The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Georgia shows Texas how to win big games, Alabama’s shrinking path to the CFP & Indiana is for real

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt breaks down Georgia’s win in Austin over the top-ranked Longhorns. He explains how a few plays completely shifted the course of the game but Kirby Smart’s teams leave no margin for error in big games. He gives his thoughts on Steve Sarkisian’s decision to play Arch Manning before returning to Quinn Ewers in the game and whether there is a QB controversy at Texas. He also weighs in on the controversial call that was overturned after Texas fans threw items onto the field – and his solution to prevent egregious missed calls in the future. Klatt then turns to the game in Knoxville where Tennessee handed Alabama their 2nd loss of the season. He lays out Alabama’s increasingly difficult path to the College Football Playoff. Finally, Klatt celebrates Indiana’s rise from preseason afterthought in the Big Ten to potential Playoff team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Would I love for them to get the correct call? Absolutely. But the precedent that this set? Third thing, Kirby Smart, absolutely right. College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. Believe that we are at the dawn of the golden age of college football. It was an epic day of college football.

It was one of those days where you fall in love with the sport all over again. Hey, welcome into the program. This is the Joel Clatt show. I am Joel Clatt. And this show is, as always, is presented by hands. Hampton by Hilton. We have got a great show for you because that was an incredible game on Saturday. I'm going to talk a lot about that Georgia, Texas game and exactly what went on on Saturday in DKR. We'll get to the Alabama loss, the game that I was at, Indiana.

Man, Indiana is really good. I can't wait to chat about Kurt Signetti and Indiana and some other things. Remember, wherever you like to social media, we're there, Joel Clatch Show, at Joel Clashow. You can go follow us. You can get all of the content that we've got coming out all week long on any of those social platforms. You can rate and review us wherever you listen to this podcast, and we thank you for listening to this podcast. Share it with a friend. Why don't you? And please rate and review us.

And then we really encourage you to go to YouTube and continue to hit that subscribe button. We continue to grow and we appreciate that. Thank you very much. Continue to share that with your friends as well. Grow that YouTube up. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Get into the comments below, like the video, and all the things. Okay, so let's get into it. It was a really great day, right?

I mean, like, college football continues to deliver and we're getting great game after great game after great game. You cannot argue with the super conferences and you cannot argue with the expanded playoff because we see, like, we see the great games and the matchups. And we also see the meaning change in college football. And there are just point blank period more meaningful games in our sport. And it's been really fun to watch so far. And that's only going to increase. and hopefully we've got a little bit more on that coming up on Wednesday's show right here at the Joel Clat show. Let's talk a lot about this Georgia, Texas matchup.

Georgia wins 30 to 15, and they knock off what was the number one team of the country in their stadium. So that's a monumental effort. And Kuda, Georgia, unbelievable game from Georgia. It really was. So let's break it all down because there's a lot to get to just within the game. We can talk just about the game, obviously, the way the two teams play. We've got to talk about Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning and everything that went on there at the quarterback position for Texas and the call that was overturned. That was a wild scenario.

So thoughts coming, three, two, one right now. Okay. So while I was watching on TV, and trust me, I had a lot of time to watch on TV because I was stranded again, this time in the Houston airport, didn't get home until 1.30 a.m. Appreciate it United again. I had a lot of time to watch the game. And by the way, since I was in Houston, I was still. standing around with a decent amount of Texas fans. And watching the game, and in particular in that setting,

it felt like Georgia was just mauling the Texas Longhorns. I mean, that's the way the game watched on TV. Like, it just, Texas didn't really have a chance, even if they came back a little bit in the second half. And it just didn't feel like the pass rush from Georgia, the ability of Georgia to stop the run and all this thing. And watching TV, you're just like, oh, man, this was a mauling. Dark Kirby has been activated.

And it's like, that's how it watched. 30 to 15, they win the game. They played great. Then you turn on the film. And here's the thing about actually watching the coaches tape. When you don't have all the replays and the commentary and everything that's going on and the emotion of watching it live and you can actually just sit and watch the sequence of the drives, you can sit there and you can rewind it, you can pause it, you can see what's going on.

And here's what always happens when you, actually watch the film. It's never as good as you think, and it's never as bad as you think. All right. I even remember that as a player. You would come off and be like, man, I threw for 300 yards. That was great. Now, did I do it a lot? No, but the certain times that I did, it was like, I played incredible. Then you go watch the film and you're like, dang, I made like eight awful mistakes, nine awful mistakes, 10 awful mistakes. Then you would go out there and it wouldn't be very good. You guys, you would get beat and it's just, it's not anywhere close to feeling cohesive. and then you go to the film and you're like, man, it's so close.

So it's never as good as you think and it's never as bad as you think, all right, when you're actually watching the tape. And that's exactly how this game watched, because what the film showed is that Georgia was better, but it was not drastic. It was not drastic. In fact, what you saw was two elite defenses in this game. Texas played incredible on the defensive side of the football.

Georgia played incredible on the defensive side of the football and two offenses that struggled. really for the most part. Now, I think Texas struggled a little bit more, but that was namely at the line of scrimmage, and then that's the other thing that I would say kind of happened when you turned on the film is that you understood that, like,

Georgia was really good at the line of scrimmage, and it starts to really jump off the tape of like, man, there's one team that's very comfortable in this setting. They are comfortable being uncomfortable, and that's Georgia. And you start to really understand, and you start to see, and it materializes for you.

It's like, well, this is why they've won 51 straight games against teams not named Alabama. This team is a machine, and they play defense that way. Georgia's an incredible defense, and their defensive line did a great job against Texas all night long. They just don't make mistakes, man. I'm telling you, they're like ice man, ice cold, no mistakes. And that's one of the reasons why they were able to win the game.

And it's one of the reasons why. you understand why Kirby has so much success is because he's clearly held that standard. So the difference of the game was the fact that one team didn't make mistakes, Georgia, at least defensively, and then the other team, Texas, did. Okay, so let's start to get into it now when you really look at this. Three things happened in the game. Both defenses played really, really well. That's number one.

Number two, Georgia won the line of scrimmage, okay, on both sides, on both sides. Now, the third thing that happened is that Texas made massive mistakes and that those mistakes were magnified. Georgia was able to overcome their mistakes because, one, their defense was playing incredible, and two, they didn't happen in spots on the field that Texas could immediately take advantage, okay? So because of that, now you've got these three things that are going on, right? Texas is defense. They're playing great, but you know what? They're being put in bad situations. Why?

Because their offense is making these huge mistakes. The line of scrimmage, Georgia winning it both offensively and defensively, had a lot to do with the game situation. And the game situation got away from Texas really fast. There was a sequence of three possessions that the game just kind of unraveled. And it had to do with Texas making mistakes, Georgia playing clean. All right. So here's what kind of went on with these three possessions. And how even against a great defense in Texas, Georgia was able to jump out to a big lead.

Okay? Only one of Georgia's six scoring drives went 35 yards or more. Okay? So that was the drive, by the way, late that had a 43. year trick play. So they never had to drive the football down the field. They did it one time. So they got one score driving it down the field. Every other scoring series, the worst field position on any of the other scoring series was their 45-yard line. Other than that, they were getting the ball deep in Texas territory. So Texas's defense didn't

really have a chance. Again, Texas's defense has got to feel like they played an incredible game. It looks like, man, you got lit up. You gave up 30 points. Not the case. Not the case at all. This is what went on in that first half. Here's those three series. Let's talk about game situation really quickly.

Okay. So you get into this game situation and all of a sudden, you've got a zero-zero game. Both teams, Georgia's made mistakes. They've turned the ball over and you're trying to feel each other out. And then all of a sudden, man, Georgia dials something up. It's zero-zero. They're in Texas territory.

and they dial up that corner blitz. So this is where they got the sack fumble from Ewers and set themselves up at the Texas 13-yard line for the first touchdown of the game. Now, what I loved about this play was the play design. The second thing that I loved about this play was the execution of the play design, both on Georgia's side.

And then the third thing that went on in this play was huge mistakes from Texas. So the first thing that Georgia did is that they overloaded the side of the side of the corner blitz with defensive front defenders. Okay. And those defenders stunted. So the outside, you know, defensive end that the tackle had his eyes on, he looped inside. So that immediately takes the tackle's eyes away from the outside corner and it puts them inside on the looper so that he can catch whatever's coming back

to him. So running a stunt to the same side that the corner is blitzing is a perfect play design. So Kirby dials up this incredible play design. They also blitz the linebacker so that the running back doesn't go block the corner. So they overload that side, drop everybody else out, nobody's eyes are on the corner. So how do you defend this or defend against this if you're the offense? Well, first of all, great design from the defense. Second of all, really good execution. They're coming fast.

They disguise it beautifully. The corner never leaves his position before he actually jets in there. on the Blitz. How do you defend against this as an offense? The wide receiver has to immediately break off of his route and throw his hands up and start yelling cat. Now, do you ever hear the cat call? No, but that's what you do.

And you immediately break it off and you kind of throw your hands up. And because of that, it kind of gets the quarterback's attention. Well, yours never looked that way. The wide receiver never broke his route. Now, I'm assuming that that's in Texas's offense because that's in every offense that I've ever studied. The corner cat call from the wide receiver doesn't happen. Yours eyes are to the other side.

The eyes of the tackle are inside because of the stunt, and we get a, bam. Blindside, full run, free run at Ewer's ball comes loose. Georgia football, first down in 10 for a struggling offense to that point at the Texas 13-yard line. They're able to punch it in and it's 7-0. Okay? So what happens next?

Well, the ensuing kickoff, nice return for Texas, holding. You cannot have penalties on special teams. Penalties on special teams always magnify the number of yards that the penalty actually is. Why? Because the return was actually quite nice. And then they got the holding call, and so they had to start their drive kind of way backed up. They start their drive way backed up. They give up a sack. It's not clean.

You can tell the Georgia defense is starting to feel themselves. They're playing really well. This is an aggressive front. The defensive line is doing a heck of a job stopping the wrong. run on first down. They're pinning their ears back. And so now all of a sudden, Texas has to punt the ball basically from their own end zone. When you punt the ball from your own end zone, you have to protect against a block. When you have to protect against a block, you don't get downfield and cover the punt very well. When you don't get downfield and cover the punt very well,

you give up quality field position because of the return on the ensuing kick. And lo and behold, where does Georgia start the next series? The Texas 28-yard line. The Texas 28-yard line. So now the defense and subsequent series has had to start on the Texas 13 and now the Texas 28. And the Texas defense holds to a field goal. Stonishing. Like that's incredible to start a series at the 28, your own 28 and hold to a field goal, massive win. Texas's defense doing their job.

Georgia's offense, just kind of okay, not great. Too many drops, not many skill position players winning on the outside. O-line doing a decent job. running game okay. Beck settling in 10-0 Georgia. All right. Next drive. And now we flip into the second quarter. This is when it starts to go really downhill for Texas. This is when Quinn Ewer starts to get really shaken up, where his eyes start to go all over the place. And then the mistakes ratchet up for Texas. And all Georgia has to do is execute their details. Man. this next interception, I'm telling you, when I'm watching the film, I'm pausing it several times.

I'm like, I cannot believe what I am seeing right now. Okay. I don't want to get too technical here, but the interception in the second quarter, the number two receiver, Texas had, who was in the slot, is running what's kind of called a stick route. Okay, so versus man, it's an out route, a five-yard out route. and versus zone, it's kind of a five and settle towards the outside. So you're not running out of your break. You're kind of settling outside of your break.

Okay. Now, early on in quarterback play, when you're developing a quarterback, there's things that you have to understand about structure of defense. One of the things that quarterbacks are taught when they're very young or should be taught is that you never throw a flat route or an outbreaking route that is short against cover two defense. And the reason is, is because in cover two defense, the corner who is sitting outside has no deep responsibility. So all he's doing is trying to jam the wide receiver and then putting his eyes directly inside and trying to catch any of those short, outbreaking routes.

He's a flat defender. So you cannot throw a flat route into cover two. You just can't do it. So we know this as quarterbacks. And we know this as play designers. So we try to to do things like the number one wide receiver to that side, if we're trying to throw a little outbreaking route into cover two, that wide receiver has to take an outside release, meaning that he has to run outside of the corner. He can never run inside of the corner. Why is that? Well, if you run inside of the corner, you're just drawing the quarterback corner backs eyes directly inside to the outbreaking route. If you go outside, he at least has to pay attention to that and try to get a jam and his eyes leave the outbreaking route that's coming from the

inside. What do you think happened on that play after I described that? Wide receiver runs right inside the corner. They run the little stick route from the slot receiver and Quinn Ewers throws it right to the stick route who's trying to settle to the outside and the corner for Georgia is just doing his job. He doesn't even have to make a great play. Why? Because he's just doing his job. And this is what Georgia's defense did time and time and time again. They were just doing their job. They are great players that are sticklers for the details of the game. And so there he is. Bam. Pick. Pick. First down. Ball on the Texas 34-yard line. Touchdown. A few plays later. 17-0. And guess what Georgia's offense has had to do? Nothing.

In grand scheme of things, right? As an offense, you think of like our job is to drive the football, get first downs, create ball security, time of possession, be on the field. Yes, create points with field goals and touchdowns, all of those things. They never had to drive the football. And why? Because the defense set them up. And in large part, because of the Texas mistakes. I cannot stress enough.

We used to call it, okay, so when I was in New Orleans with Sean Payton, briefly, right? I didn't have a long career in the NFL, but whatever. And Sean Payton would install these types of plays like stick or anything like this. And if it was the number one wide receiver that had to take an outside release, that's literally his only job. He's not even in the progression, folks. The wide receiver has to release outside. Sean Payton used to call that a bus ticket release.

And he'd be like, you know why we call it a bus ticket release? Everyone's like, why? And he would say, because if you don't take an outside release, you're on the next bus out of town. basically like you're fired if you don't go outside. They run stick. Outbreaking route from the slot receiver into the short side of the field and the outside receiver runs directly inside the cornerback. I couldn't believe my eyes.

And that's a pick. That's a pick. And Georgia doesn't even have to do anything sensational. They just have to do their job. He's just playing with his eyes towards the inside. And boom, it goes right there. And by the way, I can't believe viewers through it. I mean, the corner is sitting there.

It's outbreaking. He didn't settle outside. There was a backer on him. He's kind of trying to strike away from the backer. A lot of technical talk to tell you that there were massive mistakes. So you get no cat call from the wide receiver, corner blitz, sack fumble, touchdown, Georgia. You get a holding call on special teams. Special teams penalties will kill you.

Georgia gets the ball after a nice little punt return at the Texas 28-yard line. It's a field goal. Now it's 10-0. And then you get an interception thrown into a cover two corner. because the wide receiver didn't take an outside release, and now all of a sudden it's 17-0, and guess what? Now you can't run the football. Because what was already difficult to do,

which was run the football against Georgia's front, the game situation is allowing them to pin their ears back. So it's harder to protect the passer. It's harder to run the football. Everything's more difficult because of the game situation, and the game situation is what it is because of the Texas mistakes and the fundamental soundness of what Georgia is on defense. Georgia's really good on defense, folks.

It's one of the best defenses in America. Loved watching them on film. They were incredible. And then you start to think to yourself, at least I do. It's like, you know what? This makes too much sense. This makes too much sense. I'm watching this film.

Georgia's defense is doing everything right. Texas, it looks like, it looks like to me, the Texas offense in particular, like the stage was almost too big. Like, these are little mistakes that you can't. make. And then I start thinking to myself like, Texas hasn't really been in this position. They haven't faced a defense like this. I think that they were a little bit overwhelmed. And now I understand when you watch things like this, you understand why guys like Kirby

smart. And even in the past, guys like Nick Sabin or Urban Meyer, you understand why they go so crazy, even during blowouts, about mistakes happening on the field. Everybody talks about standards and oh man we're just going to try to do our job and all these coaching ad adives or whatever you want to call it coachisms and and yet it's like well not everyone plays that way I'm reminded of all the people that have coached with Kirby or Nick or guys like Urban Meyer or played for those guys and every one of them will tell you like it's not really that fun but what it is is if you love the sport and you want to go out there and win,

then it's good being there. Then it's fun. The winning is fun. And you only win at a high level in these matchup style games when you execute the details. So it's really a matter of internal versus external standards. All right?

And I know that a guy like Kirby Smart has incredibly high internal standards. and he holds his players to that standard. This is why Kirby loses his mind in games against, you know, whoever it is, Louisiana Monroe, you know, Georgia State, whoever it is, it doesn't matter. And, you know, George is up 30 or they're up, you know, 40 points. And he's screaming on the sideline.

Why? Because he's seeing details like an inside release on stick by the number one wide receiver. And he knows that like eventually that'll get us beat. Like we can't let that go right now just because the result of the game suggests that we're playing great. You see, because internal standards, I think, are about like execution and detail. External standards are more about result, like the scoreboard. So if you're holding yourself to an external standard, you're going to allow yourself to be defined by the scoreboard and the result of the play.

But people that are maniacal about process and system and their own standards, Their own standard has nothing to do with the result. It's all about just the execution of the specific detail of what I need to do for that play. This is why you see guys like Kirby go crazy on the sideline and Nick go crazy on the sideline and Urban Meyer the same way. That's why you hear guys that would play for them and coach for them talk about how it was a reckoning every day, those that coached for Nick Saban. Or Urban Meyer, everyone would be like, oh man, every day was fourth and one. Yeah, yeah, every day was fourth and one because they thought the best way to get you to execute

in a matchup game was by holding you to that standard every single day. That's the brilliance of the great coaches. That really is the brilliance of the great coaches. And you understand why Georgia was comfortable in the situation. They were comfortable with the crowd noise. They were comfortable with the standard. One, they had played a game like that already when they went to Alabama. They got to learn from those mistakes when they lost that game.

And they rolled into Texas and they won the game. I just thought that it was like I thought it was a great game and a great performance. by their defense and all those other things just started to flow off with the game tape as I was watching it. George's offense, I got to be honest, not all that impressed. I thought Texas's defense was really good. Georgia's offense is a bit of a problem at the top end because they don't have many threats on the outside that are one consistent and to create a lot of separation. So their offensive line played pretty well. And I know that they're going to get more healthy and probably will run the ball even better than they did on Saturday night. But, I mean,

283 yards, three turnovers, only the one drive that actually was the length of the field. They needed a trick play to do it, that 43-year-old, 43-yard explosive play. Beck has now thrown eight picks in his last four games. So it's not like it's all gravy for Georgia. Again, you can't just say like Georgia dominated the game. No, no, no. They dominated that situation which created a game situation that played into their hands. I thought that that...

And then all of a sudden, you get Arch in the game. And that's where we're going to go next. Okay, so these two teams are the best two teams in the SEC. I hope we get to watch them play again. I would love to see them play again. And now we get to the saga with Arch Manning. Okay, here we go. The reason this is a saga is the name of the backup quarterback.

What happened Saturday night between Steve Sarkeesian, Quinn Ewers, and Archmanning was a case study in a coach that understood that his team and quarterback to some degree was kind of shell-shocked over the course of about four series of football. And he had to change what was going on. So to me, it wasn't necessarily about the fact that he replaced Quinn Ewers with Arch Manning as much as it was, hey, my starter is really struggling out there. He's not seeing it very well. I need him to settle down and we might need a spark.

And so he made a change at that point. When Arch Manning goes in the game, you have to understand one thing as a quarterback. And Quinn Newers knows this. As soon as Arch jogs on the field, if he has success, it's his job. Right there. And Sarkeesian knows that he's willing for that outcome to take place.

If Arch marches down the field, then he goes back out for the next. series. If it's still pretty good, he goes back out for the next series. That's how football works. Astro Bledsoe. I mean, we all know that. Quinn Ewers knew that. Now, let's get into this idea of like, how do you pull a quarterback? And this is where I think that Steve Sarkesian is kind of dancing a fine line. And in particular with all the stuff that has come out since then and some of their post-game press conferences, three ways you can pull a quarterback. Number one, hey man, you're done. You've killed it, put a hat on. We're up 40.

That's the best way, right? That's the best way. Number two, you jog off the field and they say, hey, we're going to go with and then name the backup quarterback. We're going to go with Arch here. Hey, we're going to go with our backup. That's not how you want to get pulled. Then there's a third, a third way, which is, hey, come settle down for a second, all right, and keep yourself in it. Come settle down. Okay, just, you just come settle down. Where you're leaving the door open for that player to go back on the field, it's not, hey, sorry, like, this ain't working, somebody else is in. There is a, okay, let's take a pause, let's get a time out. Let's like, come over here. Let's, let's settle down. That doesn't always.

happened, and I don't necessarily know that that's what happened with Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning, but there was a sense that Steve Sarkeesian, at least in his comments, postgame, and even what I saw in film was like, hey, Arch is not, or excuse me, Quinn Ewers is not seeing it. So after that interception, again, he throws it into cover two. He throws that little outbreak route into cover two. Next series, not good. He's got things open, and he's not throwing the football on time.

and Sark knows where the football is supposed to go. He knows what the defensive look is. He knows what the timing of the system is. And so when the ball is not coming out on time, he knows that like Quinn's not right. So something needs to happen here. We need to make a change. He needs to make a change.

And so he makes the change. And to be honest, Arch missed some things as well, including on the play that was the sack fumble that led to another score for Georgia, also another one of those short fields. So he goes in at halftime, and that's when, at least when you were, says, that's when he was told, hey, you're going to go back out there. And by the way, it worked. It worked because he settled down and he played so much better in the second half.

If you were to watch the game film and you saw those three series to end the second quarter, his last three series, and then you see the series that he had to start the second half, you're like, oh, yeah, he's way better, they're way better. He's clearly settled down. Going forward, Quinn yours as a starter, as long as Steve Sarkesian keeps saying it that adamantly, that's all we can believe and trust. And I do think that, like, Quinn should be better from this. If they use this as a learning experience, I think that they can become better moving forward. And he's said that it's his job and he's not necessarily like on notice.

But as a quarterback, you've got to understand you've got to go out there and you've got to play well in order to keep your job. Now we got to get to this overturned call. There was so much in this game, wasn't there? Okay. So we all know, like, what happened. The officials throw a flag for defensive pass interference. An egregiously bad call, by the way. Terrible call.

But as I have stated, over the course of the last few weeks, officiating is bad everywhere in every game. There was terrible calls in our game. The officiating in college football right now is really poor, really poor. And most of the bad calls are centered around pass interference, which, to the official's credit or defense, impossible to officiate. I mean, I understand.

But this one, it's like, oh my gosh, is a bad call. Georgia player runs into Texas player. They're fighting and then it's a pick and all of a sudden the flag comes out. Number one is it was a bad call. Number two is then chaos erupts. As we all know, bottles on the field, Sark is going over there, holding up his hands. During that time, the officials have time to confer. And the replay has been up on the Jumbotron and the bottles are on the field and the teams are coming in from their benches. onto the field so that they're away from the bottles. They get it under control. They clean up the field. And meanwhile, the officials have had a chance to look up at the JumboTron and be like,

oh, man, that was a terrible call. That was a bad call. And they changed the call. I've never in my life seen anything like this. Never. Never. They changed the call. They rewarded the child.

throwing a fit in the candy aisle at your local grocery store to get his mom to buy him a Snickers. And when you see that in the grocery store, aren't you like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that that parent just allowed that kid to throw a fit and get his way? I know you do. I think it. I think it. And guess what? My kid's been on the floor. Guess what he didn't get? A Snickers. You know why? I'm an adult. They changed the call. They changed the call. Was it the correct call? Yes. Yes. And what I love for them to get the correct call? Absolutely. But the precedent that this set, third thing, Kirby Smart, absolutely right. Absolutely right. Here's what Kirby Smart said after the game in regards to the call, and he's absolutely right.

I don't know what I'm allowed to say and not say, so I won't comment because I want to respect the wishes of the SEC office. But I will say that now we've set a precedent that if you throw a bunch of stuff on the field and endanger athletes, that you've got a chance to get your call reversed. And that's unfortunate because to me that's dangerous. That's not what we want. And that's not criticizing officials. That's what happened. 100% right. If you allow your child to throw a fit on the floor of a supermarket to get a Snickers,

he's going to do it the next time you're at the supermarket. Everybody knows this. Everybody knows this. And they rewarded the child throwing a fit. Like, you cannot do this. And here's the thing, folks, is it's not just the next Georgia game or the next Texas game. It's not specific to that fan base. There were 10 million people watching that game.

This is every fan watching a high school football game or a high school basketball game. What those officials did in that game on Saturday in Austin, Texas, setback officiating decades. Because every single sporting event that anybody is at for the next year or six months or however long, they're going to think in the back of their minds, hey, if we throw a big enough fit, maybe we'll get a Snickers. I mean, I cannot believe they reversed the call. You cannot do that. It is not a reviewable call. You can't challenge it.

You can't change it. Once it's made you live with it. I think it was Jim Joyce, if I'm not mistaken. Was it Jim Joyce who made the bad call at first base on the Armando Galleraga would have been perfect game for the Detroit Tigers? You guys know what I'm talking about? Like, I think it was Jim Joyce. I might be wrong on the name of that.

But I'm like, you think he didn't want to go back and be like, oh, man, I blew it. I want to reverse the call. But you can't. But you can't. I can't put spilled toothpaste back in a bottle of toothpaste. And I damn sure can't give my child a Snickers if they cry on the floor of a supermarket. What are they doing? I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe it. And my hope, my hope is that this doesn't continue. And you know what? In order for it not to continue, they may have to change rules. And so I immediately thought to myself, like, well, maybe we need to make pass interference reviewable. And then I thought to myself, well, that is just awful. You can't make subjective fouls reviewable.

Then we have to make holding review. And then I started thinking about review and fixing calls and how do we get it right and yet avoid a situation like this. And how do we make sure that we're not giving petulant children snickers every time they throw a fit? And then it came to me. And then I actually got kind of happy. so I went from angry to happy because I'm like, wait, there is a fix.

There is a fix. You guys know I call UFL games in the spring. The fix is in the UFL. The UFL has a super challenge. Every coach has one super challenge. Any call, any time they throw a challenge. Hey, I thought that was offside. challenge. Hey, I thought that that was a poor pass interference call. Challenge. And now what you're

doing is that you're creating a system where officials can get back together. Then they can review it and they can all chime in rather than just one guy in the heat of the moment throwing his flag. And everybody can be like, hey, you know what? I think that that call should be reversed. And then everybody knows that that's just the process of the super challenge. So the crowd knows there's a process for a super challenge. So they don't need to throw a fit. It would be like a kid knowing that, hey, 5 p.m. on Friday, if I've been good all week, then I get my snickers. Now you're setting a better precedent. The super challenge. Or you say like one a week, one a week, kid. You get one a week, kid. You get one snickers a week. So ask for it when you want, but you don't get two. You don't get two. So this is the only way to fix this

moving forward because right now the precedent is throw a fit, throw bottles onto the field, regardless of what sporting event that we're at. And maybe the officials will, heed our fit and they'll give us what we want. Just an egregious job, an egregious job. You have set college football back, high school football back, every sporting event back, every official that's trying to do the best job that they possibly can. So you know what? We've got to go to a super challenge.

It's the only way forward. It's the only way forward. UFL for the win. I want super challenges back in college. I want them in college football like tomorrow. If we can change clock rules because we think Dan Lannning maybe gained an advantage by putting 12 guys on the field and we can change the clock rules in one week and we don't have to wait for your two-year cycle or whatever garbage you have in CAA, guess what? Guess what we can do? We can have a super challenge tomorrow. I want super challenges right now. Guess who else wants a super challenge? Kailin DeBore, you know why? That was offside. Don't know what to tell you, but it was. Let's go to Bama and Tennessee, shall we? Tennessee, hell of a job. Good. Good. win from Tennessee 2417, Tennessee. They beat the Alabama Crimson Tide. And how about those three weeks

right after they beat Georgia, who we just saw take down Texas, and then Alabama rolls out. They lose to Vandy. They probably should have lost to South Carolina, and then they lose to Tennessee. So what do we take from this game? What do we take from Bama losing 2417 on the road to Tennessee? And by the way, like, hey man, like I don't know if it was time for the goalpost. That ain't Nick Saban over there. You know what I mean? And by the way, someone needs to teach the kids at Tennessee. By the way, kids, you shouldn't smoke cigars.

But if you're going to, you don't light them with matches. Like, there was so much wrong with that. Tennessee, like, come on. Vandy is kicking your butt in celebration. Sorry, sorry, but it's true. You don't know how to light your victory cigars. You probably shouldn't storm the field, Sabin ain't over there in the first place.

And it's like, your offense is probably still not good enough. But let's get to it. Let's get to it. First thing that we learned from Alabama beating Tennessee. Alabama is not going to the SEC championship game and will not win the SEC. So you can take them out of the equation of potentially getting to Atlanta. There are now seven teams ahead of Bama in the standings, seven, and Kaylyn DeBore's first year. And this is a team that is really.

reeling right now. And you can tell they are reeling. The defense, which I thought was a problem a couple of weeks ago and was, has played much better. And now the offense is struggling. Milro, multiple turnovers in all three games since that Georgia win. He threw the bad I&T in the end zone versus Tennessee. He needs to play better. And the problem is, is like there's too much pressure on Millrow to be perfect because the team isn't great around him right now. So they don't have enough right now. They really couldn't stop the run. And that was an issue in particular in the second half.

And I think that the heat is going to get turned way up on Kalin DeBore. Because I don't think people in Tuscaloosa, as much as they will tell you that they kind of understood, that's like, no, we get it. Like Nick is leaving and that standard might not be here this year. Then you see the last three weeks and you're like, what in the world? We got guys faking jump shots on QB sneaks, and it's like, this ain't it. This ain't it. This is the first time losing two games before November since 2007.

That's Nick Sabin's first year. They only lost two regular season games in four of Sabin's 17 seasons. And they've already got two losses in this one. There was another 15 penalties against Tennessee, and now they're the fifth most penalized team in college football. That is staggering. Like, folks, Alabama is, they're in a tough spot. So now the question is, if they're not going to the SEC championship game,

is Alabama going to make the college football playoff in its first expanded year? I told you way back when when I said, like, what were the expectations? I told you, Kaelin DeBore doesn't have to be Nick Saban, but he can't miss the playoff. He can't miss the playoff. If you missed the first 12-team playoff in your Alabama with Kalin-Bor, that's alarm bells in Tuscaloosa. And guess what? I think now, after losing to Tennessee,

I think Alabama might control their own destiny to go to the playoff, but only if they went out. 10 and 2 Alabama, with a win over Georgia, absolutely gets in. Okay, so they will absolutely go. I think that's 100% and I think everybody would agree with me. Now, the more tricky question, is does Alabama go to the playoff if they're 9 and 3? 10 and 2 in 9 and 3, 9 and 3.

And let's just say, sake of argument, that the loss is LSU. At LSU, that's going to be a tough environment. Like, let's just say sake of argument, okay? 9 and 3, Alabama, with a win over Georgia, do they go to the playoff? I pause because I think a lot of people would be like, oh, well, yeah, of course. Of course they would. They would have a win over Georgia. I don't think so.

I don't think so. I think Alabama has to win out. Think about the number of teams that could still be ahead of them, not just in the country, but even just in the SEC. So think about this. If they lose to LSU, let's just say, hypothetically, if they lose to LSU and they're 9 and 3, they lost to Vandy, they lost to Tennessee,

they lose to LSU, but they have a win over Georgia. Well, you would at least play out a scenario where Georgia, Texas, probably Texas, A&M, LSU almost certainly if you give LSU a win over Bama, and likely Tennessee all have better records than them. All of them have better records than them. That's five SEC teams. SEC is not getting six teams into the playoff. They're just not.

There's just not enough spots. Because all of those teams would have a really good case, a really good taste. That's Georgia, Texas, Texas A&M, LSU, and Tennessee. And in fact, maybe one of those is not going to get in. And they would be ahead of Bama in terms of record. Then that's not even taking into account what's going on around the country. Like, we could easily get a 12-1 Ohio State and Oregon. We could easily get an 11 and 1 Penn State.

We could get a 10 and 2 Indiana. We could get an 11 and 1 Notre Dame. We could get a 12 and 1 both Miami and Clemson. We could get an 11 and 2 Kansas State. We could get a 12 and 1, BYU. We could get a 12 and 1 Iowa State. And all of that is totally outside of Alabama's control. So you heard it here first, hopefully.

Alabama 100% in if they went out. and I'm going to say 99.999% sure they're out of the playoff if they lose one more game. 9 and 3 Alabama is not going to the playoff. 99.9%. Now, they would need major chaos out there. And if chaos starts to unfold, then yeah, maybe because they would have a win over Georgia. So let's back it down. Let's call it 95%. 95%. Tennessee really quickly because I don't want to just abandon Tennessee.

I just thought it was more interesting talking about Alabama because the loser of that game put themselves really in a precarious spot. Tennessee, here's my thoughts on Tennessee. And they haven't changed, really. Tennessee is the lead on defense. They can run the football well and they really struggle throwing the ball. All right. Nico made a few plays. I thought his plays with his legs were really good.

And then when they can get him on the run, when he throws the ball on the run down the field, they get that explosive play. Like that, that to me is when they're at their. best. I'm still a little bit worried for them just because of that lack of passing game. And I can tell you this, the way that Georgia played against Texas, you look ahead and you look at Tennessee has to play Georgia. This Tennessee team is not beating that Georgia team, at least in my estimation right now. I'll be pretty shocked if they beat Georgia in Athens. I think that's November 16th. But if they finish 10 and 2 with a win over Alabama, then they're absolutely. playoff bound, at least in my eyes,

pending what's going on in the rest of the country. So to me, Tennessee is still a great bet. I really like a lot of things. Nico has got to clean things up, and I think that we know that. All right, real quick, the game that I was at, so Indiana routes Nebraska. Indiana is undefeated,

and everybody's wondering if this is real or not. And then they roll out there against a five-and-one Nebraska team that a lot of us thought was actually pretty good, and they beat them 56. to seven. Holy cow. Holy cow. This is their, what is this? Their largest Big Ten wins since the 40s. They have the number one scoring offense in the country. We're deep into October, folks. This is not a few, like, three games against FCS schools in September where you have the number one offense. They have the number one scoring offense in the country deep in October. Kurt Signetti has done a marvelous

job with this Indiana team. I love what this Indiana team is doing. Let me give you some thoughts on this Indiana team after covering them for a week. Number one, they're incredibly well-coached, incredibly well-coached. And this philosophy that Signetti used to recruit this roster and build this roster, I think a lot of people are going to need to look at and try to copy. And it'll be hard to copy because there's just not a ton of these players out there. but this idea that Kurt Signetti had to prioritize production over potential in the transfer portal has paid off huge.

He went after players with a lot of experience that have produced at a high level, a lot of them, a lot of them, group of five all-conference caliber players that had played a lot of football, 20, 30, 40 games played at their previous spot. success on the field, even some of their programs, and they wanted to come and they tried to do it at Indiana. A lot of those players were from JMU, and that was a highly successful program under Signetti, but he brings in 27 transfers. The heavy majority, I believe, 21 of those transfers, they have played for three seasons before this. So they've got a ton of veteran players on the field that understand what it means to go out there and execute in college. That's number one. It's just

roster construction. You look up and down that roster and it's littered with guys that can really play, namely their quarterback, Curtis Rourke. Now, you've heard, I'm sure, the news that Curtis Rourke, he hit his hand as he's trying to throw the football, and he will not play this week against Washington. I'm hoping that that is not a long-term injury because Rourke is playing incredible football. And these are just those injuries that just suck because you just don't want to mess with the rhythm of a guy that is playing so well. I think up to this point, and Big Ten play, he would be my offensive player of the year in the Big Ten if we just stopped it right now. Now, Dylan Gabriel certainly would be in the equation. Caleb Johnson would be in the

equation as well. Like, there's some guys that have played really well, but this guy has played in particular great for a team that is undefeated. I hope that he gets healthy. I really do. Because their offense, man, I'm telling you, it is so fun to watch. Their offensive line is doing a great job. They're not a great offensive line, but they're doing a great job. They dominated the front of Nebraska. Those guys like Ty Robinson who came in with a number of pressures. In fact, he was in the top five and pressuring the quarterback from the interior in college football. He didn't come close to the quarterback.

Nebraska had no pass rush whatsoever and they couldn't stop the run. This is a team in Nebraska that had not given up a rushing touchdown. And yet here's Indiana, just marching the football on them. And a lot of it comes into focus when you start to look at their scumption. And what they do offensively, which I really love, is that they are always putting the football in the place where the defense is most vulnerable. And the only way that you can do that, really there's a couple of ways. But the way that they do it is with post-snap reads.

They have these RPO's run-pass options, and they are intricate, and they are really effective. And they're only really effective because Curtis Rourke, he's one making great decisions. He plays with a slow heartbeat. He processes information incredibly quickly. in the pocket, and then he's accurate throwing the football. So when I watch film of Indiana, the football is constantly penetrating the most vulnerable place of the defense on almost every snap. And then when they're not reading it post-snap, they just execute better than everybody.

Like I was telling you earlier with the Georgia defense over Texas, that's similar to what this Indiana team does on the offensive side. Kurt Signetti is an offensive guy. He holds a high standard, and guess where he learned? He learned from a lot of different places that he coached, but he was at Alabama with Nick Saban, and he was there in like the dirty years. I call those early years the dirty years. That's when Sabin was just laying it down.

It's like the boot camp years for Alabama football where you're breaking them of everything going on previously and you're laying down exactly the way that you want them to behave and work and act and all of that. And he's there for that. And he's recruiting all of those players, including Mark King, our Heisman trophy winner. And then he goes off and he's a head coach. He's won everywhere and he understands that process. So when I asked him last week on Friday, I was like, how is this happening? He was like, well, I have incredibly high standards. And then I do not adjust and hold people accountable to that standard. And I'm like, slow clap. Bravo. That's what life is about.

That's how you do it as a coach. That's how you do it as a coach. This is, this is a team, man, you look up. They've got Washington this week. They're at Michigan State. They've got Michigan in a few weeks. Then they've got an off week before having to travel to Columbus. So then they're at Ohio State. And then they've got Purdue. Listen, it will be an upset if they're 10 and 2. Because they're going to be favored in four of those games and a dog at Ohio State. This team could easily be 11 and 1. Easily be 11.1. This is why, like, Ohio State has no room for error. They cannot lose another game.

They have to win out. Ohio State has to win out in order to go to Indiana or Indianapolis, excuse me, and play for the Big Ten title. And they've still got Indiana and undefeated. They've still got Penn State and undefeated. Man, I tell you, that's, you look up, man, and that is quite the schedule for Indiana. Indiana might be 11 and 1 and in the first 12-team playoff.

They're really good. Taven Jackson was the backup quarterback. He came in in the second half. He led four touchdown drives, and he played really well. So, you know, he's got those experienced players on the outside, all those transfers. He's got Cignetti. He's got everything going on. And that Indiana team is awesome. And that's why I put them in my top 10, by the way. And they were in my top 10. Okay, things that I've got to get to still on Wednesday, we've got to look at like who's all still alive for the college football playoff because there are so many teams. And when you look at all the teams still alive, whether it's mathematically or even more so, you're going to see all the important games that are being played now deep into October as opposed to what we used to have with the four team playoff. So we're going to do that.

I've got to talk about USCOU and Michigan. Wolf. I've got to touch on all of those and I'll get to all of those on Wednesday. And we'll get to Picks on Thursday. Man, the Picks. Four and two again. heater. What are we? I think we're 29 and 14 on the year against the spread. That's been good. Hey, remember to follow us wherever you like to social media at Joel Clat Show. We'll be back on Wednesday with another show. And I just appreciate you guys listening, being a part of this show. I really do. Have a blessed day. We'll see you on Wednesday.