The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Georgia falls in Joel’s Top 5, Paul Chryst out at Wisconsin, and Michigan-Iowa takeaways

Episode Date: October 3, 2022

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt shares his top five teams after Week 5 of the college football season. Joel has a new number one team following an impressive win by Ohio State over Rutgers and an uninspiring performance by Georgia in their comeback win over Missouri. Then, Joel discusses Wisconsin’s decision to fire Paul Chryst following their loss to Illinois. There has been a growing trend in college football to fire head coaches during the season, including Joel’s alma mater Colorado, who fired head coach Karl Dorrell. Joel explains how these decisions impact teams and players. Next, Joel shares his takeaways about Michigan after calling their game against Iowa and he gives his congrats to Kansas for being ranked in the AP Poll for the first time since '09. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Got to get ready for his power because he can, he's got it. He can hit you. What do he do? Does what do he does? Okay. Oh, right there goes. Right there. Oh, right there.

Okay. All right, Blake Gorm, we see you. Blake Haram and the Michigan Wolverines rolled into Iowa City. Got a win. Tough to win on the road, folks, in the Big Ten. Oh, it's so tough. A little more of that later. I'm Joel Clatt.

This is a Joel Clatt show. Thank you for being a part of it. Listen, it is. Monday, and there was a lot of things that went down over the weekend, not just the games, but clearly some of that coaching news that came out of Boulder and Madison yesterday on Sunday. We're going to get into that. Obviously, my Michigan reaction and everything from that game over Iowa in Iowa City that Gus and I called and Jenny was at. But first, I wanted to talk about my new top five, because I tweeted it out on Saturday night, and USC hadn't been done.

hadn't beaten Arizona State yet. And so I was like, well, listen, I know what my top five is. I just wanted to get it out there because I know it was different. And my top five changed dramatically in part because of what we have seen over the last couple of weeks. So let's get started, my new top five. Let's get started with number one Ohio State. Stroud under center. Defensive line to just.

Stroud, hands by and Williams. And he'll get into the end zone for his third TD of the. today. Mayan Williams. Ohio State punches it in for one more score. All right. So everyone's up in arms, you know, down in the south over me putting Ohio State number one. But this was what it came down to, folks. I had two distinct tiers in my top five, in my mind. And I'm going to walk you through the exact philosophy of why each team landed where they did in this top five. Ohio State was number one, and the only other team in the discussion, in my own discussion, with myself, was Alabama.

So those were my top two teams, and I was trying to figure out, okay, how do I want to rank these two teams? Well, you've got to parse them out. And what it ultimately came down to for me was the fact that Alabama is a great team. And by all the metrics and the analysis, I was going to put them at number one. Alabama was going to be my new number one team. But the problem was, is that there were two things getting in the way of that. The first being the fact that Ohio State has shown some serious depth and defense,

the two Ds for Ohio State, that I think right now are as impressive as we've seen across the board. So they haven't really had their healthy weapons on offense, and they're showing tremendous depth. May and Williams, who you heard in that clip, goes off last week. And granted, it was a win over Rutgers. So, I mean, does it really matter how well they played? Well, some think no, but I think it does because there were guys that they weren't planning on relying on doing this. May and Williams being one of them from the running back position.

They also have not really had a healthy Jackson Smith and Jigba, who really is their best offensive player outside of their quarterback, and they haven't had them all year long. And it hasn't stopped them from being the best offense in the country. So they show their depth, but it's also their defense. Their defense right now is 14th in the country in scoring and 10th in total defense. They're playing really well on that side of the ball. A drastic improvement from what we saw with the last couple of years, in which years that the defense was their clear Achilles heel.

It was their clear weakness. So depth and defense has made them a very balanced team. Now, that doesn't mean Alabama is not a balanced team. So Joel, you just told me that by every. every metric, yes, so it couldn't just be the depth and the defense for Ohio State. And you're right. It wasn't just the depth and the defense. But that balance allowed me to look at this situation and say, okay, if these teams played this week, because remember, this is a poll for this week, all right? This is not a rolling scale like the official world golf rankings,

where I'm going to go back two years and say your body of work over an entire two-year period. No, no, no. This is a snapshot in time this week. What are you this? week. And quite frankly, I think Ohio State would beat Alabama this week. Therefore, they got the number one spot because Bryce Young and his shoulder, we don't know how healthy he is. Now, there's optimism around his shoulder and AC Joint Spring, which by the way, I've had in both of my shoulders. I had one totally blown out, one more of a mild sprain, which it appears to be for Bryce Young. I'm sure he can play through it, but I'm sure it's going to be painful. And I think that that's a health issue that would prevent Alabama from beating an Ohio state. We already saw

Alabama struggle with a team that could line up on offense with really talented players and get after them. And that was Texas. That first quarter, Alabama was in trouble down in Austin because Quinn Ewers could throw it around. They had speed on the outside. Remember, Texas had five, five-star players starting just on the offensive side of the ball. So they could line up and really get after it, even against Alabama's great defense. And that offense, as talented as they are for Texas, they're not close to one as talented, two, as good as what that Ohio State offense is. So if they played this week, I would pick Ohio State. Therefore, Ohio State was my number one team this week. This is a snapshot, folks. It's October 2nd. Who's the number one team of the country?

This week, it's the Ohio State Buckeyes. And for that reason, I put Ohio State number one and Alabama number two. It had everything to do with Bryce Young shoulder. If Bryce Young is healthy, I put Alabama number one because I would say Alabama would beat Ohio State in that world. but not right now. So Ohio State goes in there and they're my number one team in the country this week. This snapshot. Alabama is number two.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, but where the hell is Georgia, Joel? Because weren't you talking about last week that it's clearly a three-team separation? Yes, but they were not in my top-tier discussion. They were not in my top-tier deliberation. They were in my second-tier deliberation. Second-tier.

Important and very important. So where did Georgia end up? And you know what? It's going to be really hard next week, too. And it's going to be really hard the next week. And it's going to be really hard two weeks after that. It just doesn't change. And you guys may think it's going to be easy at some point,

but I promise you, it's going to be really hard in the SEC every week. Yeah, we get it. And I mean, this is always the narrative. Oh, it's so hard. It's so hard to beat Missouri who got absolutely crushed by Kansas State by 28 points. But it's so hard for Georgia to go into Missouri and, you know, dominate that team. It was so hard. Kent State's not in the SEC, and you were at home.

So why were you in a 10-point game in the fourth quarter with Kent State? By the way, is it easier to win in other conferences on the road? Was it easy for Michigan to go into Iowa City and win in Kinnick? When Iowa has beaten four of the last five, top five teams that they faced in that home stadium, I'm pretty sure that's a better track record at home than Missouri. This notion that this conference has some sort of mysterious power where it's harder to win on the road in the SEC than it is at other places is false. It's false.

That's bias, that's narrative, and don't buy it. You know where it's hard to win at really good teams? It's hard to win at Clemson, but they're not in the SEC, Joel. Yeah, but they've won 37 straight. It was tough for Clemson to win at Wake Forest on the road. League road games are tough across the board. Ask Iowa State, who rolled into the booth and got beat by Kansas. bet it. You bet it. I cannot stand this narrative that all of a sudden in that conference,

it's harder to win on the road. Missouri's no good. They got housed by Kansas State by 28 points, 28. Granted, it wasn't at Missouri, but still, 28? And all of a sudden, Kirby Smart's going to go out there and quite frankly lobby everyone around the country by saying like, oh, don't think down on us. It's really hard. It's really hard. Michigan's win at Iowa was much better, much better than Georgia's win at Missouri, not even close. So I started my second tier by putting Georgia number five.

Because you can't play like this in a snapshot poll. Remember, this is October 22nd. Or excuse me, October 2nd. This is a snapshot. You cannot play the way that they've played over the last two weeks, regardless of what they did week one. and stay at number one or in the top tier, frankly, which is why they fell out of the top tier

and landed at the bottom of my second tier. Kent State got beat by OU by 30 and by Washington by 25. And Kent State was in a 10-point game with Georgia in Athens early in the fourth quarter. Georgia ends up beating them by 17. Okay, maybe you can explain that away. It's like, hey, you know,

they just didn't play great that day. All right. You know what? I'll buy that. I'll buy that. And guess what? I did buy that. And in my snapshot last week, it didn't affect Georgia. But then they rolled out there and didn't have a lead against Missouri until the four-minute mark of the fourth quarter. So don't all of a sudden start thrown around this garbage. Like it's tougher to win at Missouri than it is in other places. It's not tougher to win at Missouri than it is at Wake Forest or at Iowa, which is exactly what the other two teams in my tier two did over the last couple of weeks. So how did Michigan and Clemson wind up at three and four? Well, let's start with Michigan. Michigan, I'm just thoroughly impressed with their balance. There were two questions coming into the season about Michigan.

One was about their quarterback and whether he was going to be able to raise the ceiling of this team. Now, at the time, the quarterback was Cade McNamara. And I was wondering like, hey, what's going to happen at the top end? Are they going to go with J.J. McCarthy at some point, who might have a lower floor, but clearly a higher ceiling. And guess what we've learned? Now we've learned that J.J. McCarthy has raised his floor to a point where he can go into a location like Iowa City, not turn the ball over, and really play a very efficient and sound game. So now all of a sudden you're getting the best of what Kate McNamara gave you and the athleticism and top-in ceiling of what J.J. McCarthy can give you. They haven't even scratched the surface of what they can be on offense.

You know, their touchdown to Donovan Edwards in that game, there's a free rusher. Lucas Van S from Iowa is just totally free. And he just steps away like it's a normal Saturday. Hey, you know, I'm just going to step away like it's a scrimmage. Like I got a red jersey on and just throw it out there. Not granted at Michigan, they probably don't wear a red jersey, probably yellow jersey. But, you know, you get the gist, like the don't hit me jersey. It looks like he has the don't hit me jersey on and he just steps away and throws a touchdown.

That's the top end. Meanwhile, they have established that they can still get after the passer. which was the other question I had about Michigan. So now Mike Morris has established that he can go out there and get after the passer, and they've still got the best special teams in the country. That's a terrific win. Iowa had the number one scoring defense in the country, and with 30 seconds left in that game, the score was 27 to 7.

Thoroughly dominated all facets. The offensive line, by the way, I think this Michigan offensive line is one of the best offensive lines in the entire country. So they landed at three, and by default, really, Clemson goes at four. Now, why Clemson over Georgia at four and Georgia at five? Well, the bottom line is this is a snapshot, folks. Okay, so I'm not worried about what happened necessarily in week one, although that's part of it.

But it's got to be a smaller part of it than what has happened over the last couple of weeks. So what have we seen over the last couple of weeks? Well, Clemson went into Wake Forest where they were 17 and 2 in their last 19 home games and they beat Wake Forest. That's a good offense. And they beat him in overtime. And DJ Owee Young-Layle had to be great and he was. then they come home to their toughest test in the regular season, NC State, and they handled them.

They handled them. And that offense has clearly taken steps forward. That was the main question about Clemson coming into this season. And here they are answering that question, saying we can put a great offense on the field. And they're doing that. And right now with that defense, with that home field advantage, and with the fact that they're going to win that division, they've beat Wake, now they've beaten NC State. They're going to the conference championship game. I think it's almost in Penn that Clemsons and the college football playoff at the end of the year. Almost in Penn. They're number four for me. I really love what this team has done from a growth standpoint from week one to now in the snapshot of what we get on October 2nd.

You can't say the same about Georgia. They have not played as well of late. This is not, hey, they've throttled Oregon. Yep, they sure did. And they're still in my top five. But you can't play the way they've played over the last two. weeks and stay in the top spot. You just can't. So that's how my top five rolled out. Ohio State number one, Alabama number two, Michigan number three, Clemson number four, and Georgia number five.

Everybody, how in the world could you do that? Well, I just explained it, folks. That was the philosophy behind it, and I will stand by it until the end of time. It's not really the end of time, though, because remember, it's a snapshot. And next week, I'm going to have another snapshot. So we'll see how that comes out next week. Okay, folks, wild, wild week. Sunday was just like Black Sunday, except it wasn't at the end of the regular season. Two more coaches get fired in the Power 5.

So here we are in the early stages of October, and we've got five jobs in the Power 5, that have come open. Nebraska, Georgia Tech, Arizona State, Colorado, and Wisconsin. The Wisconsin news was shocking, to say the least. I think most of us that follow college football, and clearly those of us that really follow Colorado, we knew that that was not working out. Carl Durel is a great man. I wish him the very best. I wish it would have worked out for him, obviously at Colorado. But Rick George, their athletic director, made a change.

They were 0 and 5, wasn't working. They had too many transfers out this last offseason. The recruiting was not going in the right direction. There were a lot of factors of what happened, but they make a change. And you can totally understand that because in a sense, it's a little bit like Nebraska. It's kind of like, we can't go any lower. We need to make a change.

We need to signal to our donor base. We need to signal to our locker room. We need to signal to our potential collective donors that there's going to be a change. So Colorado makes a change. More on that in a little bit. Wisconsin makes a change. Shocking. I was pretty floored when I saw that.

Now, granted, Wisconsin has totally underperformed this year. This was a team I thought was going to be the favorite out of the Big Ten West, at least in the preseason. They had what looked to be a team that was straight out of the central cash. casting for Wisconsin. They were going to have a good defense, really strong running game with Braylen Allen, and do enough on offense. And they lose to Washington State in a game

which their offense doesn't play well. They get absolutely boat raced by Ohio State in an embarrassing fashion on prime time. And then they roll back home and get beat by Illinois. Yikes. And at that point, from a donor perspective, it was just too much. have Brett Bilema, who they despise up there. I mean, I don't think I'm letting a cat out of the bag, right?

Like, people, they didn't, they don't like Brett Bilema in Wisconsin. And now he's going to roll in there and beat Paul Christ. Yikes, not good. So there was some angst and frustration around Paul Chris, the direction of the program, and in particular on the offensive side. And they felt like they needed some new blood. So why do you make the move now? Well, this is what I think is so new, and I'm quite frankly still trying to wrap my head around. And that's the fact that the influence on athletic directors and decision makers, chancellors, presidents, they've got so many more things to think about when it comes to when to make a decision. You've got the transfer portal. You've got NIL.

Not only the NIL of what your players expect, but now these donors that have piled money into NIL collectives that feel like they have a say. So you've let more cooks into the kitchen. You've let more people feel like they have influence over the program, in this case financially. You've got the early signing day. That's another factor in all of this, that we're going to have a signing day, basically right after the season. And we don't have to wait until February.

So in order to salvage a class, you can't make a move at the end of the year and then salvage it through the holidays and before the original signing window in February, now you've got to have to salvage it now in the remaining weeks. And lastly, you have the fan bases who, quite frankly, now have seen and are accustomed to, when it ain't working, we're going to make a change.

So all this stuff is going on. And it is a factor in these decisions. And let me just take Colorado first. So Colorado makes a change, and you clearly understand why. Like I said, it wasn't working for Carl Dorell, 0 and 5 with the schedule they have in front of them. Yikes. Like, I don't know if they're going to win a game. I sure hope they do.

But I would just say this about the Colorado job. There's going to be a lot talked about which of these five jobs is the best job, which is, well, that remains to be seen, although you can say Nebraska and Wisconsin or at least in the Big Ten, okay? And they clearly are really good jobs. Arizona State, they've got a good recruiting footprint. So that's obviously a feather in their cap. I would just say this for Colorado. Having played there, that's a wonderful place. They've got great tradition.

They've won a national championship. They've won every single major awards you can possibly win. They've got great academics, and the location is, quite frankly, one of the two, three best campuses in the entire country. I don't care where you went to school. If you walk into Boulder, Colorado, you will immediately be like, this is special. It's a special spot. It can happen there. You can win at Colorado. We've seen it done before. I firmly believe that if they get it right, they can have success. Illinois is proving that right now. Kansas is proving that right now. You get the right coach and you can go and you can have success.

And I hope that they do, clearly. I mean, I've got so many more thoughts about Colorado, but this is just not the time or the place to give them. At some point, I will give you more thoughts on Colorado. But right now, I'm just going to move on to Wisconsin. for Wisconsin, here's what's going on. Okay, under the current, you've got this defensive coordinator that in particular donors and people around the program really love. He's a young guy that has remained loyal in staying at Wisconsin as a defensive coordinator.

He's thought of as one of the top two, three defensive coordinators in all of college football, and his name is Jim Leonard. And there's been a growing sense among people around the program that it's like, hey, might be time for Jimmy to get his chance as the head coach. So now what happens is that you make the move now. They're two and three. Listen, I don't love it. I don't love it for the players, but they make the move.

And by the way, I said the same thing about Texas Tech last year and got a lot of grief for it because I said, listen, I don't think it's fair to the locker room to make a change like this this early. And they made a change. They went with Joey McGuire and it's worked out. And I could probably admit like, yeah, I was partially wrong. I still believe it sucks for the players in the locker. at every place that makes this move.

It sucks for Nebraska and Georgia Tech and Arizona State and Colorado and Wisconsin. It sucks for those guys. And I feel for them. I'm starting to understand more why you would make a move in this timing. But one of the reasons for Wisconsin is because you want to see what Jim Leonard will do in the back end of this schedule. The fact remains is that they're two and three. And you look at the rest of their schedule, there's not a ranked opponent on that schedule. And they could very easily go shoot.

They got seven games left. They could go two and five. They could go five and two. They might be able to go six and one. So you get this like very intimate job interview for Jim Leonard. He gets to show exactly what he's made of. They go to Northwestern, two Michigan State, Purdue at home, Maryland at home, at Iowa, at Nebraska, and then Minnesota.

They could go six and one. They could go one and six. right? So like they want to see what they've got because a lot of people around that program believe that Jim Leonard is going to be the guy moving forward. So that's part of why they did this now and why it was such a surprise that they would let go of Paul Christ right now. With that being said, be careful what you wish for at Wisconsin. Paul Chris was very successful at Wisconsin. And it's not easy at places that don't have a. natural recruiting base to just win at a high level all the time. Nebraska comes to mind, folks. And they've done this twice since 2000. So in this century, Nebraska fired Frank Solich

after he won nine games, and they fired Bo Polini, who apparently wasn't good enough. And if you ask anybody at Nebraska to go back in the Delorian with Doc and Marty McFly, would they fire Frank Solich? Probably not. Would they fire Bo Polini? Probably not. You got to be careful what you wish for. If you're Wisconsin, it's a razor's edge. They have been highly successful in the Big Ten West. Part of what has allowed them to be highly successful and play for conference championships and play in major bowl games is the fact that they've had divisions. this conference is very unbalanced. This year maybe more so than we've ever seen

with Penn State, Michigan, and Ohio State in the other side in the east. This West has not always been as dominant. And I know it's fairly recent vintage, but Wisconsin has been the beneficiary of being in a very easy division. Trust me when I tell you this, we were in the easy side of the division

when I played at Colorado. Like I know what this means and what this feels like. Now there's talk that they're going to go away from divisions, that they're going to probably end up going into pod systems, and it's like, can they replicate what they have been? I don't know. I don't know. I'm just saying, be careful what you wish for because Paul Chris was highly successful,

and I get it. The results on the field this year didn't match what you expected. Washington State lost, Ohio State, it get run, and then Illinois 3410 at home. That's not good, and I'm not trying to defend it. All I'm saying is be careful what you wish for. be careful what you wish for. And every one of these jobs, I think the other aspect that you have to look at,

and this is for all five, Nebraska, Georgia Tech, Arizona State, Colorado, Wisconsin, is that the new landscape of the college football playoff and what its future is going to be, I think really impacts the way that you view these jobs and which job is great and which job maybe isn't as great. I think that that's fascinating. And where are these teams even going to end up? There's talk about Arizona State and Colorado, maybe not even being in what will be the PAC 12 or 10 or whatever they want to call it. Maybe they're going to jump ship. I'm not sure. And so that conference

instability will also be a factor in whoever wants to take these next jobs. Okay. I'm going to end here with some Michigan recap. And I gave you a little bit of it. And this is not going to take me long because folks, what Michigan was able to do in Iowa City was pretty impressive. Okay. So the Michigan Wolverines are right now my number three team in the country because they have shown me that they are very balanced and they are just scratching the surface of how good that they can be. They've got a really good offense that hasn't come close to putting it all together. And it's just there. They're within a whisper of blowing out Maryland. They're within a whisper of blowing out Iowa, the number one scoring defense in the country in Iowa City.

The only thing holding them back is that J.J. McCarthy is still, his young exuberance on the deep ball is still hurting him just a little bit. He's been great on the intermediate stuff. They're fantastic running the ball. They're as good of a rushing team as you're going to find out there. Blake Corum is slowly playing himself into the Heisman conversation. And once McCarthy starts hitting those deep balls, watch out. Watch out. I think Michigan is really good. They are really good. We're going to follow him. follow them to Indiana this week. Defensively, there was some question about, well, they've got a new defensive coordinator. Yes, but it's year two in the system, folks. Because remember, Jesse Mentor comes from the same system that Mike McDonald comes from. There was questions about whether they were going to be able

to replace the pass rushers, Aidan Hutchinson and David Ajabo. And guess what? Over the last couple of weeks, we've seen when they've needed it most, they've been able to apply pressure on the quarterback. Mike Morris was sensational, late in the game against Iowa. Yabi Oki is a guy that I,

I think could develop into what David Ajabal was by the end of the year. They've got Mike Sainercile, who's turning into kind of a Swiss Army knife defender that might be their best defender overall, switching from offense to defense. I really like what I'm seeing. And by the way, they've got the best special teams in the country. That's a really good team. A really good team. I think the most underrated part of the Michigan Wolverines is their offensive line.

In back-to-back weeks, we just had not talked about their offensive line at all. Why? Because they've been totally dominant in the run game and in past protection. They don't commit penalties. They don't allow sacks. They're opening up huge holes for Blake Corum. I think Olu Oluatimmy has done a heck of a job, really assimilating himself into the Michigan culture, transferring from Virginia, Remington finalists a year ago, and really transforming that line into what I think is one of the best offensive lines in the country. They won the Joe Moore Award last year as the best O'Line in the country, and they might do it in back-to-back years. That's how well they're playing right now. And Blake Corum is the beneficiary of that, along with J.J. McCarthy. Just scratching the surface, folks.

Michigan is really, really good. And we'll see them again this week at Indiana. Last thing I want to do on the pod this week is just make sure that we shout out the Kansas Jayhawks. Because we did it, folks. We got them ranked. Well, they did it because they're undefeated. They beat Iowa State at home. I love this.

I love this. Jalen Daniels. You're playing yourself and you're playing yourself into a Heisman discussion, at least in my mind. And they prove with Lance Leipold that you can do it. There was no program lower than the Kansas Jayhawks. They've won nothing, nothing for over a decade. They have been at the bottom of the barrel and here they are ranked.

And I'm here for it. I've been here for it for two weeks. And you AP voters, you know who you are. You finally did the right thing. Now, I still think Kansas is a little low, but you know what? I'm just going to take what you gave me this week, and I can't wait to see them play what is now a very dangerous and good TCU team this week. By the way, if you were to bet in the offseason,

and you were going to say that the first week of October, college game day was going to go to Lawrence, Kansas for the Kansas TCU game. Paul Chris was going to get fired, and Brian Harson would still have his job at Auburn. I saw this tweet out there and forgive me for not giving you credit because it was fantastic. You just brought up those three things and I was like, that's outstanding. By the way, Game Day chooses Kansas TCU over A&M, Alabama and Red River all the same week. That's why we love college football. Folks, thank you for listening to the show here on a Monday. It is the Joel Clatt Show. I'm Joel Clatt. You can follow us at Joel Clatt Show on all the social

media. I'm at Joel Clad on Twitter and please do a couple of things. Share this with a friend. Tell your friends about it and then go and leave us a review. Rate us, leave us a review there wherever you find your podcast and wherever you get your podcast. Coming up on Wednesday, I'm really excited about this because I will unveil, unveil. Is that yeah? Yeah, that's how you say. Unvail. my official Heisman watch for 2022. I can't wait for that. I'm going to have some OU thoughts, among other things like what teams are lurking out there

that maybe we're not talking about right now. And by the way, that might be a curse because last week I kept talking about that about Minnesota and then they went out and lost. So thanks a lot. I had to jump out of the boat, lost my rowboat, and now you're not going to be in my lurking section. Folks, thank you so much for listening.

Again, go leave us review go rate the podcast and we'll see you on wednesday