Trojan Man-Ryan Abraham

Hour drops in. You're locked in right now here we are on a Friday, big college football weekend. What are we at week four now of the college football weekend? There week ahead of the NFL in this podcast doing very well. We thank you for that, as we are here every single Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Only available in the domain the ecosystem of the podcast. We can get this wherever you get your podcast you found it, we thank you. It's a wonderful thing. And remember sharing is caring.

So passed that on passed the podcast on to others that may or may not be interested, as long as they downloaded and listened. For I don't know a minute. We're in good shape. Joined this weekend from west of the four oh five man that dusted himself off and came back in David gascon here from west of the f and dusted myself off. I experimented a few days ago. I was thinking about you. I was. I had nothing to do with your experiment. Keep your hands to yourself.

I was. I. I boiled some some shrimp with the with the Chief, and I thought, uh, I would never eat that. Yeah, Ben does not like seafood. So no, no, I should have been born in Iowa or in the Brass, Nebraska. Yeah, that place that is not known for their their seafood. Fine for me, but but no, and especially boiling any any seafood I eat. If it's fried, I could go with it. Yeah. See I bought I bought the shrimp raw, and so you have to either fry it or boil it.

And so we decided to boil it and it turned out pretty pretty decently. But pretty decently. That's not a ringing door. Well, I'm not a huge seafood guy that like the Chief is, but you know, trying to you know, it's like a stubborn mule, like you so trying to have them eat decently. And so I had some tuna and had some some scallops and some some decent vegetables too.

So the chief ship. But the key is like do a fruit smoothie, fill it with vegetables, but have so much fruit in there it tastes like fruit and you don't even realize you're eating the vegetable. It's like Jock Mike was the pineapple smoothie. But you just you fill it with a lot of greens. But if there's enough pineapple, pineapple is so powerful and strong, you won't really taste the vegetable. Yeah, I think the I think the perfect combination is no matter if you have a lot of

fruit or a lot of vegetables. You gotta have peanut butter. Man, gotta do peanut butter. Peanut butter, everything good. Jelly. Do you have peanut butter and jelly mixed? I've never had jelly in a shake? No? What what if it's great on a sandwich, why would it not be good in a shake. You can mix the peanut butter and the jelly with the other stuff. Because bread is key, man, you gotta have like good sour dough bread or like an English muffin maybe even I don't know, I'm big

on that. So, uh, you mentioned college football. I don't know, should we be paying attention more to the PAC twelve or to the fucking Mountain West Conference because it seems like the Mountain last none of the above. Tough weekend last week for the PAC twelve, Gross took it on the chin there and where would where would Fresno State and b y U be they were in the pack right behind Oregon, right, yeah, they'd be right right there. Well, speaking of that, and now, we don't spend too much

time obsessing with college football. As we point out on the Overnight Show that the way the setup is, we're mostly an NFL show that we're on when Monday Night Football has played Sunday Night Football. We come on after the games on Sunday Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Tuesday,

and so lost in the shuffle is college football. So we try to, you know, bring it back, bring it back now here on the podcast the fifth Hour and the Pack twelve a tough weekend and that's just U C l A. And they're there Struggles and Arizona State, but also USC as an entire football program with all the changes that are coming to your change is for USC,

and we welcome in here on the fifth hour. Ryan Abraham is the gentleman's name is about to join us here, and he is the owner and publisher of USC football dot com. But he covers the entire hire Pack twelve and a little birdie says he has a Heisman vote, so he gets to help decide the Heisman Trophy, which is the second greatest honor in sports, behind the John R. Wooden Award, which I vote for. Right behind that is

the Heisman Trophy. And so we'll talk some Pack twelve football, but also the entire the entire landscape of college football as a whole, because there's a lot of moving and shaking going on in college football. But right now, let's welcome in Ryan Abraham, who joins us here on the fifth Hour with Ben Mallard. And so, Ryan, why don't we start with this? Why did USC bring Clay Hilton back if they were planning on firing him after his first loss? What was the point? Hey, that's a good question.

I think it's been talked around about a lot around USC, and I think the way things when when Mike Bone did come in a couple of years ago. Everyone has assumed he would come in and clean house and fire Clay Hilton, but it we all found out later that Clayouton had this crazy deal, uh, you know, a contract that was fully guaranteed for five years and it was just going to be financially almost impossible for them to get rid of them. And then happens since the pandemic year,

they go undefeated in the regular season. I think what the administration did was, Okay, we're gonna fix everything around Clay Helton, put all the resources in place that he would need to succeed, and if they don't succeed, uh, come in the season. I feel there was a series of checkpoints they needed to meet and then Clay Helton could continue as head coach. So I think he was

sort of on thin ice the entire season. But going out and losing to a Stanford team that just got clabbored by Kansas State, I think that was the final nail, as you could say, and they decided to move on well. Paying attention to to Clay and following him the last couple of years, he always talked a good game. He sounded like you would want the coach to sound the words he said. I always thought, you know, he sounded like the you know, the SEC fans wanted. He said

the things that you expected to say. But why was team so mediocre? And he talked to talk, He talked that he couldn't walk the walk. Why was it? Was it recruiting? Was it his coaching? What was the issue here? I think there's a lot of factors, but one it was he felt like when he came in, it was someone that was when he was hired Penn, he was a guy that was happy to be there. He they you know, they promoted him from the interim head coach.

He wasn't been a very successful, you know, quarterback coach or even offensive coordinator. It's not like you hire Lincoln Riley, who was like the best offensive cordinator in the country. Clayton wasn't really wasn't any of those things. But they needed an adult in the room at the time because they've made so many bad hires prior to that, with Liane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian. So he sort of was

able to settle everything down. But at the end of the day, you need an alpha, You need someone that's like a Nick Saban or Davas Sweeney to be your head coach, and Clayton really just wasn't that. So he wasn't making the tough choices. He wouldn't bench veterans that weren't playing well, he wasn't going out and hiring great assistant coaches. He was just kind of hiring people that are familiar. And I feel like that was his eventual downfall.

You need to go out there and really kind of pushed the envelope, and he just wasn't a guy that was doing that. So now there's Dante Williams. I know last weekend USC beat up Washington Stay for whatever that's worth. But we've seen in the past US with some of these interim coaches, you start falling in love with the temporary coach. Now I I've I've read that he's not a candidate for the full time job. But if SC starts really beating people up here, could that change here?

Does he actually have Dante Williams an outside shot of being the permanent SC coach going forward? I think would have to be an outside shot. And that's one of those things then where you look at what did USC screw up in the past, and just the way they handled their interim head coaches. The fact that they had that many, Like you've had multiple interim heed coaches over the last decade, that kind of tells you there's some problems with the USC leadership. But this is they definitely

a new administration. They bring in my Bone, who's actually been an athletic director before. He's not just a former football player. That's what USC has kind of continued to hire. So I think he's someone that realizes, like, look, this is something that's happened before. Maybe the USC fans sort of expect that he may if he makes some kind of crazy run and gets into the playoffs, then I think that someone you know, you would have to consider. But outside of that, I think USC realizes they need

to bring in a big name. They've screwed up so many of the highers in the past. They got to go through their process and interview the best candidates and figure out who's going to lead this program. Because it's a it's a sleeping giant, but I mean it's something I mean, if the recruits are here, there's no you know, you're like the Alabama of the West Coast without an l s U, without a Georgia, without a Florida all

around you. So if you just get the right guy, they feel like they can win a whole bunch of games. So that's just what they have to do. So I know, right. I love the wild names as a bloviating gas bag overnight. I love the crazy stories that pop up when a high profile job like SC opens up, which the USC

job opens up every few years. But Reggie Bush, of all people, I'm sure you you talked about this if I wrote about it, Reggie Bush tossing out Dion Sanders name last week, knowing you know, knowing what I know about USC, I think there's no chance of that happening. But would they even talk to Dion Sands? Would he even be interested? He's not a West Coast guy. Would he even be interested in that? Yeah, that's I think. Gus Johnson actually mentioned it during one of the NFL

games as well. Maybe he caught up from Reggie. But there's gonna be a lot of names, And like you said, when that when that kind of job opens up, if Texas opens up Alabama, like, there's gonna be a lot of names, a lot of agents, are gonna get their clients raises because of the US job. I don't think someone like that would be considered just because he doesn't you know, he's only been a coaching for a year or so. He has not even been uh you know, not only someone that's been a head coach or or

they've been an assistant coach for a long time. So I think they have to get someone that's been a proven winner. And if you're gonna be a coordinator somewhere, you've got to be one of the best around, not just a you're a coordinator and it's like a it's like the enemy. Would make more sense who's had a lot of success as a coordinator. And then, you know, looking at NFL head coaches are I don't think he would be a good fit, but a much better fit

than someone like Dean Sanders. Yeah. Ryan, on that note, depending on who you hire as a head coach, do you think the first order of business is to get a new officer coordinator. I don't know how you feel about this. I don't know how Ben feels about this, but it's really frustrating to see a team that was known for student body lef student body right to run pistol from first and goal at the one yard line. Yeah, it's awful, just the sense that you get where you

have no balance in your scheme. I mean back in the day when you had Liner, you had Carson Palmer, this was a traditional I formation type of team and it was groomed to get these guys to the next level. It's not the case anymore. Yeah, you're right. And I think when you see like an air a type of offense, it's usually for teams that don't have the kind of talent that some of the others do and when you

do have it. But we've see these more like power spreads being run by all the big programs, even like Alabama, and you know what they run in Oklahoma is kind of fun and they're still physical and could run the football us. The scheme right now just doesn't. It doesn't even look like an air rate. It just it seems just more of like a little bit of this and

a little bit of that. Um I would you know, I think when your place like USC, if they were scoring a ton of points, I think the fans would embrace it a little bit more because even though they're not running like the student body left right stuff. But they're not even doing that. You know, they scored points against Washington State, but you know the prior to games, I mean, twenty three offensive points against Sentasey State, Like that's just not getting it done. So, I mean, it's

gonna depend on who the head coaches. It's an offensive coach of defensive coach, whatever. But I would think that someone like Graham harrold Is is coaching for his job right now, He's gonna have to make some show that this offense could really be effective if he's going to be considered to be be retained. But usually a decision like that, the head coach wants to kind of bring in their own guy. So that would be what I would guess, but who, you know, who knows what? It

certainly depends on who they hire. What's the sentiment or the feeling around the program. With regards to recruiting, it's kind of mixed, you know, like they had a couple of bad years. Um was like the worst recruiting class we've seen, and a lot of it had to do with the assistant coaches they had. There was you know, part time recruiters are less and I think when Mike Bone came in. He sort of encouraged Clay Helton to

make better hires around the program. And now you've got guys like Dante Williams, who's the interimet coach's been the packtroll recruiter of the year many times. They've brought in a lot of guys that are good coaches on the field, but also excellent recruiters. And for many years people thought, you can't, you know, USC recruits itself, you can't screw that up. But they did. They screwed up a couple of years, and now you're going to see some of that on the roster. But I feel like now they've

kind of right at this ship. That's one thing USC has consistently been able to do, even if the coach has not been that great, they've been able to recruit. So they had a couple of bad years, but they seem to have got that, you know, that's going better now. And having got they as the interim head coach, I think is a good bridge throughever the next guy is, because he's going to keep that recruiting rolling throughout the off season, you know, whenever they hire the next coach.

Yes see, it's interesting that the recruiting is there, but the elevation and advancement of these guys is not. Like that hasn't been the case in the National Football and when it comes to the draft. So there's obviously a huge disconnect between getting these guys in and getting these guys elevated, not only in their play at the collegiate

level but then to the National Football League. Development has been It's a huge part of college football because you can bring in all the four and five star guys you want, but you've got to develop them. And I think if you look at USC's roster for the opening day in the NFL, uh, they're not even a top twenty as far as colleges go. But as far as you look at the recruiting classes, a bunch of them have been in the top five, certainly in the top ten.

And where is the disconnect there? Where you're you're getting these top classes every year or most every year, and you're not putting as many guys in the NFL out And I think that's you know, coaching nuts development. Um, it's not just about bringing in those guys, it's like turning them into college stars. And you know, we've seen like a Juju Smith Schuster who was high school star. He was just a star as soon as he got on on campus and he moves on to the NFL.

But you need to see more of the guys like uh that are they're coming in It maybe is like a lower level four star, high level pree star and you turn them into a great pro that someone that's a second round draft pick that you never expected. We just haven't seen a lot of that from USC. I

think that's where the biggest shortcomings are. So, I mean, so then you've got to admit then that the recruiting has been a mistake to fold because you lose Cavon Thibodeau, you lose justin flow and then of course you look at Bryce Young dj Le. Those guys are both not in the mix. So you lose on both sides of the football. I mean, you're you're trying to cater. It seems like they're trying to cater to one side of the rock as opposed to the other. But for all

intensive purposes, you're missing on both ends. Yeah, I think this is one of the things that Carol did really well when he came in. He kind of made a cool to stay on the West coast, and right now it's not you're seeing. You know, Georgia's got a California quarterback, Clemson as a California quarterback, Alabama, Ohio State, Like these are all California quarterbacks that could USC have got them.

And I think now that those guys are leaving. Plus like you mentioned, you know, Cavon Thibodeaux justin flow, like guys that from Oregon are coming down and taking some of the top defensive players from the class. It's a double lammy so US the classes are still ranked high, but they're not getting those local five stars to instantly commit to the USC like they always would in the past, you know, like withou Dory Jackson be at USC now or would he be an Oregon or Alabama or something.

I think that's with USC slipping on the field, they're not going to be able to keep some of those top guys there. So that's why it's even more important to bring in a big name, big time head coach and make it cool to go to USC again, get him excited. But I think it also helps the entire Pack twelve keeping some of those California ta on on the West coast because that's just not been lately. You need to go to Ben Mallory's stomping grounds, going to

settle Back College and get some talent. Yes, yes, you gotta get Juico guys. That's the key, Hungry, hungry players. Like I watched the Fresno State. They don't have I don't even have any five star recruiters Fresno. And you know that's a school, you know, I know you don't want to model yourself after Fresno State, but they coach guys up and there are guys that are pretty good football players that were not highly recruited. But but Ryan, I didn't want to want to revisit the coaching staff.

Correct me if I'm wrong. A couple of years ago, Cliff Kingsbury was hired briefly as the it was a big splashy higher as the offensive coordinator, and then he left to go coach the Cardinals before even coaching at s C. Would he have been Clay Hilton's replacement had he not gotten the NFL job? Is that where that was headed? You know, it seems like that would be the way to go. And then they kind of hired like a light version of him and Graham Harrold. But

that was definitely a weird situation. He was on campus like just over a month before the NFL hired him. But for the NFL to hire a you know, fired college coach who end up become an offensive coordinator in college, it was pretty amazing. But he's done a you know, he's done a decent job there. It just shows that the kind of offenses they're they're moving towards in the NFL, it's it's a lot more college style, and they were

really to roll the dice. But if he was still at USC, I think he certainly would have been the interimat coach if he was still around there, and then a much better candidate since he's been a head coach before. Yeah, and the name that continues to pop up even though this guy's in the NFL, Urban Meyer in Jacksonville, they're

off to a miserable start. Now. I had heard, and this is also something you can clarify if you've heard differently than me, that that there were some feelers put out to Urban by USC people few years ago and he just wasn't interested in it. And is that A Is that true? And be I would assume they're trying to get him now, right, is urban in play for the sc job? You know, because he's got a job in the NFL. I don't think USC's taking it as

a serious candidate. I mean, there was definitely some concerns when USC a couple of years ago, USC all the scandal stuff going on Varsity Blues and everything puts. They had scandals throughout the university, like in the medical fields and stuff. Um. I think the president, Kerl Fault wasn't a huge fan of bringing anyone that had the kind of baggage that you know, urban Meyer apparently had. But for now, and he's still a fan favorite, Like the

fans really want urban Meyer. I think if you're gonna hire anyone, he would kill it. He would just kill it at USC and and you know, probably get them back to get them the playoffs, win championships things like that. Um. But I'm I'm just watching, like how long is he gonna last? Like he's for him to lose two games in a row, like he only even did that, so you know, it doesn't even look like they're going to be competitive. How long does that last there in the NFL?

And if he leaves, like you know, if he like a Bobby Petrino kind of thing and just like wants to leave early. I don't know, but if I think he would have to be gone, like sometime in November for for him to come up on USC's actual radar there. I know the fans are collamoring for it, but I just don't think USC sort of seriously considering it right now. Ryan, what about the guy that's actually on the Fox lot

that people really have not talked about, Chris Peterson. Yeah, him or even Bob Stoops both very successful and would you would you want Bob Stoops there though? Don't you feel like he's the game has passed him by now? Yeah? But but he did you know, he proved it could hire I mean putting Rink Lincoln Riley in the place he's in. I think that's been been good. You know,

we'll see. But I think if you're talking about trying to get someone in earlier so you can get a head started recruiting, those two guys are someone you could get right away if you wanted to, So I think you have to look at them just because they've had so much success at the college level and they're working right here in Los Angeles, so wouldn't be the hard to talk to him. Similar a couple of years ago, whatever Meyer was working that Fox and they could talk

to him too. So you even call a game on the call, Sam Floor to any nineteen when USC beat Utah, so that that was a weird on himself. Do you think and guys talk about this in the studio here often during the college shows on the weekends, do you think Carol full in USC as a whole care as much as the public does about USC football. I think, um, they had some bigger fish to fry for a while. I think they's around, She's getting she's feeling how important

it is. I mean, every time she would tweet something, all the comments would be fire Clay Helton, Finlay Hilton. Then I think maybe in the beginning they didn't quite get it. And the fact that she got rid of Lin Swan pretty quietly but quickly, I thought that was a good move because I think she kind of realized, like, he is not he doesn't know what he's doing, he is not the man for the job. They bringing someone that has experience. I think that's good and I think

Mike Bond wants to win. When you hear him, he's you know, there's a lot of stuff that important to me. He wants to the student athlete to be successful, lot of stuff. But I think he's someone that's very competitive and he wants them to win at that level. So I think they're they're starting to fix the Board of the trustees issues, the president, you know, kind of getting

her on board. It feels like they're people are more on board now than probably they were a couple of years ago, and that just kind of shows there were just so many There were decades of bad leadership at USC for at all levels. So I think they're trying to get through that now and kind of realize, you know, why why having a great football team would be helpful to the you know, to the school, to the university as a whole, and to the city of Los Angeles.

All Right, obviously, I know you you covering USC in Pact twelve extensively, but looking across the country, are you as enamored with Spencer Rattler as many people are. Yeah, I mean I'm a Heisman voter and stuff, and it's someone you kind of have to to look at and you start wondering, like, how good are these guys because of the coach and the system and all that. But it's someone that I think he could be really fun,

uh you know, fun to watch the whole. It's weird though, just college football in general, Like you thought Alabama is the best and they look falible, Like it just looks like this is kind of wide open this year that we I don't know who's going to be good and which team is gonna be good from week to week. So, um, it's just an interesting time for college football. We it became so regionalized and we only had like those four teams that were good or five teams that were good.

This might be here where some other teams breaks it. Where are saw Oregon, you know, getting to win Ohio State. We'll see how Oklahoma and Rattler and on those guys continue to do. But um, yeah, to me, this is could be a more interesting year in college football. It seems like there's a lot of like hangover from last year, that weird season that we have in Yeah, I see.

I've had this conversation with Ben about the quarterbacks, especially Bryce Young DJ and and even in years past J T. Daniels that these guys all played at either modern Day or Saint John Bosco, and they played with Division one offensive lineman, so they were never touched. And I thought, like, just personal opinions, as soon as they come under any kind of fire, that's when they'll be in some trouble.

And I felt like that's three and why JT transferred out of USC just zero protection and had everything coming on the A and B gaps and see, I think you see that now with DJ. Obviously you lose Maria Rodgers, you lose Travis e t n. It was all those bullets and now you're recalibrating and he's under fire. He's not performing like he he should or could because he doesn't have those kind of elements around him. And so I feel like that's what the case of Bryce Young.

They gotta scare from Florida, but they still manage that game. They jumped out to an early lead and then lead

the rest of the way. So I just feel like like you're going back to your point, it's more about just kind of the game correcting itself from you know, last season two this year, and I think defenses are catching up a little again because you know, there was a reason why Alabama switched to these kind of spread offenses, athletic quarterbacks that you're moving the ball around, and um, I think the defenses are starting to play a little bit better now where you can still get the best

of them, right, like if everything's clicking on offense, but you can get games where you shut that. You saw that Georgia Clemson game where because they're just shutting offensives down and it looks a little like more old school college football than we've seen. So that's another reason why where it's not just like you know, the Joe Burrow year like in say stuff even in Alabama last year. Are we going to see that this year? I don't know.

It doesn't seem like it as much. But when when you get an offensive experience, offensive line and all these NFL receivers and athletic quarterback is just distributing the ball and you can take off and run and great running backs, like, yeah, you can have offenses are unstoppable. But this year, not seeing that as much, it seems like the defenses might

have cut up a little bit, so right. I saw a couple of months ago there was a big story about Alabama and in the name image likeness, the recruit from Ohio State out of Texas that got a bunch of money not to play his last year at high school football in Texas. I haven't heard a lot from the Pack twelve. Maybe I missed it. How how has that played out? And is you cover USC more than anybody? The out of boosters, the whales they have in their alumni.

Shouldn't this be the great you know, the great equalizer, not the great equalizer, but the great advantage the ace card for SC with the amount of money you can now pay players over the table. And have they been able to take advantage of that? Yeah, we haven't heard a ton of announcements, to be fair then, And I think, you know, Keen Slovis did sign with Clutch Sports. Who's you know, Lebron James, you know there there with them. I think kav Am Thibodeaux did some stuff up at Oregon.

I think still Knight is going to be involved and a lot of that stuff. So I think there were some big name guys that have done some things, but it seems like they're still kind of feeling this out. I think there's going to be advantages if you're in a major media market, You're in Los Angeles, but you know, if you're the starting center for USC, you probably would have a better chance if you were the starting center

in Nebraska, where everyone's gonna know who you are. Where Like, if you're Keen Slovis or you're the quarterback or wherever at USC, you're probably gonna have a higher ceiling than if you were the quarterback at an in a college town, you know. So I think they're still trying to feel this out, uh and see where guys go. They've they've tried to put some infrastructure in place to give these

guys some assistance. But yeah, it's it's still like we haven't seen it like be big on the recruiting trail all that much on the West coast. But this signing period, you come December, I think it's going to be important and you might see some you know, Michigan State has some huge class because all these recruits were going to get benefits or something. That's when I think you might see a little bit more of this stuff kind of peeking out where and directly impacting these recruited classes later

in the cycle. So in the big picture, for the packs of Larry Scott had been hanging around as an albatross over the conference for many, many years, and you know, Larry talking good game, tennis guy and all that. I had a chance to talk to him a few times over the years. He's finally gone. Now, so what is the initial report card for the new guy here? The who's out of Vegas? And and is this as good he's he's also talked a good game. Uh? Is Canny back it up? That's the question. Yeah. I like George

LAYOFCOFF so far. And we got to you know, he came out and said, hey, we're going to do a listening tour, and USC happened to be his first stop. We came after one of their offseason workouts and got to have some one on one time with him, and it was great stuff that Larry Scott would never do like he would you know, he wouldn't even acknowledge your existence from his Ivory tower, but this was he was down there talking to all the beat writers, talking everyone

that would cover the team. And he's done that. I think he's almost through all of the Pac twelves campuses and it's started. The first good you know, first weeks there were some some good news, you know, Oregon winning u C l A winning against l s U last week was pretty foot a disaster for the Pact Wells, So maybe that's coming back down to earth. But I feel like, you know, just working with the Alliance and the big ten in the a C has been helpful.

I like, I think he's going to make some good moves that the big ones where you want to have, like the Pact of network on direct TV and things like that. I don't think he's gonna be able to do until those TV deals are up. But the fact we have to watch like kind of what he does building up to four season because that's gonna be the big one. But I'd like what he's done so far, so I would give him, you know, a minus or something going forward. He seems like he's got things going

in the right direction. And like you said, he's talked a good game. We'll see whether the results will come probably you know, in a couple of years when we see that new TV deal. Yeah, and with with the SEC adding Texas in Oklahoma, planning to add those tools schools. I did see the PAC twelve said they're not planning to expand, but people change their opinion ten years from now, Ryan, you have a crystal ball. How many teams are in what is now known as the Pack twelve. How many

teams are in there? That's a really good question. I mean, I just feel like the whole structure is going to be different. Um, so I'm gonna go sixteen that maybe we'd end up in like four or sixteen like super conferences, um, something like that. It doesn't seem like they're going to expand anytime soon. And if they can get that scheduling agreement everything done with the big tennan ECC, that will be helpful. I think they're gonna back off the eight

conference games. I think that and get rid of divisions, which would be kind of interesting. But maybe ten years from now we're looking at like sixteen teams and four different conferences and they finally have some kind of round robin playoffs thing going on. It's a it's a lot of fun. So I think that's where we'll be in a decade. Ryan. Where are you at with the website?

I mean, first date from inception to where you're at now, because I know you personally a little bit and uh and correct me if I'm wrong, But an engineering background and all of a sudden, like poof. You're on the beat working for for the Trojans and covering things, so you take yourself away from from one world into it

and completely different sector. What's up with that? Yeah? I went to USC of a master's and electrical engineering and I started at USC football dot com in NINETI just as like a hobby and then it just took off and uh then a two thousand one, I joined Rivals at the time and I quit my job with that for it, but doing a full time So yeah, so fell into journalism. It's been fun. I mean a crazy kind of run going on here. The peat Carrel years

were great obviously, and but it's always interesting. I mean it's been it's been fun. Um, but man, just covering the U SU beat, there's always some weird story going on and you know something that you have to drop everything, and like, you know, a week ago when clayhot And got fired, it was one of those things. It's like whoa, uh, two games in the season they fired their coach. So it's it's been. It's commit kind of roller coaster like that,

but it's been fun. That's I was gonna say. Because your wife is a huge Tennessee fan, right, So you've got the whole SEC blood in the family and you're you're a packed twelve guy. Yeah, there's a lot. I got to learn a lot about the SEC from what's going on there, But yeah, I keep my ties on here on the West Coast. Have you been impressed with anyone so far nashally outside of what you know Alabama's been doing so far? I mean, the Florida loss was pretty darn good. You know, b Y look great, Like

I expected them to have a huge drop off. They're one of the few teams that lost a lot of their starters from last year. Everyone's bringing everyone back, you know, But to see what b I U was, you know, has been able to do. Um. Yeah, there's there's a lot out there. We're just kind of see. It just seems like it's more wide open now. So where are these teams gonna go? I mean, you've got the coastal

Carolinas of the world. How long are they're gonna be undefeated? Cincinnati, you know, they've been good, and the Penn State too. I think you know the fact that they've got um, you know, the big win against Auburn this last weekend, and they have a couple of big wins already. So James Franklin, another potential USC candidate, He's got the he's got the Minitney alliance rolling right now. Do you think Texas is gonna be successful under Sarcasian it's deer question.

I mean that it was a disappointing loss to Arkansas for sure. Um, you got to give him some time there, but um, yeah, you know, I think his offense is going to work. It's probably gonna take him a little bit to kind of fix whatever Tom Herman you kind of did in there, though. You know, I think it's gonna take a little time, but I think I'll do a good job there. And Ryan, last one for me here. Ryan, So you're a Heisman Trophy voter. Now that's a great thing.

And I vote for the John R. Wooden Warden basket. That's my thing. But you're the Heisman guy, So what is the method to the madness? Like, you cover USC, but you've got to cover the whole country as a Heisman voter. So how do you approach this every weekend? Yeah? I try not to do too much early in the season. I want to get like kind of bias. So these guys are the favorites or things like that, and it's a pretty much a regional The way you vote is

very regional. Um, I like to include someone on the West Coast at least I'm running about. You can pick up the three if at all possible, you know. Um there's years when you can, as years when you can't. But you know, I'm not big in the defensive players unless they're scored about the touchdowns or things like that, so I kind of keep it more to the offensive side. I try to keep an open mind to see who's really impressed me and try to watch some of the

bigger games. But it's it's interesting and it's a fun I mean, there's a ore like nine hundred I think for the Hysman. It's not too exclusive a club, but it's been fun over the years to be able to be involved in that awesome. All right, Ryan, thank you and anything to promote here, right, anything you want to other than the website. You're on social media and all

that stuff. How can people keep tracking? Yeah, you can follow me on Twitter at inside try I do that a lot during the season, so we twitter lot of stuff. It's weird. Our lives kind of focus around Twitter sometime that's chilly out, but we're we're like on it all the time. It's crazy awesome. Thank you Ryan, all right, take our thanks. Cool and weird, awesome down