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 networks.
Speaker 2: Here's your host, Matt Zimma.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the latest edition of Get Off My Pilon
college football podcast.
Speaker 2: This is your host, Matt Semmick.
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at Get Off My Pylon, we cover college football in
the Western United States and let's start, you know, at
the bottom of the food chain. We usually work our
way up to the Big Ten, you know how it
goes also to the Big twelve. But we start in
the Mountain West, and you know, it's not likely that
San Diego State is going to just blow away the competition.
But the Aztecs at least have a chance to play
their way into the group of five conversation. I mean,
if they went out, it's probably a conversation now. Obviously
in late October, beginning of November, we're a long way
from that point. But you know, with Boise State having
multiple losses in UNLV, getting absolutely crushed by Boise State,
I've generally written the Mountain West off and I'm still
of a mindset where you know, the American champion is
going to be the Group of five representative in the
college football playoff. San Diego State is not one hundred
percent done, and so the as Techs, you know, if
they can keep rolling along, they can keep doing what
they're supposed to do. Who knows, who knows how interesting
uh this could all become. Who knows what that program
might be able to do. And so Sean Lewis, we
do have to say Sean Lewis the head coach at
San Diego State. You know he was Deon Sanders, former
assistant coach at Colorado, and you know, thought it was
a good move for the ads texts to get him.
But you know, last year was a was a rough ride.
San Diego State definitely bouncing back. San Diego State beats
Presno State twenty three to nothing on the road, and
Presno State might not be that good, but you know
what a shutout on the road convincing. That's not easy
to do in college football. Look a look at what
we're seeing elsewhere in the country about how hard it
is to win on the road anywhere, any in any
conference game any context, Like Alabama was fortunate to beat
South Carolina got out played for a good portion of
that game. You know, we've seen teams stumble in the
Big Ten as well, so San Diego State not completely
out of it in the Mountain Western Group of five conversations.
That's gonna be an interesting plot point as we go
into November, as we move along in the other Western
teams in the that have you know, smaller national profiles.
Stanford gets clobbered by Miami. Was good for the first quarter,
quarter and a half, but from midway through the second
quarter and then on through the second half reality set in.
But you know, Stanford gave Miami a tough battle for
longer than a lot of people expected. So even though
the score reflects a blo out, and even though, of
course the gap between those two teams is large, you know,
Stanford's really fought hard the whole season, and Frank Reich
deserves credit for that. I mentioned it last week, but
like could have just gotten obliterated from the jump in Miami,
and you know, the Cardinal were grossly inferior to the Hurricanes,
but the you know, they made Miami work for it.
They made Miami get irritated and annoyed before the Hurricanes
finally woke up midway through that game. So even though
it's a blowout, even though, like the stat sheets not
gonna flatter Stanford at all, kind of impressed that the
Cardinal have really not become the annual weekly doormat that
I thought they were going to be before the season.
Like that's what Oklahoma State is in the Big twelve.
You know a few other teams really do fit that profile. Wisconsin.
We're going to talk about Oregon in a minute, but
like Wisconsin at least is fighting on defense. So I
give the Badgers a little bit of credit for that,
but boy, their offense is horrible, right, They've barely scored
over the past month of games. I kind of thought
Stanford was really going to get kicked around, like this
team was going to eat forty to fifty point losses.
It really hasn't materialized like that on a consistent basis.
So you know, Stanford's going to have a head coaching vacancy.
There's plenty to like about, you know, Andrew luck having
a war chest, having plenty of funds to spend on
a head coach on nil like that program could come
back up quickly if it makes the right hire. That's
gonna be an interesting part of a very wild coaching carousel,
which of course, you know Brian Kelly fired at LSU.
More high end jobs coming open. It's gonna be really
interesting to see how Stanford and also UCLA fit into that.
Pictures more on UCLA, of course later in the show.
The other Bay Area school in the acc cow agonizing
overtime loss at Virginia Tech. Both kickers on each side
missed kicks that that could have made the difference in
this game. But it's ultimately hope the Hokies that get
the win. You know, what is there to say about Cal?
I mean, first off, Cal should make a bowl game,
or at least has a pretty good chance of making
a bowl game. I mean, if Cal just can if
Cal just beat Stanford, it gets to a bowl. So
you have to think, if you're Cal, you need to
at least do that and get to a bowl game,
which makes the season, you know, a success to a
certain degree. But you know, these games in the ACC,
the lower tier Cal North Carolina last week, Calvertonia Tech
this week. It's some bad football. It's some really sloppy,
ugly football, so many mistakes on both sides. So you know,
getting to a bowl game it doesn't happen for everyone.
And so to that extent, Cal is doing what it
can under Justin Wilcox. But in a bigger picture, like
I don't see Cal being a remote threat in the
upper tier of the ACC anytime soon, And the lower
and middle parts of the ACC are so soft and
so mediocre. You know that Cal is going to be
able to claw together a few wins and get to
a bowl game. But bigger picture, like I don't see
this translating to Cal being an eight nine to ten
win program anytime soon. I mean, cal just seems to
be stuck in this very middle of the road existence.
Not a whole lot of upside, not a whole lot
of ceiling. You just got to wonder if the acc
relocation package was really worth it for the Golden Bears.
Let's now continue with the two packs. So Washington State
beats Toledo, and Washington State has looked like a really
good team, or at least maybe not really good, but
certainly a good team the past few weeks. Easily could
have beaten Virginia on the road, but you know, crumbled
in the fourth quarter, gave up a tie breaking game
deciding safety. But you know, this team which barely lost
that Ole Miss, remember lost by just three points on
the road at Ole Miss. They hammered Toledo twenty eight
to seven. And Toledo, you'd figure, is a you know,
a contender in the MAC and Washington State pretty easily
brushed Toledo aside. So Washington State, you know, very different
story from Oregon State. You know, Oregon State, languishing at
the at the bottom of college football, doesn't even have
a win over an FCS team. Washington State very different story.
You know, Washington State lost in North Texas by forty
nine earlier in the year. It seems that the Cougars
were just gonna you know, circle the drain. No, very
different story, very different trajectory, and so you know, it's
really encouraging what's been happening with that program. The win
over Toledo being the latest example. Oregon State had the
week off. The Beavers play Sam Houston, or excuse me,
they play Washington State next. Then they'll play Sam Houston.
So you know, Washington State should certainly be favored against
Oregon State in the meeting of the two Pack brothers.
If Washington State does not win that game, it will
come across as a distinct surprise. Remember Oregon State laboring
under an interim coach after Trent Bray was fired earlier
in the season. All right, So moving along with our
survey of Western teams in college football. We made it
through the Two Pack, made it through the ACC, the
Bay Area schools, and the Mountain West. So now we
come to the Big twelve and the big story is
BYU And it's not just that the Cougars are unbeaten
and we are sitting sitting pretty for the Big Twelve
championship game and a chance to play their way into
the College Football Playoff. That's impressive enough in its own right,
but what's really remarkable is that, let's remember Jake Retzlaf, quarterback,
gets into trouble with the honor code at BYU, he leaves,
he goes to Tulane, and so BYU is left scrambling.
It has to find a QB two and elevate him
to QB one and get performance on a QB one
scale at a QB one standard. And it turns to young,
untested bear Bachmeyer. And really, who thought that bear Bachmeyer
it was going to be this good this quickly. I mean,
it is a real shocker that this guy is a
freshman and yet not only is he piling up points.
BYU scores forty one at Iowa State, but what bear
Bachmeyer is also doing is BYU is falling behind consistently,
fell behind at Colorado, fell behind at Arizona, fell behind
at Iowa State, was down twenty four to ten, like
BYU is falling behind by double digits, ten fourteen points
on the road. All those games Colorado, Arizona, and now
Iowa State all road games BYU was it down by
at least ten, if not fourteen in each of those games,
Bear Blackmeier just shrugs it off and in the second
half he's absolute nails. He's money. So raw point production
is one thing. Raw success, the wins, the consistency is
another thing. But doing it from behind and just always
finding the ability to get into a hole, to find
some in game adversity and conquer it. This is a freshman.
It's really rather spectacular. And so for BYU to have
a really good season last year under Redslof and now
you know, lose Retslof and then have to go turn
to a freshman as QB one and not not only
not miss a beat, but actually be better. At least
right now BYU is better than it was last season.
That's pretty remarkable. That's really rather extraordinary. It's one It's
a story that really hasn't gotten enough national play in
college football. But you know that might change this week
because BYU plays Texas Tech. Many people think and have
thought that Texas Tech is the class at the Big
twelve despite the loss to Arizona State. So BYU go
playing Texas Tech. If BYU wins that game, I mean
BYU's pretty much a lock for the Big twelve championship game,
with Cincinnati probably occupying the other spot in that game.
But I mean, if BYU beats Texas Tech, BYU will
have a two game lead over Texas Tech in the standings,
and it will have the head to head tiebreaker, so
essentially a three game lead for BYU if it can
beat Texas Tech. And so that's an extraordinary story in provo.
It's gonna get more more of the spotlight this week.
And even if BYU fall short against Texas Tech, the
Cougars are still well positioned to make that Big twelve
champiship game. You know they're gonna be looking at another
Big twelve game Cincinnati Utah. We talk a little bit
about that that one in just a moment. But a
lot to pull apart here. One like Kilanie Sataki, the
job he's doing it BYU pretty great, Pretty great, right
because he's not he doesn't necessarily have the most talented teams.
But like this has been a thing that BYU wins
the close ones. It certainly beats Utah, like it finds
a way to make those winning plays against Utah home
and away, did so last year did so this year BYU.
Just it's not just one season. This is a thing
that repeats itself over time. B YU is a great
scramble team. It's a team that's able to rally, it's
able to adjust, it's able to pivot when when things
aren't going well. BYU finds ways to turn games around.
So it's not limited to this year and to bear Bachmeier.
It happened last year. It's happened before in the Sataki era.
I mean, this is a coaching staff that not only
instills belief in players and creates the right culture, but
they do find the ways to crack the code. They
make adjustments, they find openings. Uh. And and that you know,
their their players play really well in second halves and
especially fourth quarters. So when that consistently happens over a
longer period of time, it's not an accident. You know,
there's obviously something there. There's obviously something that this coaching
staff is doing that other uh, other staffs are not.
And as much credit as Kolonie Sataki deserves as the boss,
you know, the guy who's running the ship, let's also
give some credit to Aaron Roderick, the offensive coordinator and
when we consider how wild this coaching carousel is going
to be, all the jobs that are open, all the
jobs that are soon going to be open, and then
you know when coaches leave their current jobs for bigger
jobs or other jobs, that's going to create vacancies in
this large scale game of musical chairs that we're going
to see one month from now, at the end of
November in the beginning of December, you have to think
Aaron Rodrick is going to be a hot commodity. People
are gonna see what he's done with Retslov and now
with bear Bachmeyer, and they're gonna say, hmm, if I
need offense, I need quarterback development, and you know again,
bear Bachmeyer a freshman and he's crushing it. I need
to get Aaron Roderick into my program. I need to
have Aaron Rodrick calling the shots, like this guy is
on the rise, and this guy is turning in such
a great body of work at BYU. Like if I'm
an athletic director at a mid tier power Forward program
or a Group of five program, I'm going to be
making a phone call to him. I'm going to be
making a run for him as a head coach. So
Aaron Roderick is part of this larger story at BYU.
The Cougars go to Texas Tech in a in a
featured Big Twelve game, part of the developing story in
that particular conference. So we continue with the Western teams
in the Big Twelve, and we had Utah absolutely blowing
the doors off Deon Sanders in Colorado. Boy, that one
that was over pretty quickly. That was thirty three forty
nothing before you could blink. I mean, Utah just absolutely
Colorado flat footed buff The Buffs were missing some players,
but even then, like no resistance really from the Colorado side.
It was a tsunami that got started at the beginning
of the game, and you know, five minutes into the
second quarter, that game was done and dusted. And so
as we turned to Utah hosting Cincinnati, you know, the
fact that Utah had such a low stress game was
able to put that one to bed before halftime. Utah
is gonna be fresh for Cincinnati. And Cincinnati another really
big pleasant surprise. Scott Saderfield, the head coach, was on
the hot seat before the season began. Amazing job at Cincinnati.
No one saw this coming from the Bearcats, and so
now they go to Salt Lake City, and you know,
like Cincinnati has been underestimated the whole way, including by myself.
I freely admit that. And Cincinnati did not look great
against Nebraska. I thought that Week one game was more
about Nebraska being weak and flawed, which, by the way,
that still holds, and more about Nebraska later on in
the show. But you know, one could also look back
on that game and say, you know what, Cincinnati did
show something and Cincinnatis continued to get better and better
and better as the season has gone along. And so
that's gonna be a real measuring stick for both Cincinnati
and Utah. And one of the things we've been talking
about with Utah this season on Get Off My Pilon.
If you've been listening to each week's show, you know
Utah crushed Ucla when Deshaun Foster was coaching the Bruins
and Ucla was a total clown car amateur hour back then.
So Utah caught Ucla under Deshaun Foster, caught the Bruins
at the right time. And then Utah hammers Arizona State
when Sam Levitt was not in the lineup. You know,
so Utah got Arizona at the right time when the
Sun Devils were uniquely vulnerable. So Utah goes up against
the Cincinnati team that's at the top of the Big
Twelve alongside BYU. Can Utah play a good team well
for the first time this season hasn't really happened yet.
You know, Colorado is not a good team, all right.
I mean it was impressive that Utah put that game
to bed as quickly as it did, But Coloradle is
not good. Can Utah play a really good game against
a quality opponent, And I think it's fair to say
that Cincinnati is a quality opponent. That game is going
to be another big revealer for the Utes this season,
Like if they want to walk away from this season
with something to really feel proud of. You know, they
fell short against Texas Tech, fell short against BYU. This
is the time for Utah to stand up. This is
the time for Kyle Whittingham's team to make a big
statement in a game of considerable national importance, because everybody's
going to be following this one in the nation because
this is you know, if Cincinnati and BYU win their
respective games at the top tier of the Big Twelve,
it's it's almost certain that they're going to be meeting
in the Big Twelve Championship game. The winner goes to
the College Football Playoff. So Utah and BYU on opposite sides.
BYU trying to cement its place at the top of
the conference and Utah not trying to help BYU but
trying to win a big game and knock off Cincinnati.
And of course you have Texas Tech in that mix,
and Texas Tech will try and handle its business against
BYU and then get help from Utah. You know, if
Texas Tech beats BYU and Utah beats Cincinnati, Texas Tech
is going to be sitting very pretty in that Big
twelve race. Briefly mentioned Arizona State, you know, talking about
how Utah thumped the Sun Devils when Sam Levitt was out. Well,
sam Levitt was back in this past weekend against Houston,
got briefly knocked out of the game. Did come back in,
but he wasn't very good. He fumbled to cut short
of promising Arizona State drive. The Sun Devils missed two
field goals, they commit thirteen penalties. This was a horror
show for Kenny Dillingham's Sun Devils. They lose to Houston,
and so Arizona State is pretty much on the ropes
on life support in terms of defending its Big Twelve title.
Arizona State a lot like Illinois. Both Arizona State and Illinois,
let's make this parallel, both ranked in the preseason top
twelve in both polls. They were given a lot of
respect based on what they did last year. And that's
why I don't like preseason polls. It's why I don't
like poles really at all until November. You know, in November,
you've seen enough football to measure a football team, But
first two months of a season, like poles are worthless.
You're trying to see teams evolve and get a sense
of where they are, who they are, what they are
on a state, and Illinois were given a lot of respect.
It's a little more understandable with Arizona State compared to
Illinois because the Sun Devils, you know, went all the
way to the playoff, and they played Texas tough in
that quarterfinal, and you know, they got that bad officiating
late in the game. They really easily could have won
if the officials make better calls. So like Arizona State
climbed higher and Illinois did last season. But even then,
I still don't like the idea of, well, you just
rank a team in the top twelve, top fifteen just
because it did so well last season. Now you got
to each season is its new entity, it's new organism.
You have to let things play out. Is pretty clear
without Cam Skataboo, who I thought, you know, should have
been a Heisman Trophy finalist last season. Without a player
of that quality and that magnitude, I thought Arizona State
was going to be a lot less this season than
what it was in twenty twenty four. You know, that
assessment looks pretty good right now. You know, maybe if
Arizona State puts together a perfect November and all the
dominoes or Plinko chips just happened to fall just right,
maybe Arizona State wiggles its way back into the Big
twelve title game. But that's not likely. And I know that.
You know, we don't regularly cover Houston on the show
because that's more the South than the West. But briefly,
you know that Houston team which handled Arizona State. Houston
led that game twenty four to nothing before ASU made
the late rally for the twenty four to sixteen final.
Houston has only one loss, and so Willie Fritz, who
did it at Tulane, he's now doing it at Houston.
Houston doesn't look like a dominant team, and Houston easily
could have lost to a bad Oregon State club earlier
this season. Was able to rally late, force overtime and
win in the extra period. But hey, having just one loss,
Houston's winning consistently. Houston's winning just about every fifty fifty
game that it plays, so really the Big Twelve In
many ways, it's a story of Cincinnati, it's a story
about Texas Tech, but it's also a story of Cougar's
BYU and Houston both winning all the games that are
up for grabs and showing great resourcefulness in high stress,
high leverage situations. But the other side of Houston's win
is Arizona State's loss, the Sun Devils being knocked back
a few pegs, and there's kind of a reality check
in Tempe for Kenny Dillingham. I think Kenny Dillingham loves
coaching in Tempe, suburban Phoenix. I think he loves the
Sun Devils. I think he's invested there, so I don't
think he's gonna go anywhere, but you could certainly imagine
like Andrew luckin Stanford courting him. Maybe even UCLA gives
Dillingham a call. Again, I think Dillingham stays put. But
that's gonna be an interesting name. How much is his
name going to be floated in the coaching carousel, part
of the drama surrounding Arizona State football and the Big Twelve?
All right, we continue with our survey of western college
football here on, get off my pileon. So we need
to have an Oregon conversation, and we don't need to
have a long one, but we need to have one.
Oregon's offense looks very, very ordinary against Wisconsin. Dante Moore
goes to the medical tent for a bit. It seems
to have escaped a severe long term injury. But you know,
he got pushed around, he got banged up. That's certainly
going to be a story to monitor as we go
into the month of November. But you know, Oregon's offense
got handled by Indiana. The Ducks scored twenty points, but
seven of those points were a pick six. So the offense,
the Oregon offense scored just thirteen now it scores just
twenty one. One commentator did say, you know what, Oregon
didn't look good against Wisconsin last year, and you know
when Wisconsin was not good last year, Wisconsin's worse this year.
But Wisconsin still wasn't very good last year. Oregon barely
gets past the Badgers. Last year, you know, it didn't
really matter. Oregon was still the number one seed. Duck
still went thirteen to Oh. So, just how much stock
are you're gonna put in one who home game against
Wisconsin in which Oregon clearly seemed to be just kind
of it was just kind of a get through it game.
You know, Oregon should be better against you know, more
high profile teams later on in the schedule, But do
you have quite the same level of certitude on that.
You know, just maybe, just maybe Oregon's offense is more
vulnerable broadly than we might have been assuming or being
willing to accept. So it's gonna be interesting as we
get into the latter part of the schedule. Oregon will
play USC, it will play Washington. Those two teams have
just two losses, they have some talent. It's gonna be
interesting to see how Oregon handles that USC Washington double
stack later in the season, so we don't have to
do It's not a five alarm fire. It's not a
major crisis in Eugene, but just something to keep an
eye on, right that the Oregon offense really hasn't been
thumping people regularly. I mean, you know, Oklahoma State is horrible.
We all know that. So scoring sixty nine against Oklahoma
State yet, like that's more about Oklahoma State. I think
it's safe to say need to see more from this
Oregon offense for certain as we go along. All Right,
the other Big Big Ten game involving a Western school
from this past weekend, Washington hammers Illinois forty two twenty five.
The game felt as lopsided as it actually was. I mean,
Washington moved the ball very easily, and really the main
insight here is that, you know, Washington scored just six
points against Ohio State, scored just seven points against Michigan,
scored just three points in the first three quarters against
Maryland before a twenty one point fourth quarter enabled the
Huskies to escape that particular game, Like this offense has
been below average for large portions of play in the
Big Ten season, and so scoring forty two did home
cooking help in Seattle at Husky Stadium to a certain degree, yes,
But really the bigger story is Illinois did not look
the part. Illinois did not look physical, Illinois did not
look prepared. So Illinois was really viewed by a lot
of experts. Now I mentioned earlier Arizona State given that
top twelve preseason treatment, well, Illinois was also given top
twelve preseason placement in the polls back in late August,
Illinois exposed as not ready for prime time. The Illinois,
the Ali and I are now fully out of the
college football playoff race. You know, they hoped they would
be this year what Indiana was last year. Didn't even
come close. Like, they didn't even make it to November
with any playoff or high end aspirations. So they got
shut down. And so credit to Washington after all of
the rough, ugly offensive performances, Jed Fish gets the most
out of DeMont Williams and the rest of this offense,
and so Washington has at least given itself a chance.
You know, I don't think Washington's gonna be Oregon later
this season, but the Huskies at least have a shot.
They do have to get through a road game at
UCLA as well. That could be tricky, but Washington with
only two losses is not entirely out of the conversation
in the Big Ten. And for the playoff, it's really
where USC is, and we're going to talk about USC
in a little bit. So, you know, the Huskies, they
haven't looked steadily good, but in a game they absolutely
had to win, they brought their best fastball against Illinois, So,
you know, Washington able to end a really rough week
for Seattle sports on a positive note. You know, the
Mariners didn't get to their first World Series, but at
least the Huskies were there to brighten some faces in
the Pacific Northwest on Montlake. So it'll be interesting to
see if Washington can carry what happened in the Illinois
game forward into November and especially those late season tests
against UCLA and most of all, the hated Oregon Ducks
Washington Oregon. For those who don't live in the Northwest
and don't follow you know, the West Coast football and
what used to be the Pac Twelve very regularly, let
me just tell you Washington Oregon is a much nastier,
more fierce rivalry than the Apple Cup. Washington Washington State,
or the Civil War Oregon Oregon State Washington Oregon is
the true hate fest in that region, you know, to
a much larger degree. Outsiders might be surprised, but those
who live that rivalry, they know what that means and
they know it's the real deal. So Washington at least
stays in the conversation for now. But the Huskies now
need to be steadily good in a way that they
haven't been previously this season if they want to make
that run at a ten and two record and the playoff,
and maybe it's not likely, but maybe a spot in
the Big Ten championship game. Ohio State and Indiana certainly
seem to have that on lockdown, and it's going to
be hard for anyone to overcome the Buck guys and
the Hoosiers. Speaking of the Hoosiers, we now trans transfer
the show over to that game in the Big Ten.
Indiana fifty six, UCLA six. Not a whole lot to say,
right that, Tim Skipper offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel defensive coordinator
Kevin coyled this interim UCLA staff. We were all waiting,
what's it going to look like against number two Indiana
Kurt Signetti, Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman contender, and the rest
of the of the Indiana Hoosiers fifty six to six
pretty much says it all right. It would seem to
be the case that the dream of retaining this staff,
which still has done a very good job. Like it's
not as though this this staff was exposed. I wouldn't
say the staff was exposed. It was more of UCLA
doesn't have the depth or the physicality to play with
the big boys, and you CLA's wins over Penn State,
Michigan State, and Maryland the previous few weeks, it was
more a commentary on how badly things have slipped at
those other three programs than how uniquely good UCLA was.
But UCLA, with toughness, with some smarts, a lot of hustle,
elbow grease, was able to outclass three sliding Big ten opponents.
But there's nothing about Indiana's that's sliding. There's nothing about
indiana that's mediocre or second rate. UCLA just had a
big jump up in weight class and Indiana looked the
part of the heavyweight team. It appears to be Indiana
very much on course for another playoff season at least
eleven wins, if not twelve for the second straight year.
Kurt Signetti is a master. He's a wizard every positive
label or description you can apply, So UCLA at least
gets clarity. It wasn't fun. It's never fun to eat
a fifty point loss. But at least now we can say,
you know what UCLA needs to start from scratch, needs
to hit the reset button, needs to fire athletic director
Martin Jarmond, needs to get in someone new. That new
athletic director can preside over a head coaching search, and
UCLA can cast a wide net, do its homework, do
its vetting, get the best guy available. But I'm not
going to predict what UCLA does. I would only say
that UCLA should not limit itself like some people say, Well,
UCLA needs a proven head coach. It can't just wing it.
Deshaun Foster was winging it. I get that because he
wasn't a previous head coach. He wasn't a previous coordinator,
all right, But UCLA doesn't necessarily have to get a
head coach. Someone who has head coaching experience. You know,
a coordinator or an assistant can be really good. Think
of Oregon with Dan Lanning. He was Kirby Smart's assistant
at Georgia. So that hire for Oregon worked out really well.
It did not matter that Dan Lanning didn't have prior
experience as a head coach. It's just that Deshaun Foster
did not have previous experience comparable to Dan Lanning. You know.
So getting an established coordinator, that's fine. Just what matters
is is it the right fit? Is it someone with
the competence and the vision, just you know, not vetting
Deshaun Foster, not really drilling down into the details, which
is why Martin Jartman needs to be fired, like he
presided over that mess. That's what you Sily needs to
do this time around. Dive deep into the details. Make
sure you get a detail oriented guy who really has
the vision and the plan backwards and forwards. Not just
someone who's liked by the players, Not just someone who's
popular in the locker room or beloved among alumnias Deshan
Foster was when he took that job. You need the
guy who can actually put it all together. UCLA can
go for a coordinator will Stein of Oregon. The offensive
coordinator for Oregon is certainly a possibility, but util could
also go to a proven veteran. But it could also
go to a coach from the group of five ranks
who's ready to move up. Like so, UCLA should not
limit itself. UCLA should not put itself in one narrow
box or silo. It should cast a wide net and
it should take its time vetting candidates and come up
with the best choice. You know in this game of
musical chairs that the coaching carousel is going to be
with so many coaches relocating, it's going to be really
interesting for UCLA, Like do you want to pick off
a candidate as soon as the regular season is over,
or do you want to actually wait and see some
of these chess moves, like this guy might go to LSU,
and that guy might go to Virginia Tech, and that
guy might go to an opening at Stanford Oregon State,
And then after several coaches change jobs, then you can
find a candidate in the right position at the right moment.
It's the timing of these moves in the carousel is
going to be really interesting to watch. But UCLA should
not limit itself by category or type. UCLA needs to
be doing its homework but of course doing homework with
an athletic director who knows football, Martin Jarmond. The current
ad does not know football, and so that's the first
order of business, firing Jarmond and then getting into replacement
before it's too late. All right, And USC the other
West Coast team in the Big Ten we haven't talked about.
USC had the week off, so the Trojans didn't lose.
Their next game is Nebraska, and that is a lead
defining game for both teams, for both head coaches Matt
Roll of Nebraska Lincoln Riley of UFC. It's a game
that's very similar to what we just saw with Illinois
and Washington, a couple of two loss teams. So it's
a playoff elimination game. It's a Big Ten title game
eliminator as well, so you know, the losers season is
over in terms of aspiring to bigger, higher goals. The
winner at least stays alive and gives itself a chance.
So you know, Washington eliminated Illinois from everything, and Washington
at least enters November with a chance. Same dynamics supply
to USC and Nebraska, and it's worth just reflecting for
a little bit on this game. You know, six years ago,
Lincoln Riley and Matt Rule met in the Big twelve
CHAMGISIP game. Oh Oklahoma played Baylor. The winner went to
the College Football Playoff. That game went into overtime. Oklahoma
barely slipped by Baylor. But you know, watching Lincoln Riley
and Matt Rule that day six years ago, I thought, Hey,
these guys are going to be around for a long time.
They're gonna crush it. They're gonna be great head coaches.
They're gonna be like the next faces of a new
generation of college football coaches. You know. Matt Role, Let's
remember he was awesome at Temple before coming to Baylor. Now,
he won the American Conference Championship at Temple. That, you know,
just transcended all expectations there. So it's not as though
he just had one good brief run at Baylor. He
was good at Temple before. I mean, that's important to
point out. And it's just so jarring to see both
men so clearly struggling right now. Nebraska barely beat Northwestern
at home this past weekend, and it wasn't because Northwestern
played great. Northwestern quarterback Preston Stone was bad. He was
committing turnovers, all sorts of bad plays. Like, given how
poorly Preston Stone played for Northwestern, if Nebraska's Nebraska, if
things are going right, that should be a thirty seven
Nebraska win. Instead, it was a squeaker. It went right
down to the final minutes. Nebraska's not a good team
right now, and the record might tell you otherwise. You know,
the Huskers have just two losses through October heading into
that November first game against USC. They're not as good
as their record. They're certainly not playing as well as
their record might suggest. And I think the same pretty
much goes for USC. Only two losses, but have not
seen USC play a really good game against a really
good team. And no, I don't think Michigan's a really
good team. If you watch Michigan Michigan State, that was
a very mistake field game, exasperating on both sides, just
that Michigan State was actually worse than Michigan. Like, I
don't think Michigan is all that special. I'm waiting to
see both USC and Nebraska play well. And so because
our focus is on USC more than Nebraska. Here at
get off my pylon. It comes down to a very
simple thing. When was the last time a Lincoln Riley
team at USC played a really good road game, again
against moderately good opposition. Lincoln Riley's best road win to
date in three and a half seasons at USC was
at Oregon State back in twenty twenty two, and that
was not a great Oregon State team. That Oregon State
team was good, but not amazing. And that's Lincoln Riley's
best road win in three and a half seasons on
the job with the Trojans. So can USC go into
Lincoln at night national television and beat the Huskers? Now,
in terms of how these teams match up, USC has
more talented Jade and Mayava is a better quarterback, better passer,
better everything than Dylan Reyola. USC has better receivers than Nebraska.
USC's offensive line has been good, Like, there's no excuse
for USC to not win this game. USC absolutely should
win this game. But can you trust USC on the
road at night? Haven't been able to under Lincoln Riley? Like,
what what should happen? Does not happen? And so even
though USC opens as a six point favorite, let's remember
USC was a six and a half point favorite at
Illinois lost that game outright. So you know, Vegas thinks
USC should win. I think USC should win. But should
and will are two very different things. And so if
USC loses to Nebraska, man the pitchforks, which frankly among
the fan base, they're already out for Lincoln Riley at USC.
But if us he loses to Nebraska, it would just
undercut him and kneecap him with the fan base that
much more. And it's going to be a very ugly,
ugly reality for Lincoln Riley if he can't beat Nebraska
this coming weekend. I will wait for that game to
play out.
Speaker 5: But let me just tell you, if us he does lose,
when we do this show next week, we're going to
have a very very severe conversation about Lincoln Riley and USC.
Speaker 2: So that's our survey of western college football teams.
Speaker 3: Here at Get Off My Pylon, we're part of the
College Gridlon Coast to Coast podcast network Gridron Coast on Twitter, Apple, Spotify, Speaker,
wherever you get your podcasts, that's where you want to
catch all your favorite college Gridiron Coast to Coast shows,
Pigskin and Burnt Ends, Yards and Stripes that covers the
service Academies.
Speaker 2: You also have the All Sports Discussion crew on the ACC.
You have Jason Powers in Florida Football Insiders. You have
Noah Drury on Big Ten Paradigm covering you know the
Midwestern teams. We focus on the Western Big Ten teams,
but Noah's focusing on the whole Big Ten and especially
the teams in the Midwest. You know, the old guard
of the conference, not these four new interlopers from the
West Coast. So Norah Drury has Big Ten Paradigm. All
those shows part of the family of podcasts on College
Grid coast to coast. So this is Met Zenek. Thanks
for listening to another episode of Get Off My Pylon.
We will talk to you next week.