Speaker 1: Boom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
Speaker 1: week was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants
Speaker 1: of the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He
Speaker 1: treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the
Speaker 1: rich pill poppers in the penthouse, to clearinghouse of hot takes,
Speaker 1: break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben
Speaker 1: Maller starts right now in the air everywhere, back at
Speaker 1: it on a Friday, a new week's upon us of
Speaker 1: the fifth Hour. Now the weekend begins. When the Fifth
Speaker 1: Hour drops in. You're locked in right now here we
Speaker 1: are on a Friday, big college football weekend. What are
Speaker 1: we at week four now of the college football weekend?
Speaker 1: There week ahead of the NFL in this podcast doing
Speaker 1: very well. We thank you for that, as we are
Speaker 1: here every single Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Only available in
Speaker 1: the domain the ecosystem of the podcast. We can get
Speaker 1: this wherever you get your podcast you found it, we
Speaker 1: thank you. It's a wonderful thing. And remember sharing is caring.
Speaker 1: So passed that on passed the podcast on to others
Speaker 1: that may or may not be interested, as long as
Speaker 1: they downloaded and listened. For I don't know a minute.
Speaker 1: We're in good shape. Joined this weekend from west of
Speaker 1: the four oh five man that dusted himself off and
Speaker 1: came back in David gascon here from west of the
Speaker 1: f and dusted myself off. I experimented a few days ago.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about you. I was. I had nothing
Speaker 1: to do with your experiment. Keep your hands to yourself.
Speaker 1: I was. I. I boiled some some shrimp with the
Speaker 1: with the Chief, and I thought, uh, I would never
Speaker 1: eat that. Yeah, Ben does not like seafood. So no, no,
Speaker 1: I should have been born in Iowa or in the Brass, Nebraska. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that place that is not known for their their seafood.
Speaker 1: Fine for me, but but no, and especially boiling any
Speaker 1: any seafood I eat. If it's fried, I could go
Speaker 1: with it. Yeah. See I bought I bought the shrimp raw,
Speaker 1: and so you have to either fry it or boil it.
Speaker 1: And so we decided to boil it and it turned
Speaker 1: out pretty pretty decently. But pretty decently. That's not a
Speaker 1: ringing door. Well, I'm not a huge seafood guy that
Speaker 1: like the Chief is, but you know, trying to you know,
Speaker 1: it's like a stubborn mule, like you so trying to
Speaker 1: have them eat decently. And so I had some tuna
Speaker 1: and had some some scallops and some some decent vegetables too.
Speaker 1: So the chief ship. But the key is like do
Speaker 1: a fruit smoothie, fill it with vegetables, but have so
Speaker 1: much fruit in there it tastes like fruit and you
Speaker 1: don't even realize you're eating the vegetable. It's like Jock
Speaker 1: Mike was the pineapple smoothie. But you just you fill
Speaker 1: it with a lot of greens. But if there's enough pineapple,
Speaker 1: pineapple is so powerful and strong, you won't really taste
Speaker 1: the vegetable. Yeah, I think the I think the perfect
Speaker 1: combination is no matter if you have a lot of
Speaker 1: fruit or a lot of vegetables. You gotta have peanut butter. Man,
Speaker 1: gotta do peanut butter. Peanut butter, everything good. Jelly. Do
Speaker 1: you have peanut butter and jelly mixed? I've never had
Speaker 1: jelly in a shake? No? What what if it's great
Speaker 1: on a sandwich, why would it not be good in
Speaker 1: a shake. You can mix the peanut butter and the
Speaker 1: jelly with the other stuff. Because bread is key, man,
Speaker 1: you gotta have like good sour dough bread or like
Speaker 1: an English muffin maybe even I don't know, I'm big
Speaker 1: on that. So, uh, you mentioned college football. I don't know,
Speaker 1: should we be paying attention more to the PAC twelve
Speaker 1: or to the fucking Mountain West Conference because it seems
Speaker 1: like the Mountain last none of the above. Tough weekend
Speaker 1: last week for the PAC twelve, Gross took it on
Speaker 1: the chin there and where would where would Fresno State
Speaker 1: and b y U be they were in the pack
Speaker 1: right behind Oregon, right, yeah, they'd be right right there. Well,
Speaker 1: speaking of that, and now, we don't spend too much
Speaker 1: time obsessing with college football. As we point out on
Speaker 1: the Overnight Show that the way the setup is, we're
Speaker 1: mostly an NFL show that we're on when Monday Night
Speaker 1: Football has played Sunday Night Football. We come on after
Speaker 1: the games on Sunday Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Tuesday,
Speaker 1: and so lost in the shuffle is college football. So
Speaker 1: we try to, you know, bring it back, bring it
Speaker 1: back now here on the podcast the fifth Hour and
Speaker 1: the Pack twelve a tough weekend and that's just U
Speaker 1: C l A. And they're there Struggles and Arizona State,
Speaker 1: but also USC as an entire football program with all
Speaker 1: the changes that are coming to your change is for USC,
Speaker 1: and we welcome in here on the fifth hour. Ryan
Speaker 1: Abraham is the gentleman's name is about to join us here,
Speaker 1: and he is the owner and publisher of USC football
Speaker 1: dot com. But he covers the entire hire Pack twelve
Speaker 1: and a little birdie says he has a Heisman vote,
Speaker 1: so he gets to help decide the Heisman Trophy, which
Speaker 1: is the second greatest honor in sports, behind the John R.
Speaker 1: Wooden Award, which I vote for. Right behind that is
Speaker 1: the Heisman Trophy. And so we'll talk some Pack twelve football,
Speaker 1: but also the entire the entire landscape of college football
Speaker 1: as a whole, because there's a lot of moving and
Speaker 1: shaking going on in college football. But right now, let's
Speaker 1: welcome in Ryan Abraham, who joins us here on the
Speaker 1: fifth Hour with Ben Mallard. And so, Ryan, why don't
Speaker 1: we start with this? Why did USC bring Clay Hilton
Speaker 1: back if they were planning on firing him after his
Speaker 1: first loss? What was the point? Hey, that's a good question.
Speaker 1: I think it's been talked around about a lot around USC,
Speaker 1: and I think the way things when when Mike Bone
Speaker 1: did come in a couple of years ago. Everyone has
Speaker 1: assumed he would come in and clean house and fire
Speaker 1: Clay Hilton, but it we all found out later that
Speaker 1: Clayouton had this crazy deal, uh, you know, a contract
Speaker 1: that was fully guaranteed for five years and it was
Speaker 1: just going to be financially almost impossible for them to
Speaker 1: get rid of them. And then happens since the pandemic year,
Speaker 1: they go undefeated in the regular season. I think what
Speaker 1: the administration did was, Okay, we're gonna fix everything around
Speaker 1: Clay Helton, put all the resources in place that he
Speaker 1: would need to succeed, and if they don't succeed, uh,
Speaker 1: come in the season. I feel there was a series
Speaker 1: of checkpoints they needed to meet and then Clay Helton
Speaker 1: could continue as head coach. So I think he was
Speaker 1: sort of on thin ice the entire season. But going
Speaker 1: out and losing to a Stanford team that just got
Speaker 1: clabbored by Kansas State, I think that was the final nail,
Speaker 1: as you could say, and they decided to move on well.
Speaker 1: Paying attention to to Clay and following him the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, he always talked a good game. He
Speaker 1: sounded like you would want the coach to sound the
Speaker 1: words he said. I always thought, you know, he sounded
Speaker 1: like the you know, the SEC fans wanted. He said
Speaker 1: the things that you expected to say. But why was
Speaker 1: team so mediocre? And he talked to talk, He talked
Speaker 1: that he couldn't walk the walk. Why was it? Was
Speaker 1: it recruiting? Was it his coaching? What was the issue here?
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of factors, but one it
Speaker 1: was he felt like when he came in, it was
Speaker 1: someone that was when he was hired Penn, he was
Speaker 1: a guy that was happy to be there. He they
Speaker 1: you know, they promoted him from the interim head coach.
Speaker 1: He wasn't been a very successful, you know, quarterback coach
Speaker 1: or even offensive coordinator. It's not like you hire Lincoln Riley,
Speaker 1: who was like the best offensive cordinator in the country.
Speaker 1: Clayton wasn't really wasn't any of those things. But they
Speaker 1: needed an adult in the room at the time because
Speaker 1: they've made so many bad hires prior to that, with
Speaker 1: Liane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian. So he sort of was
Speaker 1: able to settle everything down. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, you need an alpha, You need someone that's
Speaker 1: like a Nick Saban or Davas Sweeney to be your
Speaker 1: head coach, and Clayton really just wasn't that. So he
Speaker 1: wasn't making the tough choices. He wouldn't bench veterans that
Speaker 1: weren't playing well, he wasn't going out and hiring great
Speaker 1: assistant coaches. He was just kind of hiring people that
Speaker 1: are familiar. And I feel like that was his eventual downfall.
Speaker 1: You need to go out there and really kind of
Speaker 1: pushed the envelope, and he just wasn't a guy that
Speaker 1: was doing that. So now there's Dante Williams. I know
Speaker 1: last weekend USC beat up Washington Stay for whatever that's worth.
Speaker 1: But we've seen in the past US with some of
Speaker 1: these interim coaches, you start falling in love with the
Speaker 1: temporary coach. Now I I've I've read that he's not
Speaker 1: a candidate for the full time job. But if SC
Speaker 1: starts really beating people up here, could that change here?
Speaker 1: Does he actually have Dante Williams an outside shot of
Speaker 1: being the permanent SC coach going forward? I think would
Speaker 1: have to be an outside shot. And that's one of
Speaker 1: those things then where you look at what did USC
Speaker 1: screw up in the past, and just the way they
Speaker 1: handled their interim head coaches. The fact that they had
Speaker 1: that many, Like you've had multiple interim heed coaches over
Speaker 1: the last decade, that kind of tells you there's some
Speaker 1: problems with the USC leadership. But this is they definitely
Speaker 1: a new administration. They bring in my Bone, who's actually
Speaker 1: been an athletic director before. He's not just a former
Speaker 1: football player. That's what USC has kind of continued to hire.
Speaker 1: So I think he's someone that realizes, like, look, this
Speaker 1: is something that's happened before. Maybe the USC fans sort
Speaker 1: of expect that he may if he makes some kind
Speaker 1: of crazy run and gets into the playoffs, then I
Speaker 1: think that someone you know, you would have to consider.
Speaker 1: But outside of that, I think USC realizes they need
Speaker 1: to bring in a big name. They've screwed up so
Speaker 1: many of the highers in the past. They got to
Speaker 1: go through their process and interview the best candidates and
Speaker 1: figure out who's going to lead this program. Because it's
Speaker 1: a it's a sleeping giant, but I mean it's something
Speaker 1: I mean, if the recruits are here, there's no you know,
Speaker 1: you're like the Alabama of the West Coast without an
Speaker 1: l s U, without a Georgia, without a Florida all
Speaker 1: around you. So if you just get the right guy,
Speaker 1: they feel like they can win a whole bunch of games.
Speaker 1: So that's just what they have to do. So I know, right.
Speaker 1: I love the wild names as a bloviating gas bag overnight.
Speaker 1: I love the crazy stories that pop up when a
Speaker 1: high profile job like SC opens up, which the USC
Speaker 1: job opens up every few years. But Reggie Bush, of
Speaker 1: all people, I'm sure you you talked about this if
Speaker 1: I wrote about it, Reggie Bush tossing out Dion Sanders
Speaker 1: name last week, knowing you know, knowing what I know
Speaker 1: about USC, I think there's no chance of that happening.
Speaker 1: But would they even talk to Dion Sands? Would he
Speaker 1: even be interested? He's not a West Coast guy. Would
Speaker 1: he even be interested in that? Yeah, that's I think.
Speaker 1: Gus Johnson actually mentioned it during one of the NFL
Speaker 1: games as well. Maybe he caught up from Reggie. But
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a lot of names, And like you said,
Speaker 1: when that when that kind of job opens up, if
Speaker 1: Texas opens up Alabama, like, there's gonna be a lot
Speaker 1: of names, a lot of agents, are gonna get their
Speaker 1: clients raises because of the US job. I don't think
Speaker 1: someone like that would be considered just because he doesn't
Speaker 1: you know, he's only been a coaching for a year
Speaker 1: or so. He has not even been uh you know,
Speaker 1: not only someone that's been a head coach or or
Speaker 1: they've been an assistant coach for a long time. So
Speaker 1: I think they have to get someone that's been a
Speaker 1: proven winner. And if you're gonna be a coordinator somewhere,
Speaker 1: you've got to be one of the best around, not
Speaker 1: just a you're a coordinator and it's like a it's
Speaker 1: like the enemy. Would make more sense who's had a
Speaker 1: lot of success as a coordinator. And then, you know,
Speaker 1: looking at NFL head coaches are I don't think he
Speaker 1: would be a good fit, but a much better fit
Speaker 1: than someone like Dean Sanders. Yeah. Ryan, on that note,
Speaker 1: depending on who you hire as a head coach, do
Speaker 1: you think the first order of business is to get
Speaker 1: a new officer coordinator. I don't know how you feel
Speaker 1: about this. I don't know how Ben feels about this,
Speaker 1: but it's really frustrating to see a team that was
Speaker 1: known for student body lef student body right to run
Speaker 1: pistol from first and goal at the one yard line. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's awful, just the sense that you get where you
Speaker 1: have no balance in your scheme. I mean back in
Speaker 1: the day when you had Liner, you had Carson Palmer,
Speaker 1: this was a traditional I formation type of team and
Speaker 1: it was groomed to get these guys to the next level.
Speaker 1: It's not the case anymore. Yeah, you're right. And I
Speaker 1: think when you see like an air a type of offense,
Speaker 1: it's usually for teams that don't have the kind of
Speaker 1: talent that some of the others do and when you
Speaker 1: do have it. But we've see these more like power
Speaker 1: spreads being run by all the big programs, even like Alabama,
Speaker 1: and you know what they run in Oklahoma is kind
Speaker 1: of fun and they're still physical and could run the
Speaker 1: football us. The scheme right now just doesn't. It doesn't
Speaker 1: even look like an air rate. It just it seems
Speaker 1: just more of like a little bit of this and
Speaker 1: a little bit of that. Um I would you know,
Speaker 1: I think when your place like USC, if they were
Speaker 1: scoring a ton of points, I think the fans would
Speaker 1: embrace it a little bit more because even though they're
Speaker 1: not running like the student body left right stuff. But
Speaker 1: they're not even doing that. You know, they scored points
Speaker 1: against Washington State, but you know the prior to games,
Speaker 1: I mean, twenty three offensive points against Sentasey State, Like
Speaker 1: that's just not getting it done. So, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: gonna depend on who the head coaches. It's an offensive
Speaker 1: coach of defensive coach, whatever. But I would think that
Speaker 1: someone like Graham harrold Is is coaching for his job
Speaker 1: right now, He's gonna have to make some show that
Speaker 1: this offense could really be effective if he's going to
Speaker 1: be considered to be be retained. But usually a decision
Speaker 1: like that, the head coach wants to kind of bring
Speaker 1: in their own guy. So that would be what I
Speaker 1: would guess, but who, you know, who knows what? It
Speaker 1: certainly depends on who they hire. What's the sentiment or
Speaker 1: the feeling around the program. With regards to recruiting, it's
Speaker 1: kind of mixed, you know, like they had a couple
Speaker 1: of bad years. Um was like the worst recruiting class
Speaker 1: we've seen, and a lot of it had to do
Speaker 1: with the assistant coaches they had. There was you know,
Speaker 1: part time recruiters are less and I think when Mike
Speaker 1: Bone came in. He sort of encouraged Clay Helton to
Speaker 1: make better hires around the program. And now you've got
Speaker 1: guys like Dante Williams, who's the interimet coach's been the
Speaker 1: packtroll recruiter of the year many times. They've brought in
Speaker 1: a lot of guys that are good coaches on the field,
Speaker 1: but also excellent recruiters. And for many years people thought,
Speaker 1: you can't, you know, USC recruits itself, you can't screw
Speaker 1: that up. But they did. They screwed up a couple
Speaker 1: of years, and now you're going to see some of
Speaker 1: that on the roster. But I feel like now they've
Speaker 1: kind of right at this ship. That's one thing USC
Speaker 1: has consistently been able to do, even if the coach
Speaker 1: has not been that great, they've been able to recruit.
Speaker 1: So they had a couple of bad years, but they
Speaker 1: seem to have got that, you know, that's going better now.
Speaker 1: And having got they as the interim head coach, I
Speaker 1: think is a good bridge throughever the next guy is,
Speaker 1: because he's going to keep that recruiting rolling throughout the
Speaker 1: off season, you know, whenever they hire the next coach.
Speaker 1: Yes see, it's interesting that the recruiting is there, but
Speaker 1: the elevation and advancement of these guys is not. Like
Speaker 1: that hasn't been the case in the National Football and
Speaker 1: when it comes to the draft. So there's obviously a
Speaker 1: huge disconnect between getting these guys in and getting these
Speaker 1: guys elevated, not only in their play at the collegiate
Speaker 1: level but then to the National Football League. Development has
Speaker 1: been It's a huge part of college football because you
Speaker 1: can bring in all the four and five star guys
Speaker 1: you want, but you've got to develop them. And I
Speaker 1: think if you look at USC's roster for the opening
Speaker 1: day in the NFL, uh, they're not even a top
Speaker 1: twenty as far as colleges go. But as far as
Speaker 1: you look at the recruiting classes, a bunch of them
Speaker 1: have been in the top five, certainly in the top ten.
Speaker 1: And where is the disconnect there? Where you're you're getting
Speaker 1: these top classes every year or most every year, and
Speaker 1: you're not putting as many guys in the NFL out
Speaker 1: And I think that's you know, coaching nuts development. Um,
Speaker 1: it's not just about bringing in those guys, it's like
Speaker 1: turning them into college stars. And you know, we've seen
Speaker 1: like a Juju Smith Schuster who was high school star.
Speaker 1: He was just a star as soon as he got
Speaker 1: on on campus and he moves on to the NFL.
Speaker 1: But you need to see more of the guys like
Speaker 1: uh that are they're coming in It maybe is like
Speaker 1: a lower level four star, high level pree star and
Speaker 1: you turn them into a great pro that someone that's
Speaker 1: a second round draft pick that you never expected. We
Speaker 1: just haven't seen a lot of that from USC. I
Speaker 1: think that's where the biggest shortcomings are. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: so then you've got to admit then that the recruiting
Speaker 1: has been a mistake to fold because you lose Cavon Thibodeau,
Speaker 1: you lose justin flow and then of course you look
Speaker 1: at Bryce Young dj Le. Those guys are both not
Speaker 1: in the mix. So you lose on both sides of
Speaker 1: the football. I mean, you're you're trying to cater. It
Speaker 1: seems like they're trying to cater to one side of
Speaker 1: the rock as opposed to the other. But for all
Speaker 1: intensive purposes, you're missing on both ends. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: this is one of the things that Carol did really
Speaker 1: well when he came in. He kind of made a
Speaker 1: cool to stay on the West coast, and right now
Speaker 1: it's not you're seeing. You know, Georgia's got a California quarterback,
Speaker 1: Clemson as a California quarterback, Alabama, Ohio State, Like these
Speaker 1: are all California quarterbacks that could USC have got them.
Speaker 1: And I think now that those guys are leaving. Plus
Speaker 1: like you mentioned, you know, Cavon Thibodeaux justin flow, like
Speaker 1: guys that from Oregon are coming down and taking some
Speaker 1: of the top defensive players from the class. It's a
Speaker 1: double lammy so US the classes are still ranked high,
Speaker 1: but they're not getting those local five stars to instantly
Speaker 1: commit to the USC like they always would in the past,
Speaker 1: you know, like withou Dory Jackson be at USC now
Speaker 1: or would he be an Oregon or Alabama or something.
Speaker 1: I think that's with USC slipping on the field, they're
Speaker 1: not going to be able to keep some of those
Speaker 1: top guys there. So that's why it's even more important
Speaker 1: to bring in a big name, big time head coach
Speaker 1: and make it cool to go to USC again, get
Speaker 1: him excited. But I think it also helps the entire
Speaker 1: Pack twelve keeping some of those California ta on on
Speaker 1: the West coast because that's just not been lately. You
Speaker 1: need to go to Ben Mallory's stomping grounds, going to
Speaker 1: settle Back College and get some talent. Yes, yes, you
Speaker 1: gotta get Juico guys. That's the key, Hungry, hungry players.
Speaker 1: Like I watched the Fresno State. They don't have I
Speaker 1: don't even have any five star recruiters Fresno. And you
Speaker 1: know that's a school, you know, I know you don't
Speaker 1: want to model yourself after Fresno State, but they coach
Speaker 1: guys up and there are guys that are pretty good
Speaker 1: football players that were not highly recruited. But but Ryan,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to want to revisit the coaching staff.
Speaker 1: Correct me if I'm wrong. A couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: Cliff Kingsbury was hired briefly as the it was a
Speaker 1: big splashy higher as the offensive coordinator, and then he
Speaker 1: left to go coach the Cardinals before even coaching at
Speaker 1: s C. Would he have been Clay Hilton's replacement had
Speaker 1: he not gotten the NFL job? Is that where that
Speaker 1: was headed? You know, it seems like that would be
Speaker 1: the way to go. And then they kind of hired
Speaker 1: like a light version of him and Graham Harrold. But
Speaker 1: that was definitely a weird situation. He was on campus
Speaker 1: like just over a month before the NFL hired him.
Speaker 1: But for the NFL to hire a you know, fired
Speaker 1: college coach who end up become an offensive coordinator in college,
Speaker 1: it was pretty amazing. But he's done a you know,
Speaker 1: he's done a decent job there. It just shows that
Speaker 1: the kind of offenses they're they're moving towards in the NFL,
Speaker 1: it's it's a lot more college style, and they were
Speaker 1: really to roll the dice. But if he was still
Speaker 1: at USC, I think he certainly would have been the
Speaker 1: interimat coach if he was still around there, and then
Speaker 1: a much better candidate since he's been a head coach before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the name that continues to pop up even though
Speaker 1: this guy's in the NFL, Urban Meyer in Jacksonville, they're
Speaker 1: off to a miserable start. Now. I had heard, and
Speaker 1: this is also something you can clarify if you've heard
Speaker 1: differently than me, that that there were some feelers put
Speaker 1: out to Urban by USC people few years ago and
Speaker 1: he just wasn't interested in it. And is that A
Speaker 1: Is that true? And be I would assume they're trying
Speaker 1: to get him now, right, is urban in play for
Speaker 1: the sc job? You know, because he's got a job
Speaker 1: in the NFL. I don't think USC's taking it as
Speaker 1: a serious candidate. I mean, there was definitely some concerns
Speaker 1: when USC a couple of years ago, USC all the
Speaker 1: scandal stuff going on Varsity Blues and everything puts. They
Speaker 1: had scandals throughout the university, like in the medical fields
Speaker 1: and stuff. Um. I think the president, Kerl Fault wasn't
Speaker 1: a huge fan of bringing anyone that had the kind
Speaker 1: of baggage that you know, urban Meyer apparently had. But
Speaker 1: for now, and he's still a fan favorite, Like the
Speaker 1: fans really want urban Meyer. I think if you're gonna
Speaker 1: hire anyone, he would kill it. He would just kill
Speaker 1: it at USC and and you know, probably get them
Speaker 1: back to get them the playoffs, win championships things like that. Um.
Speaker 1: But I'm I'm just watching, like how long is he
Speaker 1: gonna last? Like he's for him to lose two games
Speaker 1: in a row, like he only even did that, so
Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't even look like they're going to
Speaker 1: be competitive. How long does that last there in the NFL?
Speaker 1: And if he leaves, like you know, if he like
Speaker 1: a Bobby Petrino kind of thing and just like wants
Speaker 1: to leave early. I don't know, but if I think
Speaker 1: he would have to be gone, like sometime in November
Speaker 1: for for him to come up on USC's actual radar there.
Speaker 1: I know the fans are collamoring for it, but I
Speaker 1: just don't think USC sort of seriously considering it right now. Ryan,
Speaker 1: what about the guy that's actually on the Fox lot
Speaker 1: that people really have not talked about, Chris Peterson. Yeah,
Speaker 1: him or even Bob Stoops both very successful and would
Speaker 1: you would you want Bob Stoops there though? Don't you
Speaker 1: feel like he's the game has passed him by now? Yeah?
Speaker 1: But but he did you know, he proved it could
Speaker 1: hire I mean putting Rink Lincoln Riley in the place
Speaker 1: he's in. I think that's been been good. You know,
Speaker 1: we'll see. But I think if you're talking about trying
Speaker 1: to get someone in earlier so you can get a
Speaker 1: head started recruiting, those two guys are someone you could
Speaker 1: get right away if you wanted to, So I think
Speaker 1: you have to look at them just because they've had
Speaker 1: so much success at the college level and they're working
Speaker 1: right here in Los Angeles, so wouldn't be the hard
Speaker 1: to talk to him. Similar a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: whatever Meyer was working that Fox and they could talk
Speaker 1: to him too. So you even call a game on
Speaker 1: the call, Sam Floor to any nineteen when USC beat Utah,
Speaker 1: so that that was a weird on himself. Do you
Speaker 1: think and guys talk about this in the studio here
Speaker 1: often during the college shows on the weekends, do you
Speaker 1: think Carol full in USC as a whole care as
Speaker 1: much as the public does about USC football. I think, um,
Speaker 1: they had some bigger fish to fry for a while.
Speaker 1: I think they's around, She's getting she's feeling how important
Speaker 1: it is. I mean, every time she would tweet something,
Speaker 1: all the comments would be fire Clay Helton, Finlay Hilton.
Speaker 1: Then I think maybe in the beginning they didn't quite
Speaker 1: get it. And the fact that she got rid of
Speaker 1: Lin Swan pretty quietly but quickly, I thought that was
Speaker 1: a good move because I think she kind of realized, like,
Speaker 1: he is not he doesn't know what he's doing, he
Speaker 1: is not the man for the job. They bringing someone
Speaker 1: that has experience. I think that's good and I think
Speaker 1: Mike Bond wants to win. When you hear him, he's
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of stuff that important to me.
Speaker 1: He wants to the student athlete to be successful, lot
Speaker 1: of stuff. But I think he's someone that's very competitive
Speaker 1: and he wants them to win at that level. So
Speaker 1: I think they're they're starting to fix the Board of
Speaker 1: the trustees issues, the president, you know, kind of getting
Speaker 1: her on board. It feels like they're people are more
Speaker 1: on board now than probably they were a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, and that just kind of shows there were
Speaker 1: just so many There were decades of bad leadership at
Speaker 1: USC for at all levels. So I think they're trying
Speaker 1: to get through that now and kind of realize, you know,
Speaker 1: why why having a great football team would be helpful
Speaker 1: to the you know, to the school, to the university
Speaker 1: as a whole, and to the city of Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: All Right, obviously, I know you you covering USC in
Speaker 1: Pact twelve extensively, but looking across the country, are you
Speaker 1: as enamored with Spencer Rattler as many people are. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm a Heisman voter and stuff, and it's
Speaker 1: someone you kind of have to to look at and
Speaker 1: you start wondering, like, how good are these guys because
Speaker 1: of the coach and the system and all that. But
Speaker 1: it's someone that I think he could be really fun,
Speaker 1: uh you know, fun to watch the whole. It's weird though,
Speaker 1: just college football in general, Like you thought Alabama is
Speaker 1: the best and they look falible, Like it just looks
Speaker 1: like this is kind of wide open this year that
Speaker 1: we I don't know who's going to be good and
Speaker 1: which team is gonna be good from week to week. So, um,
Speaker 1: it's just an interesting time for college football. We it
Speaker 1: became so regionalized and we only had like those four
Speaker 1: teams that were good or five teams that were good.
Speaker 1: This might be here where some other teams breaks it.
Speaker 1: Where are saw Oregon, you know, getting to win Ohio State.
Speaker 1: We'll see how Oklahoma and Rattler and on those guys
Speaker 1: continue to do. But um, yeah, to me, this is
Speaker 1: could be a more interesting year in college football. It
Speaker 1: seems like there's a lot of like hangover from last year,
Speaker 1: that weird season that we have in Yeah, I see.
Speaker 1: I've had this conversation with Ben about the quarterbacks, especially
Speaker 1: Bryce Young DJ and and even in years past J T.
Speaker 1: Daniels that these guys all played at either modern Day
Speaker 1: or Saint John Bosco, and they played with Division one
Speaker 1: offensive lineman, so they were never touched. And I thought, like,
Speaker 1: just personal opinions, as soon as they come under any
Speaker 1: kind of fire, that's when they'll be in some trouble.
Speaker 1: And I felt like that's three and why JT transferred
Speaker 1: out of USC just zero protection and had everything coming
Speaker 1: on the A and B gaps and see, I think
Speaker 1: you see that now with DJ. Obviously you lose Maria Rodgers,
Speaker 1: you lose Travis e t n. It was all those
Speaker 1: bullets and now you're recalibrating and he's under fire. He's
Speaker 1: not performing like he he should or could because he
Speaker 1: doesn't have those kind of elements around him. And so
Speaker 1: I feel like that's what the case of Bryce Young.
Speaker 1: They gotta scare from Florida, but they still manage that game.
Speaker 1: They jumped out to an early lead and then lead
Speaker 1: the rest of the way. So I just feel like
Speaker 1: like you're going back to your point, it's more about
Speaker 1: just kind of the game correcting itself from you know,
Speaker 1: last season two this year, and I think defenses are
Speaker 1: catching up a little again because you know, there was
Speaker 1: a reason why Alabama switched to these kind of spread offenses,
Speaker 1: athletic quarterbacks that you're moving the ball around, and um,
Speaker 1: I think the defenses are starting to play a little
Speaker 1: bit better now where you can still get the best
Speaker 1: of them, right, like if everything's clicking on offense, but
Speaker 1: you can get games where you shut that. You saw
Speaker 1: that Georgia Clemson game where because they're just shutting offensives
Speaker 1: down and it looks a little like more old school
Speaker 1: college football than we've seen. So that's another reason why
Speaker 1: where it's not just like you know, the Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: year like in say stuff even in Alabama last year.
Speaker 1: Are we going to see that this year? I don't know.
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem like it as much. But when when
Speaker 1: you get an offensive experience, offensive line and all these
Speaker 1: NFL receivers and athletic quarterback is just distributing the ball
Speaker 1: and you can take off and run and great running backs, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you can have offenses are unstoppable. But this year, not
Speaker 1: seeing that as much, it seems like the defenses might
Speaker 1: have cut up a little bit, so right. I saw
Speaker 1: a couple of months ago there was a big story
Speaker 1: about Alabama and in the name image likeness, the recruit
Speaker 1: from Ohio State out of Texas that got a bunch
Speaker 1: of money not to play his last year at high
Speaker 1: school football in Texas. I haven't heard a lot from
Speaker 1: the Pack twelve. Maybe I missed it. How how has
Speaker 1: that played out? And is you cover USC more than anybody?
Speaker 1: The out of boosters, the whales they have in their alumni.
Speaker 1: Shouldn't this be the great you know, the great equalizer,
Speaker 1: not the great equalizer, but the great advantage the ace
Speaker 1: card for SC with the amount of money you can
Speaker 1: now pay players over the table. And have they been
Speaker 1: able to take advantage of that? Yeah, we haven't heard
Speaker 1: a ton of announcements, to be fair then, And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, Keen Slovis did sign with Clutch Sports. Who's
Speaker 1: you know, Lebron James, you know there there with them.
Speaker 1: I think kav Am Thibodeaux did some stuff up at Oregon.
Speaker 1: I think still Knight is going to be involved and
Speaker 1: a lot of that stuff. So I think there were
Speaker 1: some big name guys that have done some things, but
Speaker 1: it seems like they're still kind of feeling this out.
Speaker 1: I think there's going to be advantages if you're in
Speaker 1: a major media market, You're in Los Angeles, but you know,
Speaker 1: if you're the starting center for USC, you probably would
Speaker 1: have a better chance if you were the starting center
Speaker 1: in Nebraska, where everyone's gonna know who you are. Where Like,
Speaker 1: if you're Keen Slovis or you're the quarterback or wherever
Speaker 1: at USC, you're probably gonna have a higher ceiling than
Speaker 1: if you were the quarterback at an in a college town,
Speaker 1: you know. So I think they're still trying to feel
Speaker 1: this out, uh and see where guys go. They've they've
Speaker 1: tried to put some infrastructure in place to give these
Speaker 1: guys some assistance. But yeah, it's it's still like we
Speaker 1: haven't seen it like be big on the recruiting trail
Speaker 1: all that much on the West coast. But this signing period,
Speaker 1: you come December, I think it's going to be important
Speaker 1: and you might see some you know, Michigan State has
Speaker 1: some huge class because all these recruits were going to
Speaker 1: get benefits or something. That's when I think you might
Speaker 1: see a little bit more of this stuff kind of
Speaker 1: peeking out where and directly impacting these recruited classes later
Speaker 1: in the cycle. So in the big picture, for the
Speaker 1: packs of Larry Scott had been hanging around as an
Speaker 1: albatross over the conference for many, many years, and you know,
Speaker 1: Larry talking good game, tennis guy and all that. I
Speaker 1: had a chance to talk to him a few times
Speaker 1: over the years. He's finally gone. Now, so what is
Speaker 1: the initial report card for the new guy here? The
Speaker 1: who's out of Vegas? And and is this as good
Speaker 1: he's he's also talked a good game. Uh? Is Canny
Speaker 1: back it up? That's the question. Yeah. I like George
Speaker 1: LAYOFCOFF so far. And we got to you know, he
Speaker 1: came out and said, hey, we're going to do a
Speaker 1: listening tour, and USC happened to be his first stop.
Speaker 1: We came after one of their offseason workouts and got
Speaker 1: to have some one on one time with him, and
Speaker 1: it was great stuff that Larry Scott would never do
Speaker 1: like he would you know, he wouldn't even acknowledge your
Speaker 1: existence from his Ivory tower, but this was he was
Speaker 1: down there talking to all the beat writers, talking everyone
Speaker 1: that would cover the team. And he's done that. I
Speaker 1: think he's almost through all of the Pac twelves campuses
Speaker 1: and it's started. The first good you know, first weeks
Speaker 1: there were some some good news, you know, Oregon winning
Speaker 1: u C l A winning against l s U last
Speaker 1: week was pretty foot a disaster for the Pact Wells,
Speaker 1: So maybe that's coming back down to earth. But I
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, just working with the Alliance and
Speaker 1: the big ten in the a C has been helpful.
Speaker 1: I like, I think he's going to make some good
Speaker 1: moves that the big ones where you want to have,
Speaker 1: like the Pact of network on direct TV and things
Speaker 1: like that. I don't think he's gonna be able to
Speaker 1: do until those TV deals are up. But the fact
Speaker 1: we have to watch like kind of what he does
Speaker 1: building up to four season because that's gonna be the
Speaker 1: big one. But I'd like what he's done so far,
Speaker 1: so I would give him, you know, a minus or
Speaker 1: something going forward. He seems like he's got things going
Speaker 1: in the right direction. And like you said, he's talked
Speaker 1: a good game. We'll see whether the results will come
Speaker 1: probably you know, in a couple of years when we
Speaker 1: see that new TV deal. Yeah, and with with the
Speaker 1: SEC adding Texas in Oklahoma, planning to add those tools schools.
Speaker 1: I did see the PAC twelve said they're not planning
Speaker 1: to expand, but people change their opinion ten years from now, Ryan,
Speaker 1: you have a crystal ball. How many teams are in
Speaker 1: what is now known as the Pack twelve. How many
Speaker 1: teams are in there? That's a really good question. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just feel like the whole structure is going to
Speaker 1: be different. Um, so I'm gonna go sixteen that maybe
Speaker 1: we'd end up in like four or sixteen like super conferences, um,
Speaker 1: something like that. It doesn't seem like they're going to
Speaker 1: expand anytime soon. And if they can get that scheduling
Speaker 1: agreement everything done with the big tennan ECC, that will
Speaker 1: be helpful. I think they're gonna back off the eight
Speaker 1: conference games. I think that and get rid of divisions,
Speaker 1: which would be kind of interesting. But maybe ten years
Speaker 1: from now we're looking at like sixteen teams and four
Speaker 1: different conferences and they finally have some kind of round
Speaker 1: robin playoffs thing going on. It's a it's a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. So I think that's where we'll be in
Speaker 1: a decade. Ryan. Where are you at with the website?
Speaker 1: I mean, first date from inception to where you're at now,
Speaker 1: because I know you personally a little bit and uh
Speaker 1: and correct me if I'm wrong, But an engineering background
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, like poof. You're on the
Speaker 1: beat working for for the Trojans and covering things, so
Speaker 1: you take yourself away from from one world into it
Speaker 1: and completely different sector. What's up with that? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: went to USC of a master's and electrical engineering and
Speaker 1: I started at USC football dot com in NINETI just
Speaker 1: as like a hobby and then it just took off
Speaker 1: and uh then a two thousand one, I joined Rivals
Speaker 1: at the time and I quit my job with that
Speaker 1: for it, but doing a full time So yeah, so
Speaker 1: fell into journalism. It's been fun. I mean a crazy
Speaker 1: kind of run going on here. The peat Carrel years
Speaker 1: were great obviously, and but it's always interesting. I mean
Speaker 1: it's been it's been fun. Um, but man, just covering
Speaker 1: the U SU beat, there's always some weird story going
Speaker 1: on and you know something that you have to drop everything,
Speaker 1: and like, you know, a week ago when clayhot And
Speaker 1: got fired, it was one of those things. It's like whoa, uh,
Speaker 1: two games in the season they fired their coach. So
Speaker 1: it's it's been. It's commit kind of roller coaster like that,
Speaker 1: but it's been fun. That's I was gonna say. Because
Speaker 1: your wife is a huge Tennessee fan, right, So you've
Speaker 1: got the whole SEC blood in the family and you're
Speaker 1: you're a packed twelve guy. Yeah, there's a lot. I
Speaker 1: got to learn a lot about the SEC from what's
Speaker 1: going on there, But yeah, I keep my ties on
Speaker 1: here on the West Coast. Have you been impressed with
Speaker 1: anyone so far nashally outside of what you know Alabama's
Speaker 1: been doing so far? I mean, the Florida loss was
Speaker 1: pretty darn good. You know, b Y look great, Like
Speaker 1: I expected them to have a huge drop off. They're
Speaker 1: one of the few teams that lost a lot of
Speaker 1: their starters from last year. Everyone's bringing everyone back, you know,
Speaker 1: But to see what b I U was, you know,
Speaker 1: has been able to do. Um. Yeah, there's there's a
Speaker 1: lot out there. We're just kind of see. It just
Speaker 1: seems like it's more wide open now. So where are
Speaker 1: these teams gonna go? I mean, you've got the coastal
Speaker 1: Carolinas of the world. How long are they're gonna be undefeated? Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: you know, they've been good, and the Penn State too.
Speaker 1: I think you know the fact that they've got um,
Speaker 1: you know, the big win against Auburn this last weekend,
Speaker 1: and they have a couple of big wins already. So
Speaker 1: James Franklin, another potential USC candidate, He's got the he's
Speaker 1: got the Minitney alliance rolling right now. Do you think
Speaker 1: Texas is gonna be successful under Sarcasian it's deer question.
Speaker 1: I mean that it was a disappointing loss to Arkansas
Speaker 1: for sure. Um, you got to give him some time there,
Speaker 1: but um, yeah, you know, I think his offense is
Speaker 1: going to work. It's probably gonna take him a little
Speaker 1: bit to kind of fix whatever Tom Herman you kind
Speaker 1: of did in there, though. You know, I think it's
Speaker 1: gonna take a little time, but I think I'll do
Speaker 1: a good job there. And Ryan, last one for me here. Ryan,
Speaker 1: So you're a Heisman Trophy voter. Now that's a great thing.
Speaker 1: And I vote for the John R. Wooden Warden basket.
Speaker 1: That's my thing. But you're the Heisman guy, So what
Speaker 1: is the method to the madness? Like, you cover USC,
Speaker 1: but you've got to cover the whole country as a
Speaker 1: Heisman voter. So how do you approach this every weekend? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I try not to do too much early in the season.
Speaker 1: I want to get like kind of bias. So these
Speaker 1: guys are the favorites or things like that, and it's
Speaker 1: a pretty much a regional The way you vote is
Speaker 1: very regional. Um, I like to include someone on the
Speaker 1: West Coast at least I'm running about. You can pick
Speaker 1: up the three if at all possible, you know. Um
Speaker 1: there's years when you can, as years when you can't.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm not big in the defensive players
Speaker 1: unless they're scored about the touchdowns or things like that,
Speaker 1: so I kind of keep it more to the offensive side.
Speaker 1: I try to keep an open mind to see who's
Speaker 1: really impressed me and try to watch some of the
Speaker 1: bigger games. But it's it's interesting and it's a fun
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a ore like nine hundred I think
Speaker 1: for the Hysman. It's not too exclusive a club, but
Speaker 1: it's been fun over the years to be able to
Speaker 1: be involved in that awesome. All right, Ryan, thank you
Speaker 1: and anything to promote here, right, anything you want to
Speaker 1: other than the website. You're on social media and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. How can people keep tracking? Yeah, you can
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter at inside try I do that
Speaker 1: a lot during the season, so we twitter lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: It's weird. Our lives kind of focus around Twitter sometime
Speaker 1: that's chilly out, but we're we're like on it all
Speaker 1: the time. It's crazy awesome. Thank you Ryan, all right,
Speaker 1: take our thanks. Cool and weird, awesome down