Speaker 1: Check it out. College football on the West Coast. This
is Get Off My pilone Look at the PAC twelve
and more, part of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast
podcast Network. Here's your host, that's Zimmy. Welcome to the
latest edition if you Get Off My Pilon college football podcast.
This is your host, Matt Zemmit. Get Off My Pilon
part of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast network.
Cash all your favorite grid College Gridiron Coast to Coast
podcasts at Gridiron Coast on Twitter and at Apple Speaker,
Spotify the other places where you listen to your podcasts
on the web. Noah Drury has the Big Ten Paradigm.
He's going to be previewing Michigan and Ohio State this week.
Florida Football Insiders with Jason Powers, Miami staying in the
playoff hunt, Florida State retaining Mike Norvel, Florida battling LSU
for Lane Kiffin. So many points of intrigue in the
state of Florida, So Jason Powers has that on his
College grid Iron Coast to Coast podcast. There's the All
Sports Discussion podcast covering the acc Pit with the huge
win over Georgia Tech and SMU trying to close in
on back to back appearances in the ACC Championship game.
We have CAL firing justin Wilcox and CAL of course
now in ACC program. So that's also part of what
the All Sports Discussion ACC podcast is going to cover.
Yards and Stripes and the Service Academy's Army with an
ugly loss to Tulsa, a game it never should have lost,
but the Army Navy game just a few weeks away,
so you know that's going to be a talking point
for Yards and Stripes. Navy also still in the hunt
in the American Conference with a group of five championship
in playoff berth. So Yards and Stripes has you covered? There?
Just so many interesting podcasts on the different flavors of
college football in the different regions of the country, all
here under our umbrella at the College Great Iron Coast
to Coast podcast. Get off my pile and we cover
college football in the West. So let's get to it.
Week thirteen done, just one more full service Saturday before
Conference Championship Saturday. So we're getting down to it. Mountain West.
San Diego State beats San Jose State, so San Diego
State closing in on a spot on the Mountain West
championship game. Boise State still in the hunt. You know,
the Mountain West will not be part of the Group
of five championship race, but a conference championship still means
a whole lot in San Diego State in the best
position to play for the Mountain West championship with one
week of football left in the conference before you know,
realignment's going to scramble everything in twenty twenty six. So
the Aztecs under Sean Lewis, it's gonna be interesting to
see if Sean Louis is going to be a candidate
in the carousel. Is he going to go to cal
Is he gonna go to Stanford? Is he gonna go
to UCLA? Lots of Western openings and we're gonna get
to that in a little bit. But Sean Lewis definitely
making a statement this season, the magnificent job he's done
in San Diego for team to lot. Okay, so that's
the Mountain West again. The Mountain West just hasn't hit
the spot this season, so we haven't really had a
whole lot to talk about. They're in the two pack.
Washington State, what an exasperating team. And what an exasperating
season for Washington State. You know, lose to Oregon State,
a bad Oregon State team that fired its coach midseason,
and yet Washington State very nearly won at Virginia, a
team that could play for the ACC title. In Washington
State very nearly beat James Man. Is it a team
that's still alive in the Group of five championship? Hunt
Washington State, you know, flying across the country playing good
teams on the road in the state of Virginia, comes
oh so close in really good performances. And let's not
forget Washington State lost at Ole Miss by just a
field goal. Like this team has played some really good
football against some really good opponents. And then you look
at how did this team lose to Oregon State and
why is this team not better overall? Also, Washington State
lost to North Texas by forty nine points. I mean,
North Texas has a good offense, but Washington State has
scored only ten against North Texas. It's been a wacky
up and down season and so you know, it's frustrating
that the Cougars aren't getting the results that they want.
But on the other hand, like this team's been competitive
against quality opposition on the road, so there is some
there are seeds of hope for next year in Pollman
a really bizarre, hard to pin down year for Washington
State football, but you know, a really well played game
against James Madison. The Cougar's made the Dukes and potential
coaching carousel candidate Bob Chesney earned every bit of that
twenty four to twenty win. It was a close one
the whole way. And of course, you know Oregon State
is moving on a coaching hire, and it brings up
the point as we kind of we can go from
the two pack to the ACC and kind of bundle
them all together. So Oregon State, Stanford, and now CAL
with Justin Wilcox getting fired, those three former PAC twelve schools.
You know, Washington State and Oregon State are technically PAC twelve,
but you know what I mean, the old PAC twelve schools.
From the old PAC twelve, there are four vacant seats
both Bay Area schools, Cal joins Stanford with the Justin
Wilcox move, Oregon State and UCLA, that's four vacant seats
from old PAC twelve members. It's gonna be fascinating to see,
you know, if any of those schools are competing against
each other, and we haven't even mentioned like what if
Jonathan Smith gets fired at Michigan State, does Oregon State
seek a reunion or have the bridges been burned in Corvallis.
That's gonna be fascinating to look at. So let's talk
a little bit more about Callen Stanford. So they played Stanford, won,
Stanford with two defensive scores. It was a meltdown for Cal,
and that leads us into the Justin Wilcox firing. Somewhat
surprising maybe, but not an earthquake. The fact that Cal
brought a board alumnus Ron Rivera, you know, a guy
who's coached in the Super Bowl, you know, a long
NFL career as player and coach. When Cal brought aboard
Ron Rivera as gm UH, one had to think that,
you know what, the bar is going to be raised,
The expectations are going to be higher. Justin Wilcox can't
get away with, you know, winning six or seven games.
Cal wants to be a nine win program and so
this this move really confirms that aspiration. Now, whether Cal
becomes a nine win program, that's a separate matter, but
Cal definitely wants to play with the big boys in Berkeley.
Cal definitely wants to aim higher. So Ron Rivera like
put an end to this Justin Wilcox, you know, middle
of the road tenure. Will Cox. Remember he didn't leave
Berkeley four years ago when Marrio Cristobal bolted for Miami.
Dan Lanning of course got the job. Justin Wilcox, according
to insiders, could have had that job if you wanted it,
but he said no. And Justin Wilcox made the calculation.
And you know, for a long time this calculation worked
out for him, just in terms of job security. He
he seemed to have an arrangement where, you know what,
I'm not gonna pursue other jobs and in exchange for
giving you Berkeley stability. You know, I'm not gonna go anywhere,
but you're gonna get me job security. And like that
arrangement kept Wilcox around as the cow head coach longer
than results might have warranted. But it seems as though
there was a wink wink, nod, nod, nudge nudge kind
of agreement between the coach and Berkeley administration. Let's remember
COVID in twenty twenty twenty twenty one. Like, I know,
we don't like to remember that time, but this is
relevant to the story that you know, there were the
severe lockdowns in Berkeley, you know, very liberal area treated
COVID differently from other parts of the United States, so
it was really hard to recruit, really hard to get
into the portal and procure elite talent. So Justin Wilcox
was given some grace there. So the program was a drift.
Willcox was legitimately on the hot seat at previous points
over the past several years, but there seemed to be
an agreement and an awareness that you know what, I'll
stay here, give you stability. I might not give you
spectacular results, but like I'll get to bawl games at
least at least some of the time, and in exchange,
you know, you keep me aboard. And it worked for
a while just in terms of Justin Wilcox preserving his
place as an FBS and power for head coach. But
the Ron Rivera arrival changed everything, and the Ron Rivera
higher as general managers part of a trend that we're
seeing in college football and it's been very much in
evidence in the West. You know Andrew luck being brought
aboard as the general manager at Stanford, and one has
to think that Ron Rivera's thought process was, Hey, Stanford's
hiring a new coach. I think we need it's time
for our upgrade as well. And of course seeing Stanford
with an interim Frank Reich, you know, wiping the floor
with cal that that told Ron Rivera everything he needed
to know. But you know, USC has gotten a general manager,
Chad Boden from Notre Dame that hires what has improved
USC's recruiting, Like it's not as though Lincoln Riley figured
out how to recruit, No, it was Chad Boden coming
in streamlining the NIL operation. Like he's the one getting
the high end recruits. He's the one who knows how
to shop for whole foods, level groceries and so the
GM position. You're seeing the influence of this, especially when
schools hire someone who's really skilled, really adept at handling
that administrative position. And it is certainly at Stanford. Andrew
Lux the guy driving the bus. You know, he's running
the program. It's not the head coach anymore. In some places,
Stanford is one of them. And now we can say
very clearly, Cal's the other. You know, Ron Rivera sachs
Justin Wilcox, he's the guy in charge, he's the captain now,
So what's going on at Cal? Also Stanford reflective of
the different administrative dynamics that are changing, you know, in
terms of the pyramid of authority and who has power,
who has clout that is changing in college football, and
the Bay Area, the West coast state of California all
very representative of these trends, these emerging trends, these shifting
wins in college football. So there's more to say about
Cow because of the Justin Wilcox fire. And I was
not planning, of course, I'm talking a lot about Cal
this week. But when you have a coach firing, yes,
it becomes a bigger story. So Jeran kiahwe Sagapolutele, the
talented young quarterback at Cal, part of the Golden Bears,
significant nil investments, so he has a decision to make now.
And you have to think that Ron Rivera made this
firing of Justin Wilcox with a candidate or two in mind,
or maybe just a plan in mind. Maybe the plan
could be, Hey, Ryan Harrison, he won a lot at
Boise State. Obviously failed at Auburn. That's a separate story,
but hey, he wanted Boise State. He knows how to
recruit the West. Maybe we elevate him from Cal offensive
coordinator to head coach and maybe that keeps a sagapolu
Tell in Berkeley. I don't know, but I mean that
that could be what Ron Rivera is thinking. If he's
not going to elevate Harson Brian Harrison to head coach,
then you know what candidate would keep Sagapolutelle who By
the way, you know you can do the initials. JKS
just wanted to say sagapol Utella a few times to
get that into the bloodstream. But from now on we'll
just refer to him as JKS. Ron Rivera has to see,
you know, if JKS is going to stay, if he
elevates Harson, maybe that's the move you make at least
for just one year, and you can just have your
quarterback in the fold and you spend nil money on
wide receivers. Col's receivers were bad this year, so you
need to give Jks a much better crop of pass
catchers and maybe it can all work out. Maybe cal
could make those forward strides in the ACC in twenty
twenty six. But if it's not Harson, Ron Rivera has
to move quickly, right like he You can't fire a
coach without having a very specific plan. And with Stanford
reportedly this is the industry chatter. Stanford has its man
lined up, gonna make the announcement after the final game
against Notre Dame this weekend. I don't know that for
a fact, but like that's the industry chatter. So if
Stanford and Andrew Luck already have their guy, Ron Rivera
needs to come up with something special, Like you can't
just settle, like if you fire Justin Wilcox. I'm not
saying the move's bad, but you know, if you make
that kind of move, boy, you really need to have
your ideal target lined up. You need to have confidence
that the guy you want is going to say yes.
And so after you know, this weekend a reminder about
the coaching carousel, schools can interview coaches. You're going to
see a lot of movement. Obviously all eyes on Lane
Kiffen and the SEC, but in the West, you know,
we'll see where how the dominoes or the plinko chips
on prices right fall, schools will be able to interview
candidates after these final regular season games. Now coaches are
coaching in conference championship games, then the interview process has
to be delayed. But for coaches who are not in
conference championship games, they can be interviewed after the final
regular season game this weekend. So the wheels are turning
in Berkeley as they are in Stanford, So Silicon Valley
a lot of big coaching changes ahead. And this doesn't
even include UCLA, which you know is moving closer to
the end of its season. We have more of the
Bruins later, but callen Stanford unexpectedly becoming a really big
part of the news cycle this weekend in college football,
and we'll see what the two Bay Area schools come
up with in terms of their coaching hires in the ACC.
All right, so Mountain West two pack the Bay Area
schools in the ACC. So our survey of Western teams
on Get off my Pylon now continues, and we moved
to the Big twelve. So it was a bad weekend
for Utah and Arizona State, and even though they both won,
because BYU goes into Cincinnati, handles the Bearcats. We're looking
at a BYU Texas Tech Big Twelve title game. BYU
just has to handle a not very good UCF team
at home. UCF almost lost to a horrid Oklahoma State
team at home. UCF down fourteen nothing, barely wins seventeen
to fourteen. So you know BYU should beat UCF like
a drum and then Texas Tech is a twenty four
and a half point favorite at you know, an injury
depleted West Virginia team. It's not really rich Rodriguez's fault,
but West Virginia has just been a mash unit all season,
no depth year one, so like it's just this team
has cratered and just because like there haven't been available bodies,
certainly not available starters for Rich rod. So Texas Tech
should make easy work of West Virginia. So it's all
pointing to Texas Tech BYU. Utah and Arizona State likely
to be locked out of the Big Twelve championship game.
And you know it's certainly in Utah's case. Utah had
a chance to beat BYU head to head, couldn't get
it done, and so you know those schools are likely
to be left out of the playoff because it's really
hard to see them getting an at large like Utah
getting an at large at ten and two against a
ten and two SEC team ten and two Miami not likely.
You know, Miami has the win over Notre Dame, the
win over South Florida, the win over Florida, Like that's
that is better than what Utah has done. So it's
it's looking slim to none for the Big Twelve getting
a second team in. I think the real point of
intrigue now becomes, you know, if BYU and Texas Tech
do meet in the Big Twelve title game and BYU wins,
can Texas Tech be the second team? That's the only
way the Big Twelve gets more than one team. I
wouldn't be too optimistic. Texas Tech lost to Arizona State,
so then at a loss to BYU is a two
loss Texas Tech going to get in over a two
loss SEC team. It's hard to feel confident about that.
And then and there, of course, there are so many
other dominoes to fall in the final weeks of college football.
So but if you are the Big Twelve like that,
that is your hope that BYU beats Texas Tech in
a great game, like it has to be a classic.
You know, if BYU somehow beats Texas Tech by seventeen
and I doubt it, you know, I would certainly pick
Texas Tech to win that game, assuming it does become
official in one week. But if BYU does beat Texas
Tech by like seventeen fourteen points, I don't think Texas
Tech gets in as an at large. But if it's
a classic game, maybe Texas Tech can sneak in, so
that would be very interesting. So let's talk a little
bit more about the BYU Cincinnati game, since that was
the game in the Big Twelve this past weekend. You know,
BYU showed that sometimes you don't have to win by
playing excellent football, because BYU did not play excellent football.
You just win by you know, not making huge mistakes.
Cincinnati imploded in this game. Multiple missed field goals failed
on fourth and one at the three. Obviously BYU has
something to do with that. But at four the one
at the three, Cincinnati coach Scott Sadderfield takes the ball
out of the hands of his quarterback Brendan Soresby. He
has the running back take take the ball on the
backfield and the play got stuffed, and that's that's just
a really bad play. Cincinnati just made one mistake after another,
left a lot of points on the field. Now, the
final score twenty six to fourteen. But BYU scored its
last touchdown in the final minute with the ball that
was attack on touchdown. This was essentially a one score game.
And so Cincinnati with two missed field goals neither extremely
long multiple miss field goals, I should say, and they
weren't extremely long ones. And then also getting stopped at
on fourth and one at the three. And also Cincinnati
also fumbled inside the BYU thirty on a separate possession.
It was just one mistake, one huge mistake after another.
It's not just that Cincinnati made more mistakes. These were
high leverage mistakes. These were high impact, game changing mistakes.
You know that had swings of several points. You know,
shifted the win probability by many percentage points. BYU, you know,
allowed Cincinnati to move the ball and was in vulnerable
positions throughout that game until the very end. But Cincinnati imploded.
And so you give BYU credit because BYU did not
make the big mistakes in this game. And going on
the road, at Night. BYU has found answers every every
game this season except for Texas Tech. And I have
to reinforce a basic point that I made several weeks
ago here on Get Off my Pilot. BYU had its
QB one. Jake Retzlof, who was so good for them
last year, by You almost made the Big twelve championship game.
So Retsloff gets into trouble, and of course at BYU
they have the honor code, so you know, behavioral missteps
and mistakes. Reet Slough had to go. That was just accepted,
and so BYU has to scramble and adjust in the
middle of the off season to find its QB one.
And bear Bachmeier comes in as a freshman and he
hits it out of the park. So huge props to
bear Bachmeyer. And you know, as a freshman he was
not the guy making mistakes on that field. It was Cincinnati.
So bear Bachmeyer with so much composure, poise, maturity far
beyond his years. I mean, he's just been a grand
Slam for BYU this season. He's only a freshman. He's
gonna get better. What a bright future for BYU and
Kalanie Sataki like handling this quarterback situation getting the most
out of it. Also, Aaron Roderick offensive coordinator, like he
should be considered for a job in the coaching care
given what he's done with Red Sloth last season and
now with Bachmeier this season. Like how many offensive coordinators
have done a better job overall the past two seasons
than Aaron Roderick of BYU. So a lot of really
good coaching from Sataki and Roderick and the rest of
that BYU staff, Like they deserve to be where they are.
They keep impressing, and frankly, they keep overachieving. The other
big reminder about BYU this season, less about Cincinnati, more
about the whole season. They were down at least ten
points on the road at Iowa State, at Arizona, at Colorado,
came back in one each time. I mean, just tremendous resilience,
so many great halftime adjustments, great third quarter team, great
second half team. Just a magnificent coaching display from Kolonie,
Sataki and BYU this season. So Cougars just need to
handle UCF at home. I don't think that game is
going to be particularly close, and Texas Tech just has
to handle West Virginia. We get the BYU Texas Tech
Big Twelve championship game. Quite a season for those two schools,
and of course it would be a rematch of the
game in Lubbock. It would be played in Arlington, so
it's still going to be a Texas Tech crowd. But
BYU travels pretty well. It'll be interesting to see how
the stadium is for that game, and of course we'll
wait a week to really preview that one, but it
all signs pointing to Texas Tech BYU for the Big
Twelve title and a guaranteed spot in the College Football Playoff.
All right, So we now go to the Big Ten
on the West Coast schools and the conference. As we
always do, this is usually our final segment, and so
here it is for this week. So Washington over UCLA
a blowout, and Washington's been a terrible road team this season.
Lost on the road at Wisconsin, got absolutely smothered on
the road at Michigan, didn't play well at Maryland for
rallying very late to steal that one. But at UCLA
and what could be the last Bruin home game in
the Rose Bowl, we'll just have to wait and see
on that one. It's really a matter for the courts
to resolve, but it was a very pitiful effort by
UCLA making a bad road team look very good. Washington
wins by thirty four. The viral moment from that game
UCLA faking a field goal on fourth and very long
and the holder makes one of those blind flip passes
behind his over his right shoulder. You know, we've seen
that fake field goal before, like Less Miles and LSU
used it and won some big games with it, you know,
a decade and a half ago. This blind flip nowhere
close to the kicker. Washington recovers the ball the lateral
and takes it all the way all the way to
the other end for a touchdown. Basically breaks the game open,
and UCLA lost all belief after that play, like the
air went out of the balloon. Bruin defense was actually
good in the first twenty minutes, but the offense was
a horror show. Dropped passes, multiple fumbles, just handing Washington points.
And then then comes that disastrous fake field goal, and
that was basically game over. Huskies just rolled right over Ucla,
and so Washington now prepares for a home game against
Oregon in Seattle. So that's gonna be very spicy. And Ucla.
The other impact of this blowout and basically the past month,
Ucla had that nice little three game winning streak got
everyone's attention. The Bruins were on Fox Big Noon against
Indiana a month ago. Well here the Bruins are now.
They have been sand blasted. They have been annihilated consistently
over the past month. So definitely Tim Skipper Jerry Neuheisel
be retained. That seems pretty obvious. Like Jerry new Seisl
does not really have a strong argument to be retained
as offensive coordinator for a new head coach. It's going
to be a new regime. But I would still say
that Tim Skipper and new Heiseel, you know, they should
be able to find jobs elsewhere. You know, maybe if
Oregon State hires a specific head coach that Jerry new
Heiseel becomes the offensive coordinator in Corvallis Tim Skipper, you know,
there are open jobs in the Mountain West. Maybe Colorado
State is Tim Skipper's landing spot. Let's remember he used
to coach at Presno State. Matt EN's has that job
pretty secure in his first season, so I don't see
Matt end's going anywhere, so Fresno State's not going to
be available, so maybe Colorado State becomes the landing spot
for Tim Skipper. Also, one more carousel plot point to
think about Jason Eck, who's had a very successful year
at New Mexico. The Lobos are going to go to
a bowl game. Maybe he takes a job higher up
the food chain. Maybe Tim Skipper goes to Albuquerque if
Jason Eck leaves New Mexico. So that's kind of the
youth CLA outlook. Also, Nico Iamliava, is he going to
enter the transfer portal again? Because you know, coaching change
for the Bruins. It's not the situation he stepped into.
You know, how how important is it for U c
l A to hire a specific coach with an eye
on Nico iam Maliava. Stay, Like, if you're you CLA,
you want to hire the right coach, but you also
probably want to ask Nico Io Maliava, Hey, you know,
does it matter which coach we hire in terms of
whether you want to stay with us for the season
or next. It'd be interesting to see what kind of
back channel conversations exist there. I also have to mention, uh,
there's a website called Foya ball uh and you might
not have heard of it, but it came up with
a damning report last week. So go to foya ball.
That website a report on how u c l a's
n I L collective has allegedly misused funds very very significantly,
very substantially James Washington of the Bruins for Life collective.
A lot of questions about his management or perhaps mismanagement
of u c l a's NIL funds. And the reporter's
name is David Kovuci, co O v u c c I,
so you can google that and look into that. So
like u c l a's internal operations remain awful, and
and this latest report from David Kovuci at Foyaball foyaball
dot com, it just adds to the need for ucle
to fire athletic director Martin Jarmond. Like this gives UCLA
a reason to fire Martin Jarmond with cause and and
then therefore not be on the hook for the full
buyout that it would cost the Bruins, you know otherwise.
But the UCLA can fire Martin Jarmond with cause, and
that's a move that the Bruins should be looking into
will they stay tuned, So lots of questions about UCLA. Obviously,
will the will the school leave the Rose Bowl, That's
the one that's garnered a lot of national headlines. But
the more important issue is really firing Martin Jarmond, getting
their internal house in order, and then hiring the right
coach and seeing if Nico im Liava is willing to
come back for twenty twenty six. Very unlikely that Nico
is going to play against USC this coming weekend. So
speaking of USC, that brings us to the other big
Big Ten game involving West Coast schools. So Washington, UCLA
was the late night throwing game without big national implications.
US Oregon was the game with the big national significance
among the West Coast members of the Big Ten. So
you know, if you saw that game on CBS, you
saw that Oregon was dramatically better than USC. And one
really interesting point is that Oregon's starting center got injured
early in that game, so Oregon was playing the vast
majority of this game with a backup center. When USC
went to Notre Dame and lost to the fighting Irish
in mid October and South Bend the Irish did not
have their starting center, and Notre Dame ran for over
three hundred yards in that game. Oregon was able to
run the ball very consistently against this USC defense. So
USC under Lincoln Riley, it's been the case the last
three years, partly the case in twenty twenty two, but
you had Caleb Williams, Jordan Addison, Travis Dye and the
rest of that elite offense that that offense was able
to cover the defense's shortcomings most of the time. Not
in the Cotton Bowl against Tulane, not against Utah that season,
but you know, most of the time, the offense was
so good that the defense's weaknesses did not matter. But
that is the point is that is the reality of
Lincoln Riley at USC and frankly in general at Oklahoma.
Lincoln Riley was able to score forty five to fifty
to fifty five points. So his defenses under Alex Grinch,
you know, they didn't lose that many games because the
offense is just able to cover up the mistakes. If
USC is not scoring forty though, Trojans are in trouble.
Like this just the latest example of that. Right, It's
really very clear that Lincoln Riley has always wanted to
win games forty five, forty two, forty nine, forty five,
fifty two, forty nine. If he's not scoring in the forties,
his teams are losing. That's the reality of his tenure
at USC. Just another soft performance from a Lincoln Riley defense.
I know it was young, and there were some injuries
in the secondary, but still Oregon was missing its top
three receivers and its backup center and it didn't matter.
Oregon hangs forty two on USC. So and you know,
full disclosure reminder, I blog at Trojan's Wire, so I
covered this program regularly. One would expect USC to fire
linebacker coach Rob Ryan coming out of this game. I mean,
he's just not been very good. And Matt Ends who
coached the linebackers a year ago now at Fresno State,
like he got a lot out of that unit. And
let's remember Eric Gentry, the star linebacker for USC. He
got hurt one month into the twenty twenty four season,
and us He's linebackers without Eric Gentry in October and
November of last year were better than they were this
year with Eric Gentry playing you know, the full season.
So that gives you an indication of how much worse
rob Ryan has been than matt Enz was a year ago.
One should absolutely expect Rob Ryan to go out the door.
USC's focus after this UCLA game turns to a very
crucial off season. One of the things us he's gonna
have to nail down is, you know, us, he's gonna
need to get those premium, elite defensive tackles, defensive ends
in the transfer portal. And this was a young group.
You know, Jackem Stuart was the five star freshman. He
was hurt for a good portion of the year. He
was battling a foot injury. Like he was never one
hundred percent, Like he was never fully fit. You know,
he was never his very best self he was, so
he was battling an injury and that obviously hurt. They
needed a full strength Jeqem Stewart. They didn't have him.
But like you need depth, right and USC had a
lot of young players on this defensive line. The feeling
around the program in August, if you go back to,
you know, before the season began, was that USC had
more depth on the defensive line than it did the
previous year, but it wasn't savvy depth. It wasn't veteran depth.
And so USC's gonna need to get that veteran defensive
front quality in the transfer portal. And so general manager
Chad Boden, who I mentioned earlier on this show in
terms of you know, the rise of the general manager
in college football, including a Western programs, Chad Boden's gonna
need to shop and get some high end groceries for
Danton Lymn. The defensive coordinator in USC's defensive staff. USC
just has to have a robust defensive line. I went
into each of the past two seasons at USC thinking
the offensive line was the pivot point. It was the
crucial group. Zach Hanson this year's new offensive line coach,
taking over from Josh Henson, who coached the unit last
year and is now Barry Odom's offensive coordinator at Purdue.
Zach Hanson's been the best assistant on this staff in
twenty twenty five. And so the offensive line is no
longer the number one concern, the number one worry for
USC purely in terms of position groups. It now becomes
the defensive line. Like us, he can't be allowing opponents
to run the ball at will against them, especially on
the road, especially in big games against good teams. But
that's what happened this year. Illinois, Oregon, Notre Dame the
three biggest road games of USC season. The defense was
a wall in all three games. USC has to beef
up on the defensive line dramatically if it want of
gets where it wants to go. But the the problem
with the larger situation surrounding USC is not just that
Lincoln Riley has soft teams and he doesn't generate accountability
so many mistakes against Oregon, but also schedule's gonna be
tougher next year. USC did not play Ohio State or
Indiana each of these past two seasons. That's why failing
to make the playoffs is such a setback for USC,
because the Big ten schedule gets nastier next year with
Ohio State and Indiana on the slate. USC is gonna
have to be so much better this season to get
to ten and two. I mean us he is likely
to be nine to three if it beats UCLA, and
so you might think, well, just have to be one
game better next year. Well, the schedule's gonna be a
lot tougher. So that is what's basing Lincoln Riley, and
you know, USC fans, a lot of USC fans would
like to fire him right now and not wait. I
understand that it's a pretty reasonable logical response, but of
course the buyout money's enormous, and you brought in a
new general manager, Chad Bowden. USC also brought in a
new strength coach, Trumaine Carroll, in the spring. This was
like late April, early May, so you can't really expect
a new strength coach to come in in the spring
and instantly change everything. So the buyout money is one issue,
but also new GM, new strength coach. You give Lincoln
Riley one year, a full offseason, a full cycle with
these other new hires as part of the new staff,
the new infrastructure. But if Lincoln Riley doesn't figure it
out in twenty twenty six, every single USC fan agrees,
can't have him on beyond that, can't have him coach
his team into twenty twenty seven. If the mistakes that
are still occurring four years into his tenure don't finally
get solved next year six, that's the verdict at USC.
So now the other side of this, Oregon, Oregon comprehensively
better than USC. It's another Uh, it's another notch on
Dan Lanning's belt, like his superiority over and against USC
and Lincoln Riley very clear, they beat Youcal. They beat
USC convincingly two years ago in Audston Stadium as well.
I mean Oregon remains the gold standard program in the West.
I mean Washington and Kaleb de Boor gave Lanning fits,
but Deboor is no longer, of course at Washington. So
the West is Dan Lanning's province. UH. And Oregon had
all those injuries at receiver, missed its back up, missed
its starting center, I should say, had to go to
a backup, and was still able to manhandle USC. And
if Oregon there were tons of penalties in this game,
tons of fifteen yard penalties. More specifically, UH, Oregon made
its share of those mistakes. If OR had played a
clean game, would have won by thirty. But as it was,
you know, Oregon, USC basically traded mistakes for a lot
of this game. It was not Oregon's very best game,
but it was still more than good enough to beat USC,
and so Oregon should be good for the playoff. But
I would still advise the Ducks hate you don't want
to slip up in Seattle. And of course Oregon and
Washington hate each other. And the reminder for people who
you know, don't grow up in the Western United States,
don't follow these Western schools too closely. Oregon Washington is
a far more nasty rivalry in the Pacific Northwest than
Oregon Oregon state and Washington Washington State, you know those
other in state rivalries. Yeah, the teams really want to
beat the other, but it's a lot of co workers,
you know, in sharing cubicles in Portland and Seattle, and
there they're still kind of a somewhat friendly undertone, like
they don't hate each other. They want they really want
to beat each other and they want the bragging rights,
but they don't hate each other. Oregon and Washington, though
they hate each other, they want each other to go
to hell. So Oregon will not have any problem being
motivated for Washington. But the Ducks might want to just
make sure they win here to absolutely lock up a
playoff berth. But Oregon certainly gained itself crucial leverage just
in case it loses to Washington ten and two. Oregon
with a win over USC it looks certainly looks a
lot better the Ducks would have been in major trouble.
We can all agree if they had lost to USC
So Oregon goes to Washington. So let's preview that game
since that's such a huge game in Week fourteen. So
it's in Seattle. Washington's been a bad road team, but
it's been a very good home team. Demond Williams. You know,
Washington scored forty eight points. But Demond Williams did not
play in a special good game. You know, he eventually
figured things out in the second half. But UCLA let
down its guard on defense. You know that again, after
that fake field goal, Ucla just lost all belief. The
Bruins were just a flat team. It looked, it looked
and felt a lot like September under Deshaun Foster in
that second half, as UCLA just faded away into the
good night. So demand Williams of Washington, though, you know,
I watched that game and he overthrew wide open receivers
on downfield passes multiple times. And obviously in Husky Stadium
he's a lot better. He's usually more precise than he
is on the road. But you know, against Oregon, the
channel is going to be more profound and demand. Williams
absolutely has to play his best game for Washington to
have any chance against the Ducks. You know, Oregon dealing
with the injuries to its main pass catchers. You know,
can any of them get healthy for this game? That's
gonna be something to watch. The other thing if you're
an Oregon fan is you know, hey, we were way
better than USC even with a lot of fifteen yard
penalties and numerous other mistakes. So if you're Oregon, just
play a clean game. If Oregon plays a clean game,
how is Washington going to have rise to the standard
of play. It is going to need to knock off
the Ducks. So some of the plot points for Oregon
versus Washington. But Oregon definitely took a big, big step
toward the College Football Playoff. And of course we're going
to chop up the playoff next week after all the
results that come in. But Dan Lanning is certainly in
position to stack playoff appearances together in consecutive seasons, reaffirming
Oregon as the premier program in the Western United States.
And I would say, you know, we've talked about BYU
in the Big twelve, Oregon versus BYU, I would feel
very very comfortable and confident in picking Oregon in a
hypothetical matchup. If those two teams played BYU has overachieved.
BYU has been magnificent and bear Bachmeier has really come
through as a freshman, but you put that up against
Oregon on a neutral field, I feel very, very solid
in taking Oregon's athletes and Oregan's talent against what BYU
can bring to the table. If there are BYU listeners here,
you know, for look who are following all of this,
they might disagree, But let's put it this way. You know,
b why you can just play its way into the
playoff and maybe, just maybe BYU and Oregon are going
to meet each other in the first round. Wouldn't that
be interesting? So we will see what happens. But that
is all for this week on Get Off My Pion,
the podcast which covers western college football in the United States,
part of the College Great Down Coast to Coast podcast network.
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These and other shows all part of the College Gridiron
Coast to Coast podcast family. So this is Matt Zemak.
Thanks for listening to another episode of Get Off My Pilon.
Seasons winding down, but we will see you next week
before conference championship Saturday. Talk to you next week. Everybody,