Speaker 1: Check it out. College football on the West Coast. This
is Get Off My Pilon, a look at the PAC
twelve and more, part of the College Gridiron Coast to
Coast podcast network. Here's your host, Matt zemon Welcil the
latest edition of Get Off My Pilon College football podcast.
This is your host, Matt Zemak Get Off My Pilon,
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After Miami Lose is to smu so the All Sports
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off my pilon covering western college football in the United States.
And at the top of the show, just want to mention, Hey,
I was looking ahead to BYU Texas Tech. You KNOWEGE
football teams look ahead. Well I got caught looking ahead
because Texas Tech had a game against Kansas State. My bad.
Will strive to do better not get our schedules incorrect
for the coming weekend. So more on that BYU Texas
Tech game coming up, But just off the top, mind
to own my mistake, make it transparent. That's what you
have to do when you make a mistake in this business.
So now we continue with our review of the past
weekend of week ten, first Saturday of November, and then
we'll get into a few previews for the coming weekend
week eleven, November eight. So let's start out in the
Mountain West. Some interesting developments. You know, it's a conference
that is almost surely not going to have the Group
of five champion. But if there is going to be
a Group of five contender, it's San Diego State. San
Diego State thumps Wyoming and the Aztecs are really making
the charge in the Mountain West. And one interesting insight
I saw over the weekend a really smart UCLA analyst,
Mark Schipper, who writes for Fifth Down College Football his
own site, he said, you know what, UCLA should give
a look at Sean Lewis. Really good take. That's a
really good insight because Sean Lewis has turned around San
Diego State. He did good work at Kent State, worked
on Dion Sanders' staff. Dion didn't have a lot of
patience for him, and hey, look at Colorado. We'll get
to the buffs in a minute, but Colorado is suffering
with Sean Lewis no longer there Sean Lewis like, this
guy seems to get it. This guy seems to understand
how to rebuild, renew a program San Diego State had
fallen on hard times. Sewn Lewis goes through a difficult
year one, but he learns the lesson. In year two
has the Aztecs contending for the Mountain Best title, also
the Group of Five title. San Diego State becoming the
emergent team in the Mountain West, and that is partly
the product of Boise State's not that good. Boise State
gets trampled at home thirty to seven by Fresno State,
one of the worst home field performances on the blue
turf that I've ever seen that I can really remember.
Hard to imagine Poise State bottoming out in one game
more than it did against Presno State. Boise State was
a very heavy favorite, was minus one thousand on the
money line going into that game, so you know, double
digit favorite and Poise State absolutely face plants. And so
Spencer Danielson the coach one year after Ashton gent leaves,
it has crumbled, the house has fallen down in Boise.
Fresno State in first year head coach Matt enz get
a really important pick me up type win. It's been
a bumpy ride for Ents in his first year after
serving on Lincoln Riley's staff at USC, but this is
a forward move development, certainly for Fresno State. Definitely something
for matt ends to build on as he tries to
establish himself at Fresno State and the other big Mountain
West development. Jason Eck the head coach at New Mexico.
His Lobos are Bowl eligible with a few weeks left
in the season, so Jason Eck definitely overachieving in Albuquerque,
and New Mexico beats a UNLV team, which you know,
this Dan Mullen team. It's a lot like Florida in that,
you know, lots of offense but terrible defense. UNLV's defense
has just been not been able to hold up over
the course of the season. You know, allowed forty eight
to Air Force. You know, managed to win the game
because you UNLV scored fifty one. But then UNLV gets
absolutely shredded by Boise State. So that same Boise State
teams that scored only seven against Fresno State was able
to score fifty nine against UNLV. That you something about
how resilient you and l v's defenses, which is to say,
not at all, not one bit. So New Mexico rising
along with San Diego State and Boise State and UNLV
who figured to be the main contenders for the Mountain West,
they are both going in the wrong direction. So noteworthy
events in the Mountain West, with San Diego State being
the one team capable of overcoming all of those teams
cluttered at the top of the American Conference for the
Group of Five championship. The College Football Playoff birth all right,
the ACC. Stanford takes it on the chin against Pitt.
Pitt one of the many teams in contention for the
ACC championship. So Pitt beat Stanford thirty five to twenty.
You know, a solid, no drama win for pat Nardozi
and Pitt was Pitt was struggling earder in the season.
Pitt had problems maintaining leads. In September early October, Pitt
has straightened things out out. Stanford could not measure up
Pick clearly the better team that was one way traffic
in Palo Alto and over in Berkeley, cal hosted Virginia
and it was a close game. And this was one
of the bad beats. You know that Scott van Pelton
Stanford Steve loved to talk about on ESPN. CAL was
covering the four and a half until a last minute
pick six. Cal was inside its own twenty throws a pick,
Virginia returns it all the way wins by ten. So
Virginia still at the top of the ACC standings. In
Georgia Tech losing Cal just you know, not quite good enough.
Cal losing to Virginia Tech in overtime. Now losing to
Virginia in a close game, and the Golden Bears they
do need to get one more win for Bowl eligibility.
Now the game against Stanford. They play Louisville this week.
Talking about the Golden Bears of Cal. But the Stanford game,
you think you fit, that's the game that's going to
help Cal achieve Bull eligibility. But it's no sure thing
with the way the Golden Bears are playing right now.
Plenty of plenty of improvement needed for Justin Wilcox. I mean,
he's going to coach this program in twenty twenty six.
But you know, Cal has been just consistently mediocre, consistently ordinary,
and you wonder when anyone in Berkeley is going to say,
you know what, we need to expect a little bit more.
But they haven't reached that point yet. But maybe next
year or in two years they'll say, you know what,
we should actually try to strive for a little bit
more at cal. So that's the Bay Area ACC report
with Calen Stanford now to the pack too, And this
was the two pack showdown this past weekend. The two
refugees left stranded on an island while USC Washington, Oregon,
and UCLA went to the Big ten and the four
corner schools went to the Big twelve, Washington State and
Oregon State. They were left on the on the deserted
island as the only two teams from the Pac twelve
as we once knew it. So they played this past
weekend and it was a shocker. And some will say,
you know what, Washington State was favored by only three
and a half. Maybe it's not that big an upset.
I was surprised. I was surprised that Oregon State won
this game because consider this, Washington State was playing good
football the past month. Washington State lost at Ole, Miss,
a playoff contender, by only three. On the road, Washington
State lost to ACC leader Virginia by only two points
on the road and led that game twenty to ten
in the fourth quarter before allowing that game to slip
away late. Washington State thumped Toledo, which is a not
terrible MAC team, but Washington State had been playing a
lot of good football. Oregon State, by contrast, did not
have a win over an FBS team this season. Beat
Lafayette from the FCS, but you know, Oregon State had
been consistently coming up short. But in this game, Oregon
State's defense holds Washington State to seven points wins ten
to seven. A really big lift for Oregon State, is it?
You know? This is the Oregon State fired coach Trent
Bray midway through the season, will be searching for a
new head coach. It'll be interesting to see if Jonathan
Smith gets fired at Michigan State and returns to Corvallis,
and if the Beavers want that, if they'll, if they'll,
you know, welcome that kind of movement. But nevertheless, certainly
a lift for those Oregon State players who have gone
through a very difficult year. They pull the upset over
Washington State, and Washington State has to feel rotten. This
was a rivalry game on the Pacific Northwest backyard Battle
and all that good work the Cougars have done over
the past month, They're not gonna really remember that after
losing in a game that they really really wanted. So
Oregon State over Washington State definitely a surprise in the
two pack. All right, moving along, let's go to the
big twelve. And boy, when you have results such as
what you saw with Arizona and Colorado, it's that's an
eye opener. You know, Arizona fifty two, Colorado seventeen in Boulder,
Boulder is cratering, or should I say the team in
Boulder is cratering. Deon Sanders coach Prime and Colorado one
year after Travis Hunter and Shoulder Sanders go to the NFL,
Colorado has plummeted. You know. It hasn't been a slight
drop off, hasn't been a moderate drop off. It's a
huge drop off. It's a dramatic fall. And given all
the health problems that Deon Sanders has had, you have
to wonder how much is he in that how much
does he want to fight to really maintain Colorado and
in this case, really build back Colorado because the Buffalos
have been atrocious, and they're actually getting worse as the
season goes on. Morale's getting worse. That that is a
that is a very alarming situation in Boulder now. Deon
Sanders' net effect on the program undeniably positive. He sold
a lot of tickets, gained a lot of publicity, and
when he had the elite players, he made Colorado nationally relevant,
a true factor in the Big Twelve. But it's all
kind of collapsing very rapidly, and Dion has to ask
himself and his family if it's worth it to kind
of stay in the fight, stay in the arena, or
maybe he needs to step away from coaching, tend to
his health a little bit, and maybe Colorado needs to
find someone who can kind of take the baton from
Dion and and make that program, you know, consistently relevant
in the Big twelve, because Colorado is certainly not relevant now.
But on the other side, it it seems clear that
Arizona has a relatively high floor. Not sure about the ceiling,
but the floor is definitely, you know, at a decent level.
And Arizona's defense is for real. That defense has been
good all season, almost beat BYU a few weeks ago,
you know b Yu at the top of the Big twelve,
which we're going to talk about in a bit. Arizona's
defense has been pretty good this season on a regular basis,
and so Brent Brennan, who you know, there are still
things he has to do in Tucson, especially on the
offensive side of the ball, but Arizona's defense week after
week more or less has been able to bring a
solid effort and definitely true against Colorado, hounding the Buffaloes
into a lot of mistakes and they that game to
snowball so that Arizona could score a thirty five point
blowout win on the road, Arizona doing better than a
lot of people expected. Speaking of doing better than a
lot of people expected, Arizona State evers of the state
was down five starters, including quarterback Sam Levitt going on
the road two ames Iowa State, and Arizona State's defense
just clamps down. Arizona State stopped each of Iowa State's
last four drives, was able to win twenty four to nineteen.
And Arizona State was you know, a clear underdog in
this game by about a touchdown, but the Sun Devil's
defense showed a lot and you know, let's remember this
Arizona State team played a bad game against Houston, ton
of penalties, lots of mistakes and as not as though
Arizona State was played a clean game against Iowa State.
There were more mistakes, there were more penalties, but the
defense was able to overcome all those miscues. So you
know this this team figured to be dead in the
water without Sam Levitt and Jeff Simms. You know, he
did commit some mistakes, but the whole Arizona State team,
especially on defense, able to work around those mistakes and
win on the road in Iowa State. And I know
we don't cover Iowa State on Get off my pylon
because it's western college football. But let's just say this
very quickly. Matt Campbell, if he wants a bigger job
this one would think it has to be now. Like
he seems to have this thing at Iowa State seems
to have run its course, it has lost steam. Might
be time for a change at Iowa State. And if
Matt Campbell wants to jump to a big ten program,
it might need to be now for him in his career.
So Arizona State with a with an unexpected win, and
it shows the resilience of this program under Kenny Dillingham.
Just when you count out Arizona State, and I was
certainly not thinking they were gonna win it in Ames
with all those starters down, especially Levitt. Just when you
think Arizona State might fade away, the Sun Devil's punchback.
It's a very admirable and oppressive thing that Kenny Dillingham
has done with the Sun Devils. Continuing our survey of
the Big Twelve and the Western teams in that conference, Utah,
Utah brings the hammer to Cincinnati. So that's Cincinnati's first
lost in the Big Twelve. And so you know, I
made the comment that Utah in its big blowout wins
earlier this season, they came against compromised opponents UCLA, compromised
because Deshaun Foster was coaching the Bruins and they were
a disaster under Foster. And then Utah beats Arizona State
without Levitt, and so you know, seeing Arizona State do
well without Levit this past weekend, that retrospectively makes Utah's
blowout of ASU look better. Now Utah beats Cincinnati and
Cincinnati having a great season playing really well for coach
Scott Saderfield. But Utah able to just trample the Bearcats
at home in Salt Lake City. So Utah might be
finding its footing and Kyle Whittingham might be really rallying
that team, getting it to play it's best football of
the season. You know, can Utah carry this to the
finish line? That's gonna be an interesting Big twelve talking
point and storyline, Like the Utes have definitely missed their
opportunities this season. Couldn't beat BYU, couldn't beat Texas Tech.
You know, they had their chances, but this was kind
of a reminder, Hey, we're still here, We're still you know,
trying to maximize our season. Let's see if Utah can
take what it did against both Colorado and especially Cincinnati,
two blowouts at home. Can the youths carry that on
the road. Can they carry that through the remainder of
the Big twelve season? And speaking of the remainder of
the Big twelve season, no bigger game than the one
we have coming up. So Texas Tech gets past Kansas State,
the game I overlooked last week on Get Off My Pylon,
And now we get to the main event and it's
college game day. By all appearances, it seems Patrick Mahomes
the Chiefs have an off week this coming weekend. Patrick
Mahomes is going to be there in Lubbock with BYU
coming to town, and you know, like this is the
moment of truth for Texas Tech. You know, if BYU
wins this game, BYU pretty much locks up a spot,
not officially, but essentially, like it would be incredibly difficult
for BYU to miss the Big Twelve Championship game if
it beats Texas Tech. So b YU would be all
but assured of one of the two spots in the
Big twelve title game, and it would leave a scramble
for the other spots Texas Tech since Natty, Let's keep
in mind, Houston lost to West Virginia in a shocker,
so that complicates the race a little bit. It certainly
helps out Texas Tech and Cincinnati as well. But you know,
if Texas Tech, you know, loses to b YU, Texas
Tech is going to be you know, well behind the Cougars,
you know, certainly behind multiple games in the standings, but
also losing the head to head to b YU. So basically,
if Texas Tech loses here, it's not going to catch
b YU in the remainder of the season. It would
be a Texas Tech Cincinnati battle with Houston and Arizona
State still in the mix. But like if Texas Tech
wants to make the playoff non negotiable, Red Raiders need
to win this game to stay in the hunt, and
b YU is it has the upper hand and BYU
can kind of put it away, locking up a spot
in the Big Twelve Championship Game and taking that next
step toward a playoff berth. So everything on the line
for BYU and Texas Tech. BYU from a position of strength,
Texas Tech needing to even the score and perhaps set
the stage for a BYU Tech rematch one month from
now in Arlington, Jerry World. That's where the Big twelve
Championship Game is, of course played. So as we dig
into BYU Texas Tech, with's just preview that game. We'll
get to the Big ten schools in a bit. But
as we preview BYU Texas Tech. One thing we've been
talking about with BYU all season, the second half rallies
BYU fell behind by double digits to Colorado, to Arizona
to Iowa State, all on the road came back no
problem able to overcome each of those deficits. And the
other point related to BYU's uncanny ability to rally UH
in second halves is that you know, Jake Reetzlof, you know,
if it got into off field trouble, he leaves, he
goes to Tulane in the transfer portal and by the way,
Tulane got its butt kicked by Utsa. So Tulane is
not Maxie now under Rehetslof that this season, but BYU
had to scramble to find its QB one when Reetslof
went off to Tulane and bear Bachmeier, a true freshman
has just been nails, he's been money, he's been clutched.
And so as we go into Lubbock, where you know,
you know the crowd is going to be really fired
up for that, for that game day crowd and that
game day environment, UH can BYU not fall behind by ten?
You know BYU's playing been playing with fire, falling behind
by double digits in first halves midway through games. Given
how frenzied the crowd is likely to be in Lubbock,
it's hard to think that BYU can once again get
behind and rally not to say it's impossible. B why
you could certainly do it again, but boy to to
continue going down that road, it's just inviting trouble. So
BYU needs to at least not necessarily get on top
of this game, but it needs to manage the first
half and be relatively even at halftime. And you know
the crowd, which you know is gonna be vociferous and feisty.
Take the crowd out of the game early, you know,
kind of create a little bit of a more quiet,
settled scene in in what in in Texas, and and
manage the game a little bit better than what we've
seen from BYU in previous weeks. You just can't expect
to be coming from behind every single time on the road.
It's bound to catch up with BYU if it happens again.
And then bear Bachmeyer, you know, this is his big
spotlight moment. And not to say that his other games
haven't been hugely impressive. They have been, but like the
whole nation wasn't focused on that Iowa State game, the
whole nation wasn't focused on those Colorado or Arizona games.
Now you get the major media spotlight, and so can
the true freshman in a high stakes game with everyone watching.
Can he show the same playmaking ability, the same knack
for making important plays and important moments that he's been
doing all season long and especially over the past month.
So true freshman on the road in a spotlight game
in November. That's the epicenter of this game. BYU's defense
against the Texas Tech offense. You know, I wouldn't really
expect BYU to either completely dominate or be completely dominated
by Texas Tech. And you know their Texas Tech has
had injuries at the quarterback position, so you haven't gotten
a maximum of results each and every week. It's been
a little bit up and down for the Red Raiders
this season. So you know, Texas Tech might score in
the mid to upper twenties. I don't have a strong
feel for this. I don't think Texas Tech is going
to go absolutely wild. I don't think Texas Tech is
going to get completely smothered either. It's probably going to
be somewhere in the middle. I think at all rests
on whether BYU's offense is up to the challenge. You know,
put up a big number BYU wins, get hammered, BYU loses.
Bear Bachmeyer playing a clean game BYU wins bar Bachmeyer
playing a ragged game and getting rattled by Texas Tech's defense,
BYU almost certain to lose. So I really think this
game heavily leans toward the matchup between the BYU offense
and the Tech Texas Tech defense. You know, clean knockout,
clean result will likely to decide the game. And if
it's kind of a draw, then maybe you can devote
more of a focus to the Texas Tech offense versus
the BYU defense. I think Texas Tech's offense will do okay.
I think really the pendulum swing is going to be
whether BYU's offense really nails it or gets really nailed
That is likely to decide the outcome of BYU Texas Tech.
With the Big Twelve championship game leverage very much on
the line in Lubbock. All right, Now we go to
the Big Ten on the West Coast schools in the
Big Ten Conference. So UCLA had the previous week off
and UCLA's gonna face Nebraska next. Nebraska watches Dylan Reola
get injured and as we learned after the USC game,
knocked out for the rest of the season. So that's
a big bummer. For Nebraska, it obviously gives UCLA a
golden opportunity to win this game and maybe get to
a bowl game. UCLA is going to need to beat
Nebraska and Washington and USC. Bruins are not going to
beat Ohio State in Columbus. We can just we can
take that one for granted, I think. But UCLA now
with a really good chance to beat Nebraska, and then
if it can also beat Washington USC, the Bruins will
go to a bowl game. So this at least gives
ucle A path Now. As for the Nebraska USC game,
so the Rayola injury had a large influence on the outcome.
Nebraska was up fourteen to six with Rayola in there,
and Roola wasn't amazing, but he was fundamentally competent, Like
he could throw ten to twelve yard passes down the field.
Nebraska was able to mix run and pass. So scoring
fourteen points in the first half, you think, all right,
if Nebraska can score in the mid twenties for the game,
has a good chance of winning. And of course USC
finished with twenty one points, so yes, if Nebraska had
scored twenty four twenty seven probably would have won. But
when Nebraska went out, the Huskers had to go to
their backup TJ Latif, interestingly enough a Los Angeles native,
but he's playing in the Midwest against USC and he
was just not up to it. Latif could not throw
the ball. Nebraska became one dimensional, and Matt Ruhle made
a very questionable, I would say even dubious decision to
kick a fifty two yard field goal instead of going
for it on fourth and one when he was up
fourteen to six midway through the third quarter. Not going
for it sent a message, you know what, I don't
trust my offensive line. I don't trust my team. The
kick was missed. USC instantly goes down, gets a touchdown,
a tying two point conversion, and the momentum of the
game was pretty steadily in USC's favor or down the stretch,
the Trojans do just enough to win that game twenty
one seventeen. Nebraska covers, but us He gets the result
it needed to keep its season alive. Us He is
still alive for the College football playoff. USC has just
two losses, so if USC can run the table in November,
I don't think it's very likely at all, but USC
at least is still in the hunt. So I mean
the US he still has something to play for, still
has meaningful games as a result of surviving Nebraska. Now,
as much as it's a good thing for USC that
it's still playing meaningful football and that its season is
not essentially over, we also have to realize that, you
know what, us, he still doesn't look really good. USC
does not look anywhere particularly close to elite. You know,
if Dylan Raola does not get hurt US, he probably loses.
The Trojans were undisciplined, drop passes, penalties, They were soft
at times in the first quarter. Nebraska punched them in
the mouth early. This is just not a standard that
USC football fans should feel is what's acceptable. And you know,
the Trojans got lucky. Now, they made the most of
their luck, and credit to them for not completely capitulating
and showing some toughness and being able to knuckle down
on defense and get the job done in the second half.
But like, this is not going to cut it for
USC when it goes to Oregon later this season. No
way that USC can play that level of football what
it showed against Nebraska and think this is going to
hold up against Dan Lanning in Eugene a few weeks
from now. It's just it's just not going to get
the job done. And one thing that's worth noting about
USC football on a broader level. In a larger context,
USC and the Miami Hurricanes are very similar because USC
has not played Ohio State or Indiana yet as a
Big Ten football member, didn't play either of those teams
last year, isn't playing either of those teams on the
schedule this year. So USC is going to have to
play Ohio State in Indiana next year. The Big Ten
schedule is going to get tougher, not easier for the Trojans.
Trojans have had favorable Big Ten schedule rotations last year
and this year, and then so next year and in
twenty twenty seven, those schedule rotations become tougher, and so
if USC can't get to the playoff now, it's not
going to get easier in the future. And a lot
of people will say, well, but USC has a top
rank recruiting class for twenty twenty six, but hey, those
are freshmen. You know, freshmen aren't just going to come
in en Moss as a group and immediately lighted up.
Now that you know the overall depth and quality of
USC will be better, but that's going to be counterbalanced
by the tougher Big Ten schedule. So the comparison with
Miami is this. You know, Miami is watching Clemson and
Florida State step on a rake and trip over their shoelaces.
Clemson and Florida State aren't good. Miami should be dominating
the ACC and Miami should definitely be getting the college
football playoff birth from the ACC with all of its
nil investments with these high end quarterbacks cam Ward last year,
Carson Beck this year. If Miami can't make the playoff now,
it's gonna get harder in the future. So that's the
parallel with USC. If USC can't make the playoff now,
it's going to be harder in the future. So USC
beats Nebraska and that's good, but in the bigger picture,
the Trojans do not look like a playoff team this year,
and the road is only going to get tougher. And
so you know, if I'm Lincoln Riley, do I want
to stick it out at USC improve a point that
I can make it on the West coast, or do
I consider the Florida or LSU job, maybe even the
Auburn job, Like there's gonna be so many interesting jobs
for coaches to look at. If I'm Lincoln Riley, do
I want to be in LA where you know, I've
never culturally fit in. Or maybe this is the time
for me to go to the SEC and prove a
point to Oklahoma and everyone else, and maybe it just
might be a more natural fit for me, my family
and what I want to do with my football career now. No,
Lincoln Riley has said I don't want to be a
football lifer. I don't want to do this for several decades.
I don't want to do it forever. And maybe USC
is where he wants to plan his flag and like
you know, for better or worse, that's where I'm gonna
finish things off for my coaching career. But I think
we're at a point where four years into his USC tenure,
right this could be a jumping off point. I'm not
prey that it will. I mean, if you ask me
right now, I would say Lincoln Riley will coach USC
in twenty twenty six. But I will say this, if
there is a time to jump ship, if there is
a time for a move, this would be it. Because
of the quality of jobs open in the carousel. Uh.
And also on the other side of this, uh, usc
USC not maxing out and not making the College Football Playoff.
Does Lincoln Riley want to continue to swim and a
sea of mediocrity at USC? Or does he want to
see what he can do in the Southeastern Conference? You know,
and he never did coach there. He coached at Oklahoma
while the Sooners were still in the Big Twelve. If
Riley wants that taste of SEC football, you know, go
to LSU where you have, you know, amazing resources. Go
to Florida where you have top tier resources. It's certainly
something for Lincoln Riley to consider in the coaching keros.
But my my prediction is he will. He will stay
at USC for twenty twenty six. But I'm just saying,
if i'm if I am in his shoes, I would
give some thought to the elite SEC jobs in the
coaching carousel. All right, So Oregon did not play and
the Ducks go to Iowa in a very interesting game.
So let's uh, let's preview that one going into Week eleven. Yeah, Iowa.
Mark Gronowski not a particularly good passing quarterback, very limited.
On paper, Oregon should win this game, and should win
it frankly with some degree of comfort. Iowa struggled with
a bad Penn State team, you know, a team that
doesn't have Drew Hour at quarterback. Penn State was leading
for much of that game before Iowa scrambled late to
win it. But on the other hand, you know, Iowa
did give Indiana and Kurt Signetti a real battle. That
was a twenty to fifteen game, a five point game.
It was close throughout. Indiana's offense could not solve Iowa's defense,
so that game could potentially be thorny. And one thing
we have to consider. You know, Oregon's offense has not
been particularly good. And Dante Moore, who you know, in
that game at Penn State over a month ago, the
whole nation was watching and we thought Penn State was
an elite team at the time. And so I'm not
gonna say no, Dante Moore wasn't good in that game.
He was. He was good. So I'm not walking that back.
I'm not changing my opinion of that. But we can
all see with the passage of time that Penn State
wasn't as good as previously advertised. Obviously, Penn State lost
morale after that Oregon game became a lot less than
what we thought Penn State was going to be. But
with Dante Moore, that good performance against Penn State, it
has not translated into skyrocketing confidence. It has not translated
into consistently great results. Oregon's offense was ordinary against Indiana
at home. It was below average at home against Wisconsin.
So we do have to have a Dante More conversation.
We do have to have a conversation about the quality,
the staying power, and the baseline consistency of this Oregon offense.
Oregon defense is fine. Oregon defense smothered Wisconsin. That defense
has been good all year. I mean, it didn't play
an amazing game against Indiana, but it got up pick six,
kept the Ducks in that game. Duck offense got absolutely
grounded by Indiana's defense, But Oregon's defense was decent in
that game. I would say, certainly not spectacular, certainly not extraordinary,
but fine, like that should have been good enough to win.
That was a thirty to twenty game. And if you
include Oregon getting the pick six and you deduct that
from Indiana's thirty point total, Oregon's defense allowed a net
of twenty three points to Indiana. So for a home
game in Austin Stadium, big time battle. If you allow
a net of twenty three points in your Oregon, you
should expect to win. You should be scoring thirty you
should be scoring thirty five. But Indiana's defense dominated Oregon's offense.
So the Oregon's defense definitely, you know, a solid reliable
part of Dan Lanning's team his twenty twenty five roster.
It's all about the O with the U of O.
Oregon needs its off fence to be steady, to be reliable,
to not get bogged down. You know, and and and
you know Indiana was able to play that game against
Oregon's offense in a phone booth. And that that refers
to the general notion of shrinking the the extent of
the field and where the action is. You know, Oregon
wants to get outside the boundary. Oregon wants to be
making splash plays in open space. But Indiana was able
to cave the pocket, was able to crowd the line
of scrimmage, and it was able to just dominate you know,
the tackle box and the areas near the line of scrimmage,
and Oregon really couldn't get out of that trap. Oregon
couldn't make the game attract me. Oregon couldn't make the
game such that Indiana had had to defend the whole
width and length of the field. No, Indiana was able
to shrink the theater of activity to the tackle box
in between the hashes, and Oregon could not get unstuck.
So it's going to be the task for Oregon's offense
to do precisely that, to get unstuck, to get outside,
to be making more vertical plays, and to not have
the game be reduced to a much smaller area of
the field. That's going to be really important for Oregon's
offense as it goes to Iowa. Oregon's defense should be
able to keep Iowa's offense on lockdown. But that's where
the Ducks have a substantial advantage. It's not slight, it's massive, frankly,
but that this game could become uncomfortable for Oregon if
this offense cannot get going, if this offense cannot use
the off week, you know, two weeks of preparation to
fix a lot of things to get better performance from
its offensive line, which has not been dynamic. You know,
Dan Lanning and Oregon have counted on their offensive line
to keep their quarterback clean. That offensive line got outplayed
by Indiana's superb defen defensive front. So the Oregon offensive
line really is the number one key to this game
at Iowa. It's going to be a CBS game. Kinnick
is going to be electric, and we will see if
Oregon is ready to kind of reassert itself. You know,
Ohio State and Indiana, and I know Noah Drury is
going to talk more about this on his Big ten
Paradigm show, part of the College Grider and Coast to
Coast family of shows. You know, he's focused on those
Midwestern teams. But just very briefly, Oregon has really slipped
well behind Ohio State in Indiana. You know, there's really
a top two. It's not a top three, it's really
a top two. And then Oregon is in a very
separate basket, kind of all by itself in third. And
then there's a huge jumble of teams, you know, four
through eight, four through nine, USC, Iowa, Washington. You know
who's really good from that group we don't really know.
But Oregon has fallen well behind Ohio State in Indiana.
So this is a time for Oregon to really re
establish itself as you know what, we are part of
the top three, it's not a top two, and Oregon
a million miles away in third place. No Oregon deserves
to be talked about in the same breath as Ohio
State in Indiana. That's partly what this game is about.
It's also a matter of Oregon maintaining its solid playoff position.
You know, if Oregon loses this game, here's what that means.
It means that you will have Oregon, USC and Washington
all with two losses, and Oregon plays USC and Washington
later this month. So Oregon would have to win each
of those games to get into the playoff. Oregon loses leverage,
it loses margin for air if it falls to Iowa.
But if Oregon wins, then everything remains on course for
the Ducks. They would definitely be on schedule by any
reasonable estimation if they're able to win at Iowa. So
that is our look at western college football teams in
the United States for another week, and so BYU Texas, Tech, Oregon,
Iowa the really big games this upcoming weekend. You do
have Washington at Wisconsin, you have UCLA Nebraska, but you
know those games aren't nearly as sexy or as hugely
significant as Oregon at Iowa and BYU at Texas Tech.
We're going to learn a lot about the Big ten
playoff picture and the big twelve championship game race connected
to the playoff after this upcoming weekend on November eighth,
So it's getting more intense. And of course, you know,
we record this show early in the week, so we
don't yet have College Football Playoff official rankings release. That's
a two day night thing, so this is being released
before the Tuesday night playoff reveal. So as we go
along in November here on Get Off My Pilon, we'll
kick around the playoff details a little bit more as
we get near the home stretch of the season. Yes,
it's already November, so there will be a lot more
to talk about next week, not just with conference races
in reviewing games and previewing games, but also taking a
look at how Western football teams fit into the twelve
team playoff picture. So Get Off My Pilon. A College
Gridron Coast to Coast podcast presentation. Follow College Grid Aron
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College grid Down Coast to Coast podcast network. This is
Matt Zemek. We will see you and talk to you
next week.