The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Another week, another win? Week 10 is already here!

Episode Date: November 1, 2019

Joel Klatt returns with more talk of the Pac-12, SEC and all the rest. Will Oregon continue to rise in the rankings? Georgia and Florida face off and what will happen to Notre Dame? Catch it all right here before the weekend! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, what's up everybody? Joel Clad here with Breaking the Huddle here on week 10 already. My goodness, we're flying through the college football season. Lots to get to today, but first, this show is brought to you by Dr. Pepper. Thank you to them. It is the official drink of Fansville. Lots to get into today. We've got my top 10, as I see it right now. We've also got all the questions, and those of you, excuse me,

There we are. We've got a lot of questions to get you. I was on the flight coming back from Ohio and I said, hey, I've got a free hour left in my flight. Unfortunately, the internet only worked for about 20 minutes of that flight. So I only got to, I don't know, like 40 or 50 of the questions. There were nearly a thousand that came in. So we'll get to a couple of them here on the show.

Thank you very much for participating. And I'll try to do more of that here as the season moves along. And we get into the most important month of the season, which is November. Follow me at Joel Clatt on Twitter. Joel underscore Clat on Instagram. I've got some exclusive stuff there, in particular on Game Day, so make sure to follow there. And then everything that we've got on Fox, obviously,

CFB on Fox, on Twitter, all things social. So let's get into it. Again, we've got top 10, we've got questions, and then my performance of the week. Might be Kansas State. I don't know. I haven't even decided yet. And we're live. Here we go. Let's go with the top 10 as I see it currently right now.

I've got Georgia at number 10. at number 10. I know that they're kind of moving around a lot and I know that they didn't play last week. Georgia does a couple of things really well. One, they run the football incredibly well. The other thing that they do in particular, at this point in the season, they're playing really quality defense. That's going to bode well for them against Florida and the world's largest cocktail party. I know that we're not supposed to say that, but we're not official partner with the SEC so I can call it whatever I want to call it down in Jacksonville. Georgia is, I still think, a really good team. They've lost a little of their luster. Some of their fan base has been

frustrated with conservative play calling, conservative game planning from the offensive standpoint, but rest assured, they can run the football, they can play defense, and they will be right there. I actually like them in this game against Florida. Even after the loss, I've got OU at number nine. Bad loss, OU, bad loss. One of the things that's so frustrating from the Oklahoma standpoint is the fact that this defense, which had looked promising during the course of the season, reverted back to that defense that we've seen over the last couple of years. Incredibly frustrating from the fans' perspective, got a lot of feedback on Twitter and questions on Twitter about Oklahoma, their playoff chances, what's going on with their defense.

A couple of things that I want to touch on from that loss to Kansas State. First and foremost, the defense played really poorly. In fact, they gave up scores on like eight straight possessions. OU was up 17-7 at one point in that game, and they gave up a 41-6 run. That can't happen if you're going to play for and win a national championship. It just can't. And it's really twofold, right? Your offense has got to protect your defense at that point, and your defense has got to get

off the field, and that's what they had been doing earlier in the year, and they did not do in Manhattan, Kansas. One of the things I thought that was a real failure from that game was their lack of running, in particular from running backs. They only had six carries from true running backs in the entire game. Six carries. This is a team that's supposed to be one of the best rushing teams in the country and are one of the best rushing teams in the country.

How do you sustain drives and keep your defense on the sideline? You run the football. They were unable to do that. Kudos to Kansas State. That's a heck of a game plan. In particular, what you guys did in the run game, some creative run blocking schemes that I saw. I watched some of the film.

They would do things like kind of false pull the guard and then bring them back front side, that's very difficult from a linebacker perspective to read and react to. And I think that that was using the aggressive nature of OU against them. So OU stays at number nine because they still have that high-powered offense. We've still seen losses like this from them in the last couple of years and they continue to go through and play the rest of their schedule, not only play but win against the rest of their schedule. One other note that I just want to make as everyone is kind of like sky is falling on

Oklahoma. We still have yet to see in this sports history a team play nine conference games and a conference championship game and go undefeated in all 10 of those games. So this is kind of what you get when you have a nine game conference schedule. Again, we've never seen a team go undefeated through the regular season of a nine conference game schedule and win their conference championship game. The closest we've gotten is 2017, Wisconsin, went 9 and 0 through the regular season in the Big Ten, but then lost the Big Ten championship game.

So just food for thought as we watch Oregon and Ohio State try to accomplish that feat through the rest of this season. Okay, let's continue. Excuse me. Oregon at number eight. I really like Oregon. I've got them this week. I'll be in the Coliseum.

Justin Herbert, very excited to see him. The defense, which had been so dominant through stretches of the season, in the last couple of weeks, not so much. They've given up eight touchdowns in the last couple of weeks. Last week against Washington State, that air raid system of Mike Leach got loose a little bit, and that's dangerous because remember who the offensive coordinator is now at USC is Graham Harrell. He's a Mike Leach disciple. Now, they'll run it more.

USC will than Leach will at Washington State. But those are still the principles that gave Oregon a little bit of trouble last week at home. They needed another fourth quarter comeback, a last drive comeback from Herbert, and he delivered. Kudos to Herbert, Oregon, and that offense, because in the last two weeks, think about it now, they had the 14-point deficit, excuse me, against Washington on the road, they won. They had the one-point deficit against Washington State late. They won. So they're getting it done when they need to, and they are starting to now draw some attention as it relates to the playoff.

I want to discuss their possibility in the playoff, but I didn't want to do that without also discussing Utah. Let me discuss Utah first and then the two of them and their playoff potential moving forward this year. I like Utah at number seven just ahead of Oregon, namely because Utah's defense is stronger. In particular in the front seven, Utah has an incredibly strong defensive front seven. You could argue that they might be one of, if not the best front seven in America. They stop the run. They get off to the quarterback. They're very tough, the line of scrimmage.

And when you look at their injury situation and the fact that they've had their two most important and best players healthy for the bulk of the season, Tyler Huntley and Zach Moss. It should be noted, really should be noted. And committee, I hope that you look at this. When those two players, they're quarterback Tyler Huntley, they're running back Zach Moss, when each of them are on the field for all four quarters of a football game, they are 10 for their last 10, 10 and 0. The only time they've been beaten that stretch is when one of them is injured. In particular, that game against USC. You're supposed to committee take into account who's on the field and who's not on the field. Who's injured and who's not? Zach Moss was injured in that game. He was dealing with

an AC shoulder issue. He was not on the field. They were not themselves. They go down to USC. That's a really good football team that was thoroughly dominant against Cal. They shut out the Cal Bears. I think they only gave up like 85 yards of offense. Just really remarkable stuff. And their offense is coming into its own. I think that they're playing efficient football. in particular from the quarterback spot, so Utah is playing really well. Now the two of them and the Pac-12's potential path to a college football playoff birth. Let me just start with, I think Utah, which is why they're ahead of Oregon, has a better chance than Oregon to get into the playoff and let me explain.

While I think both of those situations are alive, for me, it's more alive for Utah, and here's why. Utah does not have a loss to Auburn. I know that they didn't play many tough teams, if any tough teams at all, in the non-conference, but it's not necessarily about schedule strength as it's going to be about common opponent. Okay, so Oregon loses to Auburn in the first week of the season. They played well. They really did. But the problem is that you're likely going to have at least one, maybe even two,

but at least one, one lost team out of the SEC that is not the SEC champion. there's a really good chance that if that is LSU or Alabama, then both of those teams would have a win over Auburn. So now you're getting into that direct comparison. Do you put the non-champion in from the SEC or do you put in the Pac-12 champion Oregon Ducks? Now, in their back pocket, if they were to get to that point, the Oregon Ducks would have the distinction of being one of the only teams,

maybe the first team ever since that game is going to be before the Big Ten championship game, that were to go undefeated. through a nine conference game schedule and a title game. That would be a huge feather in their cap. Would it be enough to overcome that SEC bias or narrative? I'm not sure. Whereas Utah, they're not going to have that direct comparison. So Utah, I think, might be able to overcome the loss to USC

more so than Oregon can overcome the loss to Auburn, namely because Zach Moss wasn't on the field for the bulk of that game. They're very important running back. And you don't get those direct comparisons. So there you go. There's my PAC-12 scenario. in which I think Utah is a better shot than Oregon to go to the playoff. And I do think it's a legitimate shot.

I really do. They were written off for dead as a conference earlier in the year, even by me, and rightly so to some degree, but they're clawing back. I think that the Pac-12, in particular, as we see the Big 12 start to get hurt by things like Oklahoma State being Iowa State, like TCU beating Texas, we'll see if Baylor can remain undefeated. But as the Big 12 kind of gets knocked around a little bit and eats each other up, you could see a situation where the PAC 12 would become the third best conference in America. That would obviously bode well for Utah and Oregon.

Florida is my number six team. I really love what Florida has been able to do. I think that they've got a great shot this week against Georgia. However, however, however, however, when you look at their run defense, they've given up 200 or more yards rushing, I think the last two or three games that they've played. I think definitely two. That's troublesome. Why?

Because Georgia can run the football and they run it as well as anybody out there with DeAndre swift. So Trask, who's played well, might get into a situation where he's got a match scores with Georgia if this defense is not able to stop the run. So that's an issue for Florida. I'm going to pick Georgia in that game. I think that Georgia wins that and takes control of that SEC East. I've got Penn State at number five. Penn State is a really good football team that's dominant on defense. They're really good up front rushing the quarterback. They're explosive, in particular with KJ. Hamler. They're a great wide receiver. Penn State it looks like is going to have a great chance to knock off an undefeated

Minnesota and then play Ohio State, both of them being undefeated. And at that point, they would likely be somewhere in the, because Bama and LSU will have already played, you're probably looking at like a 2-4 matchup. If Penn State and Ohio State both are undefeated, maybe 2-3 matchup, maybe even Ohio State is number one by that point. And if they are, it would be a correct distinction. but we'll see what the playoff committee. I actually think the playoff committee is going to rank Ohio State number one.

Well, actually, I don't trust them to do that. I don't trust them at all. Clemson at number four. Moving up, I really like the way Clemson has played in the last couple of weeks. I was hard on Clemson, and in particular their schedule for the last, let's see, I don't know, three weeks or so. But what they've done is they've started to play better. They've started to play more dominant. There's only one team in the country that's in the top five in the country and scored.

offense and defense, that's Ohio State. The other one that has a chance and is just right there, like right outside of that precipice, is Clemson. So they're starting to be a more dominant football team, and as they get better, think about it now, they're going to be a very tough out because of Lawrence. Lawrence played more Trevor Lawrence-Lorrence-style of football last week than he had at any point this season.

And remember, they have had the ability to be bored, play poor football because of the horrendous ACC, and it hasn't hurt them. If they go undefeated, they'll be in and they're going to be a really tough out. Clemson, if they can continue to peak at the right time, will be a very tough out in the playoff. I've got Alabama at number three. With Tua and his injury and being hobbled, I just can't put him ahead of LSU and Ohio State. And there's also this other distinction. And no one wants to talk about this. When you're online on social media, anytime you say anything positive about, well, really, anybody outside of the SEC, but namely Ohio State, it's immediate, like, immediate, the RTR hashtag or the, you know, the Bama people, they immediately hit you with like, they've played no one. You know what I'm talking about. You see it online, right?

And while, to some degree, I'm like, yeah, Ohio State hasn't been thoroughly tested, they did just beat a team that only had one loss and had the number one defense in the country in Wisconsin. And if I'm not mistaken, and I'm not, Alabama actually, when you look at their opponents to date, their opponent's win percentage is the worst win percentage in the power five. Think about that. So, before you tweet out, who is Ohio State played, please look in the mirror. Because Bama, your schedule will get much tougher down the stretch, and nobody is arguing that it won't. You've got LSU in a couple of weeks. You've got Auburn and then a potential SEC championship game.

And that is a thorough test of what you will be as a team. There's no doubt about it. But at this point, the only team that you can actually question who has to be. you played is Alabama. Their win percentage, their opponent's win percentage as a whole this season is under 400. It's .391. That's horrendous. When I say it's last in Power 5, I mean dead last in Power 5. It's the worst win percentage for opponents of any team in the top 10, obviously, because they're dead last in Power 5. It's 125th out of 130 in the FBS total. So let's not throw stones and glass houses, Bama fans.

Your team is really good. And if your quarterback is healthy, there's a great chance you're not only going to win the SEC, but you'll be in the playoff again. You've got the best coach in the country. There's no doubt about it. I'm a little suspect with your U2-style light shows going on in your home stadium, but rest assured your team is unbelievable. Maybe not what they have been defensively in the past,

and maybe not what they have been in the run game, but that passing game is second to none at this point in the country, when Tua is healthy. But please, holster those rocks in the glass house of who have you played because your team, as it relates to win percentage of their opponents, is dead last in the Power 5. Just a little food for thought. Let's continue.

LSU is number two in my book. I know that their resume looks as good or better than Ohio State, but remember for me, Ohio State, they're doing things. that nobody has done, namely they've beat their first eight opponents by well over, what is it, 28 points. This team is totally dominant. This team is dominant but not totally dominant. Their defense, I think at times is suspect. Bo Nix was unable to really get anything done against LSU, and that's a credit to that LSU defense as they get better and better. I think LSU will beat Alabama if Tua is not healthy. If Tua is totally healthy and 100%,

I think Bama beats LSU, but none of them have been as dominant, as thoroughly dominant, and as balanced as Ohio State. Ohio State is the best team in the country, and any metric will tell you that. If you actually watch games with any semblance of a football mind whatsoever, you understand that Ohio State is right now the best team in the country. That's number one. If you look at any metric that uses real data, whether it's the FPI from ESPN, or whether it's the Sagan ratings,

or whether it's the SP Plus from Conley, which is also ESPN. Guess what it will show you? Ohio State is the best team in the country. The only group that is not considering Ohio State the best team in the country is the AP voters, which everyone tells me that that poll doesn't matter. I'm telling you you're wrong because those 13 committee members have to watch football with some sort of a frame of reference, whether conscious or subconscious. But that's the only group that doesn't think that they're number one.

The coach's poll really doesn't matter because it's just all the SIDs, so I don't really care whatsoever about that. Ohio State has clearly been the best team in the country. They're the most balanced. They're the most explosive. They've got the best players as well. They're the most talented defense in the country. And right now, I don't see anybody beating them. I can't wait for that game potentially against Penn State as both of them are undefeated.

And if Michigan continues to get better, that game obviously looms large before a Big Ten championship game. None of these teams, none of these teams. are going to have or face a more difficult end to the season than Ohio State. Okay, so Ohio State in their last three weeks, think about this. In consecutive weeks, they could have to go Penn State at home, a battle of undefeated, on the road in the rivalry game against Michigan, and then in consecutive week, a rematch against Wisconsin potentially or even a Minnesota, and I think it's probably going to be a rematch against Wisconsin.

Nobody up here is going to play a three-week stretch that day. difficult period. They just won't. By the way, if you're looking for strength of schedule as it relates to opponents' win percentage, Ohio State out of those top 10 teams would be third. Their winning percentage for their opponents is 581. Remember Bamas was 391. So there you go. So there's my top 10. I know that that took quite a bit of time and I got through a lot of stuff, so I want to get to questions. So let's get to questions right away. Let's go to the Twitter sphere and see what we've got going right now. Again, I like to talk about all the graphics and everything, but listen, let's get to you guys, the fans. Let's start with Matt Reynolds. Matt Reynolds says, what percent chance do you give the

Big 12 of getting a team into the playoff? If you're looking for a percent chance, I would say somewhere in the like 8 to 12 percent. It's fairly low. Is there a chance? Yes. Those that are going to scream and shout for the Big 12 will say, Joel, Baylor's undefeated. Yes, I don't think they'll remain undefeated, and if they go undefeated, they will 100% be in the playoff. But my speculation on this and percent chance for the conference at least has to have some semblance of prognostication of what I think is going to happen. I think Oklahoma will remain the best team in the Big 12 and ultimately win the Big 12 championship. There's a good chance that Baylor loses one, if not two games, and I think OU is going to be the Big 12 champion. So then it's OU with a loss at Kansas

the state trying to get into the playoff. Feels a lot like Ohio State losing badly to Iowa or Purdue over the last couple of seasons and not getting into the playoff. I know it wasn't an atrocious loss. There was some questionable officiating late with that onside kick, but you can't give up scores in eight straight games, continue to show the exact same problems as you've had over the last couple of years, and expect the committee to look the other way and put you into the playoffs. So it's very low right now for the Big 12. I think that they're in trouble. Let's continue to go. Let's see. Matt, that was a good question, though.

I hope you liked the answer. I bet you didn't. Tyler says, what if Minnesota goes undefeated and win the Big Ten? They in the playoff? Question mark? Yes, absolutely. There has never been a Power 5 team go undefeated and left out of the playoff. Minnesota wouldn't be the first. If Baylor and Minnesota both go undefeated and both go to the playoff, both will go to the playoff, period. The playoff will look like SEC champ, Clemson,

Minnesota and Baylor. Now, do we think that's going to happen? Probably not, but it will. It will. An undefeated Power 5 champion will absolutely go to the college football playoff. I don't care how horrendous they played in the non-conference, like in the case of Minnesota, or how horrendous their non-conference schedule is, like in the case of Baylor. If you're undefeated, you're going to go to the playoff. That's just hands down. They will not leave out. I mean, it would be Armageddon in college football if that were to happen. continue. Jacob says, what happened to that vaunted Wisconsin defense, Joel? They get destroyed by every top 10 team. I don't think they would get destroyed by every top 10 team. I think

Ohio State is just really special. Ohio State feels like the lake behind the dam, and that dam is crumbling, right? And it's just a matter of time before the one leak turns into two leaks, turns into three leaks, and then bam, here it comes and it's like an avalanche, right? It's the flood. There was only so long. that Wisconsin was going to be able to hold the dam. All right, they were in a three-point game late in the second quarter. They had played really hard. They had played very well.

And then what happened? Ryan Day found it. He found the coverage. He found the matchup. Boom. Touchdown to Chris Olavet. And then it's just a matter of time because they've got the game record on the other side, number two, Chase Young.

All right? He's going to get some chances. Then once they're ahead to rush the quarterback, he gets a couple of strip sacks, and now the avalanche has started. I still think Wisconsin is very good. I think there's a really good chance that Penn State beats Minnesota, Wisconsin beats Minnesota, and Wisconsin still goes to the Big Ten championship game and rematches with probably Ohio State. Or Penn State. I don't want to leave them out of this, but probably Ohio State.

That's still a really good team. I don't want to take anything away from Wisconsin. I know it looked like they just got drubbed, but man, that's a really good football team that's going to continue to win a lot of games. They're going to be a 10-win team plus. They're probably going to finish in the top 12. in the country when it's all said and done. And Ohio State thoroughly dismantled them, thoroughly. Again, which is one of the reasons why Ohio State is my number one team.

Sean is making fun of me. Where's Texas? I thought you said they were a playoff contender about two weeks ago. I didn't say that two weeks ago. I said it before the year. And also, they've had massive amount of injuries. I mean, they've been playing with a true freshman safety back there who really shouldn't be on the field. They've had decimation to their running back spot.

Ellinger has been alone for the most part. Their offensive line has not played up to par. And they're going through it. Now, they're in one, as I would say. Anybody that has a six-year-old or under or multiple six-year-olds or under, you're going to know exactly what I mean. They're in one.

You know what I'm talking about. All right, let's continue. Do we have any more? That might be it. That might be it. So let's get to my performance of the week. I already mentioned Kansas State, and yes, they were really good.

41 to 6 run in that game against Oklahoma. But my most impressive, this is like a no-brainer, right? I mean, we all watched it. It was the highest rated game of the day. Chase Young was the best football player in America, not only Saturday, but maybe has been for the entirety of the season. Chase Young, you are my most impressive performer from last week. You were an absolute game wrecker against Wisconsin.

They couldn't block you. I saw you one of the first days I ever. Well, let me just go back a few years. spring football all the way back when you were a true freshman. An early enrollee, I went out to visit the Buckeyes just to see what they had, right? And I was in there and I was like, man, I can't wait to see Bosa. I can't wait to see J.T. Barrett. I can't wait to chat with Urban about his team.

And I walked out to the practice field, and I stood there, and the defensive linemen were working right in front of me. And I was like, oh, yeah, there's Bosa. And then I was like, who is two? Oh, my gosh. And if you go back and check, that year, your true freshman year, you got into the game late against Maryland. And right when you came onto the field, because of my history of going to your practices, I said before you even did anything, I said, watch out for this kid. I said, Chase Young is a bona fide top five pick in the NFL in three years. You were a true freshman.

You know what you did the next play? You sack the quarterback. And you haven't looked back since. You're the best player in America. There's not a doubt in my mind. And I'm so glad and happy for you, Chase Young, because you showed that in a time in the season in which now everyone can watch you

as you finish your career at Ohio State and try to make a playoff and make a push for the Heisman trophy. Now for the entire month of November, we know your name. We know that you're a dominant player. We're going to see you on the stages against Penn State and Michigan

and potentially in that Big Ten championship game. You were not only impressive last week, You've been impressive since the first day I've visited practice, and that's why you get my most impressive this week. That's why you're the best player in America, and that's why every Heisman voter should absolutely be looking your way as a Heisman trophy candidate and maybe front runner at this point in the season. Chase Young, well done.

That's been breaking the huddle this week. Week 10 of the college football season. I can't believe it's already November. We're already in the stretch run. Let's go. This is going to be a great stretch run, folks. You're here with me. I'm here with you.

Keep giving me your feedback. Keep tuning into Fox. Big one this week. Not at noon, but we're going to be at five local, let's see, eight Eastern as Oregon visits USC, Gus, Jenny, and I will be there. College football on Fox on Twitter. Add Joel Clatt on Twitter. Also, Joel underscore Clat on Instagram.

This show, as always, is brought to you by Dr. Pepper. It is the official drink of Fansville. Hope you enjoy the weekend of college football, everybody.