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.
Speaker 2: Here's your host, that Zimma. Welcome to the latest edition
of you Get Off My Pilon college football podcast. This
is your host, Matt Bemmick. This episode brought to you
by the College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast Network. Every
week during the college football season, Get Off My Pylon,
focusing on western college football in the United States. To
find out more about College Gridiron, Coast to Coast and
all of the different college football podcasts that originate from
the College Gridiron Coast to Coast Channel and podcast Family,
go to Apple and the other places where you listen
to your podcasts. You get all the different podcasts such
as Jason Powers, Florda Football Insiders podcast, the All Sports
Discussion ACC podcast, which has a lot to talk about
after Miami's loss. Well, heck, Florida Football Insiders from Jason
Powers that also was going to talk about the Miami loss.
So really the ACC and Florida Football Insiders both have
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you want to go to Gridiron Coast. You can find
the links to the various college Gridirn Coast to Coast
podcasts there on social media as well. So in our
survey of western college football, we have to start with
the Holy War, right the Beehive State BYU versus Utah.
It was as contentious as most people expected. Yes, Utah
has been having a miserable season and BYU was unbeaten,
but right, you throw out the records when rivals play,
and you also knew, hey, this is Kyle Whittingham, this
is Morgan's galley, like they would have a plan for
BYU's offense. Utah was going to bring everything it had
to this game, and certainly on defense it did. Now,
on offense, a really interesting story for the youths because
you know, in the first half they actually were pretty good.
They scored twenty one points in the first half. You
would think that Utah was at least going to score
something in the second half, but it did, and really
that's where the game was decided. And we're going to
talk about the penalty at the end of the game,
but we have to start with Utah not scoring one
point in the entire second half, and Utah did get
very conservative with the play selection. Obviously, BYU had just
one time out in the third quarter, so you know
it was there. It was there for Utah to shorten
the game BYU not being able to have timeouts. It
was there for Utah to win the game late with
BYU having only one time out. But the youth just
couldn't get first downs, not even points. Now, if they
had just gotten the field goal in the second half,
it would have been enough, but they couldn't even get
late first downs. So much to talk about in terms
of Utah's offense, because you know, Isaac Wilson had been
the backup to Cam Rising, cam Rising obviously being hurt
and unable to play for much of the year. But
in comes Brandon Rose at quarterback in this game, and
he played a solid first half. And so like that
goes to Kyle Whittingham and his staff. They didn't have
the right backup quarterback for most of the season, because
you have if Brandon Rose plays anything close to how
he played in the first half against UYU, and you
apply that to the season and the games that Isaac
Wilson played, Utah certainly has at least one more win,
if not two or three more wins. So the Utah
coaching staff got that one wrong. But then we have
to deal with the play selection. And obviously Andy Levwig
no longer the offensive coordinator, so you're talking about an
interim Mike pajakion in in an interim capacity calling place,
so like you don't have your ideal shot Pollar here. Nevertheless,
Brandon Rose threw a downfield pass for an interception with
Utah leading twenty one to ten, and you know, he
had a short receiver in the short left flat open.
So it seemed as though Utah's passing game was going
a little bit too vertical and it wasn't safe enough.
But then after that interception, it seems though Utahs staff
overcorrected for that. It's not as though Utah should have
been taking shots downfield, but Utah should have still been
throwing the ball but short, short, easy passes. What happened
to the screen game? What happened to you know, just
getting these easy completions, you know, like, so you're passing
the ball, but you're still extremely likely to complete the pass,
which keeps the clock running. Utah went heavily to running plays,
handoffs and That's where I think really the play calling
should have and could have been better. You know, people
get wrapped up in run pass mixture, and while that's
certainly salient, it's certainly relevant on a broader level. I
think what gets lost in that run or pass discussion
is you know there are aggressive ways to run and
there are conservative ways to pass. And you know if
a defense is expecting run, you don't. This doesn't mean
you should be throwing down the field, but you could.
You could offer a conservative pass, right, It doesn't. Passing
doesn't inherently mean aggressive. You can be safe with a
pass but still be throwing the ball when the defense
is expecting a run, and in that, in that sense,
you can keep a defense off balance. And as for
running plays, you know, it's not as though you are
obligated or required to hand the ball off or toss
it to the tailback the running back. You know you
can do handoffs to wide receivers. You know you can
do jet sleep sweeps, fly sweeps, other ways to get
at the ball to a fast guy, to an athletic player, playmaker,
and yet you're still running the ball. It's still a
running play. But you can be creative with it, and
that's what I think Utah really lost. You know, going
from a pass to a run after the Brandon Rose
interception totally understandable, but I think there's still needed to
be a mix, not so much of run versus pass,
but finding different ways of running the ball and finding
different ways of keeping the clock running. You know, it's
not as though you just have to go into handoff mode.
And that's where I think Utah definitely lost something. And
you have to be a you have to be able
to be creative even when you're trying to be safe, right.
You know, you want to keep the clock running, you
want to shorten the game, and Utah definitely try to
do that, and that definitely made sense, no question about that.
But you have to find ways of being creative within simplicity.
You have to find ways of being creative within perhaps
a more conservative safe offense is you don't want your
young backup quarterback to throw another interception. So Utah in
many ways overcorrected for that. Couldn't get three points in
the second half, couldn't get a first down late, and
you know Utah had third and one late in the
game around three minutes left. If the youth get that
first down, they almost certainly win the game. Holding penalty
on third and one, and they were stopped on that
third and one, so it would have been fourth and one.
But still you would rather have fourth and one than
third and eleven. But that that holding penalty, which was
a good call. There was definitely a hold and got
the Utah blocker was grabbing the BUYU defender's shoulder pad
from behind. You have to call that that was a
good call. That ten yard penalty, you know, ruined Utah's
chances of getting that late first down, and so Byu
gets one more crack at it and then we arrive
at that fourth and ten and that holding call on
Utah which keeps the drive alive. You know, this game
was not stolen from Utah and the refs did not
decide the outcome. Okay, I want to be very clear
about that, and we we you know, it's one of
my long standing points of emphasis as a sports journalist,
as a sports commentary, there needs to be a way
to differentiate between the refs decided the game and the
refs influenced the game, all right, and this was definitely
not the rest deciding the game because Utah still had
by U backed up in its own half of the
field after that holding penalty and couldn't do the job.
And also Utah again, as we said earlier, couldn't score
three points in the second half. Come on, you score
three points in the second half, you win. You couldn't
do that. You couldn't get any of those first downs late,
So Utah had its chances. And what do we keep saying?
I mean, I've said this a lot, and you know,
if you listen to my podcast regularly, you've heard me
say it at some point earlier this season, especially as
someone who covers USC You don't allow the game to
come down to one call. You know, lead by ten,
get the first down so that you don't have to
play defense again and the other team can get a
questionable holding call. If you have a chance to put
the game away, put the game away, because that do
you take one bad call or one questionable call off
the board. You don't have to worry about that bad
call because it's never gonna come, or if it does,
you've already surmounted the margin of air. You're outside the
margin of air. You know, My long standing saying is,
you know, lead by ten, lead by ten late, so
that if a bad call costs you a touchdown, you
still win the game. But if you're only up six
or in this case, if you're up only two points,
a bad call can swing things. So the rest did
not decide this game. That I've even said that was
a dubious holding fall. And if you look at the replay,
there's a jam on the receiver, and you're allowed to
jam a receiver, right, So like that, there was nothing
over the top unusual about that within the first five yards,
and then the BYU receiver stumbles and he didn't really
regain his balance, and it doesn't seem from looking at
the tape, from looking at the film of that play,
and I've seen, it doesn't seem as though the failure
to regain balance was caused by the Utah defenders contact
that the BAU defender slipped and he never really regained
himself on the route, and there didn't seem to be
any further action by the Utah defender after the initial jam.
So I'm looking at that plane and I'm going, what's there?
What do we have? Uh? So that that is part
of it, and also it was removed from the play,
right it wasn't even a ron talking pass interference. We're
talking about holding. Uh, you know, a jam two three
two yards after the line of scrimmage. It's not holding unless,
like you're it's a big fat jersey grab and you
basically stop the receiver's route. You're allowed to jam, you're
not allowed to grab the jersey. I saw a jam.
I didn't see a grab of a jersey. And it
could be that when the BYU receiver stumbled right after
that jam, it was thought that, oh he was held,
and that basically short circuited the whole route, and therefore
you could call holding. And if it seemed as though
the there was a jersey grab would shut down the route, okay,
then you call holding. I just didn't see that. I
saw a jam, not a hold, not an egregious jersey grab.
So you know, I think it's understandable that Utah would
feel hard done about that. But but you do have
to say Utah had so many opportunities to nail this
thing down and didn't. And you have to credit BYU
for once again scrambling back. Jake Retslof. He's been doing
it all season long. Captain clutch late game situations the
guy's money. If you give him an opening, he takes it.
Did it against Oklahoma State, did it in some other
late game situations. I mean, you know, this is a
team that keeps getting it done. It's kind of like
Miami before this past Saturday. You know, Miami was scrambling
back to win Layton games and is still in position
to have an excellent season. You know, Kynes could go
eleven and one. That's a tremendous year for Meryal Crystal Ball.
It's because they've been able to scramble back in second
halves and in four quarters. B WHYU continues to do that?
You have to tip the cap to Reetslof and Clonie
Sataki and the rest of the Cougars, like they they
could have bailed on that game. I mean, I know
it's a rivalry, so like they were always going to
play hard, but they might have lost faith. That team
did not lose faith. That team did not lose trust,
kept battling, put itself in a position to be close,
and it was able to benefit from that call. And
again Utah still had BYU pinned fairly deep. By you
still had to move the ball down the field. B
Why you did move the ball down the field and
then a clutch forty four yard field goal. Keep in
mind no time out and any people have said, and
it's a great comparison. Twenty twenty four BYU is twenty
twenty two TCU, and now both teams have had a
run the field goal unit on the field kick to
win a key game late in the season. For TCU
in twenty twenty two, it was the game at Baylor.
Didn't have a time out, rush the field goal team
one that was a little more hectic TCU Baylor twenty
twenty two. Two years ago, that was a more rushed situation.
It was more of a pure fire rope. BYU had
plenty of time against Utah, but still had to get
everything lined up, did not have the benefit of a timeout.
Everything went smoothly. So that's a well coached team maintaining
his poise late and so BYU leads the Big twelve,
and that leads us into the next part of our conversation.
The Colorado Buffalo. So they go into Lubbock, they beat
Texas Tech, and you know it's not a great Texas
Tech team, but Lubbock in November. It's been in a
thorny spot for plenty of Big Twelve teams over the years.
In Texas Tech was coming off a win over Iowa
State and Iowa State loses again, so that pretty much,
you know, clears the field in the Big Twelve. If Colorado,
it's right there for Colorado. You know, Calorad's gotten the
help in the standings. It's now a done deal that
if Colorado wins out, Colorado is playing for the Big
Twelve Championship, and if it wins that Big Twelve Chmionship game,
Colorado will be in the College for pup playoffs. And
that's just absolutely spectacular. It's absolutely amazing what Deon Sanders
has done, and he does have the Heisman Trophy leader.
I would think Travis Hunter guy played one hundred and
seventy snaps against Texas Tech and Elite on both sides
absolutely phenomenal. With cam Ward of Miami stumbling against Georgia Tech,
you know, and Ashton genty crossing the two hundred yard
marks Boise State, but Boise State didn't look great against
Nevada and its group of five. You know, it's hard
to think that Travis Hunter is not the Heisman Leader
front runner at this point, and some will say Dylan
Gabriel of Oregon, but you know, we had that discussion
a week ago that you know, Dylan Gabriel was not
great in September, and are we really just going to
give the award to the quarterback on the team that
has the best chance of winning the national championship. The
Heisman should not be devalued that way. So you heard
me talk about the Heisman last week. Nothing new to
say on that front other than with cam Ward stumbling,
I think it's now Travis Hunter's award to lose. And
of course, if Colorado does win out and go to
the college football Playoff, really hard to see anyone other
than Travis Hunter winning the Heisman twlby one other things
to note about what Colorado was doing. And Colorad'll beat
Texas Tech forty one twenty seven. So you would think
that Shradur Sanders, you know who, whose draft stock continues
to rise, almost certain to be a top three pick,
if not number one, in next year's NFL draft. But
you expect Shader Sanders and his electric ability to produce points.
But one thing you're seeing with Colorado is that the
defense is not hemorrhaging and you know, as someone who
covered USC last year under Alex Grinch, you know USC
would regularly give up more than forty points. This Colorado defense.
Wouldn't call it a spectacular defense, especially against you know,
a big twelve quarterbacks which have been you know, very inconsistent.
Put it mildly, but nevertheless, Colorado is not getting lit
up like a Christmas tree. And I did certainly expected
Colorado's defense to buckle on a few occasions. It's not
really happening. So Dion is putting in great work. His
assistants are doing a great job. You know, Warren Sapp
on the defensive line. There's a commentator on Twitter, Mikey Surf.
He's really a big Virginia guy, but he made the
comment comment about Colorado that Warren Sapp has really transformed
Carora's defensive line. So, Mikey Surf, wherever you are, you
know on Twitter. Uh, you know, like he gets the
credit for that insight. I'm just noting his insight, So
don't don't give me too much credit. Like I didn't,
you know, come up with that originally. It's Mikey Surf,
the commentator on Twitter who did. But like that's a
very very astute point. Carla's defense is, you know, it's
basically doing what USC's defense is doing this year under
Danton Lynn. Uh, you know, USC is not giving up
massive point totals on defense, and you go through, I'm
just trying to make the comparison here. I'm not focusing
on USC so much as I'm just trying to illustrate
a point. US he's giving up around thirty points, you know,
upper twenties, low thirties. Generally that might seem bad, but
you know, given where US he was a year ago,
it's actually pretty solid. And the point remains that if
you have Schradura Sanders and your defense is giving up
high twenties, low thirties point totals, that's gonna win most
of the time. And really that was Lincoln Riley's, you know,
vision for USC. It's it was his vision at Oklahoma.
Just give up thirty, my offense is going to score forty.
The problem for USC this season is that it hasn't
been scoring forty all right. But if you give you know,
a team with an electric elite quarterback such as Shader Sanders,
you know, a defense that's just gonna give up around
thirty twenty seven to twenty eight points most weeks, that's
going to be enough. That will be enough to win.
And that's what Colorado was doing. It's exactly what Colorad
was doing. So in many ways, Deon Sanders is doing
what Lincoln Riley has always dreamed of doing. But this
year Lincoln Riley has been able to do that. Last year,
Riley didn't do it because his defense was giving up
forty five. This year, Riley isn't doing it because his
offense isn't scoring forty five. The defense is where it
needs to be, the offense isn't. So that is basically
the model that illustrates what coach Prime and Colorado have
been able to do this year. And so if they
can just continue to do it a few more weeks,
they're gonna be in the Big twelve title game, you know,
against BYU, with a chance to play for a spot
in the playoffs. So you know, b YU unbeaten, one
of the four remaining unbeatens now that Miami's lost, and
then Colorado in the very much in the mix of
the Big twelve. You know, that's that's those are really
the headline generating stories in this week of Western College
football in the United States. Boise State did not play
well at all, but it got got the win against Nevada.
So Boise States still in the mix in the group
of five. And we have Army against an Order Dame
in two weeks, and that might decide the whole thing,
you know, whether it's Army or Boise State. Army might
need to beat an Order Dame to to get that
Group of five title. And then if Army falls short
against Order Dame, that would, you know, presumably play Boise
State in the driver's seat for the Group of five
championship and a playoff spot elsewhere in western college football
in the United States. In Week eleven, so Oregon handles
Maryland easily at home, like no drama there. Oregon's next
game at Wisconsin, and so you might be wondering what
the weather is going to be like in Madison. You know,
is Oregon gonna get a snowstorm? Well, early forecast, No,
it's actually gonna be in the fifties. It's going to
be entirely mild pleasant. There's gonna be no big ten
weather in the middle of November. So you know, it
would seem as though Oregon's very much I mean, Oregon's
gonna be in the playoffs, just a matter of whether
Oregon's going to be in as a Big Ten champion
or as an at large team. And so we'll drill
deeper into that discussion the closer we get to conference
championship Saturday. But Oregon very much in line for the playoffs.
It's just gonna be a matter of the seeding. And
it's gonna be interesting to see what the Ducks do
on the road against Wisconsin. This week, Washington got its
doors blown off at Penn State, and you know, that
just reaffirms how ordinary Washington has been this year. And
you know, do you hold this against Jedfish. Uh, that's
a complicated conversation. One of the things that's hurt Washington
generally this season is that Washington's gained more yards than
its opponents most of the time, but has been able
to finish drives all right. Now, against Penn State, Washington
just got smothered. This was not a game which Washington
got more, you know, more yards and was kind of
winning most snaps but then just couldn't finish plays in
the red zone. This was not that game. This was
a game that Penn State dominated from start to finish.
So you can you can lay certain things at Jedfish's
door in terms of certain game management decisions in the
close games that Washington's lost. But this game was kind
of a reality check for Washington in the sense that
you know, these players aren't all that aren't all that
good across the board. It does bring up the point
that you know, Fish only got some of the players
he wanted from Arizona in the offseason. You know, some
of them came to Seattle, but a lot of them
stayed in Tucson. It really explains in many ways by
both Washington and Arizona have struggled this year because they
were both weakened by the Portal Arizona in the defections
that went to Washington. Washington in terms of not getting
as many Arizona Wildcats as Jedfish hoped, neither side really
won out in that deal. And that doesn't strike me
as overly surprising, like it actually kind of it actually
stood to reason that when Washington did not get Noah
Fafita and Tetroya McMillan from Arizona in the portal, that
to me right there told me Washington isn't going to
be that good this year, and Will Rogers of Mississippi
State was ultimately the the guy that Jedfish was able
to land in the portal. I wasn't particularly impressed by
Rogers at Mississippi State, so I wasn't expecting really big
things from Washington this year. So in many ways, the
conventional wisdom on Washington has held up. I think the
Huskies haven't been better than expected, and I haven't think
I don't think they've been worse than expected. This was
just going to be a difficult year. And now we
get to see in you know, in December with the
portal opening up, and then you know, as the off
season begins, and the off season is not that far away. Man,
the time is fine right in December and when the
portal opens, and then on the recruiting trail, we're going
to see how Jedfish restocks that Washington roster for next year. So,
you know, does this year mean that Jedfish is you know,
a little bit out of his league? I don't think so.
I don't think this is a coaching issue for this season.
I think now now now we get to see how
he can build a roster at Washington. I don't think
this roster was in position to do big things. So really,
I just this is a wait and see. I would
not if I'm a Husky fan. I'm saying I'm not
happy with the way the season's gone, But I really
can't say I'm all that surprise either if I'm a
Husky fan, I just want Jedfish to really hit some
home runs in the portal and upgrade his roster. Make
sure he has a big time quarterback, because we saw
what happened at Washington last year with a big time
quarterback Michael Pennix. Jedfish just has to get the dudes.
I mean, we've just earlier in this show here and
get off my pie. We've talked about Coloradle having Schadur Sanders,
and as as well as Dion has done, you know,
as as much as he has overachieved this season, he
does have Schadur Sanders as his quarterback. That's gonna overcome
and minimize other roster limitations and so other programs other
coaches that don't have a Cadillac quarterback. I've seen it
at USC with Meller Moss under Lincoln Riley. Other coaches
that don't have that elite quarterback. They have suffered. They've
really suffered. You know, I think the exception that proves
the rule in terms of you know, having a not
having an elite quarterback. Indiana, Nathan Urk's been good, but
like he's not, you know, an extraordinary quarterback. But Kurt
Signetti has dudes at the other positions on the field.
And that that, you know, is the roster construction that
most coaches have not been able to attain when they
don't have the elite quarterback that can minimize other roster flaws.
Then that that really had That's been a consistent lesson
across college football in twenty twenty four. If you do
not have the big time quarterback, man, you better be
elite at the other ten spots on your offense, and
you better have a strong defense. You have to be
elite at the other positions on the field, both sides
of the ball. If you don't have that elite quarterback,
you have to have a deep, tough, physical roster. You
also need some injury luck. You know, you can't get
your depth eroded significantly if you don't have that elite quarterback,
because then the margins become really small. But of an
elite quarterback that expands your margins and can cover in
spots for some weaknesses, can't do it every game, but
can do it most most of the time. And so
coaches really need to be aware of that dichotomy, right,
quarterback and overall roster. If the quarterback's not the very best,
you can do, the rest of your roster has to
be elite. If your quarterback is excellent, okay, then you
might not have to have the very best at all
other positions. You know, in terms of what what coaches
and schools are paying for in the transfer portal, they're
like the cost benefit needs to be identified, right that
if you don't have the elite quarterback, you better get
that premium offensive tackle. You better get that premium wide receiver.
You better get that premium player who's gonna be able
to stitch things together for your offense. You know, so
you have to make real difficult choices on your roster,
but it should be clear what really matters that you
either get the elite quarterback. You know, if you don't
think you have the offensive line that could be dominant,
then you need the elite quarterback that can you know,
reduce pressure on that offensive line, who can get the
ball out more quickly, who can run for thirty forty
five yards, who can make plays when when the pocket
breaks down, if you don't think you're getting the really
big fish in the portal on the offensive line, you
need the quarterback to be there. So that that's something
we were seeing at Washington, we're seeing at so many
other programs in the West, usc being another example, and
it's really been a central lesson, a central epiphany throughout
college football. Four. Continuing with our survey of western college
football in the United States, UCLA beats Iowa and so
Deshaun Foster and I wrote about this that Trojans Wire
my website under the Gannet USA Today banner. I wrote
about this Deshaun Foster as out coached Lincoln Riley this
year in Los Angeles. I don't think a single soul
was ready to say that in early for mid September,
but here we are in mid November. It's absolutely true, right, Like,
you can't really debate it that UCLA in early mid
September looked like a team that was going to be,
you know one in eleven, two and ten, you know,
Indiana beats UCLA by twenty nine points, and how how
different that game looks now in retrospect, And it wasn't
about UCLA being so horrible. It was really about, oh,
this Indiana team might be really special. So like that's
one of those early season games that really looks so
much different now compared to you know how it felt
at the time. At the time, it felt that UCLA
was just a nobody, a nothing burger. But really it
was all about Indiana building something big under Kurt Signetti.
And so Ucla, after losing that game to Indiant up
by twenty nine and taking its lumps early in the season,
that team's gotten better. It's gotten better every week. One
at Rutgers, one at Nebraska, and now be Kirkparents in Iowa,
and so UCLA has a chance to make a bowl game.
No one was predicting that in September. It was it
was about how many games would UCLA lose. It was
about would UCLA lose a double digit amount of games?
And like, hey, no, no, I'm not going to hide
from this. I was banging that drum as loudly as anyone,
maybe even more so, Like I sure looked like UCLA
was headed to two and ten and that was the
best case scenario, you know, maybe one and eleven. So
I thought UCLA was in deep, deep trouble to shun
Foster an amazing coaching job. Now, you know, Signetti is
your coach of the year nationally and so he's in
the Big Ten. So it's not as though Deshaun Foster
is gonna win any Big Ten Coach of the Year
awards or anything like that. But in terms of like underrated,
under the radar, surprisingly good coaching performances in twenty twenty four,
you have to include Deshaun Foster there. He's what he's
done with UCLA very very impressive. And keep in minding again,
UCLA lost Danton Lynn, a really good, sharp, talented defensive
coordinator to USC. UCLA has been able to fill in
the gaps. And you know, let's acknowledge briefly that big
Big Ten parody is a thing like after that top
four of Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, and Indiana, it's
a big mishmash of mediocrity. You know, from basically from
spot five through spot seventeen, then you have Purdue at
as the clear worst team in the Big Ten. There's
no doubt that Purdue is number eighteen in the expanded
Big Ten. But five seventeen, it's just a muddle. It's
a it's a pool of mediocrity. I mean, Rutgers had
been horrible for several weeks, got off the deck and
beat Minnesota. So it's not as though you can say
Rutgers is obviously the seventeenth best team in the Big Ten.
That's not so clear now after Rutgers beat Minnesota, Rutgers
won at Virginia Tech early in the season. So really,
you know, five through seventeen, there's not a ton of
separation among those thirteen schools behind the top four and
ahead of number eighteen Purdue. So you can say that
parody is part of what's helping UCLA and some other
schools punch above their weight. But you know what we're
seeing parody throughout the sport, right in the Big Twelve,
in the ACC, in the SEC where you have a
big jumble in the standings instead of you know, Alabama
and Georgia lording themselves well over everybody else. Right, it's
a jumble in college football this year like you do
not have you know, a clear a hierarchy of elite
teams that are well above the rest. Like that's what
it used to be. Five six years ago, it was
Alabama and Clemson, and in twenty nineteen it was you know,
LSU and Clemson. And then you know, you had Georgia,
which was you know, clearly above the rest of college
football in twenty twenty two, and it was Georgia and
Alabama in twenty twenty one. You know, you had like
two or three teams that were, you know, at the
very top, and then it was everyone else. My mind, mind,
how much that has changed. Now. It's just a wild scramble.
You know. It's basically, you know, go to your favorite
breakfast place, fire up the skillet, and it's just a
big scramble. Lots lots of eggs in the playoff basket,
lots of eggs in the national championship derby. Like, like,
I don't have any clue who's winning the national title.
Some might say Oregon, others might say Ohio State. I
don't you know, hey, like again to o how State,
Like they're almost certain to be in the playoffs with
a with a really good chance to win it. But
I'm not seeing significant separation between like Oregon and Ohio
State and then the rest of the field not seeing
that at all.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, like you give you give Kirby Smart, Uh
you give Mike Elkou, you give you know, another top coach,
top team a couple of weeks to prepare for Oregon.
I don't see the Ducks being you know, way better
uh than than an SEC contender other teams in the field.
I think it's a it's very much in question as
to who comes out of this thing as a winner.
Let's let's keep in mind Oregon beat Ohio State by
a point, needed a questionable offensive passer friends colin Ohio
State late in that game to win by one in
Eugene at Austin Stadium. Yeah, this is this is a
very open ended, a very uncertain college football national championship race.
And let's not pretend that there's there's this strong hierarchy
that we used to have in the Alabama Clemson Georgia years.
It's it's a really different reality and I'm loving it,
like this is this is this is a college football
season I can really embrace because you you knew that
Alabama and Clemson were making the national championship game unless
you know, unless they played each other in the semi
finals six seven, eight years ago, Like you knew that
Alabama Clemsenberg were just going to be there and that
felt awful, That was a buzzkill. And then you know,
watching the national title game. Yeah, they played a couple
of entertaining games in twenty fifteen, in twenty sixteen, those
two seasons, I should say, you know, they played in
January for the actual national championship game. But in those seasons, yeah,
they played a couple of entertaining games. But you know,
like if you were not in the South, you're not
a fan of one of those two schools. You know
how just how worth it was it to watch, you know,
to to Southern Juggernauts meet in the National changing game.
But now you have true regional balance and representation and
the twelve team playoff is only going to magnify that.
And you know, there will be a lot more to
say as this playoff picture comes into focus, as we
get closer to the conference championship games. It's gonna be
some really interesting discussions about about how the college football
playoff system works. And I know that get off my
pilone is devoted to western college football, but you know,
with this with the twelve team playoff, you know, debuting
this season that there's definitely a place here on our
show for the playoff mechanics, how they need to be
reformed and what it means for college football more broadly.
You're going to get that here and get off my
pielone as we get to late November and early December,
so so much to talk about here on Get off
my pion and we are getting into the nitty gritty
of the season. It's just kind of weird that in
terms of you know, Western teams, like, there's no intrigue
around Oregon in the sense that, you know, Oregon's pretty
much in the playoff. So it's not as though, you know,
if this was if this was a fourteen playoff era,
we would be devoting a lot more discussion to you know,
chan Oregon survived this test on Saturday in Wisconsin. Well,
you know, Oregon could lose to Wisconsin and really would
still be on very very solid footing for the playoff,
precisely because it has that win over Ohio State. Like
even if if we imagine a world in which Oregon
somehow loses twice before the playoff, and I don't think
that's gonna happen. But if let's just imagine this right,
Let's say Oregon slips up once and then loses to
Ohio State in the Big Ten chainship game, Oregon's still
getting in, right, because you know, splitting two games with
Ohio State and then losing one other game and being
ten and two or maybe eleven in two, that's that's
not gonna be enough to knock Oregon all the way out,
especially since you know there are four Big Ten teams
in contention. Oregon is in Indiana, are the unbeaten teams.
Ohio State and Penn State have a loss each. If
there's a wild you know, scramble for playoff bids, Oregon's
not going to be the fourth team in the Big Ten.
Barring something crazy, Oregon would almost assuredly be one of
the three Big Ten teams. You know, it looks like
the Big Ten is getting four, But if we imagine
a scenario in which the Big Ten gets only three
instead of four, I don't think Oregon is going to
be the team that gets excluded. So in that sense,
like we're not riveted to Oregon's games right now, because
there isn't that in or out drama relating to the Ducks.
The drama is much more about Ohio State and Penn State.
You know, if they lose a second game, because you know,
Ohio State didn't beat Oregon, Penn State didn't beat Ohio State,
So if they both pick up a second loss, there's
going to be more of a conversation about whether those
teams belong in. But Oregon's really kind of insulated itself.
And then Indiana, Indiana plays Ohio State in a couple
of weeks. If Indiana loses to Ohio State finishes eleven
and one, that should be enough for the Hoosiers. But
you know, because Indiana is not that big brand name,
there might still be some questions. But it's still hard
to see how eleven and one doesn't get Indiana into
the playoffs. It is looking very good for the Big
ten to get four. But anyway, as these discussions gain
a little bit more clarity, or if not necessarily clarity,
they gain more definition, you will get plenty of analysis
on the playoff workings, the workings of the system in
late November, you know, around Thanksgiving and then on into
early December here on, get off my pilot, So you know,
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