The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Is it time to panic at Michigan, USC and Oklahoma?

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt evaluates 3 blue-blood programs that are in the middle of disappointing seasons: Michigan, USC and Oklahoma. Klatt walks through the current states of each team and discusses what’s gone wrong this season, how fixable the problems are and what the long-term outlook is for each program. He also gives another “Wild…but Possible” scenario that could see the #1 team in the country potentially miss out on their Conference Championship Game and a First Round bye. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The biggest hurdle that you've got to get over is the actual result from losing small to winning small. And right now, that's where USC is stuck. 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 out of the program, everybody. This is the Joel Clatt show. I am Joel Clatt. and this show is brought to you by Hampton, by Hilton. Got a great episode for you today here on a Wednesday. As we are winding down October, my goodness, this season is absolutely flying by. And as I've said in the open and say continually, this is great, man. I'm telling you, the expanded conferences, the expanded playoff, all of it means better college football games for us, the fans.

And it's been phenomenal. Okay, here's what we're going to do today. I've got to kind of push the misery panic button because we've got to discuss what's going on at USC, what's going on at Oklahoma, and what's going on at Michigan. And all of you fans out there, you've got to understand where those programs are at currently. And then what's the prospects for the foreseeable future? So we're going to do that in just a moment. But first, wherever you're listening, go ahead and rate and review us, if you would, share it with a friend. That would be great.

in particular give us a nice review down there below. If you're watching on YouTube, make sure to subscribe to the channel, like the video and leave a comment below. We'll try to jump in there as well. And then wherever you like to social media, we are there. All of our content is available for you all week long in shorter, more cut up versions like you like on social. So you can follow us at Joel Clat Show out there, wherever you like to. Okay, let's get into this because these programs, I think most believed, that these programs had potential this year.

I think that there were some lofty expectations with all of these fan bases. And the way that the season went in the early periods, there was some reason for optimism at all three, whether it's Michigan, USC, Oklahoma. So let's dive in and let's start with the Michigan Wolverines, because right now it ain't going well. Another bad loss on the road this time against a pretty good Illinois team. This Illinois team is tough.

They're scrappy. Brett Bilema has done a really nice job with Illinois. By the way, I loved the uniforms. The throwbacks I thought were really cool. Absolutely, leaning into the history of the game. Here's the first thing that we've got to kind of address with the Michigan Wolverines. They fall to four and three on the season. They've got back-to-back losses now.

They lost on the road at Washington and on the road at Illinois. Bottom line, boiler played it. Joel, how do we feel about Michigan? I think it's time for some alarm bells. here. I think that this is panic time. This is panic time. Michigan is in a dire spot right now, not only this season, but maybe even looking forward. So let's dive into it. What's going on right now? What's the current state of Michigan? And I think this is the most obvious. And the obvious is that they're getting no contribution for the quarterback position. They're getting no contribution from

the passing game. They're 129th right now in passing offense. 129th. That's just. just not going to cut it. And not even close, by the way. Their turnovers are up. They don't convert on third down. It's far too predictable their offense. It's run, run, and then throw it to Colson Loveland. That's all they've got. And Colson Loveland is double covered in majority of those scenarios. And so they're just throwing him contested catches. And if he doesn't come down with it, they're punting it away. There's just no ability for them to have sustained offense right now. unless they pop a big run, and I don't think that they're a bad running team. I do think that they're physical at the point of attack.

They're doing some quality things in the run game, but they're not throwing the football well enough to win. Then you compound that with the fact that they have turned the ball over this year far more than they did a year ago, and it's panic time because this offense is not anywhere close right now, not anywhere close. And again, namely because they just overvalued what they had on their own roster. at the quarterback position. Unfortunately, I think they wish that it would have gone differently in the offseason, but it hasn't. And this is what we have now at that position. They overvalued

the quarterback position. They overvalued the wide receiver position because they didn't address that. Remember now, in this day and age of college football, you can address areas of needs. And even really good teams have done this. Even some of the best teams in the country have done this. Look at Texas. Texas needed to address the secondary. They got MacCuba from Clemson. They needed to address the wide receiver position. They got Bond from Alabama. They got Ryan Wingo from a recruiting perspective. They addressed those positions because in the modern college football, you can construct a roster. Michigan, maybe they didn't have enough time to do so. And that's fair. And that's fair because of the coaching change of Wind Jim Harbaugh left and when Sharon Moore became the head coach.

But the bottom line is, is that they did not accurately, accurately, evaluate their own position groups on their roster, and they overvalued them. And when you do that, man, it doesn't work out. It doesn't work out. So they didn't address it in the transfer portal. They didn't address it in recruiting. And then now we get to a position where the play at those positions is just not good enough. It's just not good enough.

I think it's difficult to target transfer receivers if you're going to play the style of football that Michigan does. So I'm not going to be as hard on them about the wide receiver group as the quarterback group. And then this is what you have to kind of realize, folks, is that J.J. McCarthy was incredible, incredible. And I think a lot of people thought that it was just the offensive philosophy. It was just their ability to run the football that made them successful. and that McCarthy was just a system guy, but it couldn't be further from the truth. Now, they think that, and I understand why, because in a top 10 matchup, they went on the road and ran the ball 32 straight times against Penn State.

Now, they had that in their bag, and they were able to lean into that physical nature and go and win a football game on the road against a team that wanted to rush the quarterback. But if you actually dive into the numbers, you see that J.J. McCarthy was brilliant on third down. Not just good, not just adequate. it. He was brilliant on third down and namely on third and long. When you go back and you look at the numbers, he was unequivocally the best quarterback in the country on third and long, not even close. And so what they were able to do is continue to lean into their philosophy and their style, knowing that he bailed them out time and time and time again, and he never got credit for it.

And only now, in hindsight, do we all look back and we say to ourselves, you know what? JJ was pretty damn good. And he was, and he was, whether it was utilizing his legs or his ability to make plays with his arm down the field. He was the best quarterback in America on third and long. And candidly, it wasn't even close. He converted more third and longs than anybody in the country. So then you look at the wide receiver position and maybe you underestimated the contribution that a guy like Roman Wilson made or Cornelius Johnson. like these guys made big catches. And then you dive into it and you watch like Red Zone film from a year ago or third down film for a year ago. And you start to realize it was like, oh, dang, like Roman made huge catches all the time.

I mean, he had, I think it was like 12 touchdowns last year. So when they lose these guys, it's impossible to replace them. In particular, if you overvalue your own roster. more than anything in modern college football, I think that a coach's ability to clearly evaluate his own roster and then build a roster moving forward, whether that's roster retention or construction from outside, I think that's the most important thing going on,

and they didn't do it. So that's where we're sitting at here on the offensive side, and then that has affected their defense because they don't have the depth on defense that they did last year, in particular in the front seven. So when I would sit with Jesse Minter, we would talk a lot about what they had from a depth perspective in the front seven. And he thought that that was key, not because he got to play a lot of good players,

which is true, but it was the freshness aspect. So, like, so for instance, when I'm preparing last year for the Big Ten championship game as Michigan was about to face Iowa, you go through and you looked at like the average number of snaps per game for any of their defensive linemen, okay, edge players or interior defensive of tackles, none of them played much more over 30 snaps per game. In fact, Mason Graham played the most snaps per game and it was right around 30. So the depth allowed them to stay more fresh and then they were able to rush the quarterback with much greater effectiveness in particular later in games, which is what we saw in some of those big matchups, whether it was Alabama or whether it was

Ohio State or whether it was Washington. That's not there. I think we also maybe under estimate what the defensive secondary was and the second level. Junior Colson, the linebacker, Michael Barrett, their combination. They started together at the linebacker spot for about two and a half years. Okay. So now you're trying to replace that and they're doing it with transfers, Hausman and Barham. And then you come to this last guy and it's like, you know what? He might have been the best defender on the field last year and that's Mikey Sainer still. He's not out there. When Nick Saban praises an opponent to the level that he praised Mikey Sainer still, then we should all take notice because he's watched the film.

He knows what's going on. They have to game plan against him. So all of those guys are gone. They don't have the depth. They didn't evaluate the quarterback position right. They didn't evaluate the wide receiver position right. And here we are. And remember, they're trying to use the same philosophy.

This is not a team that blew people out a year. ago. It was a boa constrictor. I talked about it tirelessly right here on this program is that Michigan was the boa constrictor. And when you use the boa constrictor philosophy, you are creating a small margin for error where you've got to do everything right. So it matters if you're able to hold on to the football because you don't you don't play a style that's going to be able to come back from behind. So you've got to win the turnover margin. You've got to win the field position battle. You've got to win the time of possession battle. You've got to be good on third down. They were last. year. In fact, in a lot of those categories, they were the best in the country. They were the boa constrictor. They did it great. Nobody better. But the key is like JJ on third and long, keeping the defensive line fresh. There's these little ingredients that they don't have this year. And so when you play small margin games and you don't have those things, you lose. And that's what's going on with Michigan. So that's the current state with Michigan. And now we've got to look forward.

And I hate to say this to Michigan fans, but it's probably going to get worse before it gets better. Just look at their schedule moving forward. So you're going to have the Little Brother game, and you think Michigan State's not going to be geared up to play Michigan. That Michigan State team is getting better under Jonathan Smith. They just beat Iowa last week. That game was in Iowa City, so Michigan State is getting better. Then they've going to be home to the number one team in the country, the Oregon Ducks. then they've got to go to Indiana.

That's a top 15 team and an undefeated team that I just saw, and I can tell you right now, Indiana is absolutely better than Michigan. I've covered both of those teams. Indiana is playing exceptional football. Then they've got Northwestern at home, and then they've got to face Ohio State on the road. Like, holy cow. It will get worse before it gets better.

They will be, I think, fortunate to go to a bowl game this year. based on what's coming up on their schedule and the way that they're playing and the way in particular they're getting play from the quarterback position. So now let's look out long term. So that's where we're looking at for the short term and the rest of this season, probably getting worse before it gets better. Then you look long term and unfortunately doesn't look great for Michigan. If I'm a Michigan fan, I'm resting on that national championship because it might take a little bit of time.

It might take a little bit of time to dig out of what's going on right now. Remember, they're going to lose four first round draft picks. Four. Mason Graham's going to be a first round draft pick. I think Kenneth Grant's going to be a first round draft pick. Will Johnson's certainly going to be a first round draft pick. And Colson Loveland's going to be a first round draft pick. They're losing those guys. And their young players aren't that level. I just, they aren't. And you look around and Sharon Moore is going to have a very difficult off season. Because every head coach has got to go through this. And I've talked with a few guys that I really trust on this. And every coach, when things go wrong in your organization, every coach has to do

what I would call a clear-eyed evaluation. You've got to sit down and be ridiculously honest with yourself first. And you've got to understand, is this a coach's problem? Is this a player's problem? or is this a scheme problem? And there are sometimes when the problem is just one of three, sometimes it's two of three, and sometimes it's all three. I think for Michigan, if Sharon is being really honest with himself this offseason, he's going to see that there are issues in every three area, all the three areas. They've got to get more dynamic in their offensive schematics.

They have to change their roster out through NIL and through the transfer portal. And I do believe that there's going to be some change on their coaching staff. I really believe that. And listen, we probably should expect that because every one of these guys, whether it's Lincoln Riley or Ryan Day, these guys that take over and they kind of get the keys to the car and now it's theirs and the legend left after so much success, it takes a few years to try to make it your program. And we've seen Ryan Day have to hire defensive coordinators. He's been through three. Since he was there, he brought in Jeff Halfley. At one point, we've seen the same with Lincoln Riley as he's had to shuffle around his staff. He's been through several defensive

coordinators trying to figure that side of the ball out. And Sharon Moore is going to have to figure this out. He's going to have to evaluate what's going on in his coaching staff. And I think that there's probably a chance, probably a good chance, that it will look a little bit different. And that's okay. Everybody has got to do this around the country. And I'm not trying to lay blame on any one coach. This is just the current situation at Michigan. You've got to evaluate with clear eyes. Is it coaches? Is it players? Or is it schematics? For Michigan, it's a bit of all three. And then the last thing they've got to do, they have to address the quarterback position. You've got to understand what's on your roster. Maybe we see a little bit of Jaden Davis down the course of the year in the back half of the

year here, just so that they can evaluate what they've got in him. Do they need to go out and get a quarterback? What do they need to do in the transfer portal in order to fix this? So all of those things have to be asked and answered by Sharon Moore. So if I'm a Michigan fan, like, what am I thinking right now? Because a lot of this, unfortunately, for them, is a bit of doom and gloom, but I do think that it's accurate. I do think that it's accurate. If I'm a Michigan fan, I probably hang my hat on the fact that I've seen them turn it

around before, you know, from what we saw in the two and four COVID year to the three years after that, you know, I've seen a drastic turnaround from Michigan before, so maybe we can see it again. And in today's college football, it's built for this. Look at what Indiana is doing. Look at what Colorado has done over the last couple of years. You can change your roster quite dramatically, and I think Michigan might need to address that, at least in certain position groups.

That's pretty obvious. But it's available to them. It's available to them. I do not believe that Michigan can turn this around quickly just through internal development. That might be what they want to do. but I do believe that they're going to have to go out and address this roster from the exterior, get the right guys, and bring them in. If anybody wants to see how possible this is, go watch the Indiana Hoosiers play football.

Kurt Signetti brought in 27 transfers, 27. That's in the top five or six in all of college football, at least in the Power 4. 14 of those guys have started games. started games. And guess what? All of them had great success at their last location. He prioritized production over potential. It wasn't about how many stars you had coming out of high school. It was about how many yards you made, tackles you made, and what production you had on the stat sheet for good programs in college football. That, to me, speaks volumes. That's the model. I think that's the model. And I think that's what Michigan, maybe not to that level. maybe they don't have to go 27 transfers,

but they do need to lean in, I think, to creating a bit of roster competition at certain areas in the off-season. And that's available to them in the modern college football. Taking some honesty pills today, folks, taking some honesty pills today. And you know what? We got big boy pants on.

We can do this, fans. We can do this. It can't always be rainbows and butterflies. Sometimes you've got to sit down, you've got to honestly look yourself in the mirror, and you've got to ask yourself, what's going on and that's what we're doing. So that was Michigan. Let's move on to USC. They're three and four. What do we think? Current state. The current state for USC is maddening.

If I'm a USC fan, I am pulling my hair out because it's a razor-thin margin. You hate when I say this, but folks, they have had a minimum of a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter in every one of their losses. They've lost four of five games and blown the fourth quarter, leads in every one of them. Four fourth quarter blown leads tied with Kansas this year for the most in the country. They're right there. They're right there. Four losses by a combined 14 points in their last five games. It's got to be maddening. It is got to be maddening. Now, I think the frustrating part is that this is not the first year. This is not Sharon Moore's first year. You know, Michigan, you can give them a pass. They won the national championship. You deal with all that

turmoil. And then all of a sudden, you have all this roster turnover. And you think to yourself like, okay, maybe we weren't going to be great this year. But year three at USC for Lincoln Riley, and you've got to think to yourself like, why is this still going on? Why? Why are we still losing small? Why are we still losing small? And now I go back to my old equation, and I say it on this program quite a lot. And if you're new to this program, here it goes. When you're rebuilding a college football program, you will lose big before you lose small. and you will lose small before you win small. And you will win small before you win big.

Okay. Joe Paterno used to talk about that. Bobby Bowden used to talk about that. Like, everybody talks about that. There is a progression. It doesn't happen overnight. Even though we see it happen overnight now, through the transfer portal and NIL with teams like Indiana,

that's still the anomaly. Okay? That's still the anomaly. So for USC, what is this year? Let's categorize it. Do we say to ourselves, nope, this is year three. Or do we say to ourselves, this is year three for Lincoln Riley? It's also his first year without Caleb Williams. It's also the first year with Danton Lynn, the defensive coordinator. Isn't this a bit of a reboot? Now, some might say I'm being an apologist, and that's fine. And I'm not trying to be an

Apologist, as much as I'm trying to just talk honestly about this program. This offense is incredibly young. They have a first year starter at quarterback. There's all these things, and they are losing small. I think you need to pay attention to the truth about this process that I just laid out. It's very, I don't want to say easy. You have to strain and you have to try very hard, but, to go from losing big to losing small, it kind of happens. There's not a big hurdle.

It's just kind of the natural progression. To go from winning small to winning big, it's kind of the natural progression. The biggest hurdle that you've got to get over is the actual result from losing small to winning small. And right now, that's where USC is stuck. They're stuck on the hurdle. I think in a lot of ways, this is a mental hurdle for USC. Young offense, I know they're veteran on defense, but it's the first year under their defensive coordinator, and they're stuck. They're stuck right now on this hurdle. And it just seems to me, like if I'm evaluating the current state, I'm like, man, if they

get any one of these games to just flip and they get the outcome that they want, don't you think that they could create a little momentum? Well, yes. Obviously, why? Because they're in every game. there's nothing glaring that's telling me like, nope, it's not even close. It is close. It is close.

And you might be frustrated as a Trojan fan. And I understand that. And you might want to yell and scream and say, no, this is not it. But it is close. You can't argue with that fact. That's what the numbers suggest. Four losses by a total of 14 points. That's close.

You might not like it, but that's the truth. That's the truth. So for me, it could just be any tipping point. It could be the next domino. They win their next close game. And guess what? Like Pete Carroll told his teams all the way back in the early 2000s, we don't have to lose anymore.

You could be looking at this as the bottom of USC football under Lincoln Riley. Think about it that way. If I'm telling you Michigan is probably going to get worse before it gets better, I'm telling you right now, this could absolutely be the bottom. Now, will it be? I'm not sure. I'm not telling you it is the bottom, but it could be. It could be because that tipping point from losing small to winning small, it happens that quickly.

Just one. You learn how to do it with all those young players and then boom, you start to win football games because you get over the mental hurdle of finishing off a team when you have a lead in the fourth quarter. That's the honest situation. So is it coaches, is it players, or is it scheme? well, you know what? If I'm Lincoln Riley, I'm a little bit confident in all three. We just got to keep pressing. Our scheme is putting us in a position to win. Our players are putting us in a position to win. Our coaching staff has been evaluated,

and we've changed that, and it's gotten better. So at this point, it's just about, can we win the game? Will we win the game? Will we make the one play? Will we learn how to finish off a team? See, in a lot of ways, this team reminds me a little bit of the 2022 Texas team under Steve Sarkesian. They were two and five in one score games, and then it popped the next year. And I covered that Texas team, and they were right there in games that it's like, man, you could have won that game. Think about it. USC puts themselves in position, they win against LSU.

Now they put themselves in position. They don't against Michigan. That Texas team was doing the exact same thing. Put themselves in position. they lost to Alabama. And again, two and five and one score games. They played seven one possession games that year, 2002 under Steve Sarkesian.

And yet at the end, they kind of learned how to get over that hump. And then it popped to the next year. They also were a team that were very young in critical spots. They had a quarterback that was going to be coming back. They had an offensive line that was largely going to be coming back. Even though they were losing some stars like Bijon Robinson, they had enough coming back where Steve Sarkisian knew if he could just retain the roster, it would likely get better. That 2022 was a bottom point for Texas football.

And now we know that because we have the benefit of hindsight. What if this is the bottom point for USC? It very well might be. No, it might not, but it very well might be because here's what it looks like moving forward. I think that the biggest job that Lincoln's going to have, not only in the rest of this season, but in the off season, one is finding some wins over this. schedule that they've got, Ruckers on a Friday night, Washington, Nebraska, UCLA, and Notre Dame, which, by the way, they're going to be in every one of those games. They could absolutely win all five of them. They could absolutely lose two or three of them, but it's about getting over the hurdle of finishing with a lead in the fourth quarter. So that's what they have

moving forward, could very well get better, and then you've got to evaluate it in the offseason. And for Lincoln Riley, I think the biggest job he's going to have in the off season is what I've talked about previously on this show, which is player really. attention. I think the players are there. In particular on the offensive side, you know, they could return nine starters on offense if he can retain them. What he's got to prevent is some sort of mass exodus away from USC in this new era. So Lincoln Riley's main job is going to be recruiting his own players in the offseason. I firmly believe this. You've got really good talent on the outside. Zachariah Branch could come back. Mackay Lemon could come back.

Jacoby Lane could come back. Duce Robinson could come back. They're all sophomores. Khyn Hudson would a decision to make, but maybe he comes back. We've seen players that aren't going to be in the top end of the draft decide to come back, earn NIL dollars, and try to increase their stock. Miller Moss has another year. They could have three starters back on the offensive line. Remember, right now they're starting a redshirt freshman left tackle at both spots. They've got a true sophomore right guard. So again, like, this should get better in short order, in particular with the schedule they've got coming down the stretch. You're going to have year two with Danton Lynn.

And if I'm going to do anything, if I'm Lincoln Riley, I'm going to go into the portal. I'm going to address the defense because they've got some seniors rolling off of this roster on the defensive side. You can get quality players to come in and play solid defense. You retain your core on the offensive side. And their schedule, by the way, is a lot more favorable than it was this year. They don't have to play a game like LSU early. So USC to me, they're three and four. Everybody's out for Lincoln Riley right now.

but I'm just telling you this very well might be the bottom for USC. Can't say that about Michigan, and you know who else you can't say that about? Oklahoma. Let's get to Oklahoma. So Oklahoma, where are we at in their current state with Oklahoma? Well, Brent Venables also in year three, blown out and back-to-back games now against Texas and Red River and then South Carolina. They scored a total of one touchdown in those two games,

and it's their first year in the Seder. SEC and it's going horribly wrong. Now, we all knew that their schedule was incredibly difficult, and we talked about it at length on this show. But the offense has been a disaster. I told you that after the Tennessee game, by the way. And I told you that it didn't matter who was the quarterback. Everybody was making a big deal that Jackson Arnold played terrible against Tennessee. And oh, man, can't wait for Hawkins to get in there. And it's going to change. No, it's not going to change. Why? The scheme was wrong. The offense was wrong. And now we have evidence of that, because they fired their offensive coordinator, Seth Latrell.

So seven games in, Seth Latrell is out. Jackson Arnold is going to be back in at quarterback, and this offense is 107th in scoring offense. They're 116th in total yards. It's not working. To be fair to Oklahoma, they have been decimated on the outside in particular through injuries. You've been missing Andrew L'Anthony and Jol Farooke and Nick Anderson and Jaden Gibson.

All of that is true. Dionne Burks might come back. this week, but the other wide receivers don't seem particularly close. Now, I do believe that that's a convenient excuse because the film that I watched, the entire offensive system was wrong. I'm just telling you that honestly. We're taking honesty pills here today. All right, folks, when I watched that film against Tennessee and others,

it's just like, nope, this is not right. The offensive line is playing terrible football. They cannot run the ball. When they try to run the football, the scheme is wrong. They don't target the right people on the offensive line. Their protection game plan is all off. They're sliding to the wrong side. The eyes of the quarterback is not in the proper place in the passing game.

The system is wrong. So while I will give it to you, Oklahoma fans, that the injuries have certainly played a factor. The factor remains that the biggest choice that Brent Vinnables had to make was this firing of their offensive. coordinator, Seth Lattrell. It was not going well. It had to be a total overhaul. Coaches, players, or scheme? Well, in this part, it's two. And then a bit of a third. Third, the players, because they've been injured, but then the coaching staff was wrong and the

scheme was wrong. And he had to adjust it. And he did. So big credit to Coach Venables for identifying with clear eyes what was going on on the offensive side. Okay. Injuries are always going to be a part of football. And I don't think we can blame everything on the offensive side for Oklahoma, just on injuries. Are they a factor? Yes. Was it more scheme related? Absolutely. So this move should pay dividends. Okay. Vinnables tried to address the players with the QB change. Wasn't necessarily the players, folks. And I told you that. I told you that. So now moving forward, they've got a placeholder offense because this is not going to be the offense that they go with moving forward. Joe John Finley is now going to be their coordinator and it's like,

this is a placeholder, all right? And I think we all know that. So like Michigan, this is going to get worse before it gets better for Oklahoma. This is not the bottom, just like the Wolverines. In the short term, it's going to get worse. And folks, it might get a lot worse. Check out their schedule the rest of the way. They've got to go to number 18 Ole Miss. Then they get the reprieve of that nice SEC schedule. They've got Maine, FCS. We didn't even put it up because why. Okay, it's an off week.

Then they've got to go to 21st ranked Missouri, even though I still think Missouri is overrated. They've got Alabama at home, and then they've got to go to top 10 LSU. Yikes. With a makeshift offense, it is a temporary structure. It is the Northwestern Stadium by the lake of offenses.

This ain't coming back. So what are we going to do offensively if we're Oklahoma? You know what we're going to do? Just play hard. Like that's going to be the game plan. Like play hard. I hope that they can fix some of these structural issues, but sometimes it's just baked into the cake.

If that's the system and you don't have answers for things like protection breakdowns, then it's not going to get better anytime soon. And in particular against this schedule. So what do they need to do? offseason. What does Brent Venables need to do in the off season? Well, he's got to retain a lot of of these talented players, which he's recruited. He's done a great job in recruiting. And now he's got to do a great job in recruiting to retain a lot of his roster, similar to Lincoln Riley. And then you get into like, okay, what should Brent Venables look for when he looks into an

offensive coordinator? And this is where I get a little bit excited. And this is going to be my favorite part of the show because he's got a chance to do something really special. I think Brent Vidables has a chance to do something that we're going to look at in subsequent years and be like, man, that was a great move. I mean, and think about this. This is not out of the ordinary. We have seen guys that are very good football coaches have to make complete overhauled decisions of one side of the football. Now, Oklahoma fans are going to hate this comparison, but Lincoln Riley's had to do that on the defensive side, maybe a couple of times.

and he did that this year with Danton Lynn. Okay, so now that you're done puking Oklahoma fans, other guys have done it as well. Jim Harbaugh had to do it. Don't you remember that he went from Don Brown to Mike McDonald and changed the entire defensive schematics of what they were doing? And then from that point on, they played much better defense. And they've been in those schematics ever since, led to a national championship.

We've seen this time and time again. We've seen Ryan Day have to do this on the defensive side. And he brought in Jim Knowles. We saw Bob Stoops have to do this at your school. back in what was it, 2014-15, and what did he do? He hired Lincoln Riley. Okay, come on back. Stop throwing up. I'm going to stop bringing up his name. But think outside of the box is what I'm talking about. You have a chance to go and totally overhaul it, totally overhaul it. My suggestion would be that you do what these other guys before Venables have done, like Mike Bellotti or Bob Stoops or

Urban Meyer or even Ed Ogeron. Think about what these guys did, right? Mike Bellotti at Oregon, And when he needed an offensive coordinator after Jeff Tedford left, who'd he go get? Chip Kelly. A nobody at the time from New Hampshire. When Bob Stoops needed to change offenses, what did he go do? He didn't go get the hottest name. He got a guy that no one knew who his name was from East Carolina named Lincoln Riley. What did Urban Meyer do when he needed a new offensive coordinator?

And he knew that he had to overhaul the passing game. He went and got an NFL assistant coach. that wasn't even calling plays at the time. Chip Kelly's quarterback coach at San Francisco, a guy named Ryan Day. What did Ed Ogeron do when he knew he had to change offenses and they needed to give Joe, or excuse me, Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase something different?

He went and found another offensive assistant that wasn't even calling plays at the NFL level named Joe Brady. What did Dion Sanders do this year when he knew he had to overhaul the defense? He went to the NFL and got an assistant that wasn't. wasn't calling defensive plays, Rob Livingston. And now Rob Livingston has actually made Colorado's defense relevant. And now Colorado is sitting there and they've got a chance in the Big 12th. This is the type of outside of the box thinking that I would love to see from Brent Venables.

If he's able to do something like that and he hires a guy that we don't know his name, but I think in hindsight, we might be looking back and being like, that was a brilliant move. What I fear is going to happen is because in order to appease a fan base, a lot of times a coach, We'll just go hire a name that everyone knows. And a lot of those guys are retreads. I hate to say it, but it's like a revolving door of the names that we know. Now, the thing that all of these guys had that Venables doesn't have is equity. Because people are already clamoring for him.

See, this is what makes it harder to go and hire a guy outside of the box is that your neck is on the line for the higher. Whereas in Mike Bellotti's case, in Bob Stoop's case, and Urban Myers case, that was different. That was different. So they could go out there and take a chance. They could do something that was a little bit outside of the box. Will Brent Venables have the courage to do that? I think that that's the vein that he should go. I'm looking around at guys like Brennan Marion, the offensive coordinator at UNLV. What about a guy named Mike Shanahan. He's the offensive coordinator at Indiana. These are the names that I want to hear.

I don't want to hear the same retread, revolving door names. He had success in the SEC back in 2011. I don't care. I don't care. I want to see something outside of the box for Oklahoma. And I think Oklahoma fans, I think you're smart enough because Oklahoma fans,

like you get it. And we've been on this road for a long time, you and I. I've been covering Oklahoma for a long time. You guys get it. You're a smart fan base. And I think that you understand what I'm trying to say in terms of this hire for Brent Benibles.

If you give him the opportunity to go hire somebody that you might not know, that might actually be a good thing and maybe even a better thing than some retread that's a revolving door. All right. Last thing before we get out of here, I've got another wild but possible in college football this year. We've gotten a lot of them. We did a whole show, wild but possible. Last week I brought up another one that we might get Army Navy and back-to-back weeks. AAC championship game and then the traditional Army Navy game the very next weekend.

That would be wild but possible. Here's another one. Wild but possible. You start looking around, right? You start looking at these conference standings and you're like, wait, hold on a second. Those three teams don't play each other in the Big Ten, which means Oregon, Penn State, and Indiana could all wind up undefeated. That's insane. And then we've got to start looking at tiebreakers.

But before we look at tiebreakers, we've got to understand. that there is one common opponent on every one of those schedules, Ohio State. So if this were to happen, that would mean that Penn State beats the Buckeyes and Indiana beats the Buckeyes and that Ohio State would be on the outside looking in the college football playoff and that these three teams would all be undefeated in a three-way tie to try to go to the Big Ten championship game and play for a championship, which would give them a first round buy into the college football playoff. Wild. So here's what you need to know about the buy. Here's the fourth tiebreaker we would get to if this happens. And it's basically

the cumulative conference record of all their big 10 opponents. Or another way of saying this, like, who played the hardest schedule in the conference? Now, as of right now, and this I'm sure will change based on the rest of the year. But as of now, Oregon will play the toughest schedule of the three, followed by Penn State and then Indiana. But plenty can happen in the next six weeks. But as it stands now, if they all, if they all go undefeated, one, Ohio State would be on the outside. And two, it would be an Oregon Penn State Big Ten championship game with Indiana in their home state not being able to go to the Big Ten championship game, but certainly going to the playoff as an undefeated and hosting a playoff game in all likelihood in the Rock in Bloomington

the next week. Oh, gosh. Can we just imagine that? I mean, these wild the possibles are great. We might get Texas, Texas, A&M in back-to-back weeks. We might get Army Navy in back-to-back weeks. We might get a three-way undefeated tie break in the Big Ten. I think college football is incredible. If you think that the expanded conferences and the expanded playoff has been bad for the sport, then you're crazy.

You are absolutely nuts because this has been tremendous. We have got so many teams that are still in it, not just mathematically, but realistically. And I think those two things are different. And I think we can all understand the difference. Almost everybody's still mathematically alive in their own conference. We know that realistically, it's just about the top half of the conference that can actually get to these games. But I still think we're looking at 30, 35 teams right now.

And more specifically, 3035 fan bases, you at home listening to this, that are clamoring for games in their stadiums that mean something. And unfortunately, the three fan bases that I talked about today, you're not part of that. Sorry, Michigan, sorry USC, and sorry Oklahoma. That'll do it. We've got picks and previews coming up tomorrow. I very much appreciate all of you for listening to this show. Make sure to subscribe to the show on YouTube.

And then follow us wherever you like to social media at Joel Clatt Show. Have a blessed day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.