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.
Speaker 2: Here's your host, Matt zimon Welcome to the latest edition
of the Get Off My Pilon College football podcast. This
is your host, Matt Zemick. We're part of the College
Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast Network. Go to Apple, Speaker, Spotify,
the other places where you listen to your favorite podcasts
and get all your college gridirn Coast to Coast shows,
whether it's Pigskin and Burnt Ends or Yards and Stripes
on the Service Academies. Navy with a thrilling last minute
win over Temple, the late two point conversion for the
midshipmen in Philadelphia thirty two thirty one. They come from behind,
they stay atop the American Get more on Navy it
Yards and Stripes. We have Noah Drury with the Big
Ten pair and he's covering all the Midwestern Big Ten schools.
I of course covered the West Coast Big ten schools
and the other Western schools here in the United States.
So get plenty more in the Big Ten from Noah
Drury at Big Ten Paradigm. Jason Powers with the Florida
Football Insiders podcasts, the disaster unfolding for Mike Norvel at
Florida State, Miami still rules the roost, Florida and Billy
Napier lose, and why hasn't Florida fired Billy Napier yet?
Jason Powers, as you covered, He also is covering the
South Florida Bulls. They beat North Texas in a very
big game in the American South Florida and Navy both
atop the conference and Joscelyn for position the winner of
the American very likely to claim the Group of Five
championship and the College Football playoff berths. So Jason Powers
has you covered at Florida Football Insiders. A great year
for football in the state of Florida. I love you
juicy stories. You know, South Florida and Miami could be
in the playoff and then Florida and Florida State have
hot seats. Wow, Like it's just four schools and four
really interesting stories, albeit for very different sets of reasons.
But Jason Powers, as you covered on the Florida Football
Insiders podcasts all sports discussion covering the AC seed, who's
going to challenge Miami guys at all sports discussion? Have
you covered there for everything on ACC football? So you know,
there are so many good and interesting college grade down
coast to coast shows, and we hope that you check
all of them out. We're here on Get off my
Pylon to talk about western college football. Let's just run
through some of the lower level stories before we get
to the main items. UNLV is six and zero in
the Mountain West. Now, you know v you know, gave
up forty eight to air Force. You and V's not
really a particularly good team, but so far, no one's
been able to beat the Rebels. You know, they beat UCLA,
they squeaked past Miami of Ohio, they survived Idaho State
handled Wyoming Like they're not playing great opponents, but hey,
they're winning and they're six and zero. And San Diego
State crushed Nevada to move to five and one. And
you have Boise State, you know, trying to make up
ground on San Diego State and UNLV. It's an interesting
three team race in the Mountain West. But none of
those teams seems to be nearly as good as South
Florida in the American for example, I think that the
American still has the inside track. UNLV is probably gonna
have to go unbaten have a real chance at the
Group of five championship. One loss for UNLV probably going
to be enough to give the American champion the not
Let's say South Florida goes ten and two. You know,
given that South Florida beat Boise State and just beat
North Texas on the road, South Florida is collecting some
good wins, so ten and two South Florida might get
in over eleven and one UNLV. If it gets down
to that. Then the fact that South Florida beat Boise
State and did so convincingly, that's gonna be a big
argument for South Florida. If we have the hypothetical of
eleven and one UNLV against ten and two USF for
the Group of five, I think it's gonna go USF's way.
So UNLV really in a position where it has to
run the table, and I don't think that's likely. You know,
a team that gives up forty eight to Air Force
probably gonna lose a game at some point. We'll see
what happens in the second half of the season. We
are at the midway point. We're through week seven. We
have fourteen of these you know, regular college football weekends
before we get to the conference changing games. So it
we're halfway home and UNLV with a lot of work
to do. But no one has been able to take
down down Mullins Rebels just yet. So that that's the
short story on the Mountain West again. Just not a
year when the Mountain West has created some really crackling
and interesting storylines or set the world on fire. No,
it's been a real down year for the Mountain West.
We'll see if that changes, and we'll see if the
teams at the top of the American start stumbling perhaps
play their way out of playoff contention, and maybe that
improves UNLV's odds at the top of the Mountain West.
So stay tuned there. Stanford and cal Cal did play.
Stanford got routed by SMU. Not a whole lot to
say there. Stanford is looking for its head coaching vacancy
next season, like that's the main thing. One thing of
note with Stanford over the past week. Got a fifty
million dollar gift from a loyal donor. So that fifty
million dollar gift that's going to help Andrew Luck with
his coaching search and with Nil with various resources. So
Stanford gets a shot in the arm in terms of
its resources, a fifty million dollars gift. You don't just
see that every day on the field. Though, this is
going to be a very long year for Stanford. It
has been it will continue to be handled very easily
by ssem U in that new look and very non
Atlantic Coast matchup in suburban Dallas. We continue on the
Big Twelve had some really interesting and important games. Colorado
manages to beat Iowa State. So Iowa State lose to
Cincinnati and Colorado and that really shakes up the hierarchy
in the Big Twelve. Colorado doing it with defense. The
Buffs came ready to play, They were fired up. They
could have really sulked after the loss to TCU, and
they've been competitive, but they haven't been finishing games well.
They finished one against Iowa State, So credit to Dion
Sanders and his staff getting his guys motivated and getting
his players to forget about recent setbacks and focus on
the next game in front of them. That's a mature
win for Colorado. Can the Buffs string something together that
remains to be seen, but they showed a lot of
mental toughness against Iowa State. It's a very encouraging moment
and from a CU perspective, hopefully a growth point for
the road ahead for that team going into the second
half of the college football season. Utah Arizona State two teams.
We ready to cover here and get off my pilon.
Not a whole lot to stay here. Arizona State without
quarterback Sam Levitt figured to be a disaster. It was
Arizona State no chance. Utah swarms the Sun Devils in
Salt Lake City and a game that used to be
a Pac twelve game now it's a Big twelve game.
But without Sam Levitt. Let's remember Arizona State's been barely
scraping by without camp Scatabo won a twenty seven to
twenty four game against Baylor, won a twenty seven to
twenty four game against TCU, and TCU doesn't look very
good and Baylor doesn't look very good. Arizona State is
just playing to the level of what is basically mediocre
average competition in the Big Twelve with Sam Levitt. So
you take Levitt out of their Sun Devils did not
have a shot not at all in Salt Lake City
that it figured to be a Utah romp on paper,
and this time what seemed to be the likelihood on
paper turned into reality. So the theory and the reality
converge and we're on the same trajectory in Salt Lake City,
Utah with a very easy win. So let's see if
Utah builds off that. You know, Utah crushed UCLA earlier
in the year. Obviously that was a totally different UCLA team.
We're gonna have more on the bruins and just a
bit it. Utah sometimes looks really really good, but against
the caliber of opposition, you know, that's really the limiting factor.
Ucle was terrible in Week one against Utah, very different
team from the ucil A team we're seeing now. And
then Utah beating Arizona State without Sam Levitt like that
is not anything especially impressive, Like a decent team should
absolutely clobber Arizona State without its quality starting quarterbacks. So
Utah did what was expected, no more, no less. But
you know, give the Utes credit for taking care of
business easily, like that's what they were supposed to do.
But is it especially impressive? Does it change anyone's mind
about Utah. No, we need to see the Utes beat
good teams that have their starting quarterback, and we need
to see Utah win at the top tier of the
Big Twelve, which now has Texas Tech and Cincinnati as
two of its three remaining unbeaten teams. The third unbeaten
team is where we're going to go next. BYU Arizona.
This was an interesting game. Arizona carried the play most
of the way and led by ten in the second half,
led by seven very late. BYU is able to tie
it in the final moments of regulation, send the game
into overtime and win. And BYUS is that team. There's
always at least one team in college football that does this.
By used the team that scrambles late to salvage games.
BYU was behind Colorado for a good portion of that
game a few weeks ago in Boulder on the road,
managed to dig it out. BYU trailing most of this
game in Tucson on the road, managed to dig it out.
So you know, BYU is not dominating. Bear Bachmeier is
a young quarterback. He's making his share of mistakes, but
you know this is part of being a tough team
when you make a mental mistake, you rebound from it,
you have the short memory, you move on to the
next play, the next drive. BYU is doing that. It's
impressive in its own way. It's not dominant, it's not overwhelming,
but BYU able to cross the finish line. And then
on the other side of this Brent Brennan in Arizona
really damaging loss. I mean, it probably knocks them out
of the running for the Big Twelve championship. I know
we have several weeks left, but it's not just that
Arizona loses a game to BYU and the standings and
loses the head to head. So BYU is unbeaten. Arizona
has multiple Big Twelve losses. But you add the head
to head BYU essentially gained two games, not one game,
but two against Arizona. There's the one game in the standings,
but then also having the head to head tiebreaker. Those
tie breakers in the Big Twelve they mattered last year,
they figured to matter this here. So Arizona probably eliminated
itself from Big Twelve contention, not technically, of course, not mathematically.
There's still half a season left to play. Maybe there's
going to be some incredible plot twists. But the climb
is going to be hard, right, It's going to be
very difficult for Arizona to jump over both BYU and
Texas Tech. You know, and maybe Cincinnati stays in the hunt,
but you know, how does how does Arizona jump past
both BYU and it loses the tiebreaker there? And also
a Texas Tech team which looks like the class of
the Big twelve so far this season, really really damaging
loss for Arizona. And Arizona under Brent Brennan has been
the kind of team that you know is always one
or two plays away. And I say this, you know
all the time, I've said it with Lincoln Riley and
USC football is ferocious, cutthroat competition. You games generally are
going to be close. They generally are going to go
down to the final minutes of the fourth quarter, and
the good teams regularly, not always, but regularly, far more
often than not, are going to come out on the
positive side of that. And so for Arizona, you can't
just say, well, we're one or two plays away. Welcome
to college football, right, that is elite competition. You're going
up against a similarly talented opponent, a game is likely
to be close, especially in the parody filled Big Twelve.
I mean that is a pig skin parody paradise. You're
going to be playing close games more often than not.
Saying you're one or two plays away. That is the
lament of a loser. You gotta get over the finish line,
and BIU is just a lot better at doing that
than Arizona is. So that was a big swing and
the Big Twelve standings. If Arizona had won, then Texas
Tech and Cincinnati would have been tied for the top
two spots. BYU would have been pushed down into the
chasing pack and Arizona would have stayed in the hunt.
But instead Arizona lets this one slip away, so BYU
stays at the top with Texas Tech and Cincinnati. Arizona
essentially out, not technically, but essentially out. And you know,
if Utah beating Arizona State as well, the Big twelve
middle just got a lot fatter and more cluttered. So
just Big twelve roller derby every week. It's hard to
predict which way the ball is gonna bounce unless you
have something like a Sam Levitt injury. Of course, like
BYU Arizona. You know, Byu' going and favored, but Arizona
was the better team for three quarters. But BYU steals
it late. Arizona just can't finish, and so we have
a major change in the Big Twelve. It could have
been far more uncertain. But now we know that Areas
Zona is not really a serious player, and we know
that BYU is very likely to be in the mix
for the Big Twelve championship game. Now, whether you want
to make BYU the favorite, I'm not sure, Texas Tech
probably would be the most obvious choice. But you know
BYU and Cincinnati, you know, one of those two has
a decent chance of facing Texas Tech for a conference
title in a spot in the College Football playoff. Let's
hit on the two pack very briefly. Oregon State fires
Trent Bray. Uh. You know, after failing to win a
game through week seven, Oregon State gets clobbered by wake Forest.
And wake Forest is not terrible, but Wake Forest is
also not especially good news. By twenty five to wake Forest. Yeah,
that that just that was enough for Oregon State administrators.
And now, you know, let's remember Trent Bray stayed at OSU.
He did not follow Jonathan Smith, former Beaver coach to
East Lansing and Michigan State. He wanted to see what
he could do if the Orenton State program. Oregon State
might do well to hire Jonathan Smith because he's completely
failing at Michigan State. The Spartans and their fans are restless.
We're going to talk about that Michigan State UCLA game
in a bit, but Oregon State could certainly do a
lot worse than just say, hey, Jonathan Smith, come back. Now.
There were a lot of hard feelings, a lot of
bruised egos there. Maybe this divorce could be patched up
and we could have a second marriage, but that remains
to be seen in Corvallis. But Oregon State starting over
Trent Bray just did not work out as Jonathan Smith's successor.
Washington State was a This was a shocker. I mean,
Washington State doesn't win, but it took ole Miss down
to the wire. Ole Miss pretty clearly looking ahead to Georgia.
But even then, even if you're looking ahead to George
you would think that ole Miss would have at least
gotten it together for like a half or even twenty
minutes and beaten Washington State by like seventeen. Nope, it
went down to the wire. Ole Miss barely hangs on
for a three point win over Washington State. The line
at kickoff was thirty three and a half, might have
been thirty two and a half in some places, but
you know, Ole Miss minus the huge spread was a
popular pick. Washington State gets on top of that game
early and Ole Miss was never really able to pull away.
Washington State stayed close virtually the whole contest and was
in it to the end, nearly pulls off the upset.
It's going to be really interesting to see what Washington
State does in the second half of the season on
the heels of this. You know, Washington State got bombed
by North Texas by forty nine points earlier in the season,
So the Cougars have really improved substantially. They have figured
some things out after taking their lumps early in the season.
Can they really become a legitimately good team. We'll find
out in the second half of the season. So Washington
State definitely headed upward. It's very different from Oregon State,
which you know, lost some close games and then the
bottom just fell out. Team has lost faith, it's lost heart.
Washington State with the exact opposite response to some really
rough and ugly results earlier in the season. The cougar's
pointing in the right direction. All right, So we've covered
Mountain West, the ACC basically, the Bay Area schools, the
Big Twelve, and the two pack of the two teams
in the Pacific Northwest. So now we come to the
featured part of our show. As is usually the case,
like in Western college football, the real action, the big stories.
They're happening with the West Coast schools in the Big Ten,
So we have a lot to cover. Washington over Rutgers
that was the least eventful of the four Big Ten
teams from the West Coast schools. Washington handling Rutgers at
home on Friday night, no problem. Washington now moves on
to bigger challenges ahead. It's gonna be interesting to see
what Jed Fish and his Huskies do. Now to the
three main featured items. So one is UCLA going into
East Lansing and absolutely blowing the doors off Michigan State
thirty eight thirteen mentioned Jonathan Smith earlier. Michigan State fans
want him out, like the Michigan State fans are fed up,
like they've reached the end of the line with Jonathan Smith.
They don't see how this gets salvaged. One of the
key reasons if you watch this game on Saturday, early
afternoon or late morning, paying on where you are in
the country. Aiden Chiles was supposed to be this really dynamic, electric,
high upside quarterback. He's bad. He's just not reading the game.
He's just not processing plays. I know he got injured
midway through that game, but like, he was not good
in the first quarter. He was not good when he
was playing. He overthrew a very, very wide open receiver
early that seemed to set the tone. Never found rhythm.
UCLA's defense, folks, is not good. It's not a good defense. Now,
UCLA's offense looks like the real deal, and putting up
thirty eight points on the road in a body clock game.
You know this was a nine am Pacific time start.
Ucla ready to play after a sluggish first drive, like
the Bruins just you know, got things into gear on
their second possession of the game and never really looked back.
That offense is humming. But UCLA's defense, trust me, I
followed his team pretty closely. This defense is not very strong.
It's a commentary on the sad state of Michigan State
that the Spartans scored just thirteen points one of those
two touchdowns as they missed a conversion. One of those
two touchdowns was in garbage time. So basically, Michigan State
with one score, one meaningful or relevant score against UCLA's defense,
Michigan State is probably the next to worst team in
the Big Ten eighteen schools. I would put Michigan State
at number seventeen. Wisconsin and Luke Fickle the only team
worse right now than Michigan State. Like Purdue is clearly
better than Michigan State. Purdue is not great, but Purdue
is clearly better than Michigan State. If those two teams played,
would race to take Purdue in that matchup. So UCLA's
win is part of a really fascinating emerging story in
the Big Ten where you know, if you lose to
UCLA or Northwestern, your coach gets fired or is about
to get fired. You know, UCLA beats Penn State, then
Penn State loses to Northwestern, James Franklin's out like there's
just no patients, there's no tolerance. I'm not saying the
lack of patients is bad. I'm just noting the lack
of patients. UCLA's created a snowball effect that got James
Franklin fired at Penn State, and now UCLA might get
Jonathan Smith fired the You know, I am the editor
at Spartan's Wire. I also help out with UCLA Wire,
and so I'm aware of the other Big ten college
wire sites. That's part of the USA Today Network umbrella
with the Gannett Corporation. So I'm following what Spartans Wire
is saying about UCLA and about that game. And let
me tell you, Spartan's Wire is publishing buyout numbers for
Jonathan Smith. They're they're releasing candidate lists. One former Michigan
State star football player said, hey, hired James Franklin now
that he's available. So Michigan State in full tumb moult.
And it's just really interesting that this tumult is being
brought about by UCLA being a wrecking ball. If UCLA
hammers you, your coach is on the hot seat. That's
that's a two week streak of UCLA putting another Big
ten program into crisis mode. So that that's one really
interesting part of the Ucla Michigan State story. Here's the
other part. So UCLA's win over Penn State was not
a one hit wonder, and UCLA interim head coach Tim
Skipper talked all week emphasizing this theme. We don't want
to be one hit wonders. Let's carry what we did
from Penn State take it into East Lansley and Michigan State.
So UCLA obviously does the job. And and so you know,
Ucla showed that it could indeed carry one good week
to the next. So like this transformation, how real it is?
You know, we're gonna find out pretty soon. Ucile hosts
Maryland this coming weekend, and then the week after that,
on October twenty fifth, goes to Indiana to play Kurt Signetty.
Obviously we're gonna hit on Indiana Oregon in just a bit.
You know, I don't think Utily is nearly in the
same league as Indiana and Ohio State. I don't think
UCLA is a top tier Big ten team. But UCLA
is now playing like a bowl team. You know, Ucile
is I think playing like a six and six or
seven and five team. But of course, Deshaun Foster and
his crew just hijacked the first four games of the season.
I know Tim Skipper coached in one of them, the
Northwestern game. But like Tim, Skipper couldn't really fix everything
right away. He had to kind of dig out of
a hole. He had to adjust his coaching staff because
of the damage done by Deshaun Foster with those four
early losses. I credit all four losses to Foster, even
though Skipper was there for the fourth one in that series.
Because of all that damage, it's going to be hard
for UCLA to get to a bowl game, right because
they still have those four losses. Indiana and Ohio State
are virtually certain losses. Even with all of UCLA's improvements, right,
it's going to be hard for UCLA to beat two
teams that are in the top three of the country,
both on the road. UCLA has to run the table
basically against all the non Indiana, non Ohio State opponents
to get to a bowl game, and that's going to
be hard. Utile is going to have to be perfect
in all those other games. And I think that you know,
Nebraska is a game UCLA can win. Maryland certainly is
a game USA can win. In fact, I probably would
pick Ucla to beat Maryland at this point, Maryland with
a pretty lousy defense, so Nico, Iam Maldiava and offensive
coordinator Jerry Neuheisel should be able to shred Maryland. So
Utilia is going to pick up a couple wins and
might get to five. But Indie on the road, Ohio
State on the road, and to close the season USCU
in the coliseum. That's also going to be a heavy
lift for UCLA. So I think, like just you know,
UCLA would love to be able to find a way
to six and six, but I think the realistic outcome
is either four and eight or probably where I'd ultimately land.
I think this we're looking at five and seven with
this team. Ucile obviously so much better, but you know
that it just got started a little late. You know,
if it just could have if Tim Skipper and Jerry
Neuheisel have been coaching against New Mexico and Northwestern, you know,
UCLA gets those wins and the Bruins have two losses
right now instead of four, and you are looking at
a bowl team. But you know, the changes just didn't
come soon enough, and so Ucile is probably going to
still miss out on a Bowl. But now we turn
to the UCLA coaching situation. What do you do if
you're UCLA Like this is really interesting because this coaching
staff has been so good Tim Skipper, with Jerry Neuheisel
and also Kevin Coyle on the defensive side of the ball,
this coaching staff has just hit the ball out of
the park second straight week. Ustelay has done a great
job on special teams in addition to offense and defense.
Last week against Penn State, successful on sidekick. This week
against Michigan State, successful fake punt in the middle of
the field and it leads to points and it really
helped UCLA establish momentum in the first half of that
win at Michigan State. So you'll all three phases of
the ball looked good. The only thing UCLA struggled with
holding penalties, several guys just blocking on the edge, not
able to show the discipline to avoid grabbing the jersey.
It's really the only thing UCLA did wrong. Everything else
just came together very smoothly, very naturally. UCLA's movement is
just so dramatic compared to what we were seeing under
Deshaun Foster. It creates this question if you're UCLA, and
remember this is a cash strapped athletic program. Ucily is
not flush with cash. You're not getting big crowds for
home games. You have to pay the calimony, feed the
ten million dollars to the Golden Bears for you know,
leaving for the big ten. Ucile does not have, you know,
unlimited money the way Penn State does. You know, Penn
State's paying James Franklin close to fifty million and buy
out money. Obviously that's not in a lump sum that's
going to be paid out over several years. But you know,
the big hitters can pay out a lot of money
and can eat a lot of money. Ucile is not there.
So if that in mind, do you just say, hey, Tim, Jerry,
you know my coach, my coordinator. You're doing such a
great job. I'm not sure if we're gonna give you
like a five year deal or like a four year deal,
but maybe we just say right now, you know what,
you're gonna be our coaches again in twenty twenty six,
and that would be your audition for the long term job.
You do well in twenty twenty six, then we'll talk
long term deal. Then we'll talk about keeping you at
UCLA permanently. But you know, just having what I call
a one year bridge plan for Tim Skipper and Jerry
Neuheisel in twenty twenty six, you just kind of create stability.
All the players are so, you know, enthusiastic about these coaches.
You know, so you give these coaches another year to
work with their players, to work within the program, and
you see if they you know, they didn't get the
chance to start out as coaches this season, so maybe
in twenty twenty six, you and you give them the
chance to have that full runway of twelve games instead
of putting them in in late September, and you see
what they can do, and you give them an audition,
and you know what if they if they if they thrive,
then you have your coaches and you don't need to
go outside the program to look for replacements. And if
they fail, hey, you know what, you gave it a shot.
You know, these guys are popular among the players, and
I'm also among the UCLA fan base. I mean, Jerry
Neuheisel given his dad and you know his dad didn't
coach all that great at UCLA, but Rick Neuheisel won
a Rose Bowl for UCLA in nineteen eighty four against Illinois.
That was under the great Terry Donahue. So Rick Neuheisel
still has a significant place in UCLA history. It's just
as a player, not as a coach. Jerry Neuheisel is
viewed as mister Ucla. You know, he quarterbacked the Bruins
just like his dad did. You know, very popular in
the community in Westwood. So if you give Jerry Neuheisel
and Tim Skipper a shot to make it big in
twenty twenty six, does anybody really complain? Does anybody really
have a problem with that? I don't think so. And
you save a lot of money. You're not gonna give
them a megabucks deal. You would give them certainly a
notable raise, but you're not gonna be paying top dollar
relative to what you know other Big ten programs are
gonna do you know, Penn State's gonna make a run
at Matt Roll maybe possibly Kurt Signetti. The dollars for
that at Penn State are gonna dwarf greatly dwarf whatever
UCLA can offer. So maybe you give one extra year
to Jerry Neuheisels coordinator to Tim Skipper, as head coach,
you save some money, you see where you are a
year from now, and then maybe going into the twenty
twenty seven season at UCLA, you can see if you
can land a really big fish, you'll have more money
in the till and you can make a splashy higher
So that one year bridge plane. It's an interesting thought
to consider for UCLA. And one more thing about the
Bruins a reminder he still need to fire athletic director
Martin Jarmont. You know, he got this program into this mess.
You shouldn't allow an ad who got you into a
mess to then work your way out of it. He's
shown that he can't manage the football program. That still
needs to happen, and it has not at UCLA. All Right.
The other two really big games to get to from
involving West Coast teams in the Big Ten Conference USC
Hammers Michigan. Now, I did talk during last week's show
about USC not having earned the benefit of the doubt
and USC needed to prove it. So this was a
really good start. And I would say, based on what
we saw from USC that you know, in a future
home game against a decent, relatively equal opponent, Okay, USC
has earned the benefit of the doubt on that front.
But now USC goes to South Bend for Notre Dame,
and so can USC. Which Okay, you want a big
game at home, but now can you win a big
game on the road in the Midwest, where USC has
famously noticeably struggled the past couple of years under Lincoln Riley.
Has USC earned the benefit of the doubt to go
on the road to South Bend and get the job done.
That remains to be seen and we're all gonna find
out in we Gate against against the Fight and Irish.
Back to the Michigan game, though USC was missing multiple
starters on its offensive line, the Trojans without Elijah Page,
who went into the season regarded as USC's best offensive lineman,
and also starting center Killian O'Connor. He's out for an
extended period of time, So you know, missing your best
lineman and your starting center. Usually with missing two key
pieces such as those you would expect, especially against Michigan's
defensive line. For US, he's offensive line to struggle. That
did not happen, and so people across the country who
might be thinking, oh, Lincoln Riley has turned it around
or Danton Lynn, the defensive coordinator, has turned it around.
You know what, the reason USC is better this season,
it's less about Lincoln Riley, It's less about Danton Lynn.
It's more about new offensive line coach Zach Hansen. He
replaced former offensive line coach Josh Henson this season. Zach
Hanson appears to be the high level offensive line coach
that USC football desperately needed. So he's not being talked
about across the country. He's not being talked about on
national network or cable shows. But trust me, someone who
follows USC closely, that's the difference. Zach Hansen just doing
an amazing job with a beaten up, shorthanded offensive line.
He's getting the backups to play really well. USC control
the line of scrimmage against Michigan. USC was the more
physical team. Michigan has a lot of flaws, but you know,
you don't expect to just physically overpower Michigan. Yet that's
what USC was able to do. Walk On running back
King Miller just has a fabulous performance. With USC running
backs getting hurt. You know, USC lost both of its
top two running backs in this game, Eli Sanders and
Waymon Jordans Sanders likely out for the season, Jordan likely
out for the next four to six weeks. But a
walk on comes in and King Miller is good. Like
King Miller was making Michigan defenders miss in the open field.
But let's go back to the source of King Miller's
prosperity and his success. The offensive line missing two starters,
doesn't miss a beat and handles Michigan up front. That's
the story from the USC side. The word of caution
about USC, though, is that, you know what, Michigan's not
that good. Not trying to take away anything from USC,
but like this was not an elite opponent. Michigan is
a moderately good team at best and pretty pretty darn
close to average. Bryce Underwood, you know this is going
to be said a lot, so it's not my original insight,
but I certainly am going to reaffirm this point. Bryce
Underwood could be a really special player for Michigan. You
see the glimpses of the talent. He made some He
made a few really good throws in this game, but
he made them on the run. Like he's an improviser
in terms of just like the natural seventh step drop
back pro style framework, He's not comfortable yet as a
quarterback in terms of reading defenses and also he throws.
He's good at throwing the fastball, but in terms of touch,
in terms of accuracy, long way to go for Bryce
Underwood is just not going to come together right away,
and so Michigan's flaws were exposed. Sharon Moore looks out
of his depth as head coach. That's another big Ten
coaching situation to really keep an eye on. Michigan fans
are fed up with Sharon Moore. You know, I was
following this USC Michigan game closely getting a reaction from
Michigan fans as well as USC fans. Michigan fans think
Sharon Moore is just in over his head. You know,
he was handed this a job by Jim Harbaugh essentially,
and he's not ready. He's not ready. You know, Coordinator
assistant find going up to head coach Lincoln Riley and
the USC staff absolutely schooled him, and that just it's
gonna take a long time to develop Bryce Underwood. Meanwhile,
you know, what does Michigan have to offer on offense
in terms of its game plan, in terms of its structure.
You know, Michigan was just consistently outplayed in this game
by USC, and the Trojans committed two red zone turnovers.
You know, they fumbled at the ten. Jade Maiava got
picked on another red zone throw. It could have been
much worse than the final eighteen point margin. Michigan looks
like an eight and four team, maybe seven and five.
The Wolverines are a pretty ordinary team. So that that's
one reason to kind of pump the brakes on USC.
This was definitely a solid, strong, encouraging performance. Don't get
me wrong that that certainly remains part of the analysis
coming out of the Michigan game. But Michigan's not that
special and and so the so the mystery of USC
Notre Dame UH lies in just how good are these teams.
I still don't know how good USC is and I
don't know how good Notre Dame is. Notre Dame has
looked better in recent weeks, but Notre Dame just thrashed
Boise State, which is having a very difficult year. And
North Carolina State, which is, you know, a bottom rung team. UH.
In the A C C. North Carolina State lost at
home to Virginia Tech. North Carolina State's not good. So
Notre Dame hammering NC State, that doesn't tell me that much. Uh,
So we're gonna learn a ton about USC versus Notre
Dame and just to kind of deal with that game
coming up in wee eate. Uh you know, it's really
gonna be a lot of the same things that you know,
USC's defense handled Bryce Underwood CJ. Carr. Notre Dame's quarterback
represents a much better quarterback u than Bryce Underwood, so
it's going to be a much bigger challenge for the
USC defense. I am not worried about the USC offense
and its ability to score. I think you know, the
way USC's offensive line is playing, jamiov is going to
be comfortable in the pocket, and USC's running game is
still going to find answers even with top running backs out.
I mean, King Miller comes in and shows his stuff
and he's going to be fresh, like he has not
gotten many touches this season. So USC can still do
the job as long as its offensive line plays well,
and that offensive line has been consistent enough to merit
trust and Notre Dame. That defense was atrocious in September.
It has looked better, but Boise State and NC State
are not particularly strong offensive teams this year, so USC
is going to represent it much tougher challenge for Notre Dame.
It really is a game in which that you have
two suspect defenses on both sides, and they're both going
to run up against offenses which are significantly better than
what those defenses have seen in recent weeks. So I'm
expecting a shootout. I think USC is going to score
around thirty and it's going to be a matter of, uh,
you know, does USC's defense rise up and hold Notre
Dame in the mid twenties or does USC's defense get
absolutely flattened. Notre Dame scores in the forties, and I
think I think USC is going to score around thirty five,
And it's just is Notre Dame's number going to be
forty two or is it going to be twenty eight?
That that that's my outlook on USC Notre Dame. You know,
USC's defense made far fewer mistakes coming after two weeks off,
having having a break to prepare for Michigan, But you know,
Michigan did not robust League test USC in every way.
I think Notre Dame's offense is going to be a
far more difficult not to crack for the USC defense.
So like I'm not sold on USC's defense, I am
sold on the offense. The offense probably won't max out
against Notre Dame, but it's probably gonna become reasonably close.
And it really just comes down to you can can
the defense make enough timely plays get off the field
on enough third downs that Notre Dame isn't able to
dominate the ball and the clock. That's probably what's gonna
decide USC Notre Dame. I'm gonna lean toward the Irish,
but I do think USC is gonna score plenty of
points and that game is gonna be close. The line
opened at Notre Dame minus nine. By the time you
listen to this show here on Get off my Pylon,
you might see some line movement. It'll be interesting to
see just how much line movement there is for this game.
But Notre Dame minus nine with a less than great
defense against USC. I would certainly lean toward taking Notre
Dame on the money line, but USC plus nine that
might be too hard to pass up nine whole points
the Trojans are getting in South Bend. And now to
the biggest one of all on Get off my pilone
for Week seven, Oregon loses at home to Indiana. The
final score thirty to twenty a two score game. Was
Indiana really ten points better than Oregon? Yes it was,
and you take away that Fernando Mendoza interception a pick six,
you know, one really really bad mistake, like Indiana wins
by seventeen. You know, Indiana came in and established a
physical style of play, set the bar really high. Oregon
did not match that level of physicality. Indiana was better
in the trenches. Indiana controlled the way this game was played.
You know, Indiana does not try to hit home runs
in its offense. What really worked well was a short
passing game five six yards, safe easy throws for Fernando Mendoza,
grinding out first downs, moving the chains, keeping Oregon's offense
off the field. You know, the pick six by Mendoza
was when he tried to push the ball down the
field and he got greedy. The route also wasn't designed
really well. There was no one in the flat, you know,
there was nothing short. There was no safety valve for
like just a little dump off pass. And this was
third and two. This play was third and two. It
was a poorly designed play, so credit Mendoza for shrugging
off the pick six. But you know, on that subsequent
tie breaking touchdown drive, which ultimately won the game for Indiana,
the Hoosiers got back to what had been working, the
short safe passes, you know, stretching the field not vertically
but horizontally and making Oregon defend the width of the field.
And so, you know, the hope for Oregon coming into
this game was that its speed was going to overwhelm Indiana.
But you know what, Indiana kind of turned the tables
on organ by playing the game in a phone booth,
keeping plays limited in their in their scope across the field.
Indiana didn't want to stretch the field vertically like that
was not the style of game that Indiana wanted or
needed to play. It was keeping the game within like
a ten yard box. And Indiana was able to lean
on Oregon and display physical superiority so that the game
did not become a track meet. It became a fistfight
in a phone booth. So Oregon really, you know, went
up against a style of play and an opponent that
were good enough to really thwart the Ducks prevent Oregon
from doing what it really wanted to do. And so
now you know, Ohio State in Indiana are the clearcut
favorites to meet in the Big Ten championship game. So
Oregon's Big Ten title defense really on life support at
this point. Keep in mind Indiana and Ohio State they
do not play in the regular season, They're likely to
meet in December in Indianapolis. It's gonna be hard for
Oregon to find its way back to Indy for that
Big Ten title game. Now, that having been said, might
benefit Oregon to not have to play that Big Ten
title game. You know, the Ducks had to play that
game last year. That didn't do them any good going
into the to the Rose Bowl against Ohio State in
the playoff quarterfinals. So Oregon will actually play one less
game through early December. However, here's the flip side. Because
Oregon now is behind Indiana and Ohio State in the
Big Ten, what that also means is Oregon now is
in trouble in terms of being able to get a
first well first off, Oregon getting a buy in the
first round and going straight into the quarterfinals that is
extremely unlikely, So that door might not be officially closed,
but it's likely to be closed for the Ducks. They
are not likely to get that far into the playoff
just in terms of a buye. They're probably gonna be
relegated to the first round, which means that they're going
to have to win three times to get to the
national title game. They're gonna have to win four playoff
games to lift the trophy at the end of the season.
So without question, Oregon's national championship hopes took a big,
big hit with this loss. What will be really interesting
to see is can Oregon still squeeze in and get
a higher seed in the first round so that it
hosts a first round game in Eugene in Anson Stadium.
The Ducks now have zero margin for error in that regard.
If they lose one more game and they follow the
ten and two they might still get in, but they're
definitely going to be a back end seed in the playoff.
They're going to be in the nine to twelve range.
If they finished ten and two that that's pretty clear
cut at this point. So Oregon needs to finish eleven
and one. It might not get to the Big Ten
title game. But if Oregon runs the table and finishes
eleven and one while Ohio State and Indiana play in
the Big Ten championship game. Yeah, it's certainly possible that
Oregon could get one of those five through eight seeds,
which enables the Ducks to host a first round game.
That would obviously help the Ducks advance into the quarterfinals.
But that's going to be a tight window to fit
in because Indiana and Ohio State are likely to be
ranked or ranked seeded above Oregon in the Big Ten
pecking order, So it's going to limit the availability of
slots for Oregon to get a higher seed. And again
we're talking about five through eight in particular, that that's
really Oregon's goal, but Oregon now has zero margin for
air in that regard. Oregon will not be a top
eight seed if it if it loses another game, Oregon
has to finish eleven and one to get a top
eight seed. It's really interesting as we move away from
the playoff discussion and back to, you know, an evaluation
of Oregon's quality. You know that that went over Penn State.
It looks so different now, doesn't it. You know, last
week I briefly brought that up that you know, Penn
State lost to Ucla. Maybe the Organ's win over Penn
State doesn't look you know, as good. And I tried to,
you know, say, you know, that's still a good win,
but you know, I'm gonna down great at a little
bit because of Penn State's lost to Ucla. Well what
about now, Obviously, Drew Auer got injured, he's out for
the season against Northwestern. But even when Drew Hour was
playing before he got injured in that Northwestern game, Penn
State was struggling against Northwestern at home. So Penn State
has cratered. And now that Oregon win over Penn State
looks a lot less you know, last week I said
it looked a little bit less impressive. Now it looks
a lot less impressive. And the overall quality of Oregon's
resume looks a lot less impressive. So Oregon has that
concern to deal with. And you know, Dante more he
did make some really good clutch plays under pressure against
Penn State, but we're now also seeing the limitations that
he has that you know, he hasn't played a ton
of big games, he doesn't have a ton of snaps
and reps to his credit. He was the second best
quarterback on that field, Fernando Mendoza clearly better than Dante Moore,
and so, you know, the the hope that Dante Moore
would be a rock star quarterback. That hope looked really
good and really promising after the Penn State game, but
two weeks later, very different story. It's been a real
come down to Earth moment for Oregon, and so it's
gonna be fascinating to see how this team really does adjust,
how it responds. You know, Dan Lanning has earned the
benefit of the doubted Oregon. He's done a fabulous job there.
I think he's gonna get his team motivated. I think
he's going to keep his team focused. There isn't going
to be a letdown after this loss to Indiana. But
you know, just how just how elite is Oregon speed,
just how elite is Oregon's talent. Indiana certainly was able
to out muscle Oregon, overpower Oregon, control the game and
the tempo against Oregon in Eugene, Oregon's overall quality has
certainly been thrown into question in a new way. I
think you're gonna see the right attitude, in the right
you know, mental approach from Oregon. But maybe just the
overall raw quality of this team was a little over
sold right after the Penn State game because we can
now see what Penn State actually is as a team.
Who's good and who's not in the Big Ten. That's
still a very mysterious thing and a very central storyline.
Halfway through the season. You know, I remarked on how
I don't know how good USC is. I don't think
Michigan's all that good. So really the quality of these
Big Ten teams is still a very urgent matter. We're
still trying to pin down just how good these teams
are halfway through this season. So Oregon with a big
mental challenge trying to deal with life after an unexpected
Aughtson Stadium loss. They do not happen very often. How
Oregon rebounds will be another really big storyline going into
the second half of the season. All right, So that's
our look at week seven. You know, we peaked a
head to USC Notre Dame in we Gate. You also
have just looking at wee Gate BYU and Utah in
the Big Twelve. So the Holy War and obviously that
game will will significantly affect the Big Twelve standings. That's
gonna be a really interesting game. Who knows what version
of both BYU and Utah you're gonna get, you know,
they those two teams have been all over the map.
I know BYU has not lost a Big twelve game
yet this season. But BYU played down to the level
of competition against Colorado, It played down to the level
of competition against Arizona. Well, what kind of BYU team
are we going to see against Utah? Anybody's guests, anybody's guests,
And we'll hopefully learn a lot more about BYU and
Utah coming up, just as you know, we hope to
learn more about USC against Notre Dame. We hope to
learn about a lot of these teams. You know, UNLV,
it's one of those teams where it's six and oh
halfway through the season. But do we really have any
idea how good this team is because there's been a
lot of sloppy uneven football, some bad defense at times.
You know, again, UNLV allowing forty eight to air force.
How good is UNLV? We don't know. I think it's
dishonest to say that, oh we know exactly how good
UNLV is. Actually No, And that's part of college football
in that the middle of October. I think a lot
of people want to think that they have finally grasped
how good or bad their teams really are, But it
often is the case in this sport, I've been following
it for a long time, that you don't really learn
what a team is made of until you get into November.
That sometimes the urge to immediately identify how good a
team is in late September early October, it's often the case. No,
you have to wait for a lot more ups and downs,
need to wait for the grind of the schedule to
kind of settle in, and only in early to mid
November do you really have your finger on the pulse
of a given college football team, for better or worse.
And so really, in a larger sense, after Week seven,
going into week eight, the mysteries continue for the West
Coast teams in college football, the teams that we follow
here on the Get Off My Pylon College Football podcasts.
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