GAME THREAD: Pac 12 Championship - (11) Utah vs. (4) USC, Friday at 8pm on Fox

As a night owl, I have watched a lot of PAC-12 football this year. Def fun, and def improved. They are trending up.

 

By far. He’s New Gronk.

But those two Ute TE’s are collectively a terror.

 

Total Def
Utah 17th
Usc 91st

 

Their defense sucks out loud. They've been pretty terrible all year.

 

Is that for the whole year?

 

Yes

 

This is the issue with college coaches, and why Saban is such an anomaly.

Almost ALL college coaches are “specialists.” They are D or O, and the other side is weak. Riley has never had a team that played even solid D except for when he had NFL recruits, and even then they suddenly got better at the next level. He is at the same exact hump he couldn’t get over at OU even at glamorous USC.

I won’t go down a whole list here, but just say Patterson at TCU. ALL D, woeful O for 15 years, except for when he had a few NFL O guys. And they were thiiiiis close to breaking through. But he could simply never find O, and eventually also lost the D swagger. But it is TCU, after all. And while I admire this year’s TCU, they are going to get the Notre Dame treatment in the playoffs.

Saban is truly a unicorn in he basically just oversees the ops. They started the run being D juggernauts with passable O, transitioned to O juggernauts with sometimes bad D, and in the sweet spot they hit both.

I honestly can’t think of another college coach like that. This is NFL coach stuff, where one without the other is auto-loss. Harbaugh prolly the closest, although he’s def a D lean but catches O in a bottle, and maybe this is the year for him. And maybe he’s growing into the Emperor role.

 

3rd and grantham. Lol.

 

If USC comes back and wins, the Dawgs are going to plow them. Too soft, too finesse to stand up to them.

 

Trash D will win Williams the Heisman because he has to score 45 to be in it.

And FTR, he’s worthy.

 

He probably would have got that if he hadn’t show-boated going in. Details matter.

 

As much as I hate the Dawgs, I just don’t see anyone beating them.

 

Wow!

 

I agree, but I think Michigan can at least challenge them. USCw cannot, though if Caleb Williams can't run its a moot point Utah will finish them off tonight.

 

MI can beat GA this year. Not saying they will and line would probably be in the 10ish range, but MI looks pretty darn good.