← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Colin Cowherd Podcast - College Football Reaction: USC’s Season In Review + 2025 Outlook, Trojans Need A GM!
00:15:56
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- [00:00]
Unknown Speaker
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- [02:34]
The volume College football reactions presented by JLab JLab has the best audio products in the game. They're ready to take care of you this football season. Traveling to watch your favorite team or just streaming the game at home. Find the blue box at Walmart, Target, Best Buy or go to jlab.com love their stuff the Blue Box. All right, listen, this is just for Trojan fans, But here's about 20 minutes my thoughts on the season overall because you know, I'm into that recruiting stuff and portal stuff and I think it's one of my favorite parts of the volume that I just, if I'm in the mood, I went for an hour walk, got a coffee and thought, had so many thoughts ruminating in my head and I thought, you know what, I'll just get it out there. So I'm going to be watching football all day anyway. So let's, let's talk about Lincoln Riley. That timeout late in the game. After the game he went out and said, Listen, 10 men on the field. You know, pick your poison. We called a timeout. It all worked out. I did not like them moving away from the running game at the end of the first half and early in the third quarter. I think they have found a star running back in Brian Jackson who's got a Lendale White feel. I think they've really found he looks like the most formidable power back they have had since the Pete Carroll era. I think you have a star in the freshman Brian Jackson out of Texas, 235, powerful, decisive, hits the hole moving forward. That's a Sunday player that looks like a Sunday running back. He's not going to not going to blow down the sidelines. He's not a speed back, but he is a power back and he can find the hole decisively. I really like him. More on that later. But Lincoln Riley's here. He's got a long contract. They put 300 million into the facilities. The collective's up to 18 million. They can buy some of the best players. In my opinion, the need for this program is a general manager above everything. The current people in place are allies of Lincoln Riley. To me that's not good enough. If you want to compete with the big boys, you have to go hire a former NFL gm. You know, there's a lot of people you could hire Chris Peterson and just say, chris, you're the general manager, run the program. That'd be one of the first guys I called. Not sure he has any interest. He now works at Fox as a Broadcaster. But that's the number one need of the program. To get to the big boys. You gotta get a general manager. And the current people in place to me aren't at the level necessary. The second thing I would talk about is I didn't like all the play calling. I thought going away from Brian Jackson in the run game a couple different times wasn't prudent. But it all worked out. Let's talk about the season that just passed. You beat 8 and 4 LSU to start and you beat 8 and 4 Texas A and M and you lost in overtime to a Penn State team that's vying for the national championship. The Maryland lost was awful. Rutgers, Washington, don't get me wrong. But you went 2 and O against the SEC. I think that's as many wins as Oklahoma had against the sec. And again you had Penn State in a tough spot. Penn State's a better team, clearly so. And also the schedule last year, the schedule with first year starter Miller Moss, you opened up LSU and then you're at Michigan a couple of weeks later. Next year the schedule is about as easy as you can get in the Big Ten, Missouri State and Georgia Southern to start a notch below LSU at Purdue, Michigan State at Illinois and then Idol. You'll have two weeks to prepare for Michigan and their freshman quarterback. That's a lot different than lsu. And a couple of weeks later at the Big House with Miller Moss, that's a whole different scenario. So the schedule plays into their favor. Two weeks to prep for a powerhouse in Michigan. That's good quarterback Jaden Maava. He's a little too reckless for my taste, but he's a sophomore and from UNLV to usc, he stepped up in competition, started late in the year. He's never had a real off season with Lincoln Riley. I don't necessarily think they're going to bring a quarterback in. He's a sophomore. I mean you saw from first half to second half the difference in him last night. I mean he's got, when he steps into it, he's got an arm, he looked anxious. He's a player that's I think as good as his confidence. I thought he was very confident late. He lacked confidence early when they fell behind. Too many balls are thrown in harm's way. But again, he's a sophomore. He's never had an off season program. With Lincoln Riley. They're also bringing in a five star high school kid from Southern California. I'm not sure they're going to go outside the program. Will he get better Absolutely. Is he an elite college quarterback? To me, very debatable. I'd lean no. But you know, you start looking around at the teams vying for a national championship. Not all of them have NFL quarterbacks. You don't have to have an NFL quarterback. The positives on the roster. Let's go back to Brian Jackson. 6ft 230. Feels like a Glendale White would be my comp. Really, really big time player. I mean that, that go there. They got backup offensive linemen and he is finding big holes. Decisive. Not a bur decisive power back. Kind of a one step cut guy like Zach Charbonnet was at ucla. Sort of a goes one cut off to the races. I like him a lot. Jacoby Lane, Makai Lemon are obviously elite receivers. I think too much is made of Deuce Robinson and Branch transferring out of the program. I thought it was too cluttered last year. Hudson as well. I thought it was too cluttered. I think that the reality is guys want touches and wide receiver, NFL or college has always been a little higher maintenance positions. Guys want touches. Jacoby Lane's a Sunday player. He'll come back as a junior. One more year at USC, that's your number one. Lemon is a 1A outstanding. Then you're going to have upgrades at tight end. The tight end position I think will have more dynamic playmakers next year. Some of the kids in the program now are bigger, stronger. Lincoln Riley doesn't use a tight end a ton anyway. But you know, sort of when I look at what USC brings back in the skill department, even the quarterback moves pretty well. I like their foundation. It's also my biggest complaint this year is they just didn't have enough NFL bodies on the offense, offensive line and defensive line. They just didn't have any depth. Next year they bring back Elijah Page. He'll play. He'll be a top two or three left tackle in the Big Ten. Probably his last year at usc. Hopefully not. Tobias Raymond is certainly. I thought last night he's your right tackle. Been in the program three years. Big hard working kid long. And then Justin Tuanu who got duty last night as a freshman from Huntington Beach. I think he's tremendous. I've been telling a couple of people in the program, I'm like, that's your kid. So you have three capable starting offensive tackles this year. I thought it was Paige who was a red shirt freshman. That's just not good enough in the Big Ten. I think you could probably bring in a transfer if you wanted to compete for a job at right tackle, but you're bringing in two excellent four star offensive tackles who can redshirt and then play. I really honestly feel good about the offensive tackle position for the first time in maybe 12 to 15 years between page Raymond and 2 and those are NFL bodies. However it plays out for their careers, I don't know, but I feel really good about that. The other thing that's been. I remember years ago talking to Urban Meyer about this. I said, California, whatever it is, just does not produce for a state of 38 million people. It does not produce a lot of great defensive line bodies. Maybe it's the diet, Hell, I don't know. It's the California diet. Who knows? We had talked about that and I remember at the time him saying, if I ever went to usc, he goes, you know, you just gotta live in Houston and Atlanta and you know, areas of the country that produce 325 pound defensive linemen for whatever reasons, California doesn't produce a ton of those players. So you often have to leave the state. But. And that's what Lincoln Riley's done, I think. Floyd Buchard, Miami beach defensive tackle, that will come in this year as a reg. True freshman, probably won't play a lot. He'll be rotational. Looks like an SEC interior. Defensive lineman. Jakeem Stewart, another from the South, Louisiana, looks like an SEC defensive lineman. Some of this stuff is aesthetics. We've just been too small in the trenches. Too many 275 pound defensive linemen. Jamal Jarrett from Georgia is coming in as a transfer. Big body. Keyshawn Silver from Kentucky, big body. So I just, I feel like the look of the defensive line looks more like you get at a Michigan or a Clemson or an lsu. Are they all great players? Probably not, but that has been my complaint now for several years running. We just don't have enough left tackle, NFL Sunday bodies in the program. I think now we have three. We don't have enough NFL bodies in the defensive interior. Now we have three or four. So. And there's a couple freshmen this year that played a little bit. They did play in the bowl. So I think that's very promising to me because I think when you move into the Big Ten, I. The weather's overrated. I mean, let's be honest. College football games are September, October, November, and you maybe have one in December. Right? You know, if USC made to the playoff, you know, they'd maybe have a cold game on the road somewhere up north. That's, that's fine. Remember, your last regular season game is going to usually Be potentially with ucla. So homer away. The weather is fine. I think the weather aspect is overstated. I do think what the Big Ten is, and you've seen this with Oregon. Oregon has had elite offensive and defensive line recruiting with Dan Lanning and Mario Cristobal and the transfer portal. They're bigger. They're bigger and they have more size up front. Oregon's fast. That's their bread and butter. And USC teams again, plenty of receivers and corners, safeties, whiteouts in Southern California. But the big bodies are what the Big Ten has. And as college football schedule is now longer, you go into a 12 team playoff off the regular season, there's no reason to load up and play an LSU to start the season. You're just begging for injuries. I've said this, I'd move Notre Dame off the schedule. There's no reason if I have to play Ohio State, Oregon, Washington will be better. Michigan, Penn State. Why schedule potential losses? Have a couple cupcakes early or winnable games. Get your quarterback, get your young freshman looks, get your offensive line right by week three or four or five when you have to go to an Illinois, you know, don't be a romantic. Let baseball have all the purists get past the Notre Dame game. Look at USC schedule going forward, plus the 12 team playoff. You're trying to get into that thing. It's like political races. You can talk about where you stand on this issue and where you stand on that issue. Get elected, all right? Have policies that most people can embrace and put their arms around. The game is get elected. Not being strident and a purist and precious on certain issues that can alienate a large part of your contingency. It's the same in football schedule to win games. Nick Saban for a decade. Look at the out of conference schedule. He wasn't going on the road his last eight, nine years at Alabama if he didn't have to. Why would you do that? Why would you ever want to go to South Bend against Marcus Freeman and that roster? It's idiotic. Why do you want to play lsu? Play him in the playoff if you have to. But just don't out think the room. Soft early schedule. Cross your fingers on where you get your buy and get to the playoff. That's all that matters. Not the romance of playing Notre Dame and the Four Horsemen. Get over it. That's not the game. Nick Saban always understood that. You know, he makes sure they had their buys before some of their biggest games. The LSU game and it was cupcake city. Any moment. He could give, you know, starters 30 snaps instead of 60 or 70 against Georgia or Florida or somebody in the SEC. So the schedule's weaker next year. I'm not sure what they're going to do at quarterback. I think they're going to go with the guys they have. They have a start at running back, two stars at receiver, ample size up front. Some of it's very, very young, but that's okay. I just think you have to take a deep breath on this stuff. Lincoln Riley's not going anywhere. I thought that win to finish with a winning record mattered. It makes the off season better. They've already gone to the portal for a running back needed. They need a backup running back now that Brian Jackson looks like the starter for a kicker, two interior defensive linemen and a corner again. I could see them bringing in maybe a senior offensive tackle. Not a left tackle, but just for rotational purposes, injury purposes. It's a long schlog of a regular season. I think they need a linebacker, an active, rangy linebacker somewhere. I like some of the young freshmen that will now be sophomores or redshirt freshmen at linebacker. I think they've recruited it pretty well the last couple of years, but they probably need to go get sort of an upper class linebacker. But the first year Lincoln Riley had the program, the first two years, it was very much about the transfer portal. And I am disappointed with the Southern California recruiting, not going to lie about that. But you know, you start looking around college football, it's a new world. Ohio State had two huge regular season games. Oregon, Michigan lost both. They're in the playoff and the Penn State game was close. You know, the world's changed. You're going to lose games. You can look at USC schedule, you know, you could see a game at Notre Dame that's going to be really tough. You know, Notre Dame, Riley Leonard's going to the pros. You know, there's rumors that they, they may be in the portal for a quarterback at the college level that many of you have seen play for a big program. So I won't give that away yet. But don't be surprised if a very, very well known college quarterback transfers to Notre Dame once the playoffs end. And I think they're in a good spot. I just, I got to tell you, Brian Jackson, that running back, that was a revelation. That's a real thing. That's a Big Ten running back. That's not a guy that's moving around in shifty and you know, 5, 8 and like 195 and can make you miss in space. No. Nope. That's six foot two 35 plant the foot decisive head down four yards become six. That was a real revelation to me. And the O line and D line talent, the aesthetic, the optics, his big long Sunday looking bodies. So there you go. That's what I got this morning. I don't know what that was, but that's what I got this morning. You know what? Saturdays I'm not going to shower today. I don't think I'm going to sit and watch football. I got a little gumbo in the fridge and I'm going to dive into that thing. It's not going to be the healthiest day for me. Hey, I can't eat blueberries and cantaloupe 365 days a year. May I have a shot of bourbon, some gumbo? Let's live a little, right? Fight on trojan fans the volume College Football Reactions presented by JLab. JLab has the best audio products in the game. They're ready to take care of you this football season. Traveling to watch your favorite team or just streaming the game at home? Find the Blue Box at Walmart, Target, Best Buy or go to jlab.com love their stuff the Blue Box it's football season and Uber Eats is dropping undefeated deals on all your game day favorites this week. Score. Buy one get one free six piece boneless wings from Buffalo Wild Wings only on Uber Eats. Craving even more? We've got you covered with game day deals on pizza, burgers, tacos and more all season long. Uber Eats Official on demand Food delivery partner of the NFL. Order now for game day terms, taxes and fees apply. See app for details.
- [18:58]
Doug Gottlieb
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Doug Gottlieb
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- [19:28]
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We gather together during this holiday season, let me share a gift that keeps on giving. Chase Freedom With Chase Freedom Unlimited, you'll not only experience the joy of 1.5% unlimited cash back, but also the freedom to create cherished memories with your loved ones. Discover the magic and learn more@chasefreedom.com and let this season be filled with love, laughter and the delight of extra cash in your pocket.
- [19:53]
Doug Gottlieb
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- [19:54]
Unknown Speaker
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- [19:58]
Lavar Arrington
Hey, what's up everybody? It's Lavar Arrington here from up on game and I need you to listen for a moment, all right? And get serious. The hate in this country is getting out of control. It's at an all time high. It's going to take all of us to stop it. I mean, think about it. We're all on the same team in this country, right? Let's take a break from hate so our team can regroup. We need to take a timeout against hate. Visit Stand up to all hate.org to help and join me in calling for a timeout against hate by following at what's up with hate or posting the blue square emoji.
- [20:39]
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