The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Michigan takes down Penn St without Harbaugh, Jimbo is out at Texas A&M and Klatt’s Top 10 Rankings

Episode Date: November 13, 2023

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to Michigan’s ground-based win in Happy Valley over a Top-10 Penn State team. He discusses what impressed him most with the Wolverines��� win in their first big test of the season. Klatt also discusses the Jim Harbaugh suspension – what he thinks of the penalty and also the timing of that decision being announced on the Friday afternoon before the game. He also gives his thoughts on what went wrong for Penn State against Michigan and also in this season as a whole. Following the firing of OC Mike Yurcich, he offers his analysis of what Penn State needs to change on offense to take the next step. Klatt then discusses his latest Top 10 rankings and how he ordered Michigan, Georgia and Ohio State plus why he has one of the unbeatens way down at #8. Finally, he discusses Texas A&M’s decision to fire Jimbo Fisher and sink over $75 million into his buyout. Klatt gives his thoughts on how good of a job the A&M head coaching position is in today’s college football landscape. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the Joel Clat show, a rugged game in Happy Valley. Michigan prevails over Penn State, and I picked the wrong career. College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. Believe that we are at the dawn of the golden age of college football. It was an epic day of college football. It was just one of those days where you fall in love with the sport all over again. What's going on, everybody?

Welcome into the Joel Clatt show. I am Joel Clatt. This show is presented by Hampton by Hilton. Lots to get into today. And to be fair, it's not even that I chose the wrong profession. All of us chose the wrong profession because there is nothing in the world like being a fired college football coach. More on that in a little bit as Jimbo Fisher rides off into the sunset. We've got a great show for you today.

I'm very excited about this one. I was at the best game of the day by far. Michigan wins over Penn State. And so now that Big Ten East, as we knew, was going to be a three-team race and it's come down to the same two teams that it has for a long time. But it looks like it's going to be in Ann Arbor. Looks like it could be, most likely will be, an undefeated matchup between Ohio State and Michigan.

Hey, just remember before we get into today's program, if you want to follow the show and you want to subscribe wherever you're at listening, you do that, please. And leave us a comment, review, like it, all that different stuff. On YouTube, if you're watching this show, go ahead and subscribe to the show. And you can comment down below, like it, all the things. And then follow us on social media. We've got a lot of stuff coming out on social media all week long,

all of my content at Joel Klatt Show, wherever you like to social media. If you want to follow me personally, I do a lot more on the personal side on Twitter, now known as X, at Joel Klaz, and I'm also over on Instagram at Joel underscore clat. So now that that's behind us, let's dive right in because Michigan, that was an absolute rugged slug fest against Penn State. It was two really good teams getting after it. And Michigan prevailed without Jim Harbaugh.

And this is the way it sounded after the game with their interim coach, if you want to call them that, acting coach, Sharon Moore. To say that this has been a crazy 24 hours for your guys, to win on the road in this environment, when there were doubts. Jerome, what does it mean to you? Well, I thank the Lord. I want to thank Coach Harbaugh. I love you, man.

Love the shit out of you, man. This is for you. But there's university, the president, our AD, we got the best players, best university, best alumni in the country. Love you guys. These guys right here, these guys right here, man. These guys did it.

guys did it, man. Talk to him, man. Love you. I'm not, I shouldn't be laughing. But man, I mean, at one point, Sharon is being interviewed by Jenny, and he just shouts like, I love you guys.

And all I can think about, all I can think about is old school. Like, during the toast, when he's like, I can't believe, like, Frank's dad. I haven't seen him in like eight years. I love you, dad. That's, like,

we got an old school line reference basically in the post-game interview, which was incredible. Sharon's showing a lot of emotion, and rightly so, based on what had transpired over the previous 24 hours. And I know, listen, if you're not a Michigan fan, you feel like they're playing the victim card. If you are a Michigan fan, you think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. So we'll get into a little bit about that. I do have some more thoughts, by the way, now that we do have a suspension, from the Big Ten. I'm going to get into that after I talk briefly about this game.

But the game was pretty remarkable when you really dig down into it. And watching it was really fun. Now, candidly, I love chess matches. I love two-to-one baseball games. I love defensive-oriented football games because that's when you really get to see the pressure on offensive play callers, the pressure on head coaches. You get to see it all come to fruition,

and that was an instance of that on Saturday. Michigan beats Penn State 2415 without Jim Harbaugh on the sidelines. And no victim card there, it's just that's the facts. Wasn't on the sidelines Sharon Moore acting head coach. So they're facing real adversity for the first time, I would argue, really in the season. And that adversity hit them even before the game started. So Harbaugh suspension comes down on Friday afternoon.

There's some talk that he's going to get an injunction. There seemed to be a lot of chaos, to be honest with you. Even being close to the game and talking with the people that were about to play the game, nobody knew anything. And that's what I think was most interesting being as close to it as I was about ready to call the game. Normally, things swirling around the game, if you're calling the game, you've got a good idea of where things are going to land because you can talk with all parties and get all the most pertinent and timely information.

I'm calling the game. I'm sitting there. I'm in Happy Valley, and we didn't know anything. Okay? I didn't know the suspension was coming down. I didn't know whether the injunction was going to happen. Nobody knew. So what does that mean? Michigan was facing real adversity. Now, you can say they brought it on themselves and that's fine. That doesn't mean it was an adversity. Okay, so even if you're not a fan, you can at least acknowledge the fact that they're up against it for the first time. This is even before the kick. Then kickoff happens. And what immediately jumps out to me is, okay, Michigan can't drop back and pass.

Not that they can't, and not that they're not good at it, they can't block this pass rush. Penn State's defense, this is what everyone fails to realize, by the way. Everyone just wants to focus on what went on on the offensive side for Penn State. Penn State's defense is freaking good. They are one of, if not the best defense in America. They are the best defense that I've seen in person this year. They are so fast. They are long.

They are athletic. They are fast. They are rugged. And with Manny Diaz, as their coordinator, they're very aggressive. It's hard to move the ball against that group. It's hard to score against that group. And that pass rush was going to be a problem from the get-go. Okay, so we saw three times early in the first.

first two series where the pass rush was going to get home to J.J. McCarthy. And it was immediately at that point that Sharon Moore, the offensive coordinator, also acting head coach, adjusted. He adjusted. And so faced with real adversity before the game and then real adversity in the game for the first time, for the first time all year, Michigan had something taken away from them on the field. They had been able to play totally uninhibited football for the majority of the season. Not Saturday. They had something taken away by Penn State, that remarkable defense,

and they had to adjust. And guess what? They leaned on something that wasn't even a strength for the previous three games. I know everyone thinks that it's like, well, it's Michigan. They can always just run the football. Running the football was not a strength of this team coming into the game on Saturday. And Penn State was the number one rushing defense in the country, in particular when you strip out sack numbers,

which we still include in college football for some. reason. We include sack numbers and rushing numbers. Even when you strip out the sack numbers, Penn State, number one rushing defense in the country. And what did Michigan do? They reverted back to their roots, almost as if Jim is still on the sideline. And what did they do? They just ran the ball. They got really big and ran the ball. I was so impressed with the way that they adjusted. I was impressed with the way that they clearly analyzed the game for what it was. It was going to be a run-oriented game because they could do that based on the way their defense was playing against the opposing offense. They took a snapshot of everything going on in that game, even the

location of it, being on the road. And they thought to themselves, you know what? This is what we're going to do. We're going to ground and pound. We're going to get back to what we were a year ago. We're going to get back to that team that ran for 418 yards against Penn State a year ago in the big house. They put extra offensive linemen on the field. So they were playing at times with seven offensive linemen on the field, and they just ran the crap out of the ball. They didn't attempt an official pass for basically the last two and a half quarters. It's a remarkable, remarkable type of feat when you look at what they were able to do against that defense, just running the ball.

Didn't attempt to pass in the second half with a guy as a quarterback that is in the Heisman Trophy running. So this is what it takes to do that. And this is what I was impressed with. Again, some people will knock Michigan for this win, which is absurd. It is an absurd and clownish take to knock Michigan for what went on on Saturday. Number one, it takes a play caller that with clear eyes can analyze what's going on around him and adjust and is willing to do whatever is best. 32 straight run plays for Michigan and Sharon Moore.

32. It takes an incredibly disciplined play caller, a guy that is willing to not get bored taking a profit. Can you imagine sitting at a roulette table and just like laying the small bet over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again knowing that like for whatever reason at that roulette table you have the advantage? That's what they did. An analogy, I know, because the house always has the advantage, but this is essentially what he did. He's just like sat there and took the small profit over and over again. And the fact is, is that most playcullers are greedy. That's not always a terrible thing, but most playcullers are greedy, and they want more,

and they want it now. The meatloaf in the back, ma! Since we're going old school and then wedding crashers, why not? Sharon didn't get bored, excuse me, and he did what was best for the team, 32 straight runs. So what does it take on your team to be able to call 32 straight runs against the best rushing defense in America on the road in a top 10 matchup? It takes an offensive line group that is highly talented and really deep. Okay, so they've got to be rugged, rugged up front.

You've got to have the guys. You've got to have the bodies that can go and do that. It can't just be like, well, we're going to throw some extra linemen in there. No, no, no. They've got to be really good offensive linemen. So not everyone can do this. Michigan can because they have the depth at that position. You've got to have a running back room that is talented, one, explosive, two, really tough. I mean, tough, because they're going to go in there and have to gain some tough yardage.

And you see the cut over Blake Corum's, the bridge of his eyes, right? I mean, that was a rugged game from Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards. and Kelle Mullings, you've got to have a deep, tough, rugged, and unselfish running back room. Check for Michigan. And then, and here's the kicker, you got to have a quarterback that, oh, by the way, is in the Heisman Trophy race and doesn't care that you call 32 runs because McCarthy doesn't. This is what is so fascinating. Normally the quarterback is the guy that just can't handle it.

And normally the play caller is trying to appease at some point the Heisman trophy candidate on your team. I see it with teams all the time. You try to lean in to get one-guy numbers because of an individual award, and that didn't happen on Saturday. JJ didn't care. Incredible leadership from J.J. McCarthy. Incredible unselfishness from J.J. McCarthy

in order to go out there and execute 32 straight runs. Remarkable stuff. And so from the Michigan perspective, those that want to knock this win, like do so at your own peril. You want to question this team and question their ability. to win, do so at your own peril. You want to question their toughness? Do so at your own peril.

It has been the most consistent and most dominant team thus far in college football this year. That's why I have them, number one, more on that in a little bit in the show. I could go on and on about other things with Michigan, but I'm going to because I've got to get to Penn State. Now let's talk about Penn State, bitterly, bitterly, bitterly disappointing from Penn State. This was a team that did this exact same thing a year ago.

This was supposed to be different. They did so with a lot of true freshmen playing in key positions, namely Abdul Carter, those two running back, Singleton, Allen. They did so last year with what they felt like was the more talented quarterback, trying to wait in the wings, and Drew Aller. This was supposed to be the year that this was different. We've already seen the 11 and 2 Rose Bowl Championship year from James Franklin and Penn State. this year was supposed to be different.

Michigan looked to be vulnerable in the preseason, some would say. Penn State or, excuse me, Ohio State was going to have to break in a new quarterback. This was supposed to be the year for the Nittany Lions, and you look up at this point and they're at the exact same point, which is not very close to Ohio State or Michigan. Now, I did both of those games this year. I did both of those games last year for the Nittany Lions. And guess what?

The score this year in each of those games were not indicative of how close those ballgames were. Okay, Penn State is not close right now to Michigan or Ohio State. They're not. They are defensively. And in those four ball games, the defense played really well in three of them. And in particular this year, the defense this year played well enough to win both of the games. they gave themselves a chance on the defensive side. And like I said prior, I think this defense is one of the best defenses in the country.

There's not a doubt in my mind with the way that they can play and rush and run and hit and be physical and cover. They are so good. And so this falls on other areas. And guess where it falls? The offense. The offense wasn't good enough this year. and because of that, James Franklin made a move.

And so yesterday on Sunday, news came out of Happy Valley that Mike Yersich was going to be let go as the offensive coordinator. Someone was going to be let go. And James is going to be under a good deal of heat because of the way that the games transpired in both of these matchups.

This offense never evolved this season. This offense never became something. that it should have with the players that they had. They have a lot of talented players on that offensive side. And you're sitting here in the last two years, you're 0 and 4 against Ohio State, 19 and O, Ohio State and Michigan, 19 and O against everybody else. And the main culprit was the fact that the offense never evolved.

And so Mike Yersich is going to basically be the guy that falls on the sword on this one. And they're going to try to move forward and evolve. Well, let me just, I thought about talking about this during the course of the game, and I'll do it now. I didn't think it was right during the game. Here's where I would lean if I was Penn State. The best teams in the country, Michigan did it on Saturday, by the way. You've got to lean into what your players are best at.

Ohio State did it against Penn State when they leaned into Marvin Harrison. Remember, they didn't have a Bucca that day. They didn't have Henderson. they didn't have their best corner, Denzel Burke, and they were able to still win. Why? Because they still had Marvin Harrison, and they leaned into what they were best at.

Michigan leaned into where they had the advantage. They were able to evolve. Yes, they had a Heisman trophy winning quarterback, and they didn't just sit there and say, well, we've got to throw it because of Roman Wilson and Colston Loveland. What did they say is like, well, our advantage is in this area. So let's put extra alignment out there and let's run it 32 straight times. And we never get that from Penn State offensively.

If you're going to succeed with the players that they have, I feel like some things needed to change. First and foremost, the running backs need to be put in a better position to succeed. This offense is so lateral, and it's a searching run game. It is not a penetrating run game. And these guys, when you watch them run, Nick Singleton and Ketron Allen, they can get downhill, in particular, Nicholas Singleton. I want to see them back there in that pistol formation or a true eye set.

You know, I call it a home position, seven yards deep, seven and a half yards deep behind the center. Because when you do that and you can run the football from that point, what you do is that you'd start to derive what I would call like a hard press towards the front side of the run. If you're going to run zone like they do, you can press it hard into the front side. Here's what that does, folks. when you get going downhill towards one side, it forces the back side of the defense to have to commit. They've got to commit over the top because that run is coming downhill fast. And when that backside side has to commit and start moving laterally,

that's when the potent part of the zone run game starts to open up, which is that small little cutback lane. Okay, so that's number one. If you're going to be a zone team, get in the home position more. You don't have to do it all the time. All right, no team is in the pistol or the home position all the time. But Singleton's best from the home position. And guess what?

That actually would fit what Drew Aller does better. Because right now with the lateral search game that they run offensively, the run game, it's all zone and yes, they can be successful and they were at times running the football on Saturday. The problem is is that it's. so lateral that Drew is never in a rhythm drop. Okay, I'm fine being in shotgun, but there's got to be a point in time when the timing of the offense is kept in the quarterback's feet. And the reason is, is because that can help the quarterback's timing as he's working

through the progression, one hitch to one, two hitches to two, three hitches to either the checkdown or I'm running. It's a mechanism for the quarterback to keep the clock in his head, within his own body, in his own feet. And you can do that if you're in a rhythm-style passing. So that's the passing game, that's the running game. And then here's the play action part. When you're in the home position, and you've got Drew Aller, rather than getting him in a static position where it's always an RPO and he's just trying to be a point guard, he needs to be in a position where he's driving the football in rhythm down intermediate zones. This is when he's best. Think of the way that

he played against Maryland. Okay? How do you do that and play action? Well, you put the tailback in the home position and you turn your back as a quarterback to the defense. When the defense sees the back of the quarterback, back of his jersey, they're in conflict. They have to choose whether they're in run support or not. But when the quarterback's just in that lateral search running game, RPO, point guard, here it is, everything's short, everything's RPO. There's no conflict. There's no conflict. even in the RPO, even with those outside edges.

But if you get a guy like him with a strong arm and you get his back to the defense and you get Singleton coming downhill, that backside backer's got to move over. That safety's got to decide whether he's going to insert himself into that run defense. And then you stand up and you can throw the ball down the field with pace driving the football into intermediate zones.

Those are the things from a really general standpoint that I would love to see out of Penn State. And we don't. We don't see that stuff out of Penn State. So we'll see if that stuff starts to change. Game management stuff really quickly. That was a longer dissertation than I wanted to give, by the way, on the offense. But I did it anyways.

Game management. James Franklin made some really poor decisions on Saturday. Really poor decisions. Here's the thing. As a coach, you've got to understand who you are as a team, where you're going, and how you're going to get there. Who are you? Where are you going?

How are you going to get there? All right. So if you understand who you are, then you make the decisions that put that version of your team in the best position to succeed. And the problem is that James made decisions as if they were an offensive-oriented team and had to be aggressive with that unit versus what they are, which is a defensive-oriented team, which should always play to extend the game and play for field position. that's what defensive teams do. That's what Utah does. That's what Iowa does. And that's what they are right now.

So I think that they have a clouded vision of who they are as a team. And that needs to change because going forward on the fourth down, when they did effectively ended the game because they're giving the ball to Michigan at that point. It's fourth and sixth. On the minus side of the 50 and you're giving it to them basically in field goal range, which would have created a two-score game. Why do that right then? There's four plus minutes left.

There's two timeouts in the bag. Play for field position. Your best unit is the defense. You've got to lean on that. Going for two, too early in the game, requires you to chase points the rest of the game. And then the last one, down nine. USC did it.

Penn State did it. No reason to go for two. I don't care what the analytics crowd tells me about what it's going to tell me, me down the road and now I can fix my mistake. Well, guess what? You turned basically what should have been a one possession game into a two possession game. No decision should ever add possessions to what you need as a team in the fourth quarter. I just vehemently disagree with that. Someone can sit here and show me all the analytics in the world and the nine point gopher two,

I don't buy it. Not in the fourth quarter. Maybe in the third. You could maybe convince me to budge 1% in the third, which means you can get me down to like, you know, 99% sure that I'm kicking the extra point at that point. So the game management decisions, and he did it against Ohio State as well. And again, you got to know who you are and how you're going to win that game. You got to lean into field position. You got to lean into your defense. Fourth and six with about four minutes and 30 seconds left on your own 30, down eight points. Went for fourth down.

didn't get it with an offense that hadn't done anything. Ohio State, offense, doing nothing. Fourth and four, a little over seven minutes left on their own 43 down seven. Those aren't times to go for fourth down. And I hear what he said, like James said, well, we were going to have to make those decisions. No, you weren't. That's the point. That's the point.

All right. I'm already going long, but I do have to give some quick thoughts on the suspension and the timing of the suspension for Jim Harbaugh. Okay. As I said previously, I had no idea this was going that. Normally, like, again, you have some inkling of what's going on. You'll get tipped off by somebody, whether it's conference team. Forgive me, I'm going to take a drink real quick. Conference team, and you kind of know what's going on. And so when it was reported by Pete Thammel, it was news to me. I was sitting actually in our television truck on Friday,

doing a little bit of work with some of the crew right there. We had the TVs on, and I was like, I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I was like, is that right now? I see like a ticker. And it's like, Harbaugh, you know, Pete Thamel reports Harbaugh suspended. And I'm like, for this game? So that was news. and now is at about 3.30, 335?

I knew that at that point, Michigan was flying. They're in the air. I know when they're landing. They're landing at that point in about 20 minutes. The Big Ten sent Michigan the news at 348. So Thamble reports it. Big Ten then delivers the email to Michigan at 348. and their own email confirming it at 349 in the press release.

So, like, that's the way that it went down. Michigan heard via the Thamble report when they started getting updates on the plane. Then they got the email of the official. And as you know, like, that was late. That was late in the process. Let me back up in the process. Because if you're, if you've been listening to this show at all, you know that all I've been arguing for is that the process should run its course.

And that that is the most important part. So not this Saturday, but last Saturday, obviously we had the information from the conference land on Michigan's desk, if you will. Michigan had 48 hours to respond to that information. They requested Tuesday late in the day when they were supposed to respond. They requested an extension of 24 hours. And they were granted happily that extension into Wednesday. So now we're into Wednesday. This is when the 10 pages from both Jim Harbaugh and the school go back.

I'm just reporting what's been out there, as you know. It goes back then to the conference. Now it's the conference's job and now it's Thursday. And now they're into some back and forth. Okay. So now it's Thursday before the game. This is all, I've got two main points, and I don't want anyone to get either of these twisted. I want them to be very clear. Number one, I believe that the conference was well within their rights and well within the rules to do what they did.

based on what the conference's bylaws are, the Joint Executive Committee and what their role is, what the commissioner's office is, do they have the authority to do what they did? Yes. Via what is more of a broad overarching rule, if you want to call it that, in terms of the sportsmanship clause is what I'll call it that. Can they do this? Yes. Yes, they can. Did they do it based on evidence that they had said. seen from the NCAA? Yes. Okay. So am I arguing against the suspension? No. If they want to do this, then they should. All right? And then Michigan should have whatever recourse they feel like is at their disposal. Okay. So based on the evidence that the NCAA gave them and that we know is somewhat public, again, not directly tying Jim Harbop, but implicating the program. And namely Conner Stallions, could they do this? Absolutely.

Should they do it? Probably. Someone needs to be held accountable if you're going to break rules. Okay. Now, do I think that it was the correct timing to do it? No. No, I don't. Because the timing of doing it at 345, let's call it, on Friday before a massive game, is essentially inserting yourself as a conference into the competitive balance of that game. Now, they would argue, and I don't think it's a terrible point, but they would argue that, well, the competitive balance was skewed via the sign stealing scheme, and it was happening this season, and so our action needed to be this season. Okay, that's fine. And I understand even, by the way, that it's Jim Harbaugh that has to embody the program, and there has to be someone held accountable and that somebody is going to be the highly paid and

compensated head coach. I'm fully aware with that. And by the way, I'm on board with that, all of that. I don't think it should have happened on a Friday afternoon before a game because then all of a sudden, it's really falling on the players as the one that have to bear the brunt of that. They have to bear the brunt of that distraction. They have to bear the brunt of that and potential, you know, weighing of the competitive balance of that game. That would be my only point. I thought that it should have waited until Sunday or Sunday morning. And then if you want to suspend them, totally within your purview.

And based on what we know right now of the evidence, you know, yeah, that's fine. And somebody is going to have to pay a price at some point for what went on because no one's denying that it went on. Now, all of the accusations and conversation is about who knew what and when and where and so on and so forth. So those are my thoughts on the Jim Harbaugh suspension and the way that it went down last week before that game against Penn State. Hey, it's my favorite time of year. As you know, it's November in the football season, which is just like my absolute favorite. And as you know, I take it seriously.

So when I'm traveling on the road to watch my favorite teams, I can't risk calling the wrong play with where I stay. So wherever I go, I know that I can count on Hampton by Hilton. I can depend on their comfortable rooms, their warm, friendly service, and their free hot breakfast, that's a game changer, as you know. So whether you're cheering on your team from the stands or never leaving the tailgate, Hampton by Hilton, will always give you that win.

I want to put up my top 10. So here's my new top 10, and this is how we'll kind of get into some of the other teams throughout college football after we talked at length about that Michigan win over Penn State. So for those listening and not watching, I still have Michigan number one. I mean, they beat a top 10 team on the road. They should stay number one. I have no idea why everyone wants to argue that it wasn't a good win, but whatever.

Georgia number two, they continue to look dominant. Ohio State started to get right, in particular offensively from the quarterback position from Kyle McCord. They're number three. Washington's at four. Oregon 5, Texas 6, Bama 7, Florida State, 8, Louisville, nine, and I kept Penn State at 10, mainly because of that defense. Okay. If you're listening to this, one of those stood out.

If you're watching this, clearly one stands out. And I acknowledge that. I've got an undefeated team that's 10 and 0, and I've got them ranked eighth in the country. Okay. So first, I don't want you to pay attention to the eight, because that's really not what this is about. This is about there are eight really good teams in this season. And so someone's got to be number eight. And so at some point, you've got to start ranking these teams based on,

hey, let's play them tomorrow on a neutral site. Who do you think wins? That's kind of what I did here, except for one. In my mind, I played these guys and I just said, who do you think wins right now, tomorrow. That's how I ranked teams. The problem was, is that I've got the Washington win over Oregon, and you've got to honor that.

You have to honor that. If I was going just by my criteria of who wins on a neutral, Washington would have been seven. But they beat Oregon. So they got to be up there ahead of Oregon. and I like Oregon a little bit more than Texas, and Texas has the win over Alabama. So that's how that all goes.

All right, and let me just tell you what I like about all of these teams. Michigan is pretty obvious. They've got a lot of ways to beat you. They can beat you with their defense, they can beat you with their run game, and they can beat you with their passing game. There's not many teams in the country that are as versatile, balanced, or dominant

as the Michigan Wolverines. and now their strength of schedule is not nearly the issue that it was prior to Saturday's game. In fact, Michigan's strength of schedule is now better than Georgia's. So there's that for the crowd that just was crying about Michigan's schedule up to this point. Georgia Bulldogs, 10 and 0. Georgia's freaking good, and someone's going to have to prove that they can beat them. Bowers came back and looked pretty decent. I thought he was, you know, Carson Beck, I think those reps without Bowers are going to pay huge dividends for him, okay? Because you can get lulled into as a quarterback that's inexperienced. You can get lulled into like, I can just always throw it to him. And so this time that he's had without Bowers, learning to utilize the entirety of the system, that's really going to benefit him. Their win streak, their dominance, it's increasing. Their quality of play has gotten better.

better and better and better as the season has gone on. Ohio State. I really had been really one question sticking in the back of my head. And that was their quarterback. Was Kyle McCord going to be good enough to win a national championship? Because I think their defense is good enough. I believe their skill positions are good enough. And now I'm starting to believe that like, okay.

and we'll have to see it in a big game. Obviously, he's going to have to go to Ann Arbor as a first year starter. But he played really well and made some solid throws. Michigan State is not a very good football team, but he made some great throws. I'm not a huge alternate uni fan. I don't know what you guys feel about the grays. There are some people like alternate unis are just like,

you either love them or you hate them. I really love old classics. So it's like, if you are to ask me, what's your favorite uniform? And I'm not going to do college football because everyone just gets mad. But what's your favorite uniform in sports? I'd be like, oh, the Detroit Tigers home uniform, clearly. That's like the best uniform of all time, right? Just simple and classic.

So I digress, though. Oh, I said it. I've been, listen, I've got an acquaintance from Syracuse, Mikey. He always tells me that I say I digress. Mike, you're right. I do say that a lot. Man, you know what? I thought I was going to get through a show without saying I digress.

But then I did. I started talking about alternate uniforms. Four was Washington. Wish I could have put him seventh, but I can't because I love Oregon and they beat Oregon. So they're fourth. Washington is 10 and O for the first time since they won the national championship in 1991. And it's obvious what you love about Washington. You love their quarterback.

You love their passing game. and you love their head coach. Michael Pinnock's right now would be your Heisman trophy winner. If he can remain the quarterback of the undefeated Huskies, then he's going to win the Heisman trophy. If they beat Oregon a second time, he will win the Heisman trophy and should because he's playing outstanding, his numbers, all of it. They were in quite a tight ball game against Utah, gave him a great fight with some quality offense in particular in the second quarter. and Washington came alive defensively and offensively. And here's Kaelin DeBoer.

Kailin Bore is now, I believe, I believe 111 as a head coach. What? That's right. One is 100th game as a head coach, and I believe he only has 11 losses. So that's what I love about Washington. Oregon, it's obvious.

Their depth, their size, their physicality, their quarterback, their run game. everything about Oregon suggests that they can go win a national championship. I'm picking them right now to go win the PAC 12 and be in the college football playoff. Bo Nix is the most experienced quarterback in the history of college football. They're fast on the outside. They're aggressive as a coaching staff. I wish that they would stop with all these ridiculous two-point conversions and play straight up.

But you know what? Here we go again. Are you ready, Mikey? I digress. Oregon's a really good team. Folks, really good team. Texas is number six. There's a lot to like about Texas, in particular when they get their quarterback back. And yours played really well, and they were running away with it. The thing that concerns me about Texas is that

they always seem to have these stretches within games when they allow teams to come way back on them. It happened again. Listen, it happened against Kansas State in a game that I called, and it happened again against TCU, as TCU was roaring back in the fourth quarter. One big question for Texas, though, and news over the weekend, Jonathan Brooks tore up his knees out for the year. That's devastating. I love Brooks as a player. Now their true freshman, C.J. Baxter is going to have to be the guy at back. He's talented enough to do it. But Brooks was really good and very versatile. He was in every down back. He could catch it well out of the backfield. So that's a huge loss for Texas. Bama continues to get more and more dominant in the style which, which with which they need to play to be successful.

Everything that I said about Penn State, you can say the opposite about Alabama. They find what their players can do and where they could be most successful, and then they lean into that. And they create a team that really utilizes those strengths. Florida State, I love their quarterback. Coleman is outrageous as a talent.

Love, love Keon Coleman. Their defense is good. They've been excellent in the second half. I'm a big fan of Florida State. Of these teams, though, they have been the least consistent of the teams. Someone of the eight, someone has to be eighth, and I trust them the least because of all the close calls that they've had. Let's face it, they were at home, and even though it's a rivalry game,

this is a team that should have handled business a lot better than they did on Saturday. Miami is starting a true freshman making his second start. Guy goes eight for 23 until he has that nasty injury. I believe broke his arm and then Tyler Van Dyke comes in and promptly throws a pick. I think that's his 13th on the year. You can't just constantly be in one possession games with everybody, even average football teams, and maintain that like, oh, but we're great. Okay.

Again, of the really good teams, there's someone that has to fall in the eighth position, and for me, it's Florida State. Let's move on. Some news. It finally happened. Jimbo Fisher won Powerball. Congratulations, Jimbo. Based on my experience,

the best programs have confidence. The program has an established identity. The program maximizes the talent. The leadership is fully integrated in the university, the athletics program, and its culture. I did not feel like we were meeting those standards of excellence and leadership. A little bit before 9 a.m. this morning, President Welsh and I met with Coach Fisher and informed him that we were making an immediate change and he would no longer serve as our football coach.

Hey, Ross, you just spent $76 million. How do you feel? I've always wanted to ask someone that like buys a $100 million yacht or like a golf stream, like a private plane. Like how do you feel after that? Because if you're like me, I grew up with two school teachers as parents. I can't even pay for like, you know the streaming music streaming services? I'm not going to name them. I listen to ads. I'm a cheap skate.

Hey, Ross, you just spent $76 million for a guy not to be your coach. It's incredible. It's incredible. When you look at the buyouts of the assistant coaches, probably what they're going to have to pay a buyout for the guy that's going to come in and be their next coach. A&M's going to be eating $100 million. What does that feel like? if you're like me, I can't spend $100 and not kind of be like, do I really need that? You know, I remember, I remember being married, first year of marriage.

My amazing wife and I have been married for a long time, 18 years, almost 18 years. And I remember on our honeymoon, we were young. We were like, I was still in college. She was just graduating. and there were these, I think they were Javianas, these like flip-flops. We were in Hawaii, and we were doing it all on like her dad's travel points. You know, like, again, we had no money. And there were these seashells on the flip-flops.

And she was like, oh, these are cute. And I was like, watch this. I was like, do you want those? And she was like, can I get them? And I was like, you bet. And I felt like so great. I think there were 2199. And I was like, oh, man, I'm feeling good about myself, right?

Like, this is the way I grew up, okay? I never owned a pair of Jordans. I use pins until they run out of ink. Like, if you're like me, you can't spend money without there being a little pit in your stomach. In fact, to this day, this shirt that I have on right here, I'm not going to name the store just yet. this shirt that I have on. I have to go in, try on the shirt, and then I have to literally just hand it to Sarah,

my lovely wife, and be like, you buy it. I can't do it. I can't do it because I'll look at the price and it'll be like, I don't know, it'll be like $59 or 65 bucks or something. And I'll be like, I'm like, what? It's how much? So Ross Bjork spend $100 million today. How are you feeling?

that's just where my mind goes. They paid Kevin Sumlin 10 million in a buyout not too long ago. And this is how this is 76. I'm sorry. I don't know why I keep laughing, but this is absurd. This is absurd. This is college football. Nobody should be spending $76 million on anything.

Like, it's not even a cool video board. Right? Okay. Here's how the 76 gets paid out. 19 of it in the next 60 days. That's like lottery. And then $7.5 million annually for the life of the current contract. And somewhere, Bobby Bonilla is like, well done, Jimbo.

Gives you a hat tip. Bobby Bo is getting that million every day. There's like Bobby Bonia Day. I don't know the exact day. but he's getting a million bucks a year for like, I don't know, 57 years. It's probably not that many, but you get the idea. So it just begs the question. Like, let me get off of the buyout because that's what everyone's going to talk about.

But again, it's hard not to talk about the buyout. Jimbo Fisher was not cutting it at Texas A&M. Texas A&M, as it relates to their expectations, was falling woefully short. Okay? And so it begs the question, what is Texas A&M? What is this job? And I think that there are truths on both sides, to be quite honest with you. Let me start with this.

Texas A&M has everything that you need to be successful right there. You need a passionate fan base that's willing to step up and support your program. Check. Like, obviously, right? You know what I mean? You need the facilities. Check. You need a local recruiting base.

Check. You need a conference that strives for excellence. Check. They have everything they need. Right? So a lot of people will tell you, and I don't disagree with this, by the way. The right coach walks in there with the right coaching staff and they can have success right away.

Yeah. I am fully on board with that. In that regard, Texas A&M is a very good job. It's a very good job. One of the best in college football. Now, some of these other points can also be true. It's the fourth best job in its region. Oklahoma has a better tradition.

Texas is still Texas, and LSU has a better tradition. And every coach that's coached at LSU up to this point has won a national championship since the year 2000. So, okay, that's true. all three of those other programs, you can argue have a better foothold on college football and being a name brand than A&M does. And then you look at it like all of those teams are about to be in your conference. And so if you look at just the conference that they compete in, A&M is probably the seventh best job in the SEC.

You know, I already named three right there. Obviously, Alabama. Obviously, Georgia. And then you start to make arguments for places like, well, Tennessee. Tennessee is a freaking good job, right? You know, so that's up there. And now we're already in that seven range. So that can also be true, which means that it's going to be difficult at times

to break into the upper echelon of the conference. just based on who you're competing against. Now, let me revert back to a positive. I don't know how that's going to affect A&M as we go towards, move into, and evolve towards the 12-team playoff. That's going to benefit them. It should, it hopefully will.

Texas A&M has been about an 8-win team, on average, since they joined the Big 12. They joined the Big 12 in 1996 when it formed. They were really good under R.C. Slocum at the end of the Southwest Conference days, the Wreck and Crew defense, they were winning 10 ball games a year. In fact, for the last five years in the Southwest Conference, and in one 10 or more games. Since that moment, they've only won double-digit games twice.

The second year of the Big 12, they won the Big 12 with Sir Parker, beating Kansas State in the Alamo Dome. I believe that was the Alamo Dome. Great game, right? and they won a Big 12 title. They did not win another Big 12 title, and they haven't won another conference championship since that moment. I mean, that's 1998, 97?

That's a long time, 1997. They won 11 games with Johnny Mansell, I believe, in their first year in the SEC, and those two seasons are the only two seasons where they've won double-digit games. So like A&M since 1996 is basically an eight-win team on average. Now, when you point that out, which is a fact, A&M fans just cannot handle that. They can't handle that because they believe they are the program that they give towards.

They give to that program, and they give that program a budget as if they're winning the national championship once every four years. But that hasn't been the case. They're a team that has double-digit wins twice since 1996. They've got one conference championship since 1996. And they're a team that constantly has outsized expectations. In fact, if you look at their tenure, in particular in their years in the SEC, they are constantly in the top 10 at some point, getting that massive media narrative behind them of the SEC, putting them and pushing them into the top 10.

and then they end up unranked. It happens all the time. So the expectations have been outsized of what they are. Now, does the right coach change that? Absolutely. The right coach always changes that because they have the unchangeables that everybody else envies. I don't know why it hasn't worked.

It didn't work for Dennis Franchione, and it didn't work for Sherman or Sumlin, and now it hasn't worked for Jimbo Fisher. You can say it's always about them, and fine, fair enough. But the fact remains is this program is basically an eight-win team. They support it as if they're a 12-win team every single year,

and the unchangeables would tell you that you can win 12 games. So we'll see where they go. Don't know the names, but as soon as I start seeing some of those names and hearing some of those names, I will bring them to you. And just to leave, before we get out of here,

they paid him $49 million already. They're now buying him out for another $76 million. That's $125 million for $45 million for $45 total wins for Jimbo Fisher, which means every time Texas A&M won, whether it was against A&M Tech or Alabama, they paid him $3 million per $1. win. Follow the show wherever you're at. Subscribe where you listen to your podcast. Subscribe on the YouTube channel. Follow us on social media, Agile, Clat Show. And on Wednesday,

we'll be back. We'll have rankings release. And I'll have some Heisman discussion as we're getting down to it in the Heisman race here in the season. Long show, good show. Thanks for being a part of it, folks. We'll see you on Wednesday.