The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Klatt ranks his Top 10 College Football Teams since 2000

Episode Date: December 13, 2023

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt ranks his Top 10 teams since the year 2000. He breaks down which teams from powerhouses like Alabama, Georgia, USC and Texas made the cut. Klatt then places his Top 4 teams into a Playoff Bracket and makes his picks in those heavyweight matchups. He ultimately crowns his champion as the best team of this century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the Joel Clat show, we have a historical playoff. What would a 14 playoff look if we took the best team since 2000? We find out today. College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. Believe that we are at the dawn of the golden age of college football. It was an epic day of college football. It was one of those days where you fall in love with the sport all over again.

Hey, what's up, everybody? It is the Joel Clatt show. I am Joel Clatt. This show is presented by Hampton by Hilton, and we've got a fun one here for you today. We went into the mailbag for the last episode, and we got a great question that we're going to basically do the entire episode off of this one question. But first, remember, subscribe to the show, wherever you're listening, wherever you get your podcasts, wherever you like to podcast, go ahead, subscribe to the show. leave us a review, comment, do all of those things, rate review us. Follow us on YouTube as well.

Subscribe to that channel. We'll obviously have things during the course of every week and the offseason that are exclusive to YouTube in particular when we start getting into the NFL draft. So make sure to subscribe over there. And then follow us on social media. Wherever you like to social media, we're there at Joel Clatt Show. Okay, let's get into the mailbag. And remember, you can always send us mailbag questions.

You can send us mailbag questions to the following. address. The Joel Clatshow Mailbag at gmail.com. We always dip in there and look for questions, and it can be questions about anything. It can be questions about life. It can be questions about parenting. It can be questions about my past as a minor league baseball player or just college football, which we love as well. And that's where this question comes from. And this question immediately grabbed my attention. And I thought to myself, no, Don't just answer this at the end of a normal episode. This is an episode in and of itself.

And you're going to find out why real quick. Donnie writes in. Donnie S writes into the show. He says, hey, Joel, question. What four teams of the past 20 years would you like to see in a four-team playoff? Bonus question, he says, I have included a picture of a bison I drew last year. What do you think? I always enjoyed that picture you had in your old studio.

it was epic. Well, first, Donnie, now I've got to see the picture of your bison. So let's take a look at the bison. And yep, that's pretty amazing. Donnie, talented man. That's beautiful. Man, I'd love a copy of that. I'd throw that up in the new studio, Donnie. I don't know if it would be big. I mean, you know, powers that be, everybody has a say now and what the Joel Clascio studio looks like, even though the other studio is in my home. But anyways, I digress. There it is. There it is. Okay. Let's get into the actual question. The four-team playoff, it's a historical playoff. And Donnie, I know that you said past 20 years, but I fudged a little bit. And I thought it would be cleaner rather than just going back to 2003,

why don't we just go back to the start of the century? Let's just go back to the year 2000, and we're going to take a four-team playoff. What are the best four teams of this century, basically, and then let's have a playoff. But we can't just throw them out there. We've got to have a rankings reveal. we got to figure out how we derive who are the best four teams to play this, you know, faux playoff as the best four teams since 2000. So here we go.

I just started ranking them. Steve and I, Steve, as you know, is the right-hand man of the Joel Clashio. He does all things with me during the course of the year. And so we put our heads together and we started talking about deliberating and debating who should be in this playoff. How would we rank the best teams since 2000? And a couple of things that I would throw up as criteria. I 100% leaned towards championships.

There were a lot of really good teams that didn't win a championship that you could have thrown in a top 10 because I think that they probably deserve it, even though they didn't win the championship that year. So quickly before we get into the top 10, here are the three teams that did not make the top 10 but got consideration as non-champions. 2019 Ohio State lost in that semi-final to Clemson.

A couple of weird calls in that game. Obviously, that was a great football team, a great football team. That team got some consideration. The 2008 Texas team that lost the three-way tiebreaker to Oklahoma and the Big 12 because they were also tied with Texas Tech, which is the team that ended up beating Texas earlier in the year, in Lubbock, that Texas team didn't wind up in my top 10, but man, I thought that they deserved a mention. And then this next team didn't wind up in the top 10. And again, on account of the fact

that they did not win the national championship, 2005 USC. They lost to Texas and they're not going to be in my top 10, but man, we all know how great that 2005 USC team was. So, as the criteria is supposed to pan out currently as we rank teams for the college football playoff. Championships won. What we do now is conference championships, but in my model, national championships are going to matter. So here we go. I'm going to go 10 to 1, and this is going to be the seeding. Okay, so this is how we're going to derive the playoff, and then I'm going to play the playoff out for you right here on the show. Number 10 is Oklahoma, the year 2000. The Josh Heipel, Bob,

Stoop's in his second year, Rocky Calmus, Roy Williams, that second area was incredible. They basically shut out Florida State, Chris Winkie's Florida State team. I would love to see that Oklahoma team actually play Miami. Remember Miami beat that Florida State team in 2000. The BCS snubbed Miami, put Florida State into that game. Winky was the Heisman, and Oklahoma, they were the best defense in the country. So that Josh Hypole, Bob Stoops, Oklahoma team, they wind up at number 10. At number nine, it is the 2013 Florida State Seminoles.

James Winston and Company were dominant. When you look back on that, they beat teams by an average margin of 39.5. Remarkable dominance. That's the best of any team on this list, by the way. I put them at nine, no, because you start getting into these top eight teams, and it's like they are historically great. but the 13 Florida State team, they make it. That's an undefeated year and a Heisman for James Winston.

The number eight team in my poll is the 2008 Florida Gators team that beat that Oklahoma team that won the three-way tie break over Texas. Tim Tebow's Florida team, now they weren't undefeated, but remember he gave the speech after that early season loss, and that team was loaded, Percy Harvin. They had everybody on that team. That was Urban Meyer's best team. Due respect to some of his other teams, including the Ohio State National Championship team of 2014,

the 08 Florida Gators was his best team. They were absolutely loaded. They beat Oklahoma, and that Oklahoma team was very good. 2414 in the national championship game, and they are my number eight seed. Number seven, 2021, Georgia. Again, not an undefeated. Remember, they didn't even win their conference championship, but that defense was incredible. They wound up beating Alabama in the rematch in the national championship game.

And when you look at the number of players that they sent to the NFL just on the defensive side alone, you can make an argument that that was one of the great defenses in the history of college football. Seven first round draft picks on that defense, five in 2022, then three more, excuse me, two more in 2020. I believe they gave up 10.2 points per game. and in modern college football, that's obscene. That's an obscenely low number, so they're number seven. We're getting down to it. And as is the case with the normal rankings reveal,

you know what we're going to do now. That's right. It's my favorite time of year. It's football season. It's faux playoff season. And as you know, I take it seriously. So when I'm traveling on the road to watch my favorite teams, I can't risk calling the wrong play with where I stay.

Wherever I go, I know that I can count on Hampton by Hilton. I can depend on their comfortable rooms and I can depend on their warm and friendly service. Plus, their free hot breakfast is a game changer for me. I talk about it all the time. I need my cup of coffee. I need my warm waffle. Boom, they've got it right there. So whether you're cheering on your team from the stands or never leaving the tailgate,

Hampton by Hilton will always give you that win. All right, here we go. We are making the historical four-team playoff from the best team since the year 2000. We're down to number six. Here we go. We got some good ones left. At number six, not quite in the playoff, it is 2018 Clemson Tigers. Man, that was a great team. Freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence took over in the fifth game. They had the fourth-ranked scoring offense in the country and the number one scoring defense in the country. And they won their last 10 games by all of them by 20 or more points. Remember, they beat Alabama, the defending champ handily in the national championship game.

give Nick Saban, excuse me, one of his worst defeats in his tenure at Alabama, that championship game was 44-16. So they're number six on my list. Number five, 2020, Alabama. That team was incredible. COVID year, which throws things out of whack, but you can make an argument that it was even more difficult for this Alabama team because all they did was play in SEC schedule.

They didn't have any cupcakes. They didn't have the normal Chattanooga in November. I know that's a bit of a shot. But look at this team. Look at the talent on this team. You've got the Mac Jones is your quarterback. You got the Heisman winner and Devante Smith. You got Najee Harris in the backfield.

That's a team, by the way, that still had Sark as their offensive coordinator. They were loaded on defense. They only had one game that year, decided by 14 or less points. And that was the SEC championship game against Florida. They rolled through the playoff. They beat that very good Ohio State team, by the way. 52-24 in the national championship game. But they didn't get into the top four.

It was close. It was close. But they didn't get into the top four. And the reason is because the previous year in what I would argue was even a better Bama team, there was a team that beat them. So my number four seed was a team that beat that Bama team, the previous year, 2019 LSU Tigers, they're in the playoff. They're the number four seed at number four, the LSU Tigers.

Now, they're four because the defense wasn't great. We all know that, right? 30 second in scoring in the country. But that team went on one of the great offensive runs that we've ever seen in college football history. They were 15 and 0. They beat number three Clemson, 42, 25. in that Sugar Bowl for the National Championship. That was an incredible performance.

Their average margin was 26 and a half. They got Burrow the Heisman Trophy winner. They've got Jamar Chase. They've got Justin Jefferson, Clyde Edwards Allaire. That team was an absolute machine. Burroughs second year there after the transfer from Ohio State. He was decent his first year. But you remember they had that game late in the season in 18,

2018, 2018 against Texas A&M. It was that long overtime game. and that one catapulted them into what they were in 2019. And they went in and they beat Bama in Tuscaloosa. They ended a 31 game winning streak that Alabama had at home. And that Alabama team was loaded. I even think that that was a better Bama team than the 2020 version, which is why LSU gets this fourth spot.

That Bama team had Tua. They had Devante Smith. They had Jalen Waddle. They had Jerry Judy. They had Naji Harris on offense. They had Trayvon Diggs, Pat Sertan, Dylan, on defense and LSU beat them in their building. So that's why they're the number four seed in this one.

They were tremendous. Okay. Number three, the 2004 USC Trojans, 2004 USC Trojans. The undefeated Matt Linerd is your Heisman trophy winner. They beat that Oklahoma team that was outstanding in Adrian Peterson's true freshman year, and they drubbed them in the Orange Bowl, the national championship game, 55 to 19. They were 13 and 0, won by an average of 25 points. They've got Linerd. They've got Reggie

Bush. They've got DeWain Jarrett. Pete Carroll is their head coach. And this year in 04, as opposed to 05, they were better defensively. You know, they had some close games, by the way. They had kind of that fog bowl game against Oregon State where the fog was rolling in. If you're watching on YouTube, you're seeing some the highlights of that game. They had some close games, But I tell you, man, that team was talented. They had split the national championship the year before. They came back and they were outstanding in 2004. So they are my number four seed.

That leaves only two teams left. And if you don't know who these two teams are, then you're not paying attention. And the top two seeds, we start with number two, 2005, Texas with Vince Young, and the number one seed is 2001 Miami. So there's our four-team playoff. that 05 Texas team, I know them intimately.

I had to play that team twice. That was my senior year at Colorado. We played them once in Austin. Then we played them again in the Big 12 championship game. We lost to that team 70 to 3. Vince Young was the best football player I've ever seen live. They had two Thorpe Award winners in their secondary. They were outstanding on defense.

And they went out there and they beat and ended that win streak for USC and beat them in the Rose Bowl. They won by an average of 33.8 points. per game. And yet they don't get the number one seed because 0-1 Miami, that's the consensus number one. They are widely held and rightly so, the best team this century. They were 12 and O handled Nebraska in the national championship game, average margin over 30 points. They have Ken Dorsey and Andre Johnson. They've got Ed Reed as the safety on that team. That team was loaded. The number of first-round draft picks on that team was

insane. 11 of the 22 starters in the National Championship game were first-round draft picks. Think about that. 11 of the 22 starters for the Miami Hurricanes in 2001 ended up being first-round draft picks. They had Jonathan

Vilma on that team. They had William Joseph. They had Jerome McDougal. I mean, my goodness. DJ Williams, they were incredible. The backups on that team were guys like Willis McGahey and Frank Gore. They were Portis' backups. Clinton Portis was the running back.

Oh my goodness. So there's our 14th playoff and now we've got to play it off. So here we go. Let's do it. Okay. Let's go with the 1-4 game. And all due respect to LSU, LSU's defense in 2019 was not suited to line up

with this Miami team, which was so good everywhere. Again, 11 first round draft picks. So as good as LSU was, and they would have scored some points. They're not beating the 2001 Miami team. The defense for that Miami team was too good. You put Ed Reed out there, and now you've got somebody to actually defend against Justin Jefferson.

You got someone to defend against Jamar Chase and Joe Burrough. So Burroughs 60 touchdowns, which at the time was an FBS record, that's all well and good. But, man, Miami is uniquely suited in this matchup. And this matchup, Miami's going to get the better of them. Now, I think it's probably a great game. Miami was just too good. And they were too good everywhere.

And of the four, the weakest unit of any of the units in this playoff is the LSU defense. And Miami's offense with Ken Dorsey and Clinton Portis and everybody on the outside, that Miami team was going to win that game. I don't know which game. I like to think that that would have been a lot. Orange Bowl semifinal, right? Like Miami in the Orange Bowl. And you know what?

Since I can do whatever I want, since this is like my playoff, it's the old Orange Bowl, not the new Orange Bowl. They're playing this, which by the way, they still played the Orange Bowl, I believe, at this point in the old Orange Bowl. Because in 2005, my Colorado team went down and played Miami in the old Orange Bowl. I want it in the old Orange Bowl, man. Like that old horrific stadium, that place was amazing. Miami beats LSU in Miami in the old Orange Bowl.

So they're on to the national championship game. They are on to the century championship game, is what I should say. So that's how the semifinal number one plays out. Now we get to semifinal number two. And this one obviously takes place in the Rose Bowl. Now, one could argue that, Joel, we already saw this game. Yes, it was a different version of USC, but we saw Texas and USC. and if you really thought that I was going to make a playoff,

and I wasn't going to match you up, Texas and USC, you're sorely mistaken. That's why there's a two and three seed. And I will tell you, that was in 2005, probably the best college football game that I've ever seen. I wish Reggie Bush would have been on the field. I don't think he had to touch the ball, but I wish he would have been on the field on fourth down

in the Rose Bowl in 2005. But Vince Young was incredible. ends the winning streak for USC. But here's the thing. Here's the thing about it. In 2004, USC was a better version of what they were in 2005. This team was hungrier. They had liner.

They had Reggie Bush. Those two would eventually have Heisman trophies. And really, it's the only team that you can think of, that has two guys that are playing together and impacting the game together that are Heisman trophy winners. It really hasn't ever happened before or since. Now, we've had teammates that have won Heisman trophies. You think of like, let's see, like DeVante Smith and Bryce Young were technically teammates

that ended up winning Heisman trophies, but they weren't on the field at the same time. They weren't affecting the game at the same time like Matt Leinert and Reggie Bush. And in 04, this USC defense was vastly better than what it was in 2005. If you talk with guys like Reggie and Matt, which I have about this era of USC football, they always talk about the 04 version of USC being a best or better version of any of their three teams. They shared a championship in 2003. They win it outright in 2004, hammering Oklahoma, and then they lost to Texas in the Rose Bowl, and they feel like their better team, their best team was 2004.

Now, that being said, 05 Texas was, oh boy. I was concussed in both matchups. Let's just say that. Their defense was outstanding. They had Vince Young. And I've always said Vince Young is the best college football player or football player, period, that I've ever seen in person. And both of these teams, by the way, played close games through the year. You know, Texas played a game against Oklahoma State, which was a legendary game.

In fact, they're down, I believe it was. 17 at half right around there, down to 16 at half to Oklahoma State. And I've had three different people tell me this story, and I've confirmed it with people in the room, in the locker room. Oklahoma State's not a great team that year. This is Mike Gundy's, I believe, first year, maybe second year, but they're just trying to get their footing. Texas is a juggernaut.

They're number two in the country. They're undefeated. They go to Stillwater, and they're down 16 at half. they go in at halftime. It's a small locker room. It's not a great locker room there at Oklahoma State. They were doing construction. They were kind of building what T-Boon Pickens has now built as their stadium.

And Mac Brown starts yelling, turning over tables, you know, hitting stuff. Like, come on. And Vince stops him. He's like, yo, out. I've had this confirmed to me. He told Mack Brown to leave the locker room. he turns to his teammates and he says, hey, I got this and turns on a boombox.

True story. Confirmed by three different people. What did Vince do? He went out. He ran for 267 yards that day. They end up winning that game by, I believe, 17. From down 16 to winning by 17. That's the type of player.

This guy could turn it on at any moment. So who wins the game, Joel? You're talking about these teams so much. Who wins the game? It comes down to this for me. I have a soft spot in my heart for that 05 Texas team because we played them. And yet, I know how great that game was in 05, that Rose Bowl, and how close it was. It was a fourth down that Vince ended up running in for a touchdown.

It was a fourth down that USC could have converted and put the game away. And I believe deep down that the 04 version of USC was better. And because I believe that, I say USC 04.4. in the Rose Bowl, the fake Rose Bowl here, the Century Rose Bowl, they beat that 05 Texas team. And now we've got a century championship between 201 Miami and 2004 USC. That's what I've got. I have got the three-seed Trojans against the one-seed Miami Hurricanes.

And you know what? This is how this is going to go down. We're going to play this thing. I don't know, pick a stadium. So-fi. Do you want to play it in So-Fi? I don't know. Let's play it in Dallas. Why don't we play it in Dallas? We're in Jerry's world. We're kind of meeting halfway. We're in Jerry's world. It's not a Monday night because I think

Monday night championship games are stupid. More on that later, I'm sure. USC Miami, here we go. How is this going to play out? Well, you've got Liner, you've got Reggie Bush, you've got Dwayne Jarrett, you've got Steve Smith, you got a freshman All-American, Sam Baker on the offensive line. This is a team that can run it and throw it, right? This is not just LSU leaning on Joe Burrow in the passing game. They're balanced. They feature the run with Bush. They can run it with Lindell White. This is a really good team. And Miami, Miami, obviously, they're ready. 11 first round draft picks of their 22 starters. I think this is the best game that we would ever see in college football. If there was one matchup that I would

just love to see in history, it would be this matchup. 2004, USC, 2001 Miami. This Miami team defensively is incredible. I mean, Nebraska had no shot in their national championship game. But the Oklahoma team that USC beat in the national championship game, the Orange Bowl that year was far superior to that Nebraska team. That Nebraska team actually backed into that national championship game. If you remember, the real debate was actually and should have been between

Oregon and Colorado. Colorado is the one that won the Big 12 that year. They're the ones that beat Nebraska in Nebraska's previous game to the national championship 62 to 36. And I know that that's not Miami's fault, but they don't get the feather in their cap of beating a great team in their national championship. So as great as Miami was in 2001, their national championship game is a downer. They didn't face a great team. Meanwhile, USC in 04, they go down to Miami across the country, and they face an Oklahoma team that everyone thought was incredible. Jamal Brown up front, Adrian Peterson, probably should have,

I mean, you could argue could have been the first freshman to win the Heisman trophy. He was the best true freshman I've ever seen. We played that team, that Oklahoma team. We had to play 05 Texas in the Big 12 championship game. We had to play 04, Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game. Jason White was the reigning Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback for that OU team. Bob Stoops is there looking for his second national championship.

And a lot of people thought, I mean, that was a great defense too, by the way. That was what was it, Teddy Lehman, Dan Cody was on that. I mean, they were loaded up front, loaded. One of the best defenses that I ever saw across from me. And USC hammered them. and hammered them way more so than Miami beat Nebraska, which was a lesser opponent. So USC beats Oklahoma 5519 in that orange ball.

Miami beats Nebraska 3714 in that Rose Bowl. You see where I'm going with this. I like the upset. I like the upset. If you're asking me, who wins, in a game between 2001 Miami and 2004 USC, I think USC wins that game. Not going to be a popular opinion

because everybody says the consensus that the best team may be ever and certainly since 2000 is that Miami team. And I'm with you. I think that Miami team was absolutely incredible. But here's USC. And they dominated a much better team in their national championship game

to a much greater team. to a much greater degree. And because of that, in what I deem an incredibly evenly matched scenario, because of that, I'm going with USC. USC is the one that has two Heisman trophy winners in the backfield together. They've got seven future first round draft picks.

So it's not like they're devoid of talent. We're not talking about a team that has as minimal talent as compared to Miami. It's actually quite equal. On the defensive side, they've got Sean Cody. They've got Lofo Tupo. They've got Mike Patterson, Lawrence Jackson, who was a freshman All-American. Maybe I'm just too close to Liner.

I like Linerd a lot. Liner, it's my boy. You're my boy, Blue. I think that USC team could beat that Miami team. Miami is incredible. There's no doubt. But the fact that USC stomped out Oklahoma is what ultimately for me tips it into their direction. Now, you can make an argument that Miami could have or should have done that to Nebraska.

I believe they were up like 34 nothing at half, and then kind of took their foot off the gas. And I get it. And I'm probably going to get a, you know, I'm probably going to get a fair amount of blowback on this one. But there's my champion. And I just have got to credit Donnie for sending in that question. Donnie S sent in the question, and I immediately loved the question. I immediately wanted to do a whole podcast on the question. my 21st century college football playoff, Miami, Texas, LSU, USC, and your winner is the 2004

USC Trojans. That's the winner. That's the winner. And I'm going to stand by that. We'll have more on Monday when we come back. I'll have a lot more portal news. Hopefully we get some of these commitments in the transfer portal. And we can talk about that and the fit for some of these programs. We've got signing day next week. a lot going on here so you're going to want to stay tuned to the Joel Clat Show. You can do so wherever you get your podcast. You can do so on YouTube, subscribe to the channel. But most importantly, have a great couple of days and enjoy your families in this holiday season.