The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Joel Klatt's Top RBs, WRs & TEs in the 2025 NFL Draft, plus Coach Prime wants a Spring Game opponent

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt ranks his top skill position players in the 2025 NFL Draft. Klatt reveals the running backs he has ranked behind Ashton Jeanty and decides who gets the #1 TE spot between Tyler Warren and Colston Loveland. Klatt defends Travis Hunter's ability as a wide receiver and explains where and why he has him ranked on his list. Finally, Klatt comments on Coach Prime's desire to play against another program for the Colorado Spring Game and whether this is possible in today's college football calendar. 0:00-2:27 Intro 2:28-11:02 Top Running Backs in the Draft 11:03-11:36 Potential RB steal 11:37-18:43 Top Tight Ends in the Draft 18:44-19:26 Potential TE Steal 19:27-27:35 Top Wide Receivers in the Draft 27:36-28:30 Potential WR Steal 28:31-37:25 Coach Prime looking to play another program in spring game Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And I think the public will be satisfied with that tremendously. I think it's a tremendous idea. Yes. All the yeses. All of them. I mean, this, yes. Dion is exactly right here. 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. Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome into the Joel Clatt show. I am Joel Clat. This show, as always, is brought to you by Hampton by Hilton. And we thank them for their support as always. And we thank you for always listening and supporting us as we roll through the offseason here.

There's no offseason in college football, really, anymore. In particular, when we can talk about the draft. Listen, I'm not going to talk about March Madness because March Madness is a little bit like fantasy football. We all love it except for like, I don't want to hear about your bracket. You don't want to hear about my bracket. I really don't care if your bracket is, quote, busted. So like, just enjoy the games, which the games have been fantastic. And I hope you've enjoyed them.

Okay, so today we're going to continue to get into the draft, and I'm going to rate offensive skill position players. So I'm going to go my top five running backs, my top five tight ends, my top five wide receivers available in this year's NFL draft. But before we get into that, just make sure you go and do all the things. Subscribe to the channel because we've always got great content out there. Go ahead and hit that notifications button so that you know when new content drops. And then wherever you like to social media,

we've got stuff and content, all of this content out there for you. shorter doses. So you can find us there at Joel Clatt Show, and you can follow me on X at at Joel Clatt. That's where I'm at kind of personally here, aside from the show. Here we go. I can't wait for, listen, I can't wait for this draft. I think it's a deep draft. It might not be great at the top, but I think teams are going to get a lot better in the second and third rounds. And you're going to see a little of that in these lists because there's some quality players, not just at one and two in the offensive skilled position players, you're going to get some quality players, you know, at 3, 4, 5,

and then as we even get past these lists and into the middle rounds, what I wanted to do is I'm going to give you an extra name that is not necessarily 6th on the list, but it's a name that I want you to be prepared for in the middle of the draft or late in the draft that I do think is going to make a roster and make a difference on an NFL franchise. So that's what we've got going on. Here we go. Let's dive in.

Top 5 running backs in this year's NFL draft. We're going to go 5 to 1. So at number 5, the Iowa running, back, Caleb Johnson. I really like Caleb Johnson a lot. He was highly productive for Iowa, obviously, and Iowa is going to lean on him. Here's one of the things that you've got to realize, or at least keep in mind when you think about some of these players. Number one is you've got to understand what type of offense these guys come from. And in Caleb Johnson's case at Iowa, he's coming from an offense that is an NFL offense.

He is running exactly what he's going to be asked to run at the next level. So all of the skills that he possesses and that he worked on day in and day out, as far as the patience of running zone, pressing the front side before looking for the cutback, reading the guard, reading those holes on the front side before going backside, reading duo, all of these different schematic things that he was doing. doing at Iowa is exactly what he's going to do with the NFL. And I think that's going to pay dividends for him. I think he's got to catch the ball better out of the backfield. But as a runner, he's going to be NFL ready. It won't surprise me if he's pretty productive as a back

early in his career. And again, a lot of that is because of that schematic fit from what he was asked to do at Iowa to what he's going to be asked to do in the National Football League. So Caleb Johnson and number five. At number four, I've got Amoryon Hampton. I really like Amoryon. Hampton. I think he's explosive. I think that he is a guy that can make you better in a lot of different areas. He's got home run ability. And again, this idea of being able to catch it out of the backfield, I love the fact that all of these guys from four and up are guys that can hurt you as wide receiver as well and aren't just productive as past catchers, but are explosive as past catchers. I think that's important at the next level. In particular, as offensive coaches

start to emphasize their hybrid players more. And at the running back position that I think that we see this time and time again, the best running backs in the National Football League are the ones that can do more than just run between the tackles. That's why we're seeing Jemir Gibbs succeed. And Christian McCaffrey obviously do what he does. And Sequin obviously do what he does. Now, don't get me wrong.

got to be able to run up between the tackles. You've got to have the requisite ability as an old-fashioned running back. But then there has to be this extra ability to not just be sufficient in the passing game, but at times be a weapon. I think Omari and Hampton has the ability to do that. We move on to number three. At number three, I've got Quinshawn Judkins. Judkins is a hell of a player. And this is a guy that coming out of Ole Miss was, I mean, a sure bet first rounder. I think he might still get in. to the first round, but he comes up to Ohio State primarily to lessen the workload, play for a championship, and he was able to do that, and they won a championship. Now, when they were healthy up front, he was dangerous.

He was knocking off long runs every single week. It felt like covering those games and preparing for those games, Judkins was scoring long touchdowns, home runs, week in and week out, with their line as it was early in the year. Now, once Simmons went down and then once McLaughlin went down, it was a little bit different, and it was tougher, and it was harder yards. But guess what? He can do that as well. I thought that he really showed his medal late in the season.

When the offensive line wasn't great for him and they needed it the most, he closed the Penn State game out. I mean, you talk about four-minute offense now. Okay, so let me define that. If you don't know what four-minute offense is, four-minute offense is, four-minute offense is like the exact. opposite of two-minute offense. Two-minute offense is like, we're down, we need a score, or we're tied, and we're going to go as fast as we can in the last two minutes. That's two-minute tempo, two-minute offense. But four-minute offense is the opposite in terms of, we need to milk the clock because we have the lead, so we want to get the ball in, in the game on the field.

So when everyone knows that we're going to run the football, can we still run the football? And with a banged-up offensive line for the Ohio State Buckeyes, they were able to execute basically four-minute offense after they stopped Penn State on fourth down inside the five, and they just ended the game with the ball, and a lot of that was Judkins. A lot of that was Judkins. So you talk about tough yards between the tackles. He's got that. He's got the home run ability on the outside, and I really liked that he was able to take a

little of that wear and tear off by sharing carries with my next player, Travion Henderson. Now, I think that they're pretty interchangeable, but the two Ohio Statebacks are two and three, Trevion and Quincyon. Q is great. Travion just has like this electricity about him. And you saw what he could do in the first real season since his true freshman year that we saw him healthy for the entirety of the year. And we didn't see him get worn down. So again, like Judkins, he was able to stay fresh and then really go out there and excel.

And you talk about fresh speed, acceleration in the playoff. This guy was electric. You know, some of those screen passes. I talk about being dangerous as a wide receiver. He obviously can do that. In the screen game, he showed that against Texas right before the half. He's got the home run ability to take it the distance. We saw that against Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

But, you know, the thing that actually NFL decision makers are going to absolutely drool over is his ability to block? And same can be said for Judkins as well. These two guys are as good of blockers as I've seen a long time. and in particular, Travion, when it comes to pass protection. And that's why I gave him the nudge up there to number two. If you were to see him pass protect against the blitz time and time and time again, a lot of these highlights that we see for Jeremiah Smith on the outside or Will Howard throwing the ball down the field to a mecca, Abuka, or again, Jeremiah Smith or Carnell Tate,

a lot of that was only afforded them because Travion is picking up a blitz. And I'm talking about just like, pow, right there. you know, he's got a blitzing linebacker, and boom, he is an excellent blocker. And I bring that up because normally a guy with his type of home run ability doesn't have that. And he certainly has that, the toughness there to step in to the middle. Number one is easy. It's Ashton Genty. This guy was incredible.

There was a reason he was number two in the Heisman voting. A lot of people thought he should be number one. But he does it all. This guy has incredible speed, vision, balance, strength. I love watching him play. I wish he would have played at a bigger school and then a bigger conference. I think that we would have had a better understanding of exactly how good he was. I think that if he did play at a bigger school and a bigger conference,

he likely would have won the Heisman if he was as productive as he was for Boise State. I love this guy. And I think he's going to get, I mean, I think that he's probably, one of the best six or seven players in the entire draft. Remember, in both of my mocks, I have him going in the first round. Dallas is a team I could see taking Ashton Genty. He didn't catch it a lot this last year. But again, the caveat being is that Boise was trying to win the Heisman

trophy with Ashton Genty. And for him, it couldn't be all-purpose. Christian McCaffrey tried to win the Heisman all-purpose as a West Coast back. And it didn't work. Okay. So Genti was going to have to go out there and do something really special as a runner. And so they targeted Barry's number. And they thought, okay, we need to get him into the mid-2000s in terms of production as a rusher.

So if you're going to give him the ball 24 to 28 times as a rusher, you don't want to tack on five more as a pass catcher as well. Going over 30 is crazy. So that's why they didn't throw it to him a lot. Doesn't mean he can't catch. In fact, he's got good passing production or catching production. receiving production in his past. So there's my list for running backs right there.

Gentie, number one, Trevion Henderson, number two, Quinchan Judkins, three, Amarion Hampton, four, Caleb Johnson at number five. And then here's a guy that I just think he's not my number six guy. He's probably not even in my top eight. But if you're looking for a value pick on maybe day three in the draft, look out for LeQuint Allen for Syracuse. I prepared for that game in the Holiday Bowl,

and I loved LeQuint Allen because of his ability to do it all. He can catch it. He can run it. He blocked well. Lequint Allen is a guy to watch out for from Syracuse. He is a potential day three guy that could be a steel, excuse me, for your NFL franchise. Okay. Let's move on to tight end.

Now, this one's interesting because I do think tight end is a good position group. Now, certainly better at the top than maybe the depth. But I do think that this is a good group. and a little bit of a change up up at number one and two. But before we get there, let me get the first three taken care of. At number five, I'm going to go with Elijah Arroyo. Now, Arroyo had some knee injuries, and so I think that that hurt his production, and frankly, some of his film from earlier in his career.

So it's hard because he doesn't quite have the body of work that some of these other tight ends have, but he's certainly fluid. And as he got healthier this last year, when I'm watching him, as he got healthier, I'm like, okay, the fluidity is there. Some of the speed kind of returned. I thought late in the year he was a much more dangerous player than he was early in the year.

And to me, that was a lot, that was primarily because of his health. Okay, so if you just project that forward, as he gets healthier, I think he could be a really good pro. So Elijah Arroyo is a guy with good skill, he's got good size, and as he gets healthier, he could be a quality NFL tied in. And number four from Oregon, Terrence Ferguson. Ferguson had great production, man.

And he's a guy that it's easy to look over his production because a lot of his catches were at or near the line of scrimmage. Right. And again, exactly what I said for Caleb Johnson. in terms of he's going to do exactly what, you know, he did in college exactly what he's going to be required to in the NFL. It's a little bit different for Terrence Ferguson. Not a ton down the field. There is some down the middle and down the seams, but again, a lot of catches at or near the line of scrimmage. They ran tight-in screen a lot.

If you're watching YouTube, you should. And if you're not, go over there and subscribe, but you're seeing that tight-end screen play out on YouTube right now. He is a fluid pass catcher. not a great blocker, but a fluid pass catcher. And that's what people are looking for. I think in the NFL, he could be more of a flex guy, like an H-tied-in, a moving tight-end. That's a role that I could see him filling because he's a quality player and certainly

a guy that I think could have some success at the NFL level. At number three, you're talking about bloodlines now. Mason Taylor, 651 pounds. Guy has 100 catches in his career plus at LSU, and he's got those Hall of Fame bloodlines, Jason Taylor bloodlines. He is smooth. And he's young. I think he's still underdeveloped. And yet, when I watch him now, like, you can see it. You can see that in a couple of years, he could put on 10 pounds. He could be a 260, 265, 270 pound tied end and still move well. That's a matchup nightmare in the NFL. So I think Mason Taylor, his is going to be like a

rising stock as we get close to the draft. And as he progresses in his career, I could see him get better and better and better every single year. All right, now we get to the top two tight ends. At number two, and I'm going to give you a caveat here, because you've seen both of my mock drafts, and I actually have these two tight ends flipped in the mock draft. So what you have to understand is that the mock draft is more of a prediction. Okay?

That's how I think things are going to go. Now, if I was in the room and evaluating the talent, that's what you're seeing right here. This is my evaluation. This is my list. So with my list, I've got Tyler Warren 2 and Colston Loveland 1. Let me start with Tyler Warren. Let me be very, very specific on this. Both of these players are top 10 players in the NFL draft.

They may not get taken there because, who knows, if someone's going to take a tight end that early. They are equally, equally in the top 10 of players available in this draft. I love Tyler Warren. They are different, okay? Let's start with Warren. And I've talked about this a couple of times during those mock episodes. Warren is a more creative player.

He is more of a Kelsey in that you're going to build an offense kind of around him. He was in a lot of ways the focal point, maybe not in the run game, but the focal point of what Penn State was trying to do. Because he was always moving around, whether he was getting the snap, whether he was getting the handoff, whether he was catching a screen, running the seam. He's terrific with the ball in his hands. He's very good, very good in the contested situation. So, like his ball skills are exquisite.

I love, love Tyler Warren. I think he's a fabulous player. Again, top 10 player in this draft, no question about it. And it's just a little bit different. I don't think he is a traditional in-line tied end. All right. Now, you can create things. And when he is in a creative mode, I think he's at his best.

So an offensive coordinator will need to be, I think, think outside of the box with Tyler Warren. that leaves Colston Loveland from Michigan. Now, Loveland is a bit more traditional. Again, both of these guys are top 10 players available in this draft. Loveland is so fluid as a pass catcher and a route runner. He is almost a wide receiver in terms of his route running ability. He can flex out and he is a matchup nightmare because he is so good in the route tree on the edge.

he can line up as a tied end. What do you think he had to do at Michigan? He was a really quality blocker for them. He could move, he could motion, he could flex in the passing game, and he's dangerous. You can set him out there as the number one. So he can be just in line, X receiver type, trying to get him a one-on-one on the backside, or you can move him around, and he can block. So to me, it's a versatility thing.

He's a bit more traditional than Tyler Warren, and he's probably a bit more versatility. He's not just in the creative game. I think that he can do everything. I really do. And I think that he probably could have played the Warren role, but they didn't do that at Michigan. But he was very good in the traditional sense. And again, very polished as a route runner.

He can get himself open. And in a lot of ways, Warren, his touches were created for him and schemed for him. Whereas Loveland, they were scheming for him, but in the sense that it's like, hey, man, go get yourself open. So that's why I've got him at number. number one. So there's the list. Colson Loveland, Tyler Warren, Mason Taylor, Terrence Ferguson, and Elijah Arroyo. Okay. How about a guy that I think middle of the draft, maybe late in the

draft, could be a good steal at Tide-in? How about Iowa's Luke Lachet? Luke Lachet is a really good player, folks, and he's got these Iowa bloodlines as it relates to the tight-end position. We've seen these guys time and time again go out there and succeed at the next level in a lot of ways for exactly the same reason as I was talking about earlier with Caleb Johnson, they're running back. He did at Iowa exactly what they're going to ask him to do in the NFL. Good route runner. I like his ability at the catch point. Need him to stay healthy. But if he does, I think he can be a really good contributor at the next level and a solid NFL tied in. All right, let's move on to wide receiver. Okay. Let's go top five wide receivers available in the draft as I see

them here and I rank them. Number five, from Missouri Luther Burden. Dude, this guy just wins on the outside. And a lot of it is just pure acceleration. He is so athletic and he's twitchy. And I think he could be a really good slot player at the next level. What he does need to do is get some refinement in terms of route running. Because at the next level, when you talk about these guys in the next level, these wide receivers can get themselves open, man. They are so precise when it comes to running their routes and they can get themselves open. They communicate with every movement in their route in order to create space so that they can win. Because at the next level, the whole name of the game is can you create any amount of space?

And he can do that with just God-given ability, but at the next level, at times you can't just rely on God-given ability, quickness, acceleration and such. So he needs to clean that up. But again, win, man. And you plug him in. A creative offensive play caller plugs in Luther Borden. And he's a weapon right away. Love his game. Love his acceleration.

And again, just some polish. And he's right there. At number four, I've got Matthew Golden from Texas, obviously transferred in. And then by the end of the year, he was really the focal point of the passing game for Texas as they made another run into the national semifinal. So, like, he is a really good player. And what I loved about Matthew Golden is that he never shied away from the big moment. When they needed it most, man, they were going to Matthew Golden.

You talk about huge moments, whether it was the SEC championship game or playoff games. You know, you're seeing the clip against Michigan down in the goal line before the half. They went to Golden because they trusted his ability to be in the right spot. And as a transfer, that's not always the case. He was a playmaker for them. Their passing game ran through him. and at the next level, I think that he could eventually do the same. I think he's probably better into the slot, probably, but we'll see where he ends up in the NFL.

And number three, I've got Emeka Abuka. I think his word for me is polish. These guys from Ohio State, man, they just succeed. They are some of the best wide receivers in the National Football League because of who was coaching them in college. All right. Brian Hartline is the best position coach in college football. All due respect, there's a lot of great ones. Heartline's the best.

You cannot argue with his track record with what's going on. Garrett Wilson and Marvin Harrison and Jackson Smith and Jigba and Chris Oliva and on and on. These guys go to the next level. They have been running NFL routes throughout their entirety of their tenure at Ohio State. And they've learned the nuance, exactly what I was talking to you. you about like, what are you communicating to the defensive back that you can use to your advantage to create space and a win for not only yourself, but for your quarterback as well. They do that as well as anybody.

And A Mecca Abuka was a surgeon out there. I talk about being a surgeon as a quarterback, but as a route runner and just an overall offensive threat, Abuka is surgical in the way that he plays. I think he's more explosive than people give him credit. He's great catching the football. and he's going to be perfect for a creative offensive coordinator. Abuca at number three. Now, Tetero and McMillan at Arizona did not have a great season,

but you look at his frame. Man, it's hard for me not to put him at number two because he's a true threat in terms of a number one, a red zone threat, a scoring threat, a third down threat. His frame alone makes him that. Now, did they force the football to him a little bit at Arizona? Yeah, they probably did. but you would too if you had McMillan out there.

I think he could use some polish. He doesn't have what I was talking about with a Bucca as far as like the surgical nature with which he plays offense, but he's got the frame and athleticism that allows him to go out there and just beat defenders. That's hard to teach. Hard to teach. I thought that this guy throughout his tenure was just a touchdown waiting to happen.

He is terrific with leverage. understanding that he is bigger than the opponent. He understands that it's almost like he's boxing guys out. He's like he's playing basketball. And he uses his body as well as anybody out there. And to me, his frame makes him kind of a true number one. Because you can go out there and now you can get the third down catches. You can get the red zone catches.

And you can get catches in crunch time in the playoffs. Generally speaking, big players succeed in the playoffs. And he's obviously a big wide receiver. That leaves number one. And I've got Travis Hunter at number one. And truth be told, I would have Travis Hunter at number one if he played defense or not. So this is not a complete holistic evaluation of Travis Hunter as a player. This is just an evaluation of Travis Hunter as a wide receiver.

Now, I've seen some people like take shots at Travis Hunter as a wide receiver. And to be honest, I don't get it. it. I do not get it at all. This guy is incredible instinctually when the football is in the year. His ability to win, regardless of where his body is, is remarkable. He can jump. He understands leverage. His ability as a corner and his knowledge of playing defense helps him as a wide receiver. he is incredibly sudden. He's also very polished in the way that he uses what I would call like hesitation, and then also the ability to kind of like throttle down or not be at full speed in order to speed up.

Once he has kind of lulled the defender to sleep, this is my favorite catch he made all year that you're seeing right now against North Dakota State. He is getting absolutely crushed in the end zone and reaches back and catches that football. the ball skills are incredible. So again, I just want to be crystal clear. This evaluation is not holistic about Travis Hunter as a football player, which would take into consideration that he's also a top five corner in this draft. No, no, no. This is just if he was coming out as a wide receiver,

he would be the best wide receiver in this draft. He does everything. You put together everything that those guys below him have, whether it's the ability to be sudden and accelerate and win with explosiveness like Luther Burden, Hunter has that. If it's the ability to be targeted in crunch time and be a number one, like Matthew Golden, Hunter has that. The precision that he uses during route running and the ability to understand that he's

communicating things in his route running to the defender in order to create space and win, like a Bucca, he has that. The ball skills to win in contested areas like Tetero and McClure. McMillan, he has that. So again, Hunter, for me, is the top wide receiver in the draft, and I think he's an excellent player. I've said that he's going to be a third wide receiver and not a number one, only because that's the way to get him on the field and impact the game as a wide receiver and also play him as a defender. So again, that's playing a little bit of cat and mouse as like, how do you limit the snaps and yet maximize the production, the impact that he has on a game? and that's the way you do it, at least in my estimation. A couple of guys that I think are incredible

that you could be seeing very soon after these top five. Higgins and Noel from Iowa State. These guys can play. I loved their tape. I was really, I wanted to get them in there, but I couldn't. And then the other guy that I just really love is ELEC A.O. Manor from Stanford. Again, so it might not be the best wide receiver draft that we've ever seen. However, there's some guys that you can get in the depth is very good.

So in the middle of the draft, you're getting guys like L.A.O. Manor, Higgins, Noel, from Iowa State. Like, these are really good player. And A.O. Manor, he can go, man. I'm telling you. And maybe it's just that I stayed up late on that Friday night a couple of years ago and watch him absolutely go berserk against a guy that I think is probably the top corner in this draft against Travis Hunter. Like A.O. Manor is a really good one-on-one wide receiver.

So if you hear his name for your team, middle, late in the draft, I would be excited. So there you have it. Those are my top five skill position players at each position, but I didn't want to leave you with just draft talk. I also wanted to bring you into some of the conversation that's going on out there in regards to college football. It's been a little bit quiet. And that's this time of year. And you know what? That's probably good because as Marsh Madness kind of heats up, it's all right if college football takes a little bit of a back.

seat. But as Dion Sanders tends to do, he drew some eyeballs and some attention was something that he was talking about as it relates to spring football. Let me let you listen to it and then we'll chat about it on the other side. Here was Dean. We got to sell this thing out and pack this thing because the way the trend is going, you never know if this is going to be the last spring game. I don't believe in that. I don't really want to condone that. I would like to play the spring. Actually, I like to play a game. Actually, I'd like to play a game. against another team in the spring. That's what I'm trying to do right now to have it competitive.

Playing against your own guys kind of get monotonous. And you really can't tell the level of your guys. Because, you know, it's the same old, same way. Everybody kind of know each other towards the end. I would like to sound like the pros. I would like to practice against someone for a few days. Then you have the spring game. And I think the public will be satisfied with that tremendously.

I think it's a tremendous idea. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All the yeses. All of them. I mean, this, yes. Deion is exactly right here. He's exactly right. This is something that we used to talk about as players. You know, so I'm going back now, shoot, man. I played 20 years ago, which is a long time. But we got so sick, sick and tired of just practicing against ourselves. And we always thought to ourselves like, man, just let us practice against Wyoming or Colorado State or anybody, anybody. Let us just go practice against them.

So yes, Dion is exactly right. Exactly right. Now, truth be told, do I have an idea or like, could this work? Is there a way that this could work? I don't know. I don't know. Because of all the things that are trying to, you know, get thrown out there in college football, this one kind of seems like, can we do that?

You know, it seems a little bit more far-fetched, but hopefully it's not. Hopefully it's not. I think even what he was talking about as far as, like, getting him in for a series of practices is absolutely the way that this should go. Absolutely the way that this should go. And you saw, by the way, what was it, friend Brown from Syracuse, he popped up on social media. He's like, done, I'm in, Joey McGuire from Texas. He tweeted out as this was getting going. Deion even mentioned Bill Belichick at one time.

So it's like, I think there are coaches that would be into this. I really do. Now, I do think there would be coaches that wouldn't be into this as well. And let me just give you both sides of the argument. I touched on a little bit reasons for this. You just get sick and tired of practicing against yourself and you want to go out there and you want to develop your entire team. By the way, sometimes it's hard to just practice against yourself because you just don't have the numbers. Okay. So you do have starters, though, and in order to get those starters reps,

I think bringing in another team, now you get really quality reps. So from the football standpoint, I totally get it. And I think that this improves your team. There's no doubt. Now, what would be a negative? If you were playing devil's advocate, you would say, like, the last thing I would want to do is create real action for starters. that would lead to injury in the spring. You wouldn't want to see that. I wouldn't want to see that. No one would want to see that.

When we see guys get injured in the preseason in the NFL, we hate it. Obviously, obviously. So if you are giving kind of like, if you are giving like a full practice, because when you're practicing against yourself, I'll be very honest. Starters rarely, if ever, are live. I mean, very rarely. There might be like, oh, we're going fast. This is 100%.

we're doing thud tempo. They call it thud tempo, which means go 100 million miles an hour as fast as you can, but as soon as you contact, like pull up. That doesn't work. That doesn't work. Okay? So injuries would happen if you're going to bring other teams in and you're going to practice against them. So you would have to be okay with that, which a lot of coaches would not be for the next reason,

which is you don't generally have great numbers from a health perspective anyways. a lot of teams go through the spring and they're like, man, we can only feel, you know, seven offensive linemen total or six total defensive linemen. And so you don't even have a full complement of, quote, starters because a lot of those guys have maybe gotten surgeries after the fall. And so your team doesn't look anywhere near what it would during the fall because you're trying to prepare that team to be ready in September. Okay.

So you don't really have your full compliment, which means you bring another team in and you look bad. you really think you wouldn't be evaluated on that? Now, maybe you wouldn't get hired and fired based on that, but everything counts when it comes to sentiment with your fan base. If you had a tough fall as a coach and then you were, quote, on the hot seat for the next year, and you had open practice against another institution,

and all of a sudden here comes another program into your practice facility, and you look terrible, that ain't going to help you. And so those coaches won't want to do this. Again, devil's advocate, because all in all, I would be for this. I would be for this because I think players would be for this idea. But I just wanted to give you both sides of this. Now, could it work? I'm not sure.

I mean, we can't even figure out how to not have the transfer portal open during the season. Can we figure out how to have teams actually practice and scrimmage against each other in the spring for their spring game? Shoot, man. That seems like square peg round hole right now. as far as what the, quote, NCAA and Powers ZEPB are trying to figure out. Again, ask John Caliperi, who just this week was sitting there at the press conference and had to be told like, yeah, transfer portal opens up on Monday while he's preparing for the Sweet 16. We went through this in college football. Lane Kiffin gave him the tweet like, yeah,

welcome to our world, buddy. And listen, we can't even figure out how to play a competitive season and end to that competitive season without the roster building component starting. It's crazy. It's crazy. First and foremost, in order for something like this to work, we would have to have that ironed out. We would have to have that ironed out. So first and foremost, you've got to have competition time, preparation time, and roster building time. And those three times have to be separate. And once they are, then you can start to talk about doing these things where you've got programs facing programs for a series of practices and maybe even a scrimmage live where fans can come see and maybe even television would get involved.

And by the way, it's not even if television would get involved, television would definitely get involved. So again, love the idea. Do I think it's 100 hurdles to try to jump over before we get something like this? Probably. And one of those hurdles that I think is the biggest hurdle is the fact that, you know, is the fact that that we're trying to still build rosters while we're preparing, while we're competing. So why would you go, if you knew there was a transfer portal window right after your joint practice,

wouldn't you not want another team to see exactly what's going on? Oh, that kid, we really like him. And he's not getting starter reps. Oh, call him up. Well, isn't that tampering Joel? Yes, that's tampering, Joel. And guess what? Everyone is still doing it.

So let's figure out the calendar. And then, hey, Dion, I'm in, man. That is a great, great idea. That'll do it for today's show. Thank you for listening. We'll be back next week with another episode. And as we prepare for the NFL draft, we're going to continue to have these rankings of my top five players per position groups.

And we will continue to do some mock drafts and include my just top 50 players available. All of that is coming up before we get to Green Bay for the 2025. NFL draft. Make sure to follow us and subscribe on YouTube. Hit the notification button. Make sure to follow us wherever you like to social media at Joel Clatio. And until next time, have a great week, everyone.