The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Mahomes and Hurts' college days, Alabama coordinator changes, & the great pen debate of 2023

Episode Date: January 30, 2023

Fox Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt shares stories of the two Super Bowl-bound QBs, Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts, from their days back in college. Then, Joel discusses the impact of Bill O'Brien leaving Alabama for the Patriots and brings up some names Saban should consider for his open coordinator jobs. Then, Joel touches on Ohio State hiring former All-American LB James Laurinaitis and why he thinks it could be a home run hire before he discusses the great pen debate of 2023 and why he shows loyalty to the same pen and notebooks. Lastly, Joel introduces our new mailbag segment. Send an email to [e-mail] for a chance to have your submission read on the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome into the show. I am Joel Clatt. This is the Joel Clatt Show. I am super excited that you're here. A lot to get into today, including maybe my favorite subject that I've ever talked about on the show, ever. That's going to come up at the end. You have to stay and listen because I promise you, you will never view me in the same light after I tell this story at the end of the show. Welcome in. Remember to subscribe to the show if you haven't. Review us, follow us, do all of those things on social media, by the way, at Joel Klatt show on any of the social medias. And you can find us, you can follow me on Twitter primarily at Joel Klatt. You can follow me on Instagram as well at Joel underscore Klapp on Instagram. Let's get into it. I've got some thoughts on the two guys that just won conference championships in the National Football League, Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs, Jalen Hertz, of the Eagles. And I want to take you back to their college years when I was covering them. a couple of stories about those two guys. We've got news out of Alabama. Obviously, two new

coordinators now going to be at Alabama. We've got, I'll talk throughout some names as well. Crazy year in 2023. I can't wait to chatter about that. Some coaching news at Tennessee and Ohio State just to give you kind of a brief rundown of what's going to happen before. Again, I don't want to tease this too much, but maybe my favorite thing that I'm ever going to talk about on the Joel Clash show ever. So let's get into it. with these Super Bowl quarterbacks for this year. And they are heading to Glendale, Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs,

Jalen Hertz, of the Philadelphia Eagles. Great games. Obviously, that second game on Sunday night was tremendous between Borough and Patrick Mahomes. What I wanted to do is whoever won, because I got to cover all four of these guys in college, and whoever won these games,

I was going to take those two quarterbacks and just go down memory lane a little bit and take you into some of my observations. and things that maybe you haven't heard before about stories from their college days. So let's start with Patrick Mahomes. I remember covering Patrick. We did an Oklahoma State game of theirs down in Lubbock at Texas Tech. And maybe a couple of others as well.

I know one more on the road. I just remember marveling at his ability, right? So just evaluating him going into those games. I went back to some of my notes and watching him play the game. game. There was a recklessness yet a fluidity to what he did. And the combination, you really couldn't put your finger on it, right? You thought to yourself, is this going to translate to the next level? I'm not sure, especially out of this offense. At that point, remember, no quarterback who had come out of an air raid system had really succeeded in the National Football League. Famously,

Tim Couch, you know, of Kentucky, kind of got that domino rolling in terms of the wrong direction. and no one had really gone into the league and succeeded coming from that air raid system. And I know that Mahomes' system in particular, you know, late in his career at Texas Tech, had changed a little bit. And it was more NFL oriented than it was, let's say, the pure air raid that they ran like with Leach at Texas Tech or with Leachette at Washington State and Mississippi State. But there was those questions. And so I wanted to talk to him and talk to him about that. And I just remember when I talked to him, the first thing we did was talk about baseball. Because obviously his family's got a baseball background.

He was a terrific baseball player. And he knew that I had played minor league baseball. So for about the first five, ten minutes, we talked about baseball, which I thought was interesting. And what really immediately came to my mind was that this kid loved to compete. And it didn't matter if we were going to play, you know, shoot, a pickup game of hoops right there, or a game of wiffle ball, whatever it was going to be a game of dodge ball, that he was going to be one of the best players. the field regardless of the game and he was going to compete that's just the the vibe that it got

from him and that's certainly the vibe that he's given during the course of his career i i enjoyed that conversation immensely um and then i want to tell you a quick story about uh patrick and in particular the draft that he was drafted that draft was in philadelphia and again if you remember there was a lot of questions about you know where my home should get drafted where like what are we going to do with this guy he doesn't fit into the box He runs all over the place. He throws wildly. And I would say that the general consensus was that probably shouldn't be higher than middle of the first round.

Kind of that 14, 15, 16th pick. It was a real outlier to find somebody that said, like, no, this guy is bona fide top 10, absolutely go ahead. There was a lot of us. And by the way, me being one of them, that were concerned about, the offense going into the NFL because of what I was suggesting earlier. We just hadn't seen a lot of success from guys that had played in that system during the course of their college days. And I remember being in the hotel. I can't remember which hotel it was, but I was in a hotel.

And I was there for Fox, obviously, and obviously ESPN covered the draft as well. And I remember we were in the same hotel that a lot of the ESPN guys were staying in. And I went down for breakfast that morning, the morning of the first round. And sure, enough over in the corner. I know it's a, it's, you know, say what you will now. But at the time, John Gruden was in the corner. And it was like, he was kind of the preeminent guy in terms of broadcasting at that point. Monday night football, obviously like highly respected Super Bowl winning coach. And he's like, hey, hey, clap. And I didn't know how he knew who I was, but I was like, whoa, okay. And so I remained. And he was like, come on over here. Let's share a meal. And so I go and

I sit with John Gruden to have breakfast the morning of the first round. And he immediately just wanted to talk ball. And so he starts asking me about all the players that I had covered in college football that were in that draft. And we went through all the guys that were in that draft. And then we get to Patrick Mahomes. And he's like, what do you think about Mahomes? Man, you know, and he's got his eyebrow up. And then that's all he said. And so I thought, okay, well, you know, he's a West Coast guy buttoned up. I'm going to give him my. And so I was like, well, you know, no quarterback has really succeeded from that offense. And I just don't know. We see him run around. Is it too much? Will he be able to fit in the NFL? There's a lot of

question marks. And he's just kind of nodding and nodding. And then he's like, you know, Andy's taking him with the 10th pick. And I was like, wait, wait, Andy Reed? I was like, really? And he tells me that right there. He's like, yep. Andy's taking him tonight. You know why? And I was like, please tell me why. He says, because every one of us that touched Fav, that's who we see in Patrick Mahomes. And then the light bulb went off and I was like, well, of course. Well, of course. And from that moment forward, I started thinking to myself, this guy is going to work out. And obviously he went and sat for a year, but he has been that style of guy. You know, the same gun slinging mentality that allowed Fav to be so successful, win a Super Bowl, win MVP's.

that's kind of what we see from Patrick Mahomes. And the first time that that light bulb went off for me was when I had that breakfast with John Gruden in the morning of the first round of his draft. Then we moved to Jalen Hertz. So here's an incredible story in Jalen Hertz because this guy has played, shoot, he might and probably should win the MVP this year. And think about this. You're talking about a guy that in old college football rules would have never. been allowed because remember the graduate transfer wasn't really a thing you know for a long time and transfers in general weren't really a thing and so you're talking about a guy that in

plays if he plays college football in any moment other than the last five you know six seven eight years he would have never been in the national football league he would have never had the opportunity the autonomy to move so he begins his career at alabama and i think by the way that that's in and of itself is and could be a trivia question at one point, because Jalen Hertz was the signal that Nick Sabin was changing his offensive philosophy in order to go a route where he could compete and win in a shootout when he got into one. Because remember, he was running into those Clemson teams, and he realized how difficult it was to win based on defense and ball control offense.

He knew, and we've seen this play out in college football playoffs time and time again, that at some point you're going to get into a shootout, and you better have a guy at the quarterback position that can take you to win a 40-42 shootout, 45-42 shootout. And so he needed to spread out the offense. He needed to get more athletic at the quarterback position. And Jalen Hertz was that signal to everyone. And he came in and had a wildly successful career early at Alabama.

Was the SEC player of the year at one point? led them into a national title game, and then got brutally pulled out of the game. Brutely pulled in what would eventually end up being a win for Alabama that didn't really feel like a win if you're Jalen Hertz, if we're honest with ourselves. And now all of a sudden, Tua is the hero because he played two quarters really well and threw that go ball down the left side. And here's Hertz who kind of led them to that. that point. And did he have some shortcomings at the time? Probably, but gets brutally pulled.

And then ends up staying the next year as the backup has to rescue Alabama in the SEC championship game. And then he's kind of left at this point where he graduates, does everything, did everything right? Didn't complain, did everything right. And what does he do? I think one of the most brilliant things that I've seen from an older quarterback in a long time, which was he went to a place that had then become the quarterback factory, which was Oklahoma. Baker Mayfield for three years ends up being the number one picking the draft. Then Kyler Murray, we think he's playing baseball. Nope, number one picking the draft.

He goes to Oklahoma and he had a great year, really, when you think about it, for Lincoln Riley and the Oklahoma Sooners. He had to transfer. The only reason Jalen Harts is who he is now is because he had the ability to transfer. That's why I think it's somewhat comical that it's like Alabama's claiming Jalen Hertz. Listen, I get it, and I'm sure that he has a big place in his heart for Alabama. But he had to leave. Like this whole notion, and I see Ohio State doing it with Joe Burrow and Alabama doing it with Jalen Hertz. It's like, listen, those guys had to leave, right?

You can argue that they had the most success in college uniforms away from those schools, certainly in Burroughs case, and you can argue in Jalen Hurts case. And so, like, it's hard for me when I see those teams try to claim. It's like, listen, you've got enough players to go ahead and like, hey, those are our guys. You know, A, Bama and Ohio State. You don't get to claim Burrow and Jalen Hertz. You've got enough guys to claim. Let's be honest.

These guys are for OU and for LSU. Okay. So he leaves. And last story that I would just talk about when it, when it comes to Jalen Hertz, is my few interactions, because Oklahoma is tough in terms of like trying to talk with players. And my few interactions with Jalen, once he was at Oklahoma, were very businesslike. You could tell it was, there was a lot of scar tissue from what happened. And so there was a sense of urgency and purpose to everything that he did, his interactions with us in the media, the way that he played. all of it was very purposeful. And I think it's because of what he went through in that time at Alabama.

All right, let's move on. So Alabama is going to have a couple of new coordinators. And I think that that's a big deal because we've seen this happen before. And, you know, by the way, they generally work out. And I know that's obvious. It's like if you're going to go work for Nick Saban, that's one of the best jobs in America. So now all of a sudden, maybe the two best coordinator jobs in America are open in the same time. And you look at the list of guys that have been coordinators for Nick Saban. Just start on the offensive side. It started with Major Applewhite in 07. And Jim McElwain was there for a few years, won a national championship. Doug Nussmeyer, Lane Kiffin, Brian Dable, Mike Loxley, Steve Sarkesian, Bill O'Brien.

Right? Like, you look through there, there's some serious firepower. On the defensive side, maybe not the names that have been on the offensive side, but still you've got Kevin Steele, Kirby was there for a long time, 08 to 2015, Jeremy Pruitt was there, Tosh Lepoy, and Pete Golding. So now you're left with a couple of open coordinator spots, and it begs the question like, what direction is Nick going to go? brings up a couple of thoughts for me.

Number one is, I trust Nick Saban. Whoever he chooses is going to be right for Alabama. Because he's not choosing someone to come in and change anything. Whoever comes in will have to assimilate to the culture that Nick Saban has already built. So that's an important point. This is not something that needs to be fixed. This is why, and this is why, and this is, is an important reason why and the real reason why all of these reclamation projects have succeeded.

Okay, when Lane Kiffin goes in there, when no one else will touch him with a 10-foot pole and it works, and everyone's like, man, it's crazy how powerful that is. That's because Lane was assimilating into a culture and not the opposite direction. He wasn't brought in to be a hero. He was brought in to go in there and contribute to something that was already moving and built. And so one of the reasons why all of these have worked is because you're going into be a cog in the system. And this is no different than that.

And I know a lot of people, you know, and I see it on social media, and there are Alabama people that are like, good. This is going to be good for us. You know, the Bill O'Brien tenure wasn't quite as successful as we thought it was going to be. And you know what? Fair. Fair enough.

I think Pete Golding and the way that the defense played this year was some of the pieces that they had returning was in some ways disappointing. And so there is some excitement around getting fresh blood and new set of eyes in at Alabama. The one area that I trust the most is that it's still Nick Saban. Whoever he brings in will have to assimilate to the culture at Alabama. As they put it to me very bluntly, if you do not love football, then Alabama is not for you. So whoever goes down there and becomes the coordinator for the Crimson Tide on each side of the ball, they're going to learn a lot. And I think that they're going to be better coaches for it.

Just some names that I would throw out there. I mean, is it too, is it too? I mean, Cliff Kingsbury? Would that not be amazing? Right? Now, will he do that? I have no idea. I have no idea.

And by the way, he's getting paid so much money to just be in Thailand. And it's like, hey, man, we see it on social media. You've got a good life. You know, like, hang out. He doesn't need to go down there. Would it work out? Probably. Probably.

So that's a name. Joe Cox is another name. He's a young guy that a lot of people are high on. I just throw out from a defensive perspective like Jim Leonard. Where's Jim Leonard going to land? I think Jim Leonard is one of the best defensive coaches in football. Now, a lot of people think, and listen, I don't know. disagree with him that Jim could wind up in the National Football League. And that's certainly been

at his disposal in past years, and I would imagine would be at his disposal this year as well. But if he wants to stay in college, this might be a great opportunity for him to go down, learn from Nick Saban, and become even better. Listen, there's a reason that Wisconsin didn't want him to be a head coach. So maybe this is Jim's time to reflect a little bit, say, okay, what am I lacking? Where can I get it? What am I lacking? Where can I get it? Well, if you're lacking the knowledge, the foresight to be a head coach. The way to get it is go work for Nick Saban. He's the greatest coach in college football history. So that's a name that I would throw out there and we'll see where they go. I think the more interesting part, and this will help me kind of

transition to the next subject, the more interesting part is just thinking about Alabama with two brand new coordinators and a new quarterback. And you think to yourself like, okay, here's this program that has been really the king of the mountain up until Georgia comes along in the last couple of and now they're going to be breaking in two new coordinators and a new quarterback. Then you start to think to yourself, man, Georgia is going to have a new quarterback, and Todd Munkin has been flirting with some job interviews. So they may, although not official, may have a new play caller and a new quarterback. And then you look at Ohio State.

And in my estimation, these are the three programs that are like running college football because they recruit at the highest end. And to win those conferences, these are the teams that you've got to go through. And Ohio State also going to be breaking in a brand new play caller and a new quarterback. And it just got me thinking to myself, listen, if there's a year where you might get some new blood,

like we saw with TCU and to some extent Michigan, even though they were in back-to-back years, where you might get some just like craziness happen in college football, might this be the year in 2023? and I think it might be. If you're a fan of the style of season that we had, where Tennessee's relevant playing games with huge playoff implications late, where Michigan is kind of owning the Big Ten,

where USC is playing games with playoff implications, where Kansas State and TCU are playing games with playoff implications, if you enjoyed that, and judging by the ratings, people did, then 2023 might be more of the same. Now, am I suggesting that Georgia, Ohio State, or Alabama are not going to be good? Absolutely not. I'm not suggesting that at all. And in fact, Georgia has a chance to do something that nobody's really done in college football history. I mean, winning three straight, at least not in the modern area of like true college football, at least the way that I view it, kind of like post-World War II. you think of what they have the opportunity to do. They are building a dynasty.

Are they going anywhere? No, someone's going to have to beat them. Having said that, though, you get a year in which they may have a new play caller and definitely breaking in a new quarterback. And it's like, well, I'd rather play them in that season than in a year in which they've got an incumbent play caller and an incumbent quarterback. Same can be said about Alabama and Ohio State. So then you start to look around and I'm like, okay, who are the teams that might be able

to take advantage of a year in which, hey, maybe you're going to host a game on the right weekend and the right moment and beat a team like Alabama or Georgia or Ohio State. And here are the teams that kind of come to mind. Florida State. I think that's, Florida State's an interesting one. You got your quarterback coming back. A lot of hype around the recruiting class, good sentiment around the program. Florida State's a team that could absolutely make a little bit of a run.

Now, their schedule is not easy. They're going to open with LSU, and that brings me to my second one, LSU. LSU, listen, Brian Kelly had something going. Now, I've said this before, and I will continue to say it. The win over Alabama was more of the outlier for them this year than the norm, than the mean. And you just look at their year and the games that they lost and some of the games that they played, and that becomes painfully clear. But they were able to do it.

So we know at least on the top end that LSU has that gear. Okay, so they've got that club in their bag. Maybe LSU is primed for a bit of a run. Clemson. With Garrett Riley at quarterback, you think of, you know, Kate Klubnick at quarterback, or excuse me, Gary Riley as offensive coordinator, I think I said quarterback. Garrett Riley is offensive coordinator and play caller. Clubnick coming in there, maybe a spark on that offensive side

will be just what they need to get back to what they have been and what they had been. the six years previous to the last two. How about Tennessee? I mean, Josh Hypo gets that new contract. I think that when you look at Joe Milton, the way he played in the Orange Bowl, Tennessee might be right back there. Could they make a push? Penn State.

This is a team that feels like they've got their quarterback back. Even though he wasn't a starter, Drew Aller is a guy that they were salivating over all year. They've got great young talent, good veteran presence on the offensive line coming back. They've got all their coordinators back. Mani Diaz worked out on the defensive side. Yurchitz will be now in his third year. James Franklin has recruited well. Maybe Penn State. Maybe this is their year in the Big Ten East. But really it comes down to, there's one team that I'm looking at and I'm like, okay, their schedule, their quarterback coming back, just a little bit of improvement on the defensive side, a play here or there in a close game, Oklahoma. Oklahoma.

I'm going to keep saying this. Oklahoma is my team that's going to pop. I know that they were a six-win team. They were close to a nine-win team, close to a 10-win team, really, when you look at all their one-score games, and that could easily go the other direction. You look at that conference, and no one's going to be running away with it. It's not like they have to go play an Ohio State or an Alabama or a Georgia or a Michigan. They don't have that team in their conference. So OU. OU is a team that could possibly take advantage. of some chaos in 2023. And then any of those Pack 12 teams, look at all the quarterbacks out there. That's going to be the best quarterback league in all of college football in America. And maybe this is a year where USC can get it done, although they need to improve on defense.

Maybe this is the year that we are aware of Michael Pinnock's and Washington for the majority of the year and not just late in the season. Maybe this is the year in which everyone realizes how good of a coach Jonathan Smith is at Oregon State. he's got a new quarterback in DJU, who's not going to be asked to do it all at Oregon State because of their ability to run the football and control the game of the line of scrimmage. It's going to be interesting. Bow Nicks back at Oregon. I think someone from the PAC, this might be the PAC-12's year to go to the playoffs if you look at it through that lens. So that'll be interesting.

And I think that that jumping off point of new coordinators at some of those places, new quarterbacks at some of those places is interesting, especially when you look at 2023, a transition year. We don't have the 12-team playoff. It's just a 14-playoff. And yet, I feel like there's going to be more teams with a shot. And that's good. That is good for the sport. And I'm here for it and hope that that pans out.

Last news, I mentioned that Tennessee, Josh Heibel gets the new contract. And good for them. They were fantastic this last year. And I hope that they can continue to keep that going. because college football is better when Tennessee is really good. I think the SEC is better when Tennessee is really good. Someone needs to threaten Georgia on that side of the division to make that, legitimate is not the right word, but more exciting.

And I think Tennessee is definitely in position to do that. And then the last thing before we get to our last subject is Ohio State. And I know it's not like a splashy coordinator hire, but they just brought back James Laronitis. And James Leronitis was a phenomenal college football player. Really great guy, by the way, had met him when he was doing some broadcast work with BTN and was very good at it, really smart, intelligent guy, has a good NFL background. And now Ohio State kind of brought him back in kind of that grad assistant style role.

And to me, this is a big move for them because of what I feel like they think it will give them. So when I look at Ohio State, this is a team that has been really good, top into college football, but just hasn't been able to get over the hump. And in particular in the last couple of years, I think that they have some shortcomings on the defensive side. that was pretty clear, I think. You know, obviously last year, two years ago, and then last season at times, in particular against Michigan and even against Georgia, you could tell like they just couldn't get stops.

And it begs the question like, what if, or is there a way to recruit the safety position, the linebacker position in a similar fashion that you've been able to recruit the wide receiver position. Nobody in college football has owned the wide receiver position in recruiting like Brian Hartline and Ohio State. And when you look at Brian Hartline, you bring a guy back with NFL experience, not a lot of coaching experience, but good energy, smart player, played at the school, and he turned into an absolute force on the recruiting trail and built the best wide receiver room in college football. And what I think they're envisioning

for James Laronitis is that he is the defensive version of Brian Hartline. And why not? Why not? You see where Hartline's going. Now he's going to be a coordinator and you hope that his influence can go over the entire offense. And you're trying to find that guy on the defensive side. If Ohio State could get a guy like Hartline recruiting on the defensive side of the ball and build that type of assistant coach, they would have something. imagine if they had safeties like they were turning out wide receivers over the last couple of years might be very different outcomes in some of those close games. And so I think that's what they're going to be chasing. And again, James Leonard-Nit is a very smart guy. I think that's a really good and smart hire.

And I think he will be a full-time assistant coach in the near future. And I think that if things go according to plan, he will be a force on the recruiting trail, similar to what heartline has been on the offensive side. All right. Let's get into this last subject. And I'm going to admit, first and foremost, it doesn't quite involve college football, although it does. And you'll get that in a moment. There was a tweet came up on my Twitter feed. I don't even remember where I saw. I think I first saw it, like Dan Orlovsky retweeted it. He tweets a lot. So you and I, you guys and I both know, like, you see a lot. And he retweeted this guy. I think it's Chris Gross. I hope I'm not mispronouncing that. Chris Gross tweeted out. Or it might be grossy, but Chris Gross tweeted out. Okay, you can only write with one type of pen for the rest of your life. Which one are you picking? And he said, ignore the ink color, which I immediately was like, well, you can't ignore the ink color because only weirdos write in black ink. It's like, I'm not a printer. I'm a human, so I write in blue ink.

But regardless. And then he has seven pins lined up in the picture. If you are just listening to this, go to my Twitter feed at Joel Klatt. You'll see the entire thing take place there. He's got one through seven. Well, it just so happens. My trusty pin is one of the seven. And I was like, oh, well, that's fun.

You know, this will be a fun tweet to chime in on. So I just tweeted, first of all, I quote tweeted, I just put seven. And it was the number seven. And the number seven pin is just the standard blue Bick pen, right? And I'm holding it up for those watching the show. And you can watch the show on YouTube. You can go check it out on college football on Fox YouTube channel. I'm holding it up right now.

It's just your standard Bick, Bick, blue pen, you know, the blue cap, the clear casing. And I'm like, I love this pin. It is, first of all, let me just, in defense of this pen, It always writes, never freezes up, and never clogs. Like, it's a phenomenal pen. I love this pen. And by the way, I've used it for a long time. So I tweeted then on my next tweet, I said, I have used the seven pen because he said,

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And it's a blue pick was the seventh pin. I've used the number seven for years. And then I went on to say, in fact, I am so OCD about it that I use a single number seven until the ink runs out and then I start a new one. I have used around four of the number sevens over the last eight seasons, just ask Gus.

And I got a lot of different responses. And some of those responses were like, liar. And others were like, psychopath. And I was like, whoa, wait a second. Like, I didn't know that was a thing. People legitimately think that because I use the basic blue pen that this is like psychopath, like am I? where am I hiding the bodies?

And I didn't realize that was a thing. This is so new to me because I just love these pins. And yes, I'm totally OCD about it. So then I'm talking with our producer, one of our producers, Steve. And Steve helps me on college football. And he's fantastic on this show. And he's been such a help over the last few years. And Steve and I are talking.

And I'm like, Steve, you know this about me. Like Steve sees, you know, we sit together all. week and we prepare for games and prepare for this podcast. And he sees me right in my journals. And he sees me right with this blue big pin forever. This is all I use. And I was like, Steve, like, you know this. I use it until it runs out. The same one. I don't lose it because I got a little trusty like pinholder on my notebook, more on that later. And he's like, you know what would be great? Like, you know what would make you a true psycho? He was like, Clad, if you had one of your old fully used pens to prove it. And I was like,

ha, done. And so here's the proof. First and foremost, I'm holding up right now, for those of you just listening, on the video version, here is my in-use blue Bick pen. And you can see like, it's about halfway done, right? And I started this one just before like maybe September 15th. It ran out during the year. And so this is new since about, you know, September. And I use it all the time.

And the reason I know it's this one is because now I'm holding up my notebook. And I have this notebook and I use the exact same notebook all the time. I fill it up. Then I start a new notebook. And it's I like this notebook not because of the size of the page or the way that it feels, although it's nice. It's because it has this. And again, I'm holding it up. It has this fancy little pinholder right on the outside.

And so I can just put the blue Bick pin right in there. And I'm just showing everybody, you know, and then it just fits. And then I close up the book. And then there it is. And my blue pen is always with me. And I never lose it because I would never lose one of these books. This is like my notes Bible, you know, and maybe that's blasphemous, but it just is. I always have this with me.

Every show I go on, every game, every game it's in front of me. I always have my notebook. Okay. So here I am. And I use this blue Bick pen. And the reason is is because I would never, oh, I just dropped it. Get back here. There it is.

Okay. So I would never write with another pen in one of these notebooks because I'm too OCD. I've got to have the same writing throughout the entire book. Okay. So he says to me, well, if you had one of your old ones, that would really prove it. And so I got my little highlighter bag out. Okay. So here's my highlighter bag because I highlight my boards every single week.

And I remember in September thinking to myself, oh, man, this is such an accomplishment. I'm going to keep this blue Bick pen. And so there it is. So now I'm holding up as proof. This is my last blue Bick pen, the number seven. And you can see, there's no ink. None. Boom.

That's called accomplishment. Because I use the entire pen. And then I put the blue cap back on. I don't chew it, by the way. See? Everyone's like, oh, yeah, it's good because you chew the pin. Now I'm holding up the pin cap. I do not chew the pin cap.

I do not chew the end of the pen. Nope, I'm holding up the end of the pen now. I just save them, and they're perfectly... And so now, see, this empty pin, it's just going right back into my highlighter case. That's when I realized, I'm a total psycho. And it all came flooding over me. You know, when there's, like, those realizations in your life?

When you're like, oh my gosh, everyone's right. And I was like, you know, thinking to myself, everyone thought, you know, I'm some sort of psychopathic murderer. And then I'm realizing like, oh my gosh, while I haven't murdered anybody like, I'm a psychopath. Who does this? Who does this? And let me tell you a guy who does this. And then I started thinking to myself like, well, why do you do this? And I started thinking to myself, well, because it's the only pen that you want to write with in your trusty book.

And then I started thinking to myself like, well, why do you use this book? Well, it's got the penholder. And then everyone on the podcast team started asking me. And they were like, well, what happens like when you run out of books? And I was like, oh, hold on a second. So to prove that I use this book all the time. And you see it says like Fox Media, you know, right on the front. It's a little leather bound book. Watch this. Hold on. Okay. You're going to want to go watch the show because these are all my used books from the last, I don't know, six years of college football. Every one of these, completely full. Every one of these, the exact same style, a leather bound book with the little pin holder. You know, so I go back and this one I just finished actually. So this is the top one, you know. And so you go to the first page of the notes, my 22 preseason top 10 list. There's that, just showing that for proof right there, although it wasn't all that accurate.

Last note in this book was just, shoot, a couple of weeks ago. What was my last note in this book? Okay, last page. Oh, yeah, Big Ten Commissioner Points because Kevin Warren headed to the Chicago Bears. So there's podcast notes for this. And like all in between is just notes from, you know, Pod 2, College Football Reaction show, Pod 1 from that week in there. You know, Georgia, is it Georgia or the field?

That was a note that I'm reading in here, right? Like, you just go all the way through, Ohio State notes, your offense, they've got to get a fast start. They're overwhelming. They're early scoring 32 points per game, you know, stuff like that. Just all my notes. You can see, all in blue Bick pin. See, I'm just holding it up right there, holding it up.

And it's gone on for years. And so then my team says, well, George, Joel, what are you going to do if they discontinue the notebook? And I thought to myself, Ha! Did you really think I hadn't thought of that? And so here's five empty leather bound notebooks. I'm ready.

I'm good until at least like, I don't know, 2027, 2028. At that point, maybe we're going to deal with a mental breakdown, but I've got five brand new books ready. I've filled up these six books right over here. I'm using this one right here, all because, folks, it's got a fancy pin holder so I can use the number seven blue Bick pen every day of my life. And that's when I realized I'm a total psychopath. So that realization led me to want to do something. something here on the podcast. I want to do a mailbag. And this mailbag should be about all things,

not just college football. It can be about college football. You want answers about college football? I'll try to give them. You want answers about life? That's right. You want to ask a psychopath who uses pins until they're done and then saves them once they're done because of the sense of accomplishment or has ordered 11 of the same leatherbound book so that he can keep his number seven blue Bick pin ready to go. You want advice from a guy like that? I know you do. I know you do.

So now we're going to give you that opportunity. So here's what we're going to do right here on the Joel Klatt show this off season. We're starting a mailbag. You want questions about anything. Marriage? I've been married for 18 years. Let's go. I'm a dad.

I got three boys. 11, 8, and 6. Let's rock. Dad questions, I'm ready to rock. You got questions about, you know, you're in college, you got questions about that, you have relationship issues, whatever. Cooking, I mean, I can cook a little bit. Fire them at us.

The Joel Clatshow Mailbag at gmail.com. The Joel Clatshow mailbag at gmail.com. It's on your screen now, so I encourage you, if you're just listening to this audio version, you've got to go check out the YouTube and at least, you know, fast forward to the end, because you've got to see all. Like, even when I did it, I was like, oh, Oh my gosh. This little question in the back of my head of like, why are, why is this a big deal?

Like, what do you mean? Yeah, I use the number seven pen. What does that mean? And everyone's like, you're a psycho. Call the FBI. What's going on? And I was like, they just don't get it. Like, I just like the pen.

I just like the pen. Oh, no, no, no. I'm a psychopath. Thanks for listening.