Speaker 1: Checking out college football on the West Coast. This is
Get Off My Pylon, a look at the Pac twelve
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We're happy to be part of the college gradarn coast
to coast family. So done with week three, going into
week four, and it's that transition period, right, non conference
games are winding down, we get into full on conference play.
So lots of intrigue building in the college football world.
But first let's review what happened in week three. And
you know it wasn't too intense in the Big Ten.
Teams still playing cupcakes, Penn State, Villanova, Ohio State, Ohio,
and one could say Oregon played a conference game which
was a cupcake. Northwest Northwestern is really bad. That was
thirty four fourteen, but Northwestern did not score in the
first three quarters and only only added some cosmetic touchdowns
late when the backups were in. You have UCLA and
Northwestern coming up, and you know those are the two
worst teams in the Big Ten. The loser of that
game could finish one in eleven. Ucla might even go
oh to twelve. We'll have more on the Bruins shortly,
but you know, not not a lot of huge games
in the Big Ten. Michigan coasts in a cupcake game.
Notable that Bryce Underwood, you know, thrived without Sharon more
at as head coach. He was suspended for that game,
so's it'll be interesting to see what the balance of
power is in the Big Ten. But let's focus on
the West Western schools. So Oregon against Northwestern, you know,
I don't know how much we learned from Oregon collaborating Northwestern.
You know, it was a stroll for the Ducks. But
like Oregon has not seen a good quarterback yet this season.
Oklahoma State's a terrible team. Oregon blasted them in Week two.
Oklahoma State, you know, is a sinking ship under Mike Gundy,
so Oregon didn't get challenged there. Played Montana State of
the FCS in Week one, so you know, Oregon's doing
what it's supposed to do, and full credit to the
Ducks for that. But really the season is just beginning.
And of course not this week, but one week later
Oregon at Penn State the big one, the biggest Big
Ten game in the month of September by far. So
that game is just around the bend one more week
until we get to Oregon's trip to Happy Valley. All
eyes will be on that one. You know, not a
whole lot to speak about with Washington, USC goes to
Purdue wins relatively comfortably. That was, it wasn't a total blowout.
Thirty three seventeen. Purdue was down thirty to seventeen with
the ball and the chance to get within six, and
the boiler Makers get to the red zone and throw
a bad interception. USC's defense better than it was a
week ago against Georgia Southern, but certainly still not had
a really high level standard. The secondary is having a
problem tracking the ball, reacting to plays. The secondary is
still not really locking down on receivers. The USC pass
rush is really strong five sacks against Purdue, but Purdue
went to a quick passing game to neutralize that pass
rush and had a lot of success. USC corners had
problems guarding Perdue receivers for like two to two and
a half three seconds. A quick passing game worked for
large portions of that game. Perdue moved the ball between
the twenties. Two red zone interceptions, and then a third
pick in USC territory turns into a pick six for
the Trojans, which you know, kind of calmed everything down
for USC. The worry coming out of this game for
USC is that if the Trojans face a significantly better
quarterback in the Big Ten. What's it going to look
like for that defense? Now the rebuttal might be talking
about the Big Ten as a whole is that, you know,
quarterbacks in the Big Ten don't look very good thus far.
Julian San of Ohio State Drew Aller, Penn State guys
are not really rising up just yet this season. Now,
again it's early. Quarterbacks need to find their way. So
we're not offering any final verdicts, we're not even hinting
at that. But so far it's been pretty mild, let's
just put it that way. And so we're waiting for
quarterbacks in the Big Ten to step up. So if
USC goes up against a quarterback who is really on
top of his game, that defense is in trouble if
it doesn't significantly improve. And it's especially in the secondary.
As for us, he's offense very encouraging signs. Jade Mayava
looked so much more comfortable than Miller Moss did last year.
And some people will say, well, it's just Purdue. Yes,
it is just Purdue. We know that, we're mindful of that.
But consider Miller Moss lost at Minnesota last year, he
lost at Maryland last year. He was never really a
tower of strength and total confidence in Big Ten road games,
even against the lower half of the Big Ten. Jade
Miyaba comes into this game in Purdue. He looked the part,
and he was great for two and a half quarters.
Then he did tail off. He lost a little bit
of focus, got a little bit of a little bit careless,
with USC having a two to three score lead for
much of the second half. So like, he did tail
off late in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter,
but for the first two and a half quarters, he
ran this offense very smoothly. USC never punted, converted several
fourth downs. Jade Mayava looks comfortable, and Lincoln Riley coached
him up well in the offseason. And you know, let's
remember Lincoln Riley is one of the great quarterback coaches
in the country. Say what you want about his overall
coaching chops, how he leads a team, how he guides
a program, his commitment to defense. You know, those are
those parts of his track record, all spotty, But you
can't really say that Lincoln Riley is anything less than
elite as a quarterback whisperer as a quarterback teacher. So
he has Jade Mayava in a pretty good place right now. Yes,
it's only perdue, but again, Mayava looked more comfortable in
his first Big ten row game than Miller Moss did
in any Big ten row game all of last season.
It's a definite upgrade for USC at quarterback. And you know,
Miller Moss is not a traditional Lincoln Riley quarterback. Let's
just say that. I know that it's twenty twenty five,
not twenty twenty four, but let's make that comparison between
Miller Moss and Jade and Mayava. Miller Moss seven step
drop back quarterback, chained to the pocket, you know, pro
style kind of quarterback, not a dual threat guy. He
wasn't a slow poke, but he liked to stay in
the pocket. That's how he rolled. Jade and Mayava is
the more prototypical dual threat. Likes to run, get outside.
You can make plays with his legs as a threat
in the running game and short yardage situations. This is
more of the prototypical Lincoln Riley quarterback, you know, a
lot closer to Kayleb Williams. I'm not saying he's at
the same standard, just talking about playing style. It's a
lot closer to the mold that Lincoln Riley is familiar with.
If you go back to Kyler Murray, you go back
to Jalen Hurts, you go back to Baker Mayfield. Like
all those guys could scramble, all those guys could improvise.
Jade and Mayava much more like a normal Lincoln Riley quarterback.
And so Lincoln Riley, given how good he is at
teaching quarterbacks, like he had something to work with. And
it was really good in hindsight that Mayava got those
last four games of the twenty twenty four season, three
regular season games, one bowl game, got some live reps,
got a lot of experience at the end of last season,
and that was kind of the foundation, the jumping off
point for Lincoln Riley to really work hard with Mayava
in the off season. Mayava looks fundamentally prepared that he
knows what's coming, he knows what to do, he looks
fundamentally comfortable. Now, the quality of opposition is gonna get
tougher in the Big Ten as it goes along, there's
no question about that. But again, Mayava, for a Big
Ten road debut national television CBS, looked pretty solid and
it wasn't until late in the third, early in the
fourth quarter that he he began to make a few
mistakes and bad decisions. First half, he was pretty spot on,
and he threw some beautiful steam routes in fairly tight windows.
Like his ability to see the field so much better
than in the Las Vegas Bowl when he looked lost
for large portions of that game against Texas A and M.
So we're seeing real evolution from Jade Mahava. Obviously a
long way to go, but it's a good first step,
let's just put it that way, A good first step
for USC. The jury is still out in terms of
whether Maama is going to take those follow up steps.
All right, So the other Western team in the Big
Ten that we haven't yet talked about, this is the
big story, right, Deshan Foster fired by UCLA. The Bruins
get dump trucks by New Mexico thirty five to ten
at home. I mean, when you lose by twenty five
to New Mexico at home, yep, that's a coach killer.
That brings a tenure to an end. UCLA the laughing
stock of the Big Ten. Just the whole nation was
laughing at the Bruins all day Saturday, and credit to
the administration, A lot of people in college sports circles,
college football circles fell oh, UCLA is not serious about football.
They're not going to be proactive about this. They're not gonna,
you know, make the courageous move, or at least the
bold move to fire a beloved alumnus. Because Deshaun Foster
is you know, really well universally well liked within the
UCLA community, former football player, you know, starred for the
Bruins on the field. A lot of people thought UCLA
as a school, as an administration, would not have the
stomach to fire him right away, but the Bruins did that.
And you know, let's not give you soa too much
credit because this was an absolute dumpster fire and you
just can't let these things linger. And you know, if
you CLA had lost to New Mexico by a point,
Deshaun Foster is probably still coaching. But thirty five to ten,
it just made it just so easy to go ahead
and turn the page. In many senses, UCLA didn't have
a choice, but nevertheless they still did what they should
have done. Looking at the UCLA head coaching search, I'm
sure you're very interested in that part, even more than
the UCLA team, because obviously UCLA might not win even
two games this season and could go zero to twelve.
As mentioned earlier, you're not really interested in the Bruins
on the field. The coaching searches was really interesting, So
let's dive into that before before we talk about names,
before we talk about candidates. First things first, UCLA needs
to fire athletic director Martin Jarmond, who hired Deshaun Foster,
who botched the whole process of that transition. He did
not fire Chip Kelly on Thanksgiving weekend right after, you know,
an awful loss to Cal at the end of the
bruins twenty twenty three regular season. That should have been
it for Kelly right there. But UCLA and John Dermond
dithered and Dilly dallied and were not decisive, and that
period of indecision is what allowed Danton Lynn. Let's remember this,
Danton Lynn was UCLA's defensive coordinator under Chip Kelly in
twenty twenty three. Now, UCLA could have moved quickly to
fire chip Kelly and promote Danton Lynn to head coach.
But because the Bruins didn't do that. Guess who swooped
in and poached Lynn from Westwood, USC, the crosstown rival,
and of course Danton Lynn now the defensive coordinator at USC.
Danton Lynn is being named as a possible candidate for
the UCLA head coaching job. But UCLA needs to fire
Martin Jarmon, the guy who wouldn't fire Chip Kelly, and
promote Danton Lynn to head coach. Like Danton Lynn and
all other prospective candidates for this job, you know, if
they want this job or they're thinking about this job,
they're probably gonna say, you know, if they get a
call or their their agent gets a call, is Martin
Jarmon going to be fired? I mean, every candidate's going
to ask that unless it unless U SLA does it first,
and UCLA is gonna, i think, run into reality and
just saying we'll just have to fire Jarmon because you know,
any coaching candidate walking into the UCLA job needs to
know that UCLA means business. It needs to know that
there's a turnover in leadership. The vision's different, like if
you are a head coach, head coaching candidate, or you're
a prospective head coach, like you're a coordinator. Right now,
you want to move up the ladder. You're thinking about UCLA.
You are going to ask about Martin Jarmond and the
athletic director's chair, at least if you're smart. Like no,
no smart candidate would not ask about the athletic director
situation at UCLA. It would be now practice for a
prospective candidate to not insist on a new athletic director.
So I think it's gonna happen at some point, And
once again, I think it'll get to a point where
UCLA realizes there's no choice here. We have to do this.
But obviously it would be it would be impressive if
UCLA makes the move soon and kind of of its
own accord, not after making calls to agents and being
told you got to fire Martin Jarmond. Let's see if
UCLA is able to do this on its own. Uh,
before too much time goes by. You know, if UCLA
fires Jarmond this week, candidates are going to say, oh,
maybe UCLA really is serious about football after all. Uh.
And then the athletic director search can unfold and you
do that, and then you can hire your head coach.
So when we think about the UCLA head coaching search.
UCLA has a lot of administrative ducks to line up
in a row. First, UCLA needs to get its house
in order, its structural house, and only then would quality
candidates really give this job some level of consideration. So
like that kind of skews the the chess board in
terms of what candidates UCLA can realistically get. So Danton
Lynn is out there and I think he might consider Ucla,
but only if the Bruins get their administrative issues ironed out.
So that is the central point to make right now
about the UCLA head coach and search, and that supersedes
anything else. UCLA has to do that first, and then
we can really gauge politically which coaches might want to
get this job, Which coaches would realistically say yes, which
coaches maybe are are on the fence and are kind
of waiting to see what happens. And that gets into
just the larger dynamics of a coaching surgeon. It's always
good to have a refresher, a primer on this process.
When a school tries to hire a football coach or
like a men's basketball coach. You know, the revenue sport coach,
and you've got to nail these hires to keep the
revenue flowing in, or at least to resume the revenue
flowing in if you're a cash starved school such as UCLA,
got to nail this higher. So when we when we
think about the coaching surgeon, how it goes, you start
with not your realistic target. You start with, you know,
taking your big swing. You know, going for the moonshot.
Doesn't mean that you're expecting a yes. In fact, you're
not expecting a yes at all. You know, you're you're
you're aware that you know what if we call this guy,
he's almost certain to say no. But again, it doesn't
hurt to call. You lose nothing by actually making the call.
There's there's nothing wrong with making the overture. You don't
lose anything for that. You have to make a certain
number of top candidates say no, and like the like
that's the worst thing that can happen. They say no,
You're not hurt, it's just you. You at least gave
them the chance to potentially say yes. But like, it's
ninety nine point certain they're gonna say no. What what
if you win that lottery ticket? Right? So, there are
a few candidates that you say, he might as well. Uhay,
pay a visit to or make a phone call to.
I should say, like, call Chris Peterson. Is he gonna
go there? No, he's not, But you make the call.
Go ahead, It can't hurt. And maybe Chris Peterson has
advice right on on another up and coming coach or
a coach who might be a fit. Nothing wrong with
calling someone like Chris Peterson just to get his sense
of everything, take his temperature. You don't lose anything by
doing that. So UCLA should reach out to Peterson and
a few guys in that kind of tier, in that
kind of category. And then after a certain point, you
begin not with the coach you're most likely to hire.
You're still kind of shooting above what you expect, right,
you still go for something bigger. You're still not expecting
a Yes, you know it's not likely, but you make
the overture. You make the run at the coach, and
for me, the coach that UCLA should consider who is
not likely to take the job. Want to be very
clear about that, not likely to take the job, but
whom UCLA should make a run at. Pat Fitzgerald, right,
he was exonerated in the recent round of litigation with Northwestern.
Northwestern did not treat him very well. You see, LA
being in the Big Ten would give Fitzgerald a chance
to return to the Big Ten, but to do it
from a different vantage point in Southern California. At UCLA,
you don't have nearly the expect at the expectations or
the pressure of USC So that's a plus. It's like
Fitzgerald would get plenty of years to put his plan
uh in motion. It's not like a win now job,
so he would probably like that. Uh. And also, lit's
just consider what UCLA needs. UCLA is a tortilla soft team.
Ucla is just, uh, you know, a bunch of marshmallows
right now, no toughness, no strength, you know, getting pushed
around by New Mexico with the line of scrimmage. Say
no more like this is a just a very soft,
non competitive, lazy, unfocused team. Pat Fitzgerald, you know what,
not a very good offensive coach, doesn't have a great
track record with quarterbacks. But the things that he will do,
he will have a physical team, he will have a
good defense, he will have good tacklers, he will have
good good line play, So Pat Fitzgerald will make your
football team strong up the middle, in the trenches, at
the line of scrimmage. Linebackers are going to be world class.
That's not a bad foundational direction for UCLA to take
in a hire. And the other thing about Fitzgerald, which
makes him unique in all of this is he's unemployed.
He can talk to UCLA right now. UCLA can interview
Pat Fitzgerald right now. There are no limitations. The vast
majority of other perspective candidates, UCLA can't talk to them.
UCLA can't interview them. They're employed, they're going through their
regular seasons right now, and it's going to be two
and a half months before their regular seasons end. But
Pat Fitzgerald, UCLA can can consult him, interview him right
now and see how interested he is. And if Pat
Fitzgerald says, Hey, fire your ad, I want this athletic
director in place, I want these NIO markers guidelines, I
want this guy as my GM, UCLA can play ball.
UCLA can negotiate and see what it can arrive at.
And here's one more plot twist on Pat Fitzgeril. Before
I leave UCLA and go to the other teams where
we cover here on get off my pylon. In the
Big Ten. Luke Fickle is very much on the hot
seat in Madison. Wisconsin just got blown out by Alabama.
Very it's very possible, I'm not gonna say likely, but
very possible that Luke Fickle gets fired in the middle
of the season. Pat Fitzgeril would be a natural fit
for the Badgers. Right Wisconsin has great linebackers, It has
a culture of toughness, physicality, bruising line play like Pat Fitzgerald.
Among all the places he could go, Wisconsin makes a
lot of sense on a lot of obvious levels. So
let's say Wisconsin fires Luke Fickele in early October. Wisconsin
could interview Pat Fitzgerald and initiate talks. UCLA might want
to move now on Pat Fitzgerald so that it can
fend off Wisconsin. It can be it can preempt Wisconsin
and and get a deal done potentially before Wisconsin fires
Luke fickel and looks for its own replacement. That is
something to think about. So all in all, UCLA needs
to make statements to the coaching industry that hey, we're
going to get a new ad, We're gonna improve our
nil We're gonna, you know, really redo our football operations.
Those things have to happen first before any high quality
candidate might seriously consider taking this job. So let's be
clear about that. Assuming UCLA does make those administrative and
structural adjustments, hat Fitzgerald stands out to me as an
intriguing option. I'm not calling him the favorite. I'm not
calling him the likely winner because I don't think you'd
go to UCLA. I think Madison is right now would
be my odds on favorite. And don't dismiss Iowa. If
Kirkference retires, fits could go to Iowa. I've talked to
some Iowa bloggers and I thought, wait, Iowa and Northwestern
they hate each other. No, but Pat Fitzgerald has some
ties there and it actually might be a really good
fit for both parties. So that's also something to think
about in the Big Tech. All right, let's move along.
The next really big story in Western college football at
the end of Week three and going into Week four,
Texas Tech versus Utah. Coming up in Week four, Texas
Tech blasts Oregon State. You know, Texas Tech is demolishing
opponents now. To be fair, Oregon State looks bad. And
Trent Bray, the head coach who used to be Jonathan
Smith's defensive coordinator. He stayed in Corvallis while Jonathan Smith
went to Michigan State to coach the Spartans. Trent Bray
seems to be in trouble at Oregon State. That's a
sinking ship. So how much weight to assign to Texas
Tech's win over Oregon State? Not sure? But now we
get a true test for Texas Tech and that's the
Utah Utes. And this is going to be a Fox
Big noon game. And not only is it going to
be a Fox Big Neon game, but it's in Salt
Lake City, so kickoff is just after ten am local time.
It's one of those Mountain time zoned big nooners, so
it's basically brunch football in Salt Lake City. You know,
Colorado and Deon Sanders had some big noon games that
would start just after ten am local So Utah hosts
this game. And really, having talked about Texas Tech vide
oringan state and just how much meaning can you assign
to that, Well, let's flip it over to the Utah side.
Utah's route of UCLA in Week one does look a
little bit different now that you know New Mexico was
also able to blow out UCLA. And just one added
note about New Mexico's twenty five point win over UCLA,
it easily could have been thirty nine instead of twenty five.
New Mexico turned the ball over twice, once on downs,
once with a fumble inside the UCLA ten yard line,
so New Mexico could have basically beaten Ucla by the
same margin that Utah did. So that and Utah's less
than great offensive performance against Wyoming this past week, that
kind of offers a little bit of caution. It gives
me pause about Utah and just how good Utah is.
With Devin Dampier, the transfer quarterback from New Mexico, Utah
might be really good. But you know, if New Mexico
and Utah both hammer UCLA into the ground, that suggests
that maybe Utah and New Mexico aren't wildly different, And
that just gives me a reason to be cautious about
elevating Utah too much heading into this game against Texas Tech.
But it's going to be really fascinating. Both teams ranked
in the top twenty. Kyle Whittingham trying to bring Utah
back to the top tier of college football. You know,
he won the two straight Pac twelve titles, made two
straight Rose Bowls, but then fell off the pace due
to Cam Rising's injuries the past few seasons. And meanwhile,
on the other side, Joey maguire, he's become a recruiting
machine overall and in the transfer portal in Lubbock. Texas
Tech's massive nil investments had become one of the big
stories in college sports. I mean, it's not just a
football thing, right, Texas Tech making the championship round of
the Women's College World Series. Their basketball program came within
an eyelash of the Final four. They're making investments and
are getting results all over the place in that athletic
department in Lubbock. So a real high profile spotlight for
the Red Raiders against Utah one of the best matchups
of Week four by far. And the game feels like
a tass up because both teams have crushed some inferior opponents.
And you know, how much do you learn from good
from good teams crushing really bad teams in the early
weeks of a college football season. I basically rate this
dead even Utah at the opening line favored by three
and a half. So if it stays at three and
a half, I would take Texas Tech, but I would
expect that line to go down to two and a
half and maybe one and a half by kickoff on
Saturday a Fox Big Nooner. Continuing in the Big twees
and the Western schools. There, Colorado gets dog walks by Houston.
I mean, the Cougar's clearly better. Willie Fritz finding his
footing in Houston after a rough first season last year.
So you know, Willy Fritz and Houston go through growing pains,
they're finding themselves this year. And on the other side,
you know, with Colorado, different quarterbacks each of the first
three games of this season. It's like Deon Sanders is
spinning the roulette wheel hoping he gets the right number.
Deon Sanders flailing a little bit in Colorado. And it's
just obvious to point out, like I'm not I'm hardly
the first person to say this. I'm not even the
ninety ninth person to say this, Like there's like a
million people who have said it before me. But no Chador,
no Travis Hunter. You know, what do you do? What's next,
what's the encore. It's really hard to follow up those
two players. It's really hard to replace all that lost
production and all those lost snaps. You know, just guys
you know who are going to lock it down at
multiple positions for a lot of snaps on game day.
You have to replace all of that. It's not a
shock that Colorado is really struggling. So, you know, Dion Sanders,
he needs to make some portal splashes this coming December.
It's hard to see this year's team amounting too much
of anything, so he needs to really really strike gold
in Boulder in the portal this coming December. If Colorado
is going to get back on track. You know what's
happening right now is just like Dion had elite players
last season, and the great programs, they find a way
to sustain, They find a way to fill in. They
find a way either through recruiting or the portal to
just plug in the replacements. But at Colorado it's more
of an uphill battle than at other bigger, more blue
bloodish type programs. So reality setting in in Boulder, Arizona
State with a win over Texas State. Not too much
to mention there in that one but Arizona beats Kansas
State in many ways. Arizona, which you know, whose defensive
line absolutely smothered Kansas State's offensive line. Arizona seems to
have a legitimate defense Under brent to Brennan. Kansas State
had one seventy yard seventy five yard run for a touchdown,
rushed for just thirty yards the rest of the game.
Outside of that one seventy five yard burst. The final
score was twenty three to seventeen Arizona. So Kansas State
It's seventeen points seven came on one seventy five yard play.
The other seven points came off Arizona botching a punt
in its own red zone, Kansas State having a drive
start very very deep in Arizona Tara. So you know,
Arizona gifted one touchdown to KSU and Kansas State's only
other touchdown was one seventy five yard play. So the
Wildcats did basically the Kansas State Wildcats, i should say,
did basically nothing on offense. Arizona's defense was absolutely magnificent.
Now some people will say, and it's true, Kansas State
has cratered. It's really shocking to see how Chris Cleman
has lost hold of that program, at least for the moment.
He needs to go back to the drying board and
recruit some tough, burly, dependable linemen because Kansas State's is
just not strong upfront. But nevertheless, Arizona did dominate that
game in the trenches. So it's definite progress under Brent Brennan,
who entered this season being doubted by a lot of
Arizona fans. I mean, the mood was not very optimistic
in Tucson starting this season. I don't think he's engineered
a complete one eighty, but he certainly moved the needle
a little bit in the right direction. Now he needs
to figure out Noah Faffieda, you know who is so
good under Jedfish. Brent Brennan needs to get Noah Fafida
in the Arizona passing game back to top level potency.
That's the challenge. If Fiffieda can really return to what
he was under Jedfish, Arizona might have something. But you know,
on that point, skepticism is still warranted. So Arizona is
making some progress. There's a lot of season left and
Arizona's going to be playing better teams than Kansas State
in the Big Twelve on a consistent basis. To be honest,
if Arizona makes a bowl game this year, that's probably
a good year for Brent Brennan. So that's gonna be
I think the standard by which this Arizona season is judged.
Bowl game or no bowl game. We will see if
Arizona is still in a really good position several weeks
from now. All right, so we've covered the Big Ten,
we've covered the Big twelve. Cal in the ACC Now
that's an interesting story. The Bears beat Minnesota and PJ
Fleck in a late night game. Cal is unbeaten. This
game against Minnesota was the best performance so far of
Cal's season. Cal beat Oregon State by nineteen So when
you compare that to you know, Texas Tech really crushing
Oregon State by you know, almost double. It wasn't by
thirty eight, but Texas Tech had a huge lead and
then kind of slacked off at the very end. Texas
Tech beat Oregon State much more authoritatively than Cal did,
So Cal might not look great in that regard. But
then Cal's defense just smothers Texas Southern in a cupcake game.
And now the Bears limit Minnesota to fourteen points. So
Cal was ab to stand up to Minnesota upfront, and
you know PJ. Fleck at Minnesota needs to have the
big Uglies dominating and facilitating. The running game really didn't
get off the ground for Minnesota. So justin Wilcox with
a good defensive outing against Minnesota's offensive line. So Cal
unbeaten so far. And if you look at Cal's schedule,
this has been a talking point over the weekend. Cal
does not play any of the top four teams in
the ACC. We're talking about Miami, Florida State, Georgia Tech,
and Clemson. Call does not play any of those four teams.
So there is a chance, not saying it's likely, but
there is a chance for Cal to really become a
player in the ACC this season. That that is suddenly
becoming an intriguing story. Minnesota is a two point favorite
in this game, so it was kind of a toss up,
but I think most people probably leaned Minnesota. Now that
Cal has pulled that very slight up sid and is
three and zero, the Golden Bears have given themselves an
opportunity to really achieve at a high level. And I
don't know if that was something most people considered going
to the season, but right now we at least have
to consider the possibility. So exciting times in Berkeley with
Justin Wilcox and the Cal Golden Bears. Also in the
Bay area Stanford, Stanford beats Boston College. No one saw
that one coming. And not only does Stanford win, it
wins by ten thirty to twenty. So Stanford obviously found
something on both sides of the ball, Frank Reich coming
up with a good coaching performance, and it also has
you also have to say, Bill O'Brien in Boston College,
they just stepped in a pothole because this was just
not a game that the Eagles figured to lose in Stanford.
I said it earlier on Get Off My Pylon and
earlier shows this season, Stanford looked like one of the
two worst Power four teams in college foot. It was
Stanford and Oklahoma State at the bottom. So after after
this result, probably have to get off that opinion. I
have to revise that and say that you know, UCLA
and Northwestern and Oklahoma State would probably be the three worst.
Stanford has to rate slightly above those three based on
this win over Boston College. So in UCLA and Northwestern
play in UH in there in the next game they're
they're off this week. UCLA is off this week, but
that will be on the twenty seventh of September, and
so you know Uclia Northwestern, the loser of that game
will probably finish eighteenth UH in the Big Ten. So
but Stanford, Stanford has to rate above u C, l
A and Northwestern at this point after after a surprising
win over Boston College. So it'll be interesting to see
if Stanford can stack a few more wins and really
change the narrative in terms of being a bottom rung
FBS team, you know, at the power for level in
twenty twenty five, not a whole lot to discuss in
the Mountain West. You know, we're waiting to see what
Boise State and UNLV do. UNLV has a game against Miami, Ohio.
That's a really weird non conference game for week four
of a season, UNLV versus a team from the MAC
and Boise State settling into its season as well. It's
kind of just waiting and watching in in the Mountain West.
So so no no real huge stories coming from that
particular conference. The other real story to get to in
Western College football is the pack to the two pack.
Oregon State mentioned getting crushed by Texas Tech and Trent
bray Bereing in trouble, Well, it's even worse for Washington State.
Washington State loses fifty nine to ten to North Texas.
Washington State loses by forty nine to North Texas. The
Cougars are not competitive. San Diego State is not an
especially good team, and yet San Diego State easily beat
Washington State earlier in September. Like Washington State looks like
a tomato camp, Washington State looks like a team that
is just going to get thrown around by any half
decent team on its schedule. Now, you know, if Washington
State is playing bottom run teams, then games figure to
be close. But if Washington State plays any team that
has the potential to win eight or more games this season,
North Texas definitely qualifies. North Texas could be a real
factor in the American this year with South Florida, Navy,
Memphis the other teams in that conference. Any generally decent
to good team figures to absolutely hammer Washington State. So
you know the Pac twelve's dissolution, you know, the the
destruction of the conference as we once knew it. It's
not treating a lot of schools very well. Stanford, Oregon State,
Washington State, UCLA. You look around the old members of
the PAC twelve, Arizona as well, a lot of schools are,
if not declining, they certainly aren't improving upon what they
once had. And of course, when you consider it the
familiarity of the rivalries and the television arrangements and the
national brand that the PAC twelve had, it's just to
see these schools being in a worse off position or
at least not being able to make real advancements. And
it just makes me, as a long time Western resident
of the United States, grew up in Phoenix, lived in
Seattle for over twenty years now living in Denver, makes
me sad to see that, you know this, this dissolution
of the PAC twelve, it's not a happy story. A
lot of schools not really enjoying life. On the other side,
we could have predicted that many people did, and so
far that seems to be the reality. So on that
sad note that concludes our look at get off my
Pylon of Western college football teams after Week three heading
into Week four. But you know, the UCLA coaching search,
certainly the number one story Oregon waiting for that clash
against Penn State. So not really the big story right now,
but that's going to be our focus next week on
this show. Utah Texas Tech. That's a game you want
to watch. That's a game you want to circle on
Saturday in the Big Twelve. A reminder that a friend
of mine, TJ Reeves, has a three hour Big Twelve
preview show Saturday morning, so you want to listen to that.
In terms of, you know, being educated about the Big Twelve,
including the four Corner schools that ye know, the Arizona schools, Colorado,
Utah that we cover here on Get Off My Pilon. Well,
tj Reeves has plenty more on the Big Twelve every
Saturday morning. Mountain West it's wait and see cal has
a chance to do something in the ACC Stanford getting
an unexpected win, and then Washington State and Oregon State
living in their grid Iron version of hell. So that's
all for this week on Get Off My Pilon, part
of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast network on
Twitter at Gridiron Coast, get It where you listen to
your podcasts Apple Spreak, Spotify, find it there, Yards and
Stripes on the Service Academies, Noah Drury on the Big Ten,
Tyler Jones on the Big twelve, All Sports Discussion on
the ACC, Jason Powers with the Florida Football Insiders podcasts,
and the other podcasts that are part of the College
Gridiron Coast to Coast family. So I'm Met Zemeck. We
will see you next week on another edition of Get
Off My Pylon. Talk to you later.