# Jon Wilner on Oregon, Non-Conference, Dawgs, Minnesota. Big Ten, Playoff

An episode of [Softy & Dick Interviews](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1245866571), 23 Sep 2026, 20 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/98a2599f-cd9b-4f2a-9be4-b22c00e585f2/907d6469-cef5-4bda-9f13-b2f100f49399/90bcfae3-3840-4b42-9601-b4ce000c0aea/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=26b16ce4-8fab-44ea-88d4-b2f100f493bc

Jon Wilner of The San Jose Mercury News and Wilner Hotline joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about Oregon running up the score last week, the non-conference schedules, what to make of the Huskies so far, this week’s game against Minnesota, the Big Ten, possible new playoff model, big games this week, USC, Michigan, and his pick. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

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[0:11] Speaker 3: It's time for our weekly Pac-12 conversation with San Jose
[0:14] Speaker 3: Mercury News reporter John Wilner. Brought to you by Simply Seattle.
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[1:00] Speaker 1: At simplyseattle.com.
[1:02] Speaker 4: Here he is, our friend from the San Jose Mercury News,
[1:05] Speaker 4: the Pope of the Pack, the Big 12 Baron himself,
[1:08] Speaker 4: our friend John Wilner.
[1:09] Speaker 1: Johnny, how are you, man? I'm good, thanks.
[1:11] Speaker 5: How are you guys?
[1:12] Speaker 1: We're good. A lot of places we could start.
[1:15] Speaker 4: Why don't we start with the crap that Oregon's taken
[1:18] Speaker 4: from people all across the country. for scoring up 77-0
[1:23] Speaker 4: on Portland State on Saturday in Eugene and winning the
[1:26] Speaker 4: game 84-0. How much criticism is fair, unfair, that Dan
[1:31] Speaker 4: Lanning and Oregon are taking for the way that whole
[1:33] Speaker 4: thing went down?
[1:35] Speaker 5: I think it's kind of fair. I mean, there were
[1:37] Speaker 5: 30 seconds left, right, when they scored that last touchdown.
[1:41] Speaker 5: Just take a knee. I don't care if your backups
[1:43] Speaker 5: are in. You just take a knee. Now, Lanning said
[1:47] Speaker 5: that he asked Portland State's coaching staff multiple times in
[1:51] Speaker 5: the second half if they wanted to go to 10-minute
[1:54] Speaker 5: quarter options, right, and shorten the game. And Portland State
[1:58] Speaker 5: said no. And so that was kind of Lanning's justification
[2:02] Speaker 5: for playing all the way to the end. But I
[2:05] Speaker 5: don't know that those two things are completely connected.
[2:09] Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree.
[2:09] Speaker 5: They want to keep playing. And you just– I mean–
[2:12] Speaker 5: I don't, I don't mind if you're scoring, you know,
[2:15] Speaker 5: on a 40 yard run with four or five minutes
[2:18] Speaker 5: to go, but when you're in the red zone and
[2:20] Speaker 5: there's 30 seconds left, just take a knee.
[2:22] Speaker 2: Does that not seem totally on brand for landing though,
[2:26] Speaker 2: to hear from the other coaches? No, we want to
[2:28] Speaker 2: keep the game at a regular pace. And he's like, Oh, okay, fine.
[2:31] Speaker 2: Then let me show you this.
[2:33] Speaker 5: Is that not totally on brand for that guy? Uh,
[2:38] Speaker 5: I mean, It sounds like it's on brand. I don't
[2:41] Speaker 5: know exactly how he has played blowouts of FCS teams
[2:45] Speaker 5: in the past. I certainly think he would not have
[2:49] Speaker 5: done it if they had beaten Oklahoma State and he
[2:53] Speaker 5: hadn't taken crap for six or seven days. Yeah. Right. Yeah,
[2:57] Speaker 5: no doubt. Well, I mean, look, it was like, you know,
[3:00] Speaker 5: I don't know who said this on social media, but the....
[3:12] Speaker 4: It's like Oregon got beat up by a senior and
[3:14] Speaker 4: then went and found a freshman and kicked their ass,
[3:16] Speaker 4: you know, to kind of make up for it. So
[3:19] Speaker 4: it was a little gross. I mean, UW's been a
[3:21] Speaker 4: part of games like that before. They put up 70
[3:24] Speaker 4: on UC Davis a year ago, but I don't remember
[3:26] Speaker 4: Jed Fish doing that with 30 seconds to go. Do
[3:29] Speaker 4: you think these games are going to die eventually? We're
[3:31] Speaker 4: going to stop seeing these games?
[3:35] Speaker 5: Wait, didn't the Huskies put up 70 on Oregon during
[3:37] Speaker 5: the Jake Browning era?
[3:38] Speaker 4: They absolutely did, yes, but that's okay.
[3:41] Speaker 1: That's allowed.
[3:42] Speaker 5: Okay.
[3:43] Speaker 1: That's totally fine. Yes.
[3:47] Speaker 5: I do... Well, actually, I think that the FCS games
[3:51] Speaker 5: may stay for this reason. Assuming the playoff expands, the
[3:57] Speaker 5: conferences are all going to have this mandate where you
[4:00] Speaker 5: have to play one non-conference game against a P4 opponent.
[4:05] Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
[4:05] Speaker 5: They're going to want the other two non-conference games to
[4:09] Speaker 5: be cream puffs.
[4:10] Speaker 3: Right.
[4:10] Speaker 5: So... I think Portland State is a lot more viable
[4:15] Speaker 5: in that era than Boise. Boise's in a little bit
[4:18] Speaker 5: of trouble because nobody wants to deal with Boise. If
[4:21] Speaker 5: you're already playing 10 power four opponents, why do you
[4:25] Speaker 5: want Boise as your 11th team? You could lose that game.
[4:29] Speaker 5: So I think the FCS in some ways might be
[4:32] Speaker 5: in more demand.
[4:34] Speaker 2: Is Oregon a playoff team in your eyes? I mean,
[4:37] Speaker 2: the ESPN-FBI gives them only a 20% chance right now.
[4:41] Speaker 5: Well, I don't know that they are if you assume
[4:45] Speaker 5: the same threshold is going to be applied this season,
[4:49] Speaker 5: which is that no 9-3 team has ever made the playoff, right?
[4:54] Speaker 5: Alabama made it last year with three losses, but the
[4:56] Speaker 5: third loss was in the SEC championship game. So they
[4:59] Speaker 5: were 10-2 when the regular season ended. No 9-3 team
[5:03] Speaker 5: has made it. So that means Oregon has got to,
[5:06] Speaker 5: at worst, go– eight and one in the big 10. Right.
[5:10] Speaker 5: And they got to play at SC. They got to
[5:13] Speaker 5: play Michigan. They got to play at Ohio state. They
[5:18] Speaker 5: got the Huskies. Yeah. I don't, I don't, from what
[5:21] Speaker 5: I have seen so far, they're not good enough to
[5:23] Speaker 5: go eight and one.
[5:24] Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no doubt.
[5:24] Speaker 4: Well, what is Washington, right? What is Washington after three games?
[5:29] Speaker 4: What's your assessment of what we've, we've seen after 12 quarters.
[5:33] Speaker 5: So to be totally honest with you, I have no
[5:35] Speaker 5: idea about the Huskies. I really don't. And, you know,
[5:40] Speaker 5: they did look better against Eastern. But at the same time,
[5:44] Speaker 5: I mean, South Dakota scored almost as many points and
[5:47] Speaker 5: gained almost as many yards against Eastern Washington as Washington did.
[5:51] Speaker 5: So I don't really know that you can look at
[5:53] Speaker 5: the game on Saturday and say, well, things are fixed
[5:57] Speaker 5: because of the opponent. And I'm not even sure we're
[6:01] Speaker 5: going to know after this week if they are good
[6:05] Speaker 5: enough to win some of the high-level games on their schedule?
[6:09] Speaker 5: I just don't know. We'll certainly get an answer when
[6:12] Speaker 5: they go to the Coliseum. What is that, two weeks?
[6:14] Speaker 1: Correct. What is Minnesota? What is Minnesota, John?
[6:19] Speaker 2: What are we seeing this week?
[6:20] Speaker 5: Minnesota got smoked at home by Mississippi State. It was
[6:23] Speaker 5: like 39-13. I think Minnesota is... Basically, Minnesota is the
[6:31] Speaker 5: type of team Washington should beat handily in Seattle... Even
[6:35] Speaker 5: if the Huskies are just like 9-3, 8-4, they should
[6:38] Speaker 5: beat Minnesota handily. Minnesota is a bad road team. I
[6:41] Speaker 5: think they were winless on the road last year in
[6:43] Speaker 5: Big Ten. This game, and even with Washington's problems up
[6:47] Speaker 5: front and injuries... Huskies should win that game by 15
[6:52] Speaker 5: or 20 points.
[6:53] Speaker 4: Yeah, I just don't think anything's really changed in some
[6:55] Speaker 4: ways for me. And if it has changed, I'm a
[6:57] Speaker 4: little bit maybe less confident because of the way they
[6:59] Speaker 4: looked against the Cougs in Utah State. I'm with you entirely, John.
[7:03] Speaker 4: The Eastern game doesn't move the needle for me at all.
[7:06] Speaker 4: But they should be 4-0, right? I mean, all of
[7:08] Speaker 4: us said anything less than 4-0 is a disaster, and
[7:11] Speaker 4: they should be 4-0. We'll find out a lot more
[7:12] Speaker 4: about them starting with the USC game.
[7:16] Speaker 5: It's almost like these first three games are kind of
[7:20] Speaker 5: a continuation of last season. We don't know what the
[7:23] Speaker 5: new version is yet.
[7:25] Speaker 4: I'm just trying to figure out who's going to win
[7:27] Speaker 4: this Big Ten. I mean, look, obviously Indiana's look great.
[7:31] Speaker 4: They haven't played anybody. Ohio State maybe has played the
[7:33] Speaker 4: toughest schedule because they played Texas, but they blew a
[7:35] Speaker 4: 24-3 lead, whatever it was. Who's the cream of the
[7:39] Speaker 4: crop right now in the Big Ten after three weeks?
[7:44] Speaker 5: It's a great question. I don't know that there really
[7:46] Speaker 5: is a team that you could say is the frontrunner.
[7:50] Speaker 5: To me, Ohio State, I mean, that's just game. First,
[7:53] Speaker 5: they were playing... maybe the most talented team in the country.
[7:57] Speaker 5: And also, you could just see they wilted in the
[8:00] Speaker 5: fourth quarter heat in Austin, right? I mean, if that
[8:02] Speaker 5: game is played north of the Mason-Dixon line, I kind
[8:05] Speaker 5: of like Ohio State's chances to hold up. But to me,
[8:10] Speaker 5: they are the team to beat barely. And the thing is,
[8:15] Speaker 5: I don't know who is number two. It may be Indiana.
[8:18] Speaker 5: Maybe it's the Trojans. Maybe it's maybe it's Oregon. Maybe
[8:22] Speaker 5: Oregon gets themselves figured out. We'll know Saturday. I don't
[8:26] Speaker 5: know that there really is a front runner in the
[8:30] Speaker 5: Big Ten. And I'm not positive that there is in
[8:32] Speaker 5: the SEC either. It's a very interesting dynamic in both conferences.
[8:37] Speaker 2: John we got a fabulous slate of games this week
[8:40] Speaker 2: i mean we've got six games featuring a pair of
[8:43] Speaker 2: top 25 teams i just went back and looked at
[8:45] Speaker 2: all the rest of the weeks thus far we haven't
[8:48] Speaker 2: had six combined in the first three weeks of the
[8:51] Speaker 2: season does that what does that september schedule that we've
[8:55] Speaker 2: had which has been so horrible Reveal about expansion being
[9:00] Speaker 2: kind of the next step in this whole thing of
[9:03] Speaker 2: expansion of the playoffs.
[9:04] Speaker 5: It has been. It has been horrible. And the Big
[9:06] Speaker 5: Ten is a big reason it's been so bad. And
[9:09] Speaker 5: Washington has some culpability in that. You know, Washington, USC, Indiana,
[9:16] Speaker 5: Penn State, Nebraska. None of them are playing a powerful
[9:21] Speaker 5: opponent out of conference. Five out of the 18 teams.
[9:24] Speaker 5: And five of the biggest brands. So... I think what
[9:28] Speaker 5: is basically happening behind the scenes is Fox is looking
[9:32] Speaker 5: at the big tens TV inventory and seeing all these
[9:35] Speaker 5: crappy non-conference schedules. And they're saying, we got to expand
[9:38] Speaker 5: the playoff because if 24 teams get in, maybe the team,
[9:43] Speaker 5: the coaches won't be scared to play a high level
[9:46] Speaker 5: game in September because that extra loss is You know, won't,
[9:50] Speaker 5: won't knock them out. You can get in the playoff
[9:53] Speaker 5: and with at nine and three and maybe even eight
[9:55] Speaker 5: and four. So it will make teams a little bit
[9:57] Speaker 5: more willing to take a chance. I don't know if
[10:00] Speaker 5: that's the case, but that's what the Fox hopes.
[10:02] Speaker 4: Well, I mean, you would have teams at the top
[10:04] Speaker 4: that would just have to do more come tournament time
[10:06] Speaker 4: to win games. I mean, teams would get buys obviously.
[10:09] Speaker 4: So not everybody would have to do it, but I
[10:10] Speaker 4: would think that the more coaches that most coaches in
[10:13] Speaker 4: America would want the 2014 playoff. Cause it just means
[10:16] Speaker 4: more spots. More bonuses, more contract extensions, more season ticket sales,
[10:23] Speaker 4: all that stuff. And you can lose three games and
[10:25] Speaker 4: you can still play for a national championship.
[10:27] Speaker 1: But John Wilner is with us.
[10:29] Speaker 4: John, when will that be officially ratified? When are Dick
[10:34] Speaker 4: and I going to wake up and say, today's the
[10:36] Speaker 4: day that college football tells.
[10:38] Speaker 1: Us we have a 2014 playoff?
[10:41] Speaker 5: Well, the SEC and Big Ten, which... They have the
[10:45] Speaker 5: authority basically to determine the format. They are required contractually
[10:50] Speaker 5: to notify ESPN by December 1st if the playoff is
[10:54] Speaker 5: going to expand for next season. However, you may recall
[10:58] Speaker 5: that last year they had that exact same deadline, couldn't
[11:03] Speaker 5: come to an agreement, and worked out a six-week extension,
[11:08] Speaker 5: maybe actually seven-week extension with ESPN, to like January 25th.
[11:13] Speaker 5: And then they still couldn't come up with it. So
[11:15] Speaker 5: I would tell you December 1st is the contractual deadline,
[11:18] Speaker 5: but it could, again, get extended into January. We will
[11:21] Speaker 5: know by the end of January is the best answer
[11:24] Speaker 5: I can give you.
[11:24] Speaker 1: All right.
[11:26] Speaker 2: John, the two best games in the Big Ten this
[11:28] Speaker 2: week could not be more different in style.
[11:32] Speaker 5: You have an over-under of Oregon.
[11:34] Speaker 2: USC at 62.5, and you have an over-under of Michigan
[11:39] Speaker 2: Iowa at 38.5.
[11:42] Speaker 1: That is unbelievable. So which one do you want to
[11:45] Speaker 1: talk about first?
[11:47] Speaker 5: When I saw that Michigan-Iowa over-under, I thought that was
[11:50] Speaker 5: for the number of punts. But the Oregon-USC game, to me,
[11:56] Speaker 5: that's too low. I haven't seen any defense from either
[12:00] Speaker 5: of those teams. I mean, Rutgers scored 35. They couldn't
[12:02] Speaker 5: move the ball on UMass and BC, and they scored
[12:05] Speaker 5: 35 on the Trojans. I just don't know. I don't
[12:09] Speaker 5: think Lincoln Riley, I just think the way he coaches,
[12:12] Speaker 5: they're not going to play good defense no matter who
[12:14] Speaker 5: is calling the plays on defense. But it's a huge game.
[12:18] Speaker 5: I think Oregon-USC is actually the biggest West Coast versus
[12:23] Speaker 5: West Coast game since the Pac-12 game. Since the first
[12:30] Speaker 5: Washington-Oregon game in 2023, that classic at Husky Stadium, this
[12:35] Speaker 5: is the biggest regular season game in the region since
[12:37] Speaker 5: that game. Wow.
[12:38] Speaker 4: What was the score of the Sam Darnold-Browse Bowl against
[12:42] Speaker 4: Penn State?
[12:42] Speaker 1: Was it like 52-49 or something? Remember that game?
[12:46] Speaker 5: I think it was 52-49 or 49-42. That was— Mr. Conn-Barkley
[12:50] Speaker 5: was incredible in that game.
[12:52] Speaker 4: But the point is, is USC's offense— because I agree with
[12:56] Speaker 4: you on the defense. I don't think you can trust
[12:58] Speaker 4: Lincoln Riley to play defense until he shows you he
[13:00] Speaker 4: can play defense. I mean, like, UW— No matter what
[13:04] Speaker 4: they've done, either Steve Belichick or Ryan Walters, they're actually
[13:07] Speaker 4: a defensive team. For two years, two and a half years,
[13:10] Speaker 4: they've been playing defense. So I think they're kind of
[13:12] Speaker 4: proving they can play defense. Lincoln hasn't done that yet.
[13:15] Speaker 4: But as the offense with Maieva and this King Miller
[13:18] Speaker 4: and this hot shot tight end, the freshman with Bowman, right?
[13:21] Speaker 1: Dixon Wyatt.
[13:22] Speaker 4: Are they good enough offensively, John, at USC where they
[13:26] Speaker 4: can win a 52 to 49 game and just outscore people?
[13:32] Speaker 5: I think they are. But the question is, how many
[13:37] Speaker 5: times can they do that? Like, could they beat Oregon 52-49?
[13:40] Speaker 5: I think they could. Could they do that to Michigan
[13:43] Speaker 5: and to Ohio State? You don't have any margin for
[13:48] Speaker 5: error if you can't play defense. And it just takes one,
[13:52] Speaker 5: you know, a couple of bad throws, one bad game
[13:54] Speaker 5: from Maiva, and then you're sunk. They have to figure
[13:58] Speaker 5: out how to stop teams and If they don't, I
[14:02] Speaker 5: just think that there's a real ceiling on what they
[14:06] Speaker 5: can do. And there's a very, very realistic scenario in
[14:10] Speaker 5: which USC finishes 8-4, 9-3, given their schedule. I mean, heck,
[14:14] Speaker 5: the Huskies could go down there because that's actually a
[14:17] Speaker 5: pretty good Timing for Washington. You know USC, win or
[14:22] Speaker 5: lose against the Ducks, they're going to be coming off
[14:25] Speaker 5: a real high or a real low, right? Good time
[14:27] Speaker 5: for Washington to go in there, for sure. And maybe
[14:30] Speaker 5: Huskies find a way to win that 20-17. Totally agree.
[14:34] Speaker 4: USC goes to Penn State after they play us, by
[14:37] Speaker 4: the way. So that's sandwiched right around our game.
[14:40] Speaker 2: John, that other game, the Michigan-Iowa game, which you're right,
[14:44] Speaker 2: was going to be a snooze fest, but it should
[14:46] Speaker 2: be a close game. Did Bryce Underwood gain any fans
[14:50] Speaker 2: back that he lost in the first couple of weeks
[14:53] Speaker 2: of the season with his performance against UTEP, or because
[14:56] Speaker 2: it was UTEP there, you just throw that out?
[14:59] Speaker 5: I think because it's UTEP, you throw it out. He
[15:03] Speaker 5: had a couple of good games last year against some
[15:05] Speaker 5: bad teams, too. This will be... His best, I mean,
[15:10] Speaker 5: Oklahoma's defense is really, really good and Iowa's defense may
[15:13] Speaker 5: not quite be at that level, but it's good and
[15:16] Speaker 5: incredibly well coached. So to me, we're going to know
[15:20] Speaker 5: a lot about Michigan and This week, and as a result,
[15:25] Speaker 5: we're going to know a lot about the shape of
[15:27] Speaker 5: the Big Ten race. If they beat Iowa, that tells
[15:29] Speaker 5: me they're going to be a factor. If they can't
[15:32] Speaker 5: beat the Hawkeyes, then, you know, I don't know. And
[15:35] Speaker 5: that would also tell you something about Iowa. If they
[15:37] Speaker 5: go to Ann Arbor and win, they can go to
[15:39] Speaker 5: Husky Stadium and win.
[15:40] Speaker 1: Yeah. John Wilner with us.
[15:43] Speaker 4: John, I know we're mostly Big Ten these days, but
[15:46] Speaker 4: the Big 12, I don't know if you guys saw
[15:48] Speaker 4: this that just came out, that Deion Sanders has thrown
[15:51] Speaker 4: a few players off the team at Colorado. I don't
[15:54] Speaker 4: know if you guys saw the pregame at Northwestern.
[15:57] Speaker 5: I saw it.
[15:57] Speaker 4: Yeah, Northwestern's in a temporary stadium while their new palace
[16:01] Speaker 4: gets built, and there were a bunch of guys out
[16:03] Speaker 4: there talking about what a dump.
[16:04] Speaker 1: It was and blah, blah, blah.
[16:06] Speaker 4: Then they went out and got their ass kicked 41-7,
[16:09] Speaker 4: and there were a bunch of guys, apparently they were
[16:10] Speaker 4: laughing after the game was over, so Deion threw them
[16:13] Speaker 4: off the team.
[16:14] Speaker 1: How long does he last at Colorado?
[16:16] Speaker 4: I mean, I have no idea what his contract is,
[16:19] Speaker 4: but I mean, they had that great win over TCU
[16:22] Speaker 4: and then Shador goes nine and three and they retire
[16:25] Speaker 4: his number. And I mean, they're, they're not a good
[16:26] Speaker 4: football program anymore at Colorado. How long until people start
[16:30] Speaker 4: losing patience with primetime?
[16:32] Speaker 5: I think that that process has already started in Boulder
[16:35] Speaker 5: because they were so bad last year. And so now
[16:38] Speaker 5: everybody's thinking, well, if he doesn't have Travis Hunter and
[16:41] Speaker 5: he doesn't have Shador, he's not a very good coach. So,
[16:44] Speaker 5: you know, it'll be really interesting if they are five
[16:47] Speaker 5: and seven or four and eight and they have a
[16:48] Speaker 5: hard schedule. They're two and one right now. I think
[16:53] Speaker 5: there's a real good chance they will miss a bowl game.
[16:56] Speaker 5: And then it's going to be a real interesting decision.
[16:58] Speaker 5: They have a new president and a new athletic director
[17:00] Speaker 5: since he got Dion got hired. Right. And, you know,
[17:04] Speaker 5: his contract to me, this smells like some kind of
[17:07] Speaker 5: negotiated settlement that Deion just says, you know what, I'm
[17:11] Speaker 5: done here. He's had health problems. His sons have moved on.
[17:16] Speaker 5: Just I'm done here. And they kind of split the
[17:19] Speaker 5: difference in whatever they owe him. And Colorado finds another coach.
[17:24] Speaker 2: John, what was all this about your coaches above replacement
[17:28] Speaker 2: article that you wrote? What did you learn about that
[17:31] Speaker 2: when you did the research there?
[17:33] Speaker 5: Oh, so, well, the only research was kind of done
[17:36] Speaker 5: in my cranium. But what I tried to do was
[17:41] Speaker 5: apply the wins above replacement, the war stat from baseball,
[17:45] Speaker 5: to coaches. All right. And I looked, the focus was
[17:49] Speaker 5: on Dan Lanning, and this happened to be right the
[17:51] Speaker 5: day before the Oklahoma State game. And I was asked,
[17:55] Speaker 5: you know, how many other coaches could go to Eugene,
[17:58] Speaker 5: given all the resources and all the machinery needed You know,
[18:02] Speaker 5: could an average coach go in there and do just
[18:03] Speaker 5: as well as Dan Lanning? Is he really providing the
[18:06] Speaker 5: Ducks with something over and above the average?
[18:09] Speaker 1: Good question.
[18:09] Speaker 5: And my conclusion was that he is. He's averaging 13 wins.
[18:15] Speaker 5: So I kind of figured he's probably a couple of
[18:17] Speaker 5: games above average. But, you know, there's a bunch of
[18:22] Speaker 5: pretty good coaches that could go into Oregon and do
[18:24] Speaker 5: the exact same thing. Yes. So that was the thrust
[18:28] Speaker 5: of it. I also looked at Kenny Dillingham. Because of
[18:31] Speaker 5: the situation he took over at ASU. With the NCAA probation.
[18:34] Speaker 5: And the bowl ban and all that. And I think Dillingham.
[18:37] Speaker 5: compared to the average coach, has done a much better
[18:40] Speaker 5: job than Lanning has in Oregon.
[18:42] Speaker 4: Yeah, compared to in the context of what he has
[18:45] Speaker 4: to work. I'm totally with you, by the way, in
[18:46] Speaker 4: the Oregon thing. You've got to be a world-class putz
[18:48] Speaker 4: to not win down there, by the way. I mean,
[18:50] Speaker 4: we're talking free Willie Taggart, Mark Helfrich, guys like that
[18:54] Speaker 4: that just could not get it done. I mean, you
[18:55] Speaker 4: put anybody in there with a heartbeat, and they're going
[18:57] Speaker 4: to be winning 10, 11 games a year.
[18:59] Speaker 1: I'm with you. But, hey, John, speaking of heartbeat. We
[19:01] Speaker 1: have a heartbeat again. You nailed it.
[19:03] Speaker 4: ASU minus the points over Kansas. Dillingham, dilly-dilly, got it
[19:08] Speaker 4: done against the Jayhawks. So you are now 3-2 on
[19:11] Speaker 4: the year, on the air so far in five games.
[19:14] Speaker 4: Who do you like this week to keep the train rolling,
[19:17] Speaker 4: big boy?
[19:18] Speaker 5: I thought long and hard about making a call in
[19:20] Speaker 5: the Oregon-USC game because it's such a huge game. But, man,
[19:24] Speaker 5: that number, I think it's Oregon minus 3. I don't
[19:27] Speaker 5: really want to touch it. So I'm going to pick
[19:30] Speaker 5: Mississippi State, which is a little bit obscure for our listeners.
[19:35] Speaker 5: But Mississippi State is, as I mentioned earlier, they blew
[19:39] Speaker 5: the doors off Minnesota. They have a terrific young quarterback
[19:42] Speaker 5: in Kamario Taylor. And I think they could be a
[19:45] Speaker 5: sleeper CFP team potential.
[19:47] Speaker 4: Wow wow well that would make Minnesota's loss not look
[19:50] Speaker 4: as bad if they are if they're a sleeper CFP
[19:53] Speaker 4: team for sure Mississippi State given six and a half
[19:56] Speaker 4: versus Missouri uh in Stillwater on Saturday all right man
[20:01] Speaker 4: great stuff love it and we'll talk in a week
[20:03] Speaker 4: bud Thanks, guys.
[20:05] Speaker 1: All right, John Willner with us. We're going to break.
[20:07] Speaker 4: We've got some drama, Dick, between the Seahawks and Broncos
[20:10] Speaker 4: that we've got to get to next on 93.3 KJRFM.

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