The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Chip Kelly to Ohio State, Michigan gets their new DC & Alabama loses another coach

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt discusses the latest coaching carousel moves including Ryan Day and Ohio State hiring Chip Kelly as their new Offensive Coordinator following the departure of Bill O’Brien for Boston College. He weighs in on what Kelly’s impact on the Buckeyes’ offense will be and then looks North as Michigan hired another member of the Harbaugh family coaching tree to lead the Wolverines defense in Wink Martindale. Klatt concludes the podcast by giving his thoughts on Alabama Offensive Coordinator Ryan Grubb taking the OC job with the Seattle Seahawks and considers how big of a loss it will be for Kalen DeBoer in Year 1 in Tuscaloosa. Klatt also raises some questions about the timing of the exit occurring right as the 30-day transfer window for Alabama players was closing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There is not a person in this business that Ryan Day trusts more than Chip Kelly. 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. What's up, everybody? Joel Clad here. This is the Joel Clad Show.

And thank you for joining us here as we are now. post-Super Bowl and college football continues to evolve. Oh my goodness. We've got a lot of news to cover right here in college football, so let's get to it. Before we do that, make sure you are following the show. Wherever you listen to your podcast, make sure to subscribe to the show. Leave us comment, rate, review us, all of those fun things. And invite a friend. That's always fun. If you're watching the show on YouTube, make sure to subscribe and then leave a comment below because I have been jumping in those comments and conversing with some of you. They're below in the comments of each and every show. So make sure to do that.

And then follow us on social media because we've got a lot of content coming up. I'm going to have my mock draft, my first mock draft for the draft season. That's coming up here in the next few days. So you're going to want to follow us on social so you know all the content that is coming out over the next few weeks and months as we get to the draft and then to Big Noon conversations. and as we finalize things here in spring football. You can follow us at Joel Clashio. Okay, let's get into everything that's going on here.

And man, it's just like a never a dull moment. The offseason in college football has become a little bit like the offseason in the national football league in that there is no off season. And there were huge moves, and we talked all about it. Bill O'Brien was hired as the offensive coordinator at Ohio State. Ryan Day basically saying, hey, listen, this job is too, big. I need somebody to handle the offense and call plays. I need to go out and really handle NIL. I need to really handle fundraising and do all of these things that maybe he didn't want to do,

but he certainly has to do in order to evolve with the sport and become kind of the program that they want to become. So he hires Bill O'Brien. Great. Okay, great. Okay. So Bill O'Brien comes in and I was told that the offensive coordinator was going to have final say even on the offense of staff. So there was a lot of autonomy that an agency that Bill O'Brien had at Ohio State to go in there and kind of make it his own. And Ryan delegated that to him. So that was a huge move for Ryan Day. And then all of a sudden, Jeff Halfley, the head coach at Boston College, decides, you know what, college football is crazy. I'm out of here. I'm going to the National Football League and he takes the defense to coordinator job with the Green Bay Packers.

Now all of a sudden, what does that leave and opening at Boston College? And guess what? The best fit for the job just happened to be Bill O'Brien. So Bill O'Brien is leaving and he's going to take the job there in Boston College. Three weeks on the job in Columbus. Now he's going to take the job at Boston College. It makes all the sense in the world. He's a Boston native, ties to the area, two sons, one with a rare neurological disorder

that basically, you know, his care is best in that area. He's got another son that's a best baseball player at Tufts. That's in the Boston area. So it's like, even Ryan Day is probably like, yeah, I mean, that makes a lot of sense and good for him. Okay, so good for him. And that's a good hire for Boston College. It really is.

I think it's a tough job. I think Jeff Halfley did a pretty good job. And now Bill O'Brien's got that job. So Bill wanted to be a head coach, and now he's a head coach. So good for him. But that leaves now the coordinator job open at Ohio State. And it was already such a big hurdle in the first place

to kind of like get over the hump of Ryan Day saying, I'm not going to call the plays. I'm going to delegate. I'm going to do all these things that I think we need to do to evolve in order to beat Michigan, win the Big Ten, and eventually, hopefully win the national championship. And now you're at Square One. So what do you do?

Well, when you're at Square One, when your back is against the wall, you tend to lean on things that you know, and that you can trust. There is not a person in this business that Ryan Day trusts more than Chip Kelly. And now Chip Kelly is going to leave UCLA as their head coach. And in the same conference, I know that sounds weird, leave to take the offensive coordinator position,

at Ohio State under Ryan Day. Quite wild, but as soon as Bill O'Brien left, as you all know, Steve, Steve's my right-hand man. Our text chain, immediately we were just like Chipped to Ohio State. It made a lot of sense. It makes so much sense. Let's break it down a little bit.

Okay, so first and foremost, did Chip have success at UCLA? I would argue that he did. He rebuilt that point. program in so many ways. He came in and kind of tore it down even further in order to rebuild it in what he felt like was the right way. And he was doing that. Chip won at least eight games in the last three years. That's not easy to do in particular with what was going on in the PAC 12 over the last couple of years. The last couple of years, that conference was deep. There

was a lot of teams playing at a high level, a very high level. And Chip did a pretty good job. people in Westwood would not have it. And I got crushed for defending Chip Kelly and saying like, hey, you know, like Chip's done a good job. What do you mean he's done a good job? Okay, fine, fine. You know what? And Chip even didn't want any part of it.

Now, part of this is that I also believe that two things can be true at once. I think Chip did a good job and rebuilt that program in a lot of ways so that they can potentially have success moving forward. But at the same time, you could also see that Chip wasn't long for head coaching position at the college level. He did not like what the sport had become and what he was going to have to do to have success

in the sport as a head coach. Okay, I don't think Chip loved recruiting. I think that that's pretty widely known. And the rankings reflected that. you know, UCLA historically has recruited, I would say, at a higher clip than what Chip was recruiting over the last few years. All the Bruin fans would agree with that. Now, his success on the field, I thought, was pretty good. I don't think he wanted to sit there and focus on NIL in the transfer portal and recruiting his own kids and recruiting kids out of the transfer portal.

And then trying to fight the NIL battles with fundraising and booster support at UCLA that have traditionally been very difficult. going all the way back, you know, whether it's the legendary Terry Donahue or Rick Newheisel or whomever it was, Jim Moore, it's always been a place where if I go cover that sport or if I'm around or cover that team and program, if I'm around that program, they're always talking about like, man, you know, it's it's so hard here. We don't have the resources. We don't have the X, Y, or Z. Now, you know, they built a new facility. I think it's better than it has been. But I don't think Chip wanted to dive into that world. What Ryan is doing, let's just put it this way. Where Ryan Day is doing at Ohio State, I don't think Chip wanted to do that. He's a ball coach.

He just wants to coach football. He tried to get into the NFL. He interviewed with the Seattle Seahawks. Didn't get that. Ryan Grub gets that job. More on that in a little bit. And now he can go work for basically his, I would call them best friends in the profession, maybe overall. Obviously, they have history. Chip coached Ryan Day at New Hampshire. You know, this relationship goes back along with. And it makes all the sense in the world. There's nobody that Ryan trusts more in this sport than Chip Kelly. And now this new play-calling system at Ohio State is going to have Chip Kelly at the helm.

He's going to have his old offensive line coach that came from UCLA, Justin Fry. So they're going to be back together. And one thing that I'm looking at is like, Chip can go there and he's like, I'm sorry, wait, wait, wait. So you're going to give me a mobile quarterback, the best backfield in the country with Junkins and Henderson. You're going to give me a Mecca, Abuka, and Carnell Tate. And I get to call plays. I think Ohio State will become a better running team.

Chip Kelly rushes the football, as well as anybody in the country, as well as anybody. That's what UCLA did. And I think Ohio State is going to lean into that a little bit more. Remember, over the last three years, part of what has gotten them beat against Michigan is that Michigan was the better fundamentally sound running team. Having to stop their run was very difficult. They could control the clock and they could control the game. And now all of a sudden you've got Chip Kelly.

Last year, Ohio State was 88th in the country running the football. I think that needs to get better. I think that needs to get better. And it will. And I think that's the biggest point. His main objective is going to be to beat Michigan. And I think Ryan is diving into that. Nobody's had a better offseason than Ohio State.

This adds to that. there's no question in my mind. Speaking of beating Michigan, and in particular, Ohio State's offense beating Michigan, they're going to be trying to beat a team now that is going through a complete overhaul on the defensive side. So now we look at Michigan and the coaching carousel turning and changing and spinning at Michigan.

So Michigan needed to make a defensive coordinator higher after Jesse Mentor followed Jim Harbaugh to the charge. And Jesse was great, obviously, and former Michigan defensive coordinator and then Ravens coordinator got the Seattle Seahawks job. Mike McDonald, and these guys were stars. But we all know how successful that style and philosophy was for Michigan over the last three years. Run wall, hard edges, hybrid players and coverage. That's a philosophy. Reduce down to its most minimal form, that's the philosophy. So who do they go higher? Sharon Moore gets the head job, promoted from within, loses all of the defensive staff,

and yet gets to hire Wink Martindale, who comes from Baltimore and John Harbaugh. Both Mike McDonald and Jesse Minter coached, cut their teeth, were mentored by Wink Martindale. So philosophy-wise, I don't think a lot is going to change. Now, you could claim that Wink Martindale is more blitz-heavy than what Jesse was last year. But Wink is going to do what is a

appropriate to win games. The crucial part is they've been recruiting to and developing to a very specific system and philosophy, and they get to stay in that very specific system and philosophy. I think that's an important piece. He's also a veteran, and I think that's important for Sharon, who's going to be a head coach for the first time, to have some veteran pieces around him and the coaching staff that he can lean on. Wink Martin Martindale has been around. He was an assistant under John in Baltimore for 10 years. The last for as the coordinator. He replaced, was replaced as Baltimore, D.C. by Mike McDonald two years ago. Last time he coached in college was for Jack Harbaugh. That was 20 years ago. He was an assistant

coach under Rick Minter, Jesse Minter's dad at the University of Cincinnati in the 90s. He's 60 years old. Okay, so you've got that veteran presence. Just in contrast, like, McDonald was 33 when Michigan hired him. Mentor was 38. Both McDonald and Mentor were assistants under Martindale. Again, so the fit is really good here. And I like the hire from Sharon. The problem is that they're going to have to rebuild the entire on-field coaching staff on that defensive side. So Clinkstale decided to go with Horriba to the Chargers over the weekend. And now they're going to have to find guys to replace all of those coaches. But, but the truth remains that Sharon wanted to maintain the philosophy.

and schematics of what that defense was because of two reasons. That's specifically how they've recruited and specifically how they've developed. So don't throw it out. Don't change it up. Don't change front structures. You've got guys, and that defense should be really, really good. And how do you keep Will Johnson and Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant? And I mean, like, they've got dudes.

That defense is still going to be very good. keep them in the same philosophy, keep them in the same structure, and that's what's going to be happening at Michigan. Okay, Carousel also spinning at Alabama. So Alabama hires Kalin DeBore, and he brought his coordinator, Ryan Grubb, who wanted the head job with the Huskies but didn't get it. So he brought him down to Alabama,

but then Grub immediately starts looking around, and he gets the Seahawks offensive coordinator position. It was Grub, and it was Chip Kelly that were interviewing with Mike McDonald to be the coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks. Grub is going to be the coordinator up there. He's also taking his own line coach, Scott Huff, to Seattle. So the question that I ask myself is, how big of a deal is this for Kaelin DeBore?

First blush, not that serious. Because in my mind, that would be like Ryan Day losing a coordinator, like Steve Sarkeesian losing a coordinator, like Lincoln Riley losing a coordinator. This is Kalyn DeBoer's offense. Okay, like Grub was excellent. There's no doubt. There's no doubt.

And game planning-wise, I've heard from a lot of guys that he was second to none in a lot of regards. But he was doing that under the umbrella of Kalin-Dabor's offense. So if I'm an Alabama fan, that gives me some, not just hope, but it kind of calms my anxiety about this move. Grub clearly wanted to be the head coach at Washington didn't get it. Okay, so they had to know, and they've talked about this, by the way.

The program down there in Alabama have talked about that they always knew that this was going to be a possibility, even when DeBore took the job and brought Ryan Grub in. So they knew that this was a possibility. In fact, Greg Byrne, the athletic director, he says, and I'll quote here, we knew when we hired Coach DeBore that there was a chance that Coach Grub may end up being either the head coach at UW, or was on the radar with the Seattle Seahawks. Coach DeBoer had a plan for that, and that is being worked out as we speak. Part of this as well is that, and this is a conversation for kind of a larger topic, this is now outside of the window of when they lost Nick Sabin and

hired Kalin DeBore, which means that their internal transfer window is closed. More on that in a little bit. The OC job will likely be a co-O-C situation. Nick Sheridan, who's been with DeBore before Jamarca Shepard. They both came with DeBore to Alabama from Washington. Sheridan is considered probably more in that kind of play caller vein. Sheridan took over for OC at Indiana when DeBore left, and that was with Pinnock. I believe it was Sheridan, if I'm not mistaken.

He was the coordinator in the COVID year when Pinnock and Indiana almost went in there and beat Ohio State that ended up going to the national championship game and playing Alabama. That was after DeBoer left for Fresno. There's also a chance that in this situation, with everything on the line with DeBo, this is not just any head coaching opportunity. You can't just throw it out there. And again, I've talked about this before. You have to win 10 games.

It's Alabama. They're not going to be like, oh, you know what, good try this year. Nick Sabin tells stories about being, you know, out with his wife in the off season after losing one game or two games and getting pats on the back from Tide fans of being like, good luck next year, coach. Like, you know, try to get him next year. And he's like, we were 12 and 2, you know. So, DeBore Maycall plays himself. You never know. Now, I've argued against that during this offseason,

but, you know, you might want to lean on that if you're Kalin DeBore. Okay. Let's go back to that 30-day window thing. So there are reports out that not that Alabama was in a position to slow play this. But, you know, you could make the argument like, well, why hire Ryan Grubb in the first place? Well, you've got to show stability to recruits, current players, because of the transfer window. And yet in the back of their mind, they know the whole time, well, Ryan Grubb probably is getting another job. Here's my question. Do you think that probably was shared with the players?

Probably not. So, from the player's perspective, this is a great reason for a collective bargaining agreement. Because this is an instance that, you know, you can take to the table. Let me just give you an example. If we go the direction that I believe that we should in college football, where we organize the players and there is a collectively bargained agreement that starts to put guardrails on things like the calendar, compensation, NIL, the definition of pay for play and employment status and what that actually means and what that could mean for health care and so many different things. Again, I think it could clean up

so many different things. It's not just from the outside and putting that on players. If you're collectively bargaining, then the players get to bring things to the tables. Like saying, I tell you what, we've got this 30-day window if a head coach leaves or gets fired. That's an internal 30-day transfer window just from our school. You could even reduce that even more and say, if a position coach or a coordinator leaves, that that coach's position group also has a 30-day window. Now, people might be saying like, no, Joel, don't open up more transfer portal windows, but if you're the Alabama players, wouldn't you feel like you got duped a little bit?

Do you think it was shared with the players that, yes, he's the coordinator, but he's probably going to leave, and this is what our plan will be? Now, maybe they did. Maybe they did. I don't want to speculate in that regard, but my intuition is that was not shared. So if you're in a position to collectively bargain and you're the players, this is something that can be brought up because those players don't have an out. Just some food for thought.

As we're looking at all of these assistant coaches now, take jobs, leave, do different things. What happens if like you chose that school not based on the head coach but based on your position coach or that coordinator specifically because of a specific conversation that you had with that man. And then all of a sudden he's gone. And you're like, hold on. Why don't I have an opportunity to adjust my decision because I made my decision on poor or bad or incomplete information. Just food for thought. Okay. Hey, if you have a mailbag question, send it to us, because we'll be continuing these mailbag episodes. Not that this one was, but you know, I'm coming off of one. And by the way, I still want to know the pre-up question that I answered in the previous episode, like, I need a follow-up. What did we decide? I feel very invested in this now.

If you have this conversation based on the information that you gave me in the email, yikes, so I want to know how it all ended up. But if you want to send an email mailbag question, the Joel Clashow Mailbag at gmail.com. That's where you can do it. Make sure to subscribe to the show because we're going to have a ton of content during the offseason, namely NFL draft content. Our next episode is going to be my mock trick. 1 cano, my first mock draft of this draft season, that's going to be coming out soon. So make sure to follow the show, subscribe to the show, YouTube, wherever you're listening, do all of those things so you can know when that lands.

And then follow us on social media at Joel Clat Show wherever you like to social. We'll be back with that mock draft next time.