The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Mailbag Episode: Is this the start of another “Ten Year War” between Ohio St & Michigan?

Episode Date: February 20, 2023

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt dives into the mailbag and answers listener-submitted questions including whether Ohio State and Michigan are headed into another “10 Year War��� in the rivalry. Joel also breaks down his weekly prep for broadcasts during the college football season and hands out some advice on how to navigate the college football season with your significant other. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, welcome into the show. It is the Joel Clatt show. I am Joel Clatt. Thank you for joining us here. Hey, if you haven't done it, go and subscribe to the podcast, wherever you eat your podcast, and then rate review us. We love that. And then you can follow us on any of the social medias. At Joel Clat Show is where you can follow us. You can follow me. At Joel Clatt on Twitter. At Joel underscore Clat on Instagram. Okay. I've got a fun episode here. And let me give you a little bit of background. First and foremost, I loved having Gus on last week. That was a lot of fun.

We are going to do some more guests here during the off season. So obviously, Jenny will come on to the program, a lot of other friends of the show, including kind of a guest series that we're going to do that I'm very excited about. Well, we're going to get some of the best head coaches from throughout the sport, some of the commissioners from throughout the sport,

and really get into a little bit more of a long-form conversation with these individuals about college football. and conversations that you are going to love. So that's all coming up more in the offseason. And immediately, well, next week, what we're going to start getting into is a little bit more draft as I start preparing for the NFL draft. But today is a little bit of a special episode, in part because I need to go on vacation. All right. Kids ski week coming up.

We're going on vacation. And so what I wanted to do was a mailbag episode. we've gotten a ton of responses to the mailbag. Remember, you can send us a question if you have any type of question about life, college, relationships, fatherhood, whatever it is, college football, baseball, I played, you can send it in. You can send it to our show email address, the Joel Clash Show mailbag at gmail.com. And remember, as Kat likes to say, remember Kat is our wonderful producer who is engaged, getting married this summer. Kat says, ladies, don't be afraid. Go ahead and chime in.

We've got some questions from the ladies, so we're going to get to that today. So some good stuff here. I'm going to get through five mailbag questions today about college football, life, a lot of different things. So let's dive right into it. Okay, I want to start with a football question and really a meat and potatoes style of question for this show and this listenership. So let's go over to the mailbag. Joseph writes in, and he says, Hi, Joel, I have a theory that there will be another 10 or maybe 20-year war between Ohio State and Michigan with many national championships between them. What are your thoughts on this? Okay, let's break this down.

First and foremost, I think that you're referring Joseph back to the actual 10-year war, which took place from 1969 to 1978. Remember, in 1968, Ohio State wins a national championship. and then Bo becomes the head coach of Michigan and the 10-year war ensues. Really, I don't know what, you know, kind of a mythical period, really, in college football. And in a period that the fan bases of each of those teams look back on with a great deal of nostalgia, nothing lasts for 20 years in college football. And in particular in this day and age, the sport is moving way too fast. coaches get hired and fired.

If we have 10 straight years from this point moving forward, or even dating back to the first time that Jim Harbaugh and Rinday faced each other, and moving forward, I would be surprised if we got 10 straight years of just that coaching matchup. So let's just start with that, okay? College football moves way too fast for there to be something similar to what we got from Bow and Woody from 1969 to 1978. So that's number one. Number two, Joseph, is that you imply that there will be many national championships between them,

as if there were many national championships between them in the 10-year war that we know of, that's been documented, right, from, again, 69 to 78, which is just not the case. In fact, Bo Schembeckler didn't win a national championship at Michigan. The only national championship that was won during the 10-year war, the actual 10-year war, was a split national championship. I believe in 19, what was it, 70, when Ohio State shared a national championship with Nebraska and there was one other, Texas in 1970.

So we had like the three-way national championship. Normally you got to pay more for that cotton. And that was it. So like even in the 10-year war, this period that these two fan bases like to look back on and be like, oh, that's when we dominated the sport. It wasn't necessarily true. It wasn't necessarily true.

Now, the rivalry was incredible during that time, and at times even before and after. But this notion that these two were winning many national championships during this time is false. Ohio State won it in 68, shared it in a three-way in 1970. Thank you, Cotton. And that's what we got. So now let's look at just from the, the,

competitive standpoint, are we entering or are we in the middle of a 10-year war? I would argue that the win for Michigan, not this year, but last year, started a new period within this rivalry where we get a little bit more, let's call it parity, competitiveness, whatever you want to call it. Because before that, for the last two decades, it hasn't even really been close. It had been totally dominated by the Buckeyes. And everyone knows it. it. I'm not throwing cold water on anybody here. Everybody knows it. Now, two straight years, we've seen Michigan win, one at home, one on the road in Columbus. And so I think that you can make an argument that like, hey, we're entering into or we're now currently in a period where like,

this thing is salty and there is a serious rivalry. And I would agree with that. I would absolutely agree with that. I think that in hindsight, when we look back on this period of time, these last couple of years and maybe this year coming up and the year after, when we look back on this period of time, we are going to remember it as a highly competitive rivalry. And a rivalry in which there's a lot of subtext and undertones. The coaches don't really love each other. A lot going on.

And so because of that, yes, we are in the middle of what you can categorize as a war. Do I think it's going to last 10 years? Probably not. But that's more the cyclical nature of college football than anything else, which leads us to the there will be many national championships between the two of them. Hard for me to fathom that. And it goes in part to a question I answered really a couple of weeks ago when a Penn State fan asked the question of like, do you think Penn State will win a national championship in my lifetime? Listen, I hope as a college football fan that we start generating more parity at the top of college football.

But right now, that's a hope and not a prediction because what we are experiencing, and in part because of the structure of the sport, but what we are experiencing is a non-parity portion of college football. We know who's going to be there at the end. And we know because we know who has the. best players. Remember, recruiting drives everything. And now you can categorize recruiting as high school players and transfer players, the combination of the two. And the fact remains, the teams that are dominating college football at the top of winning championships are also dominating in recruiting. And so they're getting the best players, which in my mind leads me to believe that they will

continue to win national championships. The only team of the two that has recruited at a level, that would suggest that they can go and compete for a national championship is Ohio State. What has been shocking to me over the last couple of years is that Michigan hasn't really capitalized on these back-to-back playoff appearances, these wins over Ohio State, and in particular in this year's recruiting class, they fell behind. I believe that to win a national championship, you have to have a four-year rolling average in terms of a combined recruiting class of around five. If you're not in the top five,

you probably don't have the athletes or the roster necessary to go compete with Alabama or Georgia or even Ohio State, for that matter. So because of that, I just, I don't think we are getting into a period where you're going to see many national championships between Michigan and Ohio State. Now, could that change? Maybe.

And the only maybe comes in because we, don't know how conference realignment and the expansion of the playoff is going to affect parity in college football moving forward. We don't know how it's going to affect it. We've already seen a small snippet, by the way, but a small sample size of the transfer portal really increasing parity on a year-in and year-out basis last year, with TCU, USC, Washington. You saw some major jumps in teams being able to compete at the highest level because of the transfer portal. If that continues, then maybe we'll see the national championship start to move around

a little bit. There's only one school that has recruited at a level that you would suggest, hey, like, they can go and win some national championships, and that's Ohio State. I haven't seen that from Michigan yet, even though they've been right there and in the playoff. So Joseph, that's a long answer to a simple question there about the 10-year war. Okay, let's move on. Let's get to a few more, and these ones will be a little bit quicker. All right, Ryan, chimes in, he says, hey, Joel, love your podcast and watch it all the time. Thank you very much. He says, I'll watch it when I'm working out at the gym. I was wondering what your typical preparation looks like through the week before you go and

commentate a game. I also love hearing stories about interactions and conversations you had with current and previous coaches and players. Ryan, I appreciate it. And yeah, let me dive into it. We were actually, I was talking with really my right-hand man, Steve. Steve Owens is a guy that is with me during the games. He's obviously a producer here on this show as well. And we were talking this morning about process. And it's fascinating because here in the first year of the podcast, what I've been desiring is a better process because over the last decade plus, I feel like I have developed a really good process or one that works for me on games. And this is really what it comes down to is that I approach a game very similar to how I approached preparing for a game when I was a player.

And so I basically break down the game or the preparation into sections. And then those sections take place on the same day every single week. Okay. So on a typical week, let's just take it from like, I get home on Saturday night, which has been a real blessing just from a family perspective after those noon games. And I can wake up. And what I try to do is from the time I wake up on Sunday morning until about 6, 530 or 6 o'clock on Sunday, it's just like family time.

I try not to look at anything, read anything, watch anything. I try my best to just be with my family. We love to get donuts on Sunday morning. We love to go to church on Sunday, go to lunch, hang out. I'll take my kids to the driving range. We have a great time. Watch some NFL football. And that's what we do.

Then at about 5.30 or 6 o'clock on Sunday, Sunday is when I start to dive in. This show takes kind of precedent on Sunday night. I will record a reaction episode to Saturday on Sunday night. Then on Monday morning, the important part of my process really starts to ramp up. What I try to do on Monday is break up the day into different sections where I'm preparing for the game. I'm preparing for the podcast.

And I'm getting ready for any national shows that I'll go on like going on Colin Coward's show on Wednesday. when I go on with him. And so I start to do that. When it comes to the game, I start to read articles and then I start to watch film. And the film for me is very important. So I'll watch whole games and then I start to break that down into specialized aversions or cutups of the game. Like I watch all the third downs. I watch all the red zone. And I start to get an idea of who the teams are. I try to define them. And I start to prepare for the matchup in that regard. How do I think the matchup is going to play out.

Where do I think the strengths and weaknesses are of each team? How do I think that they're going to start to attack each of them? On Tuesday, I try to spend a little bit of time with my wife while the kids are at school and just listen, it's a busy time, right? So we try to go to breakfast or have lunch or do something along those lines. And once Tuesday afternoon comes around, what I'm going to do then is start to prepare for the Joel Clatio, the podcast. And we'll record a podcast on Tuesday.

Wednesday I drive up to L.A., go on Colin Coward Show, record another episode of the podcast, and by Wednesday night, my preparation is in its final stages, so I'll finish up watching any film that I have. And then on Wednesday, or excuse me, on Thursday morning, I'm off and I'm on a flight to wherever I'm headed. By the time Friday morning comes, I'm headed into meetings with the home team, doing Zooms with the OA team, and finalizing my boards and the preparation that I've had all week long. And then Saturday, it's get up and go, fly home on Saturday night, and rinse and repeat the next week. So that's my game prep every week. I know that that was kind of a fast rendition. But there we go. Okay. Next up in the mailback, Brett says,

Hey man, love the show. Speaking of love, I need some dating advice. He says, I'm a college football sicko. I watch football 12 hours a day on Saturdays from September to December. This can make dating complicated that time of year. obviously. I've tried making compromises with my last two girlfriends that I'm completely theirs for the rest of the year, and they agree. But when college football season rolls around, they are obviously annoyed that I'm glued to the screen all day. I need 12 Saturdays a year. I feel like that's fair. Am I missing something? Brett, Brett, Brett, Brett. Yes. You're missing something. Okay. I'm sorry, but like, you can't just say,

that my hobby is going to take me away for five months and like pound sand, you don't get any time. That's just not sustainable. Now, maybe there's a girl out there for you, probably a girl that's also a college football sicko that can experience that with you and you guys can have some enjoyment of that time together. Maybe not the entire time, but like some of the time, okay? But it is totally unrealistic of you to think that you're going to find

a relationship in which you can tell your significant other, hey, I'm out. Peace out. See you in December. And they're going to be like, yeah, you know what? But he's good the rest of the year. Doesn't happen. That does not happen. And if they tell you that at the onset, run, run. Because they're lying. They are absolutely lying. There's going to come a time when they're like, oh, but my parents are in town and I just want to go to dinner with him. and you're like, hey, it's Tuesday night Maction. I can't do that. And then there's going to be a huge fight. And guess what?

The relationship's going to end. So you're doing the right thing by trying to be up front about this, but you cannot expect that this thing is going to work out for you long term, in particular if they're like, oh, yeah, I'm down for this. You know what? You leave for five months a year at your couch, doing whatever is you're going to do, watching all that football. And I'm going to be just fine with it because the rest of the year, you're mine.

that's not going to work. What happens when you all of a sudden get asked to a bachelor party of one of your buddies, and it happens to be April? And then your significant other is like, nope, nope, sorry, this is not your months. And you're going to be like, no, no, no, wait. And she's going to say, no, no, no, no, I agree. This is not sustainable. So here's what I would tell you, college football sicko.

Number one, if you are not willing to adjust, then there's, The only possible answer is that you find a relationship that will experience this and enjoy this with you. And if that's not the case, then you're going to have to adjust. You're going to have to say like, okay, listen, I'm not going to have Tuesday night Maction. I can't catch the Friday night game, the Pack 12 game. I can't stay up until 2 in the morning. Like she wants me to go to dinner or breakfast or whatever it is. Right.

So you either need to find someone that's going to join you or you need to adjust. So good luck with that, Brett. And honestly, very much looking forward to hearing how this goes for you throughout the rest of your life. All right. Next up. Michael says, hey, Joel, since you have been married for 18 years, I'd like to ask you how you knew your wife was the one. Before I got to college, I was a heartbreaker to say that. Who says that about themselves?

Michael, come on, man. You can't say that. I mean, I guess you can, and you did. I came to college thinking I'd be with many different girls and living the, quote, college life, but couldn't help falling in love with this one girl. She is truly my best friend. At the age of 19, I am only a few years away from marriage age and want to make sure I don't invest my time into someone who eventually will not be my lifelong partner. So, in your opinion, what are the criteria you believe make up the one?

Oh my goodness. So first of all, there was some ridiculousness in there and then a very deep question at the end. So like, I don't know whether to take you seriously or not, first of all, Michael, but I'm going to take you serious because you ask a serious question at the end. First of all, one, you're not a heartbreaker. If you fall in love at 19 to the point where you think you can be married, then you are by definition not a heartbreaker. You are going to get your heart broken. you are a deep faller, my friend. Okay, so like, this is just me being honest with you.

I've seen this, you know, way too much. Now, I'm really happy for you that you found someone that you feel like is like, hey, I fell in love with this girl. Good for you. That's phenomenal. Now we get to the more important part of your question, which is, what are the criteria you believe up, you believe make up the one? Now, joking aside, I, I,

firmly believe that there are, well, listen, two decisions, but one decision that makes up, like, you want to talk about, like, having a great life? One of the two most important decisions you can make is who you decide to marry. The other one is who you decide to believe in. I'll leave that for another day. You know, my faith is very strong for me. So, like, first and foremost for me is, The biggest decision I ever made was to follow Jesus Christ. The second best decision that I ever made was marrying Sarah. The first thing that I would tell you is that you have to be equally yoked when you decide who you're going to marry. Okay.

It has to be someone that you share beliefs with, both from a faith standpoint. It would really help if you guys got along politically, in particular in this generation and day and age. if you don't agree politically, I don't know if that's going to work out. So that's something that you need to hash out. You need to talk about how many children you want. You need to talk about how you were raised financially and what you expect financially. These are conversations that I feel like in today's day and age get glossed over and everyone wants to just get to the feels and be like, oh, they're so handsome. They're so beautiful.

I just want to get married. You cannot just get married. Do you understand? Marriage is incredibly difficult. incredibly difficult because it takes two people committing to one another to become one flesh and you've got to be equally yoked and you've got to be equally yoked in every single area who you believe what you believe how you're going to operate how many children you want how you're going to parent so how do you know if that person is the one have those conversations

it's not just a feeling you can't just look at someone and be like oh they make my stomach flutter. Good for you. Talk to me seven years, 10 years, 18 years in. Is the stomach flutter pretty cool? Yeah, that's still pretty cool. And you want someone that makes your stomach flutter, but it's more important that you marry someone that you're equally yoked to. This is vital. This is vital. So my biggest advice, have those conversations. What do you believe in? Why? And what do you want out of your life? And if they can can be on the same page with you, then you know what? That flutter in your stomach can last 18 years and beyond which mine did. All right, last one, Hannah, the ladies of Giant Bim, and I love it.

Thank you, Hannah. Listen, and all the ladies that listen to this podcast, ask Cat a question. Cat's got your back. Again, she just got engaged. She's getting married this summer. Listen, we can help you. So Hannah chimes in. Hello, Joel. Why did Sarah hate the cross? I am very curious. This is in reference to last mailbag in which I told the story of my terrible proposal where I was going to take Sarah to this light, these lights on the mountains just outside of Boulder, and I said it was a cross. And the PTSD in me blocked out what it actually was,

and those that live in Boulder still reminded me. I couldn't remember if it was a heart or a cross. It's a star. They put a star of lights up on the mountain. It's not a cross. Thought it was a cross. It's a star. It's a star.

Okay. Now, I thought I was going to take Sarah up to the middle of the star. As we're driving up to the star to propose to her, she decides to say, hey, I hate that star. Oh, didn't have a plan, went terrible. Go back to the previous episode. Please check out that story because it is quite funny. But why did she hate that cross?

Sarah actually led a young life group in Boulder. So it's a Christian organization in Boulder in which she would lead once she was in college, some of the high school kids. And they would do like their small groups and things like that. Well, one of the things that Young Life did was during the winter, during December, when the star got put up on the mountain, is that they would take the kids up to the star because it was like cool and something to do. And she hated it because it was always cold and she was always babysitting these kids as they were trying to hike to the star. And so as we're driving to the star, those moments are coming back to her. something she never shared with me, wish that she would have, have those conversations beforehand, folks.

And then she says, I hate that star. Ugh. Needless to say, my proposal is good, only in the sense that it provided a great story afterwards, because yes, she hated the star, not the cross. Thank you for listening to the show, everybody. Again, keep sending me your questions and anything that you have for the Joel Clash show and this podcast. You can email us

the Joel Clashio mailbag at gmail.com. Follow us on any of the social media at Joel Clashow. You can follow me on Twitter at Joel Clatt or me on Instagram at Joel underscore Clat. Now, when we come back

next week, we will start to dive into the draft. This is going to start to move a little bit towards the draft because this is what I'm going to be starting on. As you know, I cover the draft for the NFL network.

I'll be there on night one, night two with them there. Rich Eisen, Daniel Jeremiah. And so all the things that I'm going to be prepping for, we're going to bring to the show. We're going to get some great guests on. So a lot of draft content coming up here in the next few weeks and months as we move forward in the offseason of the Joel Clatt Show.

Thank you for listening. Everybody, have a great week.