The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Alabama survives Texas A&M, Quinn Ewers shines for Texas, Ohio State continues dominance

Episode Date: October 10, 2022

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt shares his thoughts on Alabama’s close win over Texas A&M. Despite an uninspiring effort by the Crimson Tide, Joel was impressed by their ability to get it together late and win the game. Then, Joel discusses Texas’ impressive win over their rival Oklahoma and Quinn Ewers’ strong performance. Next, Joel breaks down why USC and UCLA have impressed this season before moving on to Ohio State’s dominant win over Michigan State. Finally, Joel discusses his takeaways from calling Michigan’s win over Indiana on Saturday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I meditated this morning. I tried to follow JJ's routine. I feel great. So you guys, I say give it a try. Okay. Joel, we got to meditate a little bit that half time. Okay. I mean, I'm a little high strong. I don't know how to do that. But you guys already knew that. Yeah. I wish everybody could have seen Gus's face when I said, I'm a little high strung, but you already knew that. He nodded. I mean, he's just like, yeah, yeah. You think? Hey, welcome into the show, everybody. Man, I love doing this show. I'm glad you are here with me. I'm Joel Clatt. This is the Joel Clatt show.

And this is now my favorite thing to do is this podcast and just talk college football with you. So I appreciate you joining me. And lots to get into from what turned into, I guess, by days end, a fairly interesting and wild day of college football. And aren't they all? But it really was. it really was a fantastic day at college football. And there were a lot of outcomes that we could see coming. There were some teams that made some statements, which we'll get into.

There was a wild finish in Tuscaloosa, which we'll get into. A horrendous play call to end that game. And I will tell you why Texas A&M should be feeling much dejection and why I know exactly how you feel. So let's get things started, folks. We're going to talk about Alabama. We're going to talk about the LA schools. We're going to get into that.

We're going to talk about Texas, Ohio State, Michigan. We got all that reaction coming straight at you. Let's get started and let's start with Alabama. King gets a snap. Time throws. It is incomplete. Zero's on the clock. That's exactly right.

Let's get out of here. Alabama survives, really. When you really boil it down, Alabama survives. And good for them. And I think it would be very easy. for me to come in here and start lobbing grenades at Alabama. It really would because they were sloppy. You know it and I know it.

They didn't play their best game. Obviously, Bryce Young is not out there and that has a lot to do with it. But even aside from that, they didn't play their best game. Four turnovers, two miss field goals. I thought too many penalties. Overall sloppiness. And I think Nick Sabin realized that it was going to be going that way. But I'm not going to sit here and live.

lob the grenades because you know what? They won the game. So you take away a Heisman trophy winner from Alabama. You say you're going to turn the ball over four times, miss two field goals in a conference game, and what do you think? And by the way, on two of those turnovers, the opponent is going to have a short field and score. You'd be like, they might lose this one. They might lose it. But they didn't. But they didn't. And I that that's important. And I'm going to give Alabama props because they won essentially a prize fight with one hand tied behind their back. And that's not easy to do. And I don't think that there's many teams in the country that could do that. So they go out there without Bryce Young

and they ran the ball 51 times. 51. Extraordinary. And A&M knew what was coming. They knew where was going. They knew who was getting it. Jamir Gibbs was really good, by the way. I mean, he's an outstanding back. Outstanding back. I love watching him run. He's got great vision and burst. He's smooth as a runner. Really love watching him run. But they ran it 51 times as a team. And you'd think like if you're one-handed and you're not like an academy running the option and you're going to run it 51 times, it's like, it'd be hard to find a ton of success. because at some point the defense is just going to commit all of their resources to trying to stop you. And that's not really what happened.

And Alabama was able to just sit in that pocket of running the football, not the pocket for a quarterback, but the pocket of just like the play calling situation, and run it to the tune of over five and a half yards per carry. I mean, that's pretty dominant. So tip of the cap to the Alabama offensive line, tip of the cap to Bill O'Brien, who did not get bored, taking a profit. He didn't get bored with success. I've always said, by the way, and I think that there are very few really good play callers out there. Great play callers, they do not get bored with the simplicity of success. When you're having success, stay there until the opponent takes you out of it. And more times than not, you'll find that you can just continue to have that same success,

and that's exactly what Alabama did. Like I said, it was ugly. but you get the win. And from A&M's perspective, this is why A&M's got to feel so dejected, is that everything went their way. They were able to go to Alabama, which is not an easy place to win, obviously. Like, it's almost ridiculously impossible

to win in Alabama. If you want to get Bama, you need to get them on the road where they haven't played quite as well as they have at home. And we've documented that on the show. So they get them, if you're going to beat them in their place, Well, you'd love it to be without Bryce Young, right? Okay, so check.

They get that. You'd love for them to play sloppy, check. You'd love for them to give you a few gifts. Four turnovers, check. You'd love for their special teams to start making a few mistakes here and there. Two miss field goals, check, check. And now all of a sudden you're sitting there and you've got a chance to win and you still didn't win. That's a problem for A&M.

A&M is not a very good football team at this point. And let me tell you why I know exactly how they feel. Exactly how they feel. When I was playing a minor league baseball, we were fortunate enough, I was fortunate enough, to be on a team that was playing in an extended spring training situation. So I was down in Phoenix. I was playing in the Padres organization.

And we were going to go play the Cubs across town. So they're in Mesa. We were over in Peoria and we get in the vans, you know, like the Econo 450 vans that could drive like 12 people. If any of you, like, grew up in a church, you know exactly what I'm talking about, right? So the church vans. So we had minor league church vans, and we're taking them across Phoenix. And so we go across Phoenix over to Mesa, Arizona. And we go to Mesa, Arizona, and guess who's the starting pitcher for the Cubs extended spring training team? No fans in the

stance, right? We're just over there in a middle. This is literally like, inner squad type of stuff. It's Mark Pryor. Mark Pryor. Those of you old, enough to know exactly what I'm talking about, know that he was a dominant major league pitcher. So Mark Pryor, and this is, by the way, after he's already established himself as a great starter in the big leagues, and he started to get injured. And so Mark Pryor is going to make a rehab start in Mesa, Arizona, an extended spring training against the San Diego Padres farm system. There's your boy.

I'm sitting there and guess what? I'm pumped, man. I can't wait to hit him against Mark Pryor. I cannot wait. And we learn that Mark Pryor on this rehab start is only going to throw, I think it was 55. I want to say that. It was 55 pitches that he was going to throw. But here was the kicker.

Mark Pryor was only going to throw fastballs. That's it. So here we, I'm like, boom, got him. Here we go. Check, check. I'm a fastball hitter. This is going to be amazing. And so there I am, I'm on deck and I'm like, I cannot wait.

to hit off of this dude. I don't care that his cabs are as wide as my hips. Like, I don't care. I don't care if it's smooth and he's got an exploding fastball. I'm just going to dial it up and I'm going to be up. I hit, you know, straight ball very much. And I he woke, guys, I walked up to the plate with all the confidence of Barry Bonds. And I walk up there and he throws his first pitch. I swear to God I didn't see it. It was just like, what? Just, hits the glove. Strike one. I was like, oh crap.

And that's exactly what Texas A&M felt at Alabama on Saturday night. They know Bama's going to run. And then they sat there and they watched Jamir Gibbs run the football. And they thought, oh, crap. They got the turnover and scored and they're still down. And they thought, oh, crap. So there I am. I'm down 0 and 1.

I'm like, okay, I better gear this up. Let me get my foot down just a little bit sooner. Huh. Strike 2. I haven't taken the bat off my shoulder. I'm thinking to myself, man, I know he's just throwing a fastball. I better gear myself up and at least foul this thing off. And so sure enough, third pitch, I put my foot down early.

I take a big old swing, swing right through it, whiff, swing and a miss. Your boy struck out on three pitches to Mark Pryor, who was only throwing fastballs. Walked back to the dugout, sat down, took my helmet off, and I thought to myself, I probably need an education. and it wasn't too long after that that I walked on at the University of Colorado. I realized that it wasn't for me. And right now, the Aggies this year, it ain't for you. Not when you go in there and you know they're one-handed and they turn it over four times

and they miss two field goals and you throw that performance up, ain't your year. Ain't your year. That's not a very good football team. I'm going to give Bama a lot of credit for doing what they did. They won a conference game. They did it without their starting quarterback. They overcame a lot of miscues. But dang, A&M, that ain't good, man.

And guess what? I feel you. I struck out on three pitches to Mark Pryor, who I knew was just throwing fastballs. All right, next up, let's take a look at Texas. You know, when coach told me, I was going through my mind was really just time to go. And that's pretty much it.

And, you know, I'm grateful for the opportunity he gave me. And, you know, to finally play in this game is really exciting for me. And I know all these guys were pretty excited. But, you know, growing up a fan, I always wanted to play in this one. so it's pretty special. All right, so Quinn Ewers has now made three starts at the University of Texas. And two of them were against Alabama,

the number one team of the country at the time, and in Red River. So, you know, kudos. By the way, Quinn Ewers is sensational. And I'm going to be singing his praises here momentarily. But does he not look like an extra on Yellowstone? Can we all just agree? Like, I feel like he's going to show up

in season five of Yellowstone. And he's going to be like, I don't know, he's going to be like, Rips new project on the ranch, you know? And he's like the new kid at the ranch. I don't know why I thought that way. I mean, you just look at him, you're like, man, he's got the mullet.

He's got kind of the beard, but he's not old enough to have like the mustache with the beard. It's quite the look. It's quite the look. By the way, heck of a player. Heck of a player. He could have probably hit a Mark Pryor fastball. But here Texas is,

and they blow the absolute doors off of a Oklahoma. And first before I get into Texas, because there's a lot to get into for Texas, hey, oh, you, you can't do that in that game. You just can't. That was, you know, I don't want to go overboard, but I mean, that was, that was pathetic to some degree. I thought that they would show more heart than they did, and they didn't. They lose it, what was it, 49-0. They got, Texas put up 585 yards on them. They shut them out. But it was really more about that, right?

We could talk about the game and I could recap what I liked from Texas and what, you know, why OU was in trouble. But really, I thought it was more than that. In particular for Steve Sarkeesian, this Texas team really needed this win. And not just because it was Red River, because it was a big moment and they had been falling short in those moments. You see, for Steve Sarkeesian, his tenure at Texas, which I'm a big believer in,

and if you've listened to this program for any amount of time you know that, I'm a big believer in Sark. I was one of the guys that recommended Sark for this job. And up to this point, it's really been about two things. Potential and disappointment. They've had really good talent

and the potential to win some games that would have meant a great deal. And they haven't. It's been filled with disappointment. They've had the number fifth recruiting class last year in 2022. As far as the team composite goes right now, as it looks at the entirety of your roster, right now they're number six in college football.

And yet, with all that potential came great disappointment. Let me tell you what I mean. Just look at this year. Obviously, the Alabama game is a great disappointment. Not necessarily of their doing. obviously some blown calls. Quinn gets hurt, but they lose the game. Great disappointment.

The Texas Tech loss. They had a lead. They should win that game. They don't. Disappointment. Look at last year. They finished 5 and 7. Don't go to a bowl game.

And you look at four games in which they had leads late and should have won the football game. Kansas, Baylor, Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma. Disappointment. So to this point in Steve Sarkesian's career at Texas at least, it's been about potential and disappointment. And now for the first time, I think, what we saw on Saturday and Red River

was the realizing of the potential. We saw what could be with Texas bubble up to the top. We saw them put it all together, not for a quarter, not for a drive, not for a half, not for three quarters, but for four quarters. In a big moment. That was a big moment for them. They couldn't, they could not do anything.

Listen, 49-0-0 is big, so I don't want to suggest that, like, they had to do that. But they had to win pretty convincingly, in particular with the way that Oklahoma looked in the previous two weeks. Kansas State put it on them at home, and then Max Duggan and the TCU Hornfrogs put it on them the week prior. And they rolled in there, and there you go. Look at what Texas did. 585 yards. So that leads us to just, like, ponder for a moment. How good is Texas?

I don't think Oklahoma is a great team right now. In fact, I don't think they're very good right now. And I think the other guy that would say that is Brent Vincibles, their head coach. They're not a very good team right now. But having said that, Texas annihilated that team. And with Quinn Yorz at quarterback, that looks like a team that is easily a top 8, 6, 5 team in the country. Tell me, I'm wrong. Tell me I'm wrong.

It leads me to believe that that team is one injury away, a shoulder injury away, from being possibly the second or first ranked team in the country. Just ponder that for a moment. I'm not saying that they should be right now. I'm just saying like, that was in the cards for them. If Quinn Ewers does not go down with an injury, they likely beat Alabama and likely don't lose to Texas Tech.

Now, it's hard to say this, and you can't just throw out there like, if that and if that. I understand that. But I am telling you that that team, the way that they play with him at quarterback, they're easily one of the best teams in the country. Absolutely. And the fact that he's now healthy, and they played that well, and everyone got a chance to see that,

and there's metrics out there. And then there are numbers, and there is data out there. there. The fact that the AP voters only put them at 22nd tied with Kentucky is a joke. Is a joke. And by the way, there were some AP voters that didn't even put Texas on their ballot. You should have your vote removed. You should because you have no idea what you're doing. None. It is indefensible to leave Texas off your ballot after we have seen what they are with Quinn yours as their quarterback. Period. Period. 22nd is far too low. Far too low. That's easily, easily. Now listen, I know that you have to, and I'm a big proponent of this. You have to reward teams for what they've

done on the field. So the teams that are undefeated or played well and only have one loss, I get it. You don't want to throw Texas way up there, but tell me that Texas shouldn't be in the top 15 right now. If you're a top 15 team, any of them, by the way, do you want to see Texas right now? absolutely not. Not with their defense playing better and not with Quinn Ewers at quarterback. Not with Quinn Ewer's a quarterback. Just to show you how well they are playing with him at quarterback, check this out. Check this out.

He has been the quarterback for Texas this year in 20 offensive series. Okay, so 20 drives. In those drives, Texas, and by the way, those drives include Red River and Alabama. And granted, I think it was ULM, but he played the worst of the three. restarts that he had in that game. In those 20 drives that yours has been the quarterback, Texas is averaging four and a half points per drive. Now, you might be wondering, is that good? Joel, I don't, I mean, I don't, I don't really know. Well, let me give you this for context. C.J. Stroud, who right now is literally in the driver's seat of one of his

Lambeaus that he's getting an NIL deal for the Heisman trophy race in the best offense in the country at Ohio State. In his drives for Ohio State, they're averaging 4.49 points per drive. So Quinn Uers is actually averaging more points per drive as a quarterback than C.J. Stroud. Mull over that for a moment. So how good is Texas right now? Well, I'm going to leave you with this.

Currently, Texas is the best team in the Big 12. And Quinn Ewers makes them that way. All right. Let's go out west. Let's talk a little L.A. football. What do we got? Ah, USC. Let's start with USC. They get another win. They get another win. And speaking of those rankings, right, the AP poll, let me tell you why I get upset when Texas is just 20 seconds.

And I think that they should be higher. Well, it's because the AP poll matters. And in a sport that is still subjective to some degree, and perception rules the day in a large degree of what we do and how we crown a champion, it matters where teams are ranked. And I think that USC is a great example of that because they faced a team this Saturday at home that was not ranked by one spot. Washington State was ranked just behind LSU. LSU gets the nod, even though they had lost to Florida State and Florida State was right in that mix right around there at 26, 27, you know, 25.

LSU gets the benefit of the doubt. Okay, you know, that's fine. Joel, it doesn't matter. Joel, it doesn't matter. Well, really? Really? Because then when Tennessee rolls in there and plays outstanding, by the way,

Hinden Hooker, I see you. More on that Wednesday. Tennessee beats LSU. Everyone's like, ranked win on the road. That's incredible. That's incredible. They should move up.

They've got to move up. And so they leapfrog U.S.C. who beat Washington State. who was just behind LSU. So does it matter? I would argue it does. And now Tennessee is one spot higher when they play Alabama.

And Alabama, you know, when loser draw is going to get the benefit of Tennessee being one spot higher. So it all makes sense. And it's all cohesive. It's sort of like dominoes, you know? And so you tip over one domino and there's going to be a repercussion later.

So USC is going to fall in the poll, even though they won against Washington State. And this USC team is really good. And I think people are failing to realize that they have managed their weakness, maybe better than anybody in college football. I think we all understood coming into this season that, okay, the transfer of Caleb Williams, Jordan Addison, Travis Die, by the way, die has been fantastic.

And Lincoln Riley, like, they will make the offense good, right away. We understood that. And I think that if you, you know, pay attention to college football at all, you kind of understood that that was going to take place. What we didn't know was like, how good was the defense going to be? Were they going to be good enough? Could they be good enough to win the Pact 12? Could they be good enough to create a playoff run? Maybe. Well, I don't know. Maybe. I don't know. We'll see. Alex Grinch. We'll see what he does. Well, would it shock you to know that USC's got the number one scoring defense in the PAC 12 right now? So, hey, they're doing it.

They're playing around their weakness. And I would argue that they do a better job of anybody of not just playing around it, but actually hiding it. USC hides their weakness better than anybody in the country. And their weakness to me is very clear. It's very clear. And every time I watch them, I can see it plain as day. but the style of game that they play, the offense that they run, the coach that they have,

completely takes that away as a weakness. They mask it. They mask it. What is that weakness, Joel? It's the run defense. If you watch USC for any amount of time, you know that their biggest weakness is the run defense. If you can line up, get big, and actually run the football right at them, they're going to struggle a little bit.

They're 105th in the country right now in terms of. of yards per rush defense. Four and a half. Over four and a half. It's almost 4.6, actually. 105th in the country. Why doesn't that hurt them? Because isn't running the football a big deal? Yeah, it is. It absolutely is a big deal. But the style of football that they play

masks that inefficiency. How? They always play with the lead. That offense and their high-powered nature, Caleb Williams, Jordan Addison, die, Lincoln Riley, how he calls plays, the defense can sit there and they can be aggressive

because they know that the offense is likely going to get them a lead. And they have. And in the one game that they struggled, what did they not have a lead? That's the one game that you can sit there and you can say, man, they were in trouble against Oregon State because they didn't have a lead. If they don't have a lead, they will be in trouble again.

Because the problem is their rush defense is going to be exploited at some point. And once that happens, someone's just going to be able to shove their offense on to their own sideline and say, you stay over there while we hold the ball for 37 minutes. It's going to happen at some point. That's why I'm a little fearful for them

in terms of winning the Pact 12, because there are teams that can do that. The reason that they have been able to have the number one scoring defense in the Pact 12, though, is because once they get that lead, once they play from in front, what the defense can do is that the defense can play to their strengths. That's why they are the nation's leader in interceptions and sacks. So once they get the lead and they make you one-dimensional, they can really get after it. And they become a really good

team and very difficult to beat. But the key is you got to get out on them early and then you got to just take them into deep water. Take them into deep water and get them uncomfortable by just running the football at them, staying on the field with your offense. When that happens, you USC will be in trouble. They have to play with the lead or else they will lose. And there are a couple opponents of opponents down the stretch that can do that. One of them is this week in the Utah Uts. I know Utah has lost twice and now people might be overlooking this game,

but it's the style of game in which is going to be very difficult for USC. Because USC needs to jump out quickly, get clean air, as they say in Ascar, and play from the front. That's what makes their defense decent. have the ability to keep you off the scoreboard. They've got to get picks. They've got to get sacks. The other team that can do that, by the way, UCLA. And so we move right across town as we're talking about L.A. College football. And how about UCLA? That was a tremendous victory over Utah. And it proved a lot of things to me, by the way. Very quietly, nobody is looking at UCLA nationally.

Nobody. And yet, here they are, and they are tough as nails. And this is a team. If you were saying, like, what team in the PAC 12 can actually drag USC into deep water? UCLA. And no one thinks that. Because maybe it's like the powder blues, maybe it's the color of their jerseys. Maybe it's the fact that Chip Kelly is their head coach and you don't associate him with like toughness and line of scrimmage. But that is a really complete team. UCLA is really physical.

They're complete across their entire team. They can run it. They can throw it. they're playing pretty damn good defense right now. And I wouldn't want to play them. I think Dorian Thompson, DTR, I think he's playing the best football in the conference. Now, everyone might be like,

Oh, Caleb Williams. Yeah, Caleb Williams is playing really great. This is not a knock. This is just a tip of the cap to the fact that DTR is playing outstanding. Outstanding football. And he's got a lot of experience in that system. He's got a running back in the backfield with him and Zach Charbonnet that make them very tough.

He's a physical runner. He can get tough yardage. They've got a really good wide receiver in Jake Bobo and a defense, by the way, that's sitting there, they're number two in the Pack 12 and Rush defense. The number two in total defense. Quietly, they've built this team

into a really physical line of scrimmage oriented team that can sit there and win. So if you're looking at a team that can take USC and drag them into deep water, look no further than the team, what, 15 miles from them? UCLA is a team that could absolutely win the Pact 12. If DTR continues to play this efficient and this well, then that's a team that could win the Pact 12

and may make a push to the playoff. They may. And the reason is that they don't have a glaring weakness. USC has to play a certain way and avoid a very certain weakness in order to win. UCLA doesn't have to avoid that. So UCLA, that's a team that I'm looking at that could absolutely be your Pact 12 champ. that's not as easy of a schedule as what USC is going to face, but I can't wait to see how they progress through the year

and how they progress as an offense and a defense in combination. Because as a complete team, they certainly are one of those teams that I think are scary in the PAC-12 conference. All right, let's move on. What do we got next? But yeah, that was a tremendous catch by Marvin. I mean, I was amazed. It was like he jumped up and caught it by his ankles.

I mean, it was just an acrobatic catch by just a tremendously talented player. so it was fun to watch them out there. And I mean, what can you say about somebody who's throwing the ball like that in 20-mile-hour wind? At least it seemed like it was. I mean, it was blowing it a couple times. And for him to throw it that accurately, that was really well done on the road.

All right, Ohio State's really good. Ohio State's really good. Ohio State has, they're my number one team of the country. A lot of people, they got a lot more number one votes, in particular after Alabama struggled. And I told you last week that

with Bryce Young's injury, Ohio State's the number one team. Now, Georgia jumped all the way up there to number one. I don't really know for what reason, but that's fine. I think Alabama is more complete, certainly, than even Georgia. And that might raise some eyebrows, but that's what the data bears out. And just a quick note about what Ryan Day, that was Ryan Day after the win over Michigan State. They housed Michigan State. Michigan State's not a very good football team at all.

They outgained them by 412 yards. in Spartan Stadium. I mean, it's just not a good team. Having said that, though, I mean, C.J. Stroud, I think he was like 20 of 25 for almost 400 yards and five tugs, one interception. They scored touchdowns on seven of their first eight possessions. The only possession that they didn't score a touchdown, they actually threw a pick six. You know, that's the only, they housed Michigan State. It wasn't even close. The last two years has not even been close. C.J. Stroud is not miles, but certainly in the lead right now for the Heisman Trophy, the way that he's playing. Marvin Harrison is a freak, a Buka, a freak. Fleming, a freak. Henderson, a freak. And they don't even have their biggest freak back.

Jackson Smith and Jigba. Like, this is the best offense in the country. It's not quite close, and everyone's going to have to deal with them at some point this year. This Ohio State team is way different than what we've seen over the last couple of years. In the last couple of years, and really since Ryan Day became the offensive coordinator, they've been great on offense. Great. But only one of those years did I think that they were legitimately complete enough as a team,

in particular on defense, to really threaten for the national championship. Now, they played for the national championship in the COVID year, but they had some glaring weaknesses in particular on that defense, and it came up in a huge way against that great Alabama team. in the national championship game. Having said that, this is their best team since 2019, that team that was led by coordinator Jeff Hathley and Chase Young.

Let's see, who was, it was, Damon Arnett was on that team. Jeff Okuda was on that. Keem Fuller was there. I mean, they were really good. They were really good. Trevor Lawrence beat them in the semifinal. That was an epic game.

This team, though, reminds me a little of that team, not quite as dominant on the defensive side, but I think even better on the offensive side. This is a better offense. Right now, I think that, and I've said this, I don't know how many times. That's the best offense in the country. So, Joel, like, where does that leave us?

What does their defense have to do? And I will continue to say this about Ohio State. If they have a top 25 defense, then they can win the national championship. Not that they will, just that they can. Outside of that, it's like, nah, I just don't see it. Remember, because there's only been two teams, really, and you would call it modern college football,

really since the start of the BCS, that has won a national championship without a top 25 defense. That was Auburn with Cam Newton and LSU's Joe Burrow team. So it's rare. It's very rare. And by the way, Joe Burrow, look at his stats that year. I mean, as good as Stroud is, he's not Joe Burrow from 2019.

But you look up at the stats now. And stats aren't, and you can't encapsulate an entire year or a team's chances just based on stats. But, but that one's pretty clear. You better have a defense that is good enough. Good enough for me is top 25. Pretty good is like top 15. And look at where Ohio State sits.

15th right now in the country in scoring defense, number seven in total defense. Do you know who's number eight in total defense right now? I think it might shock you, Georgia. So that means, wait, wait, Joel, Joel, you're telling me that Ohio State right now is one spot above Georgia in total defense, and that's exactly what I'm telling you. I know Missouri is really tough, as Kirby told us.

And listen, Ohio State hasn't played a difficult schedule, and I'm not going to argue that they have. In fact, that was their first road game. They handled it with ease. It's been a very easy schedule. part of the reason it's been very easy is because they've been dominant all over the place. We saw it early.

Even in a game in which their offense wasn't great against Notre Dame, their defense was really good. Seventh and total defense, one spot ahead of Georgia. They're the number one scoring offense in the country, and that's only going to continue. Ohio State, for me, is the most...

Oh, excuse me, look at that. Hit the microphone. Ohio State for me is the most complete team in the country, and that's why for me, they're the number one team in the country. They're the only team that has not shown an absolute stinker of a performance. They're the only ones. Everybody else has, if you're really being honest with yourself.

That leads us to their biggest rival and the team that I saw on Saturday in Indiana, and that's the Michigan Wolverines. So you have to understand, and Michigan fans are growing tired of me, and I understand that. I've done their game for three straight weeks. I'm going to do it again. I've got Penn State this week. Great game.

Can't wait to talk about that. I want on Thursday's episode. Make sure to download that one as well. This Michigan team has to be evaluated through the lens of playing Ohio State in the last week of the season. I'm sorry, but that's just the cross you're going to have to bear.

So if you did not have that lens, I think that you would just sing the praises of Michigan. But the fact remains is that they're going to have to deal with Ohio State at some. point. So what do we know about Michigan? Where are they strong? Where are they weak in light of who they have to play at the end of the year? Now, granted, they beat Michigan last year, or excuse me, they beat Ohio State last year and more power to them. And they did a few things really well that day in particular. They tackled really well. They got after the quarterback really well,

and they ran the rock. And those are things that they're going to have to do again to Ohio state if they want to beat them again this year in the horseshoe. But as it stands, This team currently was a team tied at 10 at the half with Indiana. They looked really sloppy on Saturday. I do want to give them a not a full pass, but certainly a nod of understanding for what happened on the sidelines. And this was one of the scariest moments I've ever had as a broadcaster. Gus and I were standing up there and we see a giant commotion on the sideline.

and our cameras immediately, you know, we're all talking in the break to each other on the headsets, our cameraman, our director, our producer. And Chuck, our producer says, a coach is down on the Michigan sideline. And we immediately are trying to see, like, well, who is it? And we could kind of see that it was Mike Hart. We didn't know for sure, but it looked as if it was Mike Hart. And Mike Hart had a seizure on the sideline during the game in the commercial break. And it was really scary.

It was really scary. And I could see the worry and the anxious thoughts written all over the face, in particular of his players, Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards. Mike Hart is the running back coach at Michigan. And so they came out and just from that point on, until they went in at halftime, they just weren't themselves. at all, at all. And you know what? That's understandable. Because it's so rare in a football game. See, when a football player puts his helmet on,

and when you run on that field, it really is a different world. You definitely enter a different headspace in which the worries and cares of real life fade away. And there are, there are, moments during games when those real world issues and cares and influences can smack you right in the face and jar you back to reality and that was one of those moments and i certainly recognized it uh during the game and it certainly can be one of the reasons why they struggled in the first half and i'm not looking for like hey you've got to have an excuse for this or that it's not an excuse It's just the reality of what went on that day.

Now, having said that, they came out in the second half and played great, played absolutely great football. There's a couple of things that mission's got to get better at here moving forward in the next couple of weeks. They've got to find a way to open up the play action pass. Okay, their passing game is way too static and there's not enough creativity in it. They're either running the football or dropping back and pass. There's not enough run action pass. By run action, I mean full flow with the quarterback getting out of the pocket. Play action pass, setting up in pass protection with a big heavy run play fake,

trying to put the third level players in conflict and running past them. You can't just expect to throw the ball down the field with straight drop back pass all the time. Okay, it's too hard to put the third level player in conflict. It's too hard to create the space necessary. You've got to give your quarterback, a young quarterback, who by the way, that's the only thing he struggled with is throwing the ball deep down the field. You've got to give him some bunnies down the field, some easier throws down the field. It can't always be a 50-50 ball in a straight drop-back sense. So they've got to get more creative trying to get the ball down the field. And I think that they need to do that in play action pass. On the other side, their defense has shown some real signs of growth and development, in particular when they are able to rush the passer. I like Mike Morris a lot on their edge. I like Yabeoki a lot. And when they get you in a spot where you're one-dimensional,

not all that dissimilar from USC, although they're much better stop in the run than USC. But when they get you to a point that you're one-dimensional, and all you can do is throw, when you've got an obvious down situation, they're a threat. They're really dangerous. And we've seen that the last two weeks,

and that's been developing now. And that's what Penn State's going to have to avoid. Because the pass rush, when they're allowed to dominate, has dominated. So that's Michigan in a nutshell. show. All right, that's going to do it for tonight's show, or today's show, excuse me. Make sure to come back

on Wednesday and Thursday, new episodes. Remember to subscribe to the show and share with a friend because college football is always better when we're sharing it with one another. Make sure to tell somebody about the story that I struck out, I got struck out by Mark Pryor with three

straight fastballs. Yeah, that's right. Again, that's when I really knew I needed an education, folks, and minor league baseball wasn't for me. You can follow the show, at Joel Clat Show, make sure again to subscribe and download these episodes, share them with a friend, and then join me on Twitter for the conversation. I'm at Joel Clatt on Twitter. All right, thanks for listening. Come back Wednesday, new episodes of the Joel Clatt Show Land then.