The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Indiana upsets Ohio State & Notre Dame is left out of the Playoff: did the Committee get it right?

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to the final College Football Playoff rankings as Miami jumps Notre Dame for the last at-large spot, sending the Hurricanes to the CFP. Klatt answers whether the Committee got it right. He also explains the real problem areas in the selection process that have led us to another controversial decision. Klatt then reacts to the news that Notre Dame is deciding not to play in a bowl game and he gives his opinion on that decision. He looks ahead to matchups in the newly-released CFP bracket that he’s looking forward to. Klatt also gives his thoughts on Indiana’s upset of Ohio State as Curt Cignetti's Hoosiers continue to shock the world while pointing out what areas the Buckeyes must fix if they are going to go on another Championship run in the Playoff. 0:00-2:14 Intro2:15-6:13 Klatt’s reaction to the final bracket6:14-17:57 Did the committee get it right putting Alabama ahead of Notre dame?17:58-27:52 Notre dame opts out of playing a bowl game following college football playoff snub27:53-32:51 CFP Matchup analysis32:52-42:43 Indiana upsets Ohio State to win first big ten championship since 1967 Head to www.eckrich.com/TakeItToTheHouse and enter the time on the clock for your shot at winning tickets & a trip to the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The answer is yes. The committee did get it right. You don't really want to see the way the hot dog is made and the unfortunate scenario here is we understand how the hot dog was made. I don't think that it benefits anybody to be out there every single week telling us something that is going to change. There's three primary reasons why I think Notre Dame is making a big mistake, just opting out of a bowl game. Day like today is why we love college football. What's up? This is the Joel Clatt show. I'm Joel Clat. This show is brought to you by graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support as always. Can't wait to get to this one. This one's going to be a big one as we are going to react to the college football playoff. As it was given to us, we've got the bracket. Lots to react to obviously. So we'll get to that. I'm going to get to that Big Ten championship game as well that I was at on Saturday night. That was a wild and incredible football game and environment. I think there's going to be a lot of people in Indiana that are still feeling. the effects of that game and that night on Saturday here on Monday as this thing is released. Before we get into everything, though, just remember go subscribe to the show. Get into the comments below.

There's going to be a lot to comment on in particular. Did the committee get it right? Did they leave out Notre Dame appropriately? Get in the comments below and you can start commenting on that. I'll try to jump in there as well. Remember to follow us on social media as well. That would be awesome. You can find us wherever you like to social media at Joel Clashio.

but mostly subscribe to that YouTube channel. That would be awesome for us right there. Rate and review us wherever you listen to your pods. That would be cool as well. Lots to get into here today, obviously. So we've got the college football playoff. It is set now after conference championship game weekend. Georgia wins the SEC.

Texas Tech wins the Big 12. Indiana wins the Big Ten. And Duke throws a wrench in everything. That chaos theory that we all speculated could happen, did happen. ACC, Duke wins, and now we've got two group of six members into the playoffs. So let's get into it. Committee gave us these rankings, gave us this bracket, and, you know, it's, I mean, I hate to say, like, we told you this was going to happen. This is the exact scenario that we outlined last week right on this program and in the precarious situation and place that Notre Dame

found themselves in. They were on the 10 line last week. You had a buffer. between Notre Dame and Miami in BYU. BYU obviously had to play another game. You had Alabama moving up past Notre Dame the week prior for a win over Auburn, which none of us really understood, but now you understand why. So Notre Dame is out. Miami is in on the 10 line. We've got two group of six members with Tulane and JMU.

Congratulations to them. More on that in a minute. So the question really is, we can talk about the bracket we will during the course of the show a little bit later in the show. But the question is, did the committee get it right? That is the question. And let me start with the answer, and then we can discuss all the elements of the answer. The answer is yes. The committee did get it right. And I know that that's going to make a lot of Notre Dame fans mad and Texas fans. And Texas still feels like they have, you know, an argument in all of this. But certainly Notre Dame and certainly because

Notre Dame felt like they were firmly inside of that line prior to the final rankings. And prior to the final rankings, they didn't play. And neither did the team that passed them. Now, you can answer this and say, did the committee get it right? And you can say yes, which I believe, and I've argued that. And you've heard that on this program that I have said, if Notre Dame and Miami were right next to each other, head-to-head would take precedent. And it did. I can believe that.

All of us can. Even Notre Dame fans deep in their heart of hearts can understand that, right? You might not like it, but you can understand it. But still, it feels a little bit suspicious, right? And we can arrive at that conclusion and we cannot feel great about the way that this was made. It's like a hot dog. Right? You don't really want to see the way the hot dog is made.

And the unfortunate scenario here is we understand how the hot dog was made. It feels manufactured and it feels dirty, okay? But that doesn't mean that it's wrong. So let's walk through all of those elements. What is the problem here? What is the problem with these playoff rankings? Well, nothing because they got it right. And yet, you've got Notre Dame that feels so betrayed by these rankings.

Why? Because they saw all the previous rankings. and Pete Povacua, the athletic director, said as such in his comment. And I don't disagree with him. Everything he said is correct about the rankings, the weekly show leading up to this. Here's the quote right here if you're watching on YouTube. He said, any rankings or show prior to this last one is an absolute joke and a waste of time. Correct, Pete, correct.

He goes on to say, if the ranking shows are legitimate, there is no logical explanation of what happened to us, have one ranking show at the end like Sunday. Everything he said is correct. And the playoff they gave us is probably also correct. Like those two things can mutually exist together. So what is the problem? Obviously, it's the weekly ranking show.

And even now the other network is acknowledging that. You know, like we all understand that we don't want to see the way the hot dog is made. We just want to enjoy the nice Chicago dog with a little mustard on it at the end. At the end. Don't tell me how it's made because it feels manufactured and it feels dirty. Now here's the problem with weekly rankings. It's not that the committee did a poor job. It's not that they're all the sudden trying to subvert one team out of bias or a vindictive nature. They're not doing this necessarily on purpose. Here's the point. Here's the problem. Weekly rankings, by their nature, have to be a prisoner of the moment.

They have to be because they're reacting to what happens right now. And yet, the task is really to give us 12 at the end of the year based on a body of work. So nothing is relevant until the end. In fact, we can just play this out in a little bit of a thought experiment. let's just say sake of argument, you know, we all just like, take a rocket up to Mars on August 15th. And then all of a sudden we kind of come down and, you know, like Elon catches us, right? We got the, and all of a sudden, we're on one of those rockets that can come back down and we're back from Mars. Awesome. Now, someone that's smarter than me is going to tell me, like, Joel, there's no way you can get to Mars and get back from August 15th to December 7th.

I don't care. This is a thought experiment. Okay? And if you looked at college football and didn't know any of the weekly rankings, and all you got to see is like recaps of the games, you got to watch all the games, you didn't see any rankings weekly. No, you just got to consume the season in its entirety as a body of work. And then you looked at the playoff as the committee gave it to us.

You'd probably just shrug your shoulders and say like, yeah, that's about right based on the, quote, criteria that they gave us. So in terms of that, what is everyone upset about? Everyone's upset that we saw how the hot dog was made and we don't like it. It was manufactured and dirty. Okay? Now, the committee is doing this. I don't think out of spite, they're doing this because they aren't given any set criteria.

We talk about this all the time. I feel like I'm almost beating a dead horse right here. They have all these criteria points that they're trying to rank all these teams by. and yet, like, which one takes precedent at the end of the day? We don't really know. Still. Now, in this specific case, it's head-to-head. In other cases in the playoff, it's overall resume,

it's strength of schedule, it's game control, maybe another head-to-head thrown in there. All these different criteria. Maybe just like I test, although I test now in the end, ended up playing itself out of the playoff. So we get all of these different criteria and we can't make sense of it. And the reason is

is because the committee can pick and choose based on the criteria because it's not ranked. It's not like a tiebreaker that we have in all of these conferences or in any other sport across the globe. We don't have set criteria that we move down one, two, three, four, I don't know.

They're just thrown into a bucket and they're just like, hey, man, pick your poison committee, whatever you want. So the committee is tasked with an impossible task. And in that respect, it's not an enviable position to be in. And yet they've got to give us these weekly rankings based on a contract, and those need to go away. And listen, the show is probably not going to go away, but it's not healthy for anybody.

Because that's ultimately what Notre Dame is upset about. They can't really deep down in their heart be upset that a team that beat them on the field is included in the playoff and they're not. right? Like we kind of understand that. They're upset at the weekly rankings, okay? And we understand that. Now, we did the thought experiment, so we kind of understand that. And now we kind of move on and we start to think about, well, what's the fix? Because you're going to read a lot about that. You're going to hear a lot about that, you know, shows like this one. And here's what I would tell you. I'm going to be very upfront and honest with you. I'm going to be very transparent with you. There's only two ways. to go if you're going to keep the exact same system. And there's no evidence that this system is going to change anytime soon. Okay. So a tweak here or there, people have said, and you've

heard it argued, or I'll just tell you, like, there's two ways you can go. More transparency or less transparency. All right. Let me just ask you a question. Do you want more transparency in terms of finding out how a hot dog is made? Or do you want less transparency? Because it's manufactured and dirty. So the more you know about it, the less you're going to like it. Because you don't know what's going on.

You don't know what's involved. You don't know what it is. You don't know how they're ranking the criteria. And they don't even know. Because it's not set for them. You see, the more transparency we get with the committee the more we're going to distrust the committee as a system, not the individuals. It's not the individual's fault.

They're just tasked, again, with an impossible task. I would make the argument, and this is probably not going to be popular. We need less transparency in this process. Don't tell us anything. Don't speak on TV. I don't even care if I know exactly who's in the room, to be quite honest with you. I mean, I'd like to know that, but less. transparency. And then at the end, give us a bracket based on a body of work. Now, would it be

great to understand the criteria and rank them? Yes, but that's not this system. And it's not going to be this system because there are people that argue in conferences specifically that argue for this type of selection-based process. They want it to be ambiguous. They do because it benefits them. And that's fine. More power to them in that regard. But my position would be less transparency, less rankings reveal. I don't think that it benefits anybody to be out there every single week telling us something that is going to change. And again, I'll just go back to this. Weekly rankings in their nature are going to be a prisoner of the moment. And we don't want to be a prisoner of the moment. That's how you get in the first rankings

release Miami at, what was it, 18 and Notre Dame at 10. Because we just saw Miami lose to SMU, which was their second loss in their last three weeks. And we were like miles away from those two losses for Notre Dame. You know, so like you're going to be a prisoner of the moment. We understood that ranking in the time. Now we look back and it's like, well, how in the world? What really changed? Well, a lot changed.

Teams in front of them lost. They move up. They look better. Their resume gets stronger. There's a lot of things that change. So again, I want less transparency. Give me a bracket. at the end of the year.

Because at the end of the year, I can probably, probably, based on the fact that committees throughout the playoffs era and history has always given us the path of least resistance, at the end, we can kind of sit there and shrug our shoulders and say, like, okay, like we can kind of understand that. And there's going to be less outrage because really, Notre Dame is upset with the fact that they saw how this was made. That's really why they're upset. And for the committee, I'll just say, like, it's impossible to serve all masters.

I was touching on that a little bit ago, but think about what this committee is actively doing to college football, and it's not their fault. It's the position they're put in. But they cannot serve all masters. Think of all the different objectives or criteria that they're tasked with honoring. Well, it's really difficult. They're tasked with honoring like head-to-head, conference championship games,

resume, non-conference schedules, this idea of just like I test, best, versus most deserving. So there's all this ambiguous stuff in there. And here's the problem, is that all of that cannot be served. And in fact, there are times when all of those criteria and objective can actively work against one another.

So here we have this committee that are trying to honor head to head, which they probably should, because in the nature of sports, what should we honor the games on the field? And yet they're at the same time actively acting in a way, that is hurting the future of college football when it comes to non-conference schedules.

Well, that's not great either. It's a behavior that is antagonistic to some elements of our sport, which we'd love to retain or even encourage. We'd love to encourage better non-conference matchups. And yet, and yet, based on this playoff, this year, which was an impossible task for this committee, the communication to everybody in college football is going to be, don't schedule anybody. Because if Notre Dame doesn't schedule Texas A&M, they're probably in. If Texas doesn't schedule Ohio State, they're probably in. You know, like, these things are being

commuting. That's not good for the sport when you really think about it. And yet, the committee is backed into a corner where they can't serve all of these masters. So we need to rank them. If you want to make a playoff that's going to encourage non-conference scheduling, willingness to play big matchup, Blue Bloods on the road, home and homes, this and that, then it needs to be baked into the criteria and not just ambiguous.

So again, like impossible task. It's pretty clear that we are going to be in a position where we're just hoping the major brands retain those games on the schedule in the future. We've got big ones. You know, Oklahoma is going back to Michigan next year, not back, but like returning the favor. Alabama and I believe it's Ohio State have future games with one another. Are they going to stay in those games?

You know, these decisions by the committee have consequences, and yet the committee has been given an impossible task. So, like, what are the fixes? Well, we need to get rid of the ranking show. That's obvious. I mean, that is the biggest problem in this regard. I would rather we just see it at the end. And I think that we need to set more specific, criteria in the order that it is applied. Maybe that could be a fix. I don't know. We'll see. But this is a mess. But it's a mess of our own doing. Because again, if we just flew a rocket down here and looked at the season, we'd probably look at this playoff and be like, okay, that's just fine. And we understand it. Hey, college football fans, you know the feeling and you get when the home team takes it to the house. Well, this season, Eckrich, the official smoke,

of the college football playoff is letting you score big right along with them. So here's how it works. Just watch this year's college football playoff first round games on December 19th and 20th. And when the home team scores their first touchdown, check the game clock. Because whatever time is shown on the scoreboard becomes the official, take it to the house time. Then you head over to the website, www. ckritch.com slash take it to the house and enter that exact time for your shot at winning tickets and a trip to the 2026 college football national championship.

So keep your eyes on the clock and Eckrich in your game plan because it's almost take it to the house time. So what's Notre Dame going to do about it? Well, a little hot tea there. A lot of talking this weekend. Notre Dame is mad. Notre Dame is like big mad. And because of that, Notre Dame's going to take their ball and go home. and they've put out a statement that they have decided to as a team opt out of a bowl opportunity.

I understand that. And here's the thing. Here's the thing that sucks in this whole conversation. I think that the committee ultimately got it right. And at the same time, Notre Dame would beat half of this field. Both of those things can be true. And Notre Dame fans, like, you probably pissed at that sentiment, but it's true. You know, you can just go down the list.

You just go down the list. Would they beat either of these group of six participants? Obviously, yes. Would they or should they beat Miami the way that they've looked during the course of the season? The way Miami has looked during the course of the season? Probably. Would they beat A&M? Probably.

Would they beat Alabama? Probably. Would they beat Oklahoma? Probably. Would they beat Ole Miss? Probably. You get all the way up to like Oregon. Tech, Georgia, where you start to be like, oh, yeah, that would be like close.

I don't know. I don't know who would win that game. So Notre Dame would probably beat half the field. They're mad about it. So they're just going to take their ball and go home. I'm just telling you, I'm just telling you, this is not the way to go about it. Notre Dame, you are better than this. You are.

Because one thing I know, and there's always great coaches around the country, and Urban Meyer talked about this, and everybody says it in a different way. And you hear different ways to say this and articulate this, I guess, is the point. But it's kind of like an event happens. And then there's your response to the event. And then that's going to equal the outcome. So Urban used to talk about like E plus R equals O. Event plus response equals, oh, the outcome. And in this case, you know, I feel like that applies because, you know, I'm hesitating with using the word quit,

but they're just going to like artificially end their season and not go to a bowl game. I think that's the wrong decision. And I think that that decision was born out of an emotional reaction rather than a disciplined response. And those two things are very different. There's three primary reasons why I think Notre Dame is making a big mistake, just opting out of a bowl game. Let me just start with the first one. And that is the competitive development for next season.

In their statement, they said, like, as a team, and you just saw it on YouTube, we put it up. As a team, we've decided to opt out of a bowl game, and we look forward to bringing a championship back to South Bend in 2026, you know, and then signed the 2025 Notre Dame football team. Well, okay. Well, if you want to win your 12th national title and bring it back to South Bend in 2026,

you know what would be beneficial to you? The extra practices during bowl season. Like, how does forego, how does just, like, throwing 15 practices to the wind and saying, like, we don't need those, don't worry. We don't need all those practices to develop young players that maybe didn't get a lot of playing time in this season. We don't need those to develop players that are going to need to play huge roles for fulfilling shoes of players that are leaving.

Like, hold on a second. Bold practice is where you develop for the next season. So I don't understand how just saying, like, no, we're done with that. How does that help you for next year? So that's number one, and that's just a competitive reason. Number two, this does feel a little bit petty, to be honest with you. you. It feels like they're very mad at the other network for the show and the weekly rankings reveal because that's ultimately what they're mad at. I mean, Bavacua said it in a statement

which we just put up earlier in the show. So they're mad at the weekly rankings show, so they're like, well, we're not going to go play a bowl game on that network. All right, that feels a little bit like petty in my estimation. I think Notre Dame is above that. And again, there are competitive ramifications for next season in the development of your young players. So don't love that idea either. Then you look at this other idea. The third point. And this one's more just like from me to the players.

You'll regret this. And I don't want you to regret this. if you ask anybody that competed at a high level through high school, through college, heck, through professional sports, and they're sitting there, maybe they're sitting in their home studio behind a microphone. Who knows? Who knows? For sake of argument. Maybe they're 43. Who knows? And you were to ask them, and I'm talking about anyone, by the way. You can play, you can play soccer.

You could be a swimmer or diver, whatever it is. You ask someone that competed at a competitive level, high school, college, and you ask them later in life like, would you like to do it one more time? They'd be like, yeah, man, that would be awesome. That would be awesome. I don't need to fix any wrongs. You know, I don't have a ton of regrets about, like, my career, maybe other than getting knocked out against Texas and losing 70 to 3.

But like, would I love to play one more time? Yeah, that would be awesome. I look back at that time with great fondness. Because I worked really hard as an individual for the team with a bunch of other individuals that I became very close to and are close to to this day. and like to go out and compete with them one more time would be awesome. So don't artificially end your season.

There are players on that roster at Notre Dame, and I'm talking to you guys right now, that will never play football again, and you are artificially putting the finish line in front of you. Don't do that. Don't do that. You have a finite number of times as an athlete to go and compete at the highest level.

Like, take advantage of those opportunities. So that's just from like human to human. I think that those players will regret this decision. End on your terms, not their terms. This is an emotional response. You've got development in there. It looks petty. And you're going to regret it at some point.

Go play. Go play. And I understand it, like, some players will opt out, and this and that and they've got futures in the NFL. Some don't. Some don't. And you're going to look up at some point and you're not going to be an athlete.

And you'll think to yourself, man, I wish I would have done that one more time. I wish I would have done that one more time with the guys that I love, that we worked really hard. And I wish that we would have finished on our terms. And by the way, you know, like, I'm all for this like player empowerment era, and I've argued, like, I'm a fan of NIL. Obviously, we need guardrails and everything, but, like, we've needed player empowerment for a long time. Now, it's drastically swung too far. I do think we need to limit movement and little things. There needs to be guardrails. We all know that.

We all know that. As a parent, when something happens to my boys that they deem to be unfair, I don't ask them what they want to do about it. I parent them. I'm the adult in the room. And so here's the thing. Marcus Freeman is a hell of a football coach. And they've got great leadership at Notre Dame. And great leaders paint a vision.

And they're the ones that go out and they say, listen, I understand that this happened to us. But here's what our response is going to be because this is the character and integrity of our team. And we're going to go out and we're going to finish on our terms. And to be honest, like, I'm surprised that that's not happening. Because this man, Marcus Freeman, is an incredible football coach and leader of men. And he just put together one of the best recruiting classes that Notre Dame has had in a long time.

And they're going to be good next year. And they'll be good the next year. And as long as Marcus Freeman stays in South Bend, they will be good. this is not in their character. It's not. It's not. And I wouldn't have asked the players what they wanted to do because they feel hurt. They're young.

What are they going to want to do? Like, respond emotionally. You don't want to respond with your emotions. You want to respond with your reason and logic. And therefore, I think Notre Dame should play a bowl game, but obviously, you know, that seems to not be the case right now. Let's talk about these matchups here. Let's go back to the playoff and get to the matchup.

So that's just a discussion about Notre Dame, long discussion about Notre Dame. Let's get to these matchups because there are a lot of really fun things in this playoff. Let me start with this. We've got two group of six. There's a lot of people that are going to celebrate that. I lament that. I think it makes the playoff worse. The group of six is included in this playoff in order to avoid lawsuit.

That's what no one else wants to tell you, but it's true. They want to avoid antitrust litigation, so they've got to include the group of six in order to make this playoff happen. I think it would be better for the group of five, six, whatever you want to call it, to go play their own national championship. Because guess what? The FCS national championship in playoffs is awesome. And I think it is a farce to suggest that Tulane and JMU are playing on an equal playing field as Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Indiana, Texas, A&M, Miami. They're not. They're not in resources, in recruiting. It's really not even the same sport. And that gap is only going to increase as the amount of revenue to the big boys continues

to increase and the amount of revenue for the smaller conferences stays flat. So the margin's only going to increase. And now we've got these two group of five members, Tulane and JMU. And you know what? Good for you. I'm happy for you. I hope you enjoy the opportunity to compete in the college football playoff. But we've got two because the ACC doesn't know how to orchestrate a tiebreaker. And I know they talked about this on the rankings release show. But like, hey, thanks ACC for your dumb tiebreakers and you put us in this situation. And candidly, you put Notre Dame in that situation,

which is supposed to be a scheduling partner for you. The fact that Duke with five losses got to go compete for and then win the ACC championship, while 10 and 2 Miami had to sit at home and sweat out a committee is crazy. It's crazy. Like, obviously, the ACC needs to take a hard look at their tiebreaker and really think about what just happened. And maybe the committee was like, hey, are we really going to leave the ACC out? Maybe, maybe, because we don't know what the criteria was.

Maybe after Duke won that game on Saturday night. Maybe the committee looked at themselves and they were like, hey, are we really leaving the ACC out of this thing? Who knows? Who knows? I don't know if that happened. You don't know if that happened. So now we look at the bracket. Let's take a look at the matchups. Obviously, Ole Miss in a rematch against Tulane, eh, you know, that is what it is. JMU, happy for you, go compete against Oregon. That'll be fun to watch a playoff game in Austin Stadium because that's one of the great environments in college football. What am I looking forward to, though? The potential matchups in this playoff that I'm looking forward to.

Well, in the first round, that Miami A&M game, that one has my attention. I think that's going to be a great game. I really do. And I want to see Miami under the pressure because that's something that we have felt like they haven't dealt with well during the course of the last few years under Mario Cristob in the month of November. They handled it really well this year, get themselves into the playoff and now have to go on the road and play a really good Texas A&M team. that just lost to Texas. So I'm looking forward to that one. The potential Texas Tech Oregon quarterfinal game,

I think, like, I really want to see that one. Tech is a phenomenal team that's really good on defense, balanced on offense. That's a good football team. They got Jacob Rodriguez out there, the Buccas winner. He might even be a Heisman Trophy finalist here later on Monday night. We'll see, who knows. but that Tech Oregon quarterfinal game, that could be pretty awesome.

Another potential matchup, potential matchup. Ohio State, Georgia, and a national semifinal, I mean, you bet. The last time we saw that, it was an incredible game. 2022, ring a bell. Down in, I believe that was the Sugar Bowl. That was an incredible game with Justin Fields. No, no, no. I'm sorry.

C.J. Stroud, Marvin Harrison, the Georgia. Remember Brock Bowers making first downs. on the sideline. Unbelievable game. We may get a Georgia, Ohio State semifinal. I would be up for that. There's no doubt. And then I do have to say, like, just the thought of Ohio State and Indiana on opposite sides of the bracket means that we may see a rematch of what we got to see on Saturday night in the Big Ten championship game. So the national championship, in theory, down in Miami, could be an Indiana, Ohio State rematch. Now, obviously, like, we'll see how it all plays out. But, I mean, like, sign me up for seeing something like that again. Because I will tell you, that game on

Saturday night lived up to every ounce of what I thought it could be. It was an incredible atmosphere in Lucas Oil Stadium. It was loud. Those teams were playing some unbelievable defense. I mean, unbelievable defense. It was everything. I hoped it was. would be, and then some, and then some. I thought Matt Patricia and the defense for Ohio State was outstanding. I thought Bryant Haynes and Indiana on defense were better than outstanding. They were fantastic. Bryant Haynes is one of the best assistant coaches, defensive coordinators, in the country.

No one talked about Indiana's defense this year because Ohio State was historically good. But man, the Hoosiers, they are so. good on defense. Slippery up front. They can run on the second level, play great zone coverage. DeAngelo Pons is a star, only five, nine, but can cover. Man, that was fun to watch. So what did it come down to? It came down to a couple of things. As games with great opponents generally do, comes down to like three, four snaps of the football. And this one did as well. And it just so happened, Indiana was able to execute those snaps, and Ohio State was not. And so, that's that's the difference in the game.

And let's look at Ohio State here first, and they struggled in the red zone. But it wasn't just red zone. It was actually more specifically short yardage. And when you're not great in short yardage, you're not going to be great in the red zone. Because typically, a lot of the short yardage plays happen in the red zone, whether you're trying to get a first down or even a goal line situation.

So there's more opportunities for short yardage situations in the red zone. And they failed in those situations. Now, one was a missed field goal, and we understand that, but they failed on the fourth and one trying to quarterback sneak. So here we got two possessions in the second half in which Ohio State is down inside of the 10-yard line, and they come away with zero points. So Brian Haynes and the Indiana defense give up zero points to Ohio State in the last 40 minutes of game time. Incredible. How do they do that? Turn them away in the red zone.

And it's very clear that Ohio State now has an area where, they have a problem. And we've been waiting all year like, well, what's the question? My question with Ohio State is, was like, well, what's the vulnerability? What are we going to see? They've controlled every single game. This is the first game that we've seen them have to snap the football on offense with a deficit. We hadn't seen that all year long. This is the first time that we've seen them have to play offense really under the gun. And, you know, it wasn't great in short yardage. And when you look at short yardage for Ohio State, and I made this point on the on the broadcast, Last year in the playoffs, they were really good in short-yardage situations because they had a big mobile quarterback that they could run in those scenarios.

Fourth and ones, third-and-ones, Will Howard was converting a lot of those. Zone reads, quarterback power, and now they don't have that. They also had two backs that were physical, namely Quinn Sean Judkins, who was very physical in nature. And so they were very good in short-yardage in the playoff last year. Under the gun, they could get it done. This team hasn't had to do that yet, so we didn't really know. They haven't had short yardage plays under the gun. In fact, the first time we saw that was in the first half against Michigan where they failed

to get in in one of those red zone possessions inside the five-yard line had to settle for a field goal. And all of a sudden, it creeps up again. In that game, they tried to quarterback sneak. It didn't work. You know, they couldn't get it done. And their big back Donaldson is a guy that doesn't get in a lot. So they go with Bo Jackson. and he's a true freshman.

They've got a quarterback that's a pocket quarterback and an offensive line that hasn't gotten it done at the line of scrimmage in those situations. It's a good offensive line. They haven't been great in that moment. So that's a clear weakness, and they'll have to address that moving forward. Meanwhile, and there's those couple of snaps right there.

Meanwhile, Indiana. Well, Indiana had to answer questions throughout the year. So they were a more proven commodity in hindsight now, on Saturday night, in particular under the gun, because we saw them at Iowa. We saw them at Oregon. We saw them at Penn State. Have to take offensive snaps under the gun. And what did Fernando Mendoza and the passing game do in every one of those scenarios,

they performed and delivered? Remember, in every one of those games, it's not like they were running the heck out of the ball. They were trying. They were consistent with the run game, but they weren't like gashing Ohio State with run game. They really weren't. So it was a throw game late. It was a Mendoza and the receivers game late. And here's the thing. They could rely on past performance. We've seen it happen at Oregon. We saw it happen at Iowa. We saw it happen against Penn State. And in every one of those situations, Mendoza had to make big throws under duress and show real competitive courage.

And guess what he had to show on Saturday? Under duress, competitive courage. and he made giant giant Heisman Trophy style throws. That touchdown to Surat was incredible. The ball down the field to Becker. Then in the fourth quarter, able to convert down the field again to Charlie Becker,

it was phenomenal. It was phenomenal. So here's one team, Ohio State. They had their opportunities, and with an unproven group, it didn't materialize. And Indiana had their opportunities, and with a very proven group, they capitalized. and they got those plays and made them when it mattered.

That's why the one of the football game. And that's why I would love to see, you know, this game possibly happen again. We'll see if it does. Mendoza definitely had a Heisman moment. I thought the throw to Becker was a Heisman moment, in particular late on Saturday. Voting had just started.

Listen, think about what this guy has done. He's number one in the country. They're 13 in O. He made throw after throw after throw in big moments on the road all year long. It didn't matter the opponent. He beat now the number two team in the country on a neutral site and number five team in the country in their building. No other player has a resume like Fernando Mendoza. And candidly, it's not even close. And anybody that argues differently is wrong. I don't know how else to say it. I thought his humility after the game to, it's been fun to get to know him. Wish him the best of luck in his future, not only in the playoffs, but obviously in the National Football League could be the top pick in the NFL. But Jenny had a great interview with Fernando after the game. This is Fernando and Jenny after they won the Big Ten championship. Indiana.

Charlie Becker, third down, two minutes to go. We talk about Heisman moments. But take me through that one. What incredible. Charlie's been every single day in summer. We were always thrown before practice, before at 7 a.m. on Sundays, doing spots, doing routes. And now you see it to come for fruition.

He's my roommate. I couldn't be happy for such a young man as well, as well as our defense playing lights out. And well, everybody just, what an incredible moment. Congratulations. Enjoy it. Thank you so much. God bless.

Go Hoosiers. I mean, that's amazing. That's amazing. Kid was just like so excited, so excited. Now, Indiana for the first time in their history, number one in the country. And we'll have that number one seed. Now, Ohio State, still the odds on favorite to win the national championship,

even after that loss. But Indiana, number one in the country, Congratulations Kurt Signetti and everybody over there. By the way, they've got a potential matchup in the Rose Bowl against, like, Bama or even Oklahoma. Okay, even though I think Bama, based on the fact they outgained Oklahoma by 200 yards, I think I would probably pick Bama in that game. If you were to take an I.U fan and say, hey, like, just remove them back to two years ago, like right before Kurt Signetti was hired, or even the day he's hired.

And he's yelling like, Purdue sucks. And so does Michigan and Ohio State. You know, he's got that accent. take them back to that day and ask a who's your fan. Hey, what would you say if I told you that not this season but next season, you were going to be in the Rose Bowl, in the national quarterfinal, as the number one seed in the country, you're going to play Alabama and you're going to be the favorite.

Like, it's bonkers what's going on right now. It's bonkers. And you know what? The sport is great. This sport is great. Thank you for listening and watching. Remember to subscribe on the YouTube channel, please. That would help us out quite a bit.

Get in the comments below. Did the committee get it right? That's going to be the question. So get down there and we'll chat away in there. Follow us on social media, Agile Clat Show. I will be back later in the week. I know we don't have picks and previews, obviously, but I'll be back.

We'll talk about Army Navy. We'll talk about the Heisman finalists. That show will be coming out on Thursday, trying to get some interviews in here. So we'll be working hard still this week, even though we don't have games next weekend outside of that Army Navy game, which is one of my favorite games in all of college football. So that's coming up this week.

Again, not another episode until Thursday. So come back and visit us then. Until then, have a wonderful week, and we'll talk to you then.