The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Big Ten Football is Back!

Episode Date: October 23, 2020

Ohio State head coach, Ryan Day, joins Joel Klatt to discuss the return of Big Ten football and the development of QB Justin Fields. Plus, Joel breaks down how experience gave Alabama a distinct advantage in their win over Georgia and ranks his Top 10 teams in college football. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome in, everybody, to Breaking the Huddle. I am Joel Clat, your host, ready to celebrate college football with you. This show, as always, is brought to you by Dr. Pepper. It is the official drink of Fansville, and it's also delicious. Lots to get into today. This is a huge show. I'm going to take you into the turning point of the Alabama-Georgia game and tell you exactly where that game changed and how. We've got Ryan Day, the head coach of the Buckeyes.

He'll be joining me live later in the show. I'll, of course, get to the social media and answer some of your questions. That will a little clap back time. But first, we've got to go through the top 10. And I've got three kind of Cinderella-type stories to go through in the top 10. These fan bases should be very, very excited. Let's get into it. Here is my top 10 teams right now as we are in game week for the Big 10.

I start with BYU at number 10. And let's sit right there for a moment because this is a wonderful Cinderella story. Folks, folks, BYU is on pace right now at 5 and 0 to potentially be a New Year 6 team. Now, quick caveat, they are not eligible for the automatic birth that the group of 5 gets. So they will have to be an at-large team. But I don't believe that the playoff committee will keep them out of the New Year 6

if they are 10 and 0. Okay, they've got 10 games scheduled. They're 5 and 0 right now. And I just have to tell you, what an amazing job by their administration, even to build a schedule to begin with. Their schedule basically went away. They had to build the schedule from scratch.

They got to eight games. Then when the Mountain West came back, they were able to get to 10 because San Diego State and Boise State jumped back onto the schedule. So a credit to the administration for what they were able to do and at least provide this opportunity not only for their players, but for their fan base to root for. This team is really good.

All right, like I said, 5 and 0. And last week was their biggest test. They faced Houston, Dana Holgerson's Houston team. They beat them 43-26. All right. They've got five games left. And the big ones, the biggies. Friday, November 6th at Boise State.

That one's on FS1. Saturday, December 12th versus San Diego State. I can't wait for those games. And Zach Wilson, you might end up, maybe not in New York, but on the Zoom call for the Heisman trophy finalist, Zach Wilson is playing incredible football. And it's so fun to watch. He's 78% completion percentage that leads college footballs in the top 10 in touchdowns, top two in rating. He's playing great and BYU is an amazing story.

So BYU fans, you can almost taste it, right? New Year's six, you're five wins away from getting there. Let's move on now in the top 10 as we go through the rest. 9, 8, 7, Florida is at 9. Oklahoma State is at three. Let's stop right there. Here's another great Cinderella story. Why is this a Cinderella story, right?

I mean, Oklahoma State has been a great program for a long time. They've won double digit games numerous times under Mike Gundy. their head coach. They've got a great running back in Chuba Hubbard. They've got a veteran quarterback who's been battling injuries, but we'll see if he comes back. They've got a great wide receiver in Thailand Wallace. Why would this be a Cinderella story? Well, let me tell you, did you know that in the history of the college football playoff, this era, there's been only three participants in the playoff that have not averaged, average in their previous four seasons, a top 15 recruiting class? Okay, so those teams, you could probably guess them.

Oregon, 2015, Michigan State, 2016, Washington. Okay, so the first three playoffs, we had one of those teams that did not average in their four previous seasons, a top 15 recruiting class. Ever since that point, when Washington went and got dismantled, handled by Alabama, we haven't seen it. It's been everybody at the top end. It's the Oklahoma's and Ohio states and Alabama's and Clemsons and Georgia's of the world that have been vying for the national championship. And talent plays a huge part in that. So if you love a Cinderella story, you should be rooting for Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State fans, if you go undefeated, there's no way they keep you out of the

playoff. We have yet to see the playoff committee keep an undefeated Power 5 champion out of the playoff. And if Oklahoma State is able to do that, then they will go, regardless of what is truth about their recruiting rankings. And if you look at their recruiting rankings, they don't belong in the playoff. That's why it's such a great Cinderella story. The Cowboys' five-year average right now, the last five years in recruiting in a national rank, is 39th in the country.

They're coming off a year in which they finished 14th in their 2020 class. Their composite ranking now, which is just a look at your current roster is 42nd most talented roster in the country. They have only seven four-star players, no five-star players. So only seven, four- or five-star players on the entire roster. To give you some sense of how different that that's... is than the top teams. Alabama has 70, four-star, five-star players. Ohio State has 68. Clemson has 46. So Oklahoma State is a Cinderella. If they can get through the Big 12 schedule, they would go to the playoff and it would be a very unlikely participant in the college football

playoffs. So Oklahoma State fans, root hard. They're trying to do something that is exceedingly rare. Let's continue on in the top 10 as we go through this. Texas A&M sits there at 7 as they bounce back and have a nice little win against Mississippi State, Penn State, Georgia, Notre Dame. Notre Dame sits there, Ohio State, I moved them down to three, Alabama, after their big win against Georgia to number two, and Clemson at number one. Okay, third and final, really feel-good story of this top 10 is for you, Bama fans, because Mack Jones is trying to follow in the footsteps of Joe Burrow, a veteran quarterback who had kind of an average career up to this point was a backup. Now, Burrow had to transfer. Jones, he sticks it.

out, finally wins the job over a talented young player, and then all of a sudden he's having a monster season, a monster season. Could we have back-to-back years where the unheralded veteran quarterback has a monster year to win the Heisman Trophy? It might happen. Mac Jones has the four things that Joe Burrow had last year. Here are the four things that Joe Burrow had and he took advantage of them to the point of winning the Heisman trophy. He had great talent at the wide receiver position. Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, Terrence, Terrace Marshall, Thaddeus Moss. He had a great running back in Clyde Edwards, Alara,

that could catch it out of the backfield, and he ran for 1,400 yards. He played behind a terrific offensive line. LSU won the Joe Moore Award for the top offensive line in the country, and he had a very, very creative, aggressive, and great play caller in Joe Brady, the passing game coordinator for the LSU Tigers a year ago. Well, guess what? That's virtually identical to what Mack Jones has right now.

Think of the wide receiver core at Alabama. right now with Jalen Waddell and Devante Smith and Michi and all the guys that they can throw to. He's got Najee Harris. He's got a terrific offensive line and he's had Steve Sarkesian as one of the most aggressive and quality play callers in the sport. He's putting up numbers right now, folks, that are way ahead of what Joe Burrow had a year ago. His 78% right now ahead of Joe Burrow, his 13 yards per completion per attempt, excuse me, ahead of Joe Burrow. His 379 yards per game ahead of Joe Burrow, his 220 rating ahead of Joe Burrow. Mack Jones is your new Joe Burrow.

Bama fans. I know you don't want to compare yourself to LSU, but if Mack Jones could bring a Hidesman trophy down to Tuscaloosa, you'd take it, and he just might. Some Cinderella feel-good stories in the top 10 for BYU, Oklahoma State and Alabama. I can't wait to see how all of this plays out during the course of the rest of the season. You always hear, always. In football, it's a business of reps and experience. It's a sport of reps and experience. You know that about the quarterback position. Everybody knows that. But it's also about reps together, right? It's not just individual reps. It's what happens with that experience overtime with an entire group like quarterback and wide receivers. And in last week's top five showdown in Tuscaloosa, there was great evidence that one team really broke the game wide open in the last five minutes of the third quarter. because they hadn't experienced quarterback and wide receiver crew,

and the opposition did not. Of course, we know Alabama's got the experience and Georgia doesn't. So let's take a look at what happens here. Alabama is down four. It's 2420 in the last five minutes of the third quarter, and they're inside their own 10-yard line. See, Georgia's got a great defense. So on their side, they're thinking to themselves,

we can make a stop and create a short field for our offense and get a score and add to our lead. Again, Georgia is leading 24-20, but then it all changes. Here's what happens. The experience pays off for Alabama. They're inside their own 10, Steve Sarkeesian, the offensive coordinator. He calls a beautiful little play where you've got two experienced guys at the top, including Jalen Water, they're going to have a little switch release that confuses the defensive backs.

And because the inside release is wide open, the safety has to bite. It creates a one-on-one on the outside of one of the fastest players in all of college football. Jaylon Waddle. and Mack Jones throws a perfect ball because he brings him just inside the numbers. It allows Waddle to stay on his feet and run for the end zone. This is a beautiful execution.

Watch the confusion of the defensive backs right there. They look at each other and they're like, oh, who's got who? That little confusion creates the separation needed for Waddle to have a big play. Now, Georgia comes back. They've got the ball. This is a cover three.

That means that the three deep players, the two corners and the safety, have deep third responsibilities, their side of the field. the corner from Alabama makes a huge mistake right here. He follows the outside post route inside. That means that that out route, a little look back to the quarterback, then up the rail, and Jermaine Burton, a freshman wide receiver is wide open, but Stetson Bennett under throws it.

Folks, that should have been a touchdown. He under throws it. So now Georgia's still got a score. It's third down now. Burton again wide open. Third down, move the chains. Goes right through his hands. It's an interception for Alabama.

So now it's 24, 27. Bama is leading, and you've just thrown an interception and created momentum for the opposition. Bama would go down and score, and now all of a sudden it's 34, 24. So there's a 10 point lead for Alabama. Georgia's got to do something, create a big play, and they do it. Germain Burton again, the freshman wide receiver. He comes wide open. Stetson Bennett overthrows him.

That ball has got to be caught. Look at this. The coverage is not very good. They create the big play. And Jermaine Burton cannot haul it in because it's an overthrow. Two plays later, guess what happens? Stetson Bennett gets forced out of the pocket. He ends up throwing wildly across his body.

Alabama is going to create a short field by what? Turning the football over. A takeaway, an interception, born out of the fact that Georgia is panicking and trying to create plays that they're not making on the outside. Then the experience again pays off for Alabama. Now it's Devonte Smith's turn. Mack Jones throws a beautiful ball. Devonce Smith makes an unbelievable catch in the back of the end zone.

Folks, this is perfect coverage. You cannot cover this any better. It's just the experience of two veteran players for Alabama that are making a play. Now all of a sudden it's 41, 24. So it happened that quickly from 2420 to 4124. And it was all about the experience on one side and the receiving core and quarterback and the inexperience on the other. side. Look at that now. Mac Jones has been in the program for four years. This is his eighth start. He's playing football at a very high level. He's thrown countless passes to these receivers like

Jaylon Waddle, third year in the program, Devante Smith, fourth year in the program, but making big plays since he caught that overtime touchdown against Georgia in the national championship from Tuotunga Vialoa. These are experienced guys that over the years have thrown thousands of passes to one another. Conversely, on the opposite side, Stetson Bennett, he was a former walk on, then goes to Jucco, then was an afterthought behind guys like Jamie Newman who opted out, J.T. Daniels, even Duon Mathis. No one was talking about Stetson Bennett. And you've got a true freshman wide receiver that you're trying to create big plays for in Jermaine Burton. He's a four-star eighth best receiver in the class. But remember, these guys have probably only thrown some of those

concept three, four, five times to one another during the course of their career at Georgia. Experience pays off. And it paid off huge for Alabama and their big wins. over Georgia last weekend. Very pleased to be joined now by the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, Ryan Day, on game week. Coach, just saying game week, how does that make you feel that it's finally here? It makes me feel great. This has been, it seems like a long time coming.

I don't know exactly what practice is, but we're somewhere in our 30s from when this all started, which is crazy. So it's finally, finally here and kind of figure out what kind of team we have. As you got to this point, can you give me a sense of the excitement within your team? Because listen, you guys were swinging and pushing as hard as anybody to try to get back onto the field this year. Obviously, you feel like you have a team that can compete at the highest level of college football, a player that can compete for the highest individual awards in the sport. And you were pushing as such.

So the level of excitement within your young men on that program, can you gauge it for me? Yeah, they've been really excited here as we get into game week. They're so tired of just practicing. They want to play. They watch other programs play. And, you know, they kind of had a target early on, and then it got reset. And so I'm just proud of the way that they've handled this, all of this. And I know that, you know, the leadership and the toughness and the sacrifice that these guys have made.

I just believe in my heart that that stuff pays off in the long run. So again, just all the focuses on Nebraska right now, really good team coming in here. We just got to find a way to get this first game and then start the journey. I find it so interesting because I came out a couple of springs ago now. It feels like yesterday, but it was a long time ago. You had not coached, you know, a game as the full-time head coach yet at Ohio State. At spring practice, you have a brand new transfer quarterback sitting out there.

Brand new quarterback coach comes in from Oklahoma State. And you and I were standing off on the sideline. watching Justin practice. And I can remember you and I had a conversation of like, yeah, you know, there's a lot of work that needs to be done, a lot of development that needs to take place. And when you take a look and in hindsight, look at what he has become as a player and maybe more so as a leader,

both internally and externally for college football, can you give me some sense of the growth that you've seen from Justin over the last 16 months? Well, first off, you know, to your point, I'm as proud of his development off the field that I am on. I think that the way he's handled himself as a leader here, the way he's handled himself in the public arena has been excellent. But then also on the field,

he's a guy who really did a great job this offseason. He's very determined. He does not like to lose. I can tell you that right now. So having that losing taste in his mouth, you know, over the off season really, I think, motivated him to have a great offseason. He put a lot of work in in the film room and, you know, just throwing motion to everything. So I'm just really happy that he's got an opportunity to play here.

And, you know, who knows? You know, you just never know how things are going to shake out. But the fact that he's got an opportunity to now go play in this game and just kind of build a season is really exciting for everybody. And certainly, you know, somebody who spends a lot of time with him, very proud of how he's gone about his business. You guys haven't, you know, been shy about talking about the bad taste left in your mouth. from that game last year to losing to Clemson. And now, you know, you get back to where you're in a game week, and yet you do have to replace Chase Young,

one of the most dominant players we've seen in a long time, Jeff Okuda of first round corner, Damon Arnett, a first round corner, Fuller at safety. There's a number of other guys. You've got to replace J.K. Dobbins at running back. Give us a sense of what you can expect or what you're expecting out of some of the young players that are stepping into those roles. Well, they have big shoes to fill.

And they know that. So we're going to find out kind of where we're at with this thing, but those were really good players that played a lot of football for us and did some great things. And so like you said, you know, we were obviously highly motivated in the off season. And then, you know, as we went into quarantine, guys kind of had to go on their own and stay motivated. I thought they did. I thought they great, you know, showed really good leadership in that area. And so the younger guys have come now.

They didn't have spring practice. They really didn't have much of a preseason other than what we've got into in terms of the full padded practices over the last, you know, three weeks. But the development has been there. They've shown really good development. But now it's time to go play. And they're still going to learn things. They're going to have to get better as the season goes on. It's going to be a work in progress.

But again, really proud of the way the guys have just gone about their business, very professional and, again, highly motivated. And now you're going to see them get between the lines, which I know you're excited about. Can you give me a sense of what you're most confident in? about your team. Like you know on Saturday, this factor will show up. You just are very confident about what about the Buckeyes? Well, I'm confident about our will to win, our intensity. You know, the fact that, you know, our guys are going to play really, really hard. And that's something that we take a lot of pride in as part of our culture, the fact that we're going to fight and play with relentless effort. You know, we say four to six, A to B, something that's been

here a long time at Ohio State. And we have to play that way. Now, there's got to be mistakes made. Yeah, there's going to be mistakes made. But we'll clean those things up. And the coaches alone those mistakes. But what we can't have is not an unbelievable effort, great toughness. And that's something that we're going to have to do on Saturday and something I feel confident we will do.

Well, Gus and I and Jenny will be there. Can't wait to be there in the shoe. I know there's not going to be a lot of people. There'll be a lot of cardboard cutouts. But I'm sure you guys are going to be excited nonetheless to get out there and actually attack another opponent. That opponent will be Nebraska. on Saturday. Coach, thank you for joining us, man.

And best of luck on Saturday. Look forward to seeing you. Thanks, Joel. See you then, man. You got it. All right, welcome back in. Time for a little clap back. Let's get to it. Your reaction on social media. Josh shimes in in reference to a tweet I sent out about Tennessee pumping their chest, puffing their chest out about an eight-game winning streak and then a couple of losses. He says Kentucky was a part of that eight-game win streak.

You praised Kentucky and then lump them in with the, quote, trash eight-win game win streak. Which is it? Josh, I'll answer a question with a question. If Kentucky was part of the eight-game win streak for Tennessee, and now Kentucky just absolutely throttled Tennessee, in particular on the defensive side, hasn't Tennessee regressed?

Aha. Uh-huh. Thanks, Guy. You're out of here, Josh. Ryan shimes in. Alabama dominant. Their offense, yes, but their defense is giving up 28 a game, 458 yards a game.

Teams who are combined eight and seven are doing those. thing. So not real sure their defense has put everyone on, quote, notice. Listen, Ryan, you fail to realize what just happened a year ago, right? LSU was maybe one of the most dominant teams that we've seen in college football history. And guess what? Their defense was doing the exact same thing Alabama's defense is doing right now. They gave up over 530 yards to a decent but not great Texas team. They gave up over 600 yards to Ole Miss. And it didn't matter much then. They were still dominant. Like Alabama can be dominant. By the way, Alabama doesn't have this season the benefit of playing a few cupcakes like LSU played well, Northwestern State and Georgia Southern and Utah State.

That helped their defensive stats out. So again, Ryan, sorry, but I don't think that that argument holds much water. So pal, take a lap. This week, Big Ten football returns on Fox folks. Nebraska in the shoe against Ohio State, the Buckeyes and the Huskers, nine Pacific, noon Eastern, noon Saturday, Gus Jenny and I will be there. Big thanks to Dr. Pepper for being a part of the show. Remember, it is the official drink of Fansville. Thanks for watching everybody, and we'll see you next week.