The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Joel Klatt ranks the Top 5 Teams in the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, ACC and Non-Power 4

Episode Date: October 16, 2024

At the midway point of the season, FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt ranks his Top 5 teams in each of the Power 4 Conferences as well as his Top 5 teams outside the Power Conferences. In the Big Ten, he considers the ramifications from Oregon and Penn State’s big wins last weekend and where to place Ohio State following their first loss of the season. In the SEC, teams like LSU, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Georgia all have at least one loss and Klatt debates what order to place them. In the Big 12, several teams are in the running for a Top 5 spot and he discusses how he evaluates Kansas State and Colorado following their matchup last weekend. In the ACC, he breaks down how he separates Miami and Clemson at the top of the Conference. For his Top 5 teams outside the Power Conferences, he discusses Army and Navy’s undefeated starts and how there is an incredible late-season scenario that’s starting to feel more and more likely to happen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Something inside me believes that we're going to see the best version of Michigan in the second half of the season than what we saw in the first half. College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. I 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 in everybody. Welcome to the Joel Clatt show.

I am Joel Clatt. This show is presented by Hampton, by Hilton. And we thank you so much for joining us. here midweek as we are barreling through the college football season. We got a great show for you. I'm going to rank one through five the five top teams in each power conference and then the five top teams that are non-powerful conference teams. So that's coming up. Plus a scenario that is going to blow your mind that is absolutely possible at the end of this year. Now, first, before we get into that, you know what to do. Wherever you like to social media, go follow us. We've got a lot of

great content out there. At Joel Clatt Show is where you can follow us. You can follow me personally. I'm at Joel Clatt on Twitter. And make sure you're subscribing to the show on YouTube. We've got a lot of things planned for YouTube specifically, including that schematic series. It's going to be awesome. We are working through it actively right now. We're not going to release it until we are super happy with it. So look for that here in the coming weeks and months. So that out of the way, let's get to the show. Like I said, I'm going to be ranking my top five teams in each of the power conferences, my top five from non-power conference, and then this scenario at the end that's going to absolutely blow your mind because could absolutely happen. And that's coming up. That'll be right at the end of the program.

But let's get started with the top five teams in each conference. Let's start in the Big Ten conference. And it's pretty easy to know who's number one. We're going to go one to five. And guess what? Number one, Oregon Ducks. Kudos to the Oregon Ducks. I'll tell you, what a win for them, 6 and 0, that win in Austin last Saturday over Ohio State was tremendous.

They showed not only that they're capable of playing with and beating Ohio State, but doing it at the line of scrimmage. They did a great job running the football. They did a great job protecting the quarterback. And then they put some pressure on Will Howard in particular late. So when I talk about teams at the top of college football, I think that you've got to win at the line of scrimmage. I thought Oregon won at the line of scrimmage for the most part against Ohio State. So here they come into the Big Ten and they physically were ready and the talent certainly is there with the way that Dan Laining has recruited, retained talent, and then obviously acquired talent through the transfer portal. I thought that was a tremendous win for Oregon and they're clearly one of, if not the best team in the country after that win.

Dylan Gabriel, he stepped up and played one of his best games that I've seen in a long time. And he even left some meat on the bone. There were a couple of throads that he could have made and they just missed on. but I thought Dylan played exceptionally well, in particular because his style, I always felt like was a bit of a point guard, share the football, short passing type of style, and he heard him going down the field. He was, what, 4-04 for 177 yards going down the field, 20 or more yards. So that was very good.

And those explosive plays, they were tremendous for Oregon. And really the difference in the game when you really look at it and all set is done. Also, my suspicion was correct. I've always said that if there was a young coach that I could buy stock in in America, it's Dan Lannning. I've really enjoyed my conversations with Dan Lannning. I think he does a hell of a job with his program in all areas, by the way, talent acquisition, culture creation, the way that he's hired staff, the way that he builds his roster and then coaches his team on the field, the way that he is an outside of the box seeker in terms of the schematics that he has on the field.

And that was bore out at the end of the game when my suspicion was correct. The 12 men on the field was absolutely planned. It's a loophole in the rules and it bought them a free four seconds with only 10 seconds left on the clock. So kudos to Dan landing and he confirmed it this week in his press conference. Much of the commentary world has decided and struck you as a genius, Dan, for the 12-man penalty and declared that it was intentional. was it indeed intentional to induce the throw one-on-one against Jabbar in that spot? He wasn't one-on-one. We actually had a safety on top.

So there was a, so it's called dog. It's when you play, but he wasn't an extremely tight coverage, but he was in dog coverage where he had safety on top of him. And, yeah, there was a timeout before that. We spent an order amount of time on situations. There are some situations that don't show up very often in college football, but this is one that obviously was something that we have worked on. So you can see the result.

obviously sheepish there, but a confirmation nonetheless. And now, by the way, some information coming out of like the Rules Committee from the NCAA, they're going to look at this and maybe adjust the rules so that that loophole doesn't exist. The NFL has already done that. And I'm certain college football will do the same. And like I said, it didn't break any rule. There was nothing, if it's legal, do it. And that's exactly what they did.

And I thought that that was brilliant. And so Oregon, a very clear, number one. Number two is Ohio State. Even with the loss, I think we can all say that, yeah, Ohio State went out to an incredibly difficult environment. And they had a one-point loss, and they were in position where they could have won the football game. So are there things to clean up? Certainly for Ohio State. And Oregon did everything they needed to do to win the game and should be given the top spot, absolutely.

Ohio State, though, with a one-point loss, you can see where they would be thinking to themselves, okay, let's go back to the drawing board, fix some of the top spot. the things that did not work for us in that game in Otson and we'll be fine. Now, are they in a more precarious situation? Absolutely. Because now they've got to face an Indiana team that is very good, undefeated to this point. They've still got to face Penn State, both of those games on the road, by the way. They still have to play their rival, Michigan, in a game in which they haven't beaten Michigan in the last three years. And I don't know if they get to Indianapolis and play for a Big Ten title if they lose any of those games.

So their back is against the wall, but that's still certainly a very good team. I thought Will Howard played pretty great. Now, can you say he played great when there were a couple of really key mistakes, drops a snap on a third down, slides too late with six seconds left? No, you can't play great when those mistakes are occurring.

But outside of that, I thought that Will Howard played really well. The defense has to be fixed, though. The structure wasn't right in the run game. They played man coverage on the outside and yet didn't get to the quarterback, and that was the biggest issue. They've got to find a way to put pressure on the quarterback. I thought there was far too much straight ahead four-man rush, and those guys didn't win in those one-on-one situations. They don't have a sack in Saturday's game. And now this is too common for Ohio State that they play one of these matchup style games where the talent is equated and they don't put enough pressure on the quarterback.

This has happened, I think, too often. And that defensive line has got to play. play well and certainly moving forward, still have that Penn State, and we'll find out in about two and a half weeks if they can fix those wrongs. At number three, I've got Penn State. That was a huge win for James Franklin and Penn State at USC. I understand that USC's record and ranking aren't going to reflect what I think is the quality nature of their team. Yes, they're three and three. Totally understand that. But I think that we can all, in good consciousness, say, that's a great win for Penn State. In particular, remember how the last two regular seasons have gone for the Nittany Lions.

This is a team that in their biggest matchups has come up short. Now, those matchups over the last two years have been Michigan and Ohio State. Now they don't have to play Michigan. By the way, they don't have to play Oregon either. So they've got a favorable schedule in the Big Ten, and this was a big hurdle for them. Go on the road all the way out to the law. West Coast, which they hadn't done, and beat a really good football team.

And again, yes, USC is a really good football team, even at three and three. So that's a huge win for James Franklin and the quarterback Drew Aller, because Drew Aller, he was in a position where if they lose that game, he's going to be the goat and not in a good way because of the three interceptions. So when he's able to put that behind him and go out there and play the way that he did coming down the stretch and specifically on those fourth down, plays, that is a huge hurdle to get over for Penn State and their quarterback. Because the rest of the team, you can see it. It's coming along. You know they can run the football

with those two running backs. I think that their defense is a solid defense, maybe not quite as great as they've been over the last two years, but a very solid defense. And then the big question was, are they going to have a threat in the passing game emerge? And I thought a couple of different threats emerged. The ability to go to Julian Fleming in big situations, like fourth down. That's one of them. And Tyler Warren has 17 catches from the tied-in position. So a huge win for Penn State and the way that it happened. I like Penn State at number three. Now it gets interesting because I think everybody would have the same top three in the big 10. But now it gets interesting. At number four, drum roll.

Indiana. I've got Indiana at four. Kurt Signetti has done a marvelous job with Indiana. They are 6 and 0. Cannot wait to get to Bloomington this week. They've got a monster game against a 5-1 Nebraska team on Saturday. It's Big Noon Saturday. It's Big Noon kickoff. And we're going to go there and we're going to celebrate this program that has turned it around like that. Signetti has done a masterful job.

This is a team that right now is the number two scoring offense in college football, number one scoring offense in the Big 10. They're scoring 47 and a half points per game. You look up and down this. roster and you realize that Kurt Signetti navigated the transfer portal beautifully. They brought in 27 transfers. 27. I believe that was the second most in all of college football.

13 of those transfers, by the way, followed Signetti from JMU to Indiana. Nine of those 13 are starting for Indiana. I thought the philosophy that he used, and he's talked about this in some different areas, and in conversations that I've had with and around the program. His strategy was very simple. And by the way, peek your ears up, everybody around college football,

all you staff members out there that listen to the show, Kurt Signetti went after players that had a ton of experience on winning programs and had a chip on their shoulder. So it was like this three-pronged criteria that he was able to go out there and get guys like Curtis Roe. And Rourke has been sensational for them at quarterback. He's second in the Big Ten in both passing yards and completion percentage. He's been tremendous.

And they've got a really good wide receiver room led by one of those JMU transfers. They've got JMU transfers at running back. They've got a good stable of running backs. And then up front, their offensive line is certainly as a group, playing better as a group than any of their individual players. I think that they're playing above their talent level right now, and Indiana has done a heck of a job. They're playing a really physical Nebraska team on Saturday. That's going to be a great game.

I cannot wait to get there. Like I said, Big Noon kickoff live from Bloomington, 10 a.m. Eastern and Big Noon Saturday will be there. Gus Jenny and I have the call as Nebraska take on the Indiana Hoosiers. All right. Number five. And truth be told, everybody, there were seven teams that I considered at number five. This is when you just get to like this mass of humanity in the Big Ten, where regardless of who I put up right here, any of these teams could really beat any of the others on any given Saturday. So I had to go with my gut.

My gut tells me that there is a team that is far better than their record that is legitimately three to four snaps away from being undefeated in the top 10 team of the country. that has a win over LSU, and that's why USC is my number five team in the Big Ten. I know that's going to make a lot of people upset because there are certainly teams out there with better records than USC, and you can say, what in the world? But look at the games that USC has played. They've had a seven-point lead in every one of their losses, Michigan, Minnesota, and Penn State. They're right there. And the bottom line for me is that any of the teams that I did not pick at number five,

could easily lose to USC. Now, two of them actually beat USC. And really, the seven got boiled down to about four teams that I was looking at. And the three that I really thought about were Iowa, Illinois, and Nebraska. SC is good. Would they definitely beat all of those teams? I'm not totally sure. Have we seen them lose to Michigan?

Yes. Have we seen them lose to Minnesota? Yes. Should they have beaten Penn State? Maybe. I just, I keep them at five. And then here's this Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska kind of like triumphant. And I'm thinking to myself, man, any one of those teams could be number five.

I like a lot of things that each of those do. I think Iowa, if you look at them against Penn State, you hate what you see. Or not Penn State. I'm sorry. Their loss against Iowa State. If you look at Iowa against Washington, then you love what you see. And you love the physicality and what they can do. If you see Illinois against Penn State, this is the one I was thinking of,

you don't like what you see. If you see Illinois on the road against Nebraska, then that's pretty good. Nebraska against Colorado, love what you see. The way they played down the stretch against Illinois, you see where I'm getting at. It's just like game in and game out. These are going to be close games. These are the three teams that I was considering at number five, which leaves this great question.

At least I would assume it's a great question. It's like, Joel, there's no Michigan up there. Now, maybe none of you were considering Michigan in any of this, but I was, and now this four and two team Michigan, aren't they like the great anomaly? Do we really know what Michigan is at this point in the season? You might argue that we don't. So Jack Tuttle comes in after the first quarter against Washington.

And at the high end with Jack Tuttle, it's like, well, this team could be a playoff team. Watch out. They could win the rest of the games on their schedule. And then all of a sudden, the three series after that, when they're turning the ball over, you're like, oh, well, this isn't going to work. Any team in the Big Ten can beat Michigan. Michigan has such a wild margin between what they could be at their best and what they are at their worst. and really it all boils down to turnovers. If they can hold on to the football, they're going to be tough to beat. But if they continue to turn the football over, then a lot of teams could beat them.

And you look at the rest of their schedule, and it's pretty easily two or three more losses if they're turning the ball over. Now, I have, Jack Tuttle did not get a lot of reps before going in against Washington. something inside me believes that we're going to see the best version of Michigan in the second half of the season than what we saw in the first half. When we saw three quarterbacks and a lot of turnovers and just not a lot of stability from that program. But we'll see. As of now, they weren't in my top five. They weren't really in that group that I was considering for that number five spot. But you still reserve the right, like at their best with Tuttle, could they beat anybody left on their schedule?

Yeah, maybe. Maybe. this is still the team that has beaten Ohio State three straight times, and Oregon's going to have to face this Michigan team. I just don't think that it's going to be a bargain if Tuttle is retaining the football. All right, let's move to the SEC. All right, number one in the SEC, I think is pretty easy. That's Texas.

Texas is the number one team. No one has really tested them so far. They're the number one offense in the country. They're the number one defense in the country. Now, is that defensive number a little bit inflated? Maybe, maybe. although they have played Michigan and they have played Oklahoma. You could make an argument that at the time that they played those games,

those offenses were as bad of ranked offenses as you could possibly see. Does that inflate their defensive numbers? Maybe a little bit, but I do still think that this is a very good defense. I've studied enough of their tape to know that this is real. This team absolutely is one of if not the best team in the country. They've got a great offense. They've got a really good offensive line. which I think is paramount in this sport.

And then defensively, they do enough. They do enough. And those last three quarters against Oklahoma were absolutely dominant. They could make a huge statement. You talk about if they were able this weekend to beat Georgia, now granted, that game is in Austin, their favorite. But if they can beat Georgia, it's going to put all the questions to bed. Not that there's any questions, but it's like right now people are considering,

is Oregon the number one team, is Texas the number one team? if they can beat Georgia at home, they're 100% the best team in the country, without question. And we'll see if they can do that. They can make a huge statement. I love their line play. And that's really what wins in college football. When you get into these matchup games, when talent is equated across the board, that's what wins. Number two is Georgia. I understand that they lost to Alabama, but Georgia is still the number two team in the SEC. They're 5 and 1. I'm a bit concerned on a couple of fronts.

Now, overall, I still love this team, and in particular, their experienced quarterback. He's having to throw it around a little bit more, though, in order to score points because of this concern that I have, which is they're not running the football all that effectively. And you look up and it's like, okay, they've played six games in three of their six games. They've run the football for under four yards per carry in those games. games. They're having to rely on the passing game and they don't have the stable of receivers and tight ends that they had in previous years. That's all. I think that that's a bit of a concern. I think that they're going to need to run the football better in order to slow down,

like, let's say, a pass rush, in order to create easier opportunities to throw the ball for Carson Beck. All of those things are age-old truths in football. that I think that they're going to need. This game is a huge game for Georgia. I don't have to say that. Everyone knows that. In particular, because they already have that one loss, a second loss almost assuredly knocks them out of the SEC championship game,

which knocks them out of the possibility of having a first round by, which means that they're going to have to play in the first round of the playoff. And then you start to wonder, like, will they have to go on the road pending what happens elsewhere? Like, let's just say for a moment, Georgia loses to Texas and wins out, but they're not in the SEC championship game. And then Oregon wins out, loses to Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game, and they only have one loss. Well, who's getting the fifth seed? Oregon is, right? And then who's getting the sixth seed? Well, probably the team that loses the SEC championship. And then you don't know what's happening with Miami and Florida State. And now all of a sudden you can get to this scenario where it's like, oh, man, Georgia's going to have to go on the road.

Now, I don't envy the team that has to play them even in their home stadium, but it's plausible that if they lose this game, they have to go on the road in the first round of the playoffs. And nobody would have expected that at the beginning of the season. This was widely considered to be, along with Ohio State, one of the two best teams in the country. So they're trying to avoid their second loss of the season, which if you would have told anybody that at the beginning of the year, they would have thought you were crazy. At number three, and this again, this starts to get hard. I've got LSU. LSU is number three to me. I really like Nussmeyer, their quarterback.

He was really good against Ole Miss in that game. He made big plays when they needed them. They never led in the game. He led them back to a victory in overtime. That last drive and some of the throws that he made late in that game were tremendous. The touchdown throw to tie the game was insane. Now they've got five straight wins since that lost to USC. And I'm just circling those.

They've got these two games. they've got Alabama, they've got Texas A&M. If they can beat Texas A&M, man, they've got a great shot to go to the SEC championship game. I don't think Alabama is going to go through the rest of the season unscathed, which means that there's a good possibility that they have a second SEC loss, which means that if LSU, even if they were to lose to Alabama, as long as they beat Texas A&M, they would likely only have one SEC loss,

which would put them in the SEC championship game. Number four, because of the scenario I just said, I've got Alabama. This offense is clearly explosive. You guys know that, but everything that I said last week about Alabama is coming to fruition. This is a team that as the offense goes, they go. If their offense struggles, they'll be in a dog fight. If they're playing a really good team, the offense is going to have to outscore them. The defense has just not been existent right now.

The defense has major issues, both in their structure and their ability to cover down the field. The 31-yard touchdown that allowed South Carolina to potentially tie the game. Now they failed in the two-point play, but it's like, how many big plays are we going to see against Alabama? Too many. Too many right now. It's kind of like the lack of pass rush for Ohio State. We're just seeing too many explosive plays against Alabama. And that's something that I warned against dating all the way back to after the South Florida game when I was prepping for that Wisconsin game. on film, there are big plays to be had against this Alabama team.

And the teams that have the talent can exploit that. And certainly if you're in the SEC, you can exploit that. Now, you're still going to have to beat Jalen Milrow and Ryan Williams. And that's tough to do. And that run game and that offense in general, which is going to be very, very difficult to do. Because they are as explosive as anybody in the country, 15 touchdowns of 25 or more yards.

That's the most in college football. This is a hell of a team. they're number four in the SEC. At number five, here we go. I've got Texas A&M. I really love what I saw against Missouri, and I understand that I think Missouri is overrated, and I will maintain that position because it's true.

However, A&M throttled Missouri, and you look up and it's like, they're getting better and better and better. And Coach Elko is a guy that, he's A&M through and through. That's something that even all their fan base has said to me, whether it's social media or even in person, it's like he's one of us.

And they've been waiting for a guy like that to be down there for a long time. I think Colin Klein is a hell of an offensive coordinator. There was a lot of dirt thrown on Texas A&M after the first week. By the way, there's three teams that all lost week one of the season in fairly high profile matchups. Every one of those teams that has lost has gotten better. and better and better. And right now would be considered, at least in my estimation, top tier in their conference. I'm talking about Clemson, talking about Texas A&M, and I'm talking about LSU.

All three of those teams lost week one, got better, better, better. There is something to be said about development and going back and working hard and being a better football team in October and November than you were in September. And that's clearly what's going on with Texas A&M. Wigman is back. His shoulders healed up. They were able to run the football really well. A&M with that schedule that they have. Watch out for them. They're number five. Here's the teams that I was considering at number five. Outside looking in, I would say Tennessee is right on the outside looking in.

I don't love what's going on with their quarterback right now. Nico Iiomaleava is a guy that I really enjoy watching when he's at his best. But there's a lot to clean up for the young quarterback. And if he doesn't clean it up fast, then they might lose this week when they host Alabama. Ole Miss was considered, although two losses in the way that they lost. I couldn't put them in the top five. And as you know, I think Missouri is overrated, but I had to at least consider them with the one loss.

And then Vandy. I considered Vandy right there because Vandy just continues to play well. In a lot of ways, they should have beat Missouri. And if they would have done that, then they probably would have been the five team, number five team in the SEC. So there's my top five in the SEC. Let's go to the Big 12.

Oh, gosh, the Big 12. This one is like, once you get past the top three, It's like, okay, who's left? Number one is Iowa State. I really love Matt Campbell. I think he's a terrific football coach. He is going to have peaks and valleys at Iowa State because it's a program that has to develop players. And those players need to be veteran players in order to have success.

6 and 0 for the first time since 1938. Hello. Rocco Becked at quarterback. I really like the way that he's playing. they've got two really quality receivers. Jalen Knoll and Jaden Higgins. You look up, these guys are tearing it up on the outside. They can play.

And they've got another one of those teams that is just like, oh, guess what? They've got a good quarterback that is rugged and gritty and competitive. They've got a couple of guys to throw it to. And oh, by the way, their defense is number five in the country in scoring defense. It's not a fluke that they beat Iowa. Now, Iowa had chances in that game to win.

No doubt, but Iowa State got the win. And it's a very sound, fundamentally sound team from Matt Campbell. They're number one in the Big 12 right now as an undefeated. I've got BYU number two. And I bounced back and forth with it, was it BYU was at Iowa State? Was it BYU was at Iowa State? I think at this point, I trust Iowa State's offense just to touch more. I really enjoy and love watching both of these defenses play.

BYU's 6 and 0 start is not a fluke. Okay, this defense is for real. They're opportunistic. They've gotten, I mean, how many turnovers? I can just think of the top of my head, like five different turnovers and big games to set their offense up with really short fields, not just turnovers, but like setting them up in the scoring area. They do a great job limiting big plays. They lead the big 12 and yards per play. That's always a metric that I think jumps off the page.

Okay, so defensively, this is a very good team. their veteran up front. Tyler Batty, that defensive end, he's a hell of a player. They're old, they're strong, they're rugged on the defensive side. And I think that they're setting up their offense to have success. This is not an offense that I think is going to be able to just go out there on their own and drive the football and win a big game. They're going to need help, and they get that from their defense. At number three, I've got Kansas State.

DJ Giddens is a rugged back man, just ask Colorado. They could not stop this guy. He's running well. over 200 scrimmage yards in the last two games. They are built for close games. Chris Kleiman does a great job with them situationally. Just look at their two-play drive to beat Colorado. I'm a huge fan of Chris Kleiman and Kansas State in general.

I love the way that they approach the game. I love the way that they play the game. They are, you know, they are like tough asses. They're just, and that's how Kansas State was always. Just like a little anecdote. When I was playing in the old Big 12, Kansas State was obviously there. And there were a few teams that we would play. And we knew on our schedule it's like, oh, man, like this is a tighten your chin strap,

buckle it up and maybe take some extra Advil game. Kansas State was one of those. They have retained that identity for 20 plus years. they still have it. Look at the rugged nature with which they play. I'm a huge fan of that. Kansas State is number three. Then you get to four and it's like, okay, there's a lot of teams that you could throw in at four. I'm going to go with Colorado. Colorado even short-handed, and I know that Kansas State had injuries as well, but even shorthanded, had a great chance to beat Kansas State, which would have been a monumental win if you're talking about,

this era of Colorado football under Deon Sanders. They don't have Travis Hunter on the field in the second half, either side of the ball. They didn't have Jimmy Horn on the field. They didn't have a Marianne Walker. And yet, there they are with a four-point lead late in the game, inside of three minutes in the game. Now, did they falter? Yes. Did they do a lot of things wrong in the last three minutes? Yeah, absolutely. You know, throwing a fade on fourth down, don't love that. playing man coverage and having eight guys in the box inside of three minutes when the opposition has to score a touchdown. Don't love that. Can that get cleaned up? Yeah, absolutely. Those are just choices that can get cleaned up. But when they are healthy, and by the way, Deon did come out and say that Travis Hunter is expected to play against Arizona this week.

Jimmy Horn is expected to play against Arizona this week. So at their best, they're still a really good football team. Just ask Kansas State. So I've got Colorado at 4. They have to protect Chudor better. They need to get back to having a wider edge and going to 11 personnel, one back, one tight end, rather than 10 personnel, one back, no tight ends. If they can get back to that one tied in set like they did against Central Florida, they were not only run it better, but they will also protect the quarterback better. At number five, I've got Texas Tech.

I thought about ASU here, but I go with Texas Tech. Texas Tech, the offense goes through their running back, Taj Brooks. He's third in the country in rushing. I really love what Joey McGuire has done with this program. They are 4-0 in 1-score games, which is, by the way, why I'm just a touch more skeptical of Texas Tech than I am maybe some of these other teams. So why did I not put Texas Tech above Colorado? Well, in part because, like, is it fools gold?

It might be because of all the one-score wins. you know, that's part of the reason why TCU has never been even close to what they were in the 2022 season when they went to the national championship game is all the one score wins. You just can't bank on that. And so far, this Texas Tech team, 4 and 0 in one score games. So, like, is it real? I think, I think it's real. It's also one of the reasons why I didn't have ASU up there. ASU is 4 and 1 in one score games. You look up, you know, and this is going to be the same. same in the ACC. If you're always playing with fire, eventually you get burned. That's just kind of what it is. However, Texas Tech is number five.

Let's move to the ACC. All right, one through five in the ACC, number one is easy, and it's not the undefeated. It's Clemson. If you actually watch the games that are going on over the last couple of weeks, it jumps off the tape. Clemson is the best team in the ACC. They're five and one in their offense has been tremendous. They've won their last five.

This is a team that has responded after that loss against Georgia. And you've got to give Dabo a ton of credit because all of us started talking about Dabo's demise, Clemson's demise, in terms of them not adjusting to the modern era of college football. No transfers. You can't win without any transfers. And you know what? Part of that is still true. Now, I'm starting to believe that.

that the most important thing you can do as a coach in our sport is retain talent. So it's not who you can recruit, but it's actually who you recruit on your own team to keep. And as long as they're not losing a lot of players, then Clemson's doing it right. because again, the most important part of college football now, as opposed to three years ago and four years ago, is not always the players that you get, it's the players that you keep. Because the more that you keep, the more experience that they have in those systems. The more experience you have in those systems, the more detailed they're going to play in particular and crucial situations. And as we see parity start to enter college football, what do you see in these league games?

a lot more close games. And when you have close games, what do you need? Execution and you need detail. So it's going to pay huge dividends for Clemson moving forward this year, that they've been able to retain talent. And I think that that's the biggest key for Dabo. So they've got five straight wins by an average of almost 30 points. The offense has certainly looked light years better than what they did in their loss

against Georgia. And that's one of the reasons why I think this is a no-brainer that Clemson's number one. And number two is Miami. You have to honor the fact that they're undefeated and you have to honor the fact that I still think they have the singular best player in the conference in Cam Moore. Cam's playing out of his mind. The defense is not. So Ward leads college football with 397 total yards per game, 23 total touchdowns. He's the best player in the ACC. They've also had to come back largely because he put a cape on his back in each of their last two games. So that shows a huge flaw in this team.

I mean, we're talking about Virginia Tech and Cal. So it's not like we're talking about a huge matchup style game. It's like, oh, man, they came back against Clemson. That's different, okay? And don't want to disparage those other two teams, but it's the truth. So there are some things that are worrisome for Miami and more specifically they're on the defensive side. All right.

Now it gets interesting in the ACC. Are we ready? Who's number three in the ACC? Think about it. It's like, I don't know. I have no idea. So look at it. Who's played the best? Who has some of the better wins? SMU? Yep. SMU, 5 and 1. I think SMU is the third best team in the ACCC right now. It's tough to separate a bunch of these teams, but when you really look at it, they made a quarterback change early in the year. And they went with Kevin Jennings. And he has injected

an incredible amount of energy into not only their offense, but their program. He's got over 100 yards rushing in the win over Louisville last week. He gets better every start. Not just by the numbers, by the way, but I've popped in some of the film and popped in. I turned it on on the computer. It's like he plays really well. He's a traditional dual threat guy, nearly 400 total yards in that game against Louisville. And it's like their only loss is BYU, and BYU is an undefeated. So Jennings is 3 and O as a starter. They're 5 in 1 as a team.

And I really like SMU, man. I'm telling you. And listen, are there a lot of great options in the ACCC after Clemson and Miami? No, no, there's not great options, but SMU is good enough. So they're number three. At number four, I like Pitt. I like Pitt at number four. They've also been winning close games.

So similar to like my take on Texas Tech. Are they playing with fire? Yeah, yeah, they are. They're three and oh in one score games. Remember, they got the Bama transfer at quarterback, Eli Holstein, and he's coming off his worst game last week versus Cal. But he's been pretty good outside of that and overall. And so I like Pitt.

Pit is an interesting team to me. They're a team that it seems like it's going to take a very good effort to beat Pitt. Now, can you out-talent them if you're Clemson or Miami? Yeah, probably. At number five, I'm going to go with quarterback here. I'm going to go with Kyle McCord, the way that he's playing for Syracuse. I'm going to give Fran Brown and Kyle McCord a little bit of credit. They're second in the country in passing right now. They've got wins over Boston

College and at UNLV this season. And so at 5 and 1, I've got Syracuse at number 5 in the ACC. McCord's got 360 passing yards per game this season. Again, that's second in college football. And he's played really well. Now, their schedule is one of the easiest schedules in our sport, but they've done well with it. And so they're number five. Just on the outside looking in, I've got Louisville, I've got Duke. Duke, by the way, is another team that is three and O in those one score games. So as much as I love what Manny Diaz is doing, playing with fire a little bit as far as the close games go. And in particular, when it's a coin flip situation and you keep ending up on the same side of the coin, it to me is like inevitable.

It's like when do you roll the other side of the coin? So Louisville and Duke were the two teams that I were kind of deciding between for that fifth spot. All right, now let's rank the top five teams that are not in power for right now. Okay? At number one, it's Notre Dame. I think that that's pretty obvious, okay? The independent Notre Dame, five and one. However, they're getting crushed by injuries right now,

and they're going to have some tough games coming down the stretch. I still think USC is a tough game. All of a sudden, Army and Navy are very tough games. both of those teams are undefeated. They lost their preseason All-American this week, cornerback Benjamin Morrison for the year. That's tough, man. There's only so many injuries that you can overcome.

And so while I like what they've done to this point, is it sustainable? I guess we'll see. We'll see what type of depth that they actually have. How will their resume look at the end of the year? That's more of a question. I think that A&M winning continues to help Notre Dame. know that that's obvious, but think of it like this. It's almost like A&M is pushing Notre Dame higher

in the rankings. And at some point, the committee is going to have to acknowledge that, like, Notre Dame went down there and beat Texas A&M. So if A&M continues to win, all of a sudden, then Notre Dame, all they have to do is win. And although they haven't had a very difficult schedule, and there's not a lot of great wins on that schedule, they would still have a win over Texas A&M, which means that they would probably find themselves in the playoff if A&M is pushing towards a playoff berth. So right now, Notre Dame is sitting there and all you got to do is root for Texas A&M, root for the Aggies. Because they're acting as like, they're just pushing you along, pushing you along, like pushing the shopping cart out there. That USC game in the final game, that's going to be huge. Navy game in a couple weeks.

That looks vital at that point. Okay. Number two, non-power four team, I think is Boise State. Ashton Genti continues to play great football. They're 5-1. He's averaging over 200 yards per game. He's been sensational. They're going to play UNLV in a couple of weeks. That's going to be a monster game. Their resume is really good right now.

They beat Washington State by 21. Their only loss was now on the final play at Oregon, which is exactly the resume for Ohio State. So like Boise State all of a sudden, they're sitting here and they look really good from a resume perspective, because of their win over Washington State, I have to wait and put Washington State third. So Washington State is third. They have wins over Texas Tech and Washington, but they did lose to Boise. That's why they're behind them. Their quarterback, John Mateer, he's one of the best dual threats

quarterbacks in the country. 350 total yards per game, 80 of those coming on the ground. So this guy can get it done both ways, throwing the ball and with his legs. It should be noted here. They are not in a conference that gets in a conference. automatic birth. There's no way that they can win and be considered one of the four best champions or one of the five best champions. That's a problem from them. So Washington State would have to be in the top 12 in order to get playoff consideration. That might just be a bridge too far. All right. Now, at four and five, and this is a little bit more interesting. So at four, I've got Army. Now, they have not played a tough schedule, but they've taken care of business. They've won every

game by at least 17 points. Army is 6 and 0. An Army is winning with defense right now. They're the number two defense in the country and they're allowing less than 10 points per game. Now, part of that is they shorten the game. Sure, all of that. But like, that's really good. Bryson Daly, he's their quarterback leading away with over 120 rush yards per game. An Army looks pretty damn good. Number five, Navy. Navy is winning with offense. offense has scored at least 34 in every game. Their fifth in college football and scoring of head of teams like Ohio State, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Ole Miss. So there's Navy scoring 34 more than those teams.

And they're throwing it more than you'd think. They average almost 170 passing yards per game. So this is not your traditional option team. And they're throwing about 14 passes per game. Blake Horvath is their quarterback. Now, we get to this wild scenario. because Army and Navy are pretty clearly as undefeated right now in the five best teams, not in the Power 4. Both Army and Navy are ranked.

This is the first time that they've been ranked at the same time since just after World War II. It was 1945. Okay. So Army and Navy are in a conference. the AAC. They're both going to play Notre Dame, but they could go to the AAC championship game. Pretty plausible, because if you look at that conference

and you look at the rest of their schedule, that is very plausible. Now, if one of them is able to beat Notre Dame and go to the AAC championship game, even if the other loses to Notre Dame, in all likelihood, they would face each other. Now, why is that wild? Well, because the very next weekend is the Army Navy game,

which is not an AAC conference game. There was this announcement, and it went totally under the radar. They joined the conference, but their game, because it's such a national treasure, is outside of conference play. So Army and Navy could both make the AAC championship game play the first week in December on the Friday night and have to play the Army Navy game, the traditional Army Navy game, the next Saturday.

Now, here's what's even more wild. Let's say one of them beats Notre Dame and wins the AAC over the other. the playoff rankings come out the following Sunday, which means that one of these teams could, in theory, be one of the five best champions, be included in the playoff field, and still have to play the Army Navy game that Saturday. What is going on?

This is wild, and now I've never rooted for anything this hard in my life. Like, don't we all want to see that now? Because chaos, chaos. Now, do I think it's fair to those teams? No, but guess which game they're not going to cancel the traditional Army Navy game? But there is a great chance that these two teams, because they are good teams and they should be ranked, and they're easily one of the five best teams in the non-power four. There is a great chance that both of those teams make the AAC championship game. So whether they go to the player for not, that means that we'd be getting it in back-to-back weeks. Army Navy play in the AAC championship game, Army and Navy play in the traditional Army Navy game.

That is wild and bonkers. And just this notion that they could also be in the CFP, which then raises the question like, well, what would you do with the Army Navy game if you were in the CFP and then you had to go play that week, which means you don't get an off week before having to play in the playoff the following week. Holy cow. Can you imagine if just, let's just say like Army goes undefeated, and wins the AAC. They would probably go. Now, they're not ranked ahead of Boise, but that would mean that they would beat Notre Dame.

And if they beat Notre Dame, there's a chance that they would be ranked ahead of Boise, which means that if they beat Navy the first time, they would be one of the highest five-rated champions. And they would be in the playoff field and still have to play Army Navy the next weekend. That is a wild scenario, and I'm kind of rooting for it. I think it would be absolutely crazy.

By the way, if I had to bet money, I think I would bet money that those two teams would meet in the AAC championship game, which means like there's a high likelihood that we're going to get Army Navy on back-to-back weeks later in the year. Who, crazy, crazy. We've got picks and previews coming up tomorrow. And folks, we are still on the heater. Four and one last week, Joel Klatch Show is 25 and 12 against the spread. this year. That is 67% folks.

I think I did that math correctly, right? Yeah, 67%. So you're going to want to tune into that show. We're going to preview all the big games coming up on Saturday, and we'll have that show for you on Thursday afternoon. Make sure to follow us wherever you social media at Joel Clat Show. Have a blessed day, and we'll talk to you tomorrow.