The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Bill Belichick to North Carolina!! Shedeur’s Heisman snub & could Georgia win without Carson Beck?

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt weighs in on North Carolina hiring Bill Belichick to be their new Head Coach and whether the 6x Super Bowl winning-coach would be successful as a college coach. He then discusses the announced Heisman Finalists for this season and why Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders deserved to be invited to New York. Klatt breaks down the impact of Carson Beck’s elbow injury on the College Football Playoff and whether Georgia can win a National Championship if Beck is forced to miss the CFP. He wraps up the show by discussing Michigan’s new Offensive Coordinator hire before giving his biggest takeaways from the Big Ten Schedule release including listing his most interesting Big Ten Games next season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are more ways to succeed in college football now than there ever has been. So when you look at an outside of the box style higher, like potentially Bill Belichick at North Carolina, I'm going to say this unequivocally. I think it would absolutely work. 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, what's up everybody? Welcome into the Joel Clatt show. I am Joel Clad. This show is brought to you by Hampton by Hilton. We have got a great episode. College football never stops. And so we never stop. We will be working for you, the college football fan throughout this playoff season, throughout the holiday season. And I know it might feel like a little bit of a lull in the schedule right now as we wait for these playoff games. But trust me, there is a lot to get to. And we'll get to all of it, including the potential of Bill Bel Check becoming a college football coach at North Carolina. I can't wait to talk about that. Hey, remember, wherever you're listening to this show, make sure to rate and review us wherever you get your podcast. That would really help us out, and we would appreciate it very much. If you're on YouTube, congratulations.

By the way, we've got stuff in the works. We have been working hard all fall to try to figure out how we wanted to best give the schematics of football, the tutorials of football to you on YouTube. That is going to be starting. In fact, later today as we record this, we're going to be piloting some of that content. So that will be coming on YouTube. So get to YouTube and subscribe to the YouTube channel so that you know when that stuff starts to arrive, hit that notification button.

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I was just in Las Vegas for the National Football Foundation, Hall of Fame dinner as we inducted a new class of college football Hall of Famers, the William V. Campbell Trophy. I hosted the Lot Impact Award, won by Travis Hunter. Lots going on. And I actually got to see a lot of the folks that were on the college football playoff committee. that was fun after last week's tweet, seeing them. I'm like, oh, hey, guys, how you do it?

How was your week? Mine was fine. It was, you know, it was uneventful other than that. I want to get into this Bill Belichick news. I want to get into the Heisman finalists. We've got injury reports coming out of Georgia in terms of Carson Beck. We've got to get to that. We've got schedule release for the Big Ten. And as we know, schedule is. is everything in college football now, in particular in conference. So I want to get to all of that here today on the Joel Clatt show. And we dive in and we start. Let's get to this Bill Belichick news.

Now, as we are recording this, this is a Wednesday that we're going to, that we are recording this. And so as of right now, it is still not official whether Bill Belichick will or will not be the head coach at North Carolina. But I believe that point is actually moot because the bigger discussion is whether someone like Bill Belichick or Bill Belichick himself, would it work in college football? And I think that's a bigger question and one that's actually much more fascinating to talk about now than let's say four or five years ago. So let's get into it. I want to talk about both why I think it could work

and why I think it wouldn't work. And we'll see which one you land on because I feel like I've got, I feel like I'm going to talk myself into a position here and we'll land on something. as a bit of a thesis at the end. So let's start with why I think it will work. First of all, in the new age modern style of college football, I believe that the evaluation of talent is paramount, not just the recruiting of talent, but the evaluation of talent. Because it's just a different way that we are constructing rosters now

versus four, five, six years ago and then throughout the history of college football. Because it's such an annual cycle of constructing these rosters, due to the transfer portal, due to high school recruiting, it really matters who you're bringing in on an annual basis. So the evaluation of talent is really important. Well, that's one of the areas that I think Bill Belichick would really excel. I don't think that there's been many guys in the history of our sport, any level, that has evaluated talent better than Bill Belichick.

Think of all the value he got out of guys, whether they were veterans when he would bring him in on one and two-year contracts, whether it was middle to late-round draft picks, that he got a ton of value out of and understood how to get that value out of them on the football field. So when it comes just to evaluating talent, as that becomes more paramount and important in college football, a guy like Bill Belichick would absolutely thrive in that environment. Now, one other thing that I think that we're moving into is that you can't just evaluate the talent, but then you have to value that talent. Remember, in April, we're going to get this settlement done from the Alston case,

and that settlement between the NCAA is going to allow schools to revenue share. And now what you're going to see is more of an even footing in terms of the budget that schools have to share with their players as it relates to the revenue share based on the television contract. So it's not just how you evaluate the player, but it's how you value that player. You're basically going to be working under a salary cap. I believe that most programs, after having all these discussions in Las Vegas over the last couple of days, I think most programs are earmarking in terms of their revenue share between $16 and $18.5 million per year for football. All right. Now, you can share about $20 to $22, maybe $23 million in revenue share.

The rest will be men's basketball, women's basketball, and some other sports, but about $16 to $18.5 million will be allocated to the football program. So you're going to have to really be smart in terms of who's getting those dollars. So you've got to evaluate the talent in order to bring them on the roster, and then you've got to value that talent correctly in terms of the revenue share. Well, that's a pro model. Bill Belichick did that as well as anybody in the history of the NFL. That's why they were able to sustain such an incredible dynasty over essentially two decades

in a league that does everything to drive parity. They don't want dynasties in the NFL. Everything in the NFL is designed to be eight and eight. And yet he sustained success in large part due to the fact, that he was a great evaluator, and then he valued that talent properly in terms of the way that they paid those players. And I think that is coming to college football. We can see that. That's on the horizon. That's why everybody is moving towards a GM model and you're starting to have a pseudo front office in a lot of these college football programs, which I think is the right way to

go. Another thing that we've seen in modern college football is that parity is now an actual thing. You see, in the middle of the four-team playoff era, folks, there was one way to construct your roster and one path to win in a national championship. You had to stockpile with five stars. You had to be an elite recruiting class in the top two, three, four in all of the country. And then there was a very narrow path in order to go and win a national championship. Okay. Well, now it's very different. There's a lot more parity in college football.

I believe that there aren't any great teams, but there are a lot more good teams. Again, a lot more like an NFL model. Well, what does that mean? What does that mean? It means that coaching on the field is going to matter a lot more. The value of a great coach, an in-game coach, a guy that can coach, I would say, the specificity of situation and do it well, they're going to have a lot more value. They're going to have a lot more success.

Well, again, that is. exactly where Bill Belichick is strong. So as the college game moves and morphs and evolves towards a pro model, as much as we all fight against that and we hate that and we don't want it to be the NFL, okay, that's fine. But as it gets closer to that, and as we have these things that are NFL principles, a guy like Bill Belichick can and will succeed at the college level. I fully believe that. I think that the current state of the top, of college football is flat as it's ever been. So if you get a guy that does all of these things well, evaluates well, values that talent properly, is great on the field in terms of situations

and coaching through those things, can construct a roster on an annual basis and not a four-year rolling basis, all things that he would excel at. Because of the flat nature of college football, we have seen that teams can make a jump right away. We've seen it with Indiana. We've seen it with Colorado. We've seen it with Arizona State. We've seen it with SMU. Look at all of these teams. Look at who's in the college football playoff this year, for goodness sakes. Right? Like, this sport is ready for someone like Bill Belichick more than it's ever been. So that's why I think it could and maybe will work. Now, what are some of the reasons that maybe this won't work? Before we get into why I think it won't work or why I think it wouldn't work,

let's actually ask some of his former players, which Kurt Meneffi did this week on Fox NFL Sunday. Check this out. We heard this week that Bill Belichick is actually interviewing for college jobs. Can you imagine him coaching college? No. Absolutely not. I think there's a lot of things he can do.

And obviously, he's tremendous and even showing his personality, but getting out there on the recruiting trail and dealing with all these college kids. Could you imagine with NIL? Could you imagine Bill on a couch? Recruiting an 18-year-old? You really want to come here. I mean, we don't really want you anyway, but I guess you could come. We'll figure out if you play.

If you bring your parents and use off a third party, you're gone. You're off the team. We're direct. Some scourges you've built up here among these guys. Oh, that was amazing, listening to those guys. Of course, that was Julian Edelman and Rob Grunkowski and Tom Brady. And listen, they are right. And what they were describing their.

without actually saying it, is that Belichick was one of the more ruthless and transactional coaches that we've ever seen in the NFL. Now, maybe there have been more. Maybe Parcells was like that a little bit as well, but he was a transactional guy. Think about, think about the, the, lack of emotion that he had to have to do things like let lawyer Malloy go and Tom Brady and all these, Rodney Harrison, all these different guys. throughout the years, that it's like, those guys helped them win championships. And then that sentiment, it was like once he felt like they couldn't help him anymore, it was like, okay, it's transactional.

Like, bring me somebody else. All right. And that's not really the way college football has been. In fact, what most college football coaches will tell you is that you can't be transactional and you have to be more relational because of the recruiting, the age, all those different things. Now, the other side of this and the big difference, I think the biggest difference when you talk with coaches that have been at both levels is they'll talk about the time that they get with the players. You see, at the NFL level, you've got all the time in the world.

You've got all day, every day with your players. You can walk through. You can meet. You can walk through again. You can meet. You've got all offseason. You've got all the time in the world. And so you can really narrow in on schematics, situations, all the things that they're not.

the Patriots were really great at and Bill Belichick was really great at at the NFL level takes time. That's one thing that you don't have in college football. So if the NFL is very transactional with all the time in the world, college football is very relational with a lack of time. So that doesn't really mix. And I've seen guys that have had a hard time moving from the NFL back to the college level because of those issues. Because of those issues. But here's the thing. as the transactional nature of college football changes from the player's side first,

because they can leave it any time, remember, we're seeing that right now with the transfer portal window wide open. If it's transactional on the player's side, then it's going to start to be transactional on the coaches side as well. And so our sport is going to become more transactional every single year. And we see this in real time every single day, players that are starters, that are captains, leaving for the transfer portal. So I don't think it's actually as big of an issue now

that Bill Belichick is a ruthless transactional style coach because I think that that could actually work at this level. And this idea that it's like he's going to be in the living room of a recruit sitting on a couch trying to give him the warm fuzzies about why mom should let their son come up to North Carolina and play for Bill Belichick, I think that's a fallacy as well. Dionne Sanders has proved that. Dionne Sanders doesn't go on home visits, and he's working out just fine.

And he's been able to capture a really strong roster and some of the best players in college football and looks to continue to do that during this transfer portal window. So this notion that it has to be the old school way of relational recruiting, I think, is a fallacy. So that's going to be minimized in my book. The timing issue is the timing issue. You don't have the amount of time with college players as you do with NFL players. and I think that that would be a little bit hard on him. I really do. What's my biggest takeaway from this?

I believe it would work. I believe it would work. And I think it would be great for college football. I really do. I think that we're going to see athletic departments turn more into corporate structures. I think ADs need to act more like CEOs. There needs to be a C-suite because the AD's phone can't ring with every single problem in the athletic department. head coaches are going to have to share responsibility with people like GMs. And we're seeing GMs hired all over the place. In fact, news this week, Andrew Luck going to be hired at Stanford as the new general manager of Stanford football. You're seeing this all over the place. I met a bunch of guys that are GMs across college football this week in Las Vegas.

So as college football changes in morphs, what's happening is that guys like Bill Pelaget can succeed. And I'll go back to this idea of narrow paths and wide paths. five and six years ago, folks, in the middle of the four-team playoff era, there was one way to recruit a roster, there was one way to stack a roster, and there was one way to go win a national championship. That was it. And that's why we saw the exact same teams every year compete for the national championship. And they were constructed in largely the same way.

Now, that's vastly different. Vastly different. Look at all the different styles of teams in terms of roster construction are playing in the college football playoff. You've got Rhett Lashley at SMU. You've got Kurt Signetti in Indiana. You've got Kenny Dillingham in Arizona State. And you've got the Kirby Smarts in Georgia and the Ryan Day at Ohio State.

You've got them all. You've got them all in there. There are more ways to succeed in college football now than there ever has been. So when you look at an outside of the box style hire, like potentially Bill Belichick at North Carolina, I'm going to say this unequivocally. I think it would absolutely work. Players want to know that they've got a path towards the NFL. That is their number one goal.

They would love to win a championship along the way, but their number one goal is to go to the National Football League. They'd love to make some money as well, and you can promise them that, and it can be transactional and all those things. But they want to go to the NFL, and if he's going to build a program that is basically an NFL program, he can tell all of those kids, whether they're in the transfer portal or a high school recruit,

you come here and I will prepare you to go to the National Football League. That will work. It will work. My only question would be his age. I think you'd be 73 to start next season. I think that that's, how long does you want to do that? I'm not sure you hear all this different news about he's throwing in these little caveats about how he wants his son to be the coach in waiting.

Here's what I say about that. I don't pay those much attention because do you know how many times I've actually seen a coach and waiting clause in a contract come to fruition, very few times. Very few times. It's a way to retain an assistant coach that is very popular, that could go somewhere else. It's a way to give him a little bit more money, maybe a title. If he says that he wants his son to be a head coach, like maybe he will be a head coach, but I don't pay that much, I don't give it much stock.

I don't give it much stock. Do I think it would work? Yes. And am I here for it? Yes. And do I think it would be really good for the sport? Yes. All that about all that. So if he hasn't made a decision, Bill, if you haven't made a decision and you're listening to the Joel Clash show, jump in, man. Water's warm. College football is awesome. It's the dawn of the golden age of college football. Haven't you heard? Haven't you heard? The listeners have heard that over and over and over again. And this is just another example of it. This is just another example of it. Hardware, Heisman finalist announced. We've got four finalists. Travis Hunter, Ashton, Jen. Dylan Gabriel and Cam Ward are named your Heisman finalists.

Now, all of these guys absolutely well deserving and applaud all of their seasons. I think they're all fantastic players. I really do. I've always said this and I will maintain this. I do believe that the Heisman should always just take five finalists. There should be the top five finishers in the Heisman trophy voting should go to New York and be a Heisman finalist because it's a massive deal. it's not only a massive deal to that player, but also to those programs to get those guys there

and have that notoriety and exposure, in particular in this day and age when you're looking at any way to differentiate yourself and your program from others in what has become a more flat and competitive sport driven by parity. All of those things are important. So why not take five? Why not take five?

It's great for the young man. What an honor. It's great for the university. Usually four finalists. Yes, I understand that. But I think five is, is better. It used to be more common in the 80s, 90s.

It's been five lots of time. Last time in 2016, I think it was five with Lamar Jackson. So in that respect, I think all four of these guys should be there. So I'm not saying that any of these players I'm about to bring up should go in place of a finalist. All four finalists deserve to be finalists. And they've played phenomenally. I think there should be one more. You could bring up Camp Scataboo at Arizona State.

You could bring up Shudor Sanders. And I think Shadur Sanders actually has a stronger argument than anybody to at least be a Heisman finalist. And this is why it should be five. Because you look at some of these seasons and you think to yourself like, well, yeah. I mean, like, Shadur Sanders, his season was incredible. Scataboo's was great.

I think Shadabu's was probably better. Shadour Sanders was responsible for 82% of, Colorado's offense this year. That's a staggering percentage. In fact, it's the best in college football, and it's the third highest in the last 25 years. 25 years. That is a staggering amount. He led the country in completion percentage at 74%. He was second in passing touchdowns with 35, only one behind the national leader, Cam Ward, who is a Heisman finalist. He was third in passing yards per game at 327 per game. He's the fifth quarterback to be in the top three in all three of those categories in the last 15 years and look at some of the names that he's with. Joe Burrow, Bo Nix, Mac Jones,

Anthony Gordon. Like, Shador should be in New York. There's no doubt about it. He did all of this while getting sacked the fourth most times of any quarterback in college football. So he did it behind an offensive line that was not great. You know, like the Heisman should be five, The fifth finalist should absolutely be Shador Sanders. I think he got snubbed from that role, but I want to be abundantly clear. The guys that are there deserve to be there. I think Shadur deserves to be there as well. I believe that he had one of the great seasons in college football.

And you look at the guys in the history of our sport that have done what he has done statistically are going to win the awards that he won the Golden Arm Award. Those guys are normally Heisman finalists. He's not in New York. and I think that that's a shame. I think that's a shame. Scataboo has a bit of an argument, not quite as strong as an argument to be in New York as Shudor. Speaking of quarterbacks, we do have quarterback news out of the playoff. Carson Beck, he went down in the second half of that SEC championship game against Texas or in that game against Texas.

Reportedly, he's got a UCL injury. I think it poses a big question. One, if he's out, can George. still win it all. I think that's the question. They don't have a timetable right now for his return, but I will just tell you this. As soon as you hear quarterback and UCL, that's not a good thing, in particular in the throwing elbow. I think that that's trouble. Georgia doesn't play for three weeks, so he's got some time. Their next game is going to be January 1 in the Sugar Bowl. But I think this is really big.

I think this is really big for the following reasons. He's started the last 27 games for Georgia. That's over the last two seasons. So I don't think that you can just say, well, Gunner Stockton went in and he played pretty well against Texas. If Gunner Stockton was a better option than Carson Beck, he would have been the starting quarterback, period. So this is a downgrade. There is no other way to look at this. There is not one other way. In particular, when you realize that they didn't even play great on the offensive side this year, and they're struggled throwing the ball, including Beck turning the ball over in the middle of the year,

and they still didn't turn to Gunner Stockton. If he was a better option, he would have been in the game before the SEC championship. That's not a knock on him. That's just the nature of the sport. The coaches have to win. They've got to put the guy out there that's going to give them the best opportunity to win, and that was Beck. Now, Stockton played in the second half against Texas.

They led him to 13 points before taking that, brutal hit. Like, is Stockton going to be okay? Let's be honest. Let's be honest. I've been hit similarly. I don't think I've been hit that hard. I didn't wake up for like a week. And man, I hope Gunner Stockton is okay. There is a difference when you're coming in off the bench and you can surprise the opponent.

You've got this element of excitement. When you've got a team that can prepare for you, it's a lot different as a quarterback. I've been skeptical of this. Georgia team, and I'm sure Kirby has been using it as fodder all year long. They've just been so up and down as opposed to previous seasons. You know, we've seen them more times than not be down. Now, a couple of times they were able to raise up and play really great football, you know, the second half against Alabama, even in a loss, the game against Texas,

even the SEC championship against Texas defensively. The problem is, is that that defense has been a big. up and down. So you've got this situation where they have been in some shootouts this year, where they allowed 41 to Bama, they allowed 28 to Ole Miss, they allowed 27 in regulation to Georgia Tech, 42 total in that game. They allowed 31 to Mississippi State who didn't score 30 in any other FBS games this year. So it's like, is Georgia really the Georgia of two years ago? No, it's not. Okay, so you've got to separate yourself from the logo a little bit, and you have to actually look at this team for what it is now.

It's a team with their starting quarterback who has started 27 games of the last two seasons, and now he's probably out. And now they're a team that has been up and down, and they've given up a lot of points in some games. And yet, this offense, do we really think they're going to go out there and score 30 or 35 points against some of the opponents that they may see in this playoff? You see, in order to win the national championship, I firmly believe that you're going to have to show the ability to go win in a phone booth

and win a low-scoring game like they just did against Texas, and you're going to have to show the ability to go win a high-scoring game in a shootout. The supporting cast around the quarterback at Georgia has not been strong. Georgia's wide receiver core has led the country in drops this year. It's been one of the reasons why Beck hasn't had a great statistical season. Now you're going to replace Beck with a backup quarterback and think that that level of play is going to somehow get better. I just, I can't get on board with that.

I really can't. Which means that for me, the path for Georgia is going out there and winning with defense. Now, can they do that? Absolutely. Can they do that three times? That's a much tougher question. I believe at some point during their run to a potential national championship, they're going to have to get into and win a shootout.

Can they do that with Gunner Stockton and that group of wide receivers? I have my questions and my doubts. I don't look at Georgia because of those reasons as it. a top three contender for the national championship. And I'm sure that I'll go right up in their locker room. That's just the way I feel. Do you think that they can go score 30 or 35 points against Notre Dame or Penn State or Oregon or Texas or Ohio State? I have my doubts.

I have my doubts. So at this point, I think Georgia got the favorable side of the bracket. There's no doubt. But as far as the way that they look moving forward, you know, I don't think I would put them in my top three in this format for a national championship. The Big Ten released their schedule this week. And so now we know when these matchups are going to take place. And here's what I wanted to do. Rather than go through the entire thing and you're going to get lost in the minutia, I want to give you the five most interesting games, best games of the Big Ten season for next year.

Okay? So as we get into, man, it's going to be 2025. That's just like when I say that, I just feel like, that's shocking to me. But here we go. Top five most interesting games for 2025 in the Big Ten season. I'm going to go five to one. I think you probably know what one is. It's always going to be one, so that's going to be up there. But number five is a really good one.

Early in the year, September 6th, and Michigan is going to go to Oklahoma. So here we're going to have a Michigan team that's going to have likely a new quarterback. They're going to have a lot of new faces. They've got all this hype of what has turned into an incredible off-season. for Michigan off of the win against Ohio State. And now they're going to go and they're going to face Brent Venables and that defense at OU on the road. That's going to be a great one.

So September 6th is the date that I'm circling. Michigan at Oklahoma, that is certainly one of the most interesting games of the Big Ten season. Number four is November 1st, Penn State at Ohio State. That's obviously going to be a fabulous game. And I think that I have some questions about what Penn State's roster is going to look like. How many guys are going to stay? How many guys are going to leave and actually go? They're in a great position in this playoff. They've got SMU at home. Then they would

likely get Boise State. There's a really good path for them to at least the semifinals. By the way, Georgia has a quarterback that is banged up. If Georgia is able to get by a team like Notre Dame, I mean, Penn State's in a great position. What is their roster going to look like next year? Who knows? Who knows? So that game against Ohio State is going to be Very interesting. There's no doubt. Number three, in September, this one, the 27th, easily the toughest game for the ducks on their schedule, Oregon at Penn State. Can't wait for that one. And Oregon is a team, and I'll get to some points prior to this, this is their toughest game of the year. We'll see what happens with their playoff run.

This could be a defending national championship team under Dan Lannning, But I will say this. I don't know what Penn State's going to look like next year from a roster perspective. I have a good idea what Oregon's going to look like because their depth of recruiting over the last couple of years, their ability to get transfers, their ability to flip high-end recruits in the recruiting process has been excellent. And so Oregon's going to be a very good team. They travel to Penn State. They will go to Happy Value on September 27th.

Number two, August 30th. This is going to be a great one. Texas at Ohio State. Absolutely. Give me that all day long. For the second straight year, Texas will come up to Big Ten Country in September. Remember this year we had them at Michigan. Now they're going to be going up to the shoe as they take on Ohio State. Who knows what Texas is able to do.

Obviously, they didn't win the SEC. They don't have a buy, but they're going to host Clemson. And then they've got that tougher side of the bracket. We'll see who they end up playing as the process goes along. But this is a team that, like Oregon, I feel very strongly about moving forward because of the way Sark has recruited. I'm probably going to have Arch Manning as your quarterback. So that's going to be an incredible game at the shoe at Ohio State. And then number one, November 29th, as always, the game.

Ohio State at Michigan this time, as Michigan will go for five in a row against Ohio State. And Ryan Day and the Buckeyes look to stop the skid as Ohio State goes to Michigan. on November 29th. Now, just some takeaways from the overall schedule. Those are the five most interesting games that I see on the Big Ten schedule. But just some takeaways. Number one is there's always going to be differences. It's not going to be an equitable thing as far as mega conferences and conference schedules. So who got the solid into the draw? I've called it the schedule lottery. Who got the favorable side of the lottery? I think Oregon did. If you look at Oregon's schedule, it's favorable.

They're at Penn State, yes, which is, obviously a tough place to play. But that's the only game against the real top contenders from this last season. You know, they don't have Ohio State. They don't have Michigan. So you're looking at the favorable side of this draw. I think Oregon right off the bat, you can think to yourself, I know their roster is going to be solid and I know that their schedule is favorable.

Oregon should be right back at least in the Big Ten championship game. You know, if not in the Big Ten championship game, at worst, you know, finishing third right around there. Like I just don't see them falling off with this schedule. that roster. Oregon is here to stay. That's number one. Number two, Ohio State, probably the opposite side of that coin. I think they got the more difficult side of the conference schedule. So they're going to have to play Texas, which is not a conference game, but then they've got Penn State and at Michigan. So they get a couple of those contenders, and those three games

in general, we've talked about strength of schedule a lot over the last couple of weeks as we have gone into the playoff season and we've seen how the committee valued or really didn't value schedules this year. So this Ohio State team, which will have a ton of turnover after all of these older players go to the National Football League, it'll be very interesting to see how they can navigate next year's schedule, which I think is one of the more difficult ones in the conference. Speaking of a really difficult stretch for one of these conference teams, Wisconsin has an absolute brutal October. I do not love Wisconsin's schedule at all. It's very rough. Look at these four weeks in October. At Michigan, Iowa,

Ohio State at Oregon. Wolf. How are we doing? Badgers. Do you want to, that ain't. Oh, hey, by the way, in September, you've got to go to Alabama. Slow clap for the Wisconsin schedule. It's like the Florida, Oklahoma schedule of 2025.

We saw how difficult those schedules were, remember, this year? It's like the Purdue schedule of the bigger, like Purdue had the most ridiculous schedule this year of anybody. And that's what Wisconsin's going to have at Alabama early in the year. And then their October is at Michigan, Iowa, Ohio State, at Oregon. Okay. Good luck, Luke. Hey, Michigan's got some interesting games, in particular when you're starting to think about

who's their quarterback. What is their offense going to look like? They did get news this week. They did hire a new offensive coordinator. Chip Lindsay is going to be their new. offensive coordinator. Chip has been at North Carolina. He's kind of a spread power running Gus Malzon style guy. And let's face it, Sharon Moore, he's going to dictate the style of this offense and the style of this team. He's going to want to, as he likes to put it, smash. Okay. So

this is going to be a running offense. It will be an offense predicated on physicality. However, they've got to get better throwing the football and you've got to incorporate some of spread principles. You've got to incorporate some of the RPO run pass option principles. And I think that Chip Lindsay will do that. He was with Drake May at North Carolina. They're going to have to throw it better. There's no doubt he's 130th Michigan was in passing offense this last year. And now that new offense is going to have a bunch of really tough road games. They've got Ohio State at home, yes, but they've got to go to Oklahoma. They've got to go to Lincoln and face Nebraska. They've got to go out to L.A. and face USC. And they've got to go on

the road to Michigan State in their rivalry game. That's not an easy schedule for Michigan, and they'll be doing it navigating that with maybe a true freshman quarterback and Bryce Underwood and a brand new offensive coordinator trying to get his feet under him as it relates to Michigan. Last takeaway, I would just say is, as much as we want to sit here and actually look at this and be like, what is that going to actually look like? We have no idea. Remember, it was just this August that we would have told you Indiana had an incredibly difficult schedule because they had last year's championship game participants in Washington and Michigan and Ohio State on their schedule. So we would have sat here and said like, oh, that's a really tough schedule for Kurt Signetti,

the first year head coach in Indiana. And it turned out that that was the only thing that knocked them all year was their schedule. So we don't know which teams are going to become much better, flip their roster, not flip their roster, go in the tank. Look at Florida State. They were a top 10 team to start the year. Bam. Done.

Nothing. Indiana. We didn't think anything of them. Playoff. All right. Arizona State, you're picked to finish, I don't know, somewhere in the middle of a millionth in the Big 12. Where are you at now? The playoff. So we don't know. We don't know. As much as it's so fun to look at these schedules and say like, who's got a difficult schedule and who doesn't have a difficult schedule, we have no idea, which kind of makes it great, which makes it great. Dawn of the the Golden Age of College football, as I keep saying. Thank you for joining. As always, we'll be back next week.

We're going to start previewing these college football playoff games as we kind of move along towards the holiday season. And I'm telling you, like, this sport never disappoints. I love it. And I really appreciate you being a part of it. Share it with a friend. Go follow us on YouTube. Remember to subscribe on YouTube and hit that notification button. And we'll be back next week.