The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Michigan hires Kyle Whittingham & College Football Playoff Quarterfinal Picks

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to Michigan’s hiring of Kyle Whittingham to be their new Head Coach. He breaks down why Whittingham makes so much sense for the Wolverines program caught in difficult circumstances and also details the challenges the former Utah coach now has ahead of him. Klatt then makes his picks against the spread for the College Football Playoff Quarterfinals as Ohio State looks to avoid the upset against Miami and Oregon faces off with Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl. He then makes his pick in the Rose Bowl as #1 Indiana looks to continue their magical run under Curt Cignetti against Alabama. Klatt wraps the show with his pick in the Georgia-Ole Miss matchup before revealing the terms of a special giveaway prize. Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/KLATT10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kyle Whittingham, he looks at this as an opportunity to actually go out there and compete for a national championship. Ohio State, it's time to start talking about them as historically one of the great defenses that we've ever seen in college football. This Georgia team could absolutely win the national championship. Hey, like today is why we love college football. Hey, welcome into the program. This is the 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, we've got playoff games to talk about once. again, we've got this quarterfinal matchups, all four of these games. I'm going to be

picking them. I'll be previewing these games in this episode. I also have to react to the Kyle Whittingham hire by Michigan. They drop a bomb on college football, really, when you think about it, Kyle Whittingham, headed to Michigan. I'll give you all my thoughts on that. But first, remember, if you have not subscribed to the show over on YouTube, please go ahead and do so. You hit the notification button as well. Then you'll know when all of our YouTube videos drop. You can leave a comment down below, that would be awesome. If you haven't followed us on social media yet, you should do that. You can follow us on whatever social media you like at Joel Clatt Show. And then you can rate and review us wherever you listen to this show if you're listened to the podcast

version. So again, lots to get into, including a big giveaway at the end of the audio and YouTube product. So if you're watching this on FS1, get on over to the YouTube channel because at the end of this show, I'm going to be giving away four Rose Bowl tickets. That's right, four Rose Bowl tickets to the Bama Indiana game. I'll be given those away, but you've got to get over to the YouTube product in order to check out how you go about winning those tickets. So let's get into the content of this week's show. Let's start with Michigan and the hiring of Kyle Wittingham. He steps away from Utah. And then all of a sudden he shows up and here he is now announced as the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines. This was massive.

and I got to tell you a little bit out of left field. I had not heard his name. It was very quiet. It was below the surface. Give Ward Manual a lot of credit on this one and everyone at Michigan because this was not a name that a lot of people were floating around, including myself. Listen, I love this hire, but I love this higher, not just because I'm very fond of Kyle Whittingham and his style of coaching and his style of play in terms of the way his teams play. but because of what Michigan was facing in this entire ordeal. And let's break this down because, listen, there were many challenges.

And I think we all understand that, but there were a lot of challenges to what's transpired at Michigan that led them to Kyle Whittingham. The first three challenges, I think, are fairly obvious. Okay. The first one being the timing. The timing of this had to go fairly quickly. Why? because that January 2nd transfer portal opening up, you've got to retain the roster, right? Like there are roster implications to who your head coach is when he's hired and what he can do

and what he can do in terms of retaining and recruiting the current players. So the quick timing of this, in particular after everything that transpired with Sharon Moore and it goes down and it's messy. And the only way to describe what went on at Michigan is crisis. This was a crisis at Michigan. And all of these challenges are what made it a crisis. The timing was crisis. And they were in a management situation,

and that January 2nd transfer portal window was looming. It was looming out there next week. I think they also had a challenge in terms of play identity. Okay, so you've got to go backwards before you can go forwards on this one. Because remember, post-COVID, when Michigan went on this run that they've been on, maybe not the last couple of years, but certainly under Harbaugh. that culminated in the national championship, this run was a very specific identity in terms of a blueprint that they used on the field. Now, it was a bit of a throwback blueprint.

It had everything to do with toughness and physicality. It had everything to do with complementary play. And that was an identity that I think they wanted to retain. And they needed to retain in a big way. Because, and I've said this before, they had a huge mountain to get over. And that mountain lived in Columbus, Ohio. And Michigan had to do something about the Ohio State problem.

Because Ohio State, they were building a team every single year. And the point of that team was always to win a national championship. And so they would look at teams like Alabama and Georgia. And it's like, okay, how do we build a team that can compete with and against and beat those teams? because those are the teams that you had to beat in 20, 21, 22, in order to win a national championship. That's what Ohio State was doing. Meanwhile, Michigan's problem wasn't winning a national championship at that point.

It was Ohio State. They couldn't beat the Buckeyes. And so they went about building an identity and a culture, in terms of a play identity and a play culture, that leaned into the toughness and the physicality and the run game. and they built an identity that was specifically tailored to try to go out and beat Ohio State. And they were able to do that. They were able to do that four straight times, running the football, controlling the game with their defensive line.

And that type of play style and identity is something that I think that they really wanted to retain. That's a challenge. That's a huge challenge. Think of all the teams in the past and the programs in the past that have gone about hiring a coach. And you could see, you could even argue. Oh, man, that's a good hire. These coaches are good, good coaches. Nebraska tried to do that with Bill Callahan. It went sideways. Michigan tried to do that with Rich Rodriguez. It went sideways.

I even made the argument that it happened with Wisconsin and Luke Fickle when Luke Fickle tried to change the schematics of the defense. He tried to go to the air raid. Now, he's since trying to fix that at Wisconsin, but it certainly has gone off the rails in the first couple of years. If you change the identity of a program too drastically, I don't think it ever goes well. That's why I've always argued that fit is such a unique factor in all of these coaching hires. And so that was a challenge, is that they had a very specific play identity and they had to retain it, need to retain it, wanted to retain it. Another challenge for them was that while they wanted to retain a play identity,

they needed a total culture reset and stabilization from a program perspective, from a personnel perspective. Because think of everything that has riddled this program, the last four or five years, years. Heck, even Bif Poggi, the interim head coach right now trying to prepare for Texas, what did he basically said it's been a disaster in the last few years. He said the last five years. And so a stabilization and a reset from a culture standpoint is very needed at Michigan. They're even doing an internal investigation into the culture of the athletic department at large. So that's very obvious. Well, trying to retain play identity and reset

the culture from a personnel standpoint, that's like impossible to do. That's a needle in the haystack type of thing. Then you have this last challenge thrown on, which is that the timing of this, not just because of the portal, but also because it happened on the back end of the coaching carousel, means that you're in a precarious spot because the talent pool has been picked over. Think of all the coaches that have either signed extensions around the country or taken jobs because they're quality candidates. Heck, you look at coaches around the country. Like, for instance, if you were to say, like, what coaches would fit at Michigan and fit this style? I would have said somebody like, well, you know, like Matt Campbell comes to mind. Well, he already took a job at Penn State,

and that's a great hire for Penn State because of all those things. Well, now he's not available for Michigan. So you're at the tail end of the cycle, which means that now the carousel is in a spot where it's not obvious who you're going to hire. And they were throwing out names like Kalin DeBore. I heard Jeff Brahm being thrown out. There was all these different names being thrown out. And the DeBoer issue was obviously because he was still coaching at Alabama, still in the playoff. And now he's going to coach all the way until January 1st. Well, the portal's opening on second. So the timing crisis was there. All of these challenges were staring in the face of the Michigan administration. And here they land on Kyle Winningham. Now, there's not many coaches in the country that fit

all of those things that allow you to say, listen, I know that timing is an issue, but we can get them in here quickly. I know play identity is an issue, but I've got somebody that fits that play identity, that style. I know our culture needs a reset and needs stabilization. I've got someone with the highest character and integrity that I can think of in the industry to reset the culture and stabilize the culture. Oh, by the way, he's also available.

It's like all of a sudden they land on Kyle Whittingham. And I got to tell you, this is an incredible fit. And I, for one, assumed that he was just done coaching. Listen, I've had several conversations with Kyle over the years. And you guys, you know, you've listened to some of the shorts and you've listened to this podcast, I'm sure, before. You'll know that I think he is a wonderful coach. And he's got the highest integrity. I love the way that his teams play.

I love the way that he talks about his players because he talks about them with love. He cares for his players. My highest compliment that I can ever repay is that, hey, I would love my sons if they ever played college football to go play for Kyle Winningham. I still feel that way. And I just assumed, because of our conversations, he had said, listen, I want to spend time with my grandkids, you know. And he's like, it's not that I'm done, done. I'm physically fit, I've got energy, but maybe my time's run out here at Utah. And I'm sitting there, and I just assumed that he was done.

I just assumed. And this goes back to a point that I should have taken my own advice on this, because all of these coaching hires, or I should say openings that come open, you guys know this. If you've listened to this program for any length of time, you'll know this. Like, for instance, when Penn State came open this year, when LSU came open this year. What do I always say?

I say you force great candidates to tell you no before you move on. And I would say you call Urban Meyer, you call Nick Saban. I said that for LSU, I said that for Penn State. And everyone's like, oh, that's stupid, those guys would never do it. Why? That's based on an assumption. You force them to tell you no. Chris Peterson, call Chris Peterson.

Force him to tell you no. And then once he does, say, okay, great, coach. Now, like, can you talk with me about guys that you like around the country? So you're not only gaining information, but you're forcing him to say no, and you're not assuming because you don't want to deal in assumptions. I was dealing in an assumption. I thought Kyle was done. Good thing for Michigan and everybody at Michigan that they didn't assume. And they made the call because if they make the call, then Kyle has to at least contemplate whether this is a good fit for him.

And now from his side, Kyle Winningham has spent 30 plus years at Utah, building them from a mid-major program, into a perennial top 15 program in the power conferences. Like that has taken a tremendous amount of work. Listen, there's no real reason, and I mean this with all due respect, there's no real reason that Utah, the University of Utah, should be a top 15 program in college football every single year. And yet they are. Why?

Because of Kyle Whittingham. I mean, he is a winner. He's going to go to the Hall of Fame. and now he's going to go to Michigan because he looks at this as an opportunity to actually go out there and compete for a national championship. I don't know if, you know, he didn't say this verbatim, but I think that there is an underlying thing here of like, okay, like you can do it there. Whereas at Utah, I always felt like it was an uphill climb, whereas Michigan, you can do it. You can go win a national title. They are funded.

They've got everything that they need. Not that Utah doesn't, but it's an uphill battle. And he would know that uniquely so because he spent 30 plus years there. All right. So he goes there and he says Michigan is a special place. He says a legitimate opportunity to win a national championship. He says, it's happened here. So I looked at it as a final challenge.

So it makes sense for him as well. I got to tell you, like at the risk of throwing out, you know, old takes is exposed here, this seems like a tremendous fit. This seems like a home run because it checks off all of these boxes, all of these challenges. And I didn't think that that was possible. To be honest with you, those are big challenges. The timing is a challenge, both in terms of the transfer portal and because of the limited pool of candidates. Play identity is a challenge because not every single coach has those types of play identity specifics.

culture reset and stabilization, that's a challenge. Any one of those four are going to be very difficult to find. And yet, Kyle Winningham checks the box in all four, in all four. I think it's an incredible fit. I think now you shift the gaze into what he's going to need to do. All right. And so when you look at him now and you say, okay, what are the two things he's got to do? And he's got to do it in a really quick fashion.

Roster retention, which is a big one. and then the coaching staff, which they wanted him down there. So he went down to Orlando to start meeting with players, meeting with players' families. That's a big one. And then coaching staff. What is his staff going to look like? Because it's going to look a little bit different than what it did at Utah. I think that's pretty obvious.

One, Morgan Scali is the coach in waiting. People have asked me like, do you think that it went south at Utah? No, I just think that the whole dynamic there with a coach and waiting over multiple years becomes problematic because everyone's just waiting for you to leave. And at some point, you're like, well, I guess I'm going to leave because I guess that's the plan. Even though I know in his heart of hearts, Kyle still feels like he can coach and he can coach at a high level. The challenge is going to be there. Obviously retaining the roster, that's none one of them. This is a top 10 roster in college football next year if he can retain it.

Building a staff is going to be a challenge. And then the expectations at Michigan, they're lofty. And their schedule next year, not easy. Here's some of the games that they have next year. They're going to host Oklahoma, Indiana, Iowa, Penn State. they've got to go to Oregon, they've got to go to Ohio State. Those are monster games, monster games. And you better go 10 and 2 if you want to go to the college football playoff

because at Michigan, that's the goal. That's going to be the goal for him. That's going to be the goal for every single player. That's the goal for every single fan, is to go out there and compete for a national championship. I would focus on those home games. Not that you can't win at Oregon or at Ohio State. I think that that's difficult to do, but focus on the home games.

He was great at home in Salt Lake at Utah, and he needs to bring that type of energy to Michigan. I don't know what Oklahoma is going to look like next year. I think the same can be said for Indiana, although we all believe Kurt Signetti can rebuild in a quick fashion. Iowa will likely look like what they've looked like for the last 30 years. Who knows what Penn State's going to look like under Matt Campbell. So focus on those home games. I think that that's going to be very, very interesting. What's up, Clats Show fans?

If you're looking for a great gift idea or something fun to do with your friends and family, look no further than Seat Geek. With over 35 million downloads, Seat Geek is the number one rated ticketing app out there. Now, there are more than 70,000 events listed like concerts, festivals, you can even score college football playoff tickets, World Cup tickets this summer, they're on Seat Geek. I personally love using Seat Geek for tickets to games with my boys because I know that Seatgeek has my back.

Each ticket is rated on a scale of 1 to 10, so you know you're getting a good deal. Look for the green dots. It means a great deal. Red ones maybe mean keep looking. Now, they're backed by their buyer guarantee, and of course, they have a code just for us at the Clat Show. You can use Clat 10 for 10% off your next set of tickets at Seatgeek.

That's 10% off any tickets with promo code Clat 10. Make sure you click the link in the description to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account so you can use it later. A huge thank you to Seatgeek for sponsoring today's show. All right, let's get into these playoff games. So let me just start with this. The quarterfinals should be played on campus. And I'm going to say this until I'm blue in the face.

Dan Lending said it. It's obvious. These teams that earned the top four seed should be playing at home. these games would look vastly different if they were played at home. I think we all know that. I think we all know that. Now, has not been a great season picking games for yours truly. Last year, we went really well.

This year, not so much. 36 and 40 on the season with our picks against the spread. But we're going to keep swinging. So here we go. Ohio State, we're going to go in chronological order, okay? So how these games are going to play out. So we're going to go in Ohio State against Miami. Ohio State is favored by nine and a half in the cotton bowl.

This one's on New Year's Eve. The biggest question I have coming into this game is Ohio State's offensive line against Miami's defensive line. That's the biggest question mark. There's really only been one thing that I would say has been exposed for Ohio State during the entirety of the year, and that is the offensive line. I think Indiana did both of those things in the Big Ten championship game. They were able to get after Julian Sand and force some pressure on him.

and then they were able to make things really difficult, in particular in short yardage and in the red zone on the offensive line. Ohio State had trouble converting, and because of that, lost the game, lost the Big Ten Championship. So Miami needs to duplicate that, and that's where they're strong. They're terrific up front. Bane is an insane player. They are great up front. They need to be great up front in order to beat Ohio State. The problem for Miami is that in the other areas of this game, I think Ohio State has an advantage to a substantial advantage in most other areas of this game.

Let's start with this. Ryan Day is going to be calling the plays. He's great at that. There's no other way to put that. He's one of the great play callers that I've ever been around covering this sport. and now he's taking over as Brian Hartline got a new job. He moves on to his new job. And now Day taking over the play calling and you know he's going to be aggressive. He is aggressive in particular when he has time to plan.

Think about the way that they attacked last year. Granted, he wasn't calling the plays, but the way he attacked last year in prepping, remember when he had time to prepare for that Clemson team in what was it, 2020, and he got after them in the playoff? Like, remember the way he got after it and scrimpsom? a bunch of points against that very good Georgia team that was going for a back-to-back and they lost in that Sugar Bowl in the semifinal. When he's got time to plan, Ryan is very aggressive and he's going to be aggressive in this game. There's no doubt about it. So Miami's defense,

while they played great against Texas A&M, is going to see a vastly different offense than what they saw against Texas A&M and a vastly different quarterback. Julian San is a much better player than Marcel Reed. And it's a passing game that is much more dynamic. than what A&M put out there. So again, that defensive line for the hurricanes, they better be great. They better stop the run, force the game on a Julian Sands arm, and then get after him. Because outside of that, I think Ohio State's going to be able to move the football and score some points. The problem for Miami really comes in on the opposite side.

Because, listen, they've got a big game from Mark Fletcher, but do we really think Miami's going to be able to run the football against Ohio State? I don't think they'll be able to do that as well as they did against A&M. A&M's clear weakness on defense was stopping the run, and Miami was able to expose that. But that's not a clear weakness for the Buckeyes. That is a very different defensive front than what they saw against A&M. They're great against the run. They're also great against the past.

That's the best defense in college football. And by the way, it's time to start talking about them as historically one of the great defenses that we've ever seen in college football. They've only given up 8.2 points per game, 8.2 points per game, which is, wild through 13 games. If you take a look at the last 25 seasons, and if you're watching YouTube, we've got the graphic up right now. The two lowest points per game total at this point in the season in the last 25 years is Ohio State this year and the 2011 Alabama Crimson Tide, 8.2 points per game. That's wild. Better than 01 Miami, better than 21, Georgia, better than 0.8 USC. That Trojan team was incredible on the defensive side. So yes, this is a

historically good defense that now Miami is going to have to find a way to score points. They had a really hard time scoring points against A&M. I just wonder if they're going to be able to do that against this Arvel Reese led, Caleb Downs led, Caden MacDonald led defense of Ohio State. I think points are going to be out of premium for the hurricanes. Indiana was averaging 44 points per game. They scored 13. It's not like Indiana got after these guys.

They won a really tight ball game because Ohio State's offense struggled in the red zone. I've got Ohio State winning this one, 2714. I think they cover the nine and a half and the Buckeyes move on to the national semifinal. Next game. Texas Tech and Oregon. This one should be good. The spread is only one and a half right now. This game's all the way down in Miami and the Orange Bowl. Dan Laining is absolutely right. This should be played at Texas Tech. I'm with him a thousand percent. I think it would be a different game if it was played at Texas Tech. I will say this. the matchup between Oregon's offensive line and the defensive front seven of Texas Tech elite. Elite. Elite matchup. I cannot wait to watch this matchup because Oregon is running the football

about as well as anybody in the country. Believe they're what second in the country in yards per carry or something along the one, no, what are they? One or two. They're second in yards per carry. Meanwhile, the best rush defense in America is Texas Tech. Strength against strength. And I can't wait for that. Again, that matchup, Jacob Rodriguez and everything that he brings to the table, that entire Front 7, the investment that they made in the defensive line for Texas Tech against that rebuilt, transfer-oriented Oregon offensive line with all those stables of backs. Cannot wait.

I will say this, Oregon O-line struggled against Indiana. So do they struggle here against Tech? The question I have for Texas Tech is their past defense, because Oregon can't. be explosive throwing the football. We know that with Dante Moore. We know that they can get the ball down the field. And that's one of the areas where tech hasn't been elite. Now, it doesn't mean that they're not good, but they're not elite defending the past. So that's something to watch out for in this game against Oregon. Oregon will, I think, feel like they have played as good or better teams this year than Texas Tech. Remember, they saw Indiana. They went and played in a

white out against Penn State. They played USC. Like, no disrespect to Texas Tech, but, like, they're going to feel, they saw Indiana. That's the best team in the country right now. They're number one. All right. Now, they lost that game. Now, they're going to face Texas Tech, and Texas Tech is going to look across the field. I don't think they can confidently say, yeah, we've seen a team Oregon's level. They played Utah on the road. They played BYU twice. Those are the two best teams that they faced. And the best quarterback that they faced all year, was Sam Levitt in the only game that they lost. Levitt threw for over 300 yards in that game for Arizona State.

So that's where I'm, that's where I'm a bit nervous for the Red Raiders. Again, I think this is going to be a fabulous game. I love these coaches. I love the investment that the programs have made. I like both defenses, probably like Texas' techs defense a little bit more than Oregon's defense. then it comes down to the intangibles. Oregon has been in tight games. They've won, like at Iowa, at Penn State.

Meanwhile, they also lost the Rose Bowl last year. And you've got to understand that for this program, this has got to feel like more of a beginning. They've worked for 12 straight months, 365 days, to get back to this point. This is where their season begins. This is all they've thought about is getting run out of the building in the Rose Bowl against Ohio State last year. Meanwhile, is that the same for Texas Tech?

Now, I met with that team before the Utah game, loved every second of those meetings. They were committed. They were together. That is a really good football team, and this is going to be an incredible game. I think ultimately, at the end of the day, Oregon's ability to win close games this year, and the fact that they're going to feel confident about preparing for 365 days for this moment. I think that they win the game in a close one, 31, or excuse me, 30 to 24, Oregon wins, and they're going to cover that small spread.

So Oregon favored by two and a half, they're going to win the game 30 to 24. They win the Orange Bowl and they go to the national semifinal. Indiana and Alabama in the Rose Bowl. I'll be there, cannot wait. By the way, we're giving away tickets in the YouTube product. So if you're watching on FS1, go over to YouTube. I'll describe that at the end of the show. Indiana is favored by six and a half over Alabama.

Kalin DeBore and Kane Womack facing a team that they used to coach. People forget. Those two guys both worked at Indiana in previous years. This Alabama team, you guys know that I thought they played great against Oklahoma, Coming down, coming back from 17 down was pretty impressive. The way that they did that. This is a passing team. This is a team that does not run the football well.

This is who they have been. This is their identity. And, you know, Indiana has seen some good passing attacks. They saw Oregon. They saw Ohio State in their last game. You know, I think Ty Simpson is an elite player. When I watch the film on Ty Simpson, I'm blown away at his poise in the pocket. his timing. He's in total control. His feet are phenomenal. The footwork allows him to play on time.

Playing on time allows him to throw the ball accurately and allows him to really attack defenses. And he does an exceptional job of it. And he will attack this Indiana defense. This is a unique style of defense. They play a lot of zone coverage, more zone coverage than almost anybody else in college football. But they also pressure. It's called Sim pressure or zone pressure. They do it a lot. There's a ton of movement up front with their defensive line. And the best way to describe them from opposing coaches that face them is that they're slippery of front, tough to block, makes them really difficult to block both in the passing

game and in the running game. And I don't have a ton of faith that Alabama is going to be able to run the football all that well in this game. They just don't run the football well. They'll lean on the passing game, which is elite. Now, I think it's going to be hard for Alabama to play. protect Ty Simpson. That offensive line, even on film in a game in which they won against Oklahoma, it's not like their offensive lines playing great. A lot of it is Simpson's ability to allude,

play on time, and protect himself. So this Indiana team's likely to get some pressure on Simpson, right? I just think that that's going to happen. Now, does Simpson still play well? Probably, because he plays well all the time. There is some rain in the forecast, and for a team that can't run the football that well and has to throw the football, a moisture in the air, never a good sign. So I'd say that one favors Indiana a little bit. Now, Stephen Daly, the defensive linemen who got hurt in a celebration after the Big Ten championship game, he's not in the game. He's top five in TFLs.

So that's a huge loss for Indiana, in particular with a defensive front seven that loves to move, they love to get themselves in twists and do a lot of creative things. and he was a huge part of that, right? Huge part of that. So how they make up for his absence, I think, remains to be seen. Alabama defensively, I think that they've played pretty well. I don't think that they're great on defense, but they've played pretty well. If you go back to early October, they've had a couple of games where they held teams, you know,

that weren't great. Like, what was it, Eastern Illinois, they shut them out. LSU, which at the time was a dumpster fire, they held them to, I think, nine points. Everybody else since early October has scored 20 or more. against Alabama. I believe eight of the last, what, eight games or something like, eight of the last 10 or something along those lines? Seven of the last eight games. They've given up 20 or more. So can they hang on? I'm not sure. Mendoza is a much better quarterback than John Meteer. Metteer really struggled in that game. He was not on time. He did not

throw the football well. He gave a couple of freebies to Alabama. Mendoza has battle tested. He has faced great defenses. He's been behind on the road in the fourth quarter. I don't think he's going to flinch at all. This is an offense that did not do a lot against Ohio State, but when they needed it, they were great in the second half and in particular in the fourth quarter. So listen, six and a half is a lot. I think this is a close game. I think Indiana wins a very close game. I think there's going to be some turnovers with the moisture. Indiana wins this one 24, 21. So Bama is going to cover the six and a half. I'll give the six and a half, or I'll take the six and a half, excuse me, and Indiana wins this game 24-21.

I like Indiana to win it in a close one, probably a classic. Last one of the quarterfinals here, Georgia, favored by six and a half against Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl. I do think this is where the air kind of leaves the room for Ole Miss. Pete Golden-golding is coming in. Lane Kiffin is gone. There was a bit of the Circle the Wagon's type moment for Ole Miss in their first playoff game. I just, Georgia's playing too good right now.

They really are. They're playing too well. Georgia has turned into Georgia, in particular, on the defensive side. 10 points or less than their last four. Two matchup games in the last month of the season, they faced Texas and Alabama, and they beat them both pretty handily. They've got 12 sacks over the last five games. They only had eight in their first eight games.

So over half of their sacks have come in the last month, which means they're finally getting after the passer a little bit. That should help. No one's been able to run it on them all that well, in particular late in the season. I do think that this is a bit of a tale of two teams. Early in the year, this was this Georgia team that was constantly in these close ball games, one of them being against Ole Miss, where Ole Miss scored in their first five possessions. And then all of a sudden they figured something out, and that thing was defense.

And they went back to being Georgia on defense. And now they're rushing the quarterback. They're stopping the run. And it's insanely difficult to score points on them. This is a great football team. This is a much better football team than the team that beat Ole Miss earlier in the year. Meanwhile, I don't know if I can say that about Ole Miss. They've lost their play caller.

Lane Kiffin's not there. Part of the reason that they did score five straight in five straight possessions against Georgia was Lane Kiffin. And you take that away. I don't love it. If you go back to COVID. 2020. Georgia has lost two games against teams not named Alabama. Now, one was to Ole Miss last year with Lane Kiff and calling plays, and the other was Notre Dame last year in the playoff.

Again, like Oregon, who lost in this round last year, now Georgia feels like their season begins now. This is why Georgia plays to possibly win a national championship. I think Chambliss is going to have to go off if Ole Miss is going to win this game. I think Qion Lacey is going to have to go off. And I just don't think that they can do this against this defense now, the way that they're playing on a mission. This Georgia team could absolutely win the national championship. There's no doubt in my mind.

This is a very good team. They're loaded with talent. They're finally playing the type of football that you expect them to play all the time. I think Georgia wins this one and they win it handily. like I said, air kind of leaves the balloon for Ole Miss. They get a lead early, Georgia does, and then all of a sudden you're going to see it set in on that Ole Miss sideline. It's like, oh, man, our guy isn't here anymore.

This was it. So I think Georgia wins it big. Georgia covers the six and a half. They win at 42-27. They win the Sugar Bowl. They win the quarterfinal, and they go on to face, I think, Ohio State, and the national semifinal. All right.

As I said earlier, I've got four tickets to the Rose Bowl, and it not only comes with four tickets, but it also comes with a parking pass, and it also comes with four tickets to a tailgate with live music. Okay, so here's what we've got going on. Here's what we're going to do. If you are a subscriber here on YouTube, then you need to go over and you need to get on Instagram. you're going to post a video to Instagram and you're going to tag our show on Instagram at Joel Klaas show. And in that video, you're going to just tell us why you deserve the four tickets to the Rose Bowl, Indiana against Alabama. That's all you're going to do. You're going to post a video to Instagram and tell us why you deserve these four tickets. I think you should also be a subscriber on YouTube. So here's how you're going to do that.

You're going to DM us on Instagram as well with a screenshot of the subscribe button on YouTube. That way we know everything. And we can go out there and we can give these tickets away. I'm really stoked about this. Thanks to the people over at the Rose Bowl, you're not going to get a hat. But you are going to get four tickets, which I think this game, Alabama, Indiana is going to be an incredible game. So again, get over to Instagram, post a video to Instagram. Tell us why you should win the tickets, but tag.

our show so that we can make sure that we see it at Joel Clashio, DM our account to screenshot of the subscription on YouTube, and you are entered to win the four tickets. Recapping the picks really quick, I've got Ohio State covering 2714, so I will give the nine and a half there. I've got Oregon winning 30 to 24. They cover the two and a half in the Orange Bowl. I've got Indiana winning, but Bama covering the six and a half. So I've got Indiana, 24, 21. I'm going to take the six and a half with Alabama. And then that last game, I've got Georgia winning that one. I've got them winning that game handily. What is that? 42, 27. They're going to cover the six and a half. Thank you for listening, as always. I hope you had a great

Christmas. I hope you have a very safe New Year's. We're going to be back recapping all of the quarterfinal games. We'll be back the day after those games. So January 2nd, that show will appear for you right here, the Joel Clash show. We'll recap all of those games as we lead into the semifinals. Remember, get over to Instagram, post that video to sign up for the tickets. And I got to tell you, we are, we're about to crown a champion. I know it's going to be a long time until whatever, January 20th or 19th, whenever we're going to crown a champion. But we're getting down to it. So a lot going on. Thank you for listening, everybody. Thank you for watching on YouTube. And we will see you next time.