The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Klatt’s new Top 10 & Week 4 Reaction

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

Fox Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt reveals his latest Top 10 as teams like Miami, Oklahoma & Texas picked up wins to make their case. Did Indiana and Texas Tech’s impressive performances do enough to crack the list? Klatt then breaks down the biggest games of the weekend starting with Texas Tech’s impressive win over Utah before considering how high the Red Raiders’ ceiling actually is. He also discusses Michigan’s old-school win over Nebraska as they ran all over the Cornhuskers and may have set themselves up for a Playoff run. Klatt shares how impressed he was with Indiana’s statement win over Top-10 Illinois and why he’s increasingly optimistic about Oklahoma following a tough win over Auburn. Klatt ends the show by acknowledging that his worst prediction of the year keeps getting worse. Chapters 0:00-2:08 Intro2:09-15:56 Joel’s new top 1015:57-25:22 Texas Tech looked great in win25:23-34:33 Michigan handles Nebraska34:34-38:59 Indiana blows out Illinois39:00-43:45 Oklahoma wins against Auburn43:46-49:51 Clemson loses…again Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What we saw Saturday night in Bloomington was ridiculous. The Clemson win is now not a good win. I don't think it's a drastic jump to go from Ohio State to like Texas A&M. That's great for the sport. And I think we have to start wrapping our head around this idea that they might be better than they were a year ago. If I had to pick Oklahoma, Texas today, right now, I would pick Oklahoma. Day like today is why we love college football. Hey, welcome into the program, everybody. This is a Joel Clatt show. I'm Joel Clatt. This show is brought to you by graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support, as always. Lots to get into this week here as we react to another weekend to college football. And what a great weekend it was. Some really good games. I saw a great team on Saturday at Texas Tech, Utah. And so I'll be talking about tech a little bit later in the program. But if you follow me on social media, which you should, I'm at Joel Clatt on X.

you'll know that I normally tweet out my top 10 every single Saturday night. I did not do this this last weekend. That's right. I did not. Why? Because I wanted to wait until today right here on the Joel Clash show in order to bring you my latest top 10. So that's what we're going to do today.

And maybe every single week. I don't know. We're going to see how this goes in terms of bringing you my top 10 right here on Monday morning in a weekly react to what we saw over the weekend. Hey, remember if you're not a subscriber to the show, go over to the YouTube page. subscribe to the show, hit the notification button. You'll know when all of our content drops. You can leave a comment below.

That's cool because I jump down there sometimes and I can banter around with all of you guys, which I think is fun. If you have not followed us on social media as a show, go out and do that. Wherever you like to social media, our content lives there all week long, all year long, and you can get the, you know, those smaller snippets of video and content at Joel Klatt show wherever you like to social media. Let's jump in. So here's what I want to do.

I want to go through my top 10, how I see it right now in college football. And there has been a lot of changes, by the way. And I think that there's some revelations if you want to call it that. I do have to get to a few of the games that we saw over the weekend and react to those. And so we'll do that. So it's going to be a busy show, a full show here on a Monday reacting to college football. Let's get after it. Again, did not put out my top 10 on Saturday night via my Twitter slash X account at Joel

clatt. It's right here. This is my new top 10 in college football after last weekend. At number 10, I have moved them down again, but Texas is going to be number 10. I know that Arch played a lot better, and certainly that is, I would say that's heartening for the Texas fans. There's no doubt about that. Five total touchdowns, only three incompletions against Sam Houston. Hey, that's great. Defense still top five in the country. I feel like I know that the defense is going to be just fine. Now the question is just like, what arch are we going to get from week to week? Because there's been some drastic inconsistencies with the way that he's played.

Obviously, it's a great sign moving forward. If he's able to play the level of football he did last week against Sam Houston, if that continues, then this is not a 10th-ranked team. They're a third-ranked team or a fourth-ranked team. So, listen, this can change and it can change in a hurry, but the lack of consistency to this point, I think you'll understand with some of the performances that we've seen from other teams around the country, they're going to be at number 10.

Maybe controversial that this team is going to jump them and go all the way to 9. But listen, what we saw Saturday night in Bloomington was ridiculous. Indiana is going to be my number 9 team. That team is freaking good, man. Oh, my goodness. What a performance against Illinois. And Illinois was ranked in the top 10. A lot of us thought highly of Illinois.

They had 16 starters back from a team that won double-digit games last year. And Indiana just took them behind the shed. It was not even close. That Indiana team is very good. And I'm going to discuss them more at length a little bit later in the program because I think that it deserves it. But for right now, the top 10 purposes, Indiana is going to be number nine. At eight, I'm going Oklahoma. So OU gets another win and it's another big win for them.

This time they get their former quarterback, Jackson Arnold, and Auburn. And they get them in their home stadium and beat them. Mateer is playing well, maybe as well as anybody in the country, let's say it, quite frankly. The defense, though, this is the, this is really the thing that has me most excited about Oklahoma is the fact that it's not just some wide open offense or some quarterback with a cape on his back. It's that the defense is real. This defense was outstanding against Auburn. I'll talk about them a little bit more later in the program, but for right now, Oklahoma is number eight in the country.

At number seven, listen, there's just been more teams that have been more impressive. And every single week, this resume gets, I mean, I don't know, what's the word? It gets decimated, maybe too strong of a word. It gets hurt. Every week, this resume gets weaker and weaker and weaker. I'm talking about LSU. So they're going to be number seven. I had them all the way up at number two at one point after that went over Clemson.

but now the way that they've played, the way that Clemson has played, some of their games that they've played since. I can't in good conscience put LSU in the top five. And I think even an LSU fan would understand that. Again, with some of the performances that we've seen around the country and the consistency that we've seen from some of these teams around the country, the Clemson win is now not a good win. I don't, like, there's no other way to put it.

By the way, more on Clemson. in the program. So LSU is going to be number seven. At six, here's a team that gets this big win, week one, and we're like, oh, wow, that's crazy. Maybe this other team got all the focus, and it's like, what happened to them? I'm talking about Florida State. They beat up on Alabama really soundly. And since then, all Alabama has done is totally right to ship. And they're playing way better. Their quarterback, Ty Simpson has been terrific. Ryan Williams returns, and he's terrific and that went over Wisconsin. And now in hindsight, I'm thinking to myself, hold on a second. Alabama, beating them the way that Florida State did was crazy. So Florida

State is going to be number six. They have totally taken care of business emphatically since that went over Alabama. They had 775 total yards against Kent State, nearly 500 of them on the ground. They are second in the country and rushing at 363 yards per game. I mean, it's tough. to beat Florida State this year. And I think that after that first week, we thought LSU was, you know, wow, they beat Clemson and, oh, maybe Bama is no good, but it's the exact opposite, which is why Florida State jumps LSU. Listen, two through five are going to be pretty interchangeable. And by the way, I considered Florida State maybe even this mix, so maybe even six through two. So while these are going to look like, oh, one's, you know, higher than others, guys, this is, to me,

This whole group behind the number one team, again, totally interchangeable. You can convince me that any of them are the second best team, any of them are the fifth best team. So at number five, I'm going to go Oregon. I think Dante Moore is playing really well. I love his potential. I really like the roster. I like the size and key areas of their team.

And I still have some concerns about their run defense. Every one of these teams from two to six, really, or two to five. I love elements of their team, and then there's some elements that give me a little bit of concern. And I think that's okay, and that's warranted in a lot of respects. So the run defense against Northwestern for Oregon wasn't great. They gave up over 200 yards. It was just over 170 yards. I don't want to say anything inaccurate.

If you take the sacks and those yardage and you add them back to the rush, because remember in college football, they take sack yardage away from rush yardage. So technically Northwestern only ran it for like 173 or 176 if I'm remembering correctly. The problem is that if you add those sack yardage back and the weird fumble, like all of a sudden it's over 200 yards. So again, the run defense is a concern. I go with them at five. They've got to face Penn State this week with those great backs. So we'll see how that goes.

Speaking of Penn State, I'm going to go Penn State at number four. So the Nittany Lions come in at number four. Of all the teams, I think you're probably going to track with this. Do we know the least amount about Penn State? Probably. I think that they're really good. I don't know that they are. Every other team has had some performance where you're like,

okay, I kind of get it. I know where the questions are. I know where the strengths are. I think I know all of those things about Penn State, I think. but we're going to find out this Saturday when they host Oregon and the whiteout, so Penn State is going to be number four. At number three, I've got Georgia. The win over Tennessee was impressive, in particular with the way that it happened.

Give them a lot of credit for that. I've been so impressed with Gunner Stockton, down 217, and that environment in Neeland, they go up to number three. You might be tracking here because I've moved somebody way up, and every week I get more and more and more. impressed with Miami, and that's right, Miami is number two. This team is really good. They're great at the line of scrimmage on both sides. Ruben Bain, I think, has been the most impactful defender in college football so far. He and Downs are pretty clearly the two best

defenders in the sport, and yet Bain has been a bigger impact player thus far this year. Bain has been a game wrecker. No one can block him on the line of scrimmage. The pressure he puts on the opposing quarterback is immense, and yet he's also great against the run, and he also has a great motor and pursues. It's wild how good this guy is. And so with him on the field, that defense is elite, and with Beck on the field, the offense with their offensive line, can control the line of scrimmage and make plays down the field. I know their offense didn't play like a staggering game against Florida, but one, Florida's defense is pretty good and very athletic. And two, it's raining and they did what they needed to do. And they still owned

the line of scrimmage. So here's a team that is very good on the line of scrimmage. They have some marquee wins. In particular, the Notre Dame game, I still think is a huge win for them. They've got experience at quarterback. They've got one of the most impactful defenders in the country. Miami's number two. And number one, I know they were off last week, but it's still going to be Ohio State. They've been to me the most impressive team. Again, you lose, what was a 14 draft picks off of your team that won a national championship. had all of that senior leadership. They've got to replace so much on their team.

And what do they do? They come out and it's just reload and go back to business, really. Staying has been terrific. He's leading the country in completion percentage. He throws it down the field as well. It's not like it's just dink and dunk in order to achieve that completion percentage. Very accurate deep down the field. They've still got Jeremiah Smith, who I think is the best player in college football.

You still have downs, a defense that has reloaded under Matt Patricia. That's a team to me that has been the most impressive and they're my number one team. So there you have it. There's my top 10 list. I did not put it out Saturday night. That's what I would have put out Saturday night. I wanted to wait until right now. So Texas 10, Indiana 9, Oklahoma 8, LSU 7, Florida State 6, Oregon 5, Penn State 4, Georgia 3, Miami 2, and Ohio State 1. A couple of teams that I had to give a shout out because I was debating them at that 10, 9, range. I landed on Indiana and Texas. I thought that it was unfair of me to take Texas totally out, in particular with the way that they played against Sam Houston, albeit it's Sam Houston,

but whatever, it was a lot better in particular from Arch. I thought that recency bias just sucked me in on Indiana, and I probably would have done differently if it was last week and I'd just come off the A&M win. But I looked at Texas Tech, Alabama, and Texas A&M. Those three teams are right there, right there. And I would just say this about college football. I don't think it's a drastic jump to go from Ohio State to like Texas A&M, who in my rankings would be like 13. That's great for the sport. Like you can't, you can't argue. Maybe you can. I don't know. I don't want to tell anybody you can't argue. You can argue anything you want. You can argue anything you want. I would find it really difficult to take the position that college football is worse. I see that a lot.

You know, on the comments on this show, some of you will make that comment about like, hey, college football is worse now. You know, oh, I hate college football now. Oh, the money is this, and the transfer portal is that. And listen, I don't want to diminish those feelings because you have those feelings for a reason. I just disagree. And I find it hard to agree with this sentiment that somehow college football is not as good as it used to be when the proof is in the pudding. One, the interest in the sport literally has never been higher. The ratings that television companies are getting right now, networks are getting right now, is astronomical.

It's the pie is only growing. There's only more interest coming into the sport. And then you look at the parody, the actual competitive product. I don't think that we have ever, certainly in my career covering college football and and certainly even dating back to when I was a player. So now we're going back to basically 2000. There was never this level of parity. At no point in any one of those seasons could you say,

hey, really, you know, any team between 1 and 13 could beat any of the other teams on any given Saturday. You really couldn't. You really couldn't. And the numbers bore that out. You know, you would look at the record of top five teams at home in the history of college football. They don't lose, period.

And I'm not suggesting that any of these top five, teams would lose next week. All I'm trying to tell you is like, it's not a big jump. There's not a huge gap between Ohio State and Texas A&M. And Texas A&M for me is ranked 13th in the country. I would have Texas Tech ranked 12th and Alabama ranked 11th. That's where I would have them. Tech is really good. More on them in a moment. Alabama, I don't want to play them right now. Ty Simpson looks incredible. Do you want to defend Marcel Reed at Texas A&M? No. And so that's just a little bit. And I say that because immediately when you just put out of top 10,

I think it suggests or people take it as if you don't like the other teams or you don't think they're any good. And that couldn't be any further from the truth. So that's why I wanted to take a moment and just say that. College football is in such an amazing place right now. Indiana is like blowing people out. And it's like, man, Indiana was the center of the college football world for three and a half hours on Saturday.

And that's awesome. That's fantastic. So let's get into some of these teams and more specific games from the weekend. By the way, I really enjoyed that. I think I might do that a little bit more. Gives me more time to give you the context that I feel like is missing when I just tweet out my top 10. So maybe I'll do that more on Mondays. Let me get, I'll tell you what, I'll leave it up to you.

Comment below on the YouTube channel. Go to YouTube right now, subscribe to the show, and then comment below. Do you want my top 10 on Saturday night via X or right here on Monday morning via the Joel Clash show? Let's get to that Tech Utah game that I was at. Tech beats Utah 3410. Now, full disclosure, it was a closer game than 3410, but Tech runs away with it late. Coming into the season, I think all of us would have said, and I did say, that the Big 12 was really hard to decipher, didn't know who was going to be the best. team who was going to be the class of the league, and any one of six, seven, eight teams could ultimately be the Big 12 champ. Well, I feel very differently about the Big 12 now. After being able

to cover Iowa State, after being able to cover this game last week, after watching TCU pretty closely, watched a couple of those games on game film, so not just television copies, but coaches copies. And let me tell you what I see is that Texas, Texas. is pretty clearly the best team in the Big 12 right now. They proved that in a ranked matchup in what I firmly believe is the toughest place to play in the conference. They went into Utah and handled it. Now, say what you will about the eight fall starts, which don't get me started.

They need a silent cadence like they need their next breath of air. But they played so well in that game. even while turning the football over and committing all of those penalties. Like I'm talking about the fundamental side of the line of scrimmage, the plays that you need to make, they have separated themselves out in the Big 12. This is the class of the Big 12. Texas Tech is the new favorite for me.

I think it'll take a lot for anybody to beat this team. They are sound, they are deep, they are fast, they are physical. They've got it all. They really do. and I really wanted to put them in my top 10, which is another reason why I gave that long rant about, like, there's a lot of really good teams in college football. I really, I think any other year, that's clearly a top 10 team.

It just so happens that this year we're like 13 deep right now, at least. And by the way, I didn't even mention Tennessee in that. You know, Tennessee went toe to toe with Georgia. So maybe we're 14 deep. I don't know. But I will tell you this, tech is separating themselves in the Big 12. And I'm most impressed with the fact that they beat up Utah in the trenches. This is where I thought Utah had a bit of an advantage.

Or at least that was where their strength was at. Utah's always been great at the line of scrimmage. Their defensive line has always gotten after the quarterback. Their offensive line has always been good. And Kyle Whittingham has told me personally and our crew during the preparation for this game that this particular offensive line is the best that he's had in his tenure at Utah. And he's been there forever through all the quality years. at Utah. So I thought this matchup against this rebuilt transfer portal defensive line for Texas Tech.

And this strength of Utah's offensive line was going to be some like Herculian matchup. And guess what? Tech won that matchup pretty handily. Utah couldn't do anything on offense, in part because the defensive line handled their business. So when you can do that to Utah, I will tell you right now, you're the best team in the Big 12. Those defensive linemen, and I'm talking about all of them. And it started inside. Just so you guys know, fundamentally, I believe that you build a defense front to back and inside out.

So I look at the defensive tackles first. They build a run wall with Lee Hunter, the transfer from UCF, and Skylar Gil Howard, the transfer from Northern Illinois. Great players on the interior getting a run wall. Then you've got to have hard edges, all right? Firm edges. Ramello Height from Georgia Tech.

David Bailey from Stanford. really active, versatile, disruptive players on the edge. You've got to have linebackers that can fly around. If you're watching YouTube, you're watching these linebackers right now fly around. Ben Roberts punches the ball out. He creates a turnover. Jacob Rodriguez, he punches the football out, forces a fumble later in the game, gets an interception.

Their front seven is absolutely good enough to play with anybody in college football. I'm a huge fan of that front seven. And then you go to the offensive side. Here's why I like Texas Tech on the offensive side. Well, this offense under their young, new offensive coordinator, Mac Leftwich, is, I don't want to say completely unique because there's elements of a lot of different offenses that have had a lot of success in college football over the years. Let me tell you what I mean by that. They have answers on their offense because they have married three different systems that have all had success in college football. and they've kind of melded them, married them together.

Here's the three systems. The Gus Malzon spread run-game RPO offense, that offense. They have elements of that. The traditional Texas Tech air raid offense from Mike Leach and Cliff Kingsbury, well, they've retained a bit of that, and they have elements of the air raid offense. They've also gone out and married that to what Art Bryles used to do and what Josh Hypole is doing now at Tennessee with the deep choice routes from the wide receivers. And they've made that a part of their game plan and their offensive structure as a whole.

That type of depth in offensive system gives you answers. You see, what we've seen from those offenses individually in the past, okay? Like the Gus Malzon spread run game RPO offense is that you come up against like the wrong defensive line and the wrong set of guys. and they take that away, where do you go? There's nowhere to go. And so you lose. Same thing with the true traditional air raid offense. That was just a pure air raid offense.

Eventually, you're going to come up against a team that can either play man and cover your guys or you've got a great defensive line that's getting pressure on you. Someone's going to take something away from that air raid system. And where do you go from there? If you don't have answers, you lose. the deep choice system. And this is what I used to argue with Tennessee, and they're starting to add depth to their offense, by the way,

as I'm studying what they're doing this year with Josh Hypole and Joey Aguilar. But if you just rely on the deep choice system, and in particular the half-field deep-choice system, you'll come up against some defense that can bracket you, man, you do different things to take that away, and if you don't have answers, you lose. So you see, to be a great team and, college football, you have to have depth of answers offensively.

And this team seems to have that because there were things that Utah was taking away. Tech didn't run the ball great. I don't really care what their numbers were at any given point. You know, like they didn't run the football that well. They did, you know, popped one late here and there, but it's not like they could rely on the run game, get positive yards on first down. And candidly, you know, they were taking away elements of that air raid. system at time. So what did they have to do? They had to take the deep choice route and they had to

make it where they majored for that week because that's where the matchups were. In particular, once the Utah defense got tired and they were playing too much man coverage during the entirety of the game, then what's happening? You can win deep down the field. So now Will Hammond goes in the game, the backup quarterback, after Baron Morton leaves with an injury, and he's dropping dimes down the field. They had answers. So, it doesn't matter what you get taken away. If you have depth of answers, then you can become a really good football team. Just to kind of put a tag on that defensive side of things, the quickest way to transform

your team, I think, in the transfer portal is actually not with a wide receiver or running back or maybe even an offensive line minutes with a defensive line. A defensive line. That's where the best ROI return on investment is in the transfer portal. They brought in several transfer portal guys on the defensive line. defensive line and all four starters. Incredible turnaround from one of the worst defenses in the country to one of the best defenses in the country. In 2024, their scoring defense was 122nd in college football. Their total defense was 127th in college football. This year, both scoring and total defense, they sit at 14. 14. That's a dramatic and drastic turnaround. Huge turnaround for that defense. And they did it through the portal. and their ROI, like I said, is very good. So that's my thoughts on Texas Tech.

I really like Texas Tech a lot. Again, class of the Big 12 and maybe by a wide margin at this point. Michigan beats Nebraska. That was another really good game, 30 to 27. Maybe the game wasn't quite as, I didn't think it played as close as maybe what the score indicated. It didn't feel like a 30 to 27 game as I was watching that game. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, if you guys feel differently.

But even Biff Poggi, the interim coach sitting in for Sharon Moore as he sits out that second game and the two-game suspension for this year. So he'll be back moving forward. But here's what Biff said after the game. And I think he kind of reiterated what I was saying. Sometimes those things happen. What's most important is how do you respond from them? and at halftime, I called him up before we went on the field and I told him, I said,

I know it's 1717, but physically we're beating the snot out of them. And we're turning this into a heavyweight fight. And that's going to be to our big advantage in the second half. And I think it was. I think he's right. I think he's right. And this was a big test for them. It really was because I think Nebraska is a much better team than what they

have been in the last couple of years with one hole. And I'll get to that in a moment. But the game didn't feel as close as that score indicated. He was referencing kind of that Hail Mary. If you didn't see it, Nebraska completed a Hail Mary at the end of the first half and tied the score. So it's 1710, you know, a few seconds left and all of a sudden, bang, it's 1717. They also scored a late touchdown inside of two minutes.

And that kind of brought it within that three margin. So when you just look at or watch the game, again, it didn't quite feel as close as maybe what the score indicated. That was a dominant run performance from Michigan, totally dominant, vintage in a lot of ways. And not many people will mention this, but they did have two backup guards starting for them, and they still went out there and ran for nearly 300 yards and over eight per carry. And it's the explosiveness that I think is so demoralizing for opponents. It doesn't matter who's carrying the football. Really, you know, Underwood, he's explosive right up the middle.

That was a clear break in the defensive structure. That's on YouTube right now. Underwood had a couple of really nice runs. Then you've got Justice Haynes who, like, has the elite home run ability. Like this guy in the open field is gone. Marshall, same thing. Like, I think he's got those elements of home run ability. It reminded me more of what I used to see out of Blake Corn.

and Donovan Edwards. It's like when they got a crease, they could take it the distance and really create those explosives. When Justice Haynes gets a step, it's done. We saw it at Oklahoma, saw it again on Saturday against Nebraska. He gets one step, boom, gone, 75 yards. Thanks for coming.

And he takes it in. And then the threat on the outside from Underwood is undeniable. Defensively, I don't think that they're as good as they were even last year or certainly not the year before when they finished number one in the country in defense. But they did get to Raiola seven times. That is a positive. They did not play with Zeke Berry.

I think it's one of the reasons why their past defense wasn't great. But Raiola played pretty well for the most part. Nebraska just couldn't run the football. So the line of scrimmage was heavily tilted towards Michigan. That's why I felt like the game was not quite as close as the score indicated. On Bryce Underwood, I've gotten a lot of questions about Bryce and in fact, I had a guy I was sitting next to on the flight. he happened to be a Michigan fan.

And he struck up a conversation, and we had a great conversation. And he said, man, I would be totally remiss if I didn't get your thoughts on Bryce Underwood. And here's exactly what I told him, and I wanted to share it with you. I think Bryce, his best trait so far is that he is clearly, clearly not overwhelmed by the stage. And for an 18-year-old true freshman, that's something. and not every true freshman can go out there and even just handle it. He clearly is not sped up. He is built for the moment.

So that's first and foremost. He's built for the moment. The environments, even on the road, I don't feel like have totally rattled him. Think of the two environments he's had to play, again, as an 18-year-old, which is wild to me. At Oklahoma, at Nebraska, I will tell you from experience, is a very difficult place to play for an opposing quarterback, and I felt like he handled it really well. Now, what he's going to learn and develop,

here's his next stage. Bryce Underwood is going to go from a really talented quarterback and talented thrower to a great manager and a talented passer. I think those two things are totally different, being a talented thrower and a talented passer. because being a passer means that you understand the proper pace and touch to put on the football at all times. You see, for me, throwing a football is a lot more similar to shooting a basketball than it is throwing a baseball. When you're throwing a baseball, generally speaking, whether you're a middle infielder or a pitcher,

you're throwing the baseball with max velocity on it. you're trying to throw the baseball about as hard as you can most times. Now, are there times when you kind of flip it or drop down three-quarters, sure. But I'm just over-generalizing and saying when you throw a baseball, you throw it about as hard as you can. When you shoot a basketball, however, you are utilizing touch every single time you shoot a basketball because one is going to be a 10-foot floater and then you're at 15 feet from the baseline. And then now you're at 22 feet from the top of the key. So every single shot is just a little bit different because you're using that touch.

And just so you know, like, if you're throwing a football, the ball comes off of your hand and you flip it down, you're kind of seeing my hand on YouTube. And it's like shooting a basketball. It's like your wrist turns over. You're maybe the old goose neck. Again, different than baseball. Why do I'm I telling you all of this? Because you cannot throw a football with max velocity all the time. And that's what he does.

He throws too many fast balls. and he hasn't learned how to change his pace and change his touch in order to create completions. Because we're not throwing the football here. We're passing the football. And those are different things. All right. So way too much heat on the throws in particular in the short and intermediate routes. Now, if you want to rear back and throw something outside of the numbers,

in particular to the field or to the wide side and you need to really let it loose, man, let it loose. Cut it rip and show us that incredible. talent and arm talent. But if it's not, then the point isn't to throw it hard. It is to complete the ball. And so that's why you're not throwing the football. You're passing the football.

Two different things. And once he starts to understand and develop that, he's going to be really elite. Because you can see all the other things. The ability to play and pass with touch is what's up next for him. Schedule lines up for them, by the way, to make, I think, a run at the playoff. This game was a big test for them. Now they're going to have some solid test coming up at USC on October 11th. October 18th, they face Washington.

I think Washington is an underrated team. Michigan State is not bad. And that's a rivalry game and it's on the road. So that's always going to be a tough one. And then obviously the big one, the game, Ohio State at the end. They've lost one game. And basically I'm saying, can you go three and one during the course of those four games that I'm showing you?

could get you to 10 and 2. At 10 and 2, I think Michigan is probably into the college football playoff. We'll see what happens with all the other quality teams. Like I said, this is a very deep year. So we'll see what happens there. But 10 and 2 is certainly a path to what a Michigan fan would hope to be a potential playoff berth this year. And with where they were last year, I think that they would take that. Quickly on Nebraska, I'm still encouraged by Nebraska. I think everywhere outside of their defensive tackle position has improved. And they're getting better. It just so happens right now that it's like one year you don't have the right pieces on

the puzzle. And then you get those pieces that you're missing one year. Like, okay, we're better on offense now. And we put those pieces together. But oh, sorry, we removed Ty Robinson and Nash Hupmaker. And now all of a sudden it's like, well, now you're not very good from a run defense perspective. This was my concern coming into this game.

if you saw the picks and previews episodes from last week. I was concerned about Nebraska's run defense, and that's exactly what crept up to bite them against Michigan as Michigan ran it for almost 300 yards. Let's stay in the Big Ten. Indiana routes Illinois, just buries Illinois. 63 to 10. Woo!

Tell you what. Domination on every single level. Every single level. That team and that program is, really good. And I think we have to start wrapping our head around this idea that they might be better than they were a year ago when they went 11 and 1 and went to the college football playoff. Okay. Remember this, right? I think they're better than last year. I really do. I think we in general, and I will put myself at the forefront of this list. Okay. So I don't want to absolve myself of any of this criticism that. I'm about to dole out. So I'm speaking to myself as much as anybody else right now. We, okay, myself included, keep wanting to dismiss for some reason, maybe it's just brand,

but we keep wanting to dismiss Indiana as like, well, you know, can it really happen again? It's Indiana. And shame on me and shame on any of us if that's our mindset. And, you know, I thought Illinois would win this game. And man, was I wrong? And I will be the first to raise my hand and tell you when I get something wrong. I was dead wrong about that. Indiana, I said Indiana is not as good as they were a year ago. And at least that performance Saturday night, they're better.

They are better. There were some things that I had question marks about. And with their level of competition that they have played to this point, I thought that those question marks were substantial. and a lot of them were on the offensive side. I didn't really think that they were this good running in the football. Well, turns out I was wrong. Turns out I was wrong.

I will be the first to raise my hand and tell you when I get something wrong. I was dead wrong about Indiana. I did not think that they could be better than they were a year ago. They are. They are. Mendoza is better than Rourke, and Rourke was really good. This is not to take anything away from Curtis Rourke. Mendoza is like made for this system. Do you see the quick release that he has in that RPO system?

And there is one thing that I said this last off season, as we were getting ready for the year, and we talked about Indiana, and I said, hey, you know, the one benefit of the doubt that I will give Kurt Signetti is that he knew and went after and wanted Curtis Rourke and got him because he felt like he would be a perfect fit for this system. And then now he went out and chose Mendoza. and so we probably should have known that Signetti knew what he was doing.

And he does now. He is so accurate. 21 of 23 for 267 and 5 touchdowns. Mendoza now leads the country in total touchdowns with 16. And like he's playing as well as anybody. Mendoza should absolutely be considered for the Heisman Trophy. That was clinical. Illinois was ranked ninth in the country.

And they did that to them. that's a pretty proud defense, and they did that to them. That was wild. And by the way, they were dominant on the line of scrimmage, both sides. This was something that I didn't think was going to improve from last year, and it wasn't necessarily a strength last year. And yet, it's gotten better. Every part of this program has gotten better.

They ran it for over 300 yards on Illinois. They sacked Altmeyer seven times. So they were dominant on both lines of scrimmage. They were active. A lot of those defenders, by the way, are back from a year ago. And now you think about these two years that they're putting together in back-to-back seasons, Indiana is 15 and 2 since the start of last year. And their only losses were on the road to eventual national champion, Ohio State, and at Notre Dame in the college football playoff. Kurt Signetti wins, Google him.

and he's building something really special, really special in Bloomington. And that team is really good. And I don't care who they played in the non-conference. You cannot watch that team and not think to yourself, that's a top 10 team in college football. And that's why I put them there at number nine in my poll. Oklahoma, huge win over Auburn, 2417. And this team just continues to be gritty and grind out victories.

and I got to tell you, I was very impressed. Matier, again, leads them down the field. Love this guy. I think he should be in New York as well. Leads them down for a touchdown of the fourth quarter after Auburn went ahead in that football game, and they get the win. Now, here's the thing that I...

Here's the reason why I'm... What's the word? I'm struggling with the word here. I am optimistic about Oklahoma, moving forward. I'm optimistic for them in Red River. I'm optimistic for them even in the midst of what will be an incredibly difficult SEC schedule. And the reason is, is not because of John Mateer, although I think he's been fabulous. In fact, if you listened to the program last week, I ranked my top 10 performing quarterbacks of the year so far, and he was number one.

So, yeah, I think he's been very impressive. But that's not what gives me the most amount of optimism for Oklahoma. It's actually their defense. Their defense has been sensational. Their defensive line has been sensational. Jackson Arnold comes back to town. Their former quarterback, they sack him 10 times. Wow.

Wow. So the defense, which was a question mark a couple of years ago, got better last year. Vinnables, retained the, the play calling this year, and they've improved. And they're really good up front. And so it's, excuse me, it's not that Oklahoma has to play a tough schedule the rest of the year. Those teams have to play Oklahoma. You get what I'm saying?

So now it's not like, oh, man, what are the sooner's going to do? Now I'm thinking to myself, what's everyone else going to do with Oklahoma? That's how I feel about Texas. If I had to pick Oklahoma, Texas today, right now, I would pick Oklahoma. their quarterback has been better than Texas. Their defense has been equal to what Texas is doing on the defensive side. So that's why I'm so optimistic about the Sooners. Now, having said that, there was some level of controversy about the win.

And the SEC has now come out and admitted that they made that mistake after the wide receiver pretended that he was subbing out. You saw you guys saw this. He remained on the field. subbed out, acted like he was subbing out. He remains on the field, then he races for a touchdown, and you can't do that. That's a level of deception that should have gotten an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. It did not. Matier hit him. Touchdown, they go up 10-3. Obviously, Auburn fans very upset about this. I know that there was the scoop and score for Auburn early in

the game. That was called back. Replay overturned it, said the receiver didn't have possession, and it was an incomplete pass. But listen, listen. Does the fact that the officials missed the holding in the Notre Dame A&M game diminish the fact that A&M won the game? No, no. Even though some of you tried to make that case that that's what I was saying last week,

that was not what I was saying at all. A&M deserved to win that game and Oklahoma deserve to win this game. Now, do I think officiating needs to improve? Yeah, I do, generally speaking. I got a little snarky on Saturday because we decided that a ball that clearly bounced, skipped like it was a one hopper off the fence, and we decided that we needed to stop the game for a review. It's like all we needed was an expedited review, clearly, clearly. But officiating needs to improve.

I think it will. And it does during the course of the season. And generally speaking, officiating is really good, really good. There are very few times that the officials, on the field, actually just miss it. Okay? And, you know, this one was unfortunate. And I am glad that the SEC admitted it. At least we're getting to a point where conferences will address something and admit it. Does that make us feel better? Probably not if you're an Auburn fan. But just to get back to Oklahoma, very optimistic. They have answers. Oklahoma has answers. If you take something away

from them, another element of their team is good enough to beat you. And they've got that with their quarterback. They've got that with their defense, their ability to throw the ball at times. So I'm bullish and optimistic on Oklahoma. It's now time for our weekend check-in presented by graduate by Hilton Hotels made for fans in all of your favorite college towns. I love them, and I stay in them a lot, all these college towns that I'm in. Graduates are almost always the best place to stay in a college town virtually always. Here's what we're going to do for a check-in. I didn't want to check in on a specific fan base. I want to check in with myself because guess what happened? This is like a badge of honor. That's right. Freezing cold takes got me.

And I mean got me solidly right, right between the eyes because you're right. Your boy had Clemson not only going to the college football playoff, not just going to the semifinal or the national championship game, but I had Clemson winning the national championship in my preseason bracket. And yep, freezing cold take, freezing cold. It can't get colder than that. It cannot get worse than that. And like I said earlier, when it comes to the Indiana, Illinois game, I'll be the first one to raise my hand and be like, man, totally miss that. Totally miss that. And in hindsight, I'm trying to, I always try to learn from it. For instance, like the Sabin thing that I said way back in 16 or 17 to Colin Coward.

I tried to learn from that. And so I try to learn from these, okay, how can I evaluate Indiana better, even with their schedule that they played early? What are the things that I need to be looking at that I'm not looking at now, so on and so forth? Okay, so in hindsight, what should I have looked at with Clemson? This was a playoff team from a year ago that hired a deep. defensive coordinator that I believe in and was just in the playoff last year with Penn State and

Tom Allen. They have 16 starters back, including their quarterback, four offensive linemen back, and what I consider to be maybe four first round draft picks, three of them on the defensive side, two of them up front. I don't know what to learn from this. This is just an utter failure from Clemson, an utter failure. There's no other way to put it. And that's why I think that the rant the Dabo had last week was odd to say the least. And then Syracuse rolls out there and 3421 beat up Clemson and now Clemson is one and three. One and three. Hey, man, I made a bad choice. I don't know what to say. It's hot. Milk was a bad choice. What are you going to do? It won't be the first time that I'm wrong.

It wasn't the first time that I've been wrong. And it won't be the last time that I'm wrong. Here's my commitment to you. And this is why I hope that you enjoy this program and that you'll keep coming back. Is that I'll admit it 100%. I totally missed on that one. I'm going to try really hard not to miss again. Because I think if you give me your trust and coming here to consume information,

I'm always going to work my hardest to try to give you the best information that I possibly can. This was an absolute whiff. And I don't know how to correct it. I really don't. I look over there and all it makes me do is wonder what's wrong at Clemson. I don't know. I don't know. I have no idea. Their coach is one of three guys that's won a national championship. They've got potentially four first round draft picks, but as now with the way they've played, maybe one. I just, I don't understand what's going on there at all. Losing 34, 21, being down two, three scores every single time you turn on the TV and it's the first quarter, you're like, what is going on at Clemson?

Something's broken at Clemson, period. Something's broken. By the way, Dabo's buyout is $60 million. That's not going anywhere. There's no offset language. If you know what offset language, it means that if he were to get fired and then take another job, whatever that next job paid him, it would offset the buyout. Because the way that the buyout would probably work for them is that they would just pay him

in installments annually for the life of the deal. Now, there's also an option that they could pay them the entire $60 million within 90 days, which, like, why would you do that unless you had the lady that won Powerball in your state and wanted to do that like she wanted to do at Alabama? But, like, there's no way the school would choose to do that. So they would pay in installments over the life of the deal, which it ends 2031 for Dabom. So they would be paying him, what is that? $11 million every year until 2031 to make him go away.

There's no offset. So even if he went out and got another job, which he, by the way, said he would if they let go him in that weird rant. He would not only make the money for that job, but the $11 million from Clemson. That is egregiously bad that Clemson agreed to a deal with Davos Sweeney that had no offset language.

What? That doesn't make any sense. Whatever. So, long story short, he's not going anywhere. He's really not. Unless he wants to, he's not going anywhere. Clemson's hands are totally tied in this one. They would owe him the entire $60 million.

They're not going to do that. Not when every single school in the country is desperate for revenue. Their hands are tied because they're having to share $20.5 million with the players, which they did not plan on sharing with the players until that came down just last year. So they're trying to find all this savings. That's not happening. So what's wrong with Clemson? We shall see.

That's going to do it for today's program. Listen, there was a lot to get into. There's still probably going to be a lot to go on Wednesday. So come back for Wednesday's show. Send me some questions in the comments. I'll try to get through some of those questions. And more particular, do you want my top 10 on Saturday night? Or do you like it waiting for you with descriptions on Monday right here on the program?

We'll be back on Wednesday. Follow us at Joel Klatch Show. Subscribe to the show. And folks, man, I love college football. Thanks for being here.