The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Coach Prime, Matt Rhule, Luke Fickell & the most important Fixers in CFB this season

Episode Date: August 21, 2023

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt goes into the rebuilds that Colorado’s Deion Sanders, Nebraska’s Matt Rhule and Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell have in their first year at their respective schools. He evaluates where each program is at and what expectations should be for this coming season. Then, he goes around the country looking at the most impactful players and coaches in their first year at their programs. Ranging from Cade McNamara at Iowa to USC’s defensive transfer class to the reinforcements on Michigan’s Offensive Line, he groups players and coaches by what should be expected of them this season – from “shoe fillers” to “fixers.” He also ranks which new QB-OC combination at Ohio State, Alabama and Georgia he is most concerned about. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the Joel Clatch show, I break down all the most important rebuilds in college football, which obviously includes Coach Prime at the University of Colorado. And is Garrett Riley actually the most important coaching edition in the country? That's all coming up. 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 just one of those days. where you fall in love with the sport all over again. Hey, hey, what is up, everybody? Welcome into a brand new edition of the Joel Clasio. I'm Joel Clat. And thank you for joining us, as always. Brand new studios, this place is palatial and amazing. Show sounds better, it looks better,

and I'm glad that you guys have been tuning in so far during our preview content leading up to the season. It is almost here. We're getting so close. In fact, it's game week. I know it's week, but like game week, kind of. Make sure to tune in. I've got another podcast dropping Wednesday,

and then obviously next week we'll start into the season and we'll have our normal rhythm as we get into 20, 23. Today, though, I want to break down a lot of new faces and new places, but I'm going to do it in a little bit different way. Before I get into it, I just remind you, this is a brand new YouTube channel. So if you want to watch and consume all of our content on video, go and subscribe to the Joel Clash.

show on YouTube. And if you just want to have all of our content at your disposal at all times, all of our clips throughout the week, everything that I'm thinking about the sport, go follow us on social media. Any of the social media is out there, including Twitter, X, no, just X, whatever. You guys get it. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, by the way, TikTok, big with TikTok these days, at Joel Klat out there. Let's get into it. I'm really excited about this because we're going to hit, listen, gear up. I'm going to try to go quickly, but we're going to hit a lot of stuff today in terms of the lead up to this season because there's a lot of interesting things going on as far as new faces

and new places. Now, new faces and new places can mean new coaches. It can be transfers. It can be freshmen. These are the people and players and coaches that fan bases are relying on. to do one of three things. Okay, so let's break these up into three categories and then walk through them. The new faces and new places will be broken up into the complete reset, okay, the rebuilders.

We're going to also talk about the shoe fillers, okay, the ones that are going out there and trying to replace great players that are now elsewhere or great coaches that are now elsewhere. And then the fixers, players and coaches that were brought in to, fix a very specific problem at a good program. So those are the three categories. I'm going to start with the first year rebuilders. Let's get into it because I think there are three really good ones and really interesting ones. I'm going to start with Wisconsin and Luke Fickle. Obviously, everyone's going to talk about Luke Fickle and rightly so, because what he's going to do at Wisconsin or going to try to do is pretty large scale. And I'll be honest about

the Wisconsin one. I've been through a range of emotions this summer in terms of my analysis of the way I feel about Wisconsin. Let me just walk through it briefly. First and foremost, as Luke Fickle hired Phil Longo, the offensive coordinator from North Carolina and moving towards the air raid, as he declared that, okay, we're going to run the 3.35 stack defense. I started to get a little bit nervous for Wisconsin because the way that they played football for so long, for so long, dating back to Coach Alvarez. It was, it had the same feel and philosophy and identity. It was the Wisconsin DNA, regardless of coach, that coach generally was successful, dating back to Coach Alvarez, because of that identity and that DNA. They played,

a similar fashion, regardless of who the coach was. This feels like a departure from that. These systems are going to be brand new. These systems are not in the same vein of the way that they have had success over the course of the past decade or two. And so I started to think to myself like, boy, be careful what you wish for if you're Wisconsin. Because we have seen now in the past teams with a very proud tradition and not just a

proud tradition, but a very specific identity, go outside of that identity, and then lose their way, namely Nebraska, who by the way, I'll get to in a moment. So that was my initial thought. And I talked to, you know, my people here, and we talked about it. And listen, I still think like that's totally on, well, let's just say like, that's possible. What I just said is possible. However, however, Why is Luke Fickle there? And what do they have to rebuild from? Well, let's walk through it for a moment. Because since reaching the Rose Bowl in 2019,

they've actually finished outside of the top 25 in each of the last three seasons. Three straight seasons finishing outside of the top 50 in scoring offense. It wasn't working. Okay. And even though they were competitive and tough, it wasn't working. They weren't playing to the same level that I was discussing what they had been built on. And you could also make an argument that they had hit a bit of a ceiling because if you look at what they had done against the better teams in the Big Ten over the course of the last few seasons,

what you see is a real plateau. It was something that was not getting better. They've lost nine straight to Ohio State, including that 31 point beat down last year. They've lost five straight to Penn State, four out of five by one score, but still five straight to Penn State. They've lost the last four Big Ten championship games that they've played in. It just wasn't getting better. You can make an argument that maybe they had taken a step back from what they had been and what they had been built to do. In their last 11 games against ranked opponents, Wisconsin is two and nine.

Okay, so like, well, now it's a different picture because it's not just an identity that had been successful. It's an identity in a DNA that had maybe taken a step back. Over the last five seasons, they've played a ranked Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, or Notre Dame nine times. They're one in eight in those games and they've allowed over 32 points per. And so now I'm sitting there and I'm like, okay, well, now I get it a little bit more. Why do you have to rebuild at Wisconsin because a rebuild is needed. You see, I was going to say like, hey, if you looked at what they would have been, if there would have been a 12-team playoff over the course of the last, you know,

let's say since 2014, Wisconsin would have been in the playoff multiple times. In fact, they're one of the few teams that could say, hey, we would have been in three different playoffs if there was a 12-team format since 2014, 16, 17, and 19, all right? Like, you could say, well, well, if it's going to a 12 team, couldn't you make the argument that you didn't need to change and clean house and totally rebrand and rebuild because you would have been sitting in the playoff once every three years? No, you can't say that because they had regressed by the numbers I just said. And you can't even say that they were going to start recruiting on a level that was going to lead to potential success at the top end of the big 10. in particular when the Big Ten is doing away with divisions. So they had beaten up on a really soft Big Ten West,

gotten into championship games, gotten to that 10-win plateau, played in some Rose Bowls. You could say would have gone to some playoffs since 2014, three of them. But was that really reality moving forward? Probably not. Not without divisions and not with this clear regression

of what they have shown over the course of the last few years against the top-end teams in the Big Ten. So why is it so important? Well, Luke Fickle has got to change that. They've got to get better on defense and more athletic and faster on defense against the best teams, in particular in their own conference. They've got to have an offense that can finish into the top 50. That's why they have changed everything.

That's why this is such an interesting rebuild for Luke Fickle and Wisconsin. They've got a new quarterback. They've got a new philosophy. They've got a new offensive coordinator. And here he is a guy that we all believe in, Luke Fickle, trying to rebuild what we all think it's a preeminent, you know, power, if you will, in college football. But it hadn't been that over the last few years. He's trying to reestablish that moving forward.

I really liked that one. That's why I led with it because Wisconsin had given me fits all summer when I've been trying to think about them. And do I believe in Wisconsin? Do I not believe in Wisconsin? And so I wanted to give you that whole rundown on Wisconsin. Okay. Next one up.

And this one's obvious. Matt Rule at Nebraska. right like Nebraska had just fallen off the map. We all know what had gone on, but I don't think that we really understand the depth at which that program had fallen. Now obviously they might have been a worse team, you could argue,

at the end of the Mike Riley era than what they were at the end of the Scott Frost era. But you also have like a real culture issue, which I did not expect from Scott Frost, and that culture issue led to them not being able to win close games. Six straight losing seasons. 10 straight finishing outside of the top 25. Nebraska hasn't finished in the top 25 in a decade, a decade. Like, this is a total rebuild for Matt Rule. They've lost their last 21 games against ranked opponents. That's the second longest streak

in the Power 5. And they've finished 100th or worse in both total offense and total defense last year. This is a monumental task for Matt Rule. We think about the job that Coach Prime has to do at Colorado is a huge job. And yes, it is. And I'll get into that in a moment. But boy, the job in front of Matt Rule at Nebraska is so huge. And yet, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking to myself, is there anyone better for this job? Now, Nebraska fans, you might get upset at this because I've said this before, right? I believed in Scott Frost. I tried to talk you all off the ledge over the course of the last few years. But this is different.

This is different. And here's why. While I did believe in Frost, and he certainly did it at UCF, Rule has done something that is very similar to this before. Temple wasn't a juggernaut. He built them up into a very successful program. But then when he went to Baylor,

it wasn't just that Baylor had fallen, you know, and like behind competitively. No, no, no. Baylor was a disaster, culturally. a disaster. He went in there when no one else would touch it. No one would touch Baylor with a 10-foot pole. And you know what?

I couldn't argue with those people. I thought it was going to take Baylor forever to get back out. I thought what had happened to them was analogous or similar to SMU death penalty status, right? Not from a sanction standpoint, but just from a perception standpoint. And you look up in a couple of years and Matt Rule had built them in. to a 10 game winner and an eventual big 12 champion. Now, I know that they didn't win it under Matt Ruhl, but he built them to that point.

So like his DNA, his ability and his track record, more specifically, I think really fits what Nebraska is trying to do, which is a total rebound, a total revamp. And they're going to be trying to do that. And we've got both of their first two games, by the way.

Thursday night opener, I believe it's August 31st, if I'm not mistaken. Gus and I will be in Minneapolis as Nebraska takes on Minnesota on that Thursday night. Can't wait for that ballgame. Then they've got to travel to Colorado and rekindle that great rivalry from my childhood and all of our childhoods on the road against Coach Prime and Coach Prime's home debut in Boulder. We'll have that one on Big Noon Saturday.

So Nebraska, I can't wait to see how this is going to go. New quarterback, a lot of new things. And Matt Rule is a guy that I think that he's going to try to do this. I'm not going to say slow, but this is a little bit more of a tortoise compared to the hair at Colorado. Dion's trying to do it as fast as humanly possible, turn over the roster. Matt's not trying to do it that way. He's a bit more of the tortoise and he's trying to get to the finish line that way. All right.

Last one as far as rebuilders, and I know I keep alluding to this, but it's Coach Prime at Colorado. there is not a more interesting coaching change that I can remember in college football. Maybe Sabin going to Alabama, maybe, maybe. But I think it even pales in comparison to this. Coach Prime and what he's going to be trying to do at Colorado, first of all, is totally unprecedented. Colorado's level of ineptitude over the last few years is staggering when you actually look at the numbers. They were easily, and by the way, not by a close margin, the worst team in the

Power 5 a year ago. Their average point margin in their games last year was a loss by, wait for it, 29. That's four touchdowns. That's staggering to give you some sense of how big that margin is. They were 1 and 11, Northwestern, also 1 in 11. Northwestern lost their games by an average of 14. Colorado doubled them up. How can you be twice as bad as another team that was also 1 and 11? Colorado did that last year. Enter Dion Sanders.

From his own mouth in Big Noon Conversations, he said he loves it at Colorado and he is a need-to-be-needed type of guy. There is not a program that needed Dion Sanders more than the University of Colorado. Obviously, near and dear to my heart I played there. It gets worse, by the way. Ten of their 11 losses were by at least 23 points. Think about that. You're 1 and 11, and 10 of the 11 losses were by 23 points.

You might be asking yourself, how the hell did they win a game? I agree. What was Cal doing? Did they sleepwalk that day? I don't know what was going on. They were terrible on both sides of the ball, bottom five in offense and defense. And so here Dion comes in. Okay, you talk about a rebuild.

We've never seen anything like this. Anything like this. In modern college football, this is absolutely within the rules, but we've still never seen anything like this. They are going to have 68 new players. That's wild. 68. obviously that they cleaned house before spring they cleaned house after spring they drew the

ire of a lot of people throughout college football i've never seen a one and eleven team that everybody wants to comment on by the way when when have you ever seen in your life we're all college football fans we've been following it for a long time how many times have you seen coaches from across the country not just within their conference but outside of their conference all have an opinion about a one and 11-11 team and what they're doing in the off-season. Never. Never. The answer to that is never. That's why Coach Prime and his rebuild at Colorado is unequivocally the most interesting thing in college football and particularly early in the season. And you know what? I think it might work. Their talent level is

drastically increased. I could go, we could do just in new faces and new places just from Colorado. obviously his son, Shador Sanders, a quarterback, Travis Hunter, possibly playing or probably will play both ways as one of the best players in the country. Cormani McLean, one of the top defensive backs, five-star signs at the University of Colorado, all of those transfers. You take a look at what they were able to do in terms of increasing their talent level. This is going to be a drastically better team, drastically better team. Some people have said to me like, oh, what do you really expect them to do? Well, that's interesting because as I said to him right to his face, if they were to get a plus four or five or six in the win column and get to five, six or seven wins, that would be monumental because plus five plus six in the wind column just doesn't happen in our sport. Now, he wants more than that.

And kudos to him. I don't know. I don't know. I'm a little bit more of a realist. I see their schedule. If they get to four, I think it's a huge success. If they get to five, it's a huge success. If they get to six wins and go to a bowl game, it is like coach of the year status for Coach Prime.

Okay. I will say this. I think they will be able to compete at a very high level early in the year before depth is an issue. That TCU game and that Nebraska game, I think Colorado wins one of those games. I've said that to guys, you know, all the kickoff guys, we're on text chain, you know, together. And Brady and Matt are always like, oh, You won't say that publicly. Checks his phone just did.

I think Colorado wins one of the first two games. I think that they are good enough in the skill positions that before depth is an issue, they're just going to, they're doing a lot of things right. Okay. This is going to work. It's just a matter of how long it takes.

It's just a matter of how long it takes. It's so fascinating. can't wait to watch this. All of us. Big Noon kickoff is going to be within the opening two weeks against TCU and against Nebraska. We'll be there. All right. I had to take a little bit more time on those because those are just like whole program game changing deals. Now let's get to some other new faces and let's switch categories. Those were my most important slash most interesting first year rebuilders. Luke Fickle, Matt Ruhl and Dion Sanders. Now let's get to some first year shoe fillers, right replacements i don't want to call them replacements even though i did like the movie

shane falco wasn't that shame falco on the replacements don't i'm getting a nod i got a thumbs up over there shan falco there we go uh although although hot take keanu better as johnny utah utah youtah right yeah now we know so now everyone 35 and older is like there we go johnny utah reference um first year shoe fillers uh i've got seven there's probably a a couple more i could have thrown in here, but I've got seven first year shoe fillers. What is this category? This category are players or groups of players that have to replace some of the biggest names or most important contributors in the sport from a year ago. So these are teams that are going to rely heavily on brand new faces, first year faces in really important key spots. shoe fillers. Here we go.

Let's start with the seventh over there. And I didn't rank this. these, it's just like seven spots. Okay, so don't come at me about ranking. Carson Steele and Dante Moore at UCLA. If you look at what UCLA was a year ago, this was a team led by their running back, Zach Charbonnet, led by their quarterback, Dorian Thompson, and these two guys are basically brought in to replace those two guys. Now, do we know that it's going to be Dante Moore, the freshman quarterback? No, we don't know that it's going to be Dante Moore. I think it's going to be eventually. Okay. And then Carson Sealed transfers in, and here's a guy that he's going to have to replace Charbonnet, who was one of the better running backs in the entire country. And if you look at what UCLA was, they were a physical running team. And that's where they're going to have to lead on.

Charbonnet led the nation in scrimmage yards per game last year with 168. He could catch it out of the backfield. He was versatile. He was smart. He was a great team player. The duo Charbonnet and Dorian Thompson Robinson had over 2,000 rushing yards a year ago on a team. that really needs to run the ball well. They had 5,000 total yards. DTR has been a five-year starter, right? As Chip Kelly has built this and they finally got over that hump last year of being really competitive at the top end, a lot of that was because of the veteran running back and the veteran at quarterback.

And so now here we go. We got a transfer and a freshman. Now it should be noted that Kelly's, what was that? His first year? I think it was his first year. DTR was the quarterback, but only. after the first couple of games. In fact, he made his first start in game two of his freshman season,

a game that Gus and I called at Oklahoma. I don't know if it's going to be right away, but I do believe Dante Moore eventually will become the starting quarterback for UCLA. That's why those guys are my shoe fillers there. And they made the list. At number six, it's another group. It's the Michigan offensive line. Now, to be fair, there are guys that are back on this offensive line,

and there are new faces. So I just put them in there kind of as a group. Okay. This offensive line has been, you could argue one of. Now, they've won the Joe Moore Award as the top offensive line in the country each of the last two years. But they've been one of the best offensive lines in each of the last two years. They've won the Big Ten. They've beaten Ohio State.

They've been run oriented. They've been physical. They have owned the game at the line of scrimmage basically for two straight years. So the bar is very high. They've got Zach Zinter back, Trevor. Keegan back. They both could have gone to the NFL. They stayed. They're going to have five seniors on the offensive line. They added a couple of really good transfers that a lot of programs were after. Ladarius Henderson from Arizona State, really good player. Drake Nugent from Stanford, a couple of Stanford guys in there. This is going to be a really deep offensive line. And you've got two of the best running backs in tandem behind them. You've got an experienced quarterback behind them. You've got some good tie. ends on the outside. I think that we're going to see an offensive line that's going to be relied on to do a little bit of what Stanford used to do with like six and seven offensive

linemen in the game. Sheron Moore is their offensive coordinator. He no longer has to share those duties with Matt Weiss, who's no longer there. So Sharon Moore, who's the offensive line coach and now play caller on a full-time basis, can exercise some real power with his offensive linemen, the guys he knows best by putting them in the game. They can rely on a sixth or seventh offensive line. Remember when Stanford used to do that? They would coin that term like intellectual brutality. They would bring in all those extra linemen. They would run power and gap and just bludgeon people. And guess what they did? They shortened games and they made it stress free on their offense and more specifically their defense. I think because they can rotate, they're probably

going to be more fresh at the end of the season. And it's not going to be hard because their schedule is one of the easiest schedules in college football, them in Georgia, who are also the number one and two teams in the country to begin the year. That's a whole other story and probably a whole another podcast. But this offensive line, you got some first year shoe fillers in there from a transfer perspective. If they're as good as what they've been in the past, then the Big Ten goes through Ann Arbor. What they've done against Penn State and Ohio State running the ball in the second half each of those games last year was staggering, 250 and 246. Those are the yards rushing in just the second half against Ohio State and Penn State a year ago.

So unless those teams can do something to stop this offensive line, then Michigan's going to win the Big Ten again, right? You see where I'm going with that. Let's go to number five. This is an offensive coordinator, and these are big shoes to fill. Huge, huge, huge, huge. Garrett Riley leaves for Clemson, TCU needs another offensive coordinator, so they go with Kendall Bryles.

interesting. Interesting. A little different styles. Bryle's obviously familiar with that area. We all know. I think that this, I think if we're being honest, this raised some eyebrows.

But he takes over for Garrett Riley with this Sunny Dykes offense. This was a top 10, top 10 offense in the country a year ago in terms of scoring. They're losing their most important contributors. Max Duggan, Heisman finalist, runner up actually. Kendrae Miller, one of, I thought, the best running backs in particular with his versatility

in the entire country. Quentin Johnston, unbelievable, matchup wide receiver that can go down and just physically beat people down the field. An All-American on the offensive line and Steve Avila, they're replacing a lot of players and their offensive coordinator. I think what I'm trying to say is like, this TCU team might not be as good as we think they are. Now, I believe in Sunny Dikes. I really do. And Chandler Morris is a talented player. Remember, he beat out Max Duggan to start the year a year ago until he got hurt and then

Dougan took his job from him. I just, this is a wait and see early. These are huge shoes to fill. This is very intriguing for me. How is Kendall Bryles and this offense going to look early in the year after those three years when he was the OC at Arkansas? All right. Number four is another group. You could argue that this should be, I should wait until number one, but whatever. It's a group, so there wasn't one, like one specifically. How about the first year shoe fillers at Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama? All of them have new offensive coordinators and new quarterbacks, every single one of them. It's like, think about that for a moment.

These are three of the top four teams in the country. these are, this is the defending two-time national champion. It's the only team that looked like they had a chance against Georgia a year ago in Ohio State. And it's an Alabama team that just leaned, leaned on the top pick in the draft and Bryce Young for two straight years. These are massive replacements. Don't know exactly who it's going to be at all these places. But you look at what these teams are replacing. these three were the top five scoring offenses in the country.

They all scored 40 plus points a game. Those three starting quarterbacks at each of those places. This is what they combined for last year. 100 passing touchdowns and 18 interceptions. That's staggering. So now you've got to think of this and are like, okay, moving forward, let's rank these three. Which ones are you worried about?

Which ones are you not worried about? let's start with the one that I'm not really worried about. I would lead that with Ohio State. Why do you say Ohio State? Because they've got Ryan Day. So even though you've got Brian Hartline, who's technically a new offensive coordinator, even though you've got a new quarterback,

whether it's Com a court or some other player there, you still have Ryan Day. And if you look at his track record, there's two things that jump out to me. One is that he has, had really for the majority of his career, he's had first year quarterbacks, brand new starters. It wasn't until the last two starters that he had, Justin Fields and C.J. Stroud, that he actually had a second year with those two players. Okay. So you can assume, I think, on on pretty good ground

and strong grounds, that the quarterback will be fine regardless of who it is. You just saw some pictures if you're watching on YouTube of Brian Hartline. Well, why am I not concerned about Brian Hartline as a new offense coordinator because Ryan Day is still right there. Ryan Day could be like, hey, now's the time for that shot play. He's on the headset as well. So am I all that concerned about the new year of a first year shoe filler at Ohio State? No, not really. In fact, if you're going to be a first year shoe filler as a play caller or a quarterback, where do you want to do it at Ohio State with Ryan Day looking over it and throwing to Marvin Harrison, Harrison Jr. on the outside. Okay, so they would be number one. Georgia would be next. Why?

because they're not quarterback-centric. As good as Bennett was, they're not a quarterback-centric program. They don't rely on their quarterback to be a world-beater or a Superman. It's not a quarterback-centric program. So it doesn't really matter. They're about roster. They're about culture. They're about speed and athleticism.

And they still have that. One of the best rosters, if not the best roster in college football. the one, and I won't go to like worried status, but the one that I would just put behind those two is Alabama. And the reason is, is because they don't have a great core of wide receivers to throw to, and I don't believe that they are all that confident in what they have at the quarterback position.

Now, they might be now, but the fact that they're no offensive coordinator, Tommy Reese, had to go out and get not just a transfer quarterback, but the transfer quarterback that he knew best and Tyler Buckner to come in after spring ball tells you that during spring ball they were not happy with what happened at quarterback. That's just, you have to assume that that was the case. So now Tommy Reese has to be a play caller under Nick Sabin, which presents its own challenges, and they're not settled at the quarterback position even after spring. And whoever they do settle on

at quarterback, whether it's Tyler Buckner or Milro, they've got to throw to a set of wide receivers that severely underachieved a year ago. So that's why, if I was going to be nervous or if I were to rank these of like, you know, in terms of what do I expect from these new faces, new shoe fillers, I expect a lot of greatness from Ohio State and even Georgia and Alabama,

that would be the one I would be a little bit concerned with. All right, let's move on to number three. Number three, Will Stein. Will Stein is an offensive coordinator that now is going to be at Oregon and he's got to replace Kenny Dillingham. Kenny Dillingham was excellent. They were a really good offense

and Dillingham was a bit of a Bo Nix whisperer. In fact, Bo Nix's best two seasons in college football were with Kenny Dillingham, first at Auburn and then at Oregon. He still has the run game, but they've got to replace four new offensive linemen up front.

Stein comes from UTSA. Dillingham now. goes to Arizona State as a head coach. That's a huge new face shoe filler position because Oregon's got a lot of expectations. They feel like they can win the PAC 12. They feel like they can go and make a playoff push. A lot of it depends on Will Stein, the young new offensive coordinator there and Eugene. Remember, this was the top 10 scoring team of the country last year. So it's not going to be easy, but that's a great, you know, like not many people know the name Will Stein, but this is a first year shoe filler that's very important in college football.

Number two, I'll go with, and really it's a group, but I'm going to go with a guy that's, that's singular here, C.J. Baxter, he's the very talented freshman running back at Texas, and he's got to replace Bijon Robinson, the nation's number one running back recruit, C.J. Baxter, replacing the nation's number one running back and Bijon Robinson. Bajon, this one's interesting because Bajon didn't get a ton of carries as a true freshman, in particular in his first six games. So I don't necessarily think that C.J. Baxter is going to come in and set the world on fire right away as a first year player. But eventually what we saw in Bijon's first season was that he was the best player on the field at the end of the year.

Torched Kansas State, torched Colorado in the bowl game. And like that's probably what you're going to start to get. Now, there's other guys there. Jonathan Brooks is there. Jaden Blue is there. They're going to get a lot of carries there. But this is an offense that has 10 starters back. So whoever takes the snaps at running back,

maybe it's C.J. Baxter or these other guys early, but maybe Baxter later in the season, their contribution and what they can do for this offense is so important because Bijon was so important. The way that he caught it out of the backfield, his explosiveness. If they can replace Bijon with a host of these guys, and these first year shoe fillers come in and actually fill the shoes, then watch out for Texas. If they do, if Baxter is a player, end of the year, they could be playing for and winning the Big 12 championship.

But we're not talking about Texas until they do something. You got that. Do you hear me, Texas? You got to earn it. You got to earn it on this show. All right. Now, you could say my most important shoe fillers, and that's at USC. you've got to replace Jordan Adderson and Travis Dye

and they're going to do that with Dorian Singer, the transfer from Arizona, Marshawn Lloyd, the transfer running back. Now, Austin Jones is also there, right? So he got some carries after Die went down a year ago.

But I would just say like Caleb Williams, I think we would all agree is the best player in college football. He is the Heisman trophy winner and rightly so. And these guys have to come. come alongside and they have to produce at a high level. Now, I will say, it's not like Addison set the world on fire last year, but he was the Bolitnikoff Award winner from the previous season. He drew a lot of attention.

Travis Dye, he was a workhorse. He gained a lot of yards. So what they did is that they took the pressure off of Caleb Williams to a large extent. defensive looks, production, all of those things got a little easier for Caleb Williams. These guys have to do that for Williams this year because everybody is going to be gearing their entire

defensive plan to Caleb Williams. How do we stop them? How do we corral them? How do we keep them in the pocket? He's got to have guys around him that step up and play well. And if they do, watch out for SC. This was a team within a breadth of a playoff birth last year and they will be again this year, in particular

if Dorian Singer and Marshawn Lloyd show up and play like we think that they possibly can't. All right, so there you go. There's my shoe fillers. All right, let's move on to my, this is my favorite category. I saved it for the last. I know there was like some interesting stuff up to this point, but this is my favorite category because this is like,

these programs, they're so close. They need one small fix. Everything else is in shape. It's ready. It's ready to win a conference. Go to the playoff. you know, like reach all your wildest expectations, but they've got this one area where they've got to fix it. So these are the first year new faces brought in to fix specific issues.

Let's start with Notre Dame, Sam Hartman. He comes in to be the quarterback at Notre Dame. And you look at what Notre Dame was last year and it's like, yep, they desperately need a fixer in this one area. they were pretty good all around the quarterback. Notre Dame was 98th, 98th in the country in passing last year, 207 yards per game and an offense that was pretty run heavy, right? 14th most run heavy offense in the country. That has to turn around.

Hartman comes in, 45 career starts, highly experienced player, set the ACC record for touchdown passes, 110 touchdown passes, that slow mesh offense that they run at Wake Forest. And like if he can fix this offense, then Marcus Freeman has got something. Now, they've got a tough schedule. That's why I put them all the way at number five. But this is a, this is one area on a really good team. They got a great offensive line.

I like what they bring back on defense. I believe in Notre Dame. Yes, they've got to replace their offense coordinator and Tommy Reese. They got to figure, but they brought in a fixer. They are upgraded at a position that they had to upgrade on. So Sam Hartman there at Notre Dame. Number four, here's a team that. is I think under everybody's radar.

Although, like, you know, I had them in the top 15, remember in my top 25 to start the year. Oregon State, I think that we have to, we have to, as college football fans, we have to think about what Oregon State was and what they weren't. So DJ Oigua Ongalele is going to transfer to Oregon State. First year quarterback up there. Should be noted, hasn't necessarily won the job. I still think he's going to win the job. they were a really good team last year, like sneaky, really, really good.

They were 10 and 3 first off, if you don't know that, and if you don't, like, get with it. Two of those three losses, two of the three were a three point loss to USC and a three point loss at Washington. Those, like, those are forgivable. In particular, when you look at what they actually were in conference play, Oregon State's quarterbacks. This is crazy. three team lost by three to USC, three to Washington. Their quarterbacks in conference play through a grand total, eight touchdowns, 11 interceptions.

And they went 10 and three. It's one area. They can run it. I'm telling you they're going to be, Damien Martinez. I really like him. This has all the handwriting for a team that's going to be tough, hard nose, tough to beat, kind of a new school Utah on the Pack 12. They just need a quarterback.

similar to how Utah took the next step when Cam Rising came to town and he solidified them on the offensive side. That was the team that scored 38 points per game a year ago, right, as one of the quietly better offenses in college football. We always said if Utah got anything from their quarterback, they were going to be really good. They've been to back-to-back Rose Bulls. Well, guess what? If Oregon State gets anything from their quarterback, that's how good they are because they're good everywhere else. Jonathan Smith is one of the best coaches in America. I know they don't have a conference moving forward, but you know what? Jonathan Smith is going to have a home somewhere because this guy can coach. You know how when they say like you hear someone and you're like,

man, that guy can sing, right? Well, Jonathan Smith can coach. He is what they call a football coach and Jesse. So Oregon State, DJ Oongolayle, I'm in. I'm in for it. If he fixes them just a little bit, just a little bit at the quarterback position to watch out, they're good enough to win the pack 12. All right. Number three, speak, oh, I smirk. I smirk. Why do I smirk? You're going to find out really quickly. Speaking of a team that just needs competent quarterback play, let's just, competent offensive play, Iowa. Cade McNamara comes in to be the quarterback at Iowa. What would Iowa have been over the last two years if they could just play a little bit of offense? Just a little bit. MacDemara now no longer has to look over his shoulder at the five-star quarterback behind him.

He is an upgrade. Now, I've said this once. I will continue to say this. Iowa, do the right thing, get rid of this ridiculous barrier of the 24 points per game that the offense has to score in order for Brian Ference to keep his job. It's silly. It's absolutely silly. The goal of the game is not to go out and score 24 points. The goal of the game is to win. So if you want to win 18 to 7, win 18 to 7. If you need to win 3432, win 3432. Okay, it's not about some arbitrary line in the sand in order for a guy to keep his job because his dad won't fire him, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Take that away from Cade McNamara. That should not be Cade McNamara's focus. His focus should just be improving the quarterback position at Iowa, which if you do, watch out.

watch out. Last year, Iowa's defense allowed more than 13 points in, you know how many games? Three, three games all year. They still lost five games. How is that possible? How is that possible? Iowa's offense, just the offense, not defense or special teams or anything like that. They scored 14 points per game last year. Yeah, that's it. That's it. Cade's coming in to fix something that's a very specific problem at a program that's going to play good defense. They're going to play good special teams and they're going to be competitive. Last year of the division, I think they should win the division. Why? Because they should be upgraded at the only position that they need to be upgraded in. First year fixer,

Cade McNamara. Next, group, it's a group. It's a group. Defensive transfers at USC. All the things I've just said about all these other guys, DJU, Cade McNamara, Sam Hartman. It fits for the group of transfers on the USC defense. You have one thing to fix at USC. One. Defense.

If you can't play defense, you will not go to the playoff. Not in that conference, not against a team like Washington, not against a team like Oregon, not against a team like Oregon State, and not against a team like Utah. You won't. USC was absolutely allergic to tackling last year. Allergic.

Like an allergic three-year-old that's like got a nut allergy and it's a birthday in a classroom. And like the mom walks in and it's like, oh, Billy, Billy, don't touch the cookies. I've got a Rice Krispie treat for you. That's how allergic they were to tackling. They had a peanut allergy to tackling. It was atrocious.

So now all these guys come in, right? First year fixers, new faces. If USC plays just competent defense, you don't have to be world beaters. You don't have to lead the Pac-12 in defense. You don't have to be second in the Pac-12 in defense. You don't have to be third in the Pack-12 in defense. You don't have to be fourth in the Pac-12 in defense.

You can be fifth. Yeah, that's fine. Just competent. If they're competent, they can go to the playoff. that's all. That's all. Now, I will say this. It's not all just on Alex Grinch, the defense coordinator and these new faces on the defense, and namely the defensive line, Bear Alexander, these transfers, a lot of them from the SEC. It's not just on them, because this has been a pattern for Lincoln Riley, right? I mean, they,

they, with Baker Mayfield, go to a playoff game and lose to Georgia, like 54, 48, wasn't it? Something like that in that Rose Bowl in the overtime? Couldn't snap. Stop the wildcat, Sony, Michelle. This has been a pattern for Lincoln Riley. So this is as much on Lincoln Riley as it is on Alex Grinch or any of these defensive transfers. But if USC just plays competent defense, as long as you don't have a peanut allergy to tackling, you can go to the playoff. You can go to the playoff. By the way, donuts.

If you got kids in elementary, take donuts. It's the easiest, right? Because guess what? You don't mess with the peanut allergy. Take glazed donuts. Glazed donuts, huge hit on birthdays in elementary. That's just free advice. That wasn't even mailbag.

So you're welcome. Last one. My most interesting, and I teased it at the beginning and I saved it for the very last. First year fixer. And this one, who folks, I'm big on this team. I really am. I think that this is a playoff team in my mind. If this guy fixes this side of the ball.

Garrett Riley, new offensive coordinator at Clemson. If you look at what Clemson has been over the last two seasons, Clemson is not getting it done on offense. 51st in scoring, 96th and yards per play offense from 2015, or excuse me, over the course of the last two seasons. If you look at what they were during their height, right? So they start getting to the playoffs. They start competing for and winning national championships from like 15 to 2020.

They went to six straight playoffs. They were fourth in scoring. sixth and yards per play. They've taken a drastic step backwards on the offensive side. Now enter Garrett Riley. He's there to fix a specific issue. Now, namely speaking, when you give me a Riley, Lincoln or Garrett, one, I know their quarterback is going to have one hell of a year. How do I know that? Well, let me just throw some numbers at you here. I got them. I got them. Don't worry. I got them right here.

Riley quarterbacks. Okay. Garrett Riley has had Shane Bouchel. He was 10th in the country in passing over 300 yards per game. He then had Tanner Mortykeye. This was at SMU.

Tenth in country and passing over 300 yards per game. Then you look at what he did with Max Duggan, second of the Heisman, big 12 player of the year. So that's Garrett Riley's quarterbacks. Then what is Lincoln Riley's quarterback's done? Well, Baker Mayfield finished fourth, third, and then was the Heisman winner. Then the next year, a first year quarterback and Kyler Murray won the Heisman. Then Jalen Hearst has to transfer away from Alabama. What does he do? Finish the second in the Heisman. Headsman. He had Spencer Rattler, who did not play all that well. But then he had Caleb Williams and Caleb Williams. What does he do? Heisman winner. If you give O'Reilly a competent quarterback, he's going to turn them into something. I think Cade Clubnik is a competent quarterback. Also, by the way, when you give a Riley a solid running back option, like Shipley at Clemson, boy, watch out. Just like Kendry Miller was for Max Duggan a year ago at TCU, I think Garrett Riley in his

offensive system, it fits. It fits at Clemson. That's a very specific issue that they have had. And for my money, that's the most important coaching addition in all of college football, because that's a team that's talented enough and has the DNA to go out there, win their conference and go to the college football playoffs. Their toughest matchups are at home, including Florida State. That's a Florida State team, by the way, that they own and probably should beat again.

And Garrett Riley is there. And if he takes a step forward with that offense, then watch out. Then Clemson is going to be right there. That's my favorite category. Those fixers, man, they are so interesting. If those five individuals or groups of people fix those specific issues at those programs, Sam Hartman, quarterback, and Notre Dame, DJ Oongolele. quarterback at Oregon State,

Cade McNamara, offense-slash quarterback at Iowa, USC defense, and Garrett Riley, the offensive coordinator at Clemson. If those things get fixed, all of those programs are going to be really, really special. Okay, that's going to do it for me. I know I went a long time. Mailbag, it's coming up.

So get your questions in. Football questions, preseason questions, also life questions. I know I gave you out that donut suggestion for free that avoids all the peanut allergies and those elementary school birthday parties, send an email to the Joel Clatshow mailbag at gmail.com for a chance to have your questions answered right here on the show.

Remember to follow us on social media. Remember to subscribe to the YouTube channel that is brand new for the season. It's almost here. Can't wait for it. Thank you for listening. Have a great week. We'll be back on Win.