Saturday Night Five: Foster on the brink, Sanders searches for answers, Pac-12 wipeouts, Texas A&M’s gift and the CFP math

Instant reaction to Week developments Is the end near We ll start our review with Friday s action and a head coach whose future appears increasing murky at least as the Hotline sees the situation Yes that description fits UCLA s DeShaun Foster But he s not our focus We are increasingly curious about Deion Sanders There is no palpable evidence that his third season at Colorado will be his last But the Buffaloes dropped to - after the lopsided loss at Houston They were thoroughly outplayed by a band that won four games last season and is an afterthought in any discussion about the Big hierarchy And we suspect there are more defeats countless more coming The Buffaloes don t have a reliable quarterback the running competition is substandard and the defense is wobbly And they don t have Travis Hunter And their upcoming schedule is nothing short of brutal The Buffaloes drew majority of the conference s best teams Arizona State Iowa State and Utah plus Arizona TCU and Brigham Young in the schedule rotation I m at a loss for words Sanders noted Friday night following the - loss No one could have notified me this challenge was going to turn out like this He looked and sounded defeated in a way we have not seen from Sanders Now add two personal issues to the calculation He is no longer coaching his sons Shedeur and Shilo and he s recovering from bladder cancer We won t speculate about the impact of the cancer on his day-to-day life But it s reasonable to wonder about his force and desire to continue grinding at the level necessary to win in the Big And everything is more complicated when your squad isn t very good For all we know Sanders will keep coaching the Buffaloes for another three or four years But don t bet on it In fact we d wager a nickel that this will be his final season The end is near There is no guesswork required to assess the situation in Westwood where Foster s tenure could end any hour or any day following the incomprehensibly bad performance against New Mexico The Bruins lost - and it wasn t that close The upshot occupies a spot on the short list of the worst losses in UCLA history and it comes after a wipeout against Utah in the opener and a narrow defeat at UNLV The Bruins are - but it feels like - The effort is poor The execution is worse The schemes are awful The discipline is nonexistent The university has no choice but to make a change It could come Sunday or later in the season But it s impossible to envision the Bruins sticking with Foster who was appointed to the position in Feb after Chip Kelly left to become Ohio State s offensive coordinator From here it appears UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond and the administration gambled with the timing If Foster worked out great he was hired on the cheap If he didn t the vacancy would come once Big Ten cash was rolling in thereby giving the Bruins a chance to offer the cash needed for a proven winner If that was the calculus it backfired Foster was not ready for the role and the operation has lost immense ground relative to its competition in the Big Ten The fan base is disillusioned the economics remain challenging and the on-field performance is an embarrassment to the university Lone Star meltdowns UCLA s humiliation offered plenty of fodder on social media Even the Pac- s official X account piled on The sequence began Friday night with RedditCFB posting a screen grab of the Bruins remaining schedule and the following comment - UCLA gets a bye next week and then this is their remaining schedule Getting to win will be an absolute miracle Later that night pac re-posted the comment with a GIF from Seinfeld in which Jerry looks smug while sitting on a couch That s a shame appears in big white letters The trolling effort was bold but understandable given the Bruins role in decimating the former conference But less that hours later the Pac- was in no position to mock anyone Washington State and Oregon State lost their games at North Texas and Texas Tech respectively by a combined outcome of - An absolute tragedy for the duo in other words The Cougars committed five turnovers in a - defeat their first of the season The toughest stretch of their schedule looms and the offense has looked inept in two of their three games Hours later the Beavers were overwhelmed in Lubbock They fell behind - before scoring the battle s final two touchdowns and are now - with a trip to Eugene next weekend Second-year coach Trent Bray has offered no evidence that he s the right man for the job But unlike UCLA s Foster he is not facing immediate termination The Pac- holdovers appear headed for long dreary seasons Blowouts here there everywhere The former Pac- schools had more success Saturday Utah started slowly but dominated the second half at Wyoming for a - win Oregon did Oregon things in thumping Northwestern - while USC handled its business at Purdue - following a three-hour rain delay Cal remained undefeated after outlasting Minnesota - and Stanford grabbed its first mastery beating travel-weary Boston College - Arizona State recovered from its loss at Mississippi State last weekend with a - conquest over Texas State which will be joining the Pac- next year and could very well be the crew to beat Related Articles Arizona beats Kansas State and stays undefeated as the quest for a bounce-back season remains alive and well Mailbag Hot Seats Jonathan Smith s options Jedd Fisch s future coaches to watch and spins of the carousel West Coast recruiting Panic time for UCLA and Oregon State plus a big weekend for ASU Week picks ATS Houston Arizona Oregon Notre Dame and Utah cover Why USC-Michigan St kicks at ET and the reality of the B media deal Put another way There was not much drama Saturday afternoon and evening for the West Coast schools That was not the occurrence elsewhere however Georgia s overtime win at Tennessee stood as the encounter of the year for a limited hours Then Texas A M scored with seconds remaining to stun Notre Dame - a product that has sweeping repercussions for conferences across the country The CFP math The Irish who dropped their opener at Miami now have two losses and seemingly need to win their final games to secure one of the seven at-large berths in the College Football Playoff Ultimately the playoff is a numbers championship With the Irish participating there are just six spots for non-champions from the ACC Big Big Ten and SEC Because Notre Dame is an Independent it must use the at-large path into the CFP But if the Irish don t sneak in an extra spot opens up Given the likelihood of both the SEC and Big Ten collecting three at-large bids the seventh spot seemingly would benefit the Big and ACC most of of all it could be the difference between one bid and two between only the conference champion advancing to the CFP and a runner up participating as well Gift baskets should be on the way to College Station Send suggestions comments and tips confidentiality guaranteed to wilnerhotline bayareanewsgroup com or call - - Follow me on the social media platform X WilnerHotline