The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Joel Klatt’s Top 5 QBs in CFB, best Value Bets for 2024 & reaction to Connor Stalions doc

Episode Date: August 28, 2024

Heading into Week 1 of the new season, FOX Sports’ lead college Football analyst Joel Klatt ranks his Top 5 Quarterbacks in college football. He also reveals his favorite value gambling bets going into the season, including backing Alabama, Travis Hunter and more. Klatt also discusses the Connor Stalions documentary release and walks through what we know about the Michigan sign-stealing saga, what is still unclear and its impact on how we should view the Wolverines National Championship run in 2023. Finally, he dives into the debate of whether CFB fans should feel obligated to attend Fall weddings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm disappointed in the lack of integrity from whoever knew. 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, what's up, everybody? Welcome into the Joel Clad Show.

This show is presented by Hampton, by Hilton. And we are thrilled to be here in week one of the season. It's finally here. We're going to get a real Saturday of college football. Last week was just an appetizer. So buckle up because here we go. This is going to be a big show here. I've got my top five quarterbacks that I'm going to run down in college football,

some value bets in this season as far as national championship, playoff, Heisman, some long shots that I think are actually great values. And then with today's, excuse me, yesterday, the dropping on Netflix of the sign stealer, we got to get into the Michigan sign stealing saga. and I will run down that including what we know, what we don't know, and then what my thoughts are on that. And we'll get into the mailbag as well.

So a packed show here for you on a Wednesday as we get ready for week one of the college football season. Remember wherever you're listening, make sure to rate our show and review our show. That obviously helps us out. So if you could do that, we would really appreciate it. And then if you're not subscribed on YouTube, make sure to go subscribe on YouTube. That's growing every single day. And trust me, I'll tell you this, we've got some really fun and awesome content planned exclusive for YouTube from the show this fall. So even if you're listening

wherever you get your podcast, you're going to want to make sure to get over there and subscribe to the YouTube channel, jump into the comments. Make sure to like the video. And then I like to jump into the comments as well. By the way, I'm going to start kind of like my own YouTube account. So it's not just from the show's account and jump into the comments. And it will just be me unfiltered in the comments. So you're going to want to be down there just in case I get cranky one day. If I haven't had something to eat, you never know it could go off the rails and then it could get really fun. Let's go. Here we go. A block. Top five quarterbacks in college football. I thought about doing 10 because there's easily 10 that I think that you could put on this list.

I thought about doing a Heisman list, but really it's just a quarterback list. So I just wanted to say, okay, here we go. Who are the five most elite play callers, elite, I guess, I should say quarterbacks. I still call them play callers in college football. These are the guys that make everything run, and we're going to go five to one. At number five, transferring from Oklahoma to Oregon, I've got Dylan Gabriel. Dylan Gabriel, I think, is going to have a phenomenal season for Oregon.

You can see this in the Heisman odds. He's way up there. He's a great fit for what Will Stein, the offensive coordinator, wants to do. If you've listened to this show at all, you know that I'm a huge fan of this fit and what it could be with all that talent around him at Oregon. Great wide receivers.

And now you get into that experience factor, which you know is a big factor for me. He's got 49 career starts going back to UCF and OU. Guy has been around forever, which means he's replacing Bo Nix, who started more games than anybody in college football at that position. I believe that number was 61. And he has a chance, based on the length of this season, to surpass that and become the new most experienced. starting quarterback in college football. I think he's going to have a great year. I think he's a really

good player. A point guard, smart, knows where to go with the ball, and he's accurate. He's number five. And number four, I've got Quinn yours at Texas. Quinn's going to have a great year. He's an incumbent. We saw what he was able to do a year ago. And I think he just takes another step. I understand there's some pieces around him that he's going to have to navigate. Going into year three, though, as a starter, he's never going to feel more comfortable. or confident in his game or his team than right now. And by the way, every one of those years is going to be with the same play caller. He's got Steve Sarkesian.

So not only does he have experience just on the field, which, by the way, pays huge dividends, but he's also got experience within this specific system. That's not always the case with these experienced quarterbacks. It is the case with him. The former number one recruit is my number four quarterback in college football. And number three, this is a guy that I think has gotten. totally forgotten in the lead up to this season, largely because we didn't see him last year. Cam Rising is my number three quarterback in college football, quarterback of the Utes.

We should not pass up, well, lest we forget the fact that every time this guy is healthy and on the field, his team wins the conference. This is a guy that has started two Rose Bowls in his career. He's got talent around them. Utah Pack 12 titles, the last two years he was healthy. He's going into his seventh year. He has seen it all. He's got weapons. I love Cam Rising. This is the main reason why I've picked Utah to win the Big 12 is because of Cam Rising. He's my number three quarterback. All right, two left, two spots left. My number two quarterback is going to be Shador Sanders at Colorado. Shador had very little help in front of him last. year and he was making the jump from FCS to FBS and all he did was go out there and throw for 500

yards in his first game and become one of the most efficient and accurate quarterbacks that we had in college football. If you really watch this guy and you watch him play and you watch him operate, his accuracy down the field, his decision making, he takes care of the ball as evidence by the fact that he only threw those three interceptions. He had 31 total touchdowns on a team that was only a four-win team. Shador Sanders is an excellent player. There is no doubt in my mind that this guy will be up there in the top five picks of the NFL draft as long as he can stay healthy. And if they can keep him upright, then this is a team that I think easily could win eight games and maybe more. He was sacked a ridiculous 52 times and he still had 31 total

touchdowns and only three interceptions. That's remarkable. People because of his last name and their hatred for his father, Coach Prime, they don't want to give him his due, but he is an excellent player and he is my number two quarterback in college football. That leaves one left. He's and that is Carson Beck. Carson Beck is excellent at Georgia. I thought it was pretty obvious that Ohio State should be number one because of everything that they have returning. But the thing that kept coming back and giving me pause was the fact that Carson Beck was back for Georgia. This guy is an excellent player. He led the SEC in passing last year. It's his fifth year at Georgia. It's his second year as a starter. He is really accurate, but he's got to make up for some

weapons that he does not have around him. Not having Bowers and Ladd is an issue, right? So can they replace those guys? Absolutely. Maybe not Bowers, because Bowers was, I think, somewhat of a generational tight end. But they've got talent. So he's going to have a good year. And he's going to have the opportunity to go out there and play maybe the most difficult road schedule in the sport. And it's a good thing that he's there. I love Carson Beck. He is my number one quarterback in college football. So there you go. There's the top five list. It is Dylan Gabriel. It is Quinn Youers. It is Cam Rising. It is Shador Sanders. And it is Carson Beck. Value bets. Let's get into some value bets. I know that all of you guys do this. Truth be told, I have never bet a dime on sports in my life.

I'd like to keep it that way. Most of you know, I have an addictive personality. So I don't want to go down that road. And those of you that do have an addictive personality, just be careful. Just be careful with this. I'm not suggesting any of this. I am saying, though, these jumped out to me. When I look at odds, when I look at this, I started looking at like value bets, long shots that I thought to myself, boy, that's a clean path.

And here's where I landed. Let's start with the national championship. The favorites are the favorites. And you know what? Those are good bets. Alabama is plus 1,400. That's 14 to 1 to win the national championship. And I'm like, hold on a second.

Kalin DeBoer just played for the national championship. Kalin DeBoer has success with any quarterback that plays for him, going all the way back to Sioux Falls, including guys that were dual threat quarterbacks at Sioux Falls. So the style issue, if there is one with Jalen Milrow compared to Michael Pinnock's, I don't think is going to be. Fays, Alabama, and certainly not Kailin DeBore. That roster is as talented as any in the country.

They were the number one in recruiting talent composite on the 24-7 and number two in blue-chip ratio behind only Ohio State. And they've actually done it in that building. This is the most important piece is that to get a long shot, yeah, you can get good teams that have long odds, but it's like, are they really going to do it? Because a lot of times you've got to be knocking at the door, you've got to get, you kind of get your nose close to the finish line before you can ultimately finish the race.

Alabama's done it. Alabama's done it and they expect to do it within that locker room. So when I'm looking at the long odds, and I'm seeing Alabama at plus 1,400 with Kailin DeBore, who's an excellent coach with an incumbent quarterback who I think can have success and a building that is not going to fear Georgia. They are not going to fear Texas. They're not going to fear Ohio State. Those are good odds, at least for me. 14 to 1, Alabama to win the national championship. Sign me up. Okay. A couple of longer odds. to actually go to the playoff. And a small caveat on this.

I'm going down and I'm seeing these odds and I saw Oklahoma State and Kansas at plus 700, I believe the number was, just to go to the playoff. And I thought to myself, oh, man, I like those. Those are good value bets. And then I've got to remember, I think and expect that only one team from the Big 12 is actually going to go to the college football playoff. Well, if that's the case, then what I'm actually betting on, if I'm betting Oklahoma State in Kansas, is for them to win the Big 12. So then you look at those odds and you realize that they're even longer.

So I can get Oklahoma State at plus 850 to win the Big 12, and I can get Kansas at plus 1,000 to win the Big 12. And I'm like, oh, sign me up for that one, in particular Oklahoma State. They bring back 18 starters from a team that won 10 games and reached the Big 12 championship game. By the way, team that beat them, no longer in the league. That was Texas. Ollie Gordon, reigning Doak Walker award winner, he's back. If they can get through this little, I would call it a ripple in the schedule, back to back. They've got Utah and at Kansas State in weeks four and five.

Then watch out. They're set up for a nice run. They're set up to go to the Big 12 championship game. And if they win that, then they're going to the playoffs. and they're the Big 12 champions, and you've got them at plus 850. I'm in on that. You know how I feel about veteran teams. I think that veteran teams have been rewarded over the last couple of years,

and that's exactly what Mike Gundy has at Oklahoma State. So a great value bet. If you think Oklahoma State has a chance to go to the playoffs, don't take them at plus 700. Just expect that the Big 12 has to get their champion and probably nobody else in that playoff and bet them to win the Big 12, which is plus 850. you get even longer odds on basically the exact same sentiment and bet that you would make in the

first place. And I feel similar about Kansas. Kansas has what I would deem is the most advantageous schedule of any team in the Big 12. So you can provide a really clear and clean path for them to get to the conference championship game. And now you're 60 minutes from winning it and going to the playoffs. So again, you can get Kansas at plus 700 to go to the playoff. Yeah, that's a good bet. Guess what's even better? Expecting that the Big 12 only gets one team into the playoff and bet them to win the Big 12, which is plus 1,000. Now we're talking. I know that they lose Andy Coldwell, Nikki, to Penn State, the offensive coordinator, we'll see him at West Virginia, but they brought in former Baylor OC, Jeff Grimes. I think this guy is a really good coach.

Didn't go well in the last couple of years at Baylor, but I'm a big fan of Jeff Grimes. Jalen Daniels, similarly to Cam Rising, who I was talking about earlier in the program, when he's healthy, Kansas is a premier team in their league, period. He's missed 14 games over the last two years. If he can stay healthy, I know that's a big if, but watch out. They will likely be in the Big 12 championship game. They do not have to play. I repeat, do not have to play Utah, Oklahoma State, or Arizona.

Man, you're missing some of the heavyweights in that league, the favorites in that league. Their toughest games will be at Kansas State. That'll be a tough one. And then they've got home Iowa State, home Colorado, and at West Virginia. manageable schedule. They can get themselves there. And if Jalen Daniels is on the field for the Big 12 championship game, that's a coin flick. You can get them now at plus 1,000.

I love that bet. All right. Some individual bets, similar sentiment here in terms of some longer odds. Let's talk about Heisman. And let's talk about some longer odds in the Heisman. I'm going to start with a guy that is plus 3,000. So that's 30 to 1. and you sit there and you're like, I could see that.

That's Jackson Arnold. Jackson Arnold, the quarterback for Oklahoma. One, we know that Oklahoma has a pedigree of Heisman trophy winners. So it's not a team or a program that voters will be apprehensive voting for. So that's number one. Number two, they have this brutal schedule that provides a platform for Jackson Arnold. If they were to navigate that schedule well, all of a sudden, he will be elevated. The offense, I think, is much more suited to Jackson Arnold than it was Dylan Gabriel.

This is why I love Dylan Gabriel at Oregon, and I love Jackson Arnold at Oklahoma. They've got Nick Anderson, Jalil Farooke, and Drill Anthony on the outside. They added Dionne Burks in the slot from. Purdue. I know that they lost Jaden Gibson for the season. He was injured in fall camp, but they still have depth. That's an injury, unfortunately, for Jaden, that they can

absorb because of this talent around. And so the ability to throw the ball downfield with the stronger arm of Jackson Arnold means that he might have a huge year. If he's having a huge year and they navigate that difficult schedule and you've got him at plus 3,000, 30 to 1, I like those odds

a lot. A couple more even longer odds. And this one I really love. And it's because it doesn't take much for him to immediately not just be in the conversation, but to be the odds on favorite. At plus 6,000 or 60 to 1, you can get Travis Hunter at Colorado. Sign me up for the best non-quarterback in the sport at plus 6,000. We've also got a little bit of this like Otani factor, even more so than Charles Woodson or any of these other players. Like he's legitimately a two-way player. So now you've got the Otani factor where it's like he could be considered one of the best corners in the game and one of the best wide receivers in the game. He averaged 115 snaps per game last year. That's the top

number in all of college football. He could be the best wide receiver in the sport. And I think he could be the best corner, not just one of the top ones. You know, obviously Woodson comes to mind. And now all of a sudden, if you just think to yourself like I do, like, man, Colorado protects you do her a little bit better. Their schedule is not quite as difficult as it was a year ago. And now they're eight wins and they're nine wins. And he's averaging 115 to 120 snaps a game. And he's not only the best corner in college football, but you could argue that he's the best wide receiver in college football. And guess what? He's right there. And you got him at plus $6,000. That is a great value bet right there. My last good value bet is a guy that will be the

workhorse for a team that will no doubt lean on the run. Donovan Edwards is plus 10,000. That is 100 to 1 to win the Heisman. I mean, was Blake Corum a candidate last year? Sure was. Was he the year before that before he got hurt? He sure was. You think that Sharon Moore is not going to run this offense through the running back? I know Colom Mullings is still there. I know Alex Orgy might be their quarterback Saturday night. But folks, Donovan will be the workhorse. He will be the guy that gets the bulk that carries. He is the most talented guy.

And he catches it out of the backfield even better than Corum did. So now he's going to be a dual threat running back. He's in every downback. He can hit the home run. And there's a chance based on how much they might run the football that he's going to inch close to 2,000 yards. Now all of the sudden, you get one of those giant. wins against Texas, Oregon, or Ohio State, and there's Donovan Edwards, and he's going to be sitting in New York. That is not a stretch. And you got him at 100 to 1 plus 10,000. Those are

some great value bets as I look at this season and we start getting into week one. All right. We've got to get into the Connor Stallions documentary. It was released on Netflix, the untold sign stealer that came out on Tuesday. Here's what I want to do. I want to talk about what we know, what we don't know, and then I want to talk about like, what should we think about it, and then how do I view it? Let's start with what we know. Here's what we know.

Sign stealing occurs in almost every single game in college football. That's a fact. That's true. It occurs in three ways. It happens in-game, just looking across the field at the opposing signs. It happens in advanced scouting but without technology through television copy. So there's a staff member assigned in the building to watch every single television copy and just scour that television copy for any audio or visual evidence.

of sign or signal. So that's the second way. And then the third way is advanced illegal scouting. Okay, so those are the three ways that you can steal signs. The first is obviously the most difficult, which is just in-game deciphering across the field. And that's the most pervasive and the most prevalent in college football. It happens in every game.

Now, for Michigan and Connor Stallions, I feel really confident in saying that all three of those occurred. All three of those occurred. There's no doubt in my mind that illegal advanced scouting occurred. There's no doubt in my mind that advanced legal scouting occurred. And there's no doubt in my mind that in-game deciphering occurred. All three of those occurred. Okay. So now you have to ask yourself like, okay, what do we not know then? Let's ask ourselves these questions. What do we not know? The first one is obvious. Who, for Michigan, knew, to what extent did they know what was going on, and in what timing? Those are really important questions. I think that everything in regards to that question is speculation at this point. Now, if the investigation comes out and proves something about someone or some people, then obviously we'll deal with. that. But at this point, I do think it's evidence of the way you view this whole situation,

what you think about who knew, what did they know, and in what timing did they know it. What else do we not know? Well, this one is a little bit more difficult to explain, but it's also true. Everything I'm saying is true. We have no way to measure the percentage of influence the legal versus illegal scouting had, it is impossible to know. And guess what? That's not coming out in any investigation. You have no idea. I don't think even the people involved. Connors' Stallions himself could not give you a percentage of influence of one of those three categories. I'm almost certain all three categories occurred. And there's zero way that you're ever going to be able to decipher the percentage of influence the legal

portions had versus the illegal portions had. All right. So now let's start to get into, and by the way, nothing that came out in the Netflix documentary was news. I didn't think. I mean, the biggest piece of news that I got from it that I didn't know was the factoid about his time at Navy and basically his first job as a student coach at Navy was to what? Decipher Science. right? So like that should suggest even a little bit to all of you, regardless of where your angle is on this. If you're you're pissed at Michigan, if you're not pissed at Michigan, whatever it is, that should at least give you a little bit of evidence that this is a pervasive, I would say, act in college football. Like this happens. All right. And I'm not,

and I'm not trying to minimize it. And I won't minimize it. And let's get into kind of more of, of the actionable items of this whole topic. Okay. Now, here's what I want to talk through about about sign stealing is that as some of you know, or many of you know, I went on Coward last year and said, the more you know about football, the less you think this had an impact. And the less you know about football, the more you think this had an impact on each game is what I was referring to. So people have said that I minimized it, that I whitewashed it for Michigan, and I still don't think that that's the case. I tend to minimize the impact of sign stealing, and I'm going to explain why right here. Okay, so let's explain my rationale of why.

Number one, it's still, regardless of how well you do it, it's still just a probability or an educated guess because you don't know if they've changed their signals or their pattern or their mechanics. So it is still a probability. Now, it could be a high probability. It could be a low probability, but it is still a probability. There is a chance every single time that you're wrong. There's also vagueness, and you see this in some of the videos. People will say, well, look, he yelled run right. Okay, which run right?

I'm not sure. And by the way, this is not six-year-old soccer, so I'm not going to send all 11 defenders and just run them over to the right side in order to stop the run. They still have a job to do. They still have details to execute within the content of their defense and the structure of their defense.

that rings true whether you decipher or don't decipher a sign. Okay. So it's still a probability and it's still an educated guess. Then you get into this idea and this is where really I sit, which is offensively you can negate the impact of what's going on if you feel like this is happening. And this is also true. Every team, and I think that they do this, but every team and every coach should go into every single game thinking to

themselves, hey, the other team is at least trying to figure out what we're doing from our mechanics. Because remember that. First way I told you of stealing signs, that's legal and pervasive. So you have to have an at least, at a minimum, some acknowledgement that this is going on. Okay, so once that happens, you have to build in some solutions in order to combat what inevitably is happening to you on the field. So what are some of the solutions within your offense? Well, you can obviously huddle. You can go hyper fast, so you can change and vary your pace to make it almost impossible for them to communicate what they feel like they're deciphering. And then here's kind of a last one. The quarterbacks can handle more on the field.

And this is where I want to sit for just a moment, for just a moment. I'm not going to sit here and decry where we're at in college football from a schematic standpoint, but I am going to try to give you or paint a picture. In the past, quarterbacks were given much more autonomy to control what was going on in the field. So let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. In the past, we would have things called a package of plays, and we would get into a formation, a personnel group in a formation, and then call a package of plays. That package of plays might have three plays and might have four plays in it. And then it was the quarterback's responsibility to get into the right play based on the defensive structure. So our attitude was they cannot be right.

Whatever they're trying to do, they cannot be right. Okay. So what does that look like? A simple version of this is as follows. We ran the West Coast system. So let's get into a zebra group. Okay, that's that's a 11 personnel, one tight end, one back, three wide receivers. So we're in Zebra Group. We'd get in a formation called Trey Right. Okay, so let's get into Trey Right. We're going to stick the tight end to the field. So the wide side, so we're Trey right.

Wide side is to the right. And then we're just going to call wide package. That's it. Just wide package. In the hollow. On yellow one, ready break. And you clap and you walk up with the huddle or out of the huddle and up to the line of scrimmage. Now it was my responsibility as a quarterback to get

us into the right play. So remember now, maybe a signal has occurred, maybe it hasn't occurred, but whatever has occurred from a mechanics from the sidelines, now it's in my hands as a quarterback. So we walk up to the line of scrimmage and here's what I have. If the middle of the field is open, meaning there's two safeties high in the middle of the field, guess what? We have run ratios. We can block everybody in the run front, which means that we want to run the football. But we don't want to run our wide zone to the three technique because I don't feel like we've got great angles. in the way that we're trying to block towards the three technique, we'd rather run it to the one technique.

Now, the three technique is the defensive tackle that's lined up on the outside shoulder of the guard. The one technique is lined up on the outside shoulder of the center. So we want to run it to him. He's the shade, is what we'd call it in football terms, and we want to run that wide zone, that direction. So now I can either run 96 zone or 95 zone. Well, middle of field open.

where's the one technique? Here he is. I don't need to move the defense so I can get into a live color with my cadence. And I can just say, okay, here we go. We're going to go red, live color. Here we go. Red 95. Red 95. And we're running the ball to the left.

We're running a 95 zone. One technique is to the field. Now, maybe they're bringing pressure because they like to bring it to the one technique. I'm not sure. He's to the wide side of the field. Maybe they're just sitting in that structure of defense. What I would call is kind of a split hawk or whatever. they've got a structure that we want to run the ball over to the wide side.

So I just get in there and use a live color right away. Red 96, red 96. Here we go, and we're running to the right. Now they start to shift or I don't think I know whether two safeties or not. And so I decide, you know what, I'm going to need to move this defense with my cadence. That's where the yellow comes in. Now I can use the color yellow, which means it's a dead cadence. Yellow 95, yellow 95, said, hot, hot.

No one's moving. Why, it's a dead color. Now I see this safety and he starts to dip a little bit and guess what? Now I know he's coming down and now there's just going to be a single safety. As soon as there's a single safety regardless of coverage, one, three, whatever it is, I know that we can't block the run front. Once we can't block the run front, I don't want to run wide zone. What do I want to do?

Throw the football. Well, what do I have if I've got a single safety and I'm in a three by one formation, a single receiver that's probably in man to man. So I want to run an X tag. X is my weak receiver. he's over into the boundary on my left side. And guess what? I can run 200 jet X slant, X Omaha, X Luggo, whatever it is, and then Y spacing on the

right side. So I've got a foundation over here if I don't like my one-on-one, but I can definitely run one-on-one. I can even run two-jet glance, whatever it is. I can call a pass based on that leverage and based on that defense. So what do I do? I get in and say yellow, yellow, 95, yellow, and a lot. Nothing happens.

I go, boom, here he comes. Here it comes the safety. He comes down. Hey, alert, alert, alert. Now we know we're changing the play. Red 200. Now we got Red 200 because we know in wide package, we're running 200 jet, excellent, Y spacing. Bam, we got a one-on-one.

Now we're throwing it out there. So guess what I did? I controlled everything in the game from the field as a quarterback. We stopped doing that in college football because coaches wanted to go fast, number one, and they wanted to control it from the sideline because they couldn't always coach every quarterback to do that. So they wanted to control it. Well, in order to control it from the sideline, what do you have to do? Signal.

And you have to signal not just to the quarterback, but to all 11 players on the field because they're already in the formation. That's how we got to this point. That's how we got to this point. If you know that it's going to be a problem, you can absolutely negate it. I will speak to that based on the way that Ohio State played Clemson and the semifinal. Clemson has been a renown for stealing signs for you. years and years. There are some teams that are better at it than others. And Clemson, in particular,

when Brent Venables was there, and there have been articles written about this. This is not hearsay, and I'm not slandering anybody. Like I said, there are two ways to do it legally, and they did it better than anybody. And guess what? They were game planned again, specifically because of that by Ohio State in the semi-final. They used a muddle huddle. They got the line quickly. They did different things. And guess what? Clemson could not handle that. So, How do I view all of this? First and foremost, the national championship in 2023 is not even close to tainted. Not even close.

It's not even close to an asterisk. Not even close. Number one, when this operation were still plausibly happening, they were blowing people out and there was little to no advantage needed nor gained. Number two, once this operation was brought to the forefront and then it was eliminated, they got nothing but better. The first week that Conner Stallions wasn't on the field, they beat Michigan State 490. Zero. You think that they were stealing signs in the Penn State game?

Ohio State in the playoff against Alabama? So no, this national championship is not tainted at all. If anything, they were given a break that this all came out in the middle of the year. If this all came out after the year, there would be a huge cloud of suspicion. But there's no suspicion because I know they did it without the third version of sign stealing in the second half of the year. That's what we do know because it was eliminated. What should we think about 2021 and 2022? That's murkier, much more murky.

Part of me, as I just talked about, you know, tends to minimize sign stealing because it can be mitigated, because it's a probability and an educated guess. And then part of me is like, man, there were some close games and a play here or there. Yeah, that absolutely could have or did influence outcomes of games. I think it's hard to say. It's much murkier. I do know this. Like, did sign stealing help Aiden Hutchinson get 15 pressures on C.J. Stroud in 2021?

Probably not. I don't want to minimize what happened on the field because I'm generally a player's advocate. I want to advocate for the teams that feel like they were cheated as well. I know Ohio State feels like they would have won a couple of those games if this wasn't taking place. I know that they feel that way. My heart breaks for a guy like C.J. Stroud, who probably wins a Heisman trophy if it breaks the other way, right? So, like, yes, this had an impact. This had an impact in those years. And it's much murkier, which brings me to kind of how I feel.

I'm really disappointed in the lack of integrity from Connor Stallions and whomever knew. I don't know exactly who knew what they knew and in what timing. But my disappointment would be in their lack of integrity. Just as is the case when I'm disappointed in the lack of of integrity of these coaches that are poaching and and tampering with talent that's not on their roster. All of these rules that are broken, I'm disappointed in. There's no question. If a rule was broken, they should be punished, which they were. They had to play the bulk of their schedule without their head coach. Everybody thinks that I'm a Michigan apologist. That's not the case. Their lack of integrity, or at least,

least Conner Stallions in this case has put them in this situation, and they're going to have to pay the Piper to some extent. Now, the idea that they would have to somehow vacate anything in 2023 to me is comical. It would be way over the pale from the NCAA, and I don't believe that that would happen. I'm disappointed in the lack of integrity from whoever knew. I do not think that it is evidence that Jim Harbaugh knew that he gave Conner Stallions a game ball after the Iowa game. That came out in the Netflix documentary and it was like, see, he knew. Well, I don't think that that's evidence that he knew that the third category was taking place. I think it's evidence that he knew that Conner Stallions was really good at the first category, which was

deciphering in game. It's a messy situation. I'm disappointed in all of it. I really am. I want to move forward. I want to move forward for the players. And it sucks. It sucks for everybody involved. It really does. And we'll see who knew in what timing and to what extent. Let's get to the mailbag. Here we go. Sue writes in in the mailbag. She says, hi, Joel, enjoy your show. If you had to choose between going to a wedding of your niece or nephew or go to a home football game that you have season tickets for. Never mind that, you live for fall football games. Which would you choose? Thanks. Sue P. Sue P. Sue, there's only one wedding, or at least hopefully there's only one wedding and there's plenty of football games. However, if your niece and nephew

know you and love you, they would know that scheduling in the fall on a Saturday is probably not smart. So here's what I would do, Sue. I would go find the nicest gift on their registry, buy it for them, and write them a really nice note that says, hey, I don't love you just for one day. I love you forever. And because of that, here's this nice gift and call me after the honeymoon. Enjoy your day. That's what I would do because college football reigns supreme. And why in the world would your niece or nephew be scheduling this on a Saturday in person? particular in the fall. Like, come on. Come on. What are we doing, Sue? And this comes up, by the way, all the time. I see it on social media and people ride in. There's a lot of talk right now this year on social media about October 12th. So here's what's going on October 12th this year in college football. Number one, October 12th is an unbelievable day of games. Ohio State, Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, Ole Miss LSU, Penn State, USC, Florida, Tennessee. I'm like, come on. Let's go. This is a lot. This is a lot. This is a lot. is awesome. Guess what? October 12th also happens to be a top five wedding date in the industry

of the year of the 365. It is in the top five days that people are getting married this year. What? You cannot miss this schedule. Folks, this is a college football podcast. This ain't a Lifestyle and Love Podcasts. That stuff can wait. I'm talking about Ohio State, Oregon. I'm talking about Red River, Ole Miss LSU, Penn State USC on the West Coast, Florida, Tennessee, come on.

Like, weddings can wait. And anybody that has been married, by the way, if their marriage works out for any amount of time, guess what they'll realize after about eight, nine years, maybe 10 years? It's like, man, we worried about that wedding for a year and it wasn't worth it. because guess what? You won't see 95% of those people at your wedding from 10 years from now.

You just won't. You just won't. So you know what? Don't be offended if one of them doesn't come because there's an epic game. My only chance in life to watch this version of Ohio State, Oregon is October 12th. You might get married a second time. You might. And guess what? Does it really matter? You know what matters more? Being there for like a child's birth, being there for like, hey, we're going through hard times. Like doing life is a lot better to do with people than like, hey, I showed up at your wedding. It's like, who cares? Who cares? We should stop spending so much money on weddings anyways. Like, why are we spending so much money on weddings? Like the bond, the matrimony between a man and a woman, joining as one, like, who can, why are we spending so much money on this?

It's like, oh, this is my day. Is it, is it, it's actually your life? That's all I have to say about that October 12th is a college football Saturday, first and foremost, and a great one, and a wedding day secondary. That's secondary. Have a smaller wedding. Please have a smaller wedding. That'll do it for today's show. Make sure to follow us on wherever you're listening to your podcast. Rate and review us, please.

That always helps. Please make sure to get down there and rate and review us. And then also subscribe to the YouTube channel. We're inching up closer to $150,000. We've got a lot of stuff coming to this. season that will be exclusive to YouTube, so you've got to get there, you've got to subscribe, leave a comment below, and folks, it's almost here. I will be back tomorrow with a preview of some week one games. My picks for some games in week one is coming tomorrow on the Joel

Clash show.