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 network.
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Get Off My Pilon college football podcast. This is your host,
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My Pilon focusing on western college football in the United States.
And so we've arrived at the end of the twelve
game regular season, we head onto the conference championship games.
Heisman Trophy is on the menu, very much so in
the West, as we will discuss so plenty to get
to before we get to the conference championship games and
the College Football Playoff. As it relates to the Western
schools that we Cover's deal with the Western teams that
concluded their seasons. I mean, they have a bowl game
in some cases, some of them don't. But it's just
worth just hitting on some of the various schools. So,
you know, Utah ends its season a bowlless season under
Kyle Whittingham. I mean, no one, absolutely, no one saw
that coming, but it does reinforce that without Cam Rising,
if Cam Rising hurt Utah and Kyle Whningham did not
have a Plan B. And so if there's still being
some mystery and uncertainty, will Cam Rising come back to
Utah in twenty twenty five, Whether he does or not,
Utah needs to pick up another big time quarterback. And
if that quarterback, you know, wants to be the undisputed
QB one. You know, if you're Kyle Whittingham and Cam
Rising is still making up his mind, you can't really
guarantee that, but you can also say, hey, you know
that Cam Rising has not been very healthy, Chances are
we're gonna need and chances are you can be a
big part of this Utah team. You can be a
big part of this Utah project as we try to
restore our identity and on our brand name after a
brutal twenty twenty four, When we think that Kyle Werningham
can make the selling point, you can make the argument
to a top transfer portal quarterback, Hey be part of us,
be part of our effort here at Utah. That's obviously
the top of the line element. Because let's remember Cam
Rising is the guy who brought Utah the back to
back Pack twelve championships and the back to back Rose
Bowl appearances. Like he was the solution. He elevated Utah
at the quarterback spot and when Utah was failing in
previous years to win the Pack twelve and get back
to a big time Bowl game, quarterback play, quarterback depth
is what really prevented Utah from getting over the hunt. Remember,
Utah played Washington in the twenty eighteen Pack twelve champions
of game, played a brilliant defensive game, but lost ten
to three. Quarterback quarterback depth quarterback attrition was an issue.
Utah fell short against Oregon and Merrio Crystal Ball in
twenty nineteen offense just wasn't able to do enough. It's
been the quarterback spot. When Cam Rising was able to
stay healthy, everything fell in place. So it's quarterback time
at Utah. That is what the youths need to be
able to figure out. They need to be able to
put the pieces together, and they need a plan B
for Cam Rising if he calls it a career, they
need that plan B for twenty twenty five. Arizona finishes
a miserable first season under Brent Brennan. And Brent Brennan
did great work at San Jose State. It's not easy
to win at San Jose State. Brent Brennan is a
good coach. You know, this might not work out at Arizona,
like good hires don't work out. I'm going to talk
about that in a little bit as well. Like you,
the hire might not work, but you can't necessarily say
this was a flawed process or this was not a
good hire on paper. Good hires on paper often don't
work out. So with Brent Brennan, they have to remember
he did keep Noahafita and Tetroy McMillan, you know, the
star quarterback and the star receiver. But Arizona did lose
several players to Jedfish and Washington. It's not as though
Jedfish quote unquote won the transfer portal in the offseason.
He didn't get what he wanted. He wanted to bring
Fafita and McMillan to Seattle, and maybe Washington would have
been a lot better if that had happened. So we can,
really we can lump this Arizona conversation in with the
Washington conversation talking about two Western programs that fell short
of what they hoped for this season. But the larger
point is that neither side neither Arizona nor Washington got
all of what it wanted. Arizona got some, Washington got some.
But really, instead of both programs being better, it was
more of a case of both programs were weakened. Both
programs were eroded, and that I think is the takeaway
with both Arizona and Washington. So Brennan has to basically
beef up his roster, like no one's gonna argue with
that one. I don't think this season was a referendum
on the quality of his coaching. Arizona did not have
the dudes, Arizona did not have the players, and Jedfish
took enough of them away from Tucson to Seattle that
Arizona was shorthanded. And then with Fish, while we're on
the subject of Washington, it's a pretty similar dynamic. And
I would also add that you know Will Rogers from
Mississippi State, he was not the guy. That's very clear.
He was not the guy to replaced Michael Pennox with
Kalin Deboor left. Washington needs a home run hitter at quarterback.
That that much is clear. So Washington Utah can be
linked together in that regard. So you know, obviously the
extent to which Arizona wasn't just losing, It was getting
blown out, and it got blown out by Arizona State
this past weekend. That is definitely concerning. I'm not gonna lie,
I'm not gonna ignore that. But Brent Brennan did not
have the ideal roster. It's your one. Now we see
how he just going into year two, and if year
two is anything like year one, then you have to
consider a two year coach firing. And we're getting into
the coaching carousel. Ryan Walters of Purdue, I know that's
not a Western program, but just to briefly offer the example.
It was a two year coach firing for Ryan Walters
at Purdue, and you don't ordinarily fire a coach after
two years. But but if year two bottoms out, if
the program completely craters in year two, then a two
year firing, you know, not giving the coach a year
three makes sense. And so Purdue going one and eleven
oh to nine and the Big Ten and losing sixty
six nothing to Indiana, I would say that pretty safely
fits the definition of cratering. So if we see Arizona
at three and nine next year, then you have to
consider Brent Brennan not getting a third year in Tucson.
He needs to be able to show modest and noticeable
improvement in twenty twenty five if he's going to get
a third year in twenty twenty six, because yeah, this
season was not acceptable, but you don't fire Brennan. He
was caught in between with the roster changes that went
on in Arizona and Washington. You give him a second
season without question, but you expect him to do a
lot better than he did this season. And as for
Jeed Fish in Seattle, again you need the big time quarterback.
He didn't have it this year. We saw over across
the country Florida State, Auburn, various other programs Iowa as well.
Coaches did not get the big enough upgrade they needed
at quarterback in the transfer portal and it left their
programs crucially shorthanded in this college football season. Continuing with
our survey of western college football programs, let's make a
brief tour of Los Angeles. So UCLA manages to beat
Fresno's state but his home for the holidays. Nevertheless, UCLA
wins five games. That's two or three more wins than expected.
So Deshaun Foster, he's not going to a bowl, and
yet he still did a really good job. And we
mentioned on a previous episode of Get Off My Pylon
that last year Kenny Dellingham didn't make a ball at
Arizona State, but with all the injuries that he had,
getting what he got out of that team last year, like,
he did a really good job. And we showed that,
you know, with ASU getting healthier on the offensive line
this season, Man, it really came together for the Sun
Devils and more ONSU in just a little bit. But
Deshaun Foster, he's not in a bowl game, but don't
let that change the overall verdict. He did a really
good job with the meager talent level he had on
this UCLA roster this season, so that offers cause for
optimism going to twenty twenty five. Let's see what UCLA
can get at the quarterback spot, whether it's in the
transfer portal or recruiting. And the goal for UCLA in
twenty twenty five. It's very clear won five games this year,
so next year you want to get that extra win,
get to a bowl game. If de Sean Foster does that,
he will be on schedule at UCLA. Because this is
not a quick fix. This is a long term thing.
UCLA does not have as much money as USC as
various other powerhouse programs in the West, and it is
a basketball school as well, So when the collectives talk
about nil money, you know just how much is there
to go around. But ball is not going to get
you know, the obvious, unquestioned number one percentage of resources
over there. So what Kashaun Foster is doing is pointing
UCLA in the right direction in a bowl game. Is
the target for twenty twenty five? Elsewhere air Force, let's
briefly go to the Mountain West. Air Force is not
going to go to a bowl game, but it beat
San Diego State and the Falcons closed their season with
three straight wins. Troy Calhoun struggled so much with that
team through the first two months of the season, but
he figures things out late. And so now air Force
as it goes into twenty twenty five, you know, air
Force has been a steady, solid winning program. Air Force
should expect to be a seven to eight win team
next season, and if not, then then something will have
really gone wrong. But Troy Calhoun stuck with his players
and he eventually figured out how to win in November
after just an awful September and October run. So air
Force is definitely looking up. The San Diego State team
that air Force defeated just didn't have an answer at quarterback.
And Sean Lewis, you know, a very talented offensive mind.
He was Deion Sanders offensive coordinator at Colorado last year.
You know, head coached at Kent State. Viewed as you know,
a talented young coach, a talented offensive mind. In this business,
he has to go out and get himself a quarterback.
And Meller moss Uh the USC starting quarterback for most
of the season before being benched for Jade and Mayava.
In November, he entered the transfer portal. Millar Moss would
be a great fit I think at San Diego State.
That could be a great move for Moss. He doesn't
have to travel far from Los Angeles. He stays in
southern California and he'll get all the snaps he wants.
He'll be QB one if that's what Sean Lewis and
San Diego State want. If there's mutual interest there, that
could be a good transfer portal landing spot for Milar
Moss and so usc USC finishes six and six, loses
to Notre Dame. Jade and Mayava just mentioned earlier, he
has elevated the USC passing. He's willing to throw the
ball deep. He's willing to trust his receivers more than
Meler Moss did. Miler Moss is really good at the
short intermediate routes. You know, throwing was quick, precision timing
patterns in shorter areas. But Jade Mayava can throw the
ball deep. He's willing to throw the ball deep. He's
an aggressive playmaker and this led to the interceptions from
Notre Dame late in the game. But you know, Mayava
was not going to figure all of this out in
just three games, right, And so that's why Lincoln Riley
gave him three games, you know, giving him some meaningful
snaps and giving him a run of games, not just
a bowl game, but a run of games to really
get his feet wet. And I think USC has more
upside with Mayava heading into twenty twenty five than with
Molra Moss. And that's part of why Moss entered the portal.
He knew he was never going to start for USC
next year. It was Mayava's team at least if Mayava
chooses to stay at USC. So Miler Moss saw the
riding on the wall was a necessary move for Miller Moss.
It wasn't acrimony, he wasn't throwing a tantrum. It was
just everyone knew Miler Moss was not going to start
next year, and so Milar Moss has one more year
of college eligibility left. He needs to go somewhere he
can play. So it's a good move for Miller Moss.
It makes sense. Everyone at USC loves Milra Moss knows
that he wanted to stay there. You know, he waited
patiently behind Caleb Williams for multiple years to get his
chance this year. And he had some bright moments LSU,
Penn State, also Wisconsin and Rutgers had some moments when
he looked great but wasn't consistent enough. Through the crucial
interception against Maryland through three picks against Washington, he did
not steadily improve over the course of the season. Boss
security remained an issue. And so you get you know Mayava,
who he's not a fully formed, fully polished quarterback, but
he can run, He throws a better deep ball. He
brings more upside to the USC offense. So Miller Moss
could do the math. He transfers. He's entering the transfer portal,
and this is Jade Miyava's USC team, And so Jade
and Mayava, who know his passing game made Notre Dame
Secondary look pretty ordinary. USC's passing game looked better than
it had for most of the season until those final
few interceptions. But like the Trojans were finally chucking the
ball down the field getting big results, drawing past interference
flags like this looked more like a Lincoln Riley offense.
US He scored thirty five and easily could have scored
more the way it consistently moved the ball through the
air against the Notre Dame defense. So that is the
element of optimism for USC, but there's a lot of
reason for pessimism as well. Emanuel Pregnant a rock solid
offensive lineman for this team. In twenty twenty four, he
accepted an invite to the East West Shrine Bowl, So
that means his USC career, his collegiate career is over.
He's pursuing his NFL dream. And USC offensive line depth
was a real thing, and actually that line did not
get carved up by injuries. It's a line that stayed
relatively healthy over the course of the season. It was
the USC defensive line that really got chewed up with
injuries to Anthony Lucas and to other top performers on
the d line. The offensive line stayed healthy and it
did get better over the course of the season, but
it got better moderately, like this did not become a
dominant offensive line. And one of the things that has
been a point of annoyance in my coverage of USC
football for Trojans Wire is that people will say, hey,
we're averaging five point five yards per carry. That might
be true enough, but if you watch USC football this season,
a lot of running plays would get ten eleven yards
with what he marks, and a lot of plays would
get zero yards one yard, so the averages right around
five yards to carry. But if you're getting eleven yards
here and zero yards there and ten yards here and
one yard there, you know when you run for one
yard or zero yards on a given series of downs,
then you have to pass the ball on a predictable
passing situation. So it's not as sustainable as the stats
would would suggest. If, on the other hand, you are
getting five yards on this carry and five yards on
the next carry in five yards on the carry after that,
that is consistency and that is when you know that
you can run the ball more. Now, should Lincoln Riley
have used Woody Marks more this season? Yes, unquestionably. He
should have built the offense around Boody Marks because he
was the best offensive player on the team, because he
was so dynamic, because he was so dependable. But it's
less about run versus pass. It's more about getting a
defense confused. And that's where Jayden Miava comes back into
the picture. At USC, Mayava had the running threat that
nol R. Moss never had, so USC was able to
put RPOs and option plays into the Lincoln Riley playbook.
An option keeper from Mayava gave the defense something new
to think about. And you saw against Notre Dame if
you watch that game after a QB keeper, which Lincoln
Roddy didn't use a lot, but he used it a
few times when he used a QB keeper, and when
he used Mayava as a running threat, Notre Dame was
on its heels the next few plays after that. So
it was less about running the ball, it was more
about using Jade Mayava's running threat. That's a more specific angle.
It's not so much you have to hand the ball
off to your running back. It's are you using your
quarterback's legs as an extra dimension? Are you using the
full width of the field to make a defense account
for all areas of the field. That's where link and
ride of these play calling fell short. It wasn't so
much the pure run versus pass mix. That's a simplistic view.
It's how are you using all the weapons you have
at your disposal. That's what USC didn't do enough of,
and that's why a lot of Trogns fans very realistically
and reasonably think, you know, Jade and Miava should have
been playing the whole year, and in many ways, think
about it. Think about it this way. Miller Moss played
well in the season opener against LSU, but if he
had been accompanied by Jade Miyaba against Michigan Minnesota some
of the big ten road games that USC lost, what
if Mayaba plays fifteen to twenty snaps in those games
and he has a QB keeper, he runs a few
option plays. USC could have put opposing defenses off balance
in those big ten road games that it lost. And
so Mass and Mayaba were both turnover prone in the
games that they played. They were both good quarterbacks, but
not great quarterbacks. And so when you don't have great
quarter and you have two quarterbacks with different skill sets,
you play them both. And that really is the lesson
for me watching USC this past season. And we'll see
what kind of a lesson Lincoln Riley learns from all
of this, and he enters a huge off season where
he has to beef things up on the defensive line
and the offensive line. US he just has to get
nastier and tougher, so that skill positioned talent is able
to shine through. We will see what happens with USC
in twenty twenty five. All right, So talked about a
lot of the schools that you know are gonna go
to a third tier bowl game or whose seasons are
fully done and aren't going to go to a bowl.
Now we can deal with the big ticket items coming
up on Get off my pilon, so Big twelve Championship game.
Arizona State, Iowa State, So Kenny Dillingham, cam Skataboo, they
make their way to the main event in Iowa State
is their opponent in Arlington this Saturday. It's gonna be
in that in the noontime slot, the Neon Eastern slot.
So that's gonna be an eleven am kick in Texas
College Football playoff bid on the line. And as I
size up this game, uh, both Arizona State and Iowa State,
you know, you look at their seasons. They both won
a number of games late after struggling early. They haven't
been generally dominant teams over the course of the full season.
You know, the Arizona State had to come back to
beat Kansas late. Uh, it was in a it was
in a nip and tuck game with Utah before finally
pointing away late in the fourth quarter. Uh. There were
there were other games uh, Arizona State played this season
which it had to scramble back from an early deficit.
The Texas State Thursday Night game early in the season.
That was another one. So you know, Arizona State has
had to play catch up, It's had to rally on
a number of occasions. And Iowa State did the same thing,
seeing it against Baylor, saw it against UCF. Iowa State,
you know, has also had to be a really good
second half team in order to get this far, in
order to get to the Big Twelve championship game. So
on many levels, these teams are mirror images. And I
will say that as good as they are at coming back,
you don't want to keep testing that theory. You don't
want to keep chancing it. So it's not as though
if it's a ten point game at halftime that the
team that's trailing is in a good position. It will
be worth noting that like the game is certainly not over,
or that you shouldn't, you know, mark it down as
a likely win for the team that's leading. But you
can't keep playing from behind you can't keep playing with
fire like we saw that with the BYU team which
lost those two games in November, or to get knocked
out of the Big twelve championship game. You know, b
YU just kept getting into precarious positions and it finally
caught up with the Cougars. So we'll see if Arizona
State and Iowa State, you know, if they're both both
able to play at the same level, or if one
team gets off to another slow start, we'll be able
to come back. That that's going to be an obvious
plot point in terms of evaluating who's likely to win.
Arizona State is playing better football at this point, and
I did say that. You know, for much of the season,
Arizona State has been scrambling, rallying, coming from behind, and
that's true. But in recent weeks you've seen Arizona State
put its foot down to a much greater extent, getting
the twenty eight nine lead over BYU, getting the biggerly
lead at Kansas State, and this past weekend just racing
to the huge early first half lead over Arizona Like,
Arizona State has serious momentum, even more so than Iowa State.
Iowa State played well against Kansas State this past weekend,
but the week earlier, Iowa State allowed Utah to make
a real game of it. ISU barely won that game
with a go ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, and
that was the Utah team with Isaac Wilson at quarterback.
That game should not have been as close as it was.
Iowa State played with its food a little bit. Arizona
State is the team that's in the ascendancy going into
this game. So if you had to ask for a winner,
I would say Arizona State more likely to do it.
What an amazing opportunity this is Matt Campbell and ISU.
By the way, ISU winning ten games this year saw
a stat and with ISU winning ten games this year,
Vanderbilt is the only Power Conference program that has not
won ten games in a season. I didn't double check
that in in the stat book, in the historical record,
but you know, if true, that is an absolutely astounding statistic.
It also speaks to the amazing year that Matt Campbell
has had with Iowa State. But I think Arizona State
has the edge going in here. And if Arizona State
plays the way it has been playing the past few
weeks with the strong offensive line. With Cam Scataboo being
such a dynamic, consistent force for the Sun Devils, I
think ASU has the edge. So we'll see what happens
in Jerry world for the Big twelve Championship game before
we moved to the Big Ten Championship game in Oregon.
Let's deal with Colorado. Colorado dismantles Oklahoma State, but the
Big twelve Plinko chips, you know, a little price is
right reference there. The plinto chip did not fall into
that ten thousand dollars middle slot. Colorado gets the zero
slot and gets bocked out of the Big twelve Championship game.
And so that lost Kansas proved to be decisive for
the Buffalos. And let's not get this confused. Deion Sanders
did a really good job this season, several wins better
than what I and most other people expected. So I
got this team wrong. I greatly underestimated Colorado and that
remains very much the case. However, However, having Travis Hunter
and Shader Sanders, two players liked to be taken in
the top three or four picks of the twenty twenty
five NFL Draft, and this was a parody filled Big
twelve with no really good team, no team that has
lost fewer than two games in this conference. It was
a mess. And the teams that were all predicted to
finish in the top five, they all were big disappointments.
Kansas State lost four games, and the other teams that
were predicted to finish in the top five of the
Big Twelve they lost more than four games. Arizona, Utah, Kansas,
Kansas did not make a bowl Kansas lost to Baylor,
so Kansas will not even go to a bowl game.
Hugely disappointing season for Lance Leipold, and then the Utah
team that we mentioned, Utah not going to a bowl game.
This was an absolute disaster for the teams that were
expected to finish in the top five of the Big Twelve,
and so Colorado benefited from that parody and yet was
not able to get to the Big Twelve championship game.
You wonder if Colorado's going to have a competitive state
of play advantage to the same extent that it had
in twenty twenty four. And now that Colorado loses Hunter
and chadur you wonder what the ceiling is for this
Colorado program in the future. Now, maybe the Big twelve
will remain a paradise of parody in future seasons. And
if that's the case, then Colorado seems to be getting
the recruits it needs to continue to give itself a chance.
But if some of these other Big twelve programs straightened out,
I'm thinking particularly about Kansas State also Utah, if those
two programs get themselves sorted and get back to the
standards that they hold for themselves, it could be very
difficult for Colorado to get as good a look, as
good a sniff of the Big twelve Championship game in
future seasons as it did this year. So as great
as this season has undeniably been for Colorado, make no
mistake about that, it's still very true that this feels
like a huge missed opportunity for the Bus. And so
that leads us into the Heisman Trophy part of our conversation.
We'll get to the Big ten Championship game in just
a bit, but before that, let's deal with the Heisman.
So Travis Hunter will not have a Big twelve Championship
game to play in. It will not have a thirteenth
game Ashton gent and Boise State. They get that game
against UNLV in the Mountain West title game, a rematch
of a game that Boise State and UNLV had in
Vegas earlier in the season. So that game is on Friday,
December sixth, in prime time. Gent gets the extra stage.
He'll have it auto himself on Friday night. You know,
the other bigger conference championship games on Saturday, but Genty
has Friday night to make one final Heisman statement. Now,
in terms of the politics, in terms of where the
votes stand, in terms of where the betting markets are,
they all think it's a done deal. Travis Hunter is
going to win the Heisman Trophy. I'm just putting that
out there, like that's not even an editorial comment. If
you look at the betting noves, if you look at
the widespread assessment of who will win, it's Travis Hunter
all the way. There is a widespread belief that that's
how it's going to be. Now, in terms of of
what should happen, in terms of how this should be handled,
that is a much different conversation. And with Ashton Genty
being so consistent throughout every game this season, you know,
defenses are game planning to stop him, and he's still
pounding out one hundred and fifty one hundred and seventy
two hundred yards per game, even though he's the primary
focus of a team which has a decent but not
amazing quarterback Maddox Madson. The fact that Gent he's doing
what he's doing every week, that should offer some appreciation
for what he's achieving. And if he goes off against
a good UNLV team, UNLV's ten to two. UNLV's had
a definitely a good year under Barry Odom. If Genty
goes off against UNLV and he leads Boise State to
the College Football Playoff, whereas Colorado is sitting there at
nine to three, not even getting to the Big Twelve
championship game in a year when the Big Twelve was
completely upside down and totally up for grabs on the merits,
on the merits, should it be such a foregone conclusion
for Travis Hunter not even saying that gent should win,
but I am saying that, like, this is a close call.
To me, this is a close call on the raw merits.
I don't think it's a slam dunk. I think there's
a definite strong case to be made for ashtra Genty being,
you know, so much the focus of everything Boise State does,
and he still delivers the goods week after week at
a physically demanding, punishing position. To me, that that puts him,
That puts him pretty much on the same plane as
as Travis Hunter. So so that that much has to
be established now as we as we move into, uh,
you know, the the other elements of the Heisman race.
You know, Dylan Gabriel of Oregon has been mentioned as
a candidate. But if we're sticking with the best college
football players in the country and those who have made
the biggest difference for their respective teams this year, there's
another player on a Western school who frankly should be
invited to the Heisman ceremony in New York, and that's
Cam Skataboo of Arizona State. Think about it, who's made
a bigger difference for his team this year? Genti would
obviously be one Hunter another Cam Ward of Miami deserves
to be there. He's been amazing throughout this season. But
Cam Scataboo of Arizona State, he has been a rock
star for the Sun Devils. I mean, if you don't
have if you take Cam Skataboo out of this Arizona
State roster. What do you have? What do you have left?
How what's the ceiling for Arizona State this particular season?
So you know, I would put Cam Scataboo ahead of
Dylan Gabriel for instance. You know, Gabriel has been very good,
but not spectacular. Oregon struggling against Wisconsin, struggled early in
the season, including against Boise State. Oregon needed to kick
return touchdowns to win that game. I would put Cam
Scattaboo ahead of doing Gabriel if you ask me, you know,
maybe Gabriel gets a ticket to New York, I would
put Scataboo ahead of Gabriel. But there's one other thing
for me to mention here while we're on the subject
of the Heisman Trophy, and that is there should be
ten in vities. There should not be an exclusive three
or four person gathering in New York. We should be
inviting more players. More players get to be profiled and
have their moment in the sun on national television for
this prestigious award. We should have more players, more schools,
more fan bases interested in this ceremony. Given a reason
to invest in the Heisman ceremony, there should be a
defensive player for every he ceremony. There should be an
interior lineman for every ceremony. I mean, linemen are part
of this sport. Linemen are hugely important. You should definitely
have alignment. Okay, now gent is going to provide a
group of five presents, but he's a finalist. So you know,
in years when you don't have a group of five finalists,
there should always be a group of five players. So
there should be a set aside, guaranteed slot for a
group of five player every year. You should you should
have ten invitees with you know, first off, you increase
the at larges you know, to like five or six,
and then you add a group of five defensive player
interior liignment. You should be able to arrive at ten players,
so that you're you're giving a wider cross section of
football players and players from different conferences, different perspectives, different
van points in the larger college football universe, their day
in the sun at the Heisman ceremony. So that is
a larger point about the Heisman. It goes beyond the
immediate but in the immediate sense, you know, on the merits,
Genti versus Hunter is a close call. You know, let's
just give Travis Hunter his due credit since he is
almost almost certain to win the award. Travis Hunter getting
the award in many ways is an argument for like,
let's say, let's compare this to baseball. Baseball you have
everyday players, and you have pitchers, and the everyday players
the players who are you know, taking offense, performing on
offense and defense, and aren't just pitching, or to cut
this in another direction, position players versus a designated hitter.
If you're having an impact on both sides of the ball,
not just one, that is a significant extra level of impact.
And that is what Travis Hunter brings to the table.
So I'm definitely not trying to dismiss or or minimize
Travis Hunter's excellence, and I recognize the strength of his
heisman candidacy. You know, if you tell me Travis Hunter
is gonna win the award, which he's likely to, I
don't have a problem with that. What I do have
a problem with is this idea that, oh, it's a
done deal. Now. Now in terms of like the betty
the betting markets do think it's a done deal, the
larger political media focus angle suggests it's a done deal.
That's what I don't like this should be presented as hey,
there's a real conversation to be had between Travis Hunter
and Ashton gent But that's not the way this Heisman
race is being portrayed. And that's a real shame because
Ashton Genty deserves his chance to make this statement against UNLV,
and let's watch this poise UNLV game and then we
can evaluate these two Heisman candidacies. But the idea that
Hunter has wrapped it up, see, I don't like that.
I'm not saying Hunter shouldn't win the award. I'm saying
that we shouldn't treat this as a done deal, even
if the betting markets say it is, because hey, should
we be devoting our coverage to how the betting markets
are treating something. I don't think that's healthy, don't. I
don't think that's a good model for how we go
about covering college sports, or really any significant sports story
that's part of the landscape. All Right, danced around this
for a lot, but now we get to the final
big topic. And it is a big topic because it's
the Big Ten. It's the Big Ten championship game Penn
State versus Oregon this weekend in Indianapolis. There was a
big late plot twist with Ohio State lose seen as
a twenty one point favorite against Michigan at home, and
so Penn State replaces Ohio State as Oregon's opponent. Now
let's get down to brass tacks on a couple levels
about this game. First. First, if we did this right,
and I've mentioned in previous weeks that the conference championship
games in a twelve team playoff era, they need to rethink.
They need to be thought about in a different way.
The structure of a college football season and the schedule
needs to be adjusted. We have the perfect example here
in the Big Ten. Oregon was the only Big Ten
team to have a perfect twelve to zero season, to
have a perfect Big Ten conference record. Indiana, Penn State,
Ohio State all lost games. They're all going to get
into the playoffs, but they all lost games. So what
we should do in future seasons when we encounter a
season such as what we have this year in the
Big Ten, we should declare Oregon the Big Ten champion.
So Oregon gets that top seed in the twelve team
playoff and it gets the first round, by okay, Oregon
should be declared Big Ten champion right now. So Oregon
should not have to play in Indianapolis this upcoming Saturday
and the Big Ten Championship game. With Ohio State losing
that second Big Ten game to fall to fourth in
the standings, the Big Ten Championship game should be renamed
the Big Ten Playoff because it's not a conference championship game.
We've decided that Oregon is the conference champion, okay, but
Penn State should be playing Indiana in a Big Ten
playoff game. And here's the extra part. Like Penn State
in Indiana, they didn't play during the regular season. We
want to know how these teams match up against each other.
Shouldn't they play before we go into the college football playoff?
And and I and you know, this is kind of
a tricky thing. Indiana is probably going to get into
the playoff at eleven and one, but if you have
Indiana play Penn State, you this would be a risk
for the Big Ten in that if Indiana loses to
Penn State, Indiana might fall out of the playoff. So
you could say this is not you know, for the
Big Ten's bottom line interests, but in terms of determining
the twelve best worthiest teams in the playoff field. Having
Penn State play Indiana makes so much more sense than
having Oregon and Penn State play. And here's the other thing.
So Oregon has gone twelve to zero, it's already in
the playoff. No one disputes that. And Penn State, even
if it loses to Oregon, is almost certainly in the playoff.
Why have them play an extra game before the actual
playoff begins? And the first round begins on December twentieth
and twenty first, you know, whoever loses this game will
have to turn around and play You're making this team.
These teams play a thirteenth game, then the loser has
to turn around in two weeks and play the first
round game. And then if it's able to get through
the first round game, we'll have to play three more games.
So or asking Oregon to play this extra game ahead
of the playoff, you're just you're throwing extra unnecessary work
and risk on the Ducks. They should be able to
have the week off rest up for their quarterfinal. And
you're so you're rewarding Oregon for being first, for being
Big ten champion, and you let Penn State in Indiana
do get out, and again there is risk attached to
the game. But we let's also say this Ohio State
with two losses and that embarrassing loss to Michigan Penn
State in Indiana could be playing to cement a birth,
and the loser we shouldn't necessarily think that the loser
is somehow out. In fact, we could say that we
could offer this stipulation that if you play in the
no I'm being very specific here, if you play in
a conference playoff game, because again Penn State, Indiana, if
we had that game this weekend, it would not be
a conference championship game. Again, we're having Oregon declared Big
Ten champion right now. If in this hypothetical Big Penn
State in Indiana play in a Big Ten playoff game,
there could be a stipulation that the loser of a
conference playoff game should not be penalized for losing a
second game, in which case we could say that Indiana
is ahead of Ohio State in the pecking order, the
Big Ten pecking order, regardless of outcome the playoff game
Indiana Penn State would be to determine who's number two
in the Big Ten, and then everybody can judge Indiana
versus the rest of the playoff field, but of Ohio
State because Ohio State lost that second game. So there
are a lot of reforms that college football can put
into place, and the Big Ten really is the perfect
example of how college football should reform. The conference championship game.
You still have the television rights, you still have the
time slot on the first Saturday of December, but you
don't call it a conference championship game. You call it
a college a conference playoff game. And so Penn State
Indiana just makes so much more sense than asking Oregon
to play an extra game that you know, obviously this
game is for Oregon so that it gets the first
round by. We should just be giving Oregon the first
round by right now. We shouldn't have to make Oregon
earn it. Oregon's already earned it by being the clear
number one team in the Big Ten this season. Let
Penn State Indiana fight it out to see which team
is better and to help with a playoff seating. That
just makes so much more sense to the game itself.
This game is going to be another test of James
Franklin in big games. We've seen it so many times
over the years James Franklin goes up against Ohio State
or Michigan at Penn State and he falls short. Penn
State lost to Ohio State this year. James Franklin couldn't
get it done against the buck Geys, and hey, we
saw how flawed and mortal Ohio State football was this season,
so you know, Penn State had that game at home,
got out to the early lead, still couldn't nail it down,
still couldn't finish the job. So can James Franklin finally
beat an elite team? He has struggled so consistently with
this it's been the ghost which has haunted him and
his career. Can Penn State finally get the job done
in a money situation? It's Penn State's first Big Ten
championship game since twenty sixteen. It's been a long long
time for Penn State to get back to this game,
eight whole years. And Penn State backdoored into this because
Ohio State and Brian Day has completely slipped on a
banana peel against Michigan. So Penn State's being given a
special gift, a special opportunity, Like no one was expecting
Penn State to be here a week ago. But Ohio State,
you know, stepped on the rake and so can James
Franklin get it done. So Drew Hollur going up against
this Oregon defense, I can't say I like the matchup
there for Penn State. I mean Dylan Gabriel versus Drew Hollard.
Definitely like Gabriel in the matchup. But this is this
is a time where you know, it's this has put
up a shut up time for Drew Hour couldn't deliver
the goods against Ohio State. You know, he he had
his moments the second half rally against USC at the
Colisseum that was impressive, but he was bad in the
first half of that game. So, you know, when have
we seen Drew Hollur play an elite game complete sixty
minutes against a high end team. Very few instances of
that in his Penn State career. We saw at Penn
State a few years ago. We saw Sean Clifford, you know,
struggle a lot in his Penn State career. But when
he had that moment against Utah in the Rose Bowl,
played one of the better games of his career, and
he left Penn State on a high note. And after
all the criticism that he received. Sean Clifford was able
to rise above it play an elite game on a
big stage. This is Drew hours equivalent of that Penn
State Utah Rose Bowl for Sean Clifford. This is Drew
hours time to put his stamp on this season and
on his Penn State career. We will see if he
can do it, but I would I would not be
optimistic about that. And you know Oregon. One thing to
note about Oregon is that it had the week off
before this recent game against Washington, So Oregon was able
to get healthier Dan Lanning than was able to know
disposed of Washington pretty easily. You know, that game didn't
go down to the wire, so Oregon is pretty fresh.
Oregon that doesn't have everyone available, doesn't have all of
its high end players. But Oregon was able to get
a week off, So that certainly has to point the
needle in Oregon's direction. I see this game as being
Oregon all the way. It's in Indianapolis, so you're probably
gonna have more of a Penn State crowd, but it
is indoors, you know, it's so Oregon's not gonna have
to deal with nasty, big ten weather. You know, we
saw it snow in Buffalo, and we're looking at the
very distinct possibility that and actually likelihood, I should say
that Notre Dame is going to host a first round
playoff game in South Bend, Oh Mine. So you know,
if Notre Dame is hosting a team from a warm
weather school, you know that's gonna really help the fighting
Irish or at least what would think it will. But anyway,
Oregon's not gonna have to deal with inclement weather December
weather in Lucas Oil Stadium. So you know, the Ducks
are set up for success, and they're set up for
success for a lot of reasons. But the main thing
is that James Franklin just hasn't proved that he can
get it done in those kinds of situations. So so much,
so much to be interested in for the Big ten
championship game between Oregon Penn State, and it's gonna be
fascinating to see how that shakes out. So we come
to the part of our show when we give you
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of Get Off My Pylon, covering Western college football in
the United States, part of the College Gridwind Coast to
Coast podcast network. This is Matt zemeck Enjoy the conference
championship games and thank you very much for listening.