Former USC coach Lane Kiffin joined ESPN’s Colin Cowherd on Thursday and hit on a lot of different topics ranging from the impact his firing has had on his family to the direction of the program. He also offered some thoughts on the future of Oregon and why he’s picking the Trojans to top the Cardinal this weekend. Here are a few of the choice cuts.

On whether he needs to be humbled: “I don’t view myself that way. People that have worked with me, people around me and that know me, I don’t think people say that. I think that comes from people that don’t know me and that’s hard to control sometimes.”

Lane Kiffin says he's proud of how hard the Trojans are playing. Christian Petersen/Getty Images

On whether Oregon was exposed: “One of the things having this time off and watching media and watching things daily is it’s amazing to me how fast everybody changes based off of one game. Somebody said ‘Boy, Oregon is in trouble now.’ Wait a second, they lost one game. That’s not going to go away. Oregon’s offense is really special. They are really good. Look at the run they’ve had for years. Everybody is going to lose a game every once in a while.”

On whether the South (the region, not the division) has better players: “It does. There is more of them and you see it. If a team on the West Coast is going to be able to play with an SEC team in the national championship, on a continued basis, you can always have one year of a run, but to continue you have to go get players down there.”

On watching USC games now: “It’s honestly very different. I’m really proud of how hard they are playing. USC is basically two missed field goals away from being 9-1 right now and in the talk of maybe sneaking in the national championship because I think they are going to run the table here the last three games.”

On whether he has animosity toward USC: “No. Not at all. Obviously I didn’t want it to happen the way that it did. Wish I was still there. Loved the place. Love those coaches. Love those players. It’s different when you get fired at the end of the year and then you watch the team the next year because they have a new coaching staff and new recruits and they’ve changed all kinds of stuff. That’s still all the assistant coaches and all the players we hired and signed are doing it right now so you get a great deal of excitement when you see them doing as well as they are.”

On USC’s potential hire: “I don’t know where they are going. I would think Pat [Haden] would start pretty high up and go get a big name that would come in that would be a sexy hire. I would assume that would be the direction that he would start.”