The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Alabama-Texas takeaways, Nebraska fires Scott Frost, and triumphant day for the Sun Belt

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

FOX Sports' lead college football analyst Joel Klatt shares his thoughts about the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Texas Longhorns after calling their matchup on Saturday. Joel was thoroughly impressed with Texas' effort, and even though Alabama won the game, Joel believes they were very undisciplined and is concerned about their deficiencies at receiver. Then, Joel discusses the unfortunate situation going on at Nebraska after they fired their HC Scott Frost on Sunday. Finally, Joel praises the Sun Belt for their exciting upsets, and explains why Notre Dame and Texas A&M have to reevaluate their expectations in the aftermath of their disappointing losses over the weekend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Check this out right here. Young's dead to right. Boom, flips around. Dime. Touchdown time. What's up, college football fans? Welcome back to the Joel Klatte show. I'm Joel Klat.

What a wild week of college football. Unbelievable week of college football. Certainly down in Austin, which is where I was at with Gus and Jenny and the entire big noon kickoff crew for that wild affair between Bama and Texas. Can't wait to get into that. But, man, the entire day. If I was, listen, I'm flying back on the plane and I'm, you know, you can stream all the, all the games now. And I'm just like, game after game is just fantastic.

We've got upsets. We've got overtime. It's coming down to the wire. We've got a Power 5 school with their fans storm in the field after they beat a group of five school. We had everything in college football. And it was absolutely phenomenal. This is why I love it, by the way. This is why I love it.

and I appreciate you for being a part of the show. Remember now, subscribe to the show. Leave us a review. Go ahead and rate the show. Leave us a review. And then tell a friend about it because we had a great first week last week here at the Joel Clat show. I was so excited to start doing this podcast for you, the fan, because I love college football. So as we continue throughout the year, just share it with your friends and tell them like, come hang out and we'll learn some stuff about college football.

and have a great time. That being said, let's get into today's show. All the reaction we need from Saturday, and we've got a lot to react to. I'm going to start with that Bama Texas game. I'll get into the upsets that we saw. How about Marshall App State, Georgia, or excuse me, Georgia State?

They're getting, what, $4.173 million collectively to go and kick everybody's ass. That was awesome to see those teams go there and do that. I'll have full reaction about that as well as the first head coach being let go during the course of this season. So Nebraska fans, full reaction on Scott Frost and the decision from Trev Alberts to let Scott Frost go as the head coach of the Huskers. Okay, let's start with where Gus and Ginny and I were down in Austin, Texas, because folks, Bama escaped.

Bama escaped. They should not have won that game. And quite frankly, if I was a Texas fan, I'd feel pretty damn good about my team moving forward. And I know their coach, he felt pretty good about their team moving forward as well. Here's Steve Sarkesian. As I told the team, I don't look at this as, you know, we lost. We ran out of time.

I felt good about us finding a way to go down and score again there. But clock hit zero. But we didn't lose today. You know, we just ran out of time. Proud of our kids, proud of our team, proud of our coaches for the preparation. And now the key to the drill is getting back on the horse tomorrow and getting right back to work. We play again in seven days. You know, this wasn't, I think somebody, you know, one of y'all asked me early in the week,

is this game going to define us and define our season? It's not. Listen, I thought that he was dead on. I loved the first comment. I didn't think we lost. I thought we ran out of time. That's the exact message he's. should be sending his team right now because his team played better than most of us thought that

they were going to play if we're really honest with ourselves i mean that was a 21 it ended up being like 21 a half i think was the official spread by the time the game kicked off and texas should have won the game that's the bottom line even bama fans know it i know the bama fans i mean you guys you guys are ruthless by the way online and i get it your team doesn't play well it's someone new to take your anger out on. But the bottom line is, like, Bama didn't play that well. And they didn't look very good for a large portion of that game. And if you're honest with yourself, you would agree with that.

Texas, on the other hand, did. And save for the fact that they had their starting quarterback get knocked out of the game, then their backup hobbled. If they have a healthy quarterback, they probably win. They probably win. They missed the field goal at the end of the first half, didn't execute inside the 20-yard line a couple of other times. Those are all excuses.

And the bottom line is, Bama did win. And that's what great programs and great players. And I'll get to that in a moment do. But from Texas's perspective, you've got to feel good about what Texas is moving forward. Okay, so I said this in the pregame show. I was on with Tom Rinaldi on Big Noon kickoff. And we were talking about Texas and overarching thoughts on Texas. And I'm going to repeat those, even with this game in the rear view.

view mirror because I think that in hindsight for me, they mean even more now. So we met with Coach Sabin. We met with obviously Steve Sarkeesian on Friday. And when we met with those coaches and the players, by the way, in particular from Texas, I was pleasantly surprised at the difference of the feel of the meetings with Texas than I had had in previous years. So I've been going to Texas for the better part of 10 years, right? I've been going to cover them under Mac Brown, played him against Mac Brown, covered them under Mac Brown, covered him with Charlie Strong,

covered him with Tom Herman. Now, covered him with Steve Sarkeesian. I've seen all the iterations of what the Texas fan has been through, okay? Love Sam Ellinger. You know, I mean, I was there when you thought, what was it, Jalen Hurd? I remember when you thought Jalen Hurd was going to be the guy at quarterback. I'm telling you this, I've seen all the, iterations of this. And every time I've gone down there for the better part of a decade, ever since

Colton McCoy walked off the field after getting hit by Marcel Darius in that national championship game, Texas has been enthralled with and focused on the result, being back. That's all they want to talk about. Are they back? Are they not back? Are they Texas? Are they not Texas? And they never took time to focus on the small things that it would take to get back. And it didn't hit me. And it didn't because I'm not smart enough. It didn't hit me until I was meeting with Nick Sabin. So this is after the Sarkesian meeting. And Sarkesian was raving about what he learned from being at Alabama as an assistant coach

and how he didn't really know what self-disciplined was until he was under Nick Sabin, as an assistant there as an offensive coordinator, and how it just totally changed his perspective about the process and what it meant to go and be a championship team and how to be authentic and all these different things. And I'm like, man, this is great stuff. This is great stuff. At one point, he said, you know, the only pressure I feel in this game is that I feel pressure to present a product that Coach Sabin is going to respect and be proud of.

That was a remarkable line from our meetings, and I thought it was very cool. But nothing really resonated with me until we meet with Nick Sabin. And this is after the Sarkeesian meeting. And then he says, and I wrote it down, it's right in my notebook right here. And he says, I ask him, what do you love about this job still? What is it? What do you love? And he pauses, which actually gave me great pride because I'm like, oh, man, he's actually

contemplating the question, not just going to give me like a Nick Saban answer. And he contemplates. And he was like, well, I guess the fact that the chase is better than the capture. And I immediately think of Texas. I'm sitting there and I'm looking at Nick Savant. and I immediately think of Texas. Why? Because Bama, ever since that game, has been enthralled with and enamored with the chase.

And he's not talking about the weekly chase leading up to a championship, capturing a championship. Nick Saban was talking about Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, and the chase leading to the capture of the individual game. He had brought it all the way down to a micro level where he loves Monday. He loves his staff meeting at 7.30 on Monday, and his staff meeting at 7.30 on Tuesday, he loves the self-discipline and answering the question,

will you do what it takes to be successful? That's what he loves. And it hits me like a ton of bricks. That's what Texas has been missing. They've been so focused on being back that they forgot about the chase. And that's what was totally different about meeting with Texas this time in preparation for this game. I felt like their players and their coaches were much more enthralled with, not the results of this game, but the process of how and when they're going to be a better football team and more so that how. How are they going to be a better football team?

So I wanted to give you that kind of background of just the meetings and everything because I think it's very relevant to now thinking about the result in hindsight because Texas has got to feel better about Bama, are better than the Bama fans. If I'm a Texas fan, I feel much better about that game than if I'm an Alabama fan. And here's why. Because Texas has a defense that they feel like can compete with anybody in the country. That defensive line was excellent.

It was a total domination for a large stretch of that game. Bama could not run the football, more than that in a little bit. Texas was able to produce some pressure on Bryce Young. Part of that pressure was born out of the fact, and this is my next thing that I was most impressed with Texas, was their secondary. I thought their secondary was excellent. They were covering well, and then they tackled really well, save for maybe Ryan Watts on the corner Blitz, but they tackled very well. So now if I'm a Texas fan, I'm like, okay, Pete Kutikowski is going in a direction that I feel like is a positive direction.

Maybe that's the influence of Gary Patterson. maybe that's just the second year in the same system. Maybe it's the development of these players. Secondary looked great. I thought the second level did an okay job, although they were attacked late in the game. And then the defensive line did a wonderful job. I thought that their offense was explosive.

They took chances. You could tell that their offensive line, although young, wasn't completely overmatched. I thought that was a huge plus for Texas. So what does that leave you with? Oh, man, this is all rose petals and redmond. rainbows, Joel? Well, like, hey, man, Texas must have won by 10. They must think that they're going to go undefeated the rest of the year. They're going to win the big 12, aren't they, Joel,

the way that you're talking about them. Well, that leads me to then the lasting takeaway for Texas, what in the hell is going to happen to quarterback? That's a frustrating one, because with Quinn Ewers in that game, I think Texas wins the game. If he stays healthy, they probably win the game. He was far too dynamic throwing the ball early in that first quarter. They were taking the shots necessary to get behind the Bama defense. I felt like they were going to be able to run the ball more successfully because of the shots that they were going to take with Quinn Ewers to Xavier Worthy. If he stays healthy, they likely win the game.

Bama fans are going to hate that, but they likely win the game. Bruce Feldman, he tweets the update on Quinn Ewers. He said, source, Texas QB Quinn Ewers is expected to to be sidelines for at least two to three weeks. That leaves the potential for youers to return in time for the OU game on October 8th. So here's where you've got to think about your expectations if you're a Longhorns fan. Folks, you may, not like this, you may lose a game that you're going to hate losing before you get fully healthy again. That's not going to be the end of the world. I still think that this team, once they get healthy at the

quarterback position, is going to be a team that can compete for and potentially win the Big 12. The two best teams I've seen in the Big 12, in particular after Baylor's lost to BYU late Saturday night in Provo, is Oklahoma and Texas. And I think that probably the most impressive team I've seen is Texas. So they need their quarterback healthy. Maybe two to three weeks. We'll see what goes on. They said it's a CS sprain, not an AC joint. I had an AC joint where the clavicle meets the shoulder all the way on the outside. He sprained it where it meets the sternum all the way on the inside on that hit from Dallas Turner.

So the health of the quarterback is paramount to Texas moving forward because like I said, and I will repeat and Bama fans are going to hate it, but they're going to look deep inside their souls and know that I'm absolutely accurate. If yours is healthy, the entire game, they likely win. That's even without the Miss Field goal. Okay, so that's the Texas perspective. Now let's get into the Bama perspective. Because even though they won, and yes, they're undefeated, and yes, they're still like, you know, Alabama,

there are some real concerns with Alabama folks. Okay? So if Texas can look at this game and they can project, man, we are a much better team than maybe I even expected. Bama fans have to watch that game and think to themselves, wow, we are not even close to the team that we expected to be. this was supposed to be the team that was going to be the biggest favorite to win the national championship that we've ever seen. The Nogerski Award winner and Will Anderson back. Bryce Young, the Heisman winner, back. They're going to reload.

Don't worry about the fact that they don't have names at wide receiver. Don't worry about the fact that they were coming off a year in which they were the worst rushing team under the Sabin era outside of his first year. They'll be fine on the offensive line. They got a transfer in Tyler Steen and a transfer. transfer at running back in Jemir Gibbs. Like, don't worry. The defense is going to carry us. And guess what, folks?

Bama, like, is in some trouble. Let's start with the fact that they had three main areas that were totally unimpressive in the game against Texas, even though they won. Three main areas. Those three areas are, they couldn't run the ball, the wide receivers couldn't get open, and I could not believe they were so undisciplined and had 15 penalties for 100 yards. So let's start with those three. Okay, well, you think that one of those is going to be fixed. So I'm not really worried about the 15 penalties because practice this week is going to be like hell.

And Nick Saban's going to be all over those guys. And I just don't expect them to get that many penalties again moving forward, right? I think that we all agree on that. So that leaves really two areas that you're like, boy, this is troublesome. And yes, it's troublesome. The offensive line and the run game. Folks, it wasn't even close. It wasn't even close.

numbers at the end of the day are masking what was a complete dismantling of the Alabama offensive line by the Texas defensive line. And this is a Texas defense, by the way, that wasn't particularly close to being very good stopping the run a year ago. So this offensive line for Bama, we thought there would be more versatility in the schematics of the run game. There weren't. We thought Jemir Gibbs was going to be kind of a breakout star. He wasn't. Let me just dive into the numbers here, okay? Because I think, think that the numbers paint a very serious problem for the Alabama running game. Bama fans, check this out.

Bryce Young had some scampers on scrambles that I just, there aren't rushing yards. You can't attribute that to the offensive line. Those are breakdowns in past defense and ultimately just quality runs from your quarterback. So Bryce Young in those runs, I don't really pay attention to. So then outside of that, let's look at what the running backs did. Basically, like, 17 carries for a little over 100 yards. And you're thinking yourself, like, well, that's fine. What are you talking about?

One of those carries was an 81-yard touchdown. I repeat, one of those was an 81-yard touchdown, which is great. And they dominated on that one play. That leaves 16 running-back carries for 42 yards the rest of the game. That's not going to cut it. It's just not going to cut it. That's 2.6 yards per carry. I was really surprised that they couldn't run the ball any better than that.

And moving forward, that's a problem. Why? Because they were constantly in passing down situations, long-yarded situations. And then that leads to the second problem. Those wide receivers were not ready for the stage at all. This has been a wide receiver core dating back to Julio Jones. Think of all the first rounders they've had. Julio Jones, Amari Cooper, Calvin Ridley, Rugs, Jerry Judy,

Devante Smith, Jalen Waddle, Jameson Williams. I think Metchie was a second rounder. Like, freaks, freaks, and speed. These dudes could run. Think about Judy, run, rugs, run. Devante, forget about it. Jalen, forget about it. Jameson, 200 guy.

Blow the top off the defense. They could be pass first. get those safeties out of there. Then we can run the football. We can bring those deep overrouts. We can throw play action. None of that was at their disposal on Saturday against Texas. None of it.

And in large part, due to the fact that those wide receivers couldn't create separation, and they weren't playing consistently. Deep into the fourth quarter, there was only like one, two wide receiver catches total. No wide receiver in the game had over 40 yards. The leading receiver for them, what was it? I think it was Holden. I think Holden was their leading receiver, and he had like 39 yards.

Or was it Burton, one of the two? That's not going to cut it. Not going to cut it moving forward. And it led to Bryce Young having to hold the ball, being under duress. It led to that weird play in the end zone. We're not going to rehash that call because it was a funky call anyways. All of this to say that the reason you won the football game is

Texas missed a field goal. there was some questionable officiating, and then you have Bryce Young. And Bryce Young had to put a cape on late in the game. He figured out the defense, and he made the place necessary to go and win. And as soon as there was 129, I said it on the broadcast. Steve Sarkeesian, great. You went down and you kicked a field goal, and guess what? You're looking over there at the guy you recruited to Alabama,

who you know how special he is, and he's about to walk on the field and beat you. And that's exactly what he did. That's exactly what he did. Alabama has had problems on the road now, dating back to last year. I brought it up on the broadcast. They had the two-point win against Florida. They lost against Texas A&M. They beat Mississippi State badly.

And then they had the four-over-time game against Auburn. True road games, right? I'm not talking about neutrals. True road games. So three of the four, they didn't play well. Now they open up on the road, not in the season, but obviously their road opener, if you will, at Texas. Play awful. play awful. So this is a trend now for this Bama team, this version of Bama, that is not pleasing if I'm a Bama fan.

The bottom line is you've got to go to Arkansas. They're now ranked 10th in the country. You've got to Tennessee. They're 15th in the country. You've got to go to LSU. They're going to be much better when you face them than what they are right now. You know that's the case. You've got at Ole Miss. Number 20, they have got to clean up what they do on the road or else they're going to wind up. They're going to be at Arkansas or Tennessee or LSU or Ole Miss, and guess what? They're not going to have a chance unless Bryce Young puts a cape on his back. That's where they're at right now. So Bama moving forward, I'm much more concerned with them than I am with Texas. Obviously, the health of the quarterback.

The expectations for Texas obviously play a part of that because Bama, you're expecting to win a national championship. And what we saw on Saturday wasn't national championship caliber. All right. That was longer than I thought I was going to go on that game, but lots to dive into because of that game and everything to react to. Okay, so let's get into the rest of the day. Nebraska, firing Scott Frost. Here's my, listen, I get it. I absolutely get it.

Scott Frost gets fired and Treve Alberts was in a tough position, and I don't think he even wanted to do this. Here he is today. I want to first acknowledge that it's been a tough day today. And it's been a tough day for a lot of us. Obviously, it's been a tough day for Coach Frost and our coaching staff and our players. I also want to say that this is a day that I'd hoped would never come. So here they are firing their coach. A couple of questions that I have.

I don't disagree with that. I don't think even Scott disagrees with this. be honest with you. I mean, if you just roll through some of the numbers, right? Last year, oh and eight and one score games. The other one was Ohio State, played them to nine points. They, they, he's five and 22 in one score games in his tenure there, worst in the FBS. O and 10 in one score games since the start of last season. 14 second half leads blown, worse than the FBS, two this year. Nine fourth quarter blown leads. tied for second most to this year.

Second worst overall record in the Big Ten, only ahead of Rutgers in his tenure. Second worst conference record in the Big Ten, only ahead of Rutgers. O' and 13 versus ranked teams. O'N13 versus Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Seven of those were one-score games.

It just, you and I both know that this was, I guess, somewhat inevitable. Like the bar for him to keep his job was somewhat high. Now, I fully expected them to come out and beat Northwestern. I fully expected them to come out and beat Georgia State. Like, Southern. I mean, what are we doing? Right?

It's surprising because I thought Scott was a really good coach. He had the two years at UCF. He's got a great pedigree. of who he played for and when. But the bottom line is it like it just didn't work at Nebraska for whatever reason. And now, I guess the question moving forward for Nebraska is, is why now and not in the off season and why now rather than a month from now? This costs Nebraska a lot of money.

Trev Alberts is basically saying, I would rather spend, you know, the, what is it, $6.5 million to fire him now rather than save that $6.5 million and fire him in October because he's going to pay him a buyout of $15 million to walk away right now. If you would have waited until October 1, that buyout is 7.5. Questionable timing. I don't love firing coaches this early in the season. And just a little bit more on that. Bruce Feldman tweeted out some of those numbers. timing of Scott Frost, this is Bruce Feldman tweeting.

Being fired is stunning from this standpoint. His buyout was to drop from 15 million to 7.5 million October 1, but obviously things were not going well there at all. Yes, Bruce, obviously things were not going well. I don't love firing coaches this early in the year. Why? Because you still have a whole team of young men who need structure. And when the cats away, the mice will play.

I get worried about academics, behavioral issues, and hopefully they've got strong enough men and leaders in that organization, maybe Trev is one of those, that they can keep those guys on the path to getting their degrees, staying out of trouble, so on and so forth. The other question is, if he was hanging on by this much of a thread, why didn't they just do this in the offseason? because now they've wasted a whole another year of recruiting. But I don't think there's any argument from me that this is the direction that they needed to go after some of those numbers. The timing was interesting to say the least. And from Scott's perspective, I think he was pointing towards last year as the roster that he felt was going to turn it around for Nebraska. They had all those one-score games against very good opponents. But guess what?

He didn't have the schedule for that roster to turn it around. He's got a worse roster this year. The schedule to turn it around, but they were unable to play any semblance of defense. They scored over 40 points at home and lost. And that ain't going to cut it. That ain't going to cut it. All right, let's move on. And then that game is kind of a springboard because why?

Sunbelt East. Yeah, buddy. The Sunbelt East is getting it going. How about the day that the Sun Belt East has? Marshall, App State, and the win in Nebraska. I mean, come on. Let's go. Let's start with Marshall taking down Notre Dame in South Bend.

Columbia to a knee. And here goes the final countdown. As Marshall's thundering herb runs to midfield at Notre Dame Stadium. We're down to three and two and one. It's a final. Marshall 26, number eight, Notre Dame 21. Let's repeat that one more time. 26 to 21, Marshall wins at Notre Dame.

How about that win? What a huge win for Marshall. What a huge win for the conference. And immediately, people are like, what's going on with Marcus Freeman? He's starting 0 and 3 as the head coach of Notre Dame. After all of those good feelings that he had, Brian Kelly leaves, everyone's mad, everyone says, you know what, let's look from within, let's circle the wagon, let's hire Marcus Freeman, even though, let's be honest, from pedigree standpoint, Marcus Freeman was a defensive coordinator in the group of five two years ago.

And then he was a defensive coordinator for one year at Notre Dame and gets the head coaching job. That's fine. That's fine. And I do think he's dynamic. I think he's going to help them in recruiting. I think that they are taking steps off the field in terms of NIL to get to a place where they can compete in recruiting at the highest level, and I'm a believer in Marcus Freeman. But the bottom line is there's going to be a steep learning curve, because we have to remember

he was the defensive coordinator for Luke Fickle two years ago. So this is a big jump very quickly, very quickly. And as Steve Sarkesian pointed out to me in our meeting, he's like, listen, my two biggest mentors outside of Lavelle Edwards, where I played college football, were Pete Carroll and Nick Saven. And guess what? they didn't really start hitting their stride until they were in their 50s. Coaching can be one of those professions where you've got to take your lumps and grow

before you find the right situation and the right place where you can be the authentic person and coach that you were meant to be and then finally take off. So, biggest takeaway for Notre Dame? I think Marcus Freeman is on a very steep learning curve and that may continue for a little while. It should work. It should work. Although folks, they need to play a lot better and they need to start playing a lot better really quickly, really quickly. All right, how about App State? Almost get the win against North Carolina. Then they do get the win against Texas A&M. This is what it sounded like. Forty-eight yard attempt from the left hash and Davis with a kick.

Never got there. Never got there. It's been that kind of a day for the Aggie. and Appalachian State with the upset of Texas A&M 17 to 14. Here at Kyle Field. Oh, I kind of love that we did the road call there because it's, I was actually on the plane coming back from Austin to L.A. With an Aggie fan. And they were just devastated. The game had taken place on the flight. They were watching it.

I was watching it. And they were just like, the guy was like, I'm done. I'm done. I'm no longer rooting for the Aggies. I was like, all right. Hang on. Like, you should be all right. They've recruited at a high level.

But they continue to underachieve. They continue to underachieve based on unrealistic expectations. Aggie fans hate me. You know why? I call them out for having unrealistic expectations. Let's look at what the data actually says about Texas A&M. And then you might look at that game against Stapp State in a little bit of a different view.

The data actually says that A&M had a great Johnny Mansell area, a great COVID year, and everything in between has been very average. In the last 10 seasons, they had a Mansell season and a COVID year in which they were 9 and 1. in the eight other football seasons, they lost at a minimum four games and only finished in the top 25 in two of those eight years. In those eight seasons, they're 32 and 32 in the SEC. If you look at the first 50 games for Jimbo Fisher and the first 50 games for Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M, they're pretty damn close in terms of their record. They've recruited unbelievably well. They've invested in their program and their facilities as well as anybody in the country.

And because of that and the conference that they play in, everybody wants to heap expectations on the Texas A&M. And they are what they have been for a long time, which is kind of average. Really talented, really talented. But offensively, folks, it wasn't even close. This is the other part about this. It's not like A&M dominated the game and then a couple of bounces went the way for App State. No, no, no. The Nears dominated them.

A&M didn't even have 200 yards of total offense and only scored one offensive touchdown. This is a week after North Carolina scored 63 on App State. So what is wrong with Texas A&M's offense? I think that we're going to have to do a deep dive at some point. We're going to have to do a film breakdown at some point of Jimbo Fisher's offense. Because it ain't cutting it, folks. They've got the talent and something is not there. Maybe we should stop with the unrealistic expectations at Texas A&M.

Let them prove it. And then fine. By the way, Texas has been going through this for years. They set their expectations way too high. Why? Because the capture is what they want to talk about and not the chase. And I think that's what's going on with Texas A&M right now as well. You've got to focus on the chase in order to get to the capture.

The chase has to be more enjoyable, and it's not right now. So those are the games, right? Those are the upsets. And you had Georgia Southern, you had Clay Hilton going in and getting in the win against Nebraska. All those teams, by the way, Marshall got paid $1.25 million. App State got paid $1.5 million. Georgia Southern gets paid $1.3 million.

To do what? Roll into your building and kick your ass. So way to go. Thanks for the check, and we're out. I guess Nebraska will just wrap that up in the $15 million buyout. So I guess Scott Frost, the buyout for Trevout. Albert is actually 16 and a half, 15 to Scott, one and a half to Georgia Southern, or 1.3. So 16.3. And so you're just like, yeah, you know, like you just just throw it on top.

What's the final takeaway of this day? I'm so pissed that the expanded playoff is not here. Because those games and those upsets would have meant so much more. Folks, this is why I'm so excited for what we've got going on in the future. I tweeted it out this weekend. I said, I can't help but watch this college football season, and more in particular this week, through the lens of the pending expansion and what those Sun Belt wins would have meant if those programs had a clearly defined path to the CFP.

See, the way that it is now in this subjective four-team playoff where really, only six teams are going to have a chance at the playoff. Here's what's going on now. All the reaction is about the teams that they beat. So all we're thinking about is Nebraska and all we're thinking about is Texas A&M and all we're thinking about is Notre Dame. But two years from now, folks, if the Sunbelt East goes out and has a day like that, then guess what? They're likely going to set themselves up for a position where they get one of those six automatic conference championship bids. So then those games are not just a wild Saturday where they can celebrate with each other and say,

hey, remember, we beat a great team on the road. We walked into one of those places, got a paycheck and whipped their butt. No, no, it's more than that. It's a springboard to a potential postseason birth. That's why the expansion is so necessary is because a Saturday like we just had in college football would have meant so much more. to everyone involved. Not just about who's underachieving, but who's actually going out there

and winning the games on the field. Another feather in the cap for the idea of the expansion, and I want it as soon as possible. I have it on decent authority, although don't write this in stone, I'm going to be very surprised if the college football playoff doesn't expand by 2024. And I can't wait.

I cannot wait. Folks, thank you for listening to this. You can find us at Joel Clatt Show on social media all over the place. We'll be posting videos from the show. You can share them with your friends. Remember, download and subscribe to this show. Please go rate and review us. And then we'll be dropping another podcast on Wednesday and Thursday.

Thursday we'll be previewing all the games for week three. But Wednesday, still so many thoughts. Michigan, your quarterback situation starting to play out. USC continues to play well. Do they have legitimate CFP hopes? all of that and more on Wednesday. Folks, thank you so much for listening. Remember, go rate, review, subscribe to the Joel Clashow.