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.
Speaker 2: Here's your host, Matt Zimon.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the twenty twenty five season premiere of the
Get Off My Pylon College Football podcast, a podcast looking
at western college football in the United States. This is
your host, Matt Zemic. I have a special guest for
our season premiere, TJ Reeves sideline reporter for the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers, but wears many other hats, and he is
the host of the brand new program Big twelve Game
Day on tune in three hours on Big twelve Football
coming at you every Saturday during this season. And so
the Big twelve has its Western component, right with the
Four Corners schools, the Arizona Schools, Utah, Colorado. So t
TG's gonna hit on that. TJ is also based in Tampa, Florida.
And we have Boise State. And you know, if you
saw UNLV trip over its shoes against Idaho State won
the game but looked awful. Got to think that Boise
State loves its chances in the Mountain West, loves its
chances as being the group of five champions. So TJ
being in Tampa with the South Florida Bulls. They host
Boise State coming up this Thursday, so we're gonna get
into that game. So, but also TJ, before we get
into the games and the specific things that you're looking
for in Week one of the season, you know you
are part of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast operation.
Get off my pileline is part of the family of
College Gridarin Coast to Coast to just tell us what's
coming at listeners, and you know they have this podcast
for Western football, but there are a lot of other
College Gridarn Coast to Coast shows tell people what to
expect this year from College Gridarn Coast to Coast.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, it is great to see we're
seeing each other on the video hook up. Hear your voice.
This is our time of the year, is it not,
my friend? We are ready to go already with Week
zero games in the books as we do this preview
pod for Week one, and you're right, we have got
so much to talk about and all of our podcasters
are lined up on this feed. Obviously, if you're listening
to us, you've already found Get Off My Pylon, which
may be as good as any name of any college
football podcast that there is out there right now, because
I tend to be right now a little bit of
Get Off my Pilon guy, I'm going through my middle
aged years. But in any event, something for everybody. I know.
The All Sports Discussion guys, Jeffrey Fan and company do
the ACC Preview. So if you want to know what's
going on on the ACC, it's on this feed. College
Gridiron Coast to Coast Tyler Jones and his guests, along
with Thomas Bridges, his co host, they do the Big
twelve SEC Show, their breakdown show, which is the Big Twelve. Yes,
it's primarily Texas and Oklahoma that they're talking about, but
they'll talk about everything else SEC of big relevance, like
an Alabama situation, Tennessee, Georgia, whatever. They do a great job.
Our buddy Jason Powers, our mutual broadcast and podcast brother.
Does Florida Football Insiders anything in the state of Florida
from Gators, Seminoles, and Hurricanes, but filtered down to South Florida, USF, Bulls,
UCF Golden Knights. Do they have any kind of a
comeback punch in them now that they brought Scott Frost back.
Anything in the state of Florida college football, Jason is
all over that. Also. Noah Drury is a new podcaster
in the Big Ten area in Michigan. He leans a
little Michigan State, but obviously he's going to cover everything
with Wisconsin, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State. So
Noah's got the Big Ten Paradigm podcast that's on his feed.
How we doing so far again, something for everybody, including
Price Atkinson and Steve Carney with the Yards and Stripes
podcast service Academy Football, Army Navy didn't they have two
great seasons last year and then air Force is traditionally
good as well when we talk Western football. So Price
and Steve with the Yards and Stripes podcast and a
plug for them that on their preview that is out
on the college gridiron Coast to coast feed. The athletic
director at Navy, the brand new athletic director at Navy,
Michael Kelly, will be their guest. Michael Kelly has been
at South Florida in Tampa, so there's a little inside
connection there to get him on. Michael helped USF get
their new on campus stadium rolling. They're not ready to
play in it yet, but they will be soon. And
he's a fascinating story because Michael used to work for
the ACC as a conference. He used to work for
the College Football Playoff, Oh, by the way, before being
the South Florida Athletic director. Now he's at the United
States Naval Academy. Hear more about why he made that move,
the kind of recent resurgence of Navy and Army in
football and that rivalry. So there's another plug on what
we have on this feed. But let me say publicly,
nobody's more on it than my man, Matt Zimmick when
it comes to college football. And we need you, brother,
because a lot of us are in the Central and
Eastern time zone and somebody's got to keep us straight.
Whether you're talking the Big twelve Western teams, the Big
ten Western teams, and as you mentioned, the Mountain West,
which is thanks for the memories disintegrating basically at the
end of this year. But how is it going to
sort out? You're going to keep us straight with that,
and we love you for it. So I'm ready to
get into all this as much as you want to
go the buffet. The buffet is up. Let's do it.
Speaker 3: West Coast Bureau Chief is twenty four seven. Absolutely, So
we have we do have a lot to talk about
because you covered the Big twelve, TJ. Let's just do
a first little appetizer before we get to the main course.
So Kansas, that's a team you're going to be following.
And so Kansas played Fresno State. So that's under my
umbrella UH in the West and that this was the
debut for matt Enz. You know, multiple national championships at
the FCS level with North Dakota State, he goes to
USC and Lincoln Riley UH to just get that D
one credential and then he's able to get a D
one head coaching job. And of course Fresno State, that's
a really good job. Klen Deborah coached there. Jeff Tedford
coach there, like good coaches coach at Fresno State on
their way up the ladder. But Fresno State ran into
a very good, very hot, very informed Kansas team. So
covering the Big twelve, what did you see about Fresno
State and also what did you see about Kansas?
Speaker 2: It was a it was a decent game in the
first half, but obviously Aalen Daniels of Kansas is a
tremendous duel threat quarterback. He ran for one, he threw
for a couple. And they opened that brand new stadium
in Lawrence. Remember they were nomadic last year, to use
that word on a preview twenty twenty five podcast, they
were playing at the Kansas City MLS soccer stadium, they
were playing at Arrowhead Stadium. They definitely were shifting around
because they didn't have their stadium in Lawrence. Two hundred million,
what's a few hundred million among friends, two hundred million
dollar renovation. So they debuted it last night. Lance Leopold's
got some expectations. Remember they finished the season strong a
year ago, and it will be fascinating to watch them
in what's a very competitive Big twelve because they're probably
a middle of the pack team. You would think the
likes of Baylor, Arizona State, Iowa State who won in
Ireland on Saturday, Kansas State, they're getting all the run,
all the attention up at the time, the Kansas probably
going to be somewhere in that five six seven mix
something like that. And again for Fresno. This appears to
be a work in progress. You would speak better to this.
This appears to be a work in progress. As you mentioned,
that's gonna maybe take a couple of seasons. We'll see.
But that's where they that's where the Jayhawks factor in.
Speaker 3: So continuing the Big Twelve and moving to the Western schools.
It was very conspicuous TJ when the preseason polls came
out that not only was Arizona State number eleven in
both polls, and like just a side note, like eleven,
Like it was there some kind of just you know,
magic sense among all these poll voters. Oh ASU is eleven,
not ten, not twelve, not nine, Right, it's happen to
be eleven in both poles. Like the group thinking these
poles just slays me. Anyway, Arizona State is voted as
the top Big twelve team by several notches, by nine
in the in the coaches pole, and I think by
six over Kansas State in the ap pole, and of
course Kansas State lost to Iowa State. So my main question,
my first question is is Arizona State really that much
better than the rest of the field in the Big
twelve Because the preseason polls would have you believe that.
But great questions just how much are they worth?
Speaker 2: Where do they stand on that they line the bird
cage usually, as we like to say, do we still
line bird cages? Do we even have newspapers anymore? I
don't think we do. We used to have newspaper in
the bottom of a bird cage. But in any event,
this time a year ago, my friend, fifty two weeks ago,
we were going into the season and absolutely no one
outside of the family members of the Arizona State players
thought that this was going to be a big twelve
championship season. Most people believe that Kenny Dillingham was going
to struggle again for a second straight year, and instead
they were one of the stories of the college football season.
And Sam Levitt, the quarterback, is a big reason why
last year and a lot of expectation on him this year.
I mean, what a fun player. The running back Camp
Scataboo was. Problem is it's was. He's now onto the NFL,
so they've got to replace the dual threat rushing and
receiving running back. But Dillingham's got some playmakers. They get
a warm up game this weekend with Northern Arizona and
then fast, I mean they should win that. Then fascinating.
They play at Mississippi State, who was bad a year ago.
They beat them a year ago, but Mississippi State was
two and ten last year. But they got to come
all the way to start Vegas Matt Zemik early on
in the year, and then they played Texas State, who's underrated,
and then they play Baylor. So this is not an
easy schedule at the beginning of the year for ASU,
but so much expectation on them after they won that
crazy game with Brigham Young that kind of put them
in the driver's seat, beat Arizona in the rivalry game
to get them into the Big Twelve title game, and
then beat Iowa, stayed in the Big Twelve title game
and had Texas in trouble in a great comeback in
the College Football Playoff. A lot of expectation, and you
would agree with me. Western football is alive and electric
for several reasons, not the least of which is if
the Sun Devils are good. So it's gonna be fun
to keep track of them early on in the Big Twelve.
When we do this Big Twelve game day show in
preview every Saturday. What's up with Arizona State?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, for people who might not know this,
I was born in Phoenix. I've lived here for half
of my life basically, the other half in Seattle. And
Arizona State is a sleeping giant program. You know, It's
kind of like what Florida was in the late eighties
before Steve Spurrier finally cracked the code and learned to
turn that program into a juggernaut. You have the weather,
you have the ability to recruit from talent rich states.
You know, you can go to California, you can recruit
from Texas as well. You know, it's an attractive place
to bring players. And so if someone can just figure
it out and replicate it, Arizona State can become a giant.
So older folks such as yourself, DJ will remember Frank Kush.
Speaker 2: I was going right there. You go back and speak
the Frank Kush language, don't you? And then you move
forward and what is it Bruce Snyder? Wasn't that the name?
And then Dirk Cutter after that? And so you're right,
they have had a lineage of success, even going back
into the seventies and the eighties at ASU.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so like Bruce Snyder, wasn't able to sustain it
long term. Neither was Cutter, but like they had elite seasons.
At the nineteen ninety sixteen under Snyder just came within
a whisker of winning the national title. You know, led
Ohio State in the final minute of the nineteen ninety
seven Rose Bowl. If Arizona State wins that game, you know,
number three Florida beat number one Florida State in the
Sugar Bowl. So if Arizona State had beaten Ohio State
and that game right down to the final minute, Sun
Devils would have won the national title. And then in
nineteen seventy five they finished number two. Under the aforementioned
Frank Cush, they were cranking out nine ten wins with regularity.
Also another great coach who coached at ANSU before Cush,
Dan Devine, who wont to about that seventy seven national
championship an order Dame. He took Missouri to the Orange Bowl.
If you do that, you're pretty damn good. So yeah,
Arizona State has a history that people they even snugg
the regions of the country are not aware of.
Speaker 2: They even snuck Dennis ericson the former Miami coach, and
he was kind of nomadic there's that word again, with
several different NFL and college players. They stuck him into
ASU and we're like top ten relevant back about ten
twelve years ago. So every so often they perk up,
and they have perked up in the Big Twelve. The
Sun Devils, they're gonna be fun to watch, no doubt.
Speaker 3: Absolutely moving along the Big Twelve. But the Western schools
that you're looking at this season, TJ So Colorado the
year after, Should Sanders and Travis Hunter right like that
is the whole ball game in bold. That is the
entire talking point, source of drama surrounding the twenty twenty
five Buffalos, Like what's next? How does Dion follow follow
up what he had last season? Can he sustain this
without two rockstar level college players.
Speaker 2: Well, and bear in mind, it's not going to be
an easy start to the schedule. With Georgia Tech as
the first opponent later this week, they are going to
have a drop off. I mean, for all the hype
and for all the attention, they they won some games
last year, Yes, they won some games that you cannot
take away from them. In the middle of the season,
the one thing we're knocking them last year is they
didn't play any of the best teams in the Big Twelve,
as it turned out, and that is BYU, Iowa State,
Arizona State. They didn't play any of them in the
regular season. They ended up losing out on a tiebreaker
with Shadurik to go to the Big Twelve title game
and then got whacked by BYU and the Bowl game.
Now they've got this kid, Julian Lewis, and how good
is he? How much is he gonna play? Stay tuned.
They've got a couple of playmakers. They're probably gonna be entertaining.
But I mean very early on in the season. Here,
we're gonna see BYU, We're gonna see TCU, and we're
gonna see Iowa State, like right in the middle of
the schedule. So coach Prime got the new contract. What
a country where you basically have a barely above five
hundred record in two years at Colorado and they give
you fifty million dollars guaranteed for it. Imagine if you
had actually won something what they could have given you.
So it'll be interesting to watch the Buffaloes. But they
open up with Georgia Tech. Here remember Georgia Tech. You know,
this different different season, but they got Florida State in
the opening game a year ago. So this is in Boulder.
What Friday night? Keep me straight? This is Friday night
in Boulder, right for that standalone game coming later this week.
Fascinated to see is kind? Do you not agree with me?
Colorado's probably something like a five or six win team.
I would be shocked if they're much better. But I
would also be shocked if they're like a two or
three win Colorado. I got them like middle five six wins.
Speaker 3: Yes, I would say Colorado's a middle of the road team.
I do think that. And you know the folks that
are other college graden Coast to Coast podcast, the all
sports discussion show covering the ACC I know they're going
to say Georgia Tech should absolutely expect to win that
game against ColorADD we think that Brent Key and Georgia
Tech are as good as they think they are. They
gotta go back that win against Colorado on August twenty ninth,
Friday in Week one. All right, next up Utah and
Utah plays UCLA and one of the better, more interesting games. TJ.
I don't know if you're going to be able to
stay up really late to watch that.
Speaker 2: Gotta peruse this.
Speaker 3: So this is GM kick in Taylor.
Speaker 2: But this is where we go to the guru of
get off my pylon. Here on Utah and Ucla, which
used to be a Pac twelve game for a while
every year, and now here it is as the out
of conference opener. Give me, give me something because I've
got the Big twelve game day show later this week.
Give me give me a theme or two here on
this matchup. Utah had all the injuries at quarterback last year.
I mean again, here we go just like Arizona State
fifty two weeks ago. All anybody was talking about is
Utah is gonna win the Big Twelve. They're a college
football playoff candidate. Candidate. Man, they went off the cliff.
I mean, they went off of one of those mountains
figuratively in Salt Lake. So I don't know what we're
necessarily gonna have with him, But what about this, give
me a little meat on the bone here, Utaw Ucla?
What about it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so obviously you covering the Big twelve and I
cover Ucla, and you and USC you'll want my take
on the Bruins. And so really what's true for UCLA
is also true for USC. For both school. You know,
everyone's going to talk about the Polynesian quarterbacks, Mayava for USC,
Iamalaiava for Ucla, but they both those two volcanoes. They
need some rocks in front of them to protect them. So,
like Nico Iamaliava has some upside, have some talent, but
it's not going to come together for UCLA if the
offensive line gets shredded. That's really the thing that Nico
Iamaliava gives UCLA a clear upgrade at quarterback from what
the Bruins have had last year and in previous seasons.
But if the talent around him, if the ten guys
around him aren't able to step up in their own
ride and aren't able to help him out, Nico's not
gonna go anywhere. Nico's not gonna do anything. His NFL
draft stocks not gonna rise. So, like you know, Nico
had dudes around him in Knoxville with the vaults, does
he have dudes on this UCLA offensive? Russ Gregy And
that's really the key. And of course where does Utah
and Kyle Whittingham, where do they butter their bread defensive
line sack Lake City, right, you know, just we're gonna
mash you. We're going to get after you. We're going
to be more physical. You know, one of the best
strength training programs in the country like Utah. You can
count on Utah playing physical, rugged defensive football. So can
UCLA's offensive line, and also to a degree, the wide
receivers help out. Nico Iam Aliyava. That to me is
the epicenter of this week one game late at night
in Pasadena and fascinating.
Speaker 2: This is a theme a couple of places, and we'll
be previewing this game. I keep plugging it on the
Big twelve Game Day show as a late night game
that'll be on on the tune in coverage is that
Utah has gotten the new Mexico offensive coordinator and quarterback
in a package deal, and a couple of these have
gone on this year. Hey, bring the coach, bring the player.
We go back to the days of Can and Larry
Brown getting Danny Manning to come to Kansas to play
basketball because he hired his dad, Ed Manning to be
the assistant coach. You and I are contemporaries going back
to the eighties on package deals. So this is offensive
coordinator and it's damp Pier, Devin Dampier the quarterback. How
will he do for Utah? Again, there's some familiarity with
the programs in recent history. I'll be fascinating to watch
that unfolding again. Utah early on in the year has
Texas Tech at home, they play at West Virginia and
then later on Arizona State and BYU. Four game stretch
of Texas Tech at WVU, Arizona State at home, and
at BYU. That's right in the late September early October
range for the Utes look out.
Speaker 3: And having followed Utah for a very long time and
knowing what makes that program tick or not tick. It's
all about the quarterback. Like that has just been the
consistent theme with Utah teams, because you know they're going
to be it's like a baseball team. They're gonna be
strong up the middle. It's you know what about when
you get outside the trenches, when you get outside the
line of scrimmage. Can the quarterback put the pieces together?
Because you're gonna have good line play, but can the
quarterback bring it all together make the plays he needs
to make? Tyler Huntley was good Cam Rising was great.
Cam Rising just made all the clutch plays, all the
big time throws when Utah absolutely needed him. That's why
the program went to back to back Rose Bowls, one
consecutive Pac twelve championships, and what was a very good
competitive conference. So when Utah finds the answer at quarterback,
everything comes together. Devin Dampier steps into that pressure spotlight
in Salt Lake, say, it's gonna be fascinating to see
Utah I think has to like its chances, not only
because it feels it should feel that its line play
is going to be better, but also Ucla. This is interesting.
UCLA sent five players to the NFL Draft last year,
and four of them more on defense. And you know
Carson Sweeshinger, he was the number thirty three pick. He
went higher on draft boards than a lot of people.
Five first pick of the second round, and he's been
crushing it in Cleveland Brown's preseason camp and he looks
like he's gonna be a ten year NFL linebacker. So
UCLA has to replace him in Femi Oladejo and Jay Toya,
a run stuffer in the middle who might make the
Dallas Cowboys fifty three man roster Oladejo is with the Titans.
He's expected to make their fifty I saw him.
Speaker 2: I saw him briefly week one in the preseason. They
played their starters a little bit. They're counting on him
as a pass rusher. So UCLA has lost some dudes,
is what you're saying for this game.
Speaker 3: On the defense, UCLA has lost some defensive dudes. Also,
Caine Madrono, who looks like a guy who's going to
stick on the Washington Commanders fifty three man roster as
a rookie. So that's so UCLA is not just losing bodies,
but losing quality bodies, quality players who who all did
some heavy lifting last season. So in Week one, you know,
this is the thing. When you play a good team
in week one, that's when your limitations normally get exposed.
And that's why a lot of coaches want to play
a cupcake game in week ones that you can deal
with your limitations. But UCLA is not in that situation.
Thrown right into the fire, and so it's going to
be an uphill battle for the Bruins. And I do
have to like Utah's chances in that game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that'll be a fascinating one. And again everybody, it
seems like he's in action somehow, some way somewhere this weekend,
and that one will be late night, late night for
those of us in the in the East on a
Labor Day weekend, though with a lot of I mean
that's Saturday. It's just going to be an onslaught. I
know we're going to talk more about the teams in
Florida here in a few minutes, but that's and you.
Speaker 3: Don't have and you don't have an NFL Sunday, so
like you, that's that's definitely points the arrow in favor
of you being able to stay up late, at least
for the first half, if not for the whole game.
All right, So the final Western Big Twelve team Arizona,
Brent Brennan and the Wildcats. What do you see for
that team down in Tucson this season.
Speaker 2: Well, the first thing is a subtraction of Team ac
Titaroa McMillan, who goes in the first round of the
NFL draft of the Carolina Panthers. He's not there to
help them anymore. Now you still have no off of
feet to the quarterback. They have some other skilled players
and it's interesting they're playing a Hawaii team at home
that as we do this, get off my pylon. Hawaii
has beaten Stanford in the opening game, and I am
big on this. You know, keep an eye on the Kansases,
the UNLVS, the hawaiis that the even Iowa State teams
that played a game on Week zero that now have
a game under their belt. I believe that matters now.
Hawaii's on the road at Tucson here, but I believe
that's going to matter to an extent here for this
opening matchup. But Brennan, I mean, this was a disappointing
season last year. They took their umps in the Big Twelve.
Fafite is obviously a dual threat who's talented. Does he
have enough weapons around him? Defensively? They were not very good?
Are they going to be improved? And I'm just looking
at their early schedule again. They get Hawaii, they get
Weber State at home, Arizona, but then Kansas State, welcome
to the Big Twelve at Iowa State. We're gonna find
out right away what Arizona's made out of really in
their first two conference games. Good luck, good luck with
both of those.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do think Arizona I should beat Hawaii, if
for nothing other than you know, Hawaii, and first off,
credit to the Rainbow Warriors. You know, they really gutted
one out. They were trailing for a good portion of
that game. They were up against it. Midway through the
fourth quarter, you know, Stanford driving for a two score lead.
Hawaii gets the interception, turns around that game late. Credit
to that team. But quarterback Micah Alajado was injured in
that game against Stanford. He was lifting around that field
for most of that game. I doubt he's going to
be one hundred percent. He's gonna play, but I doubt
he's gonna be one hundred percent. So if you're Arizona,
you gotta think we gotta win this game against especially
a home injured quarterback.
Speaker 2: They come to you, you're at home, you would think so.
I mean, they got off to a huge start. Remember
McMillan had the three hundred yard receiving game in the
opener a year ago. Last year's last year, he was
the National Player of the Week for a couple of entities,
and they didn't do a whole lot else the rest
of the year, And they got tattooed a couple of times,
two or three times late in the year. So let's
see if Arizona gets off to a good start with
a late night game with Hawaii on Saturday.
Speaker 3: All right, we're gonna save the best for last. So
you're in Tampa. Yeah, the state's coming to your backyard.
And again with UNLV looking very shaky, and of course
it's Week one, maybe UNLV figures it all out. But
if UNOV doesn't, Boise State becomes the clear favorite in
the Mountain West and the likely favorite in the group
of five sweep states for the College Football Playoff. Berth So,
Boise State at USF. It's not just a nationally televised
game on Thursday, but it's a really, really important game.
And it's the Mountain West versus the American two conferences
that hate each other, and they both really want to
be the flag bearer for the Group of five in
the college Football Playoffs. So like, it's not Notre Dame Miami,
it's not LSU Clemson, and it's definitely not Texas Ohio State.
But it's a pretty good game and it's a very
important game. Certainly, like you would certainly include it on
the list of the ten best games of Week one.
If not maybe even top six. Maybe, so TJ t
it up, Boise State. Here's down to Tampa where you
are to play the Bulls.
Speaker 2: Here's the interesting thing. So USF has been playing college
football now going on almost thirty years. I believe this
is their twenty ninth season, twenty eighth or twenty ninth
season when Division one finally in two two thousand, when
they made the fastest rise at that time ever to
Division one. They only played like two years of full
FCS football before they moved up, So they've kind of
grown as a program. Alex Golish as the coach, the
former Tennessee offensive coordinator. He has now settled in for
his third season. Byram Brown is the dual threat quarterback,
blazing fast. He's a guy, and Golish wants to play
fast right out of the J. Josh Heipel mindset and strategy.
We want to crack off plays. Literally in seven or
eight seconds of the forty second clock. You will see
them get off off the ground, get on the line,
and go in seven or eight seconds. And Boise State's
gonna have to be ready for that for when they
come to Tampa. All Right, it will be hot. This
is an afternoon game Thursday afternoon, late afternoons are still
hot in Tampa. Chance of thunderstorms, the L word lightning possible.
What kind of crap this is being talked about in
the Tampa Bay area. This is a holiday weekend. This
is a weekday afternoon five thirty start, which is which
is kind of strange timing, not a seven, not a
seven thirty. So what kind of crowd are you gonna
have for this? I think it's kind of advantage Boise
State in that regard. You might, honest to God, if
this was a Saturday afternoon game or a Saturday night game,
you might have seven ten thousand more people than what
you're gonna have on a Thursday afternoon. They're playing in
this game in Raymond James Stadium, where the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers play on Sundays. And I'm fascinated without Ashton genty.
Do they have another go to running back this year
for Boise State? South Florida? Kind of okay? Defensively, a
lot of unknowns here. Bulls can run the ball a
little bit. Uh, this is this is gonna be. It
kind of kicks off the weekend a little bit by design.
National ESPN game, but late afternoon with the weather and
with the heat, and Boise State have gonna come all
the way across the continent diagonally southeast to Florida. Let's
see what this looks like. You would be better to
speak to. Does Boise State have something on offense that
makes this interesting where it could be a score fest
in Tampa on Thursday? We'll see.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean no, Ashton Gent means this is an
entirely new Boise State offense, just just in terms of
how is Boise State going to attack opponents. So it's
just it's gonna be new, right for Spencer Danielson and
his staff. TJ the question I'm most interested in, and
like five thirty that is unusually early, Like there's always
a big Thursday game that's usually on around six six fifteen,
six thirty eastern, five thirty a little bit earlier. So yeah,
it's not technically a night game. It's gonna end at night,
but it's gonna start late afternoon. My main thought is,
you know, like that doesn't sound very comfortable for Boise State.
But on the other hand, at Boise State could consider
itself lucky because I remember South Florida having some big
games in the noon window on Saturday, and I think
that would have been the worst case for Boise State
and conversely the best case, well for USF you get
a body clock game. So this isn't a body clock.
Speaker 2: Game, true because obviously if you're a Western team and
you're coming even a day early, you're still playing very early.
It's tough to acclimate very early on your body clock.
That's a nine am or a ten am start on
your body clock. So it's a little better, but again,
very humid, very hot. You got a hydrate. Cramping will
be a factor. It'll be a factor in these games
that we're talking about early on in the year, So
stay tuned. This will be wild to kind of open
it up in the American season, kind of a marquee
game for the American Conference, to be on ESPN and
to have Boise State and all of this. So I'm
fascinated to see what's going to happen Thursday. Again, I
would expect from a couple of people that I talked to,
South Florida has probably about fifteen thousand season ticket holders
something like that. They usually for the bigger games will
get eight or ten thousand student involvement right now. The
crowds are around twenty thousand for their biggest games now.
Obviously if they're playing Alabama, if they're playing Florida, the
place is gonna be full. They've played Florida State in
recent years the place was full for a game like
this in the middle of the afternoon, late afternoon. Are
they gonna have twenty twenty five thousand people there? Again,
that should be advantage Boise State. We'll see on not
as loud a crowd, crazy a crowd as what it
could be. Stay tuned, yep.
Speaker 3: And just the final note, if there're storms, we all
saw how poorly Kansas State and Iowa State dealt with
the wet ball. That was a greasy peg in Dublin,
where you could say a greasy corned beef with the cabbage.
No one could tuck the cabbage away right in Ireland.
So if it's stormy in Tampa wetball game one late August,
take care of the rocket.
Speaker 2: And another factor, we have hillacious lightning and thunder thunderstorms.
Full disclosure, you and I are doing this interview while
we're having one of those thunderstorms. You haven't been able
to hear it. Yet on our connection, and so the
l word comes into play, the lightning word comes into play.
And do you have delays and who handles the delay? Well,
we see that sometimes where it might take a half hour,
an hour or more delay. We hope not. But you're
in the peak season of late afternoon thunderstorms with lightning,
so that could be a factor on Thursday. Stay tuned, yep.
Speaker 3: And you know, if I'm a Boise State player, I'd say, hey,
let's have some rain and lightning. The game winds up
starting at eight pm. It's a true night game with
core temperatures after the rain. To me, if I'm a
Boise State player, that's my that's my best Thursday. All right. TJ.
Reeves done so much. And of course you're part of
the not just you're part of You run the College
Grade on Coast to Coast podcast operations. So you've mentioned
all the different shows, so folks give a look at
all the different places you can learn about college football,
whether it's the ACEC, the Big Ten, the Service Academy
is the Big twelve, you name it. College Greater on
Coast to Coast is part of it. So Apple, right,
Apple's where you go primarily any other places where people.
Speaker 2: Spreaker, Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. Follow on social media
at Gridiron Coast on social media, listen, we love talking
college football and we didn't even get to Alabama, Florida State,
Miami Notre Dame in the Sunshine State for this weekend.
What a weekend this is going to be with.
Speaker 3: All the game and that's where people can find the
Florida Football Insiders Yes Coast podcast with our friend Jason Powers.
Speaker 2: We love JPO Jason Powers. Who's got Jeff Colhane, the
voice of the Florida State Seminoles and Josi Gaki, the
voice of the Miami Hurricanes. Full season previews from both
of those guys. They're talking Alabama, Florida State from the
Florida State perspective and a Miami Notre Dame from the
Miami perspective. With those two guests. It's on this feed,
on this feed Florida Football Insiders, the podcast, the preview
podcast is already up and by the way, I don't
know what the update is on this Sunday. I know
as a Friday afternoon, they had not installed the turf
yet at Dope Campbell Stadium, they're doing what's called a
game grown turf grown where they're growing the field somewhere
else and then rolling it in and implanting it. I
believe they were doing that either Friday or Saturday. They've
had last week, they've had a dirt field at dope
Campbell Stadium. Maybe trying to slow down Alabama a little
bit if they could. So new turf going down for
that matchup in Tallahassee, and they'll be tremendous publicity on
that one for this weekend. So cannot wait in the
Sunshine Stadia as you mentioned South Florida and Boise State
is kind of the appetizer. It gets the weekend underway.
He but FSU, Alabama, Miami, Notre Dame. This weekend gonna
be a lot of fun to watch all the college football,
including keep doing a great job keep us straight on
the Western teams, whether it's Oregon or Arizona State or
I mean, we look to you for all of this
with the Western football on this show.
Speaker 3: All right, final thing, TJ so Big twelve Game Day
on tune in. Tell people where they can find tune in,
and tell them when your broadcasts are generally going to
start on Saturdays if they have a regular start time
every week.
Speaker 2: Thank you, free plug. The Big twelve channel is on
tune in Free to hear Big twelve Radio. It's called
free to hear. Just search Big twelve Radio on tune in,
go to the tune in app and search it. Search
it online. Big twelve Radio on tune in. The Big
twelve Game Day show is nine am to noon Eastern Time,
so three hours of previews with me, my guests, analyst.
You hear from coaches, you hear from players. We've got
a full scale Saturday preview, so every week for three
hours nine to noon am Eastern Time eight to eleven
Central Time, where a lot of the Big twelve schools
are located. If you're in the West, that means you're
with us six to nine am in the Pacific time zone,
what is at seven to ten am in the Mountain
time zone. Adjust your time zone accordingly. Big twelve Radio
Free to hear on tune in, no subscription necessary. Check
it out on the tune in app or on tune
in dot com and I will be there previewing all
the Big twelve action, including as you mentioned, asu Arizona, Colorado, Utah,
all in action this weekend. So here we go. Here
we go with week one of college football. My friend,
thank you for the plug. I'm excited to be with
you and let's see you as things get underway. What
happens in week one, So.
Speaker 3: Folks, make TJ. Reeves your friend for Big twelve college
football coverage throughout the season. TJ Reeves, thanks so much
for joining us on the season premiere of the Get
Off My Pilon College Football podcast.
Speaker 2: Great to be with you, my friend. Happy college football,
it's back.
Speaker 3: Thank you. All right, we continue along on our show
and we have to deal with teams that we haven't
yet talked about Oregon, Washington, USC they're also part of
the family out here. So the main thing that we
need to establish is that you know, you're probably looking
at quarterbacks and offensive lines with these other Western teams
in the Big Ten. You know, we've talked about Boise State,
talked about Fresno State, talked about the four corners schools
in the Big twelve. But in terms of Oregon, Washington
and usc I. You know, we did talk about UCLA
in the preview of the Utah game. But quarterback and
offensive line is are the are the main centerpiece elements
of these teams and how successful they're going to be
this season. I think with USC, obviously Jade and Mayoba
has to perform up to a certain standard. You know,
Miller Moss was inconsistent last season. But offensive line is
the key unit for the Trojans. You know, when USC
is at its best, right, the offensive line is rocking
and rolling student body right late nineteen seventies, John Robinson,
John McKay. You know, that's when USC is a superpower.
You know, obviously the offensive lines were able to block
for Lendale White and Reggie Bush and protect Matt Liner.
You know that you don't get the great superstar skill
position performances without an offensive line that was able to
carry the freight at a very high level. USC did
not have a consistent offensive line last season. If it did,
Miler Moss would have been a lot better than he
actually was.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Jade Mayava, he's a runner in addition to a thrower.
You know, Miler Moss was just the seventh step drop
back guy chained to the pocket Jade Miava. You're going
to see USC use an option package from time to time,
and so that is an extra dimension that could help
the Trojan, but still the offensive line needs to make
it come together. If you talk to people who follow
the USC program, not just me, but like the other
people I talk to about USC, they're convinced that their
defensive line depth is there, it's gonna be ready, it's
gonna be able to hold up through the rigors of
the season at a level it did not last season.
You know, Anthony Lucas gets hurt. Also, you know, linebacker
Eric Gentry gets hurt, and USC was not able to
deal with those losses. The staff thinks that the defensive depth,
particularly the defensive front, is going to be at a
much higher level this season. So you know, and Jacoby
Lane and Mikayle Lemon give USC one of the best
one to two wide receiver combinations in the country. The
running back room, by all accounts, is very deep. Offensive
line is where it's at for USC. Now, as we
move to Oregon, Oregon has had great success churning out
elite Oregon's had great success sending offensive linemen to the
pros and not just doing that, but first round of
the NFL Draft. You know, Piney Sewell, Josh Connery. Oregon's
been able to you know, place offensive lineman very highly
on the NFL draft board. So you know that is
where Oregon feels comfortable. That's where Oregon has the great
track record. Oregon in twenty twenty five no longer going
with a veteran transfer such as Dylan Gabriel last season
or Bo Nix the transfer from Auburn before him. They
both worked out really well for the Ducks. Now Oregon
goes with not the veteran transfer, but the inexperienced transfer
Dante Moore from UCLA. He sat behind Gabriel, observed, studied
last season. Now we find out if all that studying
leads to elite performance. So Dante Moore is the question mark.
The offensive line should be there for him, but the
question is if Dante Moore can put the pieces together
in ug at Washington in Seattle, I think it's a
little bit more about the quarterback, a little bit less
about the offensive line, but of course both units are
going to be really essential to Jetfish making the leap
in year two of his tenure on Montlake. Last season,
Washington's offense very inconsistent, mistake prone. The Huskies could move
the ball between the twenties, but they didn't finish drives
nearly as well as they could have or should have.
So many Washington games were sabotaged by not being able
to finish drives. So, do you have an offensive line
that can mash in the red zone in those type spaces?
Do you have a quarterback who's going to be able
to make those key plays? You know, on like a
third and six from the fifteen, That's the kind of
play Washington's gonna need to make this season. So, like
to me, it's a little bit more down the middle
with Washington, you know, quarterback and offensive line. Oregon it's
clearly quarterback. USC it's clearly off defensive line in terms
of those different Western programs. So definitely wanted to hit
on those stories. And and and this was briefly alluded
to by TJ in our main segment. You know, talked
about Stanford in Hawaii. So Stanford is in real trouble.
Stanford's in big trouble. And one thing that the main
thing that strikes me after that loss to Hawaii. It's
not just that the Cardinal lost to a Hawaii team
whose quarterback was injured and was basically limping most of
the game, including late when Hawaii rallied to win that
game at the very end on a walk off field goal.
Not just that, but Stanford's quarterback. Did you notice Ben
Golbranson remember him? And he used to quarterback at Oregon State.
And the best thing that Ben Golbranson did at Oregon
State was hand the ball off right within Jonathan Smith's offense.
You know, the Beavers have a great, great offensive line
under Jonathan Smith. They had a great running game and
they were able to run the ball very, very successfully,
even without a really good passing game. Ben Gobranson was
not a good passer at Oregon State a couple of
years ago. So it was it was it was revealing
to see that two years later. Nope, he has not
improved one bit as a passer. That interception he threw
against Hawaii with six minutes left was absolutely atrocious. So
Stanford has one of the worst quarterback situations. If Ben
go Branson is your QB one, that's a nightmare. That
is a train wreck. And so you know, Stanford, this
I don't think this is hyperboles. Stanford really could be
a two to ten type team. Stanford could be the
worst Power for Conference team. Now you might say Perdue,
and that's a decent answer, is like an alternative. But
Barry Odams now coaching Perdue, and I think Purdue is
going to be bad early in the season for like
that team was atrocious last season, so that it's not
going to be a quick fix by any means. But
Barry Odin probably by Thanksgiving, by the end of November,
he'll have that team in a better place. I don't
know if Stanford has any path to significant improvement over
these next three months. You know, Mississippi State's probably the
worst team in the SEC, but I find it hard
to think that Mississippi State's going to be even worse
than what we saw from Stanford. Like, Stanford has set
the bar very very low, and it's gonna be really
hard for a team to have the bar lower than
Stanford will this season. So also wanted to touch on
that game from Week zero before we look ahead to
Week one. So that's a first look at western college
football from Boise State and UNLV. And like with UNLV,
I mean not a whole lot to say, right played
an FCS team barely won very shaky. Was Week one
a clunker and clunkers happened in Week one, and is
this team just gonna snap into focus or is un
OV really not all that good? It's one game, so
we're gonna see. We are going to see what UNLV's
made of. Un V plays UCLA in September, so that's
a game we're gonna be looking at down the road.
But I don't want to say like UNOV is a
fraud right now. Could be, but we just need to
let the season play out there. But like I would say,
Boise State if you had to pick between the two,
Boise State over UNOV right now for sure. But of
course then we're gonna see Boise State plays out Flwarida.
That game that TJ. Reeves teed up for us. We
talked about the four corner schools in the Big twelve,
talked about the Big ten schools from the West and
what they're looking for. Fresno State as well. You know,
Kansas looks really good and Jalen Daniels was eighteen of twenty, like,
can't that was more about Kansas than about Fresno State.
So Fresno State, let's see how the Bulldogs learn from
getting beaten by a really good team. Kansas looks good.
Kansas figures to be a quality team that's going to
win maybe eight even nine ballgames this season. So that's
our first look at Western college football here on the
Get Off My Pilin College Football podcast. Keep coming back
to us each week this season, but of course, also
visit your favorite college gridiron coast to coast podcasts in
the other conferences around the country. Lots of good football talk.
You've waited seven and a half months for the return
of the season, so come back to us, but also
go to Apple, go to Spreaker, go to Spotify, wherever
you listen to your podcast to get more from the
college gridiron Coast to Coast family of podcasts. So this
is Matt Zenich. We'll see you next week on Get
Off My Pylon. Thanks for listening.