The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Alabama beats Georgia in a Classic, the Big 12 is wide open & Michigan has no margin for error

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to the unbelievable game in Tuscaloosa as Alabama edged Georgia in the game of the season so far. He talks about why games like that are so special for the sport and breaks down the madness that went down in Bryant-Denny before stating which team he has more confidence in moving forward for the rest of the year. Klatt discusses Coach Prime and Colorado’s blowout win at UCF and why the Big 12 is now fully up for grabs. He dives into the Big Ten action by being thoroughly impressed by Penn State in their win over Illinois. He also breaks down what he is seeing from the Michigan team that he saw first-hand on Saturday and discusses their issues and what their outlook is for the rest of the season. He then takes a minute to marvel at the brilliance of Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith and reveals why he would be his first pick of any Wide Receiver in College Football already. He concludes the episode by weighing in on the controversial call on the Hail Mary at the end of Miami-Virginia Tech before putting out a warning: Clemson is back and should be considered a favorite in the ACC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chef's Kiss, like, Bravo. It's like standing ovation. Let's play another quarter. College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. Believe that we are at the dawn of the golden age of college football. It was an epic day of college football. It was one of those days where you fall in love with the sport all over again.

Hey, what's up, everybody? Welcome into the Joel Clatt show. I am Joel Clad, and this show is always presented by Hampton by Hilton. And we are back on a Monday. I love these episodes. and we've got a lot to react to, obviously. Incredible day of college football. It was so good.

And that game Saturday night was so good as I'm watching in the plane. Thank goodness that this airplane actually had TVs that worked. Finally, for goodness sakes, United, are you kidding me? I felt so good about the Saturday of college football, I had to put on the Rose Bowl hat. Because I was just like, you know what? Like, this is, so I think this is the first one of the season that I'm actually going back to the Rose Bowl hat.

It is an absolute staple. It's my favorite hat, and I'm wearing it because I think this is going to be my favorite show. And it's at least up to this point, my favorite game to react to and will react to that Bama, Georgia game. I'll get to like, listen, Colorado made a big statement. I thought Penn State played really well. Some things starting to shake out. And we're going to take a look and a little peek into the ACC, including that wild ending to the Miami game on Friday night. So all that coming straight up here on the Joel Clatchio.

Remember to rate and review us wherever you're listening to your podcast. Why don't you do that? By the way, if you would, if you're watching on YouTube, just go ahead and subscribe. Why not? It's easy, and then you're going to be there, and you're going to get all of our content, and it's going to be awesome.

You'd be a lot cooler if you did. And then leave a comment below. It'll be fun, and I'll try to dive down there and get into the comments here in the next few weeks. This game that we get to talk about right now is an absolute treat. I have been waiting all day to record this. I record this on Sunday night. You're listening to it on Monday morning.

And I have been excited to talk about this game since I was watching it. And I mean, you talk about running the gamut of emotions. Bama at home against Georgia, two powerhouses. You get the whole storylines. We talked about it last week. Kaling DeBore, Kirby's smart. Kirby's record against Alabama. Was it just against Nick Saban or was it a Bama problem? All the different angles. And then the game freaking delivered, man. And I got to tell you, it's my favorite thing about this sport is when the game delivers on the hype, what we want, what we hope for, what we dream for.

When the game delivers, it is absolutely perfect. And I thought Saturday night was perfect. So here's what I wanted to do. Like, I'm going to try to go through the reasons of why I thought that was such an amazing game. Okay. So the first one, the first reason or pillar of reasons here is just like the obvious emotional reasons. It was a phenomenal game. The atmosphere was incredible. And it wasn't that the game was being lost as much as it was the game was being won. And all of us intrin—maybe intrinsically is the right word.

I'm not sure if I'm using that right. we gravitate towards these games. I think any sport, by the way, this can be college football, it can be anything. We gravitate towards the games where plays are being made versus not made, right? Sloppy games that are close are not great games to watch,

and they don't get our emotions going like they did on Saturday night because that game was incredible. It was incredible, the plays that were being made and everything that was going on. When you see two really great opponents. And you know that they're really good in their field. And we know this about Alabama and Georgia. We know, in particular after Saturday night, that these are two of the best teams in college

football. And then we get to see what they're made of. That's what I love. That's what I love. I love when you get to see what a team is actually made of deep down in their soul. Do they have any grit? Do they have determination? Do they have resiliency? All these things. And that was tested for both teams on Saturday night. And then they both answered. And it's just like, Chef's Kiss. Like, Bravo. It's like standing ovation. Let's play another quarter. I love it, man. I love it. Freaking love this sport. Again, had to wear the hat. I had to wear the hat because that, it just, it, it rang every single note. It hit every note of why I love this sport. By the way, Brian Denny looked to be incredible. I'm watching on a little freaking TV, 30,000 feet in the air with bad audio in the headset. And I'm just like loving it.

I'm clapping. I'm rooting. I'm rooting for both teams. I'm just plays are being made. I'm like, yeah, the guy next to me thinks I'm an absolute psychopath. It's like, hey, if you were in seat 3E on United from Denver at Orange County on Saturday night, apologies, but I was loving life in 3F. That's right. So that's the emotional reasons. And it's everything that I love about the sport. But more so, it's that you get to see, it's like you peer deep down into the soul of the team, and you get to see, what are you actually made of?

Does your team have some chemistry to it? Does it have some culture to it? Does it have some belief? Does it have some determination? And then when both of them answer that to the affirmative, it's like, oh, it's so good. The only thing that rivals that is like a heavyweight boxing match when both the guys dig down deep.

Wilder Fury kind of was like that. Both of them knock each other down. And you're like, that's amazing. Right. But this was to that level or even more so because both teams just answered the bell. So that's the emotional reasons. Number two, let's get into this. And this is what also makes a great game.

And that's when individuals play their best. When we get the stars answering the call of greatness with great play, that's again, like what I love most about not only this sport, but any sport. and this one was certainly that. Jalen Milrow, nearly 500 total yards of offense and four touchdowns. Hello. Hello, New York for Jalen Milrow. Ryan Williams, 17 years old.

Dude can't even go in and buy himself anything. I mean, what can you do at 17? Nothing. And Ryan Williams is out there making like incredible plays on the biggest stage. Carson Beck answers the bell. plays horrible in the first half, comes back and plays brilliantly in the second half. The defense for Georgia is decimated in the first half. They come back and they play great in the second half.

I loved the individual performances and responses. Even in the second half, when it's not going great from Milro, even though he had a great first half, what do they do? They answer with the big touchdown. And I'm reminded, like, all of us, all of us, when we were kids, We dreamed of doing the things that these guys are doing. And these guys are actually getting to fulfill that. See, this is what's so special is that they're experiencing all of that for the first time.

This is something that maybe it's a unique perspective. I don't know. And maybe you haven't thought about it this way, the way that I think about it. But when I think about these individual performances like Ryan Williams, just like a few years ago, he's just a sophomore in high school. and yeah, he's really good and people are telling him he's got a bright future and he's playing in front of a few thousand people on a Friday night making ridiculous plays in high school. And I get it. He was the state's best player for basically his whole career in high school in Alabama. But like he's just dreaming of this moment. And in the back of your mind as an athlete, and this is where like I can talk from some experience on this is like you have this question in your mind like, will I be able to answer the bell? will I be able to go to that level? When greatness is asked of me,

will I be able to respond with greatness? And even guys like Ryan Williams or Jalen Milrow or Carson Beck or any of these players that are highly recruited, it's still a question in their mind. They have confidence and belief in themselves, but you don't know what's going to happen in those moments. And so when you get to see them perform on those moments and see this sheer joy in the face of these,

these athletes, when for the first time in their lives, they're experiencing something that they've dreamt of, strive for, and worked for forever. It's just special. And so all those individual performances, man, this is what makes it great. And this is what I absolutely love. And don't worry, I'm getting to all these teams. This is just what I loved about the game on Saturday night. I wanted to go kind of crazy just about all this, because let's just remember why we love this sport. And all of these are the reasons. And then the third reason for me, you've got the emotional reasons, you've got the teams, you've got the grittiness factor of it, you got all of that, right? All the environment of everything that we love about college football.

You've got these players greatness, meeting greatness in terms of individual performances. And then there's this third one. And you guys might have already thought about and known and felt and you understand what those first two are just being sports fans. But then there's this third one that I think is specific to college football. And I think is actually like the point I'm. most excited about, about Saturday night. And that is that you've got two teams on the field that clearly can both win a national championship and simultaneously get beat any Saturday within reason. Think about it. Think about it. If Georgia plays like they do in the first half

against Tennessee, against Texas, they'll get beat. If they play like they do in the second half, they'll win the national championship. And the same can be said for Alabama. If they play like they did in the first half, man, those first like 18, 20 minutes of that game, it was incredible. They'll win the national championship. No one can withstand what they were doing in the first 19, 20, 24 minutes of game time. They just can't.

Then the second half, they went away. They play like that. They might get beat. Maybe Tennessee beats them. I don't know. Maybe Oklahoma beats them. I'm not totally sure, but they couldn't get beat. So you have to understand in college football,

I think even more so than in the NFL, is that you have, even with the great teams, high highs and low lows. And we saw both of those from each team in the same game. And you don't always get to see that. You know, a lot of times in college football, we just see blowouts or we see sloppy play, allow people to come back and so on and so forth. But I thought what you saw is a real clear picture of what makes this sport great.

And even to my point about what I've been saying about this point in history that we're at, it's deeper than it's ever been because these two teams, both of them, they could easily win the national championship. and they could easily get beat two more times in the season. And I think that that's great for the sport. I think it's great for the sport. We saw the high highs from each of these teams, and they were incredible. And we saw the low lows.

We did. They were there. The warts that were kind of following these teams into this game, they appeared. And the others took advantage of those warts. And so you've got this idea and this theory that both of these teams are great and yet beatable at any moment. And that's the truth for all of these teams. That's the truth for Texas.

That's the truth for Ohio State. That's the truth for Tennessee. That's the truth for Alabama. That's the truth for Georgia. And I think those five teams are kind of the five best teams. By the way, that's going to be true about Penn State. That's going to be true about Oregon. That's going to be true about any of these teams that we start talking about in the top 10.

You know, when you talk about the top 10, because Alabama gets the biggest and best win of the season, and I put them at number one. But that doesn't mean that there wasn't some holes there or some warts shown. Here's my top 10 that I unveiled on Saturday night. I went Bama 1 because of the win. They deserve to be number one. I went with Texas at number two over Ohio State

because Texas has a better resume than Ohio State right now. I think those two teams are elite teams. I think Tennessee, with their road win over Oklahoma, gets to be at number four because Georgia lost a football game and they go at number five. Penn State then at six, Oregon at seven. Miami goes all the way back down. They were at four last week for me, but that win against Virginia Tech win, air quotes. I'll get to that later.

Miami goes down to eight. Mazoo jumps back up into nine. And to be quite honest with you, after you get past six, seven right there, it starts to be a real crapshoot. We definitely have a clear top five teams in the country, I think. And I think Tennessee has joined that top five. And then you start to have some questions, although Penn State looks pretty good, and then Oregon at their best, you would expect they can play with any of those teams up high. So there's the top 10.

So it leaves us with this question then. I went through the reasons. I've got the three reasons, just the emotional reasons of why I love college football in that environment and that game. The individual reasons of why I love college football, seeing these guys star when greatness is asked and greatness is then performed. And then you've got this idea that both of these teams can win it all and get beat at any moment, which I think is fantastic. And so now you get to ask the question, what do we think about these two teams coming out of that game? Okay. Now it gets a little bit more interesting.

And this is why I did not want to start with this. because what I'm about to say, I think is more controversial than what I just said. I think everybody tracks with the three reasons that I just said about celebrating what was an incredible game. Because it was. Now, if you ask me about the two teams coming out of the game, we get over the emotional high of the game,

and we sit down and we think to ourselves, okay, let's put ourselves in Kirby Smart Shoes. Let's put ourselves in Kayland DeBoer. shoes, Carson Bex shoes, Jalen Milrose shoes. And to me, to be quite honest, it's actually a pretty obvious conclusion. Now, it might not be obvious to everybody, but to me, it kind of stood out as I'm evaluating this game. And that is, I feel better about Georgia than I do about Alabama coming away from that game. I get it, Alabama 1, which is why I've rewarded them with that top spot in my rankings. But I also believe that in this sport, and candidly in life, but in this sport in

particular, the cream generally rises to the top. So if you asked me about any sort of game, I will tell you that the more snaps that are played, the more times that you play, the more opportunities that you get, generally speaking, the odds are going to favor the better team. So as time goes on, what you will see is one team start to become a better team or reveal that they are the better team than the other. I believe that's what was starting to happen in the second half. Now, if you're an Alabama fan, you are going to be incensed that I have this opinion. And absolutely, you deserve to feel that way because you won the football game.

And keep in mind what I said, if Alabama plays well at their ceiling, there is no doubt that they can win the national championship. there is no doubt in my mind. However, as the game went along, what you got was you got over the emotion of the first quarter and a half. You got over the emotion of the environment. And what I saw in the second half was a defense in Georgia, figure out the offense in Alabama. What I saw in the second half was a team in Georgia start to pick apart the weakness that I actually talked about that Alabama has, which is their secondary. And so that's why I'm sitting here.

And if I'm Carson Beck, I'm sitting here on Sunday and I'm thinking to myself, please get me another chance at that game. Please, just get me Bama. I don't care. I'll play him in the parking lot. I just want one more quarter, one more snap. I just, we just ran out of time. That's what I'm feeling if I'm Carson Beck and Kirby Smart for that matter.

Because the defense had largely figured them out until that long, ridiculous play from Ryan Williams, which was sensational. on the flip side, if I'm Alabama, I'm like, man, we kind of escaped. They had us. They had us. They were coming back. We couldn't do anything. We weren't doing anything offensively.

Maybe we got too conservative, or maybe they kind of figured us out a little bit. They hemmed in our run game. They kept Jalen Milrow from getting the edge. And now all of a sudden you're starting to think to yourself like, I don't want to have to do that again. Can we beat them again? I don't know, man. Can we replicate that first? half again. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. You take a look at this and you look at what happened in that

game. Beck took some shots in that second half and it started to pay off. And I thought that the secondary was where Alabama was vulnerable and sure enough, 17 passes were over 20 yards downfield. 17, 14 of them in the second half. They saw it. They saw the weakness that I saw in the film and they they said, we're going downtown. 14 passes traveled 20 yards or more in the second half. Most by a quarterback in the Kirby Smart era. Now, you only completed five of the 17, but they were all in the second half. And there were a couple of drops, by the way, even early in that game,

that probably could have stemmed the tide of what was going on with the momentum early in that game. Beck dropped a couple of beautiful passes deep down the field early, and they were dropped. Meanwhile, there's Bama's defense, and that secondary is going to be an issue moving forward. they're going to have to go play Tennessee. Tennessee's going to take shots down the field. They gave up six plays of at least 30 yards. And the only other time that that's happened in the last 10 years, last year's Texas loss. So I think that there's an issue there. And that's why I feel a bit better about Georgia coming out of that game than I do about Alabama.

I think that the only thing that gives me a little bit of pause is that Georgia has a much different, much more difficult road to hoe in the SEC than Alabama does. So Georgia's remaining SEC schedule is going to be Auburn, Mississippi State. Those aren't going to be terrible, but then they've got to go to Texas, Florida, which would be fine, at Ole Miss, which is not easy, and then Tennessee. So going to Texas is going to be incredibly difficult. I have Texas rated higher, or excuse me, as high as Alabama. They're two. Alabama's one in my rankings.

So now Georgia's going to have to go and do that all over again, and that place is going to be on fire. Meanwhile, Alabama's remaining schedule is not as difficult because they don't have to play Texas. So they've got to go to Tennessee. I think that's a game that Tennessee might win. Missouri, they have to play Missouri. They've got to go to LSU and they've got to go to Oklahoma. So nothing easy, but because they avoid Texas, it's a little bit, I would say, easier than Georgia. The one thing that Bama has in their back pocket here is the fact that without divisions, Georgia can't just say like, oh, we'll be fine, we'll win the East and we'll get to Atlanta.

There's a chance now based on what happens with the rest of the teams in the SEC that Georgia can't even get back to Atlanta, even if they were to win all of their games. Now, if they went out because they would get a win against Tennessee and Ole Miss has already lost, that would be a second loss for Ole Miss. they likely will go to Atlanta, but it's not a guarantee. It's not a guarantee. Let's move on to the Big 12, because I thought what happened in the Big 12 was pretty wild when you think about it. And I get a lot of people that roll their eyes and they're like, stop talking about Colorado.

But Colorado beat UCF 4821. And it's like, wow. You know, so they roll out a 27-point victory. By the way, as 15-point dogs. So, guys, we're talking about like an incredible 40-plus margin over Vegas for Colorado. And it was the most complete game that they have played probably in decades. I mean, as you know, I've been a Colorado fan played there, and that was as complete a game as Colorado has played in decades.

On the road, 4821. They were 15-point dogs. That's pretty wild. And then you start looking around the Big 12, and you're like, hold on a second. Utah lost. Arizona has lost even though it's not in a conference game, but they've lost and did not look good against Kansas State.

Oklahoma State has now lost twice. Kansas State has lost. So the three teams, Utah, Oklahoma State and Kansas State, that we felt like we're going to be the cream of the crop in the Big 12 all have losses. And now you're sitting there with teams like Colorado, Iowa State, BYU, even Texas Tech, you can throw them in there. And yes, Arizona, because technically they're undefeated in conference play, but they're undefeated in conference play.

So the Big 12 is kind of flipped. And now because of those performances, in particular, Arizona going to Utah and beating them up on Saturday night, now you go back to the Colorado game. So now you go back to this complete victory and this wild margin over Vegas where your 15-point dogs and you win by 28 on the road. And you run the ball well for 128 yards. You only allow two sacks. and the defense held UCF nearly 200 yards under their rushing average. 200 yards. They came in averaging 375 yards on the ground, number one in college football,

and they gained 177 yards on the ground. Like Colorado forced four turnovers. They had five sacks with their defensive front. They were good on special teams. They performed in every area. See, this was not a side show. folks. This was not a marketing experiment. No, no, no. This Colorado team, if they play like that, can beat anybody in the Big 12.

You see, there was this sliver of me in the offseason that was like, boy, if they can just get better, if they're better at the offensive line, if they can get a little bit better on defense, then it's real. And in that conference, you can win eight or nine games and maybe you can compete for the conference. But I'm just telling you, as I just told you with Alabama and Georgia, When teams have high highs and low lows, anything is possible. And what Saturday did for Colorado was raised their ceiling. Colorado's ceiling is much higher now than it was before they played UCF. They still have Travis Hunter and Shador Sanders.

Those guys performed as you would expect them to perform. Travis Hunter, 128 snaps wild. Nine catches for 89 yards. So his streak of five straight games with 100 yards receiving actually ends, but he still has 89. yards and a touchdown and then had a ridiculous interception on defense. And Brock and Kevin Cougler, who called the game on Fox, they were talking about the Heisman trophy and how many losses or too many losses.

Well, here's the thing that I thought got lost in that conversation just a little bit, is that if Colorado played like that, they could beat anybody else on their schedule. Now, I'm not suggesting that they will play to their ceiling in every single week. I don't believe that they will play to their ceiling every single week. Why? Nobody in college football does. It is so rare. It is so rare. So all that Colorado did is raise their ceiling. I think that we can now increase our potential expectations of what Colorado is in the Big 12.

Shadour was excellent, 80%, 290 yards, three touchdowns. He made the one early mistake and they bounced right back. It was the complete. effort that everybody has been just kind of like dying for that's a Colorado fan and everybody that is a naysayer, if you're a Dion Hater, Saturday was awful for you. Awful. And it's not just because Colorado won. It's the way in which they won.

It was the fact that they were more fundamentally sound, that they had better effort, that they were more physical, that they were better coached in the special teams. It was an all-out victory for Colorado, which all of a sudden makes them a threat in the Big 12. And every hater of Deon Sanders, that is their worst nightmare for Deon to actually put a product on the field that is not just flash but legitimate. Because what Saturday was for Colorado was legitimate. It's not just the watches and the clicks

and all the stuff and all the marketing. They're brilliant at that, yes, but Saturday was real. Saturday was a real bona fide team with now a high ceiling that can be anybody left on their schedule, and this is what their schedule looks like. They've got an off week next week. Then they're going to be home to Kansas State, which all of a sudden becomes a massive game. Massive game. If you can beat Kansas State at home, if you're Colorado, you could win the conference because it's like, well, who, who is it that you couldn't beat in that conference? You see where I'm going with this? Now, am I saying that they're going to go to

the playoff or they're going to win the national championship? No. But Saturday did something to the entire paradigm of the Big 12, and it totally shifted it. When Arizona handles Utah at home, when K-State has already been beaten, when Oklahoma State has been beaten twice, and Colorado goes as a 15-point dog and wins by 28 on the road against a team that was leading the country in rushing yards, it changes the entire conference. So they got an off week. They're home to Kansas State.

Then they're at Arizona, home to Cincinnati, at Texas Tech, home to Utah, at Kansas and then Oklahoma State at home. Not easy. And they might lose four more of those because I think their floor is still fairly low. And we saw that against Nebraska. But if they can sit in the upper echelon of their potential, then there's no reason that they can't play really competitively

in every single one of those games and probably win at least. I'll be really surprised if they don't win at least three. probably more like four, which puts them at eight wins. And if they play even a little bit better than that, in particular on defense, with the effort that we saw on defense, they might get to nine. That's exactly what I said in the preseason.

I'll tell you, man, that big 12 changed dramatically on Saturday, dramatically on Saturday. And it really, the impetus to the change happened in the bounce house down in Orlando with Colorado. in the Big Ten, nothing really changed in the Big Ten, but we are starting to see, you know, some of the forests through the trees, if you will, in the Big Ten. And you're starting to see it more clearly. And part of that is that this question before the year,

at least at the top of the conference, for a lot of us, was, is Penn State really going to take the next step? Are they really going to get over this hump and put a product on the conference? field that could potentially challenge the top end of the conference. Because even though they've played right below Ohio State and Michigan the last couple of years, and the games were fairly competitive, they didn't win them. And it wasn't, like, Michigan and Ohio State respect Penn State.

There's no doubt. But they were never in a position where they felt like, oh, man, like, we've got to go play Penn State. now it might be different because what I saw on Saturday from the Nittany Lions was a really thorough beating of Illinois. And that's an Illinois team that I was impressed with. Remember, Illinois comes into State College on Saturday night with two ranked wins in their resume. They had beaten Kansas, which was ranked, which doesn't look great now, but at the time I thought looked good. They beat Nebraska on the road in that hostile Friday night environment. And then now they go to Happy Valley.

and I thought Penn State just kind of handled them. The score 217 was not indicative of the game. I thought Penn State handled the line of scrimmage. Their run game was really good. Nick Singleton looks like the true freshman version of Nick Singleton. The defense was flying around as you would expect them to fly around. We're seeing a clip on YouTube right now, Abdul Carter. He is an absolute manchild, whether he's rushing the quarterback, whether he's in coverage,

they got turnovers. They're athletic. Like Penn State to me looks like the team I've always hoped Penn State would be. The offense is throwing the ball down the field. You start studying them on tape and you're like, okay, this is the drowler that I was hoping to see last year. The run game is more explosive. Andy Codalnicki at Offensive Coordinator, it's starting to work. In fact, if they were better in special teams, that game probably should have been like 30 to 7, not 21-7, somewhere around.

Probably 30 to 7 because they missed two field goals. And then because their field goals struggles, they went forward on a fourth down when they should have kicked another field goal. So that's three possessions that they march into scoring range don't get points and they still win 21-7. And like I said, Illinois was a physical team and a team that I thought was kind of up for the challenge. I thought and I thought they played hard and well for. for a while, but just got overwhelmed by a very good team.

So now all of a sudden, you've got Penn State up there, and you're like, okay, well, Penn State is a team that I think can challenge. Now, they can challenge up there. And remember, they don't have to play Oregon. They don't have to play Michigan. They do have to play Ohio State, and that's going to be a monster game. That one's at home, by the way, November 2nd. Defense has been outstanding.

Another team at the top, and I'll talk about it because I did the game, but is Michigan. And now Michigan is just like every week I feel like there's more questions than answers. And I do that game against Minnesota on Saturday. They win at 2724. Similarly to the Bama Georgia game in the first half, it looks like they're going to run away and hide. And then it becomes painfully obvious to anybody that is a Michigan fan that if Michigan is outside of their perfect blueprint,

they're at risk of being beat. Like, Michigan cannot overcome mistakes at all. So they have no margin for error. None. That doesn't mean they're not a good team. Okay. So again, let's go back to what do we know of college football? High highs, low lows.

And right now, I think there is a question about how high, how high Michigan's high is, and the lows are starting to become like, ooh, like, oof, that fourth quarter was rough against Minnesota. They were very lucky to escape, I thought, Saturday with a win. The call on the onside kick, that was the wrong call. That was not offside. Minnesota should not have been flagged for the offside. Now, I do think that there was probably an illegal touch in there.

So I don't know, like, if that actually goes to review, if that flag doesn't come out and it goes to review, is that ball touched before the 45-yard line? I think it is. Does that see, like you're watching it on YouTube right now? You see it's actually kind of touched right there right before the 45? That's more in question to me. the offside was a bad call.

So Michigan is fortunate in a lot of ways. It didn't go to a replay. They didn't have to sit there and sweat a replay that was questionable. And now you start to look at this margin for Michigan. Think about what Michigan did. They got two short fields on offense and they were able to score. And the defense played great in the first half. And you look up and they've got this great.

lead. They've created turnovers and the defense is playing well, and it's 21-0, and they can't put them away. And why can they not put them away? They can't drive the ball to score. Let me take a quick drink of tea here. So they can't drive the ball down the field to score. If you looked at the way that they scored against USC, it was long runs. And if you look at what they did against Minnesota, it was the beneficiary of great field position. All five touchdown drives with Orgy as their quarterback, and that goes back to USC, has either been a long run in the series or a short field. So they have yet to prove that with this style and a lack of passing game, that they can

drive the football down the field. Now, I'm not going to penalize them because they create explosive run place. That's not what I'm trying to do. I am trying to say, though, like, if somebody takes that away from them, how do they march the ball down the field? And the answer is that they can't. So you see, like, if the explosions are not there, guess what they can't do? They can't create first downs. And when they can't create first downs, what do they do?

They expose their defense to more snaps. And when they expose their defense to more snaps, what also gets exposed? the lack of depth as compared to last season on their defense. So now all of a sudden the defense gets tired. Minnesota starts using tempo, and now they don't have an answer. That's why there's no margin. If they don't create big runs or create short fields, Michigan's going to get beat.

Okay? So like this is a team with no margin for air, and when the defense got tired against, by the way, both the last two weeks. USC and Minnesota, they gave up both games. Three in the first half, 21 in the second. Why? Because the offense can't sustain drives. They can't sustain drives because they cannot throw the football.

All right. And like, I know there were some things there. Alex Orgy missed some thought. He had Donovan Edwards on a wheel route. Should have hit him. Same play that he threw the interception. And listen, like, that's going to have to get corrected. It's going to have to get corrected.

So Michigan playing with very little margin right now. And because of that, in good conscious, like, they're not a threat in the Big Ten. Not to Ohio State or really even Penn State or an Oregon team that has shown a really high ceiling when they beat Oregon State. Like, that margin is going to have to change. They're going to have to prove that they can drive the football down the field because driving the football down the field is their blueprint. They've got to remove those snaps from the defense. Meanwhile, up in East Lansing, Jeremiah Smith was going bonkers. I talked about Ryan Williams and how special he was at the beginning of this show,

the freshman receiver for Alabama, and he is special. Jeremiah Smith is wild. This guy, like, folks, he had two of the best catches that we're going to see in the entire season in college football. He now has six total touchdowns in the first five games of his career. The guy is absolutely insane. He is physically the most gifted person on the football field every time he's on the field. He's fast. You saw that on the end around, which you're watching on YouTube right now,

just takes off for a touchdown. He's got incredible body control. He's a great worker. He's got a phenomenal attitude. and his hands are unreal. Let me just put it to you this way. If I'm a GM right now, and in college football, GMs are like, this is all the rage because you've got to put together a roster.

If I'm putting together a roster right now in college football, and someone tells me, hey, you get the first pick of wide receivers. Any wide receiver in the country, you can put them on your team. I would sit back and be like, wow, embarrassment of riches, because they're like incredible players out. there. Incredible players. Jeremiah Smith is my pick. If I have the first choice of any receiver in the country right now to draft onto my team, it's Jeremiah Smith. All due respect to these other great ones, and they are great. Luther Burden is phenomenal. Tetaroa McMillan

is phenomenal. Ryan Williams is phenomenal. Jeremiah Smith is different, guys. He is totally different. In a school that just produced first rounder after first rounder after first rounder, and these guys that are excelling and dominating at the NFL level, he's better than all of them. And it's blowing my mind. It's blowing my mind. He is the best player on the field every time he walks out there. And he's proving that out. It's not just like, hey, wait until you see it. It's just like, just watch. Just watch. And it's not just highlights, man. I'm telling you.

Oh, gosh. So that's going on in the Big Ten. Someone's going to have to deal with that. By the way, that's on the outside of an offense that also has Quinn Sean Judkins and Travion and Henderson with Chip Kelly calling the place. Okay. So, yeah, so Ohio State is good.

Elsewhere in the Big Ten, by the way, USC, that was a gutsy win for USC. So the Trojans, they score the final 28 points and come back to beat Wisconsin 3821, and they overcame turnovers. That's big for them. It's their first big 10 win. This is a solid moment for them. That's a game at Michigan that they feel like they should have won.

And candidly, they probably should have. They didn't. They go back, play terrible in the first half, high ceilings, low floors, been talking about it all show long, and they overcome those turnovers. They score the final 28, and they win. Don't look now, but you know who else is rolling in the Big Ten? Kurt Signetti and the Indiana Hoosiers, Greg Shiano, and the Rutgers Knights. These two teams are undefeated and playing great football.

Indiana improved a 5-0 with a win over Maryland. They're now, wait for it. Indiana is ranked 23rd in the AP poll. Rutgers beat Washington on Friday night, 21-18 to move to 4-0 on the year, and they've got the easiest schedule of anybody in the Big Ten. They don't play any of the top teams. So watch out for Ruckers to have a pretty solid year. They're 4-0 now. I think Ruckers could easily get to eight wins, maybe nine wins.

And Greg Shiano is building the program again in that location for the second time that is quite impressive. So good on them. Had to mention those two teams, they don't get a lot of run on our show. But Indiana, I think that we're going to get a game with Indiana here coming up. And we might even go to Ruckers in a couple of. couple of weeks because of the way that they've played, again, 4-0, Goodwin over Washington. And then in the ACC, I would be remiss if I didn't at least comment on what's going on in the ACC because for a couple of weeks, and I'm certainly been leading this train, I've been saying

the ACCC is a one-team deal. And Miami is the deal and Cam Ward is the guy. And no one's as good as them. I put Cam Ward in Miami all the way up into my top five for a couple of weeks. And then I watched that game on Friday night. And I'm like, holy, low floors. Again, we get to this truth in college football, and you as fans know it. If you don't play your best, you can be beat in particular in conference, even at home. And that's certainly the case with Miami. Their defensive front was not up to par on Friday night. And I had to move him way back. I still think Cam Ward is incredible. And if I had to vote for a Heisman right now, he would be on my list of three. He would. I think. I think he's

I think Jalen Milrow would be on there, and probably Travis Hunter would be on there as well. He's great. The team played really poorly around him. And he played his worst game and then just kind of willed him back and ended up winning the game. However, however, can we talk about that call at the end? I mean, do any of us really trust that Virginia Tech didn't catch that Hail Mary in the back of the end zone? I know that it gets kind of lost because it was on Friday night and then we got that epic. game on Saturday night between Georgia and Alabama. Heck, it took up the first 20 minutes of this show.

Folks, one, I don't know how you just signal touchdown that late. People are celebrating. Is it a touchdown? And all of a sudden, his arms just kind of go up. Like, no one's going to see him. Touchdown? Almost like it was a question. I'm Ron Burgundy. So now it's a touchdown. It's like, well, we got to review it. then they overturned the Ron Burgundy touchdown? And then it's like, overruled? It's like, hold on, hold on. How did both of those calls get made?

I think both of them are probably wrong. It's probably not a catch, but you can't overturn it if that's the way it's called. I think it was all wrong. And it calls into question, by the way, what I've been banging on for a long time it's like, why do we have conference officials and not national officials? Because it just, it at least can bring up the element of a conflict of interest.

And I'm not suggesting that there's a conflict of interest here, but in a day and age and when, which conferences are like highly competitive with each other for spots in a playoff, for revenue, for all of it, all of it, right? They're just highly competitive with each other. And now all of a sudden you get your officials and your replay center. involved in a call with the team that is your highest ranked team, that's a conflict of interest. This is why we should change the way that we have officials slated and governed in college football. It should be a national officiating body in college football.

So after Friday night, Miami plays like that and I'm like, well, geez, what's going on? Well, hold on. Aha, where's the spoon? Where's the spoon? The spoon is Clemson. Clemson quietly is sitting there and all of a sudden, here's Clemson. and they're just getting better, and they're getting better, and they're like a slow boil, folks. Okay? Were they boiling against Georgia? Nope. They were just a still pot of water.

But guess what? At 210 degrees, nothing happens. At 12 degrees, you can power a locomotive. And all of a sudden, Clemson is starting to bubble. And they're starting to bubble. And this offense is starting to bubble. And Kate Klubnick is starting to bubble. And Garrett Riley. And now all the sudden dab on, he doesn't need it. transfers and its work and the culture and the family and we're all in and all of a sudden we're bringing our own guts and guess what? It's starting to bubble. Now all of a sudden, the ACC becomes a little bit more interesting because now I think it's a two-team race. And you can't convince me that if they played right now that Clemson wouldn't beat Miami after what I saw on Friday night, high highs, low lows. I understand. I saw a low, low from Clemson.

We saw it early and so that's what we thought that they were. And we say, said, nope, you're out. We're done with you. Clemson, you don't get transfers. Nope, absolutely not. And we said, you are your low, low. But in reality, it's college football. And there's some level above that. And we're starting to see that level above it. And it might be higher than even Miami's. Now, Miami, I think, still has the better quarterback. I just now think it's a two, a two team race in the ACC. Clemson averaging 55 points per game since that lost to Georgia. 212 degrees. Let's go. It's been a slow boil, folks.

Clemson's been on a slow boil. By the way, that 55 since the week one lost to Georgia, Georgia, Georgia, trying to talk fast. It's number one in the country. So nobody's been playing better offense since Georgia smacked them. Now, have they played anybody? Probably not, folks. And you can roll your eyes all you want. But when a team just goes back to work and they get better and better and better, that's what it's all about. That's what it's all about.

We wrote them off. they're back. It's been the slow boil, and now Clemson will forever, at least this season, be the little engine that could. 212 degrees, boiling point of water. That'll do it for today's show. We've got a lot coming up this week. We're going to revisit now after the first month of the season. We're heading into October, which means we've got to start peeking at the playoff here a little bit and revising maybe some of our predictions of who might be in the playoff, who's the first four out, maybe the next four after that, and starting to take shape here as we've got conference play starting to open up. And I tell you what, these games get better and better in particular when we get into conference play.

Remember to subscribe on YouTube. Remember to follow us on social media at Joel Klashow. And remember to come back on Wednesday because we're going to have a great show then as well. Have a blessed day, everybody.