Speaker 1: Checking out college football on the West Coast. This is
Get Off My Pylon, a look at the PAC twelve
and more, part of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast
podcast network.
Speaker 2: Here's your host, that Zemon. Welcome to the latest initiative,
Get Off My Pilon college football podcast. This is your host,
Matt Zemic, part of the College of Gridiron Coast to
Coast podcast network. Check out your favorite college Gridiron Coast
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Lots of interesting insights there from Jason. Where Whichever podcast
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Ron Coast to Coast college football podcasts. Here at Get
Off My Pylon, it's Western college football and the lead
story was not on a Saturday. It was on Friday.
It was Boise State against UNLV, the Group of five
game of the year, also the separator in the Mountain West.
And what's really impressive about Boise State's victory beyond, you know,
beating a good UNLV team on the road, is that
Ashton Genty did not go off. He was held under
one hundred and fifty yards rushing, which is not easy
to do. I mean, he's been making two hundred yard
games look effortless and pretty routine this season. He's still
a top tier Heisman contender. I mean, if he's not
in a top three of your Heisman list, you're doing
it wrong, all right. I realized that Travis Hunter exists,
and I realized that cam Ward exists, and those really
would be my top three. But Dyan Gabriel, please please,
he struggled early in the season. He benefits from having
a good team. Let's not turn the Heisman into the
award for you know, the quarterback on the highest ranked team,
the team that's most likely to play for the national
championship or make the semi finals. That's not what the
Heigs I'm supposed to be about doing. Gabriel should be
nowhere close. It's Travis Hunter, it's cam Ward, it's Ashton Gente,
those three in some order or another. So I'm not
saying Genti has to be first, but he should certainly
be in any one's top three. And UNLV was able
to contain him, and Boise State is able to win anyway.
Boise State won this game with defense. Boise State won
this game, you know, with with balance and its depth
and its physicality. So a very mature performance by Boise State.
It was a physical game, It was a spirited game.
It was everything that you'd want in a game, you know,
billed as a big deal. Like they both went after it.
They both traded punches, Both teams, you know, carried themselves
like as though they belonged I'm not talking about it
didn't belong against each other. They belonged on the stage
as teams worthy of competing for a big prize such
as the Mountain West title, such as the Group of
Five championship. You know, it felt like a game that
generally lived up to the hype, you know, and if
you were if you were wanting Genti to explode, well
U and OV held him in check. And yet Bois
State had the resourcefulness to win anyway. So a very
good advertisement for college football, a very good advertisement for
the Group of Five and the Mountain West, and Boise
State now takes that step forward. And you know, in
the Group of five race, it's gonna be interesting to
see how Army is able to do. And of course
you have maybe losing to Notre Dame. So you know,
Boise State, UH and Army very much at the top
of the of the list among Group of five contenders,
and it's gonna be interesting to see how things evolve
in November. But Boise State now in a very good
position to contend for the Group of five and a
college football playoff birth as we move out of the
Mountain West, it's really fascinating to see what's happening in
the Big twelve. And you know, Dion Sanders, as much
as he failed last year, he has succeeded this year.
And I was a Dion doubter. You know, I got
to own it. I gotta take the l you gotta
admit when you're wrong in this business. And I've been
flatly wrong. I was not expecting anything close to this
kind of season for Colorado. And yes, Travis Hunter definitely
a Heisman candidate. He is absolutely spectacular what he does
on both sides of the ball. You know, a significant,
high level performer two ways. Just don't see that very
often in college football. So he is special. He adds
so much to Colorado. H Shuder Sanders as well, But
you know Travis Hunter is the the more important player.
You take him away, Uh you really kneecap Colorado. I mean,
not that should Losing Sanders wouldn't matter a ton, he would,
but Travis Hunter just adds so much to the overall
puzzle for Colorado, and he's been absolutely dynamic. Colorado handles
Cincinnati to stay in the Big Twelve race. So Colorado
being in the Big twelve title race going into November
and having clinched Bowl eligibility, you know, that's a really
good season for Dion. That's that's a really good job
by coach Prime. And you know, the obvious question was,
you know, Colorado, did Calao have enough line play to
be able to uh pull its weight? And obviously true,
and I was I thought Colorad was going to get
demolished on the lines, and early in the season when
Nebraska just absolutely thrashed the Buffs, I was thinking, you
know what, yep, the preseason conventional wisdom was going to
hold up that Carrale just wasn't going to have the
line play needed to have a good team. But that
became wrong. That that has not held up. Carale has
been able to go toe to toe with some good
teams such as Kansas State, like that was a really
close game, Colorado let it late. Carral has shown some
stained power and as Colorado continues to stack wins, one
thing we have to say is, you know the Baylor game,
which really was the pivot point for the buff season.
Instead of being a lot I mean, it was a
lucky escape, but instead of being more of an indicator
of Colorado, it's turned into more of the exception for Colorado.
Like that wasn't a representative game. Carrale has gotten a
lot better since then. So instead of like that game
being you know, kind of well Caloradle should have lost,
and now you're going to see the Buffalo's get back
to losing. You know they're gonna be the mediocre team
we thought a b No Colorad used that game as
a real catapult to become something better. And so Dion
you know, used that Baylor game as a teaching point,
and he made his team better as a result of it,
instead of Colorado, you know, being full of itself and
overconfident and then regressing in the week since then. So
that that shows that Dion really has the right hold
on his locker room, on his players. And you know,
there was so much drama, there was so much soap
operatic theater in the off season. It seemed as though
Carrale was a circus. It seemed to be the portrait
of instability. It hasn't turned out to be true. So again,
I've been very, very wrong about Coloradle. I have to
own it. I have to take the l Colorado very impressive,
continuing to get better as the season goes alarm, and
that is part of a fascinating upside down story in
the Big twelve where Colorado way up Utah way down
Utah loses to Houston. It just gets worse for the Utes, who,
interestingly enough, seem to have a locker room that's as
fractured as I thought Colorado's locker room was going to be.
But instead you have Colorado being very cohesive and Utah
crumbling as this season spirals downwards. So you know, Colorado
being very good, Utah being bad? Who thought that before
the season? And John Wilner of the Wilner Hotline he
dug up notes on the preseason Big Twelve poll and
the predicted order of finish amazing stat Four of the
teams picked to be in to finish in the top
five of the Big Twelve have no more than one
conference win through October entry November. Isn't that absolutely wow?
Oklahoma State, Arizona, Utah, Kansas four teams that are just
having missed seasons, absolutely awful seasons, and they were all
picked to be in the top five. The one Big
twelve team that was picked in top five in the
preseason and has been a generally good team and has
generally lived up to preseason expectations Kansas State. The Kansas
State is not in the driver's seat. That's BYU and
Iowa State. BYU was you know, BYU was a Vegas
underdog at UCF that made no sense in BYU promptly
thrashed the Knights on the road. So the Big Twelve
has just been upside down land this year. Everything has
just been flipped upside down throughout the conference with very
few exceptions and you're seeing, you know, instead of Utah
and Arizona being at the top two of the Western teams,
two of the teams that were in the Pac twelve
last year, it's instead Colorado and BYU, those are the
two teams. So you do have a team from the
state of Utah, but it's not the Utes, it's the Cougars.
And you do have a team that's a Pac twelve
refugee rise to the top, but it's Colorado not Arizona.
So and you also have Arizona State in the mix
as well. So it's just the Big twelve has been
a wild and crazy, very unpredictable conference. It's going to
be fascinating to see what's next in the Big twelve,
including those schools in the West who are part of
the conference and the story it has written in two
thousand twenty four. As we continue on, if this look
at Western college football, we have to also include Washington State.
Washington State, you know that in part of the two
pack and part of you know, the Pac twelve that's
eventually going to be reconstituted with some Mountain West schools
starting in twenty twenty six. Washington State was down big
against San Diego State. That game seemed to be going
one way and it was not the Cougar's way, but
they get a key interception in their own third of
the field. They were trailing and San Diego State was
about to go up two scores midway through the fourth
and put the game away. But Washington State gets the interception,
drives down the field, pulls out an improbable come from
behind win over the Aztecs Washington State seven and one. So,
Jake Dicker, what what a thrill ride it has been
for the Cougars this season. And let's see what happens
for Washington State. What kind of bull bit the Cougars
can attain? Just how just how much that program can build.
I mean, it's in a very tough situation being in
limbo with you know, the PAC twelve crumbling. What what
what can Washington State achieve in terms of a bull
bit this year? But the bigger question, can Washington State
leverage this season into growth in recruiting, transfer portal and
become a more relevant national program despite its awful, you know,
bad luck in terms of the conference realignment shuffle, being
left standing holding the bag? What can Washington State leverage
out of its situation. That's gonna be a fascinating talking
point for twenty twenty five and beyond. But Washington State
seven and one, I don't think anyone had that on
their bingo card two months ago. But entering November, Washington
State with just one loss, that's a pretty neat and
remarkable story. But those fans in Pulman, after everything they
went through with the PAC twelve death and realignment and
dissolution disaster, you gotta feel good for the folks in
Polman and anyone who else who is a Washington State fan.
They've went through so much trauma and difficulty. Now they
get to savor the good life, at least on Saturdays.
So that's a real feel good, warm fuzzy story in
Western college football in twenty twenty four. All right, on
the Big Ten, you know, Oregon just does what it
does handles Illinois. Oregon's defense is just locking down on
these week Big Ten offenses. So the Ducks doing exactly
what they're supposed to do. In the Big Ten. You
have Oregon, Ohio State, and Penn State. All the top
four of the polls in Ohio State and Penn State
play this week, so that Ohio State Penn State game
winner of that puts itself in position to potentially play Oregon.
But you have eight and O Indiana Kurt Signetti beating
the Washington Huskies this past weekend. In Indiana's defense steps up.
It's always somewhat different for Indiana. That's part of the
magic of the Hoosiers. But could you imagine what would
happen if somehow it's Oregon versus Indiana for the Big
Ten title. I mean, that scenario is in play. I'm
not going to say it's likely, but it's very much
in play. How absolutely amazing would that be. It's kind
of even hard to contemplate even now, but it's just
but it's a legitimate possibility. You know. And if if
Ohio State beats Penn State, uh this this Saturday, then
you know, both Ohio State and Penn State would have
a loss in the Big Ten. Indiana is still unbeaten,
so like that would improve Indiana's odds in Ohio State
beating Penn State, Like that's certainly possible, especially if Drew
Aller cannot play for Penn State. You know, that might
be a game time decision. Indiana right there as a
potential Big ten title contender alongside Oregon. You know, what
what a new world we have, and what a what
a coaching job Kurt Signetti has done with the Hoosiers.
I know that's not the Western United States, but you
know this is we're talking about contenders with Oregon for
the playoff. And of course Indiana beat another Western team,
Washington over the weekend. So Western college football creating some
fascinating stories in a season where you know, parody is dominant.
I mean, you could reasonably compare this season with two
thousand and seven on the chaos meter, But of course
two thousand and seven still like sets the bar for
the ultimate in college football mayhem, and we do need
to see a lot more upsets of the top teams
before twenty twenty four fully rises to the two thousand
and seven standard. You remember, in two thousand and seven,
every major college football team, every team that was in
a big bowl game, with the sole exception of Kansas
that was the Mark Mangino Kansas team with Todd Reesing
at quarterback. Remember that one every major team in a
big Bowl game except for Kansas had two losses. So
we don't We still need to see a number of
unbeaten teams get kicked in the teeth to match the
two thousand and seven standard. But to twenty twenty four,
it's remarked for its parody and how many top teams
are losing, how balanced the SEC is. This is not
the Alabama and Clemson and then everyone else's dynamic that
we had really for four years twenty fifteen through twenty eighteen.
Clemson and Alabama continue to be really, really good through
twenty twenty one. We're in a very different time now.
The parody, the democratization of college football through nil in
the portal. You know a lot of people thought it
would create just an even more entrenched top tier. No,
it's actually increased parody and balance in the sport. That's
been a very welcome development. The national Championship feels very
much up for grabs. I don't think you can point
to any one team, including number one Oregon, Like Oregon
was fortunate to beat Ohio State. Remember, if Ohio State
doesn't commit that soft passing offensive passer turns County. I mean,
I can understand why it was called, but many will
say it was a TICKI tag call. If Ohio State
doesn't get flagged for that penalty, the Buck guys kick
a winning field goal at the end, at least they
have a chance to you know, would have had like
a forty three forty four yard field goal at least,
maybe even closer without that penalty, and maybe they beat Oregon.
So like Oregon is not a dominant number one. Oregon
should be number one, but Oregon is not. Like several
laps ahead of the field, there's no great team. There
are lots of very very good teams, but there's no
great team at least not yet, at least not yet.
And so that is part of the dynamic we have
in college football. So teams in the West fighting with
teams from the SEC, fighting with teams in the Midwest
and the other parts of the country for supremacy. And
in November it just feels as though everything is up
in the air. And that is a great way for
a college football season to enter the month of November.
All right, So you know, you know that with the
season now in the home stretch, boy, there's going to
be some really big games or how State Penn State
is really the big one this upcoming Saturday, Fox Big Noon.
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Speaker 3: All right, So that's another edition of Get Off My Pilon,
part of the College grid nine Coast to Coast podcast
network again on Apple wherever you use you listen to
your podcasts, and also on Twitter at Gridiron Coast.
Speaker 2: This is Matt Zemic. Thanks for listening this week. We'll
see you next week. Thanks for being a board