The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Clemson’s fall from the elite, the Pac-12’s rise & which fanbases should be concerned after Week 1

Episode Date: September 6, 2023

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt breaks down why Clemson’s upset loss to Duke wasn’t just a bad night but actually another example of how elite programs fall back to the pack in the sport. He then goes out West to detail why the Pac-12’s incredible talent at QB - from Caleb Williams to Shedeur Sanders - makes it the deepest conference in the country this year. Finally, he goes around the country from LSU to Oklahoma to Penn State to Colorado and more to let fanbases know how they should be feeling about their program after Week 1. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the Joel Clash show in college football, it's adapt or die. Is the Pact 12 all of a sudden the deepest conference in the country? And fan-based check-in. Is it time to panic at LSU? 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 Joel Glad Show presented by Hampton by Hilton. I'm your host, Joel Clatt, as always, glad to be with you. Oh, man, I just love the fact that we're in the season and we're in this rhythm now where we have games, we can react to games, and then we can start to analyze what's going on and then look forward to the next week. It's my favorite time of year. There's no doubt about it.

Now, if you're new to the show, please subscribe wherever you're getting this show, whether you're listening, go ahead and download and subscribe wherever you get your podcast and or if you're watching on YouTube, make sure to subscribe to the show. A lot of interest on YouTube. We are going to have some exclusive stuff just for the YouTube subscribers during the course of the season. So even if you're just listening to this, make sure to get over to YouTube, follow the Joel Clatcho, subscribe to the Joel Clat Show, and then follow us all over social media, wherever you get your social media and you can get the bits and pieces of what we've got all week long. Last thing, If you want to follow just me and not the show, you can find me on X slash Twitter, whatever you want to call it at Joel Klatte.

Okay, let's get into it. A lot of good stuff to get into. Obviously, some Clemson discussion today after what we saw on Monday night. And then we've got to talk about the Pact 12. And I know many people are talking about it, but we've got to talk about it here and give you some perspective. And then let's check in on some fan bases after week one. because I'm sure that there's some out there that might be a little too confident and maybe others that we might need to talk back off the ledge after one week. So let's get into it.

Clemson. That was pretty disappointing if you're a Clemson fan. And I think that's an understatement. Seven points on four trips inside the 10-yard line. That's never going to cut it. You're always going to get beat regardless of who you play. And now Clemson has lost three of the last four games overall. and four of their last seven with three of those four losses by at least 17 points.

Okay, so it's not going in the right direction for Clemson. And this is a program that we constantly feel like, okay, are they going to get back to this point to which they were a few years ago? And let's face it, like they had gone to the mountaintop. They had put themselves on top of the mountain beating Alabama in the national championship game a couple of times, you know, beating Ohio State in a playoff, going back to it. I mean, they were constantly in it. It was Alabama and Clemson.

It wasn't Alabama in Georgia. It was Alabama and Clemson. And then we've started to see that deteriorate a little bit, which begs the question like, what happened? And where are we at right now with Clemson? They went to six straight playoffs. They won two national championships. And then they finished outside of the top 10 in each of the last two seasons.

So we're seeing the start of the slow deterioration. It was all over social media, you know, like the reaction. They didn't have the players that they normally have. And this is something that I want to point to just first. Before I get into kind of the anatomy of a decline, I will say like when it comes to college football, it always happens slowly and then bursts open all at one time. I know that those are contradictions,

but think of like, let's say Texas is a great example. Texas was deteriorating from within. Those problems were being masked by guys like Vince Young and Colt McCoy, mostly Colt McCoy. They just weren't recruiting at the same level. The program, the assistant coaches weren't coaching at the same level, developing at the same level. And then all of a sudden, Colt McCoy walks out the door and it's like,

whoa, we have a problem here at Texas. Well, that's a slow deterioration that's happening. And then all of a sudden it's like, there's a tipping point. And with Clemson, we seem to have fallen over that tipping point. Now, maybe you can just point to Trevor Lawrence walking out the door. Maybe that's it. Maybe Deshawn Watson and Trevor Lawrence were masking what's going on. Maybe this is analogous to Texas in that you had this amazing team and roster under Vince Young like Clemson did under Deshawn Watson

with great defensive linemen. And maybe that roster then kind of leaked into the next era, which was Trevor Lawrence or in Texas's case, Colt McCoy. But then all of a sudden, that roster clearly deteriorates. And then that guy walks out the door and you're just left like, what happened? Well, let's talk about what happens. What does the decline, the anatomy of a decline look like in college football?

And I think it's really about two things and two ways that programs deteriorate. You deteriorate because of wrong personnel, and that can be either in the coaching staff or in recruiting and talent acquisition, and or you fail to adapt. Sometimes both, sometimes all of those things, sometimes one or the other. And the adapting comes in both on the field and off the field as a program. So there's a lot of layers to this, but really they fall into these two categories. Okay. So when you think about wrong personnel, you think of programs that maybe hired the wrong guy, and then it was a lot of. slow deterioration. Programs like, let's say, Nebraska after Frank Solich. It wasn't good enough

to retain Frank Solish after a 10-win season. And so they went to Bill Callahan. He changes everything. That's the wrong personnel. So the deterioration starts to happen right there because of a coaching change. We also saw this. I'll bring up Texas again under Mack Brown. He couldn't get the assistant coaches right. So while he was still there, the revolving door of the assistant coaches starts to come in and what do you happen? A personnel issue. And when you have that personnel issue, what happens is that you don't acquire the talent necessary and you don't develop the talent necessary to compete at the highest level because it's still a small margin. And let me just back up and say like all of this can be true and it's going to seem like I'm putting, you know, Clemson, you know, dead and buried. And I'm

not going to do that. Okay, this is just an anatomy of a decline and this is what Dabo is going to have to fight. Because all of this can be true. Like Duke is better than we thought. Clemson made a ton of mistakes. Probably could have won the game in certain scenarios. Maybe not, you know, eight out of 10 times, but certainly all those trips inside of the 10-yard line would have made that a different game. If they play again, maybe Clemson could win. I'm not sure. But the fact remains, there has been a deterioration. The question is how far, how far? And what of the those two points of deterioration is taking place at Clemson. Is it a personnel issue? And is it failing to adapt? There's a lot of talk about the failing to adapt. And I'll get into that in a

moment. But I think that there is a clear personnel issue at Clemson. Maybe that's the fact that Dabo has not adjusted or adapted as it relates to staff. I mean, he kept the same staff forever. And, you know, I kind of commend him for that, to be quite honest with you. Those men got him to the mountaintop. And then he kept them there for a long time. But the fact remains, they were not recruiting at the same level. All right. Now, a lot of factors in that.

But their personnel right now is not where it needs to be on the field. They have not acquired the talent nor developed the talent to play at the upper echelons of college football. Because that's the expectation, right? for Clemson, I think that it is, in particular when you've got a track record of two national titles since 2015 and six straight playoffs from 15 to 2020. That's what we expect. Now we get into the second part of this, which is the failing to adapt. This can happen for a coaching staff on the field.

It can happen off the field. I think it's clear, painfully, that Clemson has both failed to adapt on and off. the field. Dabo is unapologetically against NIL and transfer portal, completely against it, will not embrace it. He has been so public about this that it's going to end up hurting him. Because the fan base, if you're a Clemson fan, you're like, hold on, man. You can't play monopoly and decide on your own that you're not going to buy any houses on the property you own because you don't think it's right while everybody else buys houses. You're going to lose. There's no other way around that. You can stand on principle or in this case his principle,

which, by the way, none of it is against the rules. So it's his principle. You will lose. It's really a bottom line proposition. And we've seen this time after time after time in the history of college football. Let me just give you, give you like some examples of this. We're seeing this in real time, but it's happened with with other issues that programs failed to adapt to throughout history. And I've talked about this sometimes, but let's just talk about these two issues, right? Whether it's personnel and or adapting. Nebraska, they didn't adapt for a long time from a schematic standpoint. Then all of a sudden they freaked out and went a different direction in personnel and you see what's happened to them, Bill Callahan. Texas, I think the same thing

happened. I've mentioned that. On the field, how about some examples of teams that were starting to decline and then pulled themselves out of that very quickly and turned it around? So, So how about a couple of examples, three, more specifically, of programs that adapted and evolved quickly? How about Gary Patterson at TCU? Do you remember when he was all defense, no offense for a number of years, won a Rose Bowl, did all this good stuff? And then all of a sudden it became painfully clear to him, I better have a spread offense in particular in this conference. And what did he do? He went on hired Sonny Cumbie and Doug Meechum and he got Trouin-Boeckin at quarterback.

And boom, all of a sudden they were a win away from the college football playoff. Same thing happened with Bob Stoops. Bob Stoops looked at his personnel, in particular his coaching staff, and he said, you know what, we're not recruiting at the right level, and we're not putting our players in position like I know we need to. He went out, he hired Lincoln Riley, a number of new staff members. And what happened? They took off, and their run continued. He adapted.

Nick Saban adapted. This is the most famous one. Now, he never really took a dip, but let's face it, it started to become much harder for Nick Sabin and Alabama to win the style of that he wanted to win with when he first started winning championships, and then he started facing guys like Cam Newton and Johnny Menzel and Deshaun Watson. And he was like, okay, nope, not going to do this. This is too difficult. Let's change all of a sudden Lane Kiffin's the coordinator.

And they change their style of offense. And obviously the rest is history competing for national championships all the like. Those are examples of programs adapting, head coaches, adapting and evolving. and really to the benefit of the program. And then there's examples of off-field programs that didn't adapt. And I've talked about this on the show. 20 years ago, there was a clear arms race in college football. There was an arms race in facilities.

There was an arms race in how much you would pay your coach, how much you would pay your assistant coaches. How long were the contracts that you would give assistant coaches? All of this became like a big deal in college about 20 years ago. ago. There were programs that were playing at the top of college football at that point and failed to adapt and said, no, no, no, no, we'll be fine. Look at the name on the front of our jersey. We don't have to participate in that. I think of programs like USC and Miami. They didn't invest in their facilities like the other programs were investing. And so they got

passed. There were other programs like that as well. Then you have programs. that leaned into it with no history 20 years ago and became, you know, household teams and have been now top 20 programs, top 10 programs basically since. I'm thinking of a team like Oregon. Okay. So there are examples of this, off-field issues and surrounding college football where you've got to lean into something that maybe you're uncomfortable with. Maybe it costs a lot of money.

I'm not sure. Whatever it is, okay? Maybe your principles, I don't know. but if you don't evolve and adapt, you will die. This is tried and true across the history of the sport. And now we are at another tipping point. It's clear as day to everybody out there. If you do not participate in the transfer portal and NIL, you will lose.

If you don't want to, then you're going to have to be fine with the consequences of not participating in those two ventures. Because right now, it is critical. crystal clear based on the year we had a year ago and what we've seen already early in this season that college football is a new frontier. It is completely changing based on the transfer portal. Two biggest wins of week one, Florida State, Keon-Colman, he was out there. They did it through transfers. They had one of the best transfer classes in the country. They got the best player off three, four, five different teams to come to Florida. to state. Okay.

Colorado, 68 new scholarship players, basically remade a roster through the transfer portal. Two biggest wins of week one. Meanwhile, the team and coach that refuse to play in that game,

refuse to put houses on Park Place, got beat 28 to 7. You see, the sport has changed. We no longer build rosters in college football through a three-year cycle of talent acquisition and development. That's gone. That's gone. That's when you can rely on your culture.

Okay. Now, this is much more like the NFL. This is much more like a GM putting together a new roster every year. These are annual things. College football is an annual thing. You look around college football in every single year, someone is going to improve themselves to the point where they pass someone in their conference that we didn't think that they would pass. And guess what's happened in the ACC?

At least after one week, it's pretty clear, Florida State better than Clemson. And I wouldn't have said that coming into the season. I was one of the ones harping on the fact that I thought Clemson and their culture and Garrett Riley was going to work. Nope, didn't work. Wasn't on the field week one. Certainly. They have a lot to clean up. Meanwhile, Florida State, fast, physical.

great players on the outside, really good quarterback. Now I'm going to be surprised if Clemson can beat Florida State, even in their home stadium. It happens like that in college football. It's a one-year cycle now, not three. Adapt or die. It's that time of year again, and it's my favorite time of year. It's football season. And as you know, I take it seriously.

So when I'm traveling on the road to watch my favorite teams, I can't risk calling the wrong play with where I day. Wherever I go, I know that I can count on Hampton by Hilton. I can depend on their comfortable rooms, their warm and friendly service, and their free hot breakfast is a game changer, no doubt. Whether you're cheering on your team from the stands or never leaving the tailgate, Hampton by Hilton will always give you that win. All right, as we move on in the Joel Clatchew, I want to talk about conferences. It's always a big topic in college football. And even after week one, I think that we can start to talk about conferences, namely the fact that one has really stood out, really stood out.

Now, if Clemson would have looked great, I would have also said, hey, man, the ACC looks better than I anticipated moving into the season. But before the season, I told you right here on this show, I said, watch out for the Pack 12 because they've got the best quarterbacks. I said, I've got five Pac-12 teams in my top 15. Guess what? All of a sudden, there's a sixth racing towards that position, racing towards that position. There is a bottom line proposition so far in the 2023 season. The PAC 12 is the deepest conference in the country. Period.

The PAC 12 is the deepest conference in the country. There is no if-ans or buts about it. And all you have to do is look at the quarterback play. Now, the teams are good. Listen, and this is where everyone's like, oh, my goodness, it's the SEC. No, no, no. I didn't say best. I didn't say the top end.

I said deepest. This is not an argument. This is a fact right now up to this point. The PAC 12-1 is 13-0 so far. They're undefeated in play. We haven't seen 13-0 ever in college football out of a conference. And the depth of this conference is amazing. Now, can any of these teams beat, shoot, any of the three Big Ten teams?

I'm not sure. Can they beat Florida State? Not sure. Can they beat Alabama or Georgia? Not sure. In fact, I don't have any of them ranked up in that echelon. You know, maybe Washington or USC will see. But as far as deepest, there's no question that this is the deepest conference.

What I love about this conference is the quarterback play. think of being a defensive coordinator in the PAC 12, and you're having to get ready for these quarterbacks. Now, I just took a stab at like ranking up to like eight. All right, and I know that there's more guys in here. So like DeLara at Arizona didn't thrown in here, I only have so much room on this graphic. But if you're watching on YouTube, you can see it up right now.

I'll go over it right now for the audio. Listen to these quarterbacks. Number one, Caleb Williams. Number two, Michael Pinnock, Jr. Number three, Bo Nix. Number four, Chodor Sanders. Number five, guy who didn't even play this week, Cam Rising, but he's won the conference back-to-back years.

Number six, former all-everything recruit DJ Ooyung-Lay-Lay, who now all of a sudden looks like it was Clemson's issue, not his issue. Cam Ward at Washington State, he can go win a game for you. And did anybody see late on Saturday night, the young freshman for UCLA come into the game and how good he? he looked, Dante Moore. I mean, they're rolling eight deep, nine deep in this conference. Easily six deep.

And I throw in like I like Cam Ward. No one knows about Cam Ward. Cam Ward's a really good player, really good player. And Wisconsin's going to have their hands full with Washington State. Oregon State is a really good team. And now they're getting better, much better than they were a year ago when they were a 10-win team because now they've got a quarterback. DJU looks really good in that opening win against San Jose State.

Cam Rising, we know what he can do. And then look at those top four. Shador Sanders just looked like a bona fide top two round draft pick. Bo Nix. They just scored 81 points he's played forever. The experience. Michael Pinnock's top 10 draft pick. Going to be in the Heisman race.

Caleb Williams, going to be the top pick, favorite in the Heisman trophy. That's ridiculous. This conference, just their quarterback play. Look at the other conferences. And this is not a knock because I like some of these other quarterbacks, but you go into any other conference and it's really quickly, you get to like three guys and you're like, me, you know, is it all right? Like for instance, SEC, Jaden Daniels, is he the best quarterback in the SEC? I don't know. Connor Wegman, he looks pretty good,

I guess. You see where I'm going with that? Like, wouldn't you take any of the six players out of the Pact 12 and put them on any of the SEC teams? I mean, would Joe Milton at Tennessee start over any of the six top players in the Pact 12? Maybe, I don't know. Maybe Joe Milton would. Maybe they love Joe Milton. And certainly he could be that guy that is the best in that conference. Look at the big, Big Ten.

J.J. McCarthy, Drew Aller, those are pretty good. Okay, who's third? Is it like Tanner Mordecai? Is it Tung of I Loa? Right? Like, I don't know. How about the ACC? They've got some players.

You can get to three in the ACC. Drake May, obviously. Jordan Travis looked great at Florida State. Maybe Riley Leonard. He looked great against Duke. Maybe you can include Clubneck. Okay, so like they've got a little bit of depth, but you get there to four and it's like, okay, like we get it.

We get it. And then in the Big 12, it's the same thing. Yours, maybe Dylan. Gabriel at OU, Jalen Daniels at Kansas, maybe Will Howard at Kansas State, who doesn't get a lot of love. So you get where I'm going with this. Like you can get into all the other conferences and you're like, yeah, Joel, like your point is very clear. The quarterbacks in the Pac-12 make it the deepest conference in the country. So then the question becomes, can they make the playoff? Well, I didn't say that they were the most elite conference. I don't know what they're going to be at the

top end. I'm nervous for that conference because they could just beat themselves totally up. Everyone talks about that. Their schedules are brutal. Go look at the USC schedule. Nobody else in the country, I believe it's nine. I want to say it's nine. I think they play nine straight consecutive weeks against Power Five opponents to finish the year. That's absurd. absurd. You look at the gauntlet that every team is going to have to face. They have to face two or three of these quarterbacks that I'm talking about. And now all of a sudden Colorado is one of them.

Colorado is now all of a sudden rank. So here comes this sixth team in the Pac-12 that you're going to have to deal with. Like, geez, you've got to deal with Travis Hunter and Chodorz Sanders now all of a sudden? I mean, it's a really fun conference to watch. it's been important up to this point that they've won the really important non-conference games like Utah, Florida, like Colorado TCU, like those are good wins for them, really good wins. And now you're going to have another opportunity this week. So Baylor is going to host Utah.

Texas Tech is going to host Oregon. Those are games that the Pac-12 has to win. Colorado's going to host Nebraska. These are now winnable games that, If you're able to win some of those games, now you look up at the end of the year and you can make an argument that, okay, like our champion deserves to go to the playoff. And I know that none of us talk about who actually deserves to go to the playoff, but that needs to be the narrative and the sentiment for this conference. And basically their last year of existence, as we know it, they should get their champion in. Like if you win this conference, like you're a really good team, really good team.

They do round robin style. It's going to be the top two seeds in the Pack 12 championship game. So you're going to get one of the top two teams in the conference overall that wins the conference. I'm just going to state right now before week two of the season, I believe at this point, based on what they've shown up to this point, September 6th, 2003, that the Pack 12 champ should be in the college football playoff. We'll see if that happens. I'm not sure if it will.

Let's move on. It's time now, though, time now, excuse me, for weekend check-in, sponsored by Hampton by Hilton, Hilton for the stay. Let's check in on some fan bases after week one, because there's some fan bases that I feel like we got to look into. First of all, let's start with LSU. All right. I don't quite think it's time to panic for LSU, but boy, it's time to be frustrated. And so how should LSU feel frustrated? They made mistakes on the field last year that can be explained away because you had a new coach

and kind of a new team with some transfers in there. And it's like, okay, it's like it's the, and we played better by the end and won the SEC. And there was this sentiment that it was like, well, that's going to change. And we won't make those same mistakes early in this season. And guess what? It happened again. Now, do I think Florida State is that much better than LSU? Probably not.

The score got away from it a little bit. Why? because they didn't execute and made massive mistakes in particular in that first half. Probably could have had a lead by a score or two at times during that game. Their quarterback's got to play better. Their execution has got to get better. Their special teams has got to get cleaned up. So I would be frustrated.

Why would I be frustrated? Because this is still a team that's going to compete in the SEC. And what I wouldn't want if I was a Tiger fan is to have the same type of year we had a year ago win a special game against Alabama on the road in Tuscaloosa get to the SEC championship game and not really be in the playoff picture. Why? Because of some silly game at the beginning of the year where we didn't play our best.

So highly frustrated for LSU here after week one. All right, let's move on. Oklahoma. Oklahoma. This one is going to be a sit tight. Sit tight. Oklahoma. I get it.

Like, 73 to nothing feels good. I get it. I get it. Arkansas State was picked second to last in the Sun Belt West. All right. So just sit tight. Just sit tight. You can tell me all you want, how the defense looked better.

And you know what? I hope it did. And I have been singing your praises during the preseason and in the offseason saying, Oklahoma is one of those teams that I could see. if they were to fix a few of the things that they needed to get fixed, they could win some of those close games that were close losses last year and easily beat 10-win team this year. That can happen.

Absolutely. But they've got to just keep playing, in particular on that defensive side. They've got to continue to get better. Arkansas State does not make you. It doesn't make you a good defense. You know that. I know that.

Okay. So sit tight. and get that defense ready to go so that you can play well defensively against Quinn Ewers and Texas in Dallas. That's the main objective. All right, we move on. Penn State.

Let's go to Penn State. If I was Penn State right now, how would I feel if I was a fan? I would feel giddy. Wow, that's a good one. That's a really, really Joel, giddy? Yeah, I would feel giddy. You know why I would feel giddy?

because I would feel pretty confident based on what I saw not only out of my team at Penn State, but also around the Big Ten, that I'm rooting for a team that is no longer just clearly third in that division. Based on week one, if I'm a Nittany Lion fan, I'm giddy at the fact that it's pretty clear, this is an absolute three-team race in the East. I still think I would favor Michigan. Fine, okay, Penn State fans, I think. you would even have to agree with that, in particular with what they did against you in Ann Arbor last year running the football. But with what Ohio State did at Indiana and the way that their

offensive line looked in particular and their quarterback issues kind of seeping into now week two of the college football season, there's no other way to put it other than like, yeah, Penn State could easily play with and beat one of those two teams. For the first time in a number of years, I am confident in saying that Penn State is absolutely on the level with Michigan and Ohio State. So how would I feel? If I was a Penn State fan, I'd be giddy about that. Gitty after week one. All right, let's move on, a couple of more. Let's go with Colorado. What am I going to say about Colorado? I was a Colorado fan. I would be euphoric. Are you serious with what we saw on Saturday? that was incredible.

Should be a movie about it. Probably will because there was 18 camera crews following Coach Prime around. Euphoric. Now certainly there's a danger in getting too high and like could it all come crashing down this weekend? Yeah, if they don't return to the urgency that they played with against TCU,

Nebraska can and will beat them if they don't play well. Okay. But having said that, That was a euphoric moment for Buffs fans. I know who you are. I had all your text messages. I know exactly how you feel. I sat in Folsom Field when I was six years old and fell in love with the University of Colorado.

I fell in love with Ralphie. I fell in love with a gold helmet. Even though they wore white on Saturday, that was a magical moment for that program and that fan base. that fan base had to watch a program that had fallen to the depths of the pack of the Power 5, Pack 12 and Power 5. Depths. Worst Power 5 program in the country. For 15 years or more.

I mean, it was bad. There was a year here, there where it was like, oh, they're getting good again. So Saturday, after all the hype, after everything that went on, that was a euphoric moment for Colorado fans. Enjoy it. Enjoy it. But I'll tell you this, not only for the fans, but also for those players. If you're a Colorado Buffalo and you're watching this,

whether it's the coaching staff and or the players, you better come ready to play Saturday because Nebraska will be ready. I know that rivalry. I just covered that Nebraska team. They will play hard. They will run the ball more physically and more soundly than TCU did. That was the one area that Colorado could not stop TCU whatsoever. Nebraska will not make the same mistakes that the horn frogs made.

So rest assured, you play for Colorado? You better have the same sense of urgency that you have. last week or us going to come crashing down. Next fan base. TCU. I would be really concerned if I was a TCU fan. I would be very concerned. Offense scored 42.

I think that you can think to yourself, all right, like there's some things, there's some pluses, there's some players, there's some speed. All of that is true. There's no doubt about it. But, man, the exact same things that were issues a year ago are still issues in particular for the defense.

They gave up so many big plays a year ago. And it's a big reason why Max Duggan had to put on the cape and be a hero in so many close games is because they gave up so many big plays. And now you look at this defense in the last four games that they've played, they've given up 31, 45, 65, and 45 points. That's an average of 46 and a half. That's not going to cut it. You can't win like that, period. The defense has to get better. They never adjusted.

And this is, listen, it's partly scheme from the coaches, and then it's partly personnel. Like, if I'm the personnel, you guys had to win one-on-one pass rushing battles up front. They've got to figure out a way to present pressure on the quarterback. That's number one. From a scheme standpoint, you cannot continue to run man coverage in short-yardage situation. and allow the back to just beat your linebacker. Let me give you a great example. TCU tried to run the exact same concept

that Colorado was running to Dylan Edwards. But the difference was is that Colorado was well-coached enough to pass off the two slant routes and allow Travis Hunter to fall off in the lap of the back in the flat and he got an interception. Did that happen on TCU? Nope. They did not have that discipline.

They do not have that skill set. That's a scheme thing. The coaching staff for TCU has got to teach them how to pass off the in-breaking routes when they're in-man coverage so that they don't get out leveraged by the back against the linebacker in the flat. That's what happened on the first touchdown. That's what happened on the last touchdown. Dylan Edwards receiving both of those. So I would be concerned. There's a huge amount of concern for TCU and it's mainly on that defensive side.

They have to fix that defense. All right. That's going to do it for today. show. We'll be back tomorrow. I'm going to preview a lot of games. There's a lot better slate of games in college football, which I'm looking forward to. Obviously, we'll preview the game that I will be at, Colorado, Nebraska, Big Noon, Saturday, Big Noon, kickoff. All of us are going to be there. So that's going to be pretty great. Remember to subscribe to the show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. You can follow us on social media at Joel Clatt show,

wherever you're on social media. Follow me at Joel Clat on X or Twitter. And yeah, folks, like, I love it. You guys have been super loyal to this show. I'm very thankful for you, to you for watching and listening. It's been really fun. This show has been a lot more fun than I anticipated when I first started it last year. And a big thanks to Hampton as well, because the Joel Class show is presented by Hampton by Hilton. That'll do it for us.

We'll see you tomorrow on the Joel Class show.