Speaker 1: Checking 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 Zemi. Welcome to to Get Off
My Pilon college football podcast. This is your host, Matt Zemec.
This episode is part of the College Gridiron Coast to
Coast podcast Network. Follow all your College Gridiron Coast to
Coast podcasts at Apple and other places where you get
your podcasts podcast across the country. It's that network of
podcasts that we've been working with here at Get Off
My Pilon the past few seasons. Back for another year
in twenty twenty four. So this episode of Get Off
My Pion under the College Gridiron banner, covering once again
western college football in the United States. So not really
PAC twelve football, though I guess you could technically say
that Oregon State and Washington State, you know, are representing
what's left of the past PAC twelve. The Husk that's
that's left of the PAC twelve legally as a as
a technicality, but for all intents and purposes, we do
not have a PAC twelve football season. But you know,
you can catch Oregon State and Washington State home games
on the CW network. Tom Brenneman, after a four year
exile for you know what, back on the airwaves at CW.
So good for him, Like that's time served. You know,
he paid, he paid his price. He sat out for
several years, like it derailed his career, time served, So
like that's fair, Like he's received the significant punishment for
what he did. But now he's back on the air
at the CW. Washington State looked extremely good, Oregon State decent.
But we're going to find out a lot more about
those teams in the coming weeks. Oregon State goes to
San Diego State in week two. That should be an
interesting game. But of course you didn't come here to
listen to primarily insights about Oregon State and washing State,
although you know, it's definitely worth covering those teams, and
we don't want to forget about them simply because they're
not in a twelve team conference anymore. We're definitely going
to pay attention to the Beavers and Cougars and see
what they do, and you know, we do want them
to do well because obviously they were wronged, they were
jobbed by the destruction of the PAC twelve by George
Klafkoff and most importantly the CEO group responsible for the
conference's demise. It was all very preventable. But you know,
in the new world of western college football in the
United States, part of our focus here on get off
my Pylon. We now have to deal with the reality
that for West Coast schools, USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon
are now part of the Big Ten. It just doesn't
make any sense. But of course, you know, Lincoln Riley
equipped that has some pretty impressive Big Ten football today
after USC VT LSU, Yes, nothing says Big Ten like
USC LSU, But technically it was a very big win
for the Big Ten and for USC, and that's really
our starting point in western college football. After Week one,
USC making the statement, and you know, in the off season,
so many people were saying, Lincoln Riley doesn't take defense seriously.
And you know, the fact that he did not fire
Alex Prince right after the Cotton Bowl against Tulane at
the end of the twenty twenty two season in early
January of twenty twenty three. The fact that he didn't
fire Alex Princh right then, you know that showed he
was unserious and that was by far Lincoln Riley's most unserious, immature,
not very grown up move as a college football coach.
And you know he paid a very steep price for
that mistake in twenty twenty three, squandering Kayleb Williams last
college season. There was a lot of talent on that
USC roster, but its potential was not realized, and Lincoln
Riley had to know Alex Grinch was not the best
he could do USC. He had to have known that
after the Cotton Bowl lost to Tulane forty six to
forty five, USC getting shredded by the Group of Five
champion in a bowl game, Lincoln Riley had to have
known that it was never going to work out with
Alex Brinch. But yet he doubled down as though, I
can't fire a guy after one year. Hey, if you
know the guy's not going to cut it, if you
know the guy's not going to reach a standard, you
need to fire him and you need to get in
the professionals. You need to bring in credentialed guys. So
apparently Lincoln Riley had to go seven to five. He
had to endure the humiliation of the twenty twenty three
season to finally find religion, The scales finally fell from
his eyes, finally saw reality for what it was. He
finally gained clarity, brought in Danton Lynn, his defensive coordinator,
and not just that, he pried Matt Enz, a very
successful multi National Championship FCS coach, away from the North
Dakota State dynasty. He gets Aaron Donald's position coach Eric
Henderson from the Rams, and of course Aaron Donald retiring
is precisely what enabled that to happen. You'd think they
Aaron Donald if he stays with the Rams another year,
that Eric Henderson stays with the Rams another year and
he doesn't go to USC. But because Donald retired, that
opened the door for Lincoln Riley to poach Eric Henderson,
bring him to USC, and then Doug Belk coming from Houston.
That's another quality edition Lincoln Riley made. And let's not
forget Taylor May's former star safety for USC went to
the NFL. He's been an analyst for Riley and he
was the interim secondary coach in the Holiday Bowl Dante Williams,
who did a terrible job coaching. He was a good recruiter,
but a terrible coach. Donte Williams left to go recruit
for Kirby Smart at Georgia. Taylor Mays was the interim
secondary coach for USC in the Holiday Bowl, and after
a season of terrible performances, in that Holiday Bowl, USC's
secondary began to tackle again. You saw USC's secondary play
fundamentally sound football. The Holiday Bowl was Taylor Mays this
game against LSU. It was this village, this new community
of grown up, credential defensive coaches that Lincoln Riley has assembled.
So when we consider the media drum beat, the media
narrative all off season about Lincoln Riley not being serious,
well it was true the past several years, but then
he hired all these defensive coaches, and those of us
who cover and follow USC were saying, Okay, Lincoln Riley
hasn't been serious about defense in the past. There's zero
question about that. We're not arguing that, we're not litigating that.
But when Lincoln Riley hired Danton Lynn and all these
other excellent defensive assistants, that showed that he had become
serious about defense. And I guess for a lot of
people it was just a matter of I need to
see it before I believe I need to see it
before I can trust it. But that narrative that Lincoln
Riley didn't take defense, doesn't take defense seriously present tense,
that was really undercut by what he did in the
off season. And then you saw the proof in the pudding.
You saw the evidence that actually Lincoln Riley now has
a legitimate defensive staff at USC. He now has guys
around him who really know what they're doing. They know
how to teach, they know how to bring about a
physical style of play. They know how to get guys
to hit properly, they know how to get guys to
tackle properly. You saw all of that against LSU. And
beyond the technique, you know, knowing how to teach the
art of football and the art of tackling. Beyond that,
what also shined through for USC is you know, there
was that fit, that ten minute window midway through the
second half, getting into the midway period of the fourth quarter,
when it seemed that everything was going to crash and
burn for USC. LSU had the ball up seventeen thirteen,
with the offensive line was beginning to lean on USC
Trojan offense was struggling after squandering a lot of scoring
opportunities in the first half. You know, USC could have
been up like twenty three, thirteen, twenty four, seventeen, but
because USC couldn't build a seven or ten point lead,
LSU was still able to run the ball. If LSU
was down by ten in the fourth quarter, Tigers probably
have to throw the ball. They wouldn't have been able
to establish the ground game of John Emery the way
they did, so LSU had the ball up for and
you're thinking LSU is beginning to wear down USC, at
least that's how I looked for a brief sliver of
time for a few minutes. But USC finds backbone, finds
an extra level of resolve, like something you did not
see last year at all with this team against a
good opponent, and the Trojans stop LSU. They keep the
game close, they get the twenty to seventeen lead. Then
LSU comes back down the field and you're thinking, well, okay,
you know they've played so well for three and a
half quarters, but you know ls was gonna find a
way past this USC defense. Gallant effort, but they're gonna
come up short. No, they still stiffened. They made one
more red zone stop. They keep the game at twenty
twenty with a field goal instead of going down twenty
four to twenty. That gives Miller, Moss and the USC
offense an extra measure of comfort knowing they just need
a field goal to win, and they get down to
the LSU thirteen and they're able to actually punch it
in and not worry about a chip shot field goal.
USC had missed a chip shot at the end of
the first half. But you know, with that extra comfort zone,
knowing they didn't have to score a touchdown, it was
great if they did, but they didn't have to score it.
USC able to manage the clock on that final drive,
score in the final seconds and beat LA. This is
Lincoln Riley with the defense. Folks like Lincoln Riley, the
way he had Meller Moss ready to play the way
Moss and credit to him, like the players have to
do it too. But it's not just the coach and
the scheme. The players have to execute that scheme. Melor
Moss did so extremely well. He could have had a
couple touchdown passes. But Kyron Hudson, the guy who made
those amazing one handed suction cup grabs, he didn't make
a few far easier catches in the end zone. He
allowed LSU defenders to reach through his body and strip
the ball away after the ball was on his two hands.
So Kyen Hudson needs to go into the weight room
and he needs to be able to keep possession of
balls once they're on his hands. So those could have
been Miller Moss touchdowns US. He did not get seven
points in those situations. But Kyroen Hudson makes that final catch.
LSU has the targeting penalty. Melar Moss with a great performance,
and it underscores Lincoln Riley's identity as the ultimate quarterback
whisperer in college football. There's just no one in the
college game who teaches that position better. Kaylan de Boer,
you could put him right there with Riley, but you
won't put him ahead of Riley. And that's only because
Riley just keeps stacking these success stories Baker Mayfield, Tyler Murray,
Kayleb Williams, all number one draft picks and Heisman Trophy winners.
De Boer, you could have said that, you know, Michael
Pennix deserved to win the Heisman last year. So I
mean Deboor like he knows what he's doing. Jalen Millroe
looks great at Alabama, but as great as DeBoer is
as a quarterback teacher, Riley has an even bigger, fatter
resume in the college game. If you want to say
that Riley's one A and de Boer is one B,
that's fair. Uh, if you want to say they're basically
on the same level, I mean I would say Riley's
done more, but I can still live with that. But
but you can't say that de Boer has done more
than you definitely cannot say that about quarterback success stories
in college football. So Lincoln Riley, he's going to teach
the quarterback position. He's going to coach him up there.
His offense should be good. And the one really big
question mark that I've had all off season at USC
and I'm going to continue to carry that into this
Michigan game that we have in a few weeks on
September twenty first, Like, I'm sold on this defense. I
was sold on this defense in the offseason because of
these new assistant coaches. They all seem to get it,
and the LSU game proved that they get it. So
I was sold on the defense. You know Alex Sprinch
was gone, So like that for me, that turned the
page for USC's defense. Sold on this defense, sold on
Lincoln Riley's quarterback coaching with Meler Moss, sold on the
wide receivers that USC has. The real question is the
offensive line. And the offensive line did a solid job.
Wouldn't call it a great job because this offensive line
struggled to run block us. He really couldn't run the
ball at all, So that's certainly a limitation. And Milner Moss,
he p Pro Football Focused, said he was pressured only
three times on dropbacks, but he was throwing the ball quickly.
You know, he wasn't eating the ball the way Caleb
Williams did last year. He was getting rid of the
ball quickly. That helped reduce sacks and pressures. But the
other thing is Miler Moss still took several hits, and
you know he was shaking his hand midway through the game.
That's because his offense he hit the hand on the
back of his offensive lineman who was being shoved back
toward Moss. That happened several times, a lineman being shoved
back into Milner Moss. So it's not as though this
offensive line was dominant, but it was decent, and it
did provide good pass protection in a number of third
down situations. It was provided very good pass protection on
the final two drives and especially in that last two
minut drill leading to the winning score. Good, you know,
a decent performance by the offensive line. And if that,
if the offensive line can be decent, you know, I
put that at like a C plus B minus. If
it can be decent, USC will be a very good team.
If the offensive line can go from decent to very strong, U,
USC will be a college football playoff team. Because you've
got that win over LSU, gonna beat Utah State, we
don't need to worry about that one. So USC would
be two to zero. If USC against this schedule in
twenty twenty four goes ten and two, it's getting in
your us. He is not getting left out at ten
and two with this schedule because there are too many
good teams on the docket. LSU's one big win already
in the bank. USC plays Wisconsin, Penn State, Washington on
the road, Notre Dame. You know, if USC is going
ten and two, and of course the Michigan game on
September twenty first, I should have just included that in
the list of really big games. So Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn State,
Notre Dame, Washington. If USC is going ten and two,
that means USC is losing only two of those five
games Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn State, Washington on the road, Notre Dame. Okay,
If USC, you know, wins three of those five and
wins all the other big ten games on its schedule,
Trojans are not getting left out. It's just not going
to happen. You know, there are going to be teams
with nine and three records that might have a few
good wins, they're not going to have more good wins
than USC. If USC is ten and two, So really
circling around, circling back and summing things up with USC.
Lincoln Riley changed in the offseason. I mean, he made
a grown up adult defensive coordinator higher, he made grown
up adult a defensive assistant hires, He dumped out ex grinch,
he finally divorced him, like he had his moment of conversion,
he had his epiphany, and a lot of the national
media just seemed to say, well, you know, he was
horrible last season and he's been horrible on defense the
past several years, really, so we don't think he's going
to be good on defense this year at USC. Well,
you know, he made these changes and no one in
the media seemed to give him any credit. So now
like Lincoln Riley has grown up as a coach, he
didn't grow up against LSU. He grew up in January
when he was making all these assistant hires and realizing, oh,
I need to really take defense seriously. That was his
moment of conversion. This game against LSU. We just saw
the fruits of that conversion, but the actual conversion itself,
the transformation of Lincoln Riley that had happened in December
and January, all right, continuing on with West Coast teams
in the Big Ten. Oregon, Wow, that was really shocking.
The Ducks win, but they win a very shaky, close
game at home against Idaho and Dylan Gabriel completed a
ton of passes and the numbers on the stat sheet
looked great, but obviously what that tells you Moregan's scoring
just twenty four points with Gabriel completing over forty passes
tells you that Oregon was just completing a lot of
short stuff wasn't completing the alarm ball. And there's an
interesting parallel here USC against LSU. USC gave LSU the
short pass all my long and Garrett Nelsmayer did look
good and his stats did look good. But USC hell
of LSU to twenty points. So that should tell you
something on a wider level, forced quarterbacks to throw ten
complete passes per drive to score a touchdown. You know
they'll complete eight passes, they'll get into the red zone.
But then if you can diffen in the red zone
and you limit a team to a field goal or
you can get a fourth down stop, I mean catches
and yards. Obviously you need them as building blocks of
successful touchdown drives. But yards and catches are not the
same as points and that like. So that should be
a lesson for a lot of coaches across college football.
Be willing to give up first downs, be willing to
give up yards. Those are not the final measurements of
a defense, or for that matter, an offense. It's points.
It's points. You know, feel free to give up a
lot of short stuff. Just don't get beaten long, don't
give up the splash play. Make these guys execute over
and over and over and over again to beat you.
And so that is what Oregon ran into against Idaho.
A lot for Dan Lanning to clean up. And I
would say this, I don't think it's time to panic
at Oregon after one game. Let's keep in mind, you
can't you can't say that the guys in that locker
room were really jacked up to play that game against Idaho.
You're just not gonna play every game with the same
amount of intensity. I would expect a much more intense,
much more focused, and a lot better performance from Oregon
coming up in Week two against Boise State. Because Boise
State's a brand name, Boise State has a target on
its back, Boise State's a prominent program. I would think
that Oregon's gonna really hammer Boise State. But now, if
Oregon can't light up Boise State, and Boise State gave
up a ton of points to Georgia Southern in Week one,
I mean, won the game, but the defense looked terrible.
If Oregon and Dylan Gabriel and that offense cannot light
up Boise State's defense, okay, then we have a conversation.
Then we have a deeper conversation about the Ducks going forward.
But not gonna panic after one week. Remember we don't
have preseason games. Week one being messy, that's going to happen.
Oregon knew it could get away with a messy game
against Idaho, So not going to be concerned about Oregon
just yet. But Boise State, Yeah, we're going to be
paying attention to that one here on, Get off my pilot. Washington.
You know, defense looked very solid against Weber State, but
of course it was Weber State, so you know, Washington
took care of business in a workman like way. Decent
opener for Jedfish. But we're just getting started there. Don't
have any deep overarching thoughts like Washington did exactly was
it was expected to do, but nothing more so there's
no dramatic storyline there. Other the other West Coast team
in the Big Ten, Ucla, this is going to get ugly.
I think barely squeaking by Hawaii. Hawaii did not look
very good against Delaware State in its Week one game.
Ucla just barely crawling past Hawaii by on a late
field goal. That does not bode well for Deshaun Foster.
This offense looks awful. The Big Ten figures to chew
up UCLA. My preseason prediction for UCLA two to ten
and one of the wins being over Hawaii. Can't say
I've seen anything. I saw anything in Week one to
make me rethink that prediction. UCLA needs to prove that
it can swim in these Big ten waters. I think
this year could be very, very ugly for the Bruins
if they don't find answers on offense very quickly, if
they don't make a significant leap forward as they continue
with their Big ten season. Other Pac twelve exiles teams
that we're going to be following in a conference other
than the Pac twelve. So Stanford loses to TCU, but
put up a fight. And one thing to remember, Troy
Taylor had a very good recruiting haul for this twenty
twenty four cycle. These guys are young now. This team's
not going to be the fully realized product early in
the season. This is definitely a case of a team
that probably in late October early November, one would think
if Stanford just improves significantly over the course of this season,
and that the team we see in November is far far,
far better than the team that we see now, that
will give Troy Taylor the reason to think that in
twenty twenty five he can have a really good team.
It's not all going to come together at once for
Stanford this season, but if that team can be a
lot better in November than all those freshmen, those quality
freshmen that Taylor brought in, they could really blossom a
year from now. Cal, also in the ACC had a
terrible first half against UC Davis. Nothing says ACC football
quite like Cal hosting UC Davis in Berkeley, but Cal
did play better in the second half. Cal now goes
to Auburn in Week two and Auburn put up over
seventy points against a cupcake. Now there's just a cupcake
Alabama and m but still over seventy points. Auburn's offense
actually looked good, Peyton Thorn coming back for the Tigers
at quarterback. Last year, Auburn was atrocious in Berkeley in
an absolutely brutal, miserable performance against the Golden Bears. So
this year it's in Jordenhare Stadium, you'd think that Auburn
would be a lot better. It's up to Cal to
prove that it can stand in there against Auburn. There
are some injury questions about Jade and Nott California star
running back as of Monday, and that situation might be
updated later in the week, but Justin Wilcox didn't have
an immediate update on Jaydatt's status. Cal definitely needs him
against Auburn, so let's put it that way. That's pretty simple.
And Cal's offensive line looked really bad for large portions
of the game against UC Davis. Cal has to come
up with something much better on the offensive line if
it has any chance of keeping that Auburn game close
into the fourth quarter with any remote chance to win.
I do not like Cal's chances very much going into
the plans continuing on with former Pac twelve schools. They're
still in the West, they're just not in the Pac twelve.
The Utah crushed Southern Utah. It's cupcake game. We'll learn
a lot more about the Utes against Baylor. INBK two.
Arizona so Noah, Flafita Tetroya McMillan. They did their thing,
Arizona putting up over sixty points against New Mexico. But
Arizona gave up a boatload of points to New Mexico.
If if you're getting torched by New Mexico's offense that
is alarming. So that is definitely a cause for concern
for first year coach Brent Brennan. Gonna be interesting to
see if Arizona could make significant improvements on defense. That's
gonna be the thing to watch for after a very
concerning Week one against New Mexico. Arizona State Kenny Dillingham
I didn't I wasn't very high on him at Auburn
and Florida State. I wasn't sold on his ability to
help Bonis at Oregon. I was very wrong about that.
Kenny Dellingham did a great job with Bonix two years
ago at Oregon under Dan Lanning. He goes to Arizona State,
and you know, Arizona State didn't have a good rec
last year, but the Sun Devils were absolutely chewed up
by injuries. Dillionham really did a good job under the circumstances. Now,
with a healthier team, what we're we gonna see in
twenty twenty four. Early returns are positive. ASU just got
all on top of Wyoming, just absolutely smothered the Cowboys
to put a beat down on Wyoming. Very impressive. Arizona
State was just a six and a half point favorite
was up twenty seven nothing midway through the second quarter.
Very good opening in twenty twenty four for Kenny Dillingham.
So Arizona State, you know, might be able to get
to six and six, might be able to get to
a bowl. Funny to be encouraged about there. Colorado, you
know what, Dion Sanders is just running an amateur hour operation.
He runs off his offensive coordinator, Sean Lewis, He's running
off a lot of other players we do not deserve
and we do not need to talk about him any
more than is absolutely necessary. He's gotten way too much
media attention. Let's see what does at Nebraska. I don't
think it's gonna end well for the Buffs. But if
Colorad can go into Lincoln for a night game this
is on Nbcmpeacock in week two. If Colorall can go
on the road at night into Memorial Stadium and beat Nebraska, okay,
that would get our attention. Then we talk a lot
more about the Buffs. But as for now, right now,
not not sold on that. So that there is a
lot to go through with all of these teams. In
terms of the group of five we mentioned Boise State.
The other group of five team worth mentioning UNLV. UNLV
slide underdog at Houston. And remember Houston coach now by
Willie Fritz, who did the fantastic job at Tulane. You're thinking,
all right, Willie Fritz, He's probably gonna have the answers
for Houston in the Big Twelve going up against UNLV,
Houston was a two and a half point favorite. UNLV
absolutely blows the doors off Houston. There was an absolute route.
UNLV is looking very good and could really be a
factor in the Group of five this season. Like, that's
the other big Western college football story outside of the
Power conferences. Barry Odom continuing to do a really good
job at UNLV. All right, before we sign off on
this college great on Coast to Coast podcast, this edition
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here on College Gridiron Coast to Coast more Western college
football coming your way next week. We'll see what Week
two brings after week one. So this is your host,
Matt Zemk. Thanks for listening to Get Off My Pylon
Your West in College Football, a podcast on the College
Greater on Coast to Coast Podcast Network