Speaker 1: Check it out college football on the West Coast. This
is Get Off My pilone, a look at the PAC
twelve and more, part of the College Gridiron Coast to
Coast podcast network. Here's your host, that's Zimo.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the latest edition of Get Off My Pilon
college football podcast.
Speaker 3: This is your host, Matt Zemec.
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other shows that are part of the College great Iron
Coast to Coast family of podcasts. Here at Get Off
My Pylon. Of course, it's Western college football teams in
the Western United States. The big story obviously UCLA's upset
over Penn State. We're gonna get to that one, save
it for the featured slot on the show, but first
let's do the rundown. Just of all the teams that
were in action from the West, Fresno State ekes out
a too close for comfort victory over a not very
good Nevada team. So don't know what to make of
Fresno State. You won some close games but against not
very good teams. Don't know what to make of the
Bulldogs this season. Boise State gets handled by Notre Dame.
Scores just seven points against what has been a very
bad Notre Dame defense, So really the bloom is off
the rose for Boise State this season. Coach Spencer Danielson
had a magnet dificent debut in twenty twenty four, but
we can see just how much Ashton genty meant to
that program, and without him, it's been a very difficult
adjustment for the Broncos. So, you know, the Mountain West,
it's becoming clearer and clearer. Not going to have the
Group of Five champion. It's going to come from one
of the teams in the American Conference. You know, it
is true that San Diego State looked pretty good, but
looked pretty good against a not very good Colorado State team.
So how much stock can you put into that? The
Mountain West is going through a down year? And of course,
this iteration of the Mountain West, it's not going to
exist next season with the new new look PAC twelve
and all of the different realignment dominoes officially tumbling. You know,
the agreements have been made, but next year we get
the different landscape in the PAC twelve, the Mountain West.
So the Mountain West it's not going out with a bang,
it's going out with a whimper in twenty twenty five.
The less set about the Mountain West the better at
this point, just not making any sort of national splash.
And speaking of that, in the ACC Stanford was idle.
So Stanford didn't lose. Cal did lose. Col gets whacked
at home by Duke. That's a late night game in Berkeley.
So you know, Cal face planeted against San Diego State
in a thirty four and ahing loss. Was that going
to be an aberration or was that a sign of
continued erosion? And then we have our answer. Cal ultimately
not very good. The Golden Bears are going to have
a middle of the pack season, So their bright start
it wasn't really an indicator of an upboard surge. It
seemed for a point that Cal might have a really
favorable schedule, a chance to do some damage, don't. They
just do not have the studs in the stable needed
to make a significant charge up the ACC leader board.
So Cal is mediocre and is going to remain mediocre
at least for this season. That they need a lot
more dudes in Berkeley, especially on the defensive side of
the ball. Duke hanging forty five on the Golden Bears
in Berkeley late at night. You know, Cal pushed Miami
last season, but that was with Fernando Mendoza, who's now
of course at Indiana. So Cal you could you could
even say has slipped to a certain degree from last season.
That was a very disappointing performance against Duke so in
Stanford in the again IDOL so that covers the ACC
Bay Area schools. Oregon State, you know, the two pack
the PAC twelve before the reinforcements come in next year,
has alluded to earlier. Oregon State still winless under coach
Trent Bray, that's a dire situation. Oregon State was playing
from behind most of the way against app Blaction State
fought hard but still lost a close one. And it
just seems that Oregon State is losing all the close
ones this season. Lost a close one to Houston in overtime,
lost a close one to Fresno State, And you know
that I didn'tdirectly referred to earlier. Oregon State just can't
get over the hump, and it continues against Apple Achian State.
The Beavers still winless through week six. Not a pretty
scene in Corvallis, the Big Twelve part of the Western
United States. Arizona State in Utah didn't play Arizona had.
Arizona didn't technically have an off week, but it was
a football game, which is as close to having an
off week as possible without not playing, and that is
hosting Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State the worst Power for conference team,
So Arizona mops up the Pokes forty one thirteen. It
was as easy as everyone expected it to be. So
Arizona just bags another win, moving closer to Bowl eligibility.
But of course, the schedule is gonna get a lot
tougher for Arizona in the second half of the season,
So it's wait and see in terms of what Arizona's
ceiling is. But the floor is happily higher than a
lot of folks had feared. There was some skepticism about
where this team was early in September. Brent Brennan is
at least getting Arizona to take care of business in
the games where it ought to handle its business. So
that's something. But now we get to see how high
Arizona can climb in the Big twelve. Colorado another loss
to TCU, and you know, first off, we wish Deon
Sanders a full recovery. He's continuing to deal with blood clots.
He revealed that after the TCU game, So you know,
Coach Prime's health comes first and that is what's most important.
So we want to hold him in our thoughts in
prayers here and get off my pylon. Just allow us
to digest that point first and foremost. On the field,
Colorado is a mess at quarterback, just interceptions, mistakes, just
not being able to make improvements, not being able to
be a more precise, detail oriented team. That game turned
for Colorado. It was tied in the fourth quarter and
a punt just hits a Colorado player in the back.
You know, a guy trying to provide punt blocking, but
he turns his back to the ball. It just hits
him squarely in the back. TCU recovers the ball near
the Colorado thirty, goes into score, takes the lead, and
ultimately wins by fourteen on a very very late touchdown.
And that was one of our friends in the desert moments.
A really bad beat if you had Colorado plus the
thirteen and a half. But Colorado just not tending to
details this season and so just the on field product,
massive regrets from Shadur and Travis Hunter, as a lot
of people expected. So Colorado. It's a grim time all
around in Boulder. Now we go to the Big Ten,
which is really where just about all the notable and
major action is in western college football. Oregon plays Indiana
this coming weekend. That's a huge game. We also have
Michigan and USC cutting up this weekend. That's another monster game.
We're definitely going to have more on those in a
bed as we look ahead to week seven. But now
we get to the really big story and we'll throw
in also Washington was down twenty to three to Maryland
and the Husky score twenty one points in the fourth
quarter in College Park to beat Maryland. They look dead
for three quarters, the Huskies rise from the ashes somehow
beat Maryland. This is a crazy fact. Maryland under coach
Mike Loxley oh to ten after week in season, weeks off.
That is absolutely insane. But Washington able to create that
oh and ten record for Maryland coming off an idle
week under Locksley with that twenty one point fourth quarter
in College Park. Now we get to the big one
from week six. Ucla forty two Penn State thirty seven.
It's a game that we're going to be talking about
for a long time. It's a game that we certainly
can't stop talking about from a UCLA perspective. I was
following this game closely. Where do we start now that
this game had everything, and I just want to kind
of to enable people to appreciate how wild this game was.
Let's just reel off several incredible facts about this game.
So one game had all of these details. In one
one game, Intend contained all of these facts. The team
that scored thirty points in the second half lost Penn
State scored thirty in the second half still lost the game.
That's pretty wild. Five teams in James Franklin's tenure at
Penn State have put up at least four hundred thirty
yards against a Franklin coached Penn State defense, and UCLA
is one of them. UCLA has one of five teams
to put four to thirty on a James Franklin Penn
State defense. And just think UCLA was owned four offensive
line look pathetics. UCLA scored just fourteen points the week
before against Northwestern. This came from absolutely nowhere, you know, like,
not one soul, not one logical person could have possibly
predicted this, But it happened now in terms of the
coming from nowhere logically, yes, but also it did come
from somewhere, and that is UCLA interim head coach Tim
Skipper sacking his previous failed offensive coordinator Tino Cinceri. You
know who was Deshaun Foster's guy, and he puts in
Jerry new Heiel, former UCLA quarterback son of former UCLA
Rose bull winning quarterback and then former UCLA head coach
Rick new Heisl, who was in the CBS studio cheering
on his son Jerry new Heiseel, come in, comes in,
and this is his first game as the offensive play
car for UCLA, all right, and and so that is
where the upset came from. But like no one could
have predicted that a first time offensive play car would
be this good right out of the gate in his
in his first game. So UCLA puts four hundred and
thirty on a Penn State defense, one of only five
teams in over a decade. Franklin's been at Penn State
over a decade. And this this UCLA team zero to four. Uh,
you know, I thought UCLA was headed for an zero
to twelve season. This UCLA team, this UCLA offense puts
four thirty on a James Franklin Penn State demons. Just
absolutely crazy. So you have this fact, an interim head coach,
Tim Skipper beat James Franklin, who made the playoffs semis
last year, has won multiple New Year's Six Bowls, has
won a Big Ten championship. You know, James Franklin for all,
and we're going to get into his flaws for sure,
but he regularly wins ten games a season. Like Tim
Skipper didn't beat a scrub, He beat a guy who
wins a lot of games and who has been good
at winning the games he's supposed to win. You know,
James Franklin can't beat the top ten, but he does
beat regularly the teams he's supposed to beat. And this
was a this was a you know, a change from
that familiar script. So that also makes it pretty remarkable.
More on Jerry Neuheisel, you know, making his debut as
a play caller. He doesn't just have a great game
in isolation. He out coached Jim Knowles, the football lifer.
He's sixty years old, been there, done that, Like Jim Knowles,
has been successful in so many different places in a
long and very prosperous and lucrative career. Jerry Neuheisel, thirty
three years old, out coached a guy who's twenty seven
years older and has so much more experience in the industry.
That's pretty wild. And then also, Jerry Newheisel was a
position coach until he got promoted to offensive coordinator this week,
so he's at the bottom of the salary pyramid. And
the guy he out coached, Jim Knowles, he's making roughly
three point one million in overall compensation at Penn State.
He's the highest compensated defensive coordinator in the whole college
football universe, the whole college football industry. So you didn't
just have guys at the at opposite ages, opposite ends
of the age spectrum thirty three versus sixty. You have
guys at the total opposite ends of the salary spectrum.
You know, Jerry Neuheiseel entry level and Jim Knowles three
point one million, and you you couldn't have guessed which
guy was the older, more experienced coordinator and which guy
was making the three point one million dollar salary. Just
just absolutely crazy that Jerry Neuheisel outflanked Jim Knowles this badly. Also,
you know, from a betting perspective, Ucla was a twenty
four point five point underdog. The line actually opened at
twenty five point five. It was interesting that the line
moved down a point during the week. Maybe there was
just some you know, skepticism about Penn State having a
hangover effect from the loss to Oregon instead of being motivated.
Boy that that instinct, if you had it, if you
had UCLA plus the twenty four and a half, you
were definitely right because Penn State instead of being fired up,
was just the opposite, just asleep at the wheel. And
what did we see right out of the game. We
had UCLA kicking a successful on side kick. It was
a little chip kick across the field to the far side.
The Penn State up men they just left their position,
They left their post early, so they were just in
in zombie mode. They were just drifting through the motions,
not focused, you know, not really concentrating. And boy Tim
Skipper and the UCLA staff, they they saw that on
film and they pounced instantly. So that's why UCLA was
able to get a ten to nothing lead before Penn
State's offense even took the field. Still, A just was
able to control the ball for most of the first quarter,
and that, you know, that kept UCLA's defense off the field.
You know, if if UCLA does a regular kickoff there
at seven to nothing about five and a half minutes
in the game, you know, Penn State's offense was not
the problem for the Nidney Lions. Penn State scores thirty seven,
the offense scores thirty five. Ucla took a safety late
in the game. More on that later, but just Penn
State's offense not getting enough snaps in the first half.
That played a crucial role in UCLA being able to
build that early lead. So Tim Skipper just ran rings
around James Franklin tactically. Also part of the crazy nature
of this game. Here's another amazing fact, and my friend TJ.
Reeves gave me this one. UCLA was zero to four,
as you know, and was going up against a top
ten opponent. Obviously Penn State no longer in the top ten,
but we're talking about at the time of the game.
At the time of kickoff, Penn State was of course
in the top ten, ranked number seven. So with the
UCLA's win, this is the first time a team with
a record of oh to four or worse beat an
opponent that was ranked in the top ten. First time
that's happened since nineteen eighty six. The first time this
has happened in thirty nine years, team oh and four
or worse beats an opponent ranked in the top ten.
In nineteen eighty six, number seven BYU lost to Owen
six texasl Passo. That's Owen six UTEP nineteen eighty six.
So first time in thirty nine years that we've had,
you know, a team at the very bottom of college
football beating an opponent in the top ten. Another absolutely
astonishing fact to digest from this result. Now, you might
have seen a tweet on Saturday about this. Uh, someone
named Chris Muller tweeted, you steal a interim Tim Skippers
now tie with James Franklin with one career Top ten
win against a Big ten opponent. That's what was tweeted out.
And actually that was tweeted out on Sunday. That's not correct, Okay,
James Franklin has two career top ten wins against Big
ten opponents. So it was really kind of funny that
people were saying, Oh, come on, you're incorrect. Why are
you playing so loose with the facts, Why are you
being so careless and lazy? All of that is accurate
and true, and yet and yet the larger point of
the tweet that it was inaccurate. But the larger point
still stands. Tim Skipper in his first crack at a
top ten ranked Big Ten opponent wins. So that's half
of all the top ten Big ten wins that James
Franklin's had in over a decade at Penn State. It
really does put this in perspective, it's a pretty remarkable
thing to digest. More more crazy facts about this game,
Nico Iamaliyava does something which hadn't been done in twenty
five years. He became the first UCLA quarterback to rush
for at least one hundred and twenty yards and at
least three touchdowns in a game since the year two
thousand and Nico iam Maliyava was spectacular, showed what he
can do. Obviously, Jerry Newheisel's play cind helped. The other
thing we have to mention ucl A's offensive line. This
offensive line got out played by Northwestern's defensive line. Where
did that come from? You know, so we can talk
about Jerry Newheizel only should, right, He had a brilliant debut,
His father Rick and the CBS studio was just over
the moon, and it was. It was a wholesome family moment.
But really, the real story of this game's offensive front
contained Penn State's defensive front. You know, there were a
few sacks for Penn State, but not a ton and
u Stile was able to consistently moved the ball throughout
the game. Twenty seven points in the first half, fifteen
in the second. So like there was never a point
at which Penn State really stonewalled UCLA and just kind
of kept kept this game in the Nittney Lions favor.
You know, Penn State obviously got close, but it never
got over the hump u Cilia was always able to
move the ball when it needed to, with the sole
exception of that failed fourth down very late in the game.
That was the one time when the UCLA slipped up.
But really, you know, so UCLA's offense made very few mistakes.
It was able to finish drives. Obviously the forty two
points and that tells yous UCLA was getting sevens more
than threes, and you know, was able to get into
the red zone and finish drives instead of settling for
field goals. That obviously made a really big difference. And
just one last thing to absorb about this game in
terms of all the crazy facts and figures and realities
that emerged from it, just consider this was one game,
one football game. It had all of these elements, had
an interim coach and a first time offensive coordinator. And
when I say first time offensive coordinator for Jerry Neuheisel,
I'm not talking about first season I'm talking about first game.
This was his first game of the season as an
offensive coordinator, So interim coach, first game offensive coordinator on
a winless team beating a top ten opponent, Penn State.
And this game had a successful on side kick which
I referenced earlier. It also had a block punt for
a touchdown That was Penn State blocking a punt for
a touchdown when it made that push in the second half.
And there was a safety, UCLA taking a safety at
the end. So interrum coach, first game offensive coordinator, winless
team beating a top ten opponent in a game which
had a successful on side kick, blockpunt for a TD
and a safety. How many other games in the whole
history of college football have had that? And keep in
mind the history of college football is now over one
hundred and fifty five years. How many other games have
had that? So as you as you listen to this
show here on, get off my pilon, you know, if
you have a Sports Reference or the Elias Sports Bureau
to consult, how long will it take you to find
another game which had all of those components like this
was certainly one for the history books, to be sure.
Let's talk about that safety at the end, because it
just reinforced how poorly James Franklin coached this game for
Penn State and how small Martlee Tim Skipper coached this
game as the interim for UCLA. So we talked about
how at the beginning UCLA completely snookered Penn State on
this successful on side kick. Penn State was just sleepy, drowsy,
drifting through the motions. It was the same thing at
the end of the game. So like it reinforced the
notion that from start to finish, without many interruptions in between,
UCLA was out Uclea's interim patchwork staff. Remember UCLA sacked
it's both its coordinators during the off week that it
had in September. UCLA's patchwork interim staff made James Franklin,
Jim Knowles and the rest of the Penn State staff,
you know, point in all of these high salaries. UCLA's
patchwork interim staff made Penn State's coaching staff look amateurish.
And the safety was another part of this. So let's
reset UCLA having the ball round its own twenty with
twenty five seconds left forty two thirty five. I thought
at the time, you know in real time that yes,
Utilia should take a safety. You would think that James
Franklin would know this right, You'd think that he would
anticipate that UCLA was gonna take a safety. But you
know what, James Franklin and Penn State did not rush
the UCLA punter, and the UCLA punter then then that
the snap was from the right hashmark. Okay, So the
UCLA punter takes the snap and he goes into the
back right corner of the end zone. If the UCLA
punter had gone to the far side of the field
toward the left hash and all the way over to
the left corner of the end zone, he actually could
have used up four or five more seconds than he
actually did. But even then, because Penn State was not
rushing the punter, UCLA was able to use eight whole
seconds on that one punt. So got the clock from
twenty five down to seventeen. Like, that's worth two plays.
That's worth two plays and with that little time left,
that's a great outcome for UCLA and Penn State was
just a sleep at the switch. And then of course
the kickoff and UCLA obviously is able to kick the
ball off from the twenty that you know the punter
on the take. When taking the safety, the punter was
standing near the goal line, so obviously that's part of
why you take the safety. Right, You're not only using
up a few extra seconds, but then you get some
field position, you get some relief. Because the free kick
is from the twenty. The Penn State return man on
the kickoff fielded the ball at the eight, he got
it out to about the thirty seven, and that used
five more seconds. So really UCLA used thirteen seconds from
the start of that fourth down punt attempt which became
a safety, to the end of the free kick thirteen
seconds twenty five down to twelve. So Penn State had
the ball at its own thirty seven with just twelve
seconds left. That's three plays maximum could be just two plays,
and you know, the Nitney Lions were not able to
do anything. So it was certainly the right chess move
by UCLA and its interim coach Tim Skipper, But it's
also just so noticeable that James Franklin was not anticipating
any of it. Just an absolutely appalling coaching performance part
of a game that, again we're not gonna forget anytime. Soon.
I think just about everyone who follows college football, not
just in the Big Ten and not just in the West,
you know where I am. I would say this is
the most stunning upset to date of the twenty twenty
five college football season. And so Penn State pretty much
out of the playoff. I mean, if Penn State can
somehow find a way to run the table, yeah, the
ninte allions would be in. But who thinks Penn State's
running the table. Who thinks this team's running the table?
Who thinks this team is going to beat both Indiana
and Ohio State, not to mention the other middle tier
Big Ten games on this schedule. It's going to be
hard for Penn State to pull that off. So the
playoff configuration definitely change changes a lot after this Penn
State loss. So that's that was the big story of
Week six. And now we turn our attention to two
really big games in Week seven. Let's start with the
Michigan USC. So you know I follow USC. Of course
that Trojan's Wire and USC had this past week off,
so we were all watching Michigan. Michigan looked bad against Wisconsin.
This is a this is an awful Wisconsin team, and
Michigan won by just fourteen. And the thing is that
fourteen point margin twenty four to ten, that pretty much
reflected how close the game was. This was not a blowout.
Michigan's offense legitimately struggled. Receivers are struggling to catch the ball.
Bryce Underwood doesn't have it all figured out. He's he's
throwing some passes too hard. Calibrating the right touch to
put on a ball is still a little elusive for him.
Sharon Moore, this is thing that. Now this is a
this is a Michigan thing, so it's not really under
my get off my pilot umbrella. But I'm you know,
I'm looking at Michigan as a scouting report for USC.
When Charon Moore is not on the sidelines, you know,
due to to tous suspension, Michigan usually makes better coaching decisions.
Charon Moore punted in this game when he had like
three inches to make a first down. It was on
like his own twenty five yard line. But Michigan should
never think that it can't make three inches against anyone,
but especially against a weaker than usual Wisconsin defensive front.
So passing catching, coaching Michigan offense very substandard. Unless Michigan
dramatically improves on offense, it's gonna be tough for the
Wolverines to beat USC. And Yet, as someone who follows USC,
I know that USC's defense has been bad this season,
was certainly very bad against Illinois. So you know, can
you trust either Michigan or USC in that upcoming game
in Week seven in the Los Angeles Coliseum. The key
to this game is going to be the USC pass rush,
right because in USC's offense, you can generally rely on
a Lincoln Riley offense. Jade and Mayava at quarterback. He's
had a very good year. I won't say great because
he you know, you did make some mistakes against Illinois,
but he's had a very good year. And you have
receivers McKay lemon, Jacoby Lane who can do the job,
some really talented running backs, and an offensive line which
so far has performed well. So the questions for you
are not on offense, they're on the defense. And against Illinois,
the defensive line did not create one sack. USC got
one sack against Illinois that was on a blitz from
the secondary. That's it. So USC's pass rush against the
Michigan offensive line. That's the center of this game. If
USC's pass rush can get home, if USC can collapse
the pocket when Michigan has the ball, Trojan should be
able to you know, prevent Michigan from a scoring in
the thirties and b controlling time of possession as long
as Michigan scores under thirty points and doesn't dominate time
of possession. Let's say, for purposes of the discussion, let's
say Michigan has no more than thirty two minutes time
of possession and scores anywhere under thirty points. USC should win.
US should definitely have enough offense that, you know, with
twenty eight minutes time of possession and Michigan not you know,
hogging the ball, USC should be able to score at
least thirty in this game. Michigan just looked very disjointed.
You know, Let's keep in mind, Michigan barely beat Nebraska
earlier this season. I watched a little bit of Nebraska
Michigan State. Nebraska didn't look good like Nebraska is still
not a good team. And yet Michigan State was right
there battling Nebraska in the fourth quarter. You know that
that was about a fifty minute game before Nebraska pulled
away late. So Michigan does not inspire much optimism or confidence.
I do not see a very good Michigan team there.
So it's just about, you know, after a week off,
can USC's defense. Can this be leaguered, struggling defense get
a little healthier, which it should, you'd think, right with
a week off, and will make at least some adjustments
to be not terrible. Not expecting USC's defense to be great,
but I'm expecting it to be not terrible. And if
USC's defense is not terrible, the Trojans should definitely have
enough offense to beat Michigan. And what's a hugely important
game for both schools. I mean, the loser is basically
done in terms of the playoff in mid October, so
really a must win for Lincoln Riley if he loses
to Michigan again, and this time at home under really
what really are favorable circumstances, including and having a week off,
you know, two weeks to prepare for this Michigan team.
Lincoln Riley can't get this done. I mean, it's just
gonna be an inferno of heat at USC. You know,
Lincoln Riley's going to coach this team next year because
there's that top ranked twenty twenty six recruiting class coming in.
But just speaking personally, I'm fed up with Lincoln Riley.
I don't have confidence that he's gonna get to the
mountaintop at USC. He just doesn't create accountability. He just
doesn't create toughness throughout his team. He has to show
that he can get things right. Until then, USC hasn't
really earned the benefit of the doubt in that big
picture perspective. But Michigan looks below average, So I think
the lean would be the USC. But neither team is
a team that you can trust. So consider that if
you're thinking about betting on that game. Some games are
just better left alone. Just enjoy them, study them. You
don't have to bet on everything, right, because if you
bet on everything, that needs more chances to lose money,
not just more chances to win money. A little bit
of betting wisdom. Just as you go through your college
football season, and now the really big one, Indiana at Oregon.
It's a huge game, right Oregon beat Penn State, Indiana
thumped Illinois, and then survived Kinnick Stadium in Iowa. The
winner of this game basically has one foot in the
door of both the Big Ten Championship game and the
College Football playoff. It it's going to be hard for
the loser, or excuse me, for the winner of this
game to miss the playoff, and even the loser of
this game will still have plenty of chances to solidify
a playoff bid in the second half of the season.
But the winner of this game is basically in the playoff.
Maybe not an absolute lock, but just extremely likely, like
barring an unforeseen stumble at some point along the way
in late October or anytime in November, barring an unforeseen stumble,
the winner of this game is going to be in
the playoff and very likely will play Ohio State in
the Big Ten Championship game. So it's a huge one.
It's a huge one, and it's more about the upside
for the winner. The loser still has everything to play for.
The loser will have just one loss in the middle
of the season. That's okay, it's not the idea, but
it's okay. But the winner, the winner is sitting very,
very pretty. So you have Kurt Signetti against Dan Laney,
who's just great coaching matchup. Two guys who get it
in terms of culture, in terms of organization, in terms
of accountability, the things that Lincoln Riley and I would
also say Charon Moore at Michigan have struggled to establish
one obvious and central plot point here Fernando Mendoza. You know,
I mentioned Cal at the beginning of the show. Cal
without Mendoza, you know, was able to put up a
good fight against cam Ward in Miami last season. Cal
not as good at quarterback this season. So Fernando Mendoza left,
leaves Berkeley, goes to Indiana. But from his days at Cal,
he knows what it's like to play in Pac twelve
style locations. Obviously it's a big ten game, but you
know what I mean, Oregon, former Pac twelve school, Fernando Mendoza,
like this is not going to be completely new for him,
It's not going to be completely foreign for him. That
could that could help Indiana. So how does Fernando Mendoza
handle Ottson Stadium. He struggled at Iowa, you know, in Kinnick,
which is a hard place to win. So maybe just
having that difficult day against the Hawk guys gives him
sufficient preparation to now step it up a bit, elevate
his game against Oregon. And you know, when we consider
this game from the Oregon perspective, you know that win
against Penn State. I mean, if you beat Penn State
at night in prime time on national TV, that's a
good win. Penn State's lost to UCLA doesn't really change that.
But Penn State isn't all that great, so we can
we can slightly downgrade the Oregon win over Penn State.
It doesn't mean it ceases to be a good win,
but it's a little bit less, right, just it's a
it's a little bit less. You have to take away something,
uh from that win. So when we consider that Oregon
scored just three points on Penn State in two and
a half quarters and that UCLA hum forty two in
Penn State. I know that Tony Rojas, Penn State's excellent linebacker,
was missing against UCLA. It's relevant to the discussion, but
it's still just one player. Like Penn State's defensive line
still did get handled by UCLA's offensive line. So just
how good was that win over Penn State. It's still
a good win, want to make that clear, but it
does have to be reduced in terms of the stature
and overall level of impressiveness. Right, I think you have
to make at least some kind of recalibration there, but
the question is how much. But it certainly creates intrigue
before Oregon hosts Indiana, and so Dante Moore, the fact
that he went into Penn State and won that should
give him a lot of confidence going to this game
against Indiana. And now, you know, to kind of go
back to the Indiana view of this game, one thing
that you have to be concerned about if you're Indiana
is that, you know, Illinois was horrible. Illinois did not
offer any resistance. Illinois did not provide a true test.
Iowa was going through a very difficult quarterback situation with
injuries and all sorts of limitations. So Indiana was able
to handle Iowa's offense. You know, Indiana almost lost that
game because its own offense struggled. Mendoza didn't play especially well,
but the Indiana defense was able to win that game,
limiting Iowa to thirteen points. Indiana then takes that late
safety for the twenty to fifteen final. Indiana's defense was fine,
but but Iowa's offense was very limited. So Now, if
you're Indiana, you know, Illinois offense didn't do anything. Iowa
was offense was limited. This Oregon offense with all that speed.
Dan Lanning has been excellent at bringing speed into his
program in Eugene. You know, this could be a day
that Oregon's offense takes off and it might be a bigger,
tougher challenge by several notches, several degrees of difficulty than
anything that Indiana has seen before. So really, the keys
to this game Mendoza is number one. Mendoza has to
play well. I can't see Indiana winning if Mendoza does
not play well. But then the second thing is can
Indiana's defense match Oregon's speed and not get burned either
down the field or in like screens, misdirections and situations
where Oregons backs and receivers get the ball in open
space and you know, try to turn a dump off
pass or a short pass into a long one. Indiana's
linebackers and safeties going to be in the right position
so that they're always making tackles right after the catch.
That's going to be the other key for that particular game.
So the UCLA's upset over Penn State, the big story
of week six. Week seven, we look ahead and we
see those two huge Big Ten games involving Western teams,
Oregon hosting Indiana, USC hosting Michigan. And you know, just
while we're talking about the Big Ten, we also have
Ohio State Illinois, but that's outside the West. You want
to get more on that game, Buck, Guys Alina from
our friends at Big Ten Paradigm. Another College Grid on
Coast to Coast show hosted by Noah Drury. You get
more on the Big Ten, especially the Midwestern teams from
Big Ten Paradigm, and of course all our College Grid
around coast to coast shows, whether it's Yards and Stripes
on the Service Academies, they're looking back at the Navy
thriller over Air Force and one of the more inner
retaining games of week six. So Yards and Stripes is
our Service Academy show, All Sports Discussion on the ACC
Florida Football Insiders on the State of Florida. So both
those shows, All Sports Discussion and Florida Football Insiders, they're
going to be talking about Miami's win at Florida State.
For all those shows, go to Apple, Spotify, Spreaker, wherever
you listen to your podcasts and on Twitter. You can
go to Gridiron Coast for the full family of college
Gridiron Coast to Coast college football podcast. We're part of
that here at Get Off My Pilon, covering college football
in the Western United States. It's the middle of the season,
it's almost week seven. Where's the time going? But so
many interesting games coming up, and of course UCLA beating
Penn State and an upset we're going to remember for
a very very long time. So for Get Off My Pilon.
This is Matt Zemk. We'll see you next week here
on Get Off My Pilon. Thanks for listening.
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