The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - 11/9/17 - Alabama vs. Georgia + Joel Klatt's Heisman Pick

Episode Date: November 10, 2017

Joel Klatt dive's into his rankings and explains why he has Alabama ahead of Georgia. In addition, Joel discusses Baker Mayfield's amazing season, the problems with Clemson and where Notre Dame ranks in his College Football Playoff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, everybody? Joel Clat here. It's breaking the huddle. Welcome to Wednesday, hump day. This show is sponsored by Dr. Pepper, one because it's delicious, but also because at every tailgate and home gate, it is the one that fans crave. That's what I'm talking about. It helps me get through the day. There's no doubt about that. A little tired today, but that's okay, because we've got a little different show for you. Here's the deal. This show is always as good as you make it. All right? So, be interactive. Let's go. Come on. the comments, invite your friends, you're sitting in your office. Listen, I know your boss sucks, you know your boss sucks. So let's make the next 20 minutes really cool. Let's have some fun. Let's chat about college football. I want your hate. You're passionate about the sport.

You're more importantly passionate about your team. So I want your opinion how I rank teams like this. Then I'm also going to go into my Heisman list. I want the comments to keep coming. All right? If you don't like my Heisman list, tell me. Tell me why. Not how. Why your Heisman list is way that you like it and then we'll get to comments after both the ranking and the Heisman list. A lot of cool stuff happening this week in college football. Great matchups. I'm going to be in Oklahoma for Oklahoma TCU. That is a phenomenal game. All right. Folks, this may be even more than Miami Notre Dame. I think the winner of this game, Oklahoma and TCU, is absolutely going to be in the playoff. Maybe not absolutely. That's not talking definitive.

but I think they've got a much better shot than even a Notre Dame or a Miami. Because remember now, well, I'll get to that in just a second. All right, let's start. One more drink. By the way, how many of you guys drink Dr. Pepper in your office? A lot, right? Yeah, it's delicious. I know what you're talking about.

I do the same thing. Welcome to my office. Why don't you step into it because you're freaking fired. Here we go. TCU is number six in my rankings. I love TCU's defense. I think this is one of the best defenses in the country. They've got the top rushing defense in the country.

Did you know that in the last three games combined, they've given up 37 total rushing yards? That's insane. That was my best prince or the little sweet guy on Diet Dr. Pepper. Wow, you're booing prince. Boo on you. Okay, boo on you. 37 rush yards in the last three games combined.

I can't wait to watch TCU play Oklahoma's offense. I think that's the matchup of the year, quite frankly. We're not going to see an offense that's that dominant against a defense that's this dominant, maybe all year, maybe until we get to the playoff, and that's only if Oklahoma can get there and face one of those great defenses like Alabama or Georgia. So I love TCU. I love what they're doing. I love what they're bringing to the table.

Gary Patterson has done a great job. I mean, a great job, and I can't wait to watch them play on Saturday. All right, here we go. Number five. This is where I start differing from the committee. The committee put Clemson in the top four. I've got Clemson at number five. One of the reasons I've got Clemson at number five and not number four is they just don't have the resume that Oklahoma has. Oklahoma's got better wins than Clemson. All right? That's just the bottom line. I don't think you can say anything else. Now, the committee will help Clemson by propping up Auburn as the best two-loss team in America, but let's be honest. Auburn should not be the best two-lost team in America,

but Clemson's at number five for me because there's a few things that I still really like about this team. I think they're balanced enough. When Kelly Bryant is on the field, their offense is still very productive. There's a couple of areas that I think need to get corrected. Now, at full strength, I feel like they're one of the better teams in America, certainly. We'll see if they can get to the playoff. But here is an alarming trend for them. When you, go back to right before the Virginia Tech game, I believe it was September, I want to say 23rd. If you go back to September 23rd, on that date, Clemson had the number three scoring defense in the entire country.

Number three, they were given up just over nine points per game. Did you know that since that date, they're the 24th scoring defense in America, and they're giving up 20 points per game? So you're talking about nearly an 11-point gap of the quality of play of what their defense was versus what their defense is. That's a trend that I'm a little nervous about now. They don't have great opponents coming down the stretch, but we'll see if that comes back to bite them. Maybe it's in the playoff. Maybe it's in the ACC championship game. So just something to be aware of if you're a Clemson fan out there. And no, that's not Clemson hate. And no, I'm not a hater of Clemson.

I really like Clemson. They're at number five for me. Number four, oh you. Oklahoma's got some great wins, folks. I mean, great wins. They're lost not bad to Iowa State. That's a six and three team that's still ranked in the top 25. Oh, you won at Ohio State. They won at Oklahoma State. They play huge on the road in big environments led by their quarterback. Did you know Baker Mayfield's 13 and O and True Road Games is the OU starter? 13! That's incredible, right? This dude has more swag than Rick James. He's a habitual line stepper, and he just keeps going up to that point, and he's like, somebody try to stop me, and then he grinds his feet all up and at his couch. The guy is amazing. I love watching him play. He might be one of the best quarterbacks of the last four or five years.

He's a great college player. I think we should appreciate that, and when I get to the Heisman list, they're certainly going to be more about Baker Mayfield. Now, let's talk about what this offense is doing. This offense is on a historic pace right now. Did you know that they're averaging over eight and a half yards per play? The last offense to average more than eight and a half yards per play for the entire season was in 2006, and that was the Colt Brennan-led Hawaii rainbows or warriors, whatever they call themselves out there. Sounds like a sweet school to go to. I know Colt. He's a friend of mine.

We started at Colorado together before he went out to Hawaii. Dude was a player and a gunslinger. That's the last offense to average over eight and a half yards per play. Did you know that if you go back to 1996, which is basically where our stats end with some services, there's not a team that average eight and a half yards per play over a season in the power five. So they're doing some historic things on offense. One last thing on Oklahoma. And before I get into this, I'm going to take a swig of Dr. Pepper.

Their defense. I know some of you are writing right now. Yeah, but their defense sucks. Go ahead. Keep going. Keep riding. I know what they gave up. I was there.

I was standing on the roof that they call a booth at Oklahoma State. and I was watching their defense get shredded, albeit by one of the best offenses in America, but they were getting shredded. I will give you that. That is not a very good defense. I understand that. Now, let's start looking at some of the factors that make them effective enough. One, when they absolutely needed it, they got stops.

They got a stop in the opponent's field position that led to a fuel goal. Obo O'Ocaronko gets that fumble recovery. They got the interception in the end zone when it looked like Oklahoma State was going to score. And then on the last series, they not only got the interception, which was negated by the targeting, but then they also get the fourth downstop. So when they needed it the most, Oklahoma's defense actually played pretty well and was the reason that they won and had the 10-point margin. Last thing is yards per play margin.

When you talk about teams, you've got to talk about how they complement one another. It's not just, hey, great offense, great defense, or bad offense, bad defense, blah, blah, blah. How do they complement each other? Did you know that Oklahoma is third in the country when it comes to yards per play margin? Eight and a half yards per play they gain a little under five and a half that they give up. It's around 2.6 is what's going on right now as far as their yards per play margin. That's third best in the country. Only Alabama and Washington have a better margin.

Alabama, 2.8, Washington, 2.7, Oklahoma's at 2.6. So you can say all you want that their defense is terrible. And I know I'm spending a lot of time on Oklahoma, but their defense is good enough based on what their offense is doing, albeit their offenses at a historic pace right now. All right, let's move on. Number three. I got Notre Dame at number three. I think Notre Dame is a really good football team because I think run game travels.

I think it's going to travel this weekend. I don't care if it's humid. I don't care if it's raining. I don't run game travels. I'm very interested to see if Josh Adams is going to bounce back. after that injury. Remember, only five carries last week, and they were still able to put up 700 yards of total offense. 700 yards of total offense. This theory that Brandon Wimbush can't throw, I think it's unfounded. I think Wembush has actually played better and proven himself more than a guy like Jake Fromm, from Georgia.

And that's not a knock on from. It's just the fact that he hasn't had to do anything in a big moment. And in fact, the last time we saw Georgia in a really big moment, it was at Notre Dame. And they didn't do anything late in that game offensively, which was a big reason why Notre Dame kept having chances in that one-point game. Good thing UGA's got a great defense because they were able to stop the fighting Irish. But this is a run game that I think is going to be able to get loose against Miami. I really like what Notre Dame's been doing offensively. I love what their offensive line does. I love what their stable of running backs does.

And their quarterback can really run the rock as well, Wimbush. Their defense is a bit of a concern. They gave up, let me look down here, 587 yards. That's a lot. And it wasn't just a team that comes in and is like, hey, we can throw the ball a lot or we're a great rushing team. They gave up 239 rushing and 348 passing. That's a concern. Whenever you see balance on offense, and that's the reason for a lot of total yardage,

that means that the defense is not playing very well. So they're going to have to play much better this week on the road against a good Miami team. Sorry, UGA. I don't think you're as good as the committee thinks you are. I've got you at number two. The reason that I've got Georgia at number two is because exactly what I was talking about a little bit earlier. You're just unproven, right? I mean, you did get the win against Notre Dame, and that's better than any win that Alabama got.

And listen, when I compare Alabama's resume to a team like Wisconsin's resume, if you take the logos away from them, they're virtually identical. But all I know is that Alabama is a balanced team, man. It hurts has thrown the ball well. He didn't last week, but he has that time. They run the rock when they need to. They play great defense. The injuries are certainly going to be a problem, but I don't want injuries to be a reason why I don't rank a team in a certain spot. I'm going to at least allow them to prove me wrong based on the fact that they do or don't have the

depth necessary at the linebacker position. I think the bigger injury or the biggest nick that they've got going on right now is Mika Fitzpatrick. Because if he's not able to go, if he's not effective, now you're talking about one of those main cogs that make them go, in particular on defense, that could cause some problems. But until something happens to Alabama, for me, they're going to be the number one team. So all you Alabama fans that hear my takes on SEC scheduling and why the

committee is propping up LSU and Auburn and Mississippi State, don't think, hey, why are you hating on Alabama? Quite the contrary. I think Alabama's the best team in the country. So don't at me with your Alabama takes, please. At me with your SEC takes, because you right now

playing a garbage conference outside of the team that sits at number two in my ranking. Everybody else and the SEC outside of Alabama and Georgia? Yikes. I mean, bad. Now, the committee can prop you up all they want. Auburn, looking at you, Mississippi State, looking at you. LSU.

You lost to Troy at home. You're a three-loss team. There's a two-loss Michigan team that's not even ranked. What? It's crazy. That's crazy. Let's get to some comments here. Here's my rankings.

Here's my top six. Here's how I would put them in the playoff. So Clemson fans, I'm pretty sure that's going to be the first one. Maybe, maybe not. We'll see. All right. You lost to an unranked team. Get them off the board. I'm sorry.

Daniel, you're an idiot. Iowa State is ranked. There's six and three and ranked in the college football committee's top 25. What ranking are you looking at? Daniel? Your own? Did you rank them? Do you have like a power ranking system?

And Iowa State is not in them. And so therefore, they're not a ranked team. Don't be an idiot. Right? Like, I rarely call people idiot. This is stupid. Like, this is stupid. You just, you just embarrass your.

yourself in front of all of Facebook. Maybe not all of Facebook. I don't know if everybody that's on Facebook is watching us right now, but close. All right, there's like 372 people watching. Okay, here we go. Is this, which side? Other side. Come on. Come on. What are we doing? Boom. All right. Two SEC teams in the top four. SEC is overrated, says Jason. Jason, I just went through that. I mean, I just told you, yes, I think that the SEC is overrated. But that doesn't mean that Georgia and Alabama are overrated, does it? Let me just ask you this, Jason. If you just put any of these teams on a neutral field tomorrow, who beats Alabama? I'm sorry? There isn't one that you would pick. There's no team in America that would be favored right now over

Alabama. I'm pretty sure my homies and Vegas would agree with me. Do the same thing for Georgia. put Georgia against anybody in the country on a neutral field tomorrow who's favored? Nobody but Alabama. Okay? So these two teams have proven that they are great teams. They play in a crappy conference this year, but I'm not going to hold that against them. Why would I hold that against them? Is it Jake Fromm or Sonny Michelle's job to prop up the rest of the SEC?

Is it Jalen Hertz problem that Tennessee is a dumpster fire right now? Is it Georgia's problem that Florida is awful? No, it's not their problem. Who knew that LSU was going to fire a career 750 winning percentage coach who had won a national championship and hire the defensive line coach this year? That's not these kids' problem. It's really not. So I guess what I'm saying is you can be right that the SEC is overrated,

which I think is certainly true, and still put Alabama and Georgia right here. Okay? Because your conference strength doesn't mean that it affects your strength. You can be a great team in a bad conference. I think both of these teams are great teams in a bad conference. All right. So that's how we're going to leave that one. Now, I will say this.

I think the conference that is the deepest is the Big 12. I think the one that's the most difficult to run the table is the Big Ten, in particular in the East. I think you're going to see Wisconsin likely run the table in the Big Ten West, but that's becoming more difficult. Every single week we see Northwestern jump into the rankings. We see Iowa jumping into the rankings. So that's going to help Wisconsin, and we could see them jump up some spots as we get later in the season. Let's go Heisman.

Boom, look at that. White shock, green shock, here we go. Five to one, keep the comments coming. Hey, remember, invite your friends, make this interactive. I might do a little dance. Miami fans. I know you love watching what I put out there, so I got a little love coming your way, Miami fans at the end, even though you gave me no love, Nevin Shapiro put a bounty out on me in 2005,

and it wasn't even as high as what you put on Chris Ricks. That hurts. It hurts my soul. Maybe the most disappointing thing of my career is that I didn't have as high a bounty as Chris Ricks. All right, Josh Adams, you're at number five. All right? So Josh Adams is at number five. And listen, I know that he didn't play basically the entire game. He only got five carries, but he still averages. over eight and a half yards per carry. This guy has still been highly productive on one of the best teams in America. That's the reason. That's the engine for the fighting Irish right there.

Josh Adams in that run game. He deserves inclusion in the top five. I put him all the way at five. If you look at Vegas, if you look at several other publications, you're going to see him much higher. There's some other guys that I feel like maybe deserve a little bit of love that are going to be up in that top two to three, four range. By the way, I'm just going to do this right now.

I think you know who's going to go above that line, but this should be like 12, 13, 14, and 15. Because it's not really close. This is not a close race. It might be close below the line. On top of the line, it's not going to be very close. There's not a lot of suspense of who that's going to be. At number four, I'm going to go with Sequan Barclay. Now, here's the deal.

I've been accused of hating on Sequan Barclay, and that's just not the case, okay? because he's a great player with unbelievable moments, but he doesn't have the consistency necessary to be a Heisman trophy winner. That's just the way it goes, right? Great players always lose out on the Heisman trophy based on the seasons that they've had. Did you know that Saquan Barkley has rushed for negative yards, even or negative yards in four of the last eight halves that he's played? You can't do that and win the Heisman trophy.

I'm sorry, you just can't. He rushes for under 100 yards again. And I know a lot of that is on his offensive line. And you can't say, you can't come at me and say, well, you can't penalize him because of his offensive line. Well, should I take every running back that's 35th in the nation and rushing and be like, yeah, you should win the Heisman trophy. That's just stupid. That's just stupid. In fact, the guy that won the Heisman trophy since 96, since Ron Dane and Ricky Williams,

that finished lowest in rushing in the country was Mark Ingram. And remember, he shouldn't have won it either. He was 11th in the country in rushing, and that should have been Toby Gerhardt's award. Let's be real with one another. Barclay's a phenomenal player. He's not a Heisman trophy candidate, really, that's going to win that award. If he does, I think it's a travesty. I'm just going to go out of it.

He will have the worst running back numbers on record, dating back to those running backs like Ron Dane, Ricky Williams, to ever have won the Heisman trophy if he wins it. Great player, great. kid, love the program, all of that stuff. He's electric. He's just not a Heisman-worthy guy. Okay, number three. I'm going to stick in the Big Ten, and I'm going to say Jonathan Taylor. I know that people don't love putting freshmen on the list up there, but Jonathan Taylor is going to be my number three. Jonathan Taylor has been phenomenal. He's been consistent. He had gotten injured and sat out of game. He comes back, boom. He puts up 140-plus yards. Love his consistency. A lot of that is the

offensive line. I understand, by the way, I've gotten people on Twitter that are like, hey, if you just take Sequin Barclay and put him on Wisconsin, then he would have better numbers. Yeah, no crap. But he doesn't. He's not. He's not on Wisconsin's team, and Jonathan Taylor is, and I'm going to reward a guy that's producing at a really high level, even if he's a freshman. I really love what Jonathan Taylor has been able to do. His lowest yards per carry in any singular game this year, four and a half, right around that, 4.2. Barclays had two games under three. So, I mean, there's some metrics for you right there.

Okay, so number 12 or two, whatever you're going by, is going to be Bryce Love. Coming off his worst game of the season, I get it, no doubt. It's his first game of the year that he did not rush for 100 yards. But Bryce Love still did have a 50-yard run. Did you know that's the 10th straight game that he's had a 50-plus-yard run? There hasn't been a running back to do that or anybody do that in 50-year-old. years in college football. You're talking some historic level of greatness or at least explosiveness with Bryce Love. I don't think he's going to win the trophy. In fact, I don't think any of

these guys are going to win the trophy, barring something drastic happening like Baker Mayfield falling off the face of the planet. So let's get up there to number one and start talking about a little Baker Mayfield. Baker, the Playmaker. Dude has swag for days. I love Baker Mayfield. Like literally. I love Baker Mayfield. I want to talk to you about what Baker is doing not just on the road, but in his OU career. Do you know his career efficiency at OU is over 185? I think it's 188. That's insane.

Like insane production. This guy plays with this reckless swagger and this gunslinger mentality. And yet, he's got the efficiency like he's Drew Brees or Russell Wilson. He's over 200 in his rating. after setting the NCAA record a year ago for a single season at 195, he's over that. He's going to be close to setting the OU career record for completion percentage. This guy is doing amazing things. Let me give you another stat that happened just last week.

Baker Mayfield, he threw for 387 yards in the first half. First half. Did you know that all but three Power 5 quarterbacks could not do that in their entire game last week? Only Brian Leworky from Michigan State, Nick Schimeneck from Texas Tech, and Mason Rudolph from Oklahoma State topped the 387 mark in their entire game. Mayfield did that in a half. Threw for 598 yards, OU record, five touchdowns ran for another, accounted for six, and gave a nice stiff arm with his leg up like he was the Heisman Trophy winner right now. Thank you very much.

Dude is phenomenal. What I love about him the most is the swagger he brings to his team. Think about it. In a day and age when all of us run to safe spaces and like-minded thinkers in order to get our news and our opinions, Baker Mayfield is unapologetic in his confidence that he will go out there and beat you and be your daddy at the same time. Love Baker Mayfield, man. Love this guy. Can't wait to see him play against TCU. The challenge is down for TCU. That's a great defense with a really good football coach and Gary Patterson. and to see them go against Mayfield at Oklahoma. That's going to be phenomenal, man. That's what college football is all about.

That's why you should tune in 7 p.m. on Fox as Gus and I will have the call. Hollywood! Hollywood Brown. That's my best Gus Johnson. Let's go. Some comments on my Heisman list. Boom. Easy for Taylor to look good at the kids' table, said Ryan.

Wow, Ryan. Apparently undefeated doesn't make any difference in your world. That's fine. Last time I checked, you're probably a Clemson fan, and they lost to Syracuse. Thank you very much, but that's a kids table right there. They play in the Carrier Dome. It doesn't even have air conditioning.

Stupid, it's a basketball school. All due respect, though, I don't think Wisconsin's at the kids' table. If they run the table, I think Wisconsin's going to go to the playoff. Quite frankly, this playoff needs to change in its format to only include conference champions. If you want to expand the playoff, all you have to do is say you have to win your conference. Then those conference championship games become like de facto quarterfinding. final games and you don't have to increase the number of teams that quote unquote make it in the playoff we don't need at large teams in the playoff we need to make sure that we're rewarding winning

your conference and that would take care of a lot of these problems that the SEC set up and mike's live set up by saying we're going to take the four best versus the four most deserving that my friends is waiting for another day what does this say it's more of an observation slash question, but your Baker-Mayfield bromance burning strong? Oh, yeah, it is. Yes, it is. Tell me what's not to love about this kid's play.

You can be an old stodgy crumogen, get off my lawn, and say he shouldn't have planted the flag at Ohio State. I loved it. They plant the flag in the cotton bowl after they beat Texas. That's kind of what they do. It's like singing the alma mater that a lot of these places do. Mayfield is the type of guy, right? that he's got a really good release.

He's got a great arm. He's got wide receivers and weapons on the outside. If you love quarterback play, which I do, you love watching Baker Mayfield play. Call it a bromance. I'm good with that. I'll be bromantic with Baker. Wait, wait. Don't worry, it's online.

Here we go. Got one more thing to take care of. So last week, I may have called Miami fraudulent. I thought I had the data to back me up. They were in four one possession games in a row versus teams that were a combined 11 and 20. So I was like, got this.

Justin Pawente and Virginia Tech are coming to town. Miami is fraudulent. Went out on that limb, right? They weren't fraudulent. Miami, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And as much as it might pain you, and it still pains me, by the way,

when I think of what happened to me at Miami, John Beeson basically gave me the tombstone like he was the undertaker in a WWE match and put me on his shoulder and planted me on the field. Baker Mayfield planted the flag at Ohio State. John Beeson planted me on the field in the old Orange Bowl, and it was glorious. Like I said, the only thing that really burns me about that,

like I loved it, right? Like, I had turf toe, I was cramping, it was hot. Beeson plants me in the ground like I'm a flag. Nevin Shapiro only had a $500 bounty on me. Beeson only got $500 for that. Couldn't give him $1,000? Like, that was a great hit. Couldn't give him a thousand, Nevin?

I'm on a boat, too. Miami, I'm a man in my word. The U is back. The U is back until this week when Notre Dame beat you. The U is back until Notre Dame beats you. Notre Dame beats you. Hey, this is sponsored by Dr. Pepper. Thanks for joining me.

It's been a lot of fun. Come back next week. We'll have more college football talk that you enjoy a while last, because I do think Notre Dame is going to beat you. Even at home, I know. Hate me again. If this, I might put it on again next week if you win. If you win, I'll put it on,

and we'll call Mark Rick live, and he can berate me live on the air. This show is sponsored by Dr. Pepper at every tailgate and homegate. It is the one that fans crave. Have a great week, bed.