Speaker 1: Checking 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 Network. Here's your host, Matt Zimon.
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pil college football podcast. This is your host, Man Zemic.
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We have all sports discussion on the ACC and the
plot twists and the ACC race that we've seen over
the past weekend with Clemson losing. If you want to
go there for your ACC fix. At College Gredound Coast
to Coast, we have a Jason Powers The Powers on
Sports podcast. You know, really interesting news with Miami now
you know, entrenching its position atop the ACC, handling Duke
coming back from eleven points down. Jason Powers on top
of the top stories in the state of Florida, Billy
Napier and Florida losing to Georgia. Jason Powers is covering
those stories on the Florida Football Insiders podcast part of
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They're at Apple also on Twitter at Gridiron Coast you
get the links to all of the College Gridiron Coast
to Coast podcasts. So get off my pylon. We're focusing
on western college football in the United States, and so
plenty to cover on this week's show. And let's start
with the Mountain West, and let's start with Boise State.
So you know, boise State coming off the win over
UNLV handles its business against San Diego State, and so
Boise State has one loss and that one loss is
at Oregon. So obviously, if Boise State has one loss
and no one else in the Group of five is
able to go unbeaten, Boise State should get the Group
of five championship and the spot in the College Football Playoff.
And one thing that happened over the weekend is that
Memphis lost to Texas San Antonio. So Memphis is done.
Memphis is pretty much out. It looks like the Group
of five championship is gonna come down to Boise State,
and Army Army is unbeaten. Army schedule strength to this
point not as good as Boise States. But in a
few weeks on November twenty third, Army plays Notre Dame,
and so that seems to be the game that's gonna
decide the whole shob You know, if Army beats Notre
Dame and is able to finish unbeaten, well you would
think that Army will be ahead of Boise State in
the Group of five championship race. And if Army loses
to Notre Dame, then there you go. Then it'll all
be lined up for Boise State to win the Group
of five go to the College football playoffs. So it
seems pretty clear cut that there are two main contenders
right now. Boise State's one of them, and Boise State's
just going to have those Notre Dame pom poms in
a few weeks so that the fighting Irish could take
care of Army, and that would make it pretty clear.
I would think that, you know, if Boise State and
Army both have one loss, that Boise State's going to
get the NOD over Army. But if Army can somehow
manage to beat Notre Dame and stay unbeaten and then
beat Navy, I mean you'd have to give it to Army,
I would think. So it just really seems clear cut.
Either Army beats Notre Dame and stays ahead of Boise State,
or Army loses to Notre Dame and Boise State goes
in front. So group of five with Boise State right
there in the mix, a pretty clear cut situation from
where we sit at least right now in early November.
The other really big story in western college football that
we're covering right now. Look at how the Big Twelve
race changed over the weekend. You had Kansas State stumbling
at Houston, led nineteen ten in the second half. You're thinking, okay,
Wildcats have a two score lead. They started slowly in
that game, but they found themselves well. They crumbled late,
and they lose to Houston twenty four to nineteen. Meanwhile,
Iowa State stubs its toe at home against Texas Tech.
So Kansas State and Iowa State, the two halves of
the so called Pharmageddon rivalry, they both lose. People did
not see that one coming. I did not see that
one coming. Does that mean it means that Deon Sanders
and the Colorado Buffalos are now in prime position? Coach
prime position? You could say to play in the Pig
twelve Championship game. And if Colorado is able to win out,
and that would include winning the Big twelve championship game,
oh my goodness, Colorado would be eleven and two. Colorado
would be in the college football playoffs. I mean, so
it's there. The path is there now. Whether it actually
happens or not separate matter. But Colorado does have a
chance to win out, to win five ball games over
the next month and make the College wall Playoff. It's
crazy that we're talking about it, and it is a
testament to the quality of work that Dion Sanders has
done with his Colorado team. It's also brings in the
plot point that if Colorado does win out, that might
give Travis Hunter the Heisman Trophy and to bring Boise
State back into the discussion for a little bit. The
Heisman top three should be, in no particular order, Travis Hunter,
cam Ward of Miami, and Ashton Gent of Boise State.
And I would probably at this point lean to cam
Ward when you consider the heavy left lifting he's doing
for Miami, Like Miami is nowhere near the top of
college football. If it has an ordinary or even slightly
above average quarterback. Cam Ward's been spectacular. He's putting up
huge numbers. Miami's scoring gobs of points. And this is
a team that does not play good defense. If you
saw any of the Duke game, if you saw the
Louisville game, which was fifty two forty five, Cal was
thirty nine to thirty eight, Virginia Tech was thirty seven
thirty four, I mean Miami, Miami is playing Lincoln Riiley football,
like this is how lacoln Riiley would want it to be. Mario,
first of all, has become Lincoln rileyized in Miami, and
in a good way, like this is how Lincoln Riley's
Oklahoma teams did it. This is how Riley's twenty twenty
two USC team did it. They score more points than
you do, and cam Ward is the engine of that.
So if you had Hunter and ahead of Ward, you
know fully understandable. I would say Colorado needs that strong
finishing kick to elevate Hunter to number one. So I
would have Ward one, Hunter two, Gent three. You do
need to have genty at the heisman ceremony. Let's not
have this anti group of five bias again. We need
to have more group of five players in Heisman ceremonies.
It shouldn't be treated as some kind of you know,
minor leagues of football. Gent should definitely be in New
York more than Dylan Gabriel. And hey, Dylan Gabriel, he's
putting in a really good season for Oregon, but remember
he was not very good the first few weeks when
Oregon struggled against Idaho and Boise State. He was he
was big time against Ohio State. Although let's remember Ohio
State because Oregon failed in the red zone late. You know,
Oregon had to kick that nineteen yard field goal. It's
not as though Oregon's offense closed down that game in
a big way. I mean, Dylan Gabriel was very good
in that game. You know, he was strong. There's no
doubt that he came up with a really good performance
against Ohio State. But it's not as though the Oregon
offense maxed out in that game. It was very good
and it's in it exceeded the expectations going in. But
you know, Oregon couldn't score a touchdown at the very end,
and the Ducks were lucky that Ohio State got flagged
for a pretty dicey paddy cake tic TAC offensive pass
interference Paul, and then you had the twelve men penalty
for Moregan as well, and Will Howard not sliding early
enough Ohio State could have kicked a field goal of
Howard gets down earlier at the end of that Ohio
State Oregon game. So, Dylon Gabriel good season. If you
wanted to say he should be in New York, I'll
allow it. But Ashton Genty should be in New York
before and above Dylan Gabriel. That should be very clear.
There should not be much of any debate about that.
When Boise State played Oregon, Ashton Genty had a better
game than Dylan Gabriel did. That has to count for something.
Boise State's offense was better than Oregon's offense. Let's remember
why Oregon beat Boise State two long kick returns for touchdowns.
It's not as though Oregon's offense scored thirty seven. Oregon's
offense scored twenty three. Oregon's special teams scored fourteen. In
that thirty seven thirty four Oregon win over Boise State,
Ashton Genty was better than Dylan Gabriel. That game was
in Eugene at Austin Stadium, Ashton Genty over Dylan Gabriel.
We need to be very clear about that. We need
to be very specific about that. I would say that
you know, Ward, Kim Ward, and Travis Hunter are one
and two. I think that's probably the consensus, and I
don't think it's all that clear cut. I have Ward first,
but if you wanted to put Travis Hunter first, You're
not gonna get a big pushback from me. Obviously, we
have a month left in the season and that could
sort it all all out. But my big thing where
I'm gonna take a really fierce stand is that it
should be Genty over dying Gabriel. If there are only
gonna be three spots in the Heisman finalist group for
the for the Heisman ceremony. But of course my thing
about the Heisman, we shouldn't be limiting the finalists to
three or four. There should be ten highs and final lest.
It's my Heisman ten plan. I've written about it at Patreon.
Every Heisman week I circulate this. The Heisman ten plan
involves inviting ten players, and there are several components of this.
You invite a group of five player. You make sure
that the group of five is represented. You make sure
that a defensive player is represented. Like defensive players should
should be included among the best players in the country.
You should always have a good defensive player. Now, Travis
Hunter is a two way guy, so I would kind
of I wouldn't say like he counts as a defensive player.
He's a two way player. He's one of one. There
should be another standalone defensive player in New York as well.
You should also have aligneman like lineman are supposed to count.
If alignment is the best player in college football, like,
he should be included, right. You know, if there's a
guy who's going to be like a top three, top
four NFL draft pick having a monster season, that's that's
the player who should be in New York for the
Heisman ceremony. So you should be inviting all of these
different categories of players, a defensive player, a group of
five player alignment, you know, on an interior alignment as well,
and you should just be inviting more players. And keep
in mind, wouldn't that be great for the Heisman television ratings? Right?
You have more fan bases, more schools watching their player
get honored as a Heisman finalist. Uh and and become
part of the Heisman ceremony. You would think that this
just this just makes sense, and you give more young
men a special moment, a special weekend in New York
that they're going to remember for the rest of their lives.
Why do we make this so exclusive? Why do we
limit this usually not always, but usually to three or
four candidates? It makes absolutely no sense. So you've got
my Heisman rant one month early. Never a bad time though,
to talk about how the Heisman Trophy system needs to
be expanded and democratized. That that much is worth saying.
But Genti over Dylan Gabriel. That's my biggest Heisman take
right now. So, speaking of Oregon, Oregon goes to ann
Arbor handles Michigan. You know, it didn't overwhelm Michigan, but
was obviously the better team. It wasn't a squeaker. The
squeaker was whether Oregon was cover the fourteen and a
half point spread. And Oregon could have melted out at
the very end, but Dan Lanning wanted that touchdown. And
you know I've said this before, I'll say it again.
Some coaches are very obviously aware of covering the spread
like they want to make that statement. They want that
to be part of the postgame buzz, like Oregon covered
the spread. I think for some coaches it matters. I
think that it's not an accident or just an idle
coincidence that Dan Lanny wanted to push that ball into
the end zone. Not all coaches do that, but some
very definitely do, And I think it becomes obvious which
ones are paying attention to that stuff and which ones
are not. So Oregon, you know, didn't play great. There
were some sloppy moments. Michigan's off defensive line pushed back
Oregon's offensive line at times. I know Oregon picked up
a couple of notable injuries. It's going to be interesting
to see how the Ducks deal with those. Of course,
Oregon's next game is against Maryland, so that's not going
to be a worry for the Ducks. But obviously, you know,
with Ohio State beating Penn State and Indiana being right
there in the Big Ten race, you know, if let's
say Oregon bases Ohio State in a rematch at Indianapolis
in December, then those injuries that Oregon has been picking up,
they might man but Oregon pretty safely in the playoff
at this point. I mean, you know that if Oregon
loses to Ohio State in Indianapolis, and that's the only
game Oregon loses, that's not gonna knock Oregon out of
the playoff. That's just gonna affect the Ducks seating. So
Oregon very much on course to do what it was
expected to do all along. Uh, you had Washington beating
USC and once again, usc U loses a one score
game in which it led in the fourth quarter, and
USC just comes right up to the doorstep of winning
a game, but then on a fourth down, it's offensive
line gets blown up. That's been the whole season. The
offensive line has an up and down game, some good,
some bad, but then when the game comes down to
a big fourth down or a big final drive, the
offensive line gets blown up on the one or two
absolutely key plays that you have to make. And so
that just that it's the same broken record, that kind
of stuff's been happening the whole season. USC has not
won a true road game this season, and really the
only road game left is at u c l A,
which is in Los Angeles. That's that's basically more of
a neutral site game than a road game. Now technically
it's a road game, but but essentially it's neutral site. Uh.
USC fails to win a single true road game outside
the state of California this season. You know, the LSU
game was a neutral site game in Vegas. So USC
just has been a paper tiger on the road, unable
to you know, show any kind of spine or backbone,
the bottom falling out under Lincoln Riley, and USC now
has to win twice in its remaining games just to
make a bowl game. If USC, you know, has no
USC has Notre Dame left, and that's probably gonna be
a loss the US. He has likely has to beat
Nebraska and u c l A to make a bowl
and so USC Nebraska, oh my god, Nebraska is you know,
has this amazing Matt Rule is one in seven at Nebraska.
Uh in in games where his his team or excuse me,
Matt Rule has not won a game at Nebraska and
games where his team has been one win away from
bowl eligibility, He's had several chances to break through, to
break through when when he's one win away from bowl eligibility,
but Nebraska just keeps getting to five wins and then
is losing. It's it's absolutely crazy. Nebraska losing to u
c L a one win away from bowl eligibility, it's
it's absolutely remarkable. So you when USC plays Nebraska, you
have two teams that you know absolutely need to win
that game for Bowl eligibility because Nebraska has to play
Wisconsin and Iowa down the stretch and those those games
are not going to be easy. You could make the
argument that the USC game is going to be Nebraska's
best chance to nail down a bull bid. But it's
been really extraordinary to see Nebraska not be able to
win that sixth game in a season. And so that's
going to make that USC Nebraska game. It's not this week,
it's going to be on November sixteenth, but that that
USC Nebraska game, you're going to have to two fan
bases that are going to be absolute basket cases going
into this game. But yes, Matt rule ozero and seven.
I was looking for that record oh and seven when
trying to nail down full eligibility at Nebraska, and it
just it defies description, like how can you be that
close and still not get over the hump that that
would be? That would be pretty remarkable and there's another
stat about Nebraska. Obviously, Nebraska is not necessarily a Western program,
but this USC game just to kind of capture how
wild it's going to be in terms of the anxiety
on both sides. Nebraska is now one and thirty in
its last thirty one games in which the Huskers had
a final possession, tied or trailing by one score. That
is just beyond belief. So Nebraska and USC, like they
are basically the same team right now, they come right
up against victory or overtime. You know, they're right there
at the end. They're just losing these one score games
left and right, and they don't make the final few plays.
So Nebraska and USC, they're basically the same team. They
are basically the same team, and they're both struggling to
just make a bowl game. How the Mighty have fallen
With USC, it's it's a little bit different from Nebraska.
I mean, USC had the Pete Carroll era and had
the Sam Donald era in which it won a Rose Bowl,
in which it won a Pac twelve championship. Nebraska hasn't
won a conference championship since nineteen ninety nine, so it's
been a longer drought and in a longer period of
misery for Nebraska. But really both fan bases have been
in hell for the past fifteen years. USC just had
that brief two year Sam Donald interruption of misery. But
that that game there is just gonna be a lot
of anxiety, a lot of hard liquor being consumed. All Right,
we can't end this podcast without noting one other really
big story in western college football, and that is BYU
against Utah coming up on November nine in Salt Lake City. Now,
before the season, if you were going to give an
assessment or a prediction on what BYU versus Utah was
going to mean, what the game was going to be, like,
what the scenario was going to be for the two teams,
you probably would have said Utah is going to be
closing in on the Big twelve title, maybe a playoff
berth and BYU is going to play spoiler like that
would have been a pretty reasonable assessment. If you said
that in mid August, before the season began, a lot
of people would have said, you know what, that's probably
how it's going to work out. Well, guess what. The
roles are completely reversed. It's BYU, which is playing for
the College Football Playoff, the Big Twelve title BYU in
prime position to play in the Big Twelve Championship game,
and it's Utah having a miserable season that's going to
try and you know, rally round the flag, play spoiler
and deliver. You know what would be an extremely satisfying
upset like this is definitely Utah's season right here, this
is Utah's super Bowl. The Utes have had an awful year, horrible,
They've been poorly coached, Andy Ludwig the offensive coidator, steps down,
Cam Rising, not healthy. It's been an absolute disaster. But
if Utah can somehow beat BYU oh man like that,
that's gonna make the year worth it. Right, So you
know that Utah is going to make a push. You
know that Utah is gonna throw everything into this game
under Kyle Wittingham, a proven coach, and let's see if
BYU can withstand what the Utes are going to offer.
Incredibly compelling game BYU exceeding all expectations under Kilanie Sataki.
And you know, as you've seen with Kansas State and
Iowa State stumbling, it's as though this new look Big
Twelve without Texas and Oklahoma it's been a just a
paradise of parody. Like, if you love parody, this has
been your dream conference. Wild pendulum swings and unpredictable games,
huge comebacks and collapses pretty much every week. I mean,
it's it's been a wild, nutty year in the Big Twelve.
And BYU has been able to rise above the chaos
and by has been able to you know, score at
the very ends of games, like a scored in the
final minute against Oklahoma State after playing a very scratchy,
uneven game for the first fifty nine minutes. But BYU
has been really good in those late games, scramble situations.
B YU and Miami really have a lot in common
that that they have. They're not dominant teams, they're not
ultra consistent teams. They score when they have to, and
they're and they're really good in the last two to
five minutes of games, like they do nail it down
when they need to. Been a remarkable story for BYU.
So can the Cougars handle Utah uh in in the
Holy War in the game that Utah's residents of the
state of Utah care very deeply about. And last but
not least, Arizona State Kenny Dillingham gets the Sun Devils
to a bowl eligible position with several weeks left in
the season. W an absolutely remarkable year for Arizona State
and winning in Stillwater, and and you know, when you
look at when you look at the Big Twelve, it's
not just parody, but also you've seen the bottom fall
out at a number of programs, like in Arizona. You know,
just to mention one more western college football program, the
bottom falling out at Arizona while Arizona State, like that's
been a wild juxtaposition of stories. I don't think anyone
was expecting that, you know, for the Wildcats to be
this bad under Brent Brennan. Brent Brennan did a really
good job at San Jose State. I don't think anyone
was expecting this first year in Tucson to go so wrong,
so sharply, so quickly, but it did. Arizona just gets
absolutely dog walked by a UCF team which was starting
its fourth different quarterback this season, and u SEF went
off as a six point five point favorite with a
you know, a fourth starting quarterback, and yet UCF actually
played one of its very best games of the season,
arguably the best and just absolutely crushed Arizona. So you
have Arizona falling apart woile Arizona State rises. You have
Oklahoma State falling apart while Arizona State rises. Oklahoma State
still doesn't have a Big Twelve win. I mean, Mike
Gundy has watched his program Crater and so it's interesting
to see those kinds of shocking implosions in the Big Twelve,
Utah being another one of them, while Arizona State rises.
So I'm not taking anything away from Arizona State. I'm
just saying that you're seeing some really unexpected stories across
the board in the Big Twelve, and that doesn't take
away from what's happening in Arizona State. I think the
instructive point to make is that this doesn't necessarily mean
that in twenty twenty five you might see the same
hierarchy in the Big Twelve. We could be entering an
age with nil and the portal where each season's roster
is dramatically different. You know, roster construction can can really
take on a lot of different dimensions, and you can
see the quality and content of a roster changed sharply
from one year to another. We might be in a
new era where one season's results don't carry over to
the next season as evenly as we're used to. I mean,
you know, five six years ago, you know, you knew
that Alabama and Clemson were gonna be good every year.
You know, in the late twenty tens, that's pretty much
where we were. There's not nearly as much carryover now.
It all seems so much more fluid, and you're seeing
so many different stories, not just in the West with
BYU and Colorado and Arizona State schools that we've mentioned,
but look look Nashally like Vanderbilt rising, Auburn falling, Kentucky falling,
you know, in the ACC with SMU being in position
to play in the ACC Championship game. You're seeing it
all over the country. It's not confined to one region,
it's not confined to one conference. But you know, so
just kind of tracing back to Arizona State and Oklahoma
State and and these wild up down swings in the
Big Twelve where teams you expected to be good have
been awful, teams you expected to be mediocre have been
really good. Is this going to be an every year
thing or is it more going to be a case
of well, one year is going to be great, the
next year is going to be bad, you know, are
we could be entering a new age of not just
parody but also volatility where you hit a home run
one year and then the next year everything goes poorly.
Where we've seen some mark shifts like just just take
USC for an example, USC one to eleven and games
in twenty twenty two now struggling to make a bowl game.
It's this the new normal. And it's not just a
Lincoln Riley thing. It could be a thing where coaching staffs,
you know, if they're not hitting it in the portal
every season, you can see these wild fluctuations in results.
That's not just a USC point. That is a larger
nationwide point that we need to keep track of. So
a lot of interesting stories and a lot of wild
plot twists in western college football across the United States.
So much to consider, so much to contemplate here at
get off my Pylon in early November. So now a
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