The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Answering the Biggest Questions in the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and ACC entering the season

Episode Date: August 12, 2024

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt dives into the biggest questions in each of the 4 Power Conferences heading into the season. In the Big Ten, he considers who is the biggest threat to Ohio State and Oregon between Michigan, Penn State and USC. While Georgia and Texas look like the favorites in the SEC, Klatt considers whether a team like Ole Miss is ready to take a step up or if we are discounting Alabama’s chances. The Big 12 is the most wide open conference this season and Klatt lists the teams he thinks could win the crown and discusses Coach Prime and Colorado’s case to be a surprise team in the Conference. Over in the ACC he discusses whether Florida State and Miami have passed Clemson and whether we should have expected an eventual lull from Dabo Swinney’s program following one of the best runs of success that the sport has ever seen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Colorado's a dark horse for this thing. It's going to be 20, 23 all over again. That hype train is going to be barreling down the rails, and I might be driving it. College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. Believe that we are at the dawn of the golden age of college football. It was an epic day of college football.

It was one of those days where you fall in love with the sport all over again. Hey, welcome into the program, everybody. I am Joel Glad. This is the Joel Glad show. And as always, we are presented by Hampton. by Hilton. I cannot wait for college football. We are one week closer at the top 25 last week.

Now we are one week closer to the sport that we love. I'm telling you, I like, I get a little too fired up about it. But that's all right. I think my wife understands. My kids understand. They're fired up about it as well. So this is one of the first years where they're also like chomping at the bit, asking me about college football, which games that they need to watch,

all this stuff. So that's been really fun. I got those my boys 12, 10, and 7. So it's been a fun year and getting ready for the college football season. By the way, before we get into what I wanted to get into today, have you ever had somebody ask you or tell you like, hey, I think that's the nicest shirt I've seen you wear? And I'm like, thank you.

I don't know. Can you leave a comment down below? Is that a compliment or not? I just, I need to know, compliment or not. because that'll, you know, that'll direct the way I think about said comment. Here's what I want to do today. I want to look at the top four conferences, the big four, as they are, and go through what I think is like the biggest question,

the biggest question, Mark, the biggest question, going into the season for these conferences as a whole. So it's going to be team specific, but I think it's more related to each conferences. So we'll go through all four of them. Let's start in the Big Ten. And the Big Ten, I think that we all can agree. Most preseason polls, mine included, last week I had Ohio State won Oregon four.

Oregon and Ohio State are kind of your favorites in the Big Ten. And I think most of us agree on that. I think that the question is, is there a threat to those top two? I think that's the biggest question, even more so than like, how do the West Coast teams do? there's this consensus with Ohio State and Oregon and then who's going to threaten them? And so who are the candidates?

The candidates for me are three of them, Michigan, Penn State, and USC. And let's just start right off the bat. I ask that question, and if you're a Michigan fan listening to this, you probably slapped the dashboard, threw something down, spit out your drink, and you're like, what do you mean who's the threat? we're the defending national champions. Who's the threat to the team we just beat three times?

I get it. I get it. And fair enough, that's why Michigan is the biggest threat to those top two. I do believe that there is somewhat of a consensus that Ohio State and Oregon are at the top. And that Michigan, because of everything that they lost, is going to have to be somewhat of an underdog this year. I think that that's fair. It's a fair sentiment. And yet, if you are a Michigan fan or certainly inside of that building,

you're sitting there thinking to yourself, what is this guy talking about? We just went 15 and 0. We did not change our culture. We're building from within. We are developing from within like we have this entire time. The last three years has been magical in Ann Arbor. And that's why they are continuing. And that's why they will be the biggest threat to Ohio State or Oregon.

It doesn't matter who is left because they believe they're the biggest threat. They believe they're the Kings of the Hill. They believe that the conference goes through them. We might see that early in the year when they play Texas. The other part of this is not just this self-belief, which kind of lives in the air, but it's also the tangible aspect of what Michigan does on the field. And that's they put you in a bind. They just do.

They play such a different style of football than most teams. And I think this year it'll be even leaned into more because they don't have J.J. McCarthy. to throw the ball as much as they did or as efficiently as they did a year ago. They're going to lean into, as their coach, Sharon Moore puts it, smashball. That's going to be difficult for each of those teams. It's going to be difficult for Ohio State. It's going to be difficult for Oregon. It's going to be difficult for Texas.

It's going to be difficult for USC because it's not what other teams do. And this has been really the secret, their toughness at the line of scrimmage, over the course of the last few years. that's why they're the biggest threat. They're going to be excellent on defense, very tough, very physical, the interior of that defensive line. You're not going to be able to move them. And I understand that Ohio State has a great secondary.

I understand that Ohio State has great edge rushers, but does that matter if Michigan can run it 55 times? Maybe not. See, for the last three years, they've said, great, good for you. at all that skill on the outside, offensively and even defensively. And then they said, come on in here and do a phone booth and see if you can win a fist fight. And they've won the fist fight. They've won the fist fight. They believe they're the king of the mountain.

That's why they're the biggest threat. They believe it. You can walk around anywhere else in the country and everywhere else in the country, people are talking about Ohio State. People are talking about Oregon. In Ann Arbor, you walk into the building at Michigan. Michigan, nothing's changed. It's the damnedest thing I've ever seen in my life. Go there for the spring game. I'm walking around. I'm like, man, look at you, new head coach, new coordinator, new strength coach, new quarterback, all the new, new, new. And Donovan Edwards is looking at me like, what do you mean, new? Nothing's new. Nothing's changed. We are Michigan. I was like, okay, all right. So they're the biggest threat. The other two candidates, Penn State and USC, I think a lot has to go

right for each of those teams. The reason I didn't pick them as the biggest thread is one, Penn State, they just don't play a style of football that scares Ohio State because they play a similar style. And Ohio State can say, hey, listen, we feel like we've got a better roster than you do. Okay. And I think that that's fair. And I think that that's played out. We saw that play out last year in Columbus. We saw it play out in state college two years ago. So while I believe in Penn State, and while I think that they could have a really good year and the schedule sets up favorably for them, I don't view them as the threat that I think Michigan is,

and a lot of that is the style. They're trying to play on equal footing for Ohio State rather than taking them into a matchup that maybe they're not prepared for or don't want to play. And the same could be said for Oregon as well. And then USC, I put them in there just because, man, I'm bullish on USC. I want to plant a flag in the preseason for USC.

I think they're going to be better than most people believe this season. I think Lincoln Riley is going to have an excellent year. I think that they're going to take the Big Ten and it's going to be difficult for some of those defenses to face this offense. I think their defense should be better. Their offense should be the same. That's what we can come to expect. At least I do, which means USC is a threat, just not the biggest threat, certainly to Ohio State and Oregon. All right, so let's go to the SEC. Similar question. It'll be different style of question as we get to the next. too after this. But this one is similar because I think that at the outset, it's a similar sentiment.

And that sentiment is that Georgia and Texas are kind of clear favorites and clearly the class of the SEC. Almost everybody will have them in their top four. And rightly so. Rightly so, I did. I had them at two and three. Man, they're good. Georgia in a lot of ways is the premier team in the country. Two championships in the last three years. Kirby Smart. I said it last week. I'll repeat it here. He is the best coach in college football. He builds the best roster. He's the most aggressive. He gets the most out of his players. He's going to have a Heisman contending quarterback back.

I mean, we all know what Georgia is and what they're going to present. I think the same can be said for Texas. We all know that Texas is going to be an elite team. I have them ranked third in my preseason poll. Steve Sarkesian has done an outstanding job, building a foundation at Texas that is sustainable. What he took over was a program, let's face it, in disarray. And then I think people from the outside said that he underachieved early. And now what he's built is something, excuse me, that most people are proud of there in Austin,

which is a, I think, national championship caliber team. He's done it through roster building, through development. The question for me about Texas is going to be on the defensive side. Is the defense better even with losing their defensive tackles? So then what's the question for the conference? If these two teams are the class of the conference, what's the question? It's the exact same question as the Big Ten. Who's the threat?

So like which team do we believe here at the Joel Clatio can go up there and be a threat to those two? The answer is Alabama. The answer is Alabama. Whether I have them ranked there in the preseason or not, like I've got Ole Miss Fifth and Bama behind them, but the threat is Alabama. And it's in the similar vein as the threat in the Big Ten being Michigan. And that's because they believe they're the threat.

They've done it. They've done it. Listen, say what you will about Kailen DeBore coming in and it's a new this and new that. is still the one that has an Alabama problem. I know Bulldog fans are not going to want to hear that. But they have had, you can call it a Nick Saban problem if you

want. It's a tied problem. They don't do well with the laundry, if you know what I mean. Bama is never going to feel outmatched. Their roster is built to play at the highest level. Their players have played at the highest level. They just beat Georgia last

year. They just played in the playoff. They just had a fourth down in the Rose Bowl to beat the eventual champion. They will not back down at any moment, and you can't say that about the other two teams that I considered here, which is Ole Miss and Missouri. See, when those two teams, you can evaluate them in the preseason and you can say to yourself, yeah, they're going to be really good, and they will, and they will. I love Missouri's schedule. I like that both of these teams have their quarterback back. Lane Kiffin did an incredible job in the offseason building this roster

to a roster that is an elite roster in college football. The problem is, neither of these teams have done it against those teams. Now, you can say Missouri just beat Ohio State, but everybody understands that that bowl game was different. You had freshmen playing quarterback for the Buckeyes, and that roster was not anywhere near what I think most people felt like Ohio State was during the course of the year. I think that's a fair sentiment. It's a fair sentiment. I don't want to take anything away from their win over Ohio State, but it's not a win that you can hang your hat on and you can say, we've done it. You see, Michigan can say they've done it.

Alabama can say they've done it. And getting over those hurdles is tough. Those are the hurdles that are in front of Ole Miss and Missouri. Really good teams believe in them a lot, a lot. Probably both playoff teams when you really look at it. But are they legitimate? threats to those top two, I'm not sure. I'm not sure because I haven't seen it. They're going to have to get over something. They're going to have to do something that they've never done before.

Alabama is not. Even with Kalin DeBoer, Kalin DeBoer just won a conference title. So even as a head coach, he can say, I've won national titles at Sioux Falls. I've won the conference in the Pac-12. I just played for the national championship. Alabama players can sit there and say, we just beat Georgia in the SEC championship. They believe that they can. That's why they're the biggest threat in the SEC. All right, we move on. Let's go to the Big 12 and the question becomes a little bit different because we don't have what we had in the SEC in the Big 10, which was some sort of uniformity or consensus among who we think is going to be the best team or best two teams in the conference.

So with the Big 12, I think the question is a little bit different. Who can actually win the Big 12? When you pose that question and then you just sit back and you start and, you start and, you analyzing these programs, you can just start listing them off. And then all of a sudden, it gets me a little bit giddy because I'm like, oh, man, this is going to be an incredible year. The Big 12 is going to eat themselves alive. But here's the best part.

It's not the four-team format. So we will see the winner of this conference in the playoff with a buy. incredible. Incredible. So now we've got this gauntlet conference that is as deep as any, maybe deeper than any, when you're just talking about the competitive balance of the conference. Now, are all these teams better than the teams of the Big Ten or the SEC? No, probably not. But when you're just talking about competitive balance,

this is the most competitive conference in the country, in the country. You don't have the consensus at the top. Even though I love Utah, and that's where I'll start, Utah is certainly a team that can and might win the Big 12 conference. If you listen to this show for any amount of time, you know that I have an absolute affinity for Utah football. I love their style of play. I love their toughness.

I love their head coach. If any of my sons ever wanted to play for Kyle Whittingham, I would sign him up in a heartbeat. Highest compliment, I can pay a head coach. Guy is fantastic. Might be his last year. I talked about that last week. They named a coach in waiting, Morgan Scali.

And they're veteran, man, at the key spots. Cam Rising, back. Hey, what have they done the last two years that Cam Rising has been a quarterback? Oh, that's right. They won their conference title, played in the Rose Bowl. Okay, okay. He's on his 18th year in college football. He probably is going to play really well.

Grant Keithy, they're tied in, back, their defense, always tough, always aggressive. That's the toughest place to play in the conference. So that's where you start. I start with Utah. And now I think you've got four other teams that are just nipping at their heels. And I think that these four teams easily could win this conference as well. Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Arizona, and Kansas. Man, this is going to be so good.

And there's a couple of other dark horses, but let me just walk through those four right now. Kansas State is in the same vein as Utah. They will not be intimidated by Utah football like most teams are. I'll be honest. Most teams are intimidated by Utah football. Kansas State will not be because they play a physical brand of football. I'm really excited to see Avery Johnson, their quarterback. I saw him briefly in that Texas game before Will Howard kind of took over. I'm excited to see their run game, especially with their mentality,

the way that they like to shorten games and the addition of the transfer from Colorado, Dylan Edwards. his addition out of the backfield to go along with Giddens is going to be outstanding. And Kansas State always plays tough defense. If I'm rooting for something, it's probably to see Kansas State and Utah play in a Big 12 championship game. Just because I love the style. I love the style. And you know what? I shouldn't leave any of the others out because I love these other styles as well.

My next one's Oklahoma State. So I talked about this last week on my top 25. And kind of the differentiating factor between Ohio State and Georgia at the top was this idea of it's not just talent anymore, but it's veteran talent that really pays off. And you can have more veteran talent than you have at any time in college football history because of guys deciding to stay through NIL, through COVID years, through transfer years, graduate transfer years. And now what do you have at Oklahoma State? a really veteran team. And in particular on the offensive side, you've got your running back,

you've got your wide receivers, you've got your quarterback, you've got the entire offensive line. I mean, if you just had Ollie Gordon and the entire offensive line, you'd have like high expectations, but you throw all these other veterans out there, man, Oklahoma State is going to be really good.

And the last time they had a veteran team, it was a couple of years ago, if you remember. Jim Knowles was their defensive coordinator at the time. What did they do? Win the Big 12. Win the Big 12. Won't be shocked if they do it again. Arizona is going to have a shot at this thing.

They may have the best quarterback-wide receiver combination in the country with Fafita and McMillan. I love Brent Brennan. I really do. I think it's going to be difficult in his first year. But boy, the chip on your shoulder with the way Jed Fish left, I think that this team feels slighted. They move into a conference that I believe is going to be easier than the one that they just played in a year ago because of the quality quarterback play that we saw in the Pac-12 a year ago.

ago. And I think that you can honestly say that Fafita might be the best quarterback in the conference. Could be. There's a lot of really good quarterbacks. Rising's a really good quarterback. I think Avery Johnson's going to have something to say about that. Jalen Daniels, that brings me to my next team, Kansas. Jalen Daniels might be the best of them all. Do you see how this is eerily similar to last year in the Pack 12, quality quarterback play, veteran teams, good coaches, balanced league. That's what we're going to get this year out of the Big 12. Kansas has a dynamic offense, Jalen Daniels, Devin Neal, I love Lance Leipold. They're building something special.

Won't shock me at all if they play for a Big 12 title. Wouldn't you love to see Kansas in the playoff? I mean, if you really sit back and if you really love the sport like I, do and you really picture what this 12-team format could mean and hopefully in the future, and I'll get to this in later episodes, a 14-team format. What it really means is hope. That's what it means. Do you know how many times we could legitimately sit here and say,

Kansas has post-season national championship playoff implication chances, Hopes. Never. Now we do. All of you who are critics of this playoff, just sit back and look at these teams. Utah, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Arizona, Kansas. They all have legitimate playoff hopes, and I am here for it.

Kansas Jayhawks, man, I'd love to see them in playoff. I really would. And then I've got these two dark horses. And you're probably wondering, you're like, this whole time, you're talking about the Big 12, you're like, is he going to do it? Is he going to do it? Is he going to do it? Damn right. I'm going to do it. Colorado's a dark horse for this thing.

Like, I would be insane to not put Colorado in there as a dark horse for the Big 12. They're really talented. They might have the best quarterback in the entire league. And their skill position players are insanely talented. This is a team that went from one win to four, where it really threw away a couple of other wins, should have been a bull team last year. And everyone's like, well, can they go to a bowl?

Can they go to a bowl? What are you talking about? Like this team, I think, is an eight or nine win team, which puts them in the conversation in a deep quality league for a potential bid to the Big 12 championship game. If they keep Shador Sanders upright and he can throw to some of these talented players on the outside like Travis Hunter, watch out.

Colorado's going to win a lot of games, a lot of games. They've got a difficult stretch early. Dakota State, they play early, Nebraska they play early. If they win both of those games, then watch out because guess what? It's going to be 20, 23 all over again. That hype train is going to be barreling down the rails, and I might be driving it. You never know. You never know. Shador is really good. And I'm telling you, they rebuilt their offensive line. They rebuilt their defensive line. I think Colorado's got a chance. Again, I've said this plenty of times before, but if you just play this out in a realistic manner, this schedule for

them is easier than what they had a year ago. Their players are better. Their roster is better. That should uptick your win total from four to five or six. Then you start looking about the play on the field. Even if nothing else improves, if you just keep Sanders upright from 52 sacks a year ago, which is an insane number to something that's good, not even great. High 20s, low 30s, you're going to win two more games. That's eight. Okay? So that's how I get there. These are not just buff colored glasses that I'm looking through, although I have them. Last Dark Horse, Iowa State. Like, Matt Campbell.

Matt Campbell, here he is. He's back again. Guess who's back? No, I mean, he looks too much like that. You can't actually say it. He looks a little bit, like just a little bit. Like with the hat and the beard, doesn't he? A little bit.

You guys know what I'm talking about, right? Back again. So Iowa State is one of those programs that's going to have to develop. Because of that, I don't think that you're ever going to get, And this is a lot of programs around the country. I don't think that you're ever going to get, and this is going to sound bad, it's not meant to be bad. Sustained elite success year over year, over year, over year.

They had a great run when they got some veteran players, Brock Purdy and that group, Brees Hall, and they had a great run. And they were an elite team. They played great defense. And then they lost those guys. And guess what they have to do? They have to go down before they're going to come back up. So you're going to have peaks and valleys at a place like Iowa State.

Matt stayed there. He had chances to go a lot of places throughout the country, and he stayed there, and he wanted to develop again. And guess what? They've developed again. If you look, all of a sudden last year, who was one of the top two defenses in the Big 12, Iowa State. Now they've got some veteran players back. Guess where is a tough place to play? Iowa State. And so Iowa State is a team that I'm bullish on. It's not a reload program. It's a development program. And now they've got 19 starters back, 10 on offense, including Rock. back to their quarterback. This is going to be a really good team. So that's seven teams, ladies and gentlemen. I didn't even mention Texas Tech, West Virginia, or UCF. I feel like all those other seven have a little bit more legitimate title hopes than Texas Tech, West Virginia, and UCF. But who knows? Seven teams could potentially win the Big 12. That's why it's going to be an incredible conference to watch this year in college football. Last conference, ACC. All right. So what's the question in the ACC? I was looking at all this and I'm like, well, is it about bids, number of bids, you know,

what do we think about the champion? What do we think about the overall strength, this or that? And that's not the question for the ACC. The question for the ACC is, has Clemson been passed? That's the question. Because I don't think Clemson has gotten their due for what they did. Clemson had a stretch, a six-year stretch, that was as good of a six-year stretch as any in the history of the sport. And here's the bad part. It happened in conjunction with the greatest 12-year stretch that we've ever seen in the history of the sport. So they were overlooked. If you look at the most consecutive seasons reaching number one in the APs,

pole. Alabama is obviously number one of that list from 08 to 2002. They reached number one, 15 straight seasons. Miami is second on that list from 86 to 92 in seven seasons. And look who's third. The Clemson Tigers. 2015 to 2020, all six seasons, they reached number one in the AP poll. Number one. If it's not for Nick Sabin being the greatest coach in the history, of the sport, we're sitting here thinking to ourselves like, man, Clemson's run was incredible.

But here's the thing about runs like that. We have been totally thrown off by Bama's run of 15 by Nick Saban. Nick Saban ruined our view of what Clemson is right now. They've totally ruined it. Now we think that this is just commonplace. Oh, you're going to be great for 15 straight years. That doesn't happen in the history of college football. It just doesn't.

It just doesn't. The next longest streak was Miami at seven years. Then Clemson at six. You see, if you actually look at the history of college football, what you'll see is pockets of greatness are absolutely the norm. What's happening at Clemson right now is what we should expect to happen. The anomaly is Alabama. What's happening at Clemson has happened countless times throughout the history of the sport.

It's happened at Nebraska after the, you know, mid-night, 90s, then they took a little bit of a dip. It happened at Miami. It happened at Texas. It happened at Oklahoma. It happened at USC. It's happened at Washington. It's happened at Florida State.

It's happened at Michigan. All of these places. This should not surprise us at all, actually. You know, I'm, everyone hammers dabbo for not adapting. And you know what? Fair enough. And probably rightly so. This idea that he's not going to play in the transfer portal is just not sustainable.

So this is what happens. If you don't learn from history, you're doomed to repeat it. Or you can say there's nothing new under the sun. Like history is always going to be cyclical. Think of all those great programs. What happened to those great programs at some point? They didn't adapt. every one of them.

Every one of them. And you can go through the examples. You can make an argument. Nebraska never adapted schematically. Fell off. USC didn't adapt with the facilities race. They fell up. They kept trying to hang on to the Pete Carroll era and it didn't work.

Miami didn't adapt to the facilities race. Fell off. Michigan just wanted to hang on to, you know, we're a Michigan man and we're this and that. And they didn't adapt until recently and now they've bounced back. In order to succeed in this sport, you have to adapt. You've got to be fluid. Dan Lannning talks about it all the time.

He thinks that that's the number one trait of any head coach in the country. So all that to say, what's happening at Clemson should be expected to happen. So then the question is posed, have they been passed? And the answer is, yes, yes, they have. That's the natural evolution of the sport. we should have expected it, and it's time that we start to look at this season for what it is, which is clearly a Florida State, Miami,

look towards that ACC championship game. This is nothing against Clemson. This is the natural evolution of college football. This is the natural progression of programs. Again, they had the best six-year stretch, or arguably the best six-year stretch of any team in college football history. They knocked off Alabama, the greatest dynasty that we've ever seen for 15 years.

And now here we are in Florida, state in Miami have adapted. They've invested in the right areas and now they are playing with modernity. They've modernized and Clemson hasn't and they're going to pass them and have. And I think that that's going to be evident this year. And to be fair, I don't root for this, right? Like I love, I love Clemson and it wouldn't take long and it wouldn't take much for them to just bounce right back because that's the way that they, I think, the way that they think about their program. They've invested in the right areas, the facilities and not in the personnel via the transfer

portal where Florida State has. Miami has. And now those rosters are just going to be in a better place to compete in the ACC. I said it last week and I'll say it again right now. Miami should be 11 and 1. 10 and 2 is an underachievement for the hurricanes. Mario Cristobal is under and should be under an immense amount of pressure. With this roster that they have and the schedule that they face,

this is an 11 and 1 team all day long. All they've got to do is go out there and play to their level. Now, we haven't seen that for Mario Cristobal and his team's really even going back to Oregon. He's 12 and 13 at Miami. That has to improve and it's got to change. immediately, and I think that it will. And then Florida State, you just can't argue with what Mike Norvell has done. Mike Norvell has built something.

He got there and he's built something and he's developed and he's leaned in with how to change over the roster, how to build the roster year over year. And here he is. And I think both of those teams can confidently say that they should be the favorites in the ACCC and not Clemson. And I believe it. And I believe it. And Clemson's schedule this year is not very, not very conducive.

I would just say, not very conducive. So there we go. There's the questions in the conference. And remember, leave the comments below on the episode. I like to jump in there. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, subscribe to the podcast, and share it with a friend. College football is coming, man. It's fast approaching.

We are almost there. We are one week closer to the start of the greatest time of the year, college football season. I'll be back with you next week.