USC Beat Ohio State. Now What? — Transcript

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1. 0:00USC just beat the number two team in the
2. 0:01country, and I get it. Ohio State didn't
3. 0:04have their starting quarterback. USC
4. 0:05fans might say, "Hey, Julian saying
5. 0:07wouldn't have made a difference." Others
6. 0:08might write it off as just a, you know,
7. 0:10fluke win. But, in the timeline we're
8. 0:12living in, yeah, USC has a legitimate
9. 0:14shot to make the playoffs. And I said
10. 0:16that in last week's video. And even when
11. 0:18I said it, I was kind of like, "Man, do
12. 0:19I do I do that?" Things look kind of
13. 0:20dire coming home from Camp Randall. But,
14. 0:22I also texted my USC group chat that
15. 0:25Sunday after I watched the USC Wisconsin
16. 0:27film, and I was like, "Yeah, I'll watch
17. 0:28USC beat Ohio State." It's the college
18. 0:30football times we're living in. But,
19. 0:32standing smack-dab in the middle of that
20. 0:34path is two of the top six-ranked teams
21. 0:37in college football, Indiana and UCLA.
22. 0:40Two teams that seem very gettable. And
23. 0:42if the Trojans beat Ohio State, can they
24. 0:44also go and beat Indiana and the Bruins?
25. 0:47I know you guys are used to the film
26. 0:49breakdowns, and I'll get to that later
27. 0:50on in the week. But, as just an initial
28. 0:53reaction, I wanted to lay out how I'm
29. 0:56thinking about USC's potential path to
30. 0:59making their first-ever college football
31. 1:01playoff. And where it starts is the
32. 1:02psyche of the team. Because whatever us
33. 1:04talking heads say about how much of a
34. 1:07statement win that actually was, inside
35. 1:10the locker room, you better believe they
36. 1:12view it as a statement win. The two most
37. 1:14consistent programs in recent memory in
38. 1:16college football have been Georgia and
39. 1:17Ohio State. You went and knocked off one
40. 1:19of those programs. And for a USC locker
41. 1:22room and coaching staff head coach
42. 1:24that's received constant criticism over
43. 1:26the past 3 years, you better believe for
44. 1:29them, the ones playing and coaching in
45. 1:31the games, that is a statement win. And
46. 1:33it's the type of win that can give you
47. 1:34confidence and a swagger to then not
48. 1:37flinch and have a different level of
49. 1:39belief going against the defending
50. 1:41national champs than you might have had
51. 1:43just 8 days ago. If USC wins out, ESPN
52. 1:45gives them a 97% chance of making the
53. 1:48playoff. And to me, I think that's too
54. 1:50low. I think it's an It's a 100% or 99%
55. 1:53chance of making the playoff if USC wins
56. 1:55out. With the three wins against Ohio
57. 1:56State, Indiana, and UCLA, even with
58. 1:59backup quarterback, coupled with the
59. 2:00fact that there are a lot of other
60. 2:02losses that have to be allocated for
61. 2:04teams inside the top 15. If you are a
62. 2:07team in the Big 10 or the SEC that has
63. 2:09just two losses when this is all said
64. 2:11and done, you are in. More on that
65. 2:12dynamic later. This upcoming week
66. 2:13against Indiana, who will they start at
67. 2:15quarterback? Breakdown coming on that
68. 2:17later. Later this week that is.
69. 2:18Regardless though, that quarterback
70. 2:20position is uncertain and that offense
71. 2:22is not a well-oiled machine like it was
72. 2:24a year ago. So while Indiana might have
73. 2:26a similar ranking to what they had a
74. 2:28year ago, this team is way more
75. 2:30gettable. If you're going to beat
76. 2:31Indiana though, your corners have to
77. 2:34come to play. This is probably the best
78. 2:36Yeah, this is the best receiver duo in
79. 2:38all of college football. Charlie Becker
80. 2:40is poised to be a top 15 pick in this
81. 2:43year's NFL draft and Nick Marsh is not
82. 2:45too far behind him, probably late first,
83. 2:47early second. This cannot be a coverage
84. 2:49game like USC showed in the Oregon
85. 2:52matchup. Corners have to come to play.
86. 2:53Maryland can't let it be a letdown game.
87. 2:55Obviously Mike Locksley was fired, take
88. 2:58care of business there. And against
89. 3:00UCLA, you have to stop the run. If
90. 3:02you're going into the Rose Bowl, Wayne
91. 3:04Knight cannot beat you. You have to make
92. 3:06Ty Thompson-Robinson their backup
93. 3:07quarterback beat you through the air. So
94. 3:08even as I say that out loud, to beat
95. 3:10Indiana and UCLA, USC, your secondary
96. 3:12has got to come to play. And the biggest
97. 3:14factor in both of those matchups is the
98. 3:16backup quarterback play for Indiana and
99. 3:19UCLA potentially. We'll see how it goes
100. 3:20for Indiana, but when you position that
101. 3:23against what USC has with Jayden Maiava,
102. 3:26who should be one of the best
103. 3:27quarterbacks in the country, that is a
104. 3:28huge area that works in USC's favor. Now
105. 3:32let's whip out some scenarios. To get to
106. 3:33the Big 10 championship, USC, the first
107. 3:36path is you just got to win out. You win
108. 3:38out and you would have to have Ohio
109. 3:40State lose another game or UCLA loses
110. 3:44two games. Obviously one of those could
111. 3:45be USC. If Ohio State loses two more
112. 3:48games, again with their own backup
113. 3:50quarterback Luke Fickell, we could have
114. 3:52a rematch after the one in the Rose
115. 3:54Bowl, you also get one in Indy. Big 10
116. 3:56championship still in Indy, right? How
117. 3:58wild would that be? You go UCLA, USC
118. 4:00back-to-back in the Big 10 championship.
119. 4:02One of a lot of those narratives around
120. 4:03the country are like, "Oh, the LA
121. 4:05schools aren't Big Ten teams." How funny
122. 4:07would that be? USC could also get in
123. 4:09there as a three-loss team, but Indiana
124. 4:11would have to absolutely collapse. That
125. 4:13would mean losses to USC, obviously, the
126. 4:15Huskies coming off a huge road win in
127. 4:18Lincoln, Nebraska. Maybe they found
128. 4:19something with De'Montre Williams. And
129. 4:21then they face Purdue with the uh
130. 4:22quarterback with the best last name in
131. 4:24college football. You never know. The
132. 4:25big thing though is Iowa cannot win out
133. 4:28unless UCLA themselves also collapses.
134. 4:31That's unlikely, but hey, it's possible.
135. 4:34But the scenario that is most
136. 4:35interesting to me is how a three-loss
137. 4:38USC team gets into the college football
138. 4:41playoff. I've been saying it, take my
139. 4:42USC fandom out of it. I've been saying
140. 4:44for years it is only a matter of time
141. 4:46before a three-loss, nine and [music]
142. 4:48three team that is. Technically, a
143. 4:49three-loss Bama team got into the
144. 4:51playoff last year. But it's only a
145. 4:53matter of time before a nine and three
146. 4:54team gets into the college football
147. 4:56playoff. I think this year could be the
148. 4:57year. And the reason why is look at
149. 4:59what's going on in the SEC. Look at all
150. 5:01the current six and two teams and also
151. 5:04South Carolina at five and three. The
152. 5:06teams I'm talking about are LSU, South
153. 5:07Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, and
154. 5:10Ole Miss. A lot of them play each other.
155. 5:12There's a lot of losses that have to get
156. 5:14allocated. And when it comes down to it,
157. 5:16there could very well be a scenario
158. 5:17where it's, hey, a nine and three
159. 5:19Tennessee team against a nine and three
160. 5:21USC team with one spot open. That would
161. 5:24obviously mean that USC says, hey, beats
162. 5:26Indiana and Maryland, but then loses to
163. 5:30UCLA. But let's play that out. LSU right
164. 5:32now, six and two. They still have Bama,
165. 5:34Texas, and Tennessee on their schedule.
166. 5:36I think there's easily one loss in
167. 5:38there. South Carolina, five and three,
168. 5:40playing like a different team than they
169. 5:42were in September. They still have
170. 5:43Georgia left. That on paper is their
171. 5:45fourth loss. Alabama, right now, six and
172. 5:48two. They do have the signature wins
173. 5:49against Kentucky and South Carolina, who
174. 5:52they blew out, but they still have LSU.
175. 5:53Texas right now is six and two. They
176. 5:55still have a ranked Missouri squad and a
177. 5:58ranked LSU squad on the road and the
178. 6:00rivalry game against A&M. USC though
179. 6:03does not want to find themselves matched
180. 6:04up head-to-head with Texas cuz Texas
181. 6:06will win that. Because they beat Ohio
182. 6:07State at full strength and that was an
183. 6:09out of conference match up for them.
184. 6:11Also worth noting and I forgot about
185. 6:13this until just kind of saying this out
186. 6:14loud. This is the first year that the
187. 6:15SEC has the nine-game conference
188. 6:18schedule. That will be a talking point
189. 6:20in this regardless of whether USC is a
190. 6:22factor or not. That is one factor that
191. 6:24we do not know how the committee will
192. 6:25react to. In fact, we never know how the
193. 6:27committee will react to any of these
194. 6:29factors. That's actually a pet peeve of
195. 6:30mine with the CFP when talking heads
196. 6:33say, "Hey, well, the committee did this
197. 6:342 years ago." and they imply that it's
198. 6:36going to happen again in 2026. No,
199. 6:37there's, you know, fresh faces in the
200. 6:39committee, so it's not just a copy and
201. 6:41paste what happened 2 years ago is also
202. 6:43going to happen this year. I personally
203. 6:44like the subjectivity of the committee
204. 6:47and the lack of strict guard rails, but
205. 6:49that's a video for a different time. You
206. 6:50got Tennessee who's 6 and 2. They still
207. 6:52have Kentucky and LSU, two top 15 teams.
208. 6:55They do already have the signature Bama
209. 6:57win on their resume. Ole Miss also 6 and
210. 7:002. They have the blowout win against
211. 7:02Missouri which looks great right now and
212. 7:04a win against LSU. My takeaway with that
213. 7:07though is that screams like a ton of
214. 7:09nine and three teams in the SEC.
215. 7:12Compared to last year, the conversation
216. 7:13was more 10 and 2. December 6th of last
217. 7:16year, you had a 10 and 2 Oklahoma team,
218. 7:1810 and 3, but figuratively 10 and 2
219. 7:20Alabama team after they lost the SEC
220. 7:22championship, 10 and 2 Miami, 10 and 2
221. 7:24Notre Dame, 10 and 2 Vanderbilt and
222. 7:26Texas was the outlier with their 9 and 3
223. 7:28schedule. And Texas was arguing that
224. 7:30they should be in. This is going to be
225. 7:31the year where there's a bigger pool of
226. 7:33nine and three teams knocking on the
227. 7:35door, which to bring this full circle,
228. 7:37there is still very much a world where
229. 7:38USC can lose to Indiana, but beat
230. 7:41Maryland and and UCLA and potentially
231. 7:44have a pathway in there. In that
232. 7:45scenario, their resume is not going to
233. 7:46stack up well to the SEC teams, but
234. 7:49there still is a path. So, to me, if
235. 7:50you're USC, 10 and 2, you're in. Even 10
236. 7:53and 3, meaning they would lose in the
237. 7:55Big Ten championship game, you're in.
238. 7:56We've seen historically the Big Ten or
239. 7:59SEC teams will not get punished if they
240. 8:02lose in their conference title game. But
241. 8:04to prove my nine and three point, check
242. 8:06this out. 2025 last year going into the
243. 8:09playoff, the top seven teams were either
244. 8:12undefeated or had one loss on their
245. 8:14resume. Fast forward 11 months on
246. 8:16November 1st, 2026, the ninth team in
247. 8:19the country, Alabama, already has two
248. 8:22losses and we still have a month to
249. 8:24play. There's more parity in college
250. 8:25football and there's more losses at the
251. 8:28top of the college football slate. And
252. 8:30real quick, if you watched this far, do
253. 8:31me a solid, like the video down below
254. 8:32and subscribe to the channel. Usually,
255. 8:34we have uh breakdown videos coming out.
256. 8:36I will get to that later on in the week.
257. 8:37This is more of just a hey, rapid
258. 8:39reaction to USC's big win against Ohio
259. 8:42State. So, if you're a USC fan and
260. 8:43you're like, all right, Max, I I'm I'm
261. 8:45I'm picking up what you're putting down.
262. 8:46But, what scenarios should I be
263. 8:48monitoring around college football that
264. 8:50could impact [music]
265. 8:51USC's college football chances? I got a
266. 8:54few of them for you. The first one is
267. 8:56what's going on in Winston-Salem, North
268. 8:58Carolina with the Wake Forest Demon
269. 9:00Deacons. And the reason I say that is
270. 9:02this is the best positioning in recent
271. 9:04memory the ACC has had to get two teams
272. 9:07into the big dance. Wake Forest right
273. 9:09now is 7 and 1 with impressive wins
274. 9:11dominating Virginia, Cal, NC State,
275. 9:14Stanford, and Louisville. And you might
276. 9:16be like, Max, those teams aren't
277. 9:17necessarily ranked, but they dominated
278. 9:19them. And then they also went toe-to-toe
279. 9:21with Miami and gave the Hurricanes
280. 9:23everything they could handle. So, it
281. 9:25might be easy to say, hey, Wake Forest
282. 9:26doesn't necessarily have the strength of
283. 9:28schedule. I disagree. They have not had
284. 9:30the dips, they have not had the random
285. 9:32USC losing to Wisconsin on the road. And
286. 9:34if Wake Forest gets into the ACC
287. 9:36championship as a one-loss team, they're
288. 9:38in the big dance. If Wake Forest even
289. 9:40loses one more and still gets into the
290. 9:42ACC title game and that is matched up
291. 9:44against a three-loss USC resume, Wake
292. 9:47Forest is getting in. If you're USC,
293. 9:49keep an eye on what Jake Dickert's squad
294. 9:51at Wake Forest is doing. The next thing
295. 9:52to monitor, and this is nothing new if
296. 9:54you're a USC fan, uh even though the
297. 9:56rivalry game was not played this year,
298. 9:57keep an eye on the Fighting Irish. They
299. 9:58got the one loss against uh BYU. They
300. 10:01play Miami. 10 and 2 Notre Dame got left
301. 10:03out last year. If it's on the margins
302. 10:05and it's close, does the committee
303. 10:07punish Notre Dame for a weaker schedule
304. 10:10at large and for not being in a
305. 10:11conference, that could happen. Very well
306. 10:13could impact if USC is right there on
307. 10:16the bubble. And the last thing to
308. 10:17monitor, or at least root for if you're
309. 10:19a USC fan, is chaos in the Big 12. One
310. 10:22of the big talking points in college
311. 10:24football nationally, what, 2 weeks ago,
312. 10:26was could the Big 12 get three teams in?
313. 10:29Because at the time it was Utah, BYU,
314. 10:31Texas Tech, Houston, and Arizona. I'm no
315. 10:33longer putting Houston and Arizona in
316. 10:35that conversation, but between Utah,
317. 10:37BYU, and Texas Tech, if you're a betting
318. 10:39man, two of those teams probably get in.
319. 10:41Utah and BYU play each other coming up.
320. 10:43If both of those teams are undefeated or
321. 10:46have one loss heading into the
322. 10:48conference championship game, they're
323. 10:49both in. What's interesting is if, hey,
324. 10:51there's three Big 12 teams with one loss
325. 10:54or fewer. So, inevitably, one of them
326. 10:57gets left out of the conference title
327. 10:58game. That is a unique scenario where a
328. 11:00one-loss Big 12 team who did not play in
329. 11:04their conference championship game also
330. 11:05probably gets in. Hence why, if you're a
331. 11:07USC fan, root for chaos in the Big 12.
332. 11:10Texas Tech has no ranked teams left on
333. 11:12their schedule. The Holy War, I believe
334. 11:14it's this weekend. That's going to be
335. 11:15fascinating and just a phenomenal
336. 11:17college football game and match-up. It's
337. 11:18got to be as high of a stakes of a Holy
338. 11:20War, or at least, you know, two top,
339. 11:22what, five, two top 10 teams going at
340. 11:24it? That's awesome. And then the week
341. 11:25after, Utah still has a ranked Arizona
342. 11:28squad and the Fighting Noa Fafita. And
343. 11:30one last point, just to close out this
344. 11:31video, on paper, if you're a USC fan,
345. 11:33the number one thing that should give
346. 11:34you confidence looking ahead through the
347. 11:36month of November is you're going to
348. 11:37have the best quarterback on the field.
349. 11:39Yes, you will. I know Jayden Maiava has
350. 11:40had, you know, a rocky Wisconsin, a
351. 11:42little rocky Ohio State, but compared to
352. 11:44where Indiana's at, with their uncertain
353. 11:46quarterback situation, UCLA on their
354. 11:48backup quarterback situation, actually
355. 11:50Malik Washington with Maryland's, he's a
356. 11:52dude. But hopefully, hopefully the
357. 11:53support around Jayden Maiava gives him
358. 11:56the edge in that game. But you should
359. 11:57feel confident in that. If you're USC
360. 11:59and you're saying, man, we have the
361. 12:00clear-cut best quarterback, or at least
362. 12:02best quarterback situation in all of our
363. 12:05remaining games coming off a bye week,
364. 12:07that is the key factor for making a run
365. 12:09and for the Trojans to potentially get
366. 12:12their first college football playoff
367. 12:14berth in program history. If you got
368. 12:16this far, I appreciate you. Do me a
369. 12:17solid, like the video and subscribe to
370. 12:19the channel down below. Send this video
371. 12:21to a USC fan in your life and this was a
372. 12:24fun one to make. I know it wasn't I'll
373. 12:25get to the breakdown stuff, but I just
374. 12:27came home from Tallahassee this morning,
375. 12:29which was interesting cuz I had the
376. 12:31Florida State Clemson game and I called
377. 12:34the last game of the Mike Norvell era. I
378. 12:36met with him with our broadcasting team
379. 12:38on Friday and then he's no longer the
380. 12:40head man on a Sunday. How fast things
381. 12:42can change in college football. This
382. 12:44week, if you want to catch my game, I
383. 12:45got Louisville Georgia Tech primetime on
384. 12:47the ACC Network, but I wanted to make
385. 12:49this video because I said it a week ago
386. 12:51like yo, USC, I mean, everyone's acting
387. 12:53like the sky is falling losing to
388. 12:54Wisconsin, but check out that film.
389. 12:56There was a lot of points on the board.
390. 12:58I'm looking at what's going on in the
391. 12:59Big Ten. USC still has a shot at the
392. 13:00playoff and it still holds true after a
393. 13:03huge Halloween win against Ohio State.
394. 13:06Big month of November ahead. Thanks for
395. 13:08watching and I'll see you on the next
396. 13:09one.
397. 13:11>> [music]
398. 13:17[music]
399. 13:24[music]