The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Michigan takeaways, Ohio State’s statement win, Oklahoma disappoints, USC wins ugly

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt shares his thoughts about the Michigan Wolverines and Maryland Terrapins after calling their matchup on Saturday. Joel has concerns about what Michigan showed offensively, especially considering what their rival Ohio State has accomplished so far this season. Then, Joel breaks down where Oklahoma goes from here after suffering a disappointing loss to Kanas State. Finally, Joel explains why USC’s ugly win over Oregon State will benefit them going forward and why there is a team in the Big Ten West who might go undefeated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

out into the corner of the end zone. He's wide open because of that little shift. Great formation from Michigan with execution and an easy score. I told you. Gus, what do you expect? Fireworks. Well, bang, bang! Here we go.

Gus was a little surprise in the booth when I gave him the bang, bang. I even threw out my arm. Well, bang, bang, here we go. And bang, bang, here we go on another edition of the Joel Clatt show. Welcome in, everybody. I am Joel Clatt. and it was a big college football weekend, folks. We told you it was approve it Saturday,

in particular at the top 10, within the top 10, and it certainly did not disappoint. Listen, I've got full reactions on exactly what you, the fans should be thinking, if you're a Michigan fan, what should I take away from that win against Maryland? Buckeye fans, I'll tell you how excited you should be about your team after the beatdown of Wisconsin.

Clemson fans, is that exactly the medicine your offense needed against Wake Forest? Oklahoma fans, I get it. You just got beat down again by Kansas State. I'll tell you exactly what you should be feeling. USC fans, same thing. And there's another team that I'm just going to tell you might be undefeated at the end of the year. And nobody is thinking that right now. That's all coming up right now. But we start with the Michigan Wolverines. Let's go. Michigan remains undefeated. Four and O. fourth ranked team in the nation as they defeat a determined Maryland squad 34 to 27.

All right, so first and foremost, I just wanted to address this. People thought I was being heavily critical of Michigan during the game, and I was praising Maryland too much. But remember, how we watch college football in large part is based on the expectations that we have for each program. And like it or not, Michigan in particular after last year, they have expectations that are far greater than just beating Maryland on a random Saturday in September. Their expectations are about competing with and potentially beating Ohio State, winning the Big Ten championship, and returning to the playoff with a team that is better suited to win a playoff game than the

one that went to the playoff last year and got run out of the building by Georgia. So when I'm watching and analyzing Michigan, that's the lens with which I'm going to do it. And for Maryland, they're a team that is building, fighting, scratching, clawing for some growth within a really tough division in the Big Ten East. So I saw a lot of growth from Maryland and I saw a lot of questions from Michigan when you look at it through those lens of expectation. And I think that's an important part of how we view college football because that's how you view it. If you're a fan of Maryland, see them grow. If you're a fan of Michigan, you want me to tell you, was that good enough to beat Ohio State? Was it good enough to go to the playoff and maybe even have more success in the

playoff than we did a year ago? Well, let's go through it. What did that game tell us about Michigan more in particular? The one answer that I got about Michigan on Saturday was I felt like they adjusted well in the face of the first, in the face of adversity for the first time this season. And that's, by the way, across the board. Players, young players, coaches, and young coaches. And I thought that was a plus for Michigan. Because the way that the game started isn't how the game finished for them. They adjusted on both sides of the ball to enough of a degree to win the game. The game was playing out very interesting, by the way. And if you look at it in its totality, Michigan fans, I don't want you to view that win through

maize and blue colored glasses. Let's view this through clear eyes. And clear eyes will tell you that there were four plays that dramatically impacted the results of that game. Dramatically impacted. The opening kickoff going off the

face of Ty Felton and recovering it subsequent the next snap, the first two plays of the game, kickoff, bam, you get the ball and you score a touchdown. 7-0 as Gus said it. Those two, and then the two short yardage touchdown runs from Blake Corum.

Those four plays, I felt like masked what was otherwise a very evenly played game. Good news for Maryland, probably not great news for Michigan. But within that evenly played game, I felt like there was some things that we can pull out. We can learn from Michigan. And you can learn both from the players on the field and from what the coaches did, their adjustments, namely at halftime and throughout the game. Let's start with the fact that Maryland's defense was determined to force Michigan to snap the ball 10, 12 times. They played a bend don't break style of defense. I was talking about it throughout the broadcast, that they

were dropping eight into coverage, dropping seven into coverage, and they weren't blitzing J.J. McCarthy. They weren't allowing him those easy, big plays on the outside. They weren't allowing the wide receivers to run through the deep middle of the field or the deep seams of the defense wide open for McCarthy to hit him. Now, they did have some guys open down the field. McCarthy overthrew them, and I think that he'll learn from that. But for the most part, the coverage was really good. He had to hold the ball several times, in particular on obvious passing downs, to the point where he almost made a couple of really critical mistakes because he was trying to do way too much in the face of something that my old quarterback coach,

what it called pea soup. You know, there's nothing there. It's dirty. It's ugly. It's gross. It's pea soup. Do not take chances with a ball when you're looking at pea soup. That's what it used to say. And I'm kind of laughing at the fact that I'm actually saying that out here because I used to hate it when he said it. But that's what J.J. McCarthy was dealing with. When that type of defense is being put out there in front of you, the coaching staff has to adjust. And Michigan's coaching staff adjusted fairly well. What do you have to do against a bend, don't break style of defense, in particular a defense that's going to drop eight into coverage, you've got to run them out of it. And that's exactly what Michigan did.

Kudos to Blake Corum on a historic day. 30 carries well over 200 yards. The guy was sensational. He was the best player on the field, and he needed to be at times because the other parts of the Michigan offense were not clicking. And Blake Corum carried them. Now, that's what you have to do in the run game, just run it out of them. The offensive line did an outstanding job. I was very impressed with the offensive line, both in past protection, as well as in the run game. The other thing that you have to do, and this is where the coaches have to get involved, is that you've got to start being conservative in your passing game and flood the underneath zones, in particular with what I would call like zone beaters, hooks, flood concepts.

You throw five hitches out there if you want to get it into empty, four hitches out there, you know, four slants. We used to call it lion. You've got to do things to that underneath defense that are going to flood those zones and make it difficult on the zone defenders to cover in those short areas. And I don't think that they did a good job of that. They didn't adjust well from a play calling perspective more on that in a moment. And then from a quarterback's perspective, you've got to take what the defense gives. If they've got soft coverage, you've got to dump it down. You can't be looking for those home runs when they're going to drop all those guys into coverage.

So did they adjust? Yes, in the run game. Did they adjust well in the passing game? Not really. Not really. and I think that it was twofold. You had youth in your quarterback, J.J. McCarthy, really the first time he had seen that as a starter. And you had youth in your play callers.

And I was critical of the play calling situation for Michigan, and I will stand by that. Matt Weiss and Sharon Moore are the new co-offensive coordinators. I think they're both really smart guys. Loved meeting with them on Friday. But I pressed them on like, who's the play caller? I'm a firm believer that you've got to have a play call. When the rubber meets the road, when there's big third downs, when you face adversity, who's the guy calling the plays?

Because that guy, it's important that he establishes a rhythm. It's vital for the success of an offense to have a play caller that can establish a rhythm. And I felt at times like they weren't establishing a rhythm. So I was critical of their play calling situation because they wouldn't tell me who calls the place. They wouldn't tell me what the sequence was. They kept saying, well, we both do. Well, that doesn't work.

At one point in our meetings, I almost got a little sassy. I was like, stop. Time out. Who has veto power? And he was like, well, no, no, no, no. Stop. Who has veto power? Well, no one has veto power except for Coach Harbaugh.

Time out. You're not hearing me again. Let me ask it again, plainly this time. Who has veto power? Somebody's got to be the play caller. And I think that at some point this year, that's going to have to come fruition. Why is that the case, Joel? Well, because it's important for a play caller to establish

rhythm so that he can be the architect of the game plan. Okay, great play callers build their way to success. Build their way. It's a sequencing type of deal. You've got to lay a foundation, you've got to chum the water, so that later in the game, you can get to things that you have prepared the defense to see. You have trained them to see a certain look, a certain movement, a certain personnel group, a certain formation, so that you can get them thinking one thing and do another. Great play callers do this all the time. All the time. Great play callers also know that you never get bored taking a profit. And if something's there and it's working, stay with it. Stay with it. I felt like Michigan got away from some things that were really working in particular in the run game

in order to try things that were on their call sheet. Play callers, especially young ones, defensively and offensively, by the way, they can get bored with things that are working, and they want to legitimize their Tuesday night work and their Wednesday night work. Because guess what? Coaching takes a lot of time and a lot of work, and you spend hours, countless hours,

away from your family, and you want to legitimize that work at times. But really great play callers will just sit right in that pocket that is success on the play sheet. You find something, you prod and you poke, and you build your way to success, and then you stay there, and you force the opponent to take you out of it. You force them to adjust. It's like a great fastball pitcher that is blown it by a hitter, and that hitter does not have the bat speed to catch up with a fastball, and then all of a sudden

he starts throwing breaking balls. Why in the world did you do that? Okay, so, for example, did that happen in this game against Maryland? Yes, it did. They tried to throw a jet sweep pass with Ronnie Bell. And listen, I'm not against the JetSuite pass. This is not me saying you can never call gadget plays. I'm just saying you got to build your way to that moment. You've got to show that jet sweep on film several times. Maybe it's even weeks prior. Maybe it's one time during that game. You've got to get the defense primed. It was the first time that they had seen that JetSweep action and handed it to Ronning Bell and they were ready for it. They were ready for it. They were playing their keys. They were disciplined with their eyes.

They were not primed for success. So I didn't think that Michigan built their way into the sequencing of calling a play like that. This is what I'm talking about. In offensive play calling, you've got to build your way to success, and you've got to have a rhythm and a sequence that can get you there. I think that they'll learn that from that game, and hopefully moving forward, it's better for them. Defense, I thought, adjusted really well.

They did not stop the run early. They stopped it as the game went on. Credit to Mazi Smith, as well as Jesse Mentor. He started blitzing a little bit more, dropped to safety, and I thought that was a really good adjustment. Moving forward, what should we take from all of this for Michigan? Okay. So now you're going to go face Iowa. The trouble that the play callers and J.J. McCarthy had in the passing game is going to pay huge dividends this week when they go play Iowa. And the reason is because Iowa does something very similar to you than what Maryland did to this team last week, which is it forces you to be conservative.

Iowa is going to sit there and they will maintain their levels of defense no matter what. They sit in there, 4-3, cover 4 every snap. It's maddening. It's like, well, why is Phil Parker's defense so good? It's because they don't care what they're doing. They care what you're doing. They're so sound in what they do that they can spend gobs of time during the week on what you do. And they know you sometimes better than you know yourself from a tendency perspective.

and then they line up correctly, they pursue the ball, and they tackle well. The other thing that they do is they get takeaways. Why do they get takeaways? Why does Iowa always get so many takeaways? Quarterbacks panic. Quarterbacks panic. When you're sitting there and you're holding the ball in the pocket and there's nobody open and there's all these layers of defense, it looks like there's 13 of them out there, 14 of them out there, and you can panic.

You jump at a throw. And when you jump at a throw, you get a little anxious in the, in the pocket, guess what happens? You can throw it just behind a receiver, just a little bit high, and then that ball gets tipped up. And guess what layers of sound defense? What do they do to tip balls and overthrows? Takeaway. Bam. That's how they work. So what did J.J. McCarthy learn against Maryland? That he needs to be conservative, that he needs to take what the defense gives him. What do the play callers learn against Maryland? One, that somebody needs to be the play caller, and two, you've got to build your way to success. Do not get outside of what is working, force the defense to take you

there. All right? You don't need to legitimize your work on Monday and Tuesday night on Saturday. You've got to just do what's best for your team calling the plays during the course of those series. So it's going to be a great game. I can't wait for it. Gus and Jenny and I will be there in Iowa City as we really get the first test for this Michigan offense because that defense is outstanding. And they're going to be tested. And J.J. McCarthy is going to be tested like he has never been tested. And I think that he will learn from what he did this week against Maryland. All right. Next up, let's talk about Ohio State. Strowd gets the ball. Rolls to his left of the Wisconsin 20. Looks back to the right. Dumpson on the right side wide open the nine stover. And he bulldozes

his way into the end zone for his first collegiate touchdown. How about Ohio State on offense? Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Now, there's a lot of directions I wanted to go with this. You know, I could have been the old men yelling at the clouds and like, I really like their traditional uniforms, but I'm not going to be that guy. Because black, you know, the black uniforms was really cool. It was a blackout. It was cool. It was cool. I could, I could harp on their schedule and be like, man, when is this team going to go on the road? Well, October 8th is when they're going to go on the road for the first time. But I'm not going to do that either. I'm just going to be here and tell you really plainly, Ohio State has the best offense in the country. Period.

And every week, that gets more and more solidified. They've got a quarterback that's playing at a ridiculously high level and C.J. Stroud. They've got an offensive line and running back room that it really doesn't matter who's carrying the ball. They're successful. They can run it inside. They can hit home runs outside. They've got a wide receiver court that it doesn't matter if you take away their wide receivers, if one of them, maybe the best one, Jackson Smith and Jigba is on the sideline and street clothes, they'll still be successful.

It's ridiculous how good they are on offense. This was the number one scoring offense and total offense in the land a year ago, and there's no reason to believe that they're not going to be that again this year. They've got the best play caller in the country in Ryan Day. By the way, everyone knows who's calling the place for Ohio State, and this guy is a true architect. He lays a foundation for their offensive success throughout the season, throughout the game.

His sequencing and his rhythm is impeccable. I've talked to Urban Meyer a lot about this, and Urban Myers has had some really good play callers. He's played against some really good play callers, and he says Ryan Day is the best one he's ever had. He's, I think when it comes to offensive football, Coach Day is a bit of a savant. Like, he's on a different level than maybe anybody. And that's not going to stop this year. They've got 27 touchdowns. That's the most in the country.

By the way, tied with maybe my new favorite team, the Kansas Jayhawks. That's right. I think that every podcast is going to get a Kansas Jayhawks reference. More on that, by the way, on the Wednesday episode, because I am pissed off at the AP voters. You guys suck. How is Kansas not ranked? But that remains for another episode. Coming up on Wednesday, my defense the Kansas Jayhawks undefeated, 27 touchdowns on the year,

not ranked. Stupid. Let's go back to Ohio State, though. This offense is really unstoppable. They do everything well. They put pressure on every area of your defense. And this isn't like they just did it to like some bad team. Like this Wisconsin team, they might not be great this year,

but that's still a Jim Leonard defense. That's still a defense that should be one of the better defenses in the Big Ten. And they shredded them, 52 points, 539 yards. But we already knew all of that. Joel, tell me something I don't know. You just said, hey, Ohio State's the best offense in the country. Great. That doesn't mean anything for me if I'm a Buckeye fan. Why? Because that wasn't the problem last year. What was the problem last year? And really even two years ago, going back to the national championship game against Alabama, the defense. The defense was the problem against Bama. It was the problem against Oregon in the loss early last year. It was the problem against Michigan last year in that game. game. They couldn't get off the field. They didn't tackle well. The schematics were all screwed up. They haven't got it right. Ever since Jeff Hathley came in for that one year, they had a great defense with Chafes Young and Jeff Akuta and Fuller as safety and so on and so forth,

and Denzel Ward. And then guess what? Since then, it hadn't been very good. In fact, it hadn't been very good at all. And now Jim Knowles comes in as a new defensive coordinator, and he's charged with fixing not just the defense, but the title hopes for Ohio State. That might seem like hyperbole, but it's not. And the reason is, is because we know what they are on offense. They're a championship level offense. They're the best offense in the country.

There's a good chance that C.J. Stroud winds up in New York and judging by his play so far could very well win the Heisman trophy. That's not a surprise. But to win a national challenge, championship, you've got to play requisite defense. I've talked about this a lot. And folks, you're going to hear it again. Going back all the way to basically the start of the BCS era, there's really only been a couple of teams that have won a national championship without a top 25 defense. And that's the Auburn team that had Cam Newton and Joe Burroughs's LSU team. And they

were close-ish. They were kind of there. Ohio State wasn't close last year. Their total defense last year was 59th. This year, all the way up to 18th, only given up 283 yards per game. They're scoring defense. They're giving up almost a touchdown less than what they were a year ago. They were 38th a year ago. They're 21st now. So what do we know about Jim Knowles? Well, we know Jim Knowles is starting to fix this defense. 14 of those points for Wisconsin were basically garbage time, fourth quarter points. They had basically held them to a touchdown through the first three quarters of that game. And I know that with this offense, if they continue to stay at those points, 18th in total defense, 21st in scoring defense, pay attention to those because if they stay there,

this is a national championship team waiting to happen, waiting to happen. Now, I don't know if they're going to win it or not, but at least they're going to be closer than the team that tried to go beat Alabama a couple of years ago that didn't even have close to a requisite defense. You've got to have a requisite defense. This offense, as good as it is, needs to have a requisite defense. And at least so far, it looks like Ohio State has that requisite defense. All right, moving on. Down here it is. You're going to throw it long looking the side of the ball is. Pipson will win it in overtime. 5145. I love radio calls, right? I mean, you hear the microphone. You know, they get the microphone all jumbled up and they're partying in

booth. I mean, I love it. I absolutely, that's fantastic. Clemson beats Wake Forest. If you listen to this podcast last week, which you should be listening every single week, episodes Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, but you would have heard me told you last Thursday that that was going to be a difficult game for Clemson. And it was. Wake Forest was 17 and 2 in their last 19 home games. This is a team that was the only team to gain 400 yards on Clemson a year ago. They did it again, this weekend. The difference for Clemson, and this is where Clemson's fans have got to be so ecstatic about what happened, is that your quarterback has finally shown up. This is the guy that we all thought we were going to get after he played great against Notre Dame when Trevor Lawrence was

banged up a couple of years ago. DJ Oiyongolalele finally has come of age, and this is great news for Clemson because they needed it. He throws for 300 yards for the first time since that Notre Dame game I was talking about, and it's the first three-game stretch in a row that he's had multiple touchdown passes in his career for the Clemson Tigers. But that's not even the best part. Because listen, he could have thrown for 300 yards against, you know, Furman or Georgia Tech in the opener, and that would have been all well and good. But no, no, no, why was it better this time? Why do I take more from it if I'm a Clemson fan? Because you had to have it. Because Wake was putting you in the blender. They were coming for you.

You're on the road. And DJ had to play that well in order to win. This was not mop-up time. This was not, you know, stress-free yardage that a lot of guys can put up in college football. This was got to have it yardage. And he played great. So if I'm a Clemson fan, I feel really good moving forward, really good, in particular with who they've got coming up with North Carolina State.

That's the toughest test. remaining on their schedule, I would say by a long shot, because I just don't think Notre Dame is that great this year. But I think this is the biggest challenge left on their schedule. They only lost by a score on the road last year to North Carolina State. So why am I, I'm like raving about, Joel, it was Wake Forest. They went to overtime. Shouldn't you be concerned? No. I'm not concerned actually about Clemson. Why am I not concerned about Clemson? Because they finally have an offense now and a quarterback that seems to be playing well week after week. And their defense, I'm not worried about because Wake Forest always does this against them.

Like there's something about that matchup that is just Wake Forest was the only team to gain 400 yards on Clemson last year. Now they gained another 400 yards. That doesn't mean Clemson's defense is bad. Clemson's defense was what, the second best scoring defense in the land last year. So I don't think that they're going to be bad moving forward just because they went to overtime Wake Forest on the road. Sometimes you have to look past these sentiments and really look and dive deep and be like, that was a bad matchup. They had to get a win based on their quarterback playing great and they got it. So moving forward, the sentiment should be really positive.

Because now you get NC State at home, DJ playing well, and I still think a really good defense. I think Clemson is in a really, really good spot. Call me crazy. I heard a bunch of people being like, man, that Clemson, well, I guess their defense is not great. Pump the brakes. I think their defense is fine. I still think that they're going to beat North Carolina State this week and in large part due to what their offense proved and more in particular, their quarterback. All right, let's move on to the beat down Oklahoma took.

We weren't going to be defined going into this game had we won. We would have just been 4 and 0 in the conference. And the same thing, you know, we're not going to be defined by this loss moving forward. We will, however, be defined by how we respond, moving forward. And I still believe with everything I got in this team and what's still sitting in front of us. All right. So there's Brent Venables talking after the game. And he's right. They're not going to be defined by this loss. And quite frankly, you talk about a bad matchup. I mean, Kansas State just has OU's number. They just do. They just do. A couple of years ago in the COVID

year, Kansas State lost to, who was it, Arkansas State. Next week, rolled into Norman, beat him. This year, last week they lose to, I think it was Tulane, if I'm not mistaken. Roll into Oklahoma, beat them. See, I'm a big believer in the following truth. You're never as good as you think you are, and you're never as bad as you think you are. And the last two weeks epitomize that for Oklahoma. So we do their game, Gus, Ginny, and I against Nebraska. Nebraska played so bad, Gus got sick and had to leave for the second half.

That's just the joke that I'm going to keep telling. And in hindsight, the air was completely let out of that program that week. They fire their coach. Their players still really loved that coach. And they played awful. I mean, after the first few series, Nebraska had nothing. Very little effort.

They got absolutely dumped trucked by Oklahoma. And there were a lot of people, myself included, by the way, they were like, hey, man, Oklahoma is really good. based on what I just saw from their defense, that looks like a different defense, if their offense, because they had been holding back in some of those preseason games or non-conference games, I guess I should say offensively. And then I thought to myself, boy, if they're going to be that explosive, if Gabriel is going to play that well, if they're going to be that sound, then that's a really good team.

And guess what? They probably are still a really good team because they're probably not as bad as a team that rolled out there and wasn't prepared, didn't play well, had 11 penalties and had their quarterback play as worst game of the year. So am I really concerned for Oklahoma? In a couple of ways, yes, but I'll get to that in a moment. In a couple of ways, no. Like, we've seen this before, and they've bounced back, and they've still been able to win the Big 12 championship,

even with a loss to Kansas State, even with a loss to Kansas State at home. I do think that they'll play much better from a discipline standpoint. I don't think that they're going to have 11 penalties every week, and certainly not some of those false starts. Do I think Dylan Gabriel is going to play better than that? Yes, he missed far too many open wide receivers in critical moments that would have moved the chains and really changed the entire scope of that game. So listen, you're never as good as you are and you're never as bad as you are.

That was a team that read their press clippings coming out of the Nebraska game and then they got housed by Kansas State. But what are the areas of concern that we should have if we are Oklahoma fans moving forward? There are a couple. There are a couple. And here they are. When that happens to you, and it's clear that you're struggling with something very specific, which was the interior run game and quarterback run game from Kansas State, that's a blueprint.

And now it's on film. And now everybody within your conference is going to be testing that area to see if you fixed it. To see if you fixed it. Every good coach in the Big 12 is now in the first quarter of their matchup against OU going to try some of those exact, exact same things that Kansas State was using to see if Oklahoma fixed it. And the question remains, will they have fixed it? So that's number one. It's on tape. Whatever you put out there, that's on tape. That's a blueprint. And then the second part of why I'm a little bit concerned for Oklahoma, that schedule all of a sudden looks brutal. Looks brutal. You look at the Big 12 right now

and there's maybe not an easy game out there. All right, I don't think TCU is going to be an easy game for Oklahoma. Obviously, Red River is not going to be an easy game. We saw what Texas was capable of. Texas Tech at home is a tough one. Iowa State at home, that's a tough one. By the way, meaning like on the road. So you've got to go to Texas Tech. You've got to go to Iowa State. You still got to play Kansas. That used to be an absolute joke in a week off. Now it's the team that's tied with Ohio State with the most touchdowns in college football. I mean, like you tell me where the break is in that schedule. I don't think that there's is one. All of a sudden, the Big 12 is turning into, like, the deepest conference in the country.

Now, they might not be great at the top, and I don't think that they have a team that's going to the playoff. I don't think that they have a team that can compete for a national championship, but man, like, you can get beat by anybody in that conference on any given day. I didn't even mention Baylor. They're the defending champion. I didn't even mention Oklahoma State. They might be the best one of the bunch. So you get what I'm saying here. That schedule looks really daunting. for a team that rolled out there and wasn't prepared and didn't play well in the loss to Kansas State. So now you have to start looking at it. It's like, wow, is three total losses out of the realm of possibility? No, it's not out of the realm of possibility. That's a difficult schedule, a really

difficult schedule. And we'll see how it is handled by them moving forward. Quick note on that, by the way, this is exactly why we need the expanded playoff. The Big 12 this year is the exact reason why we need the expanded playoff. Why? Because we need a playoff that will still reward a team to get through a very difficult conference. I firmly believe that. You can call it true, you know, ribbons for everybody. I don't see it that way. I see it this way. The champion of the Big 12 this year likely has two losses, maybe three. And I'm excited for the day that in an expanded playoff, they would still have a defined path to the postseason. And I think that'll be good for the sport.

All right, let's move on two more. Let's go with USC first. That's it. The Trojans hopping off their sideline, waving to the Oregon State fans, hugging each other on a tough, hard-fought win as SC holds on with another interception at the end of the game. And the Trojans win at 17 to 14. All right. So this is a trip that I told you again. Again, I told you last year.

I told you about that Kansas State Oklahoma game. I told you about Wake Forest Clemson. and then I told you about this USC game. That was always going to be closer than people expected it to be because that's a tough place to play, and Jonathan Smith is doing a really good job with Oregon State. Historically, USC has struggled up in Corvallis, and they did again on Saturday.

But do you remember what I told you after Ohio State beat Notre Dame in week one? Remember when I said the way that they won that game was going to be important for them moving forward? Well, that's the exact same thing. I have for USC this week against Oregon State. It was really important for them to win a game in that fashion. On the road, Best Player didn't play well in Caleb Williams, and the one area of your team that nobody thinks is any good

had to carry you for long stretches during the game, the defense. This is going to pay huge dividends moving forward for USC for a couple of different reasons. First and foremost, remember this is still a roster full of transfers. And you can do all the ice cream socials and movies that you want. Do you know how a team gets close? You go through adversity on the road and come out the other end. You win on the road in a big time matchup.

And maybe that wasn't a huge matchup, but that was an intense environment. And so it's big for their team chemistry and their culture moving forward. because who knows what the culture was, right? You got a lot of guys with, let's face it, NIL dollars and transfer in, but I guarantee you, no one cared about that in the locker room in Corvallis on Saturday night.

I bet you they just all went in there and gave huge hugs and high fives and partied and celebrated. Because that's what you do after a hard-fought win. And that's when team chemistry is built. Okay? It's forged. It's forged and forged and built are two different things.

It's forged through adversity, but it's built in those great moments where you can come together and you can kind of form your brotherhood. You can build your team chemistry. So it's great in that regard. And then here's the other regard that that game and the way that it happened is so important is because there's large sections of that roster that probably were thinking to themselves going through the course of this early season, like, hey, I probably don't have to play great because look at it, like Jordan Addison and Caleb Williams, like they'll always bail us out.

And you might be thinking yourself, well, they did, Joel. They scored the touchdown late. Yeah, but the only reason they were in that position is because the rest of the roster played really well. So it was important for those guys to know that their contributions were worth it. That's a really important nugget for a team that can be star-driven. So now that defense knows that when they strain in the second quarter to get a stop, it's important. when they strain in the third quarter to get a pick, it's important. When they get their 14th turnover on the year, fourth of the night, and they seal the victory,

it's important that what they do is important to the team's success. And it's not just all about that star and his star wide receiver. So it was really good the way that USC won that game. Moving forward, folks, I think the PAC 12 is really difficult, in particular at the top. There's four teams that I think really any of them could win the Pact 12. I think Oregon, Washington, USC, and Utah are all really good teams and could win the Pact 12. Remember, no divisions this year. Best two records are going to face each other in that Pact 12 championship game.

And right now, anybody's bet. Anybody's bet. Could USC go on with their schedule? They avoid Washington and Oregon in their schedule. Could they go on and run the table and win the Pact 12? Yeah. Could they slip up a couple of times? Yeah.

and miss the championship game, absolutely. I think that there's a wild swing between what could possibly happen with USC and on a high end and low end. Their biggest test is clearly going to be Utah on the regular season. I'm not going to be shocked if they have to play Utah again in the Pac-12 championship. If I had to handicap it right now,

here's how I would rank those Pac-12 teams, those top four. I would say Utah is the class of the Pac-12. I would put USC just below them, Washington just below them, and then Oregon. and not by much, okay, folks. So this is not a huge gap. This is not a huge spread.

Those teams are all really good, and I think on any given day, any one of those could beat the other. And I think that makes the Pack 12 really fascinating. All right, let's end it with maybe my favorite team in the country. Go. Let's drive over five minutes. Look at it off.

Ibrahim powers his way in for the touchdown. And for Mo Ibrahim, it's a record breaker. his 41st rushing touchdown in his career. And he now stands alone at the top of the list in Minnesota rushing history. Oh, man, Minnesota is good, folks. They are good. Watch out for Minnesota. I've been telling you since really the preseason.

I've got, you know, my right-hand man in my, really my career, other than Gus, obviously, is my guy Steve. Okay, and I told Steve before the year. He helps with research and he's amazing. And we talk about college football constantly. We talk about it every single day together. He helps on this show. And I told Steve in the preseason.

I was like, hey, Steve, watch out for Minnesota. And he was like, what? Minnesota. It's like, PJ Fleck, Minnesota? And I was like, yep, watch out from Minnesota. Came back to me the next day. He's like, okay. I did a little digging.

I can kind of see your Minnesota. Minnesota, folks, bank it. That's your favorite in the Big Ten West. Not a great side of the division, clearly, a conference. I understand that. I understand that. Minnesota is your favorite in the Big Ten West. They housed Michigan State.

Their schedule was not good moving up to this point. I get that. So everyone was like, hey, inflated numbers, inflated numbers. They housed Michigan State. Just beat them up. There's only been two teams since Mel Tucker took over at Michigan State that have gained 200 yards rushing and passing in a game. Ohio State doesn't surprise anybody and now Minnesota.

And they did it at Michigan State. That wasn't particularly close at all. This is a team with veteran guys. Ibrahim right there, you heard about the career numbers. He's a veteran guy. Tanner Morgan, their quarterback, veteran guy. Defense, really good. Tackles well in space.

You look at their schedule. There's no reason they couldn't be 12 and 11. 11 and 1 in Indianapolis? Prove me wrong. Their toughest game is going to be at Penn State October 22nd. That's their only remaining ranked team on the schedule, which means the 2002

Minnesota Golden Gophers could be this year's 2015 Iowa Hawkeyes. Remember they were in that Big Ten championship game against actually Michigan State as an undefeated win and they're going to the playoff. Minnesota's on a magic carpet ride, folks, and I guess you could say

a magic boat ride. They are rowing them right into the college football playoff discussion, and I'm here for every moment of it. They've got one key and one key only. They don't have all those five stars. Frankly, they don't have all those four stars. They have a lack of depth at the top end. They have to stay healthy. If they stay healthy, I think you're looking at a team that likely could be in the top eight by the time they get to Indianapolis and play for the college, or excuse me, play for the Big Ten championship game. We'll see if it happens, but look at their schedule and prove me wrong. That's a really good football team, and I am here for it.

I'm here for it. Minnesota, that's my team right now as we enter into October. All right, folks, that's going to do it for this episode. Make sure to download the show, subscribe to the show, and leave us a review. Please rate us, leave us a review. This has been really fun doing this show, and I've been seeing a lot of you out there at the games. You Michigan fans last week, can't wait. wait to get to Iowa, big noon Saturday at Iowa. Gus Jenny and I will be in Iowa City for

Michigan and Iowa. Can't wait for that one. New episodes drop on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday of the Joel Clatt Show. You can follow the Joel Clatt show on any of the social medias at Joel Clatt show. You can follow me at Joel Clad on Twitter at Joel underscore Clatt on Instagram. That'll do it for us tonight. We will see you on Wednesday for another edition of the Joel Clatt Show.