The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - CFP Semifinal Reaction: Ohio State & Notre Dame advance to the Title Game

Episode Date: January 11, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to Ohio State and Notre Dame booking their tickets to the National Championship Game following two thrilling Semifinal games. He begins by breaking down the Buckeyes’ win over Texas and examines how Ohio State was able to come up with the key plays to win the game – and why the Longhorns will regret a few decisions all offseason. He also breaks down the reasons why Notre Dame was able to beat Penn State and what has made the Irish so difficult to beat in the Playoff. He discusses Drew Allar’s late interception and why he should not be shouldering all of the blame for the loss. Klatt also evaluates Penn State’s 2024 season and explains why it’s important to make a distinction when thinking about this loss one game away from the Title game. 0:00-2:45 Intro 2:46-21:57 Ohio State beat Texas & advances to national championship 21:58-39:08 Notre Dame wins with a game-winning field goal 39:09-39:39 National championship is set 39:40-41:56 Rest in peace, Coach Mac 41:57-43:34 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And they were roommates. And they were roommates. 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.

It is the Joel Clatt show. I am Joel Clatt. And this show, as always, is brought to you by Hampton, by Hilton. What an incredible national semi-final couple of days. Heck yeah, man. This thing has not disappointed. College football has been tremendous. These two games were phenomenal.

And so let's react to them. Just so that you know, we are here kind of just kind of moments after that Ohio State victory over Texas. So when I talk about this game, it'll be very kind of just fresh reaction to that game. A couple of things, though, I just want to put on your kind of the attention of all the listeners out there. We are only like 5,000 subscribers away from 200,000.

So we're right there, invite a friend. Go over there. If you're watching and you have watched, go ahead and subscribe. That would obviously help us out. We'd feel great about it. And then hit the notification button down below, and you will get all of our content right when it drops, and that'll definitely help out. We've got our football series coming out.

We've got all that planned. And we'd really appreciate it. Get in the comments down below as well. rate and review us wherever you get your podcast and then wherever you like to social media go follow us at jol klatshow excuse me and you can get our content there as well um these games were tremendous i mean both of these games they did not disappoint these games were phenomenal the first game on thursday night uh i thought that the penn state nunderdame game was awesome i really did and we all knew that it was going to be a tight game and then it was and then it was and then I was, and I think most people, hoping that we would get a great game with this Ohio State, Texas game, and it turned out to be an incredible game.

And I know it's going to be a 14-point spread at the end. But let's face it, like, that was an epic game. It really was. That was everything that we hoped we would get out of this college football playoff. And it has not disappointed. I know some of the games in the first round disappointed some out there. And there was a lot of commentary about the style of game and who was in and so on. and so forth. This playoff has over-delivered, I think, at least. The 12-team playoff is totally over-delivered.

Let's get into some of these games, and we're going to start with the game that we just watched, or at least I just watched, Ohio State beats Texas and is going to the national championship. There's so many takeaways that you can take, that you can, like, really sit on in this game. I think that the first one is that Texas played fantastic. They played fantastic in this game and in so many different ways, did what they needed to do to win. And I thought it was going to be a narrow path for Texas, which is exactly why the spread was what it was. Ohio State was playing great, playing great coming in. And they were a supernova death star of a team coming in after that Rose Bowl where they dismantled Oregon.

And it was going to take a very specific game plan. It was going to take a very specific path for Texas to go and be. beat this Ohio State team. And they were right there. They traveled that path. It was such a good game. And Ohio State didn't play particularly well in this game, not from a field position standpoint, not from a penalties standpoint. Offensively, you know, you look up and they had seven punts in this game, which you wouldn't expect with the way that they played against Tennessee and against Oregon. So what does it come down to? Small mistakes. If you make small mistakes in big time games, you generally lose.

And that's what both of these games actually ended up having. And there were a couple of big mistakes at critical times for both Texas and Penn State. And it's the reason that both of those teams ended up losing. Texas gave them everything they could possibly handle. I mean, Ohio State is reeling for a lot of that game, a lot of that game. And there's a moment there in the fourth quarter, I'm like, you know what? This is going to go the Longhorn's way. And then it just didn't because of a couple of mistakes.

And they always make the difference. The two ones that we'll talk about obviously are going to be, you've got first and goal at the one yard line in the fourth quarter, and they don't get any points out of it. And then the screen pass touchdown to Trayvion Henderson right before half. You talk about a backbreaker. Let's go with that one first. obviously a massive play.

And Texas had just grabbed all the momentum because they did exactly what I said that they needed to do in our preview episode. I said they needed to survive the first quarter. And they were able to do that. And Ohio State looked like the better team and the faster team and they were dynamic in the first quarter in the first couple of series.

And yet they were only up 7-0. So Texas is sitting there and it's like, hey, we're one snap away. were a special teams play, were a tipped ball, were a turnover away from being in a position to have a tie ball game. And so they've got to feel great about that. They survived the first quarter, which was their first order of business. Remember, I said, in the sequence of a lot of dominoes,

the first one was going to have to be surviving the first quarter, and they did that. They did that really well. They did that really well. Then they go down and get a score before half. And you're like, okay, here we go. Now we got a game. Yours is starting to play really well.

I thought that the defense was tremendous, in particular in that second quarter, and they score before the half, and they've got to be feeling very good about themselves. And now it's under 30 seconds, and yeah, Ohio State's got a couple of timeouts, but, you know, what do we really expect from them? All you have to do at that point, you don't have to play prevent defense, but you certainly don't, you certainly don't, want to artificially create or manipulate your own structure to create a vulnerability. And that's exactly what Texas did.

And I got to tell you, they're going to sit there and they're going to watch that film and they're going to think to themselves, why in the world did we blitz a corner inside of 30 seconds of the second quarter? And the screen goes right to that spot. Because listen, in that moment, okay, I believe, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, there were 29 seconds left. That's what's in my head. I think, again, I just got done watching the game.

I think there was 29 seconds left in the second quarter. I believe Ohio State had two timeouts. And I was watching with a group of buddies, and I'm sitting there, and I thought to myself, someone said like, hey, you know, they're going to try to get aggressive here? And I was like, ah, they'll probably just do some sort of like draw or screen. And if it pops, they still have a timeout and maybe they can get into field goal range. that's legitimately what we see all the time in that situation.

And honestly, you cannot blitz there. You cannot blitz. They're begging for you to create a vulnerability in your own defensive structure in order to take advantage of it. And that's exactly what happened. They throw a screen past the Travion Henderson after Texas has kind of like sent the corner and it's and it pops and it goes the distance.

And it's like, oh, my goodness, that is a massive mistake. That is a massive mistake from Texas. And yet, in that second half, it looked like they were going to overcome it. Because Will Howard was not playing well for Ohio State. Ohio State's offensive game plan was not dynamic. It was not creative. And a large part due to the way that Texas was playing, in particular over and rolling coverage towards Jeremiah Smith.

but Texas's defense was completely stifling that Ohio State offense, completely stifling. I thought Ohio State was going to drive down and take a 14-0 lead. Travion Henderson's personal foul put them behind the chains. They have to punt. It becomes a bit of a different game at that point in the first half. And then after that, they really didn't do anything offensively. Not until the long drive, the 13-play 88-yard drive in the fourth quarter, took about 745 off the clock.

and that one, that was the only other drive that they did outside of the opening drive. Other than that, it was the screen pass to Trayvion Henderson and a lot of punts. A lot of punts. A lot of straight dropback passing, not much dynamic creativity in terms of getting Will Howard onto the edge,

getting the ball out of his hand to the playmakers in space right away. Credit Texas's defense, the plan was tremendous, but man, Ohio State felt right back into that trap that we saw against Michigan for a big portion of this game, that offense for Ohio State looked like the same offense that was playing against Michigan. Drop back back. You know, first down, let's run it into the line of scrimmage, then straight drop back

pass and trying to throw it down the field. And yet there's nobody open and Will Howard is trying to manipulate the pocket. You know, it just, it became very stagnant. And that was a credit to Texas. They played tremendous defensively. The defensive line was very good. The secondary was very good. All of that was happening for them.

And then obviously you get to that last mistake. And we get into the fourth quarter. Ohio State has put together a drive. They finally get to some of the creativity. Now all of a sudden you're starting to see some of the, what I would call like eye candy, which means that you're going to have guys moving in different directions in order to get some of the run game open.

You're getting a mecca, the, a buck of the ball in different ways. You're getting Howard out of the pocket. He's checking down the ball to G. Scott. It was a really brilliant play call on the quarterback run on fourth down. So now they go down there and they ended up scoring a touchdown. So now what does Texas do? They answered. They answered.

And they were answering all night. Ewers drive, by the way, to score in the first half. He's flipping the ball out on third down. They're converting on third down. Like it was really good. And they're starting to do that again. You get some of those play calls, you know, The little Y hide, that means the tight end on that overroute and a bit of a hide route.

That was terrific. And they go down there and they're getting it and they're getting chunk plays. And it's like, here we go. We're going to go tie this game up. We're going to go tie this game up. It's 2114. Now it's their time. And they get down there, pass interference.

First and goal from the two. First down, pass interference again. First and goal from the one yard line. You have to score. You have to score. You just have to. And yet, they're going against what was all year the best goal line defense in college football. Goaline defense and college football for Ohio State has shown its medal time and time again.

They were able to hold Oregon to a field goal in that game, which allowed the offense to go out there and at least have a chance late, even though they ended up losing the game. Fourth down stop after a first and goal against Nebraska. and a three-point win at home. The more famous one in Happy Valley, Penn State first in goal, they stuffed them four straight times, and then in the game with the offense on the field,

running the football out from inside the five-yard line. That's the backdrop that you have to watch this series of downs within your head. Okay? And the reason is because the game plan is built, based on the film. The offensive game plan is always built based on the film. Steve Sarkesian and the Texas coaching staff

built that offensive game plan with those plays in mind. The fact that Oregon could not run the football between the tackles and score a touchdown. Nebraska could not run the football between the tackles and score a touchdown. Penn State could not run the football between the tackles and score a touchdown. So the game plan inside the five, you could tell, had slants.

They had maybe a run inside or something, and then let's get on the perimeter. Let's try to outflank that defense that is clearly strong in the middle. So they get first and goal from the one yard line. The first thing they try to do is just run it right downhill and get downhill at them. And here we go. And bam, they run into a wall. And boy, that looked a lot. a lot like the same plays that Oregon ran and Nebraska ran and Penn State ran.

So Steve Sarkeesian is calling the plays there and he sees that. Now we get to second down from the one yard. Second and goal. And this is the play call that everybody's going to talk about because they run the toss sweep to the left and it gets blown up by Caleb Downs. Really good play from Caleb Downs and that defense, but it pushes them well outside of the five. They lose about five yards.

and now all of a sudden your third and goal from outside the five and it becomes a passing game, you know what ends up happening, but let's just talk about like, why do we run toss sweep on second down? Everybody on social media is going to take off on that play call. Everyone's going to say if Steve Sarkesian cannot do that. There's no way he can do that. But I would just offer this as a glimmer of a defense of Steve Sarkesian. The game plan is built based on the film that he's watched, the film that he has watched, suggests that he cannot run the football

between the tackles and score against Ohio State. That's what it suggests, in particular in big moments, Oregon and Penn State more specifically, and certainly on a fourth down, Nebraska falls into that category. So he tries it on first down, and there's nothing there. So on second down, with that in mind, I understand the toss sweep. Having said that, as a player that got these players,

calls signaled into him and had to give them in the huddle. I despise toss, sweep, and short-yarded situations. Despise it. It's like being in the shotgun in these situations. The ball goes five yards backwards intentionally. Okay, so a play call that has an opportunity to lose that many yards in that situation, that's a tough pill to swallow. It's the fourth quarter.

you may not get another possession. If that's a first quarter possession inside the five and they run toss sweep, it's like I can kind of understand it. But boy, in that situation, he should have learned a lesson from what Ohio State did earlier in the game. When Ohio State on third down in short, tossed it to Quinn Sean Judkins, and he couldn't get it. So they ran the exact same play that then Texas was going to try inside the five.

Do I like it? No. Do I understand why he was in the game plan? Absolutely. Absolutely. You've got to understand the history of what the film he was watching building that game plan. And the film suggested that he might need to get on the outside. Now, Downs blows it up, partly because he's got no responsibilities there. He's kind of a free player, a free hat in the defense, if you want to call it that. And he gets right between the blockers and he does what he has done all season long, which is blow-up

run plays. This guy plays downhill through the alley, the alley meaning kind of like inside-out, filling from that safety position as well as anybody. I've talked about the fact that he reminds me a lot of Troy Paul Amalu. That play reminds me of Troy Paul Amalu. So now it's third down. You get an incompletion because Jack Sawyer tips a ball and now it's fourth down game on the line. Here we go.

What do we get on fourth down? Jack Sawyer. Captain Jack shows up. My goodness. I thought the play he made against Michigan when he intercepted Davis Warren at the goal line was going to be like an. epic moment. Now, it didn't live in infamy and won't live in infamy because they didn't win the game. So now he finally gets his moment. He almost had it against Michigan, doesn't get it,

and now he gets it against Texas in the semi-final. That was an incredible pass rush from Jack Sawyer. Incredible pass rush. Beautiful hands, knocks the hands down, and he is chasing after and just beeline for Quinn Ewers. And not only does he knock the ball loose, but he scoops it up. up and he runs for a touchdown. That is a play that nobody will forget in Columbus for a long time. And no one's going to forget that play in all of college football. And they were roommates. And they were roommates.

They were roommates. Jack Sawyer will never pay for anything in Columbus ever again. Ever again. I can't remember a defensive play. that was that was that impactful that was made by just like one guy. Maybe, oh gosh, the Steelers Super Bowl, didn't they have a play kind of like that? I think that they did if I'm trying to remember.

I think Harrison had a play like that in a Super Bowl if I'm not totally misremembering. But Sawyer, strip, sack, scoop, and score all on the same play. Stuff dreams are made of. He's an Ohio kid. He was a five-star recruit that was one of the first players in his cycle to commit to Ohio State. And then even through COVID, when he's losing his senior season of high school football to COVID, he kept that class intact. He was as big of a recruiting piece for that class as Ryan Day was. They'll all tell you that. When you go into their building, they talk about Jack Sawyer with such reverence with the leadership that he had and the effort that he has in. year he was fast early in the year. He's had a terrific season, a terrific season. And there

is not a bigger play that he might ever make in his life than the one he made tonight against Texas. That was incredible. I've met Jack several times. He's a great human. He's a great player. I was happy for him. I was happy for him because that's the type of play, man. I tell you that like forever, forever and ever and ever. He's going to be an old man and people are going to still come up to him and talk about that play in the Cotton Bowl against Texas, and they were roommates. That's why they ran Toss Sweep. Sawyer's the beneficiary, and that's a huge mistake, a huge mistake. Now, the one thing moving forward for this Ohio State team that I would say is, is like, that blueprint is there of how to slow down the offense. Now, in part, it's also what they choose to do.

I said that when I was on the call against Michigan, and I'm saying it again tonight about this game against Texas. When they have a lack of creativity, when they're just running the football into the middle of the line of scrimmage on first down, and they don't have some of that eye candy of going horizontal or getting the ball out of Will Howard's hands quickly and in space to the athletes, they can struggle. Because they're not a great running team. They're not a great drop-back passing team. But, man, they're dynamic when they're in rhythm and they're being creative with their play. calls him with their movement. When they're being aggressive in that area, they're really tough to stop. And that's when Will Howard's at his best. He's not a great drop-back pocket passer, I would say.

And I think that showed up tonight against Texas and what is an excellent secondary. But he's going to see an excellent secondary against Notre Dame as well. So this is a blueprint that Notre Dame is going to have to hope resurfaces in terms of the way Ohio State wants to play and what Notre Dame can potentially do against them, and specifically doubling Jeremiah Smith, which I think was brilliant from the Texas standpoint. Okay. Now, just quick to recap for Texas.

What a year for Texas. It really was. Sark is not going anywhere. This program is not going anywhere. That is two straight trips to the national semi-final. They lose to Washington last year in a tight ball game, ball late inside the 10-yard line. ball late inside the 10-yard line in this ball game.

They lose it in the national semifinal. It looks like they've got Arch moving forward. There's been reports that now Quinn Ewers is talking about the NFL and not in the transfer portal or see what his future is made of. This program is going to be just fine. They, in a lot of ways, put themselves at the top echelon of the SEC. I know they didn't win the SEC, but they're right there. They're right there in their first year.

and I don't see them taking any steps backwards in the SEC anytime soon. Let's go to the next game. That game from Thursday was tremendous. That was an incredible game. I didn't think we were going to get a better game on Friday, but we ended up getting a better game on Friday. Both teams, I thought, played so well. But again, it came down to really two mistakes, two big mistakes that end up

costing Penn State and allowed Notre Dame to take advantage and win the football game. First point I want to make about Notre Dame. And I kind of made this on social media, but they're really good in situational football. And that's a credit to their head coach. Marcus Freeman has done such a good job with them, such a good job with them. It's a team that executes. They don't beat themselves. there's a part of me that is reminded a bit of some of those Patriot teams.

Although, yeah, like, I get it. They don't have, like, a gronk player or a Brady player. And I understand that. But they do a lot of things well. And there's not a real weak link in the chain. And that's something I'll come back to in this game as I talk about it. But situationally, really good on third down. They were 11 of 17.

Penn State wasn't. They were three of 11. End of half situation. Notre Dame, very good. They execute. Penn State, not so much. End of game situation. Very good.

They execute. Penn State, not so much. That's what it comes down to in these games. It's going to be a play here or there. Notre Dame made those plays and Penn State was not able to do it. And that's a credit to Marcus Freeman. This guy is an incredible coach. And I thought it was put to me.

Notre Dame is a team that a lot of people love to hate on, you know, because of their independence and their success. And I got to tell you, like, their place is awesome. Their place is awesome. Notre Dame is so good for the sport. They are so good for the sport. Everyone whining about their conference, this or that. You know what? The unique nature of Notre Dame kind of makes college football special.

I'm not going to whine about their conference affiliation. or not having an affiliation. I'm not going to demand that they go anywhere, join this or that. Why? Because they don't have to. They don't have to. They're going to play for the national championship as an independent.

So like, hey, if you're Notre Dame, if you're Notre Dame, you look at everybody that's yelling about your conference and you say, hey, pound sand, man, we're fine. We are doing just fine. Marcus Freeman, on the other hand, because of the way he handles his business, he's turned Notre Dame

to a likable product. And now here Marcus Freeman is, and he's going to take an underdog into the national championship against kind of the Death Star Supernova team. And I think he's going to have a lot of the country on his side. I really do.

I really do. This game against Penn State was a tremendous game. They were able to make a couple of those plays. You know, neither team was all that dynamic. offensively. And you know what? That's fine. And it was a grind for both teams offensively. And you saw these quarterbacks and they were having to, they were having to strain to move the football. And I loved it. I loved every second of it. I look up at the end of the day, the Penn State defense did what they needed to do.

They held Notre Dame under three yards per carry for the first time this entire season. You know, so they were playing great. They were given all-out max effort. Notre Dame's given all-out max effort. And then you've got the mistakes. And they're just two of them. And it's not necessarily coaching mistakes like you would maybe say in that Texas game with the blitz and then the toss sweep. These ones were just like unfortunate player mistakes.

late in that fourth quarter, you have a DB that just falls over and slips on the turf and basically allows a touchdown. That's one. And then the interception from Drew Aller. I tell you, man, there's going to be so much talked about in terms of Drew Aller throwing that interception. So much talked about. And I just, I've got a lot of thoughts on that. I've got a lot of thoughts on that play. Can I just start by saying from a Penn State perspective,

this was a really successful year. You just played in the national semifinals. You had a chance late in that game. And if I were to tell you that at the beginning of the season, you would take it. You would take it. Absolutely. And unequivocally, you would take a season like that.

And did it end in a heartbreaking fashion? Yes. Yes, it did. But here's the issue. The reality of the playoff era is this. So we don't have these feel-good bowls where a bunch of teams in college football can win a bowl game and feel great about themselves moving into the off-season.

That's not a thing anymore. Okay, because the bulls that are played outside of the playoff, nobody really cares. and the game's in the playoff, everybody has to lose except for one team. So gone are the days where you can build momentum with just some random bowl victory over some random team. Everybody's going to lose. What happens in college football is that even if it's a close game or a tight game and you lose in heartbreaking fashion,

college football fans do a weird thing where they will take a heartbreaking loss and they'll start calling it a bad loss. I'm here to tell you that those two things are totally different. Totally different. That was not a bad loss from Penn State. That was a heartbreaking loss. And the reality is that everybody is going to have those now

who's in the playoff because that's what a playoff is. One team gets to win their last game. One. There's really only one team outside of the playoff that I felt like built any sort of momentum with what they did in the bowl game. And that was Michigan. You know, because it's just their entire whole last month of the season. But that's neither here nor there.

Neither here nor there. Penn State fans, you've got to distinguish between a heartbreaking loss and a bad loss. That was not a bad loss. It was a heartbreaking loss. And I know it's going to hurt. In a lot of ways, it hurts worse than a bad loss. Okay? But they were right there.

And it's just a mistake or two that end up costing you. Your DB fell over and you gave up a touchdown. And then you threw an unfortunate interception at the wrong time, the wrong spot on the field. And Drew Aller is going to have to live with that the rest of his life. I feel bad for him in that sense. There are times, listen, I never played in a game of this magnitude in college. in college.

But I can tell you this, there are still things that I have a hard time getting over. I'm almost 43 years old. And I can tell you right now, I threw an interception against Iowa State late in the season that'll haunt me forever. Drew Aller did it on the biggest stage.

So in a lot of ways, man, like my heart breaks for him. I stood in those shoes. My heart breaks for Drew Allen. and it's not just because of what happened, but also because he's going to get too much, too much of the blame. Too much of the blame. And you might be thinking to yourself like, oh, no.

You can't apologize your way out of this one for Jew Aller. And I'm not going to try because as a quarterback, you cannot throw the ball blindly late over the middle. You can't do that. that is literally cardinal rule number one. Cardinal sin number one is like, don't throw it late over the middle, just gets picked all the time.

Okay. Having said that, I want to talk about that play for a moment because I think that just saying you can't do that and you can't throw it late over the middle doesn't do the play justice. I don't think it serves Drew Aller at all. Because the play had him going back to the middle of the field in his progression.

This was Drew Aller after the game when asked about this specific play, this is what he said. Can you just walk us through the interception? Yeah, I mean, I was going through my progression, got to the backside, And honestly, I was just trying to dirt it at his feet. But I mean, it just, I should have just thrown it in the way when I felt the first two progressions not open just because of the situation we were in. But I was just trying to dirty that Amari's feet. So, but just didn't execute what I was trying to do. He just jumped on the sword right there.

Drew Aller just stood up like a man and took the bullet. I got so much respect for him right there. I got so much respect for him. First of all, showing up like that and just doing that interview. That takes guts, and it takes a lot of courage. It takes a lot more courage to do that than type something egregious behind your anonymous handle on social media. Okay? And here's the reality of the play.

And I want you to listen closely. Drew Aller is going to live with that for the rest of his life. And it wasn't totally his fault. Okay. The reality is that that is a progression read. It's man coverage. So he's reading a progression. One to Tyler Warren into the flat on the left.

Two to the corner route up top. It's not there. I believe that was Trey Wallace. And three to Amari coming in on the dig route from the wide side of the field. And for anybody that's ever played the position, when you have to throw the ball downfield to your third receiver, very rarely are you ever going to be on platform? Meaning like fully, totally protected, in rhythm, feet underneath you. If you're getting to the third man in your progression, you generally are going to have to deal with something in your lap. You're going to have to be manipulating your body to some degree.

Anybody that's played that position knows exactly what I'm talking about. And he's trying to throw a field side dig or in route to his third man in the progression. Very difficult to do. Very difficult to do. Uber aggressive play call. We're going to go win the game if you're Penn State. Now, here's the thing that you've got to understand. From a quarterback's perspective, I have to trust that in breaking routes are going to win.

I have to put complete trust and faith in my wide receivers on underroutes, on slant routes, on dig routes, on in-routes, these deep, even deep ends. I've got to have a level of trust that he's going to win and cross the face of the defender. I have to have that because I'm not always going to see it. And I can't always see it and then throw because what do I always say about a quarterback? You've got to be on time and on target with the football. And here's the reality. The reality is, is Drew Aller was decently on time and on target with the football, and it was still

picked. Why? It was an unbelievable play by the defender and an atrocious route by the wide receiver. That route by the wide receiver hung the quarterback out to dry substantially. If you're going to run a deep end cut, the first thing that you have to do, in particular in man coverage, is make sure that you are forcing the DB to feel like you're going vertical. If he doesn't feel like you're going vertical and he can sit and he can squat with inside leverage, it's going to be so difficult to get back inside of him and cross his face in order to get that ball on an end cut. That didn't happen.

There was no vertical stretch to the defense and there was no vertical threat to the route. So the vertical stem of the route wasn't there. And then he kind of breaks down and breaks his shoulders down like this. and the DB played it beautifully. And he was like, well, he's not going anywhere. So I'm going to turn back to the quarterback because he's clearly coming back inside to the middle of the field. And so the DB turned for the ball even before the wide receiver was out of his cut.

So it was bad vertical pressure out of the route. It was a slow and clunky break. And he didn't cross the defender's face. And here's Drew Aller with not great protection around him, trying to get to number three in the progression, and he's throwing to a spot in a time. So I don't think he was trying to dirt it at Amari's feet. I think that he stood there or sat there at the podium, took that question, and didn't say, hey, man, my wide receiver should have been there because he would have been killed.

And we would have all been sitting there and like, hey, man, you can't do that. He took the bullet for his team and took responsibility because that's what leaders do. And that's what quarterbacks do. coaches and quarterbacks. When we lose, it's me, and when we win, it's we. And that's what he did. He took responsibility for something that's not totally his fault. That was a really bad route.

And he's trying to put that ball in a certain spot and a certain timing and his wide receiver wasn't there. Wide receiver's jobs are to produce pictures in the right timing. And that wasn't the case in that sequence. and it comes to kind of the last point, and at least for Penn State. I know what Notre Dame is, man. I know that they're situationally sound. They've got a coach that is fantastic.

They've got a really good veteran quarterback. They are tough at the line of scrimmage. They are fast and physical at linebacker. They're terrific in the secondary. This is going to be a tough out for Ohio State. There's no doubt. They've made it to the national championship game because they don't beat themselves. And here's the problem.

That Notre Dame team, what did I tell you earlier in this sequence? they don't have a weak link in their chain. They don't. Now we go to Penn State, and on the last play, on the interception, the weak link was exposed, and that's the wide receiver group. The entire game was the wide receiver group being exposed. The wide receiver group for Penn State had zero catches for zero yards against Notre Dame. It is the first game of the college football season for the Power 4.

first one, that a wide receiver group didn't have a catch. It's the only one. That is wild. I've talked with James Franklin about this. He knew it. He knew it was the case. They tried to address it in the transfer portal, but they didn't have consistent enough wide receiver play

to call it or rely on that. group in big moments. Now, that doesn't mean that they never showed up at any point in the season. They made some big plays against USC late in that game, in particular on forkedown. They made some big catches here and there in the playoffs, even against Boise. But I'm talking about, like, relying on the passing game, relying on the fact that you can call a passing play and you know that if Tyler Warren is not open, somebody else can get open as well. They didn't have that. That's the weak link. It's the, the only game that any Power 4 team played in the college football season that a wide receiver

group did not have a catch. And on the most critical down, when the quarterback is going to get crushed for the rest of his life for throwing an interception, it really was a giant wide receiver mistake. It's a tough one to swallow. Tough one to swallow if you're Penn State. Congratulations to Notre Dame. Congratulations to Ohio State. We're going to have a fantastic national championship game.

wish it wasn't on a Monday night, but whatever, that's the way that it's going to be. So we got the eight seed against the seven seed. Kind of love this. You got to love this. I think that the playoff has been absolutely tremendous. There's the bracket as you see it. Texas, Ohio State, Penn State, Notre Dame played phenomenal semi-final games, and I'm here for it. I do have some sad news.

and I'm sure if you're a college football fan, you've already seen this. A man that is very near and dear to me and almost every player that's ever played at the University of Colorado, Bill McCartney, the legendary head coach for the University of Colorado, won a national championship, built that program into what I know it to be. Bill has passed. And Coach Mack is a Titan. He's a legend. And I'll always remember,

even though I didn't play for Coach Mack, I felt like I played for Coach Mack because he was always around. And my head coach, Gary Barnett, cut his teeth and really learned under Coach Mack. And so I felt like I played for Coach Mack. because I played for someone that studied under him. One of the great orators that I've ever heard speak, a man that could almost move mountains when he wanted to with his speeches.

Strong faith, an incredible family man, and a guy that meant a lot to me. Even after I was done playing, Coach Mack was always around and would lend an ear was an incredible mentor to me and many, many others. And the Colorado football family is going to struggle with this one because Coach Mack is, like I said, he's a titan of our program. I'm going to miss him.

I already miss our conversations that we had. Like I said, he was more than just a coach, but a mentor to a lot of. us and I'll miss him. And coach, I know you're in a better place. So thank you for everything that you did. Hey, Monday, we have a special episode of the show coming out. And we're going to have a commissioner episode. So Commissioner Clatt episode is coming out on Monday. This was recorded before these playoff games. Okay. So there won't be reference to the playoff. off games, but on Monday, we have a really fun episode where I sat down and I basically come up with all the things that I would do in the first week, two weeks as commissioner of college football.

So every fix that I would throw out there right away, I've got that. And I think that you're going to like it. And here's the thing. I don't want it to be like, oh, this is what has to happen. These are ideas. I think some of them will take place. Some of them are good. Some of them might be bad.

And I want you guys to share with me in the comments of that episode, what you think of it. We are going to have our national championship game picks and the preview of that game. That podcast comes out on Thursday next week. So all of that coming up right here on the Joel Clatt Show. Thanks to Hampton by Hilton for always being a part of the show. Love college football. Remember on YouTube, go out there and subscribe. We're only 5,000 short of 200,000.

When we reach 200K, when we reach that 200,000, we are. going to have a nice little giveaway. So we're going to have a nice prize for a few of those lucky subscribers in the future. So get over there and hit that subscribe button on YouTube. Have a really phenomenal and blessed weekend, everybody, and we'll be back on Monday with the Commissioner Clatt episode.