Now,
of course Ohio State smothered them, but you know, Ohios
Date is the number one team in the country, its
most pundits a choice to win the national championship. We
can kind of set that one aside. But we saw
Washington's offense play horribly at Michigan. We saw Washington's offense
play horribly for three quarters at Maryland. Washington scored three
points in three quarters at Maryland before scoring twenty one
in the fourth quarter to come back and win that game,
or RaSE that massive deficit against the Terrapins. So this
offense has not been good at all on the road
this season. And so with Washington going to Wisconsin, going
to Madison, let me tell you, I was not sure
that Washington was going to win this game going in
just because like we have not seen Jedfishes, Washington offense
play really well away from home in the Big Ten.
We haven't And so as bad as Wisconsin has been.
You know, Wisconsin's defense did play well against Oregon. That
Wisconsin defense has shown some spine, some backbone in recent weeks.
That defense is respectable. We know the Wisconsin offense is
absolutely atrocious, and Wisconsin did manage just forty six passing
yards in this game. But Wisconsin's defense is solid, and
there was no guarantee in my mind going in that
the Washington offense was going to have a good performance.
And so here we are Wisconsin thirteen, Washington ten. The
Huskies again just completely step on a rake away from home.
This offense just cannot function away from Husky Stadium in Seattle,
and so not only is Washington out of the college
football playoff. That's one of the big stories of this game.
Another big story, of course, is Luke Fickele getting a
big win at Wisconsin after the vote of confidence from
athletic director Chris McIntosh, who says that who said that
Luke Fickle is going to be his coach for twenty
twenty six. That's a notable story too. But here's the
other part. UCLA has a head coaching search and Jed Fish,
who used to coach there at UCLA, has been prominently
mentioned as a possible candidate, and my read on the
situation to this point in time has been that, you know,
leaks of rumors connecting Jedfish to the UCLA job more
a leverage play for Jedfish to just fatten up his
contract at Washington. So this performance against Wisconsin, this this
stink bomb in Madison against the Badgers. I think the
the immediate read is UCLA probably doesn't need to go
for Jedfish. But the other part of this is Washington
could sit there and say, you know what, after losing
this game to Wisconsin, if if there are rumors of
Jedfish leaving for somewhere else, fine, you know, Washington could
call it Jedfish's bluff. Now, if Jedfish and his agent
want to leverage a situation to get a fatter contract, this,
this lost to Wisconsin should tell the Huskies you know what, no,
hold your ground, stand firm. You don't need to give
Jetfish more money. Not after that, not after that performance
against Wisconsin. So counter intuitively, while this might seem to
make Jetfish a much less attractive candidate for UCLA, and
I think there's a lot to be said for that,
that uclation should look elsewhere. There is also the possibility
that this makes Washington less inclined to pay more money
to retain Fish, in which case, you know, if there
is a standoff in negotiations and Jedfish's agent wants more
money and Washington's not gonna give it, which I think
would be proned by the way, Washington shouldn't give him
more money, not after seeing what we saw against Wisconsin.
If there is a standoff and Jedfish is upset by
that and he's upset enough that he wants to go
to u C l A, Washington should let him. Washington
should absolutely let him go. I'm sure Washington could get
an elite head coach in the market now, you know,
probably not Laying Kiffin, probably not Brian Kelly, but Washington
could certainly find a prominent head coach, a quality head
coach in this coaching carousel. I'm not predicting this is
going to happen, but I am saying that if there
is a standing off of negotiations and Jedfish thinks that,
you know, he he is expecting to get more money
as a result of you know, his camp leaking rumors
about the UCLA job, if if that gets into a
stalemate and Jed Fish and his his agent are not
satisfied with what they're getting for Washington, and this this
creates the possible flight to u c l A. Washington
should let that happen. And you know, if I'm looking
at this from a UCLA viewpoint, you know, if I'm
getting Jed Fish, am I getting the best candidate possible?
Lots of Jedfish plot points coming from this Washington loss
to Wisconsin. So that's definitely going to be a story
to watch. The fact that Washington's not going to be
in the College Football Playoff, you know, that means the
Huskies regular season is done Thanksgiving weekend, so Fish will
be open for interviews in early December. Like there's not
going to be a Big Ten championship game, there's not
going to be a College Football Playoff first round game
to prepare for. Fish will be basically open to taking
offers if other schools want to make them. So you know,
in a few weeks time, that's going to be a
really big story. It's going to be interesting to see
if Jed Fish feels happy at Washington or if this
creates a different dynamic that leads him to wander and
look at other programs such as UCLA. Could be some
others out there that's going to be interesting to watch
with Jedfish in the coming weeks. All right, so now
we get arrived last. We go to the last story
because it's our featured story. It's not because it has
a lower priority. You know, we work our way up
the ladder here on, get off my pylon. You've probably
noticed that by now that we start with the Mountain
West and the two pac and Stanford and Cow and
then we get into the Big twelve and then we
get into the Big ten. And so usually our feature story,
the biggest item on the board is the one we
arrive at last. So we have arrived at that point.
Oregon Iowa, the Battle of eighteen sixteen. Oregon had the
eighteen Iowa have the sixteen fascinating game played in the
rain in Iowa City, and you know Oregon plenty of
rain up there in Eugene in the Pacific Northwest. The
Ducks probably felt very much at home, like that's a
typical Oregon November day, just moving over to Iowa. But
a wet ball, wet environment like Dan Lanning seemed to
enjoy it like he's always up for a battle like that.
An Oregon able to get on the right side of
this lots to unpack here. One of the interesting dynamics
of not just this Oregon Iowa game, but also the
college football season at large is the way quarterbacks are
being talked about. Now. I referenced at the start of
the show that you know, one of the college grit
on the Coast to Coast podcast that has some overlap
with what we do at Get Off my pylone is
Noah Drury's Big Ten paradigm. He covers the Big Ten.
We don't cover the whole Big Ten, but we cover
the West Coast teams that are in the Big Ten.
So when there's a significant Big Ten game involving a
West Coast team, but we're going to talk about the
Big Ten opponent on the other side to a certain degree.
USC is playing Iowa this coming weekend, so you know,
we're going to be thinking about and looking at the
Hawkeyes in addition to the Trojans when we size up
that game. But with Oregon and our focus on the Ducks,
we also have to include our analysis of Iowa in
the mix. And you know, Earlier this season, we talked
about an Oregon Indiana game in which Fernando Mendoza figured
pretty prominently. So there's there's a little bit of space
here to talk about not just Oregon in particular and
Dante more but also on a larger level, how quarterbacks
in the Big Ten and nationally are discussed. And so,
you know, this was predictable. Fernando Mendoza is being talked
about as a Heisman candidate because he had his quote
unquote Heisman moment against Penn State. Now this there's a
tie into Oregon here, But just be patient with me
for a little bit. Uh, you know, I get it.
I get why this was a Heisman moment for Fernando
Mendoza for Indiana against Penn State. You know, comeback in
the final minute, leads a big drive down the field,
scores with thirty five seconds left. Yeah, Heisman moment. We
all understand that. But let's realize Fernando Mendoza through an
interception which led to Indiana falling behind Penn State and
needing that quote unquote Heisman moment in the first place. So,
you know, it's one thing if you're involved in like
a forty one thirty eight shootout, and you make that
final play at the end of the game, and you've
been awesome the whole game, and you're carrying this offense
and this team on your back. You know, that, to
me is Heisman level quarterback play. This what we saw
from Mendoza against Penn State, not nearly the same thing,
not nearly in the same universe. You know, he made
the clutch play at the end to win, but over
the course of the whole game was not outstanding through
a big interception like that shouldn't be a Heisman Trophy
winning profile. You know, Mendoza threw an interception at Oregon,
he bounced back led Indiana to go ahead touchdown after
throwing a pick six, but he still did throw a
pick six. And he threw an interception in the in
Indiana's road game at Iowa earlier in the season, and
he bounced back from that. So, yes, Fernando Mendoza makes
winning plays, but he also makes big mistakes. And basically
in his most important games this season, the dynamic, the
pattern has been Mendoza makes a really huge mistake that
imperils his team, and then he makes a really good
play to rescue himself and his team. That to me
is not a Heisman winner. That's a really mentally tough
and impressive football player, a winning player, a guy I
want in my locker room. But that's not a Heisman
Trophy winner. Heisman Trophy winners dominate. Heisman Trophy winners put
up forty to fifty points against good teams. That's a
Heisman winner. You know, I think of like Charlie Ward,
I think of Caleb Williams. I think of Danny Wirfol
at Florida nineteen ninety six. Those were Heisman quarterbacks. You know,
they they were putting up huge numbers. They led their
they led their teams with their offense. You know, those
were offense first teams, and the quarterbacks were the central
engines of great offenses. Those are Heisman quarterbacks. And so
this leads me to a couple points. One is that
have you noticed this in college football? Like we don't
see fifty two, forty five, forty eight, forty one, forty five,
thirty eight games nearly as frequently as we used to,
like with Lincoln Riley. Just just look at Lincoln Riley
for a moment, Like he used to win at Oklahoma
with you know, sixty six, fifty nine, fifty nine to
fifty two, forty three, forty You don't see Lincoln Riley
winning those kinds of games anymore. Scores of Lincoln Riley
USC games are much lower than they were at Oklahoma.
And if you look elsewhere around the country, you know
an Oregon Iowa fitting into this pattern. Oregon Iowa was
eighteen sixteen Oregon Penn State was a game played in
the mid twenties. That game was like seventeen to three
Oregon late in the third quarter, and so you know,
those were defense first games most of the way, and
then a quarterback comes in and makes a clutch late
play such as what Dante Moore did at Iowa. You
know that with that rope on Oregon's final drive to
set up the field goal. But for the balance of
that game, Dante Moore was not especially good. He wasn't awful,
but you know, barely threw for over one hundred yards
and he threw an interception to cost Oregon some points
on a drive. He was isn't bad, but he wasn't
especially impressive. You wouldn't say that Dante Moore played an
elite game for most of that Saturday against Iowa, and
yet the way some people would talk like, oh wow,
what a championship level drive, and what an amazing quarterback
Dante More is and this is why the NFL scouts
are drooling over him. You know, Dante Moore is a
work in progress. I think that's fair to say, like
he is not a finished, polished product, and he's getting
the job done for Oregon, but he's getting it done
in a way that's very similar to what we're seeing
with Fernando Mendoza and Indiana. Like those guys are winners,
they do make clutch plays, but they're not playing dominant,
elite football for most of the game. Like they make mistakes,
there are some warts and limitations in their game. And
I would broaden the focus beyond Dantey Moore and Fernando
Mendoza to say that, like, this is not one of
the better quarterback classes we've seen in college football, Like
this is not a this you don't have Peyton Manning
and Danny Wirfol, you don't have Charlie Ward, you don't
have Caleb Williams, you don't have Marcus Mariota. The quarterback
play is not close to what we have seen in
the past in terms of great quarterback seasons and great
college football offenses. You know, you know, Mac Jones doing
a solid job with the forty nine ers, Like when
he was quarterbacking Alabama in twenty twenty. That was a
forty eight point per game offense and you had Alabama
beating Florida and Kyle Trask fifty two to forty six
in the SEC Championship game. College football offenses and college
football scoring were a lot higher a few years ago,
but that has tapered off. I wonder how many people
are paying attention to that. So I'm making all these
different points, and it might feel like I'm rambling to
a certain extent, but I think you can get what
I'm what I'm saying and what I'm trying to emphasize. Quarterbacks, offenses,
point totals just not at a high level this year
compared to what we've seen in seasons past. Why is
the Heisman discussion focusing on quarterbacks as the best players
in college football? Like as Fernando Mendoza the best player
on his team. No, I think it's pretty clearly not.
Indiana's defensive line is the best unit on that team,
with Oregon, same same thing. Like that was a defense
first game against Iowa. You know, Oregon's defensive front is
really the unit that got the most work done for
the Ducks in that game. Dante more is clearly not
the best player on that Oregon team. He Now, did
he make some important plays, did he make some important contribution,
of course he did. But this idea that quarterbacks should
be leading the Heisman this year, it's nuts. And you
might say, well, Matt, you need to come up with
some alternatives. Yeah, Caleb downs Ohio State. Like, that's an
elite defensive player leading the charge for the Buckeyes and
their defense. Like, that's where I'd start in terms of
a Heisman Trophy candidate and a Heisman Trophy winner. The
Heisman discourse this year has been odd, and that's because
the discourse surrounding quarterbacks this season has been really odd.
And so Dante Moore is part of that. Like Oregon fans,
Oregon bloggers think he's amazing, he's awesome, all right, he
made winning plays and like, I have to love the
way Dante Moore shows toughness, resilience and poise under pressure.
And in that regard, he and Fernando Mendoza are good players.
They're winners. They're guys I want on my team. I
want them in my locker room. I want to be
with them in a foxhole. So I can praise and
compliment Dante more. But I'm not gonna go overboard and say, wow,
he's an elite quarterback. You know, the quarterbacks have not
been special this year. And just to deviate from the west,
all right, Ty Simpson of Alabama very similar. You know,
he's making winning plays, he's on a winning team. You
know he has come through in some crunch time moments,
but there's a lot of ordinary there, didn't You know?
Was not great against South Carolina, not great against LSU.
Just because he's the quarterback on a college football playoff
contending team, that doesn't mean he's a Heisman top four guy. Like,
surely he should be looking at defensive linemen and cornerbacks
and linebackers and offensive lineman and maybe a receiver, maybe
Jeremiah Smith, as the best players in college football. Are
we really trying to say that in a year with
a week quarterback class, the four or five Heisman candidates
are all quarterbacks. See, that doesn't make sense that is
inherently contradicting. You can't say this is a bad quarterback
class and yet also say, well, the top five and
the Heisman are quarterbacks. You can't because they're not the
best players in the sport, and they're not even in
many cases the best players on their own teams. So
I'm really frustrated by the way the Heisman discourse has
gone and Dante Moore at Oregon, though I know he's
not talked about in the top tier of Heisman candidates
the way that Mendoza and Julian Sayan and others are
still like, there's so much attention paid to Dante Moore
when you know he did not play a great game.
I'm willing to say he had a great final drive.
I would also say that, you know, the Iowa cornerback
could have turned around and located the ball on that
throw that Dante Moore made. I think it was a
fearless throw, and Dante Moore had to throw that ball
with zip to get it where he wanted to go,
So it was still an impressive throw to a certain degree.
But he also did get fortunate on that one. If
the Iowa cornerback just makes the half turn and locates
the ball decent chance that pass gets knocked down, and
where are we then? And I would also add that
Dante Moore had a wide open touchdown shortly after that
Oregon could have scored a touchdown without having to worry
about a field goal. And Dante Moore overshoots his receiver
in the left corner of the end zone. So like
that was a miss from Dante Moore. I think he's
getting a little too much credit. But I think I've
been clear in saying he's a winner. I want him
on my team, I want him in my locker room.
He shows poise, he shows guts. There's a lot to
like about him, but overall, the overall body of work
want I certainly wouldn't say he's a great quarterback. And
if people think I'm picking on him, well no. I
think Fernando Mendoza can be viewed and should be viewed
in a similar light. I also think Jane maavas not
necessarily that good at USC and I cover USC. So
this is not a Dante Moore specific thing, just the opposite.
I think Dantey Moore is just one example how the
national discourse on a lot of quarterbacks has really jumped
the shark this season, and you know, I don't have
confidence that the discourse is going to correct itself and
go in a better direction. But like the discussion surrounding
the Heisman and the discussion surrounding quarterbacks this year has
been very disappointing to observe and absorb. All Right, So
one more thing about Oregon Iowa. I did say I
was going to mention a rule from this game and
another instance of why the college football rule book is terrible.
It needs to be rewritten and revised. It's that safety
that Oregon got early in the game. And if you
remember that play, the Iowa punter very clearly just swiped
at the ball at the one yard line, knocking the
ball into the end zone. Now, I was under the impression,
and this was an error on my part, but I
was under the impression that you can't just bat the
ball like that. You can't just try and swipe the
ball out of bounds or away from a defender. It
turns out that illegal batting, you know, that is a
violation in the rule book. But the i legal batting
only applies to in the end zone or trying to
swipe the ball forward. You know, kind of the Ken
Stabler Holy Roller for the Raiders against the Chargers in
nineteen seventy eight. So you can't hit the ball forward
to get a first down or to get a touchdown.
So batting applies only to forward bats in the field
of play or to anything in the end zone. But
a backward bat, a backward swiping at the ball, hitting
the ball at the one yard line, that's not a penalty.
So to me, that's an inconsistency with the rule. If
it's illegal to bat it forward for convenience purposes, it
should be illegal to bat it backward for convenience purposes
as well. And so why it would be legal at
the one but not legal in the end zone? You know,
like holding is a penalty at the one, holding is
a penalty in the end zone. So I get why
holding that the one is not a safety, but it's
still holding and it's still called a penalty. But trying
to swipe a ball at the one apparently is not
a penalty. And Oregon did not have the option of
getting the ball at the one yard line. And where
I made the specific mistake in terms of my awareness
of the rule book was you cannot illegally kick a
ball at the one. You cannot illegally kick a ball anywhere.
You know, if a ball is rolling on the ground,
you can't just then kick it. You need to grab
it and do your do a drop kick consistent with
a punt, a normal punting technique. You can't kick a
ball or rolling on the ground anywhere. So that was
where I made my mistake. The legal batting you can
do at or batting the ball backward, you can legally
do that at the one, But kicking the ball rolling
on the ground you cannot do that at any place
on the field. And so it would have been Oregon
ball on the one, or at least Oregon would have
had the option of taking the ball on the Iowa
one yard line if the Iowa punter had illegally kicked
the ball at the one. But because the Iowa punter
swiped batted the ball at the one, and he batted
it backwards outside and outside the end zone, it was
not a penalty. So the referees made the correct call,
and I was wrong. But I do register my objection
with the rule book being that inconsistent that if it's
illegal to kick a ball on the one yard line.
It should be illegal to bat the ball on the
one yard line. Oregon should have a good rule book
would have given Oregon the option of taking the ball
on the Iowa one yard line and scoring a touchdown.
As it was, Oregon got the safety and got the
ball back, but then Dante Moore through the interception on
the subsequent drive. So Oregon did get just two points,
not seven from that sequence, and in a game that
came down to the final second that those five points
could have made Organ's day a lot easier. But it's
okay to bat a ball backward at the one yard line,
unlike kicking the ball. So another problem, another inconsistency of
the college football rule book that was also part of
the Oregon Iowa game. So as we make sense of
the Big Ten, and as we make sense of Oregon,
so Oregon, I wouldn't call the a lock for the
playoff just yet, because they do have to play usc
they do have to play Washington either of those games
or layups, and this offense is going to have to
be better. And I do know that Oregon has a
lot of skill players out you know, didn't have Kenyan
Sadik in there, didn't have Decoran Moore both injured, and
that that you know, that limited what Dante More was
able to do in the passing game. And Moore himself
seemed to pull up on a long run, you know,
maybe a little tight hamstring something like that. So Oregon's
battling some injuries, and so Oregon you know, will have
some issues to deal with in future weeks. So the
Ducks aren't yet a lock, but obviously pretty obviously you know,
this knocks Iowa fully out of the playoff race. So
you had Iowa and Washington both getting eliminated from the
playoff in the Big Ten. And so now Oregon has
solidified its place as the Big ten team in the field.
That it will have to continue to solidify that place
by you know, at least going ten and two. Uh
And and I would say that if Oregon does go
ten and two, it's probably going to get in. Uh.
This is this is partly because you know, a win
on the road at Iowa that would give Oregon a
quality win that's better than what Notre Dame has. So like,
if it's ten and two Oregon versus ten and two
Notre Dame for a bid, I mean, if it just
comes down to those two teams, Oregon would have a
better overall profile. So Oregon probably gets into the playoff
at ten and two. And you know, if the Ducks
had lost this game, they would have absolutely had to
run the table to have any chance of getting in.
Now Oregon can probably lose once and still get in.
I mean, the Ducks don't want to chance it, but
they might. They do have some margin for air, which
you can't say from Orre Dame, and you can't say
that for a number of other programs that are on
the fence. So Oregon probably got into the playoff with
this win, but the Ducks are not yet a lock.
They do still have more to do. You know, if
you're an Oregon fan, you want certain things to happen
elsewhere in the country. Like you definitely want Alabama to
beat Oklahoma, right, you want Oklahoma to lose a third game,
so that way, if Oregon loses a second game, the
Ducks still likely to be ahead of the Sooners and
other potential three loss SEC teams in the playoff. Like
you want Georgia to beat Texas, you want Texas to
lose a third game. And let's keep in mind Texas
would still have Texas A and M left. So really,
if you're an Oregon fan, you want Texas to lose
to Georgia and then lose to Texas A and M.
That would give the Longhorns four losses. There's no way
Texas is getting into the playoff with four losses, So
Oregon buys itself a little bit of leverage. It knocks
Iowa out. Very productive day for Oregon and the Ducks
to do this while they are undermanned at the skill positions, so,
you know, not one of Oregon's best played games. There
were some penalties, there were some breakdowns in the secondary,
but the Ducks are able to fight pass those problems
and they're able to gut it out in the end
against Iowa, much as they gutted it out in overtime
against Penn State after the Nitty Lions made that rally
back in September. And kind of funny, isn't it that
Oregon and Indiana both beat Penn State by very narrow
margins after blowing double digit leads allowing Penn State to
rally late. Those games were very similar and they underscored that,
you know, wow, Penn State has all this talent on defense,
pushed Indiana and Oregon to the brink, and yet has
been so awful in the other games it has played
this season. All right, folks like that. That was a mouthful,
and we certainly wanted to give a lot of time
to Oregon Iowa. We focused on it last, but that
doesn't mean it came last in our priority scale. We
saved the best for last here on Get Off My Pilot,
part of the College Gradarn Coast to Coast podcast network.
Go to Apple, Spotify and Speaker for all your favorite
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you next week.