The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Michigan's 2 QBs, Venables' Debut at OU, Texas expectations vs Bama & Introducing "Hey Fans"

Episode Date: September 7, 2022

FOX Sports' lead college football analyst Joel Klatt breaks down Jim Harbaugh's decision to switch between QBs Cade McNamara and JJ McCarthy for Michigan's first four games. Then, he touches on Brent Venables' Oklahoma debut and what Texas fans should consider a success when they play Alabama. Lastly, Klatt introduces a segment called "Hey Fans" where he tells fanbases whether they should relax, sit tight, or be concerned. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

into the end zone. Brady's going crazy over there. Now it's legal. It wasn't legal when Reggie did it for Matt. They didn't call it. That's fine. But there's the Bush push and he pushes him into the end zone. Happy Wednesday, college football fans. We are back. Podcast number two, I'm Joel Clatt. This is the Joel Clatt show. And listen, if you miss the first episode, you got to go back, download it, watch it, listen to it. because it was really good, folks. Every Monday you're going to want to tune in for a recap. I talked about Ohio State, Ryan Day, why it was so important for Ohio State to win the way that they did last week against Notre Dame.

Talked about Georgia and really Kirby and what he said. Kirby Smart was great, by the way, just a true Southern gentleman, almost broke into a, hey, Dan Landing, bless your heart. It was basically like, I just want to thank Dan Lannning for recruiting all the players that just kicked Dan Lanning's ass. So thank you so much, Dan. I think he meant it complimentary, but certainly didn't come out that way.

Georgia was dominant, got into the way that they played. And Stetson Bennett, kind of moving up from the house pet of college football to like the bona fide teenager in the corner room. So good for him. Pack 12 struggles. I got into Utah,

that game against Florida. And then CFP expansion. There was a lot of really good stuff and good numbers on CFP expansion. So again, go back, listen to show one if you haven't done so. This is show two, and I'm very glad that you're here. In today's show here on a Wednesday of week two of the college football season, we're going to get into this Michigan quarterback situation. We've got to dive into that.

Cade McNamara, J.J. McCarthy, my thoughts on that. Brent Venables, his debut at OU. How did it go? How should you feel? We'll get into that a little bit. And then Texas Alabama Week, folks, this is where Gus and I are going to be, big noon Saturday, big noon kickoff. Biggest game of the weekend, there's no doubt.

And yet, I think that there is some sentiment amongst Texas fans that they need to figure out, well, what does success look like this week? Because it may not be in a win. Might, but it may not be. So we're going to dive into that. And then we've got to check in with some fan bases after week one, folks. Penn State, LSU, Iowa, Utah, Clemson. You need some love.

And I'm going to jump in and help you guys out and tell you guys, you know, how should you be feeling after your week one matchups? So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to get into this Michigan quarterback situation. What I want to do is I want to dive in and get some social feedback and really answer y'all's questions and bring this in because, listen, I did this show because of you, the fans. I think that you deserve a really good college football podcast.

And that's what we're going to give you. So as it comes to Michigan, J.J. McCarthy is set to start this week, week two against Hawaii, and Cody says, at raised 616, says, JJ gets the start week two and will remain QB1 for the rest of the year. Okay. So Cody thinks that J.J. McCarthy is going to start this week and go the distance. Let's dive into this a little bit because I think that Jim Harbaugh is in a bit of a tight spot with these two quarterbacks. Because you can't just evaluate what you think a player is at their best. And we got to start with the fact that Cade McNamara just beat Ohio State. He just won the Big Ten championship and took Michigan to the playoff.

He's 13 and 3 as a starter. You know, I mean, he's won 13 of his last 15 games. Like, this is, this is a player that is playing at a high level. I know that Michigan fans would love it to be a little bit higher, in particular after the Georgia game and at which it probably looked like Michigan under Cade McNamara was maxed out. But the bottom line is, is that this guy wins. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes and his teammates really respect him.

So you have to understand from Jim Harbaugh's perspective, folks, he's in a tight spot. So that's why, as a Michigan fan, I would be really rooting for two of three outcomes. Okay, there's three possible things that are going to happen Saturday against Hawaii. Two of them are good for Michigan. Very good.

One of them, bad, very bad for Wolverine fans. J.J. McCarthy is either going to play great. He's going to play awful, or it's just going to be kind of okay. you should be rooting Michigan fans for him to be either great or awful. Give me the Band-Aid performance, J.J. McCarthy. Make it clear. Rip the Band-Aid off.

Okay, because the last thing Michigan fans want is the same type of walking through the season like we saw last year where one guy's the quarterback and you're running guys in and JJ is kind of getting his time. But is he the starter? Could he be the starter? there was a lot of indecision last year, at least up until late in the season. And they don't want that. Nobody wants that. Jim Harbaugh doesn't want that.

So they want the Band-Aid performance from J.J. McCarthy. Give me an A or give me an F. Because the bottom line is that this decision for Jim Harbaugh is going to be made not because of the plays that J.J. McCarthy makes, but the mistakes that he potentially doesn't or does make. because Cade, that's what he's done, folks, right? Jim Harbaugh knows and trusts what Cade McNamerican do. He can win 10 games, probably 11, maybe 11 this year. Maybe 12, I don't know.

He did last year. He got over that hump of Ohio State. Can he do it again? Remember, he didn't have to be great against that Buckeye team that was clearly banged up on defense. Michigan ran the ball 20 of their last 24 plays in the second half. only through four passes. And they were play action,

they were advantageous situations to throw. So the question is, can Cade McNamara take you to a level where he could get into a potential shootout, if necessary, with C.J. Stroud. I think Michigan fans questioned that. They say, you know what? I don't know if Cade McNamara can do that

because he couldn't take his game to the next level when we really needed it. And we needed a quarterback to go above the X's and O's against Georgia. and J.J. McCarthy could be that. He's the shiny object. College football fans and football fans, really in general. You guys love shiny new objects. As a guy who started for three years at Colorado, I will tell you that my least favorite thing is backup quarterbacks. Oh, man, listen, Eric Greenberg, James Cox, you guys, Brian White, I love you guys, I love you guys. I just don't love backup

quarterbacks. Those were my backups at the University of Colorado. And I just, I just, just hated the sentiment that like, oh, there's something better there. There's something better there. And it's like, not always. That's not always the case. So it's going to come down to this. Can J.J. McCarthy play consistent football, not turn the ball over, and really cap the floor for Michigan.

Because Jim Harbaugh is trying to maximize his top end potential, which is clearly J.J. McCarthy, and minimize downside exposure, which is clearly J.J. McCarthy. Cade's just right in the middle. He's the solid retirement plan, 401K, and it's not going to lose a lot of money, not going to make you a lot of money, but boy, it's really steady. So Michigan fans, you should be rooting for an A or for an F this weekend. Okay, I don't know which one it's going to be. I have a good idea. Hawaii's not very good. What is the spread? 25, 30? I got to look at that. I'm going to look at that.

We'll get back to that in Pod 3. That's going to be dropping on Thursday. Remember, every Monday, every Wednesday, every Thursday. All right, next subject. Let's move on to Brent Venables now, who makes his OU debut last week against U-TEP. And it looked pretty good. So we go out to Twitter and to social media,

and we figure out what the fans are talking about, how they're talking about it. Zach Clark at Boomer Sooner 309 says, Oh, you is back playing defense, baby. Zach, I get what you're saying. I get what you're saying. And I will tell you this. I think that Oklahoma made the best possible hire in the situation that they were in.

In the realm of reality, right, they're not getting Nick Sabin. So you kind of block that out. In the situation that OU was in, they feel like they were left in the middle of the night by Lincoln Riley. They felt like they were burned. What did they need? They needed something, someone that was going to be a little bit splashy, was going to be a big name, that clearly had pedigree and would be a popular, and I think that's an important part, a popular hire amongst the fan base and amongst former players. And then they needed somebody that wasn't completely in the vein of what Lincoln Riley was, kind of a younger, offensive-minded head coach. So when you

you step back and you look at those criteria, Brent Venables is a home run. He's an absolute home run. And he's a great coach. I've known him for a long time. I remember covering him and playing against him back when he was at Oklahoma and then covering him when he was at Oklahoma before he went over to Clemson. And he clearly understood how to build an elite championship level defense. If Oklahoma fans are honest with themselves, they would say that that's the one thing that's been missing. And I think that you know that. You've loved Lincoln Riley's offense and you defended it, but they haven't played great defense. In fact, they've had a couple of offenses that you could clearly say

it was national championship level offense, but they couldn't play defense out of a wet paper bag. And now you probably are going to be able to with Brent Venables. I think it was a really good hire. This team, after what I saw on Saturday, is still the best team in the Big 12. They still run that conference. And here's why.

I saw a team that was faster on defense that I think can play, potentially better defense during the course of the season, but also a team and a coach that very astutely hired a guy that was brilliant on offense that could maintain some explosiveness and some firepower on the offensive side. So they go get Jeff Levy, they go get a guy that Jeff worked with, Gabriel, Dylan Gabriel, and that looked pretty good. So I was reserving judgment on OU coming into this season because they lost so much, folks. I mean, head coach, all the transfers, everything that they lost.

And it was a wait and see for me. And then I saw it granted against Utep, but I like what I saw. That's still the best team in the Big 12. And what's interesting to me is that I get the feeling that the transition to Brent Venables is going much quicker and much more smoothly than what we've seen coaching transitions go in the past. Normally you have to hire from within to get this sentiment of like, man, this is my coach. I love it and retain the locker room. In fact, normally when you look throughout the history of college football, if you hire somebody from outside of the locker room, if you will,

outside of the coaching staff and it's not from within, they'll tell you it takes two, usually three years to really feel like it's their team, right? Like these are my guys. I recruited them. They're my guys. Well, now that's all changed. And that time, line has been sped up. Because of the transfer portal, the guys who didn't know if they wanted to be committed to Brent Venables, guess what? They left. The guys that wanted to be here, they either came there or stayed there. So when I see scenes like what I saw from Brent Venables in the locker room after the game, choking up, getting the game balls, the first one is the head coach in his tenure at Oklahoma. And then all the players kind of shouting like, hey, we love you, coach, we love you. And then it's a

big party. I believe it. I believe it. And by the way, he also, got the biggest ovation from the sooner faithful before the game when they showed everybody up on the big board. It's a home run higher. And now I firmly believe Oklahoma is still the best team in the Big 12. And at this point, they're my favorite to win the conference. Let's move to their biggest rival and a team that has the biggest game of the weekend, Texas. I'm interested to kind of get down there to Austin to see and feel what Texas fans are talking about. So let's Let's go out to see what the fans are talking about, questioning as it relates to this game against Alabama. Longhornsville at Yeatmeet 47 says this team is built different.

Speaking of the Longhorns, clearly the culture has changed and the energy is incredible. Excited about the future of Texas Longhorns football for the first time in years. Interesting sentiment. In particular, when you're talking about the culture changed, the energy is, incredible, excited about the future, because this team currently is definitely built for the future. That's why I think success for Texas this week probably looks like a cover. Now, hey, maybe they win. I don't know.

It's really tough to beat Alabama, though. It's really tough to beat Alabama. It would be really disheartening if Texas rolled out there and got steamrolled. It would be disheartening if Texas rolled out there and then. they weren't the team that Longhornsville talks about that hasn't grown, that hasn't matured, that doesn't have some of that difference from what we've seen in the past, because what we've seen in the past is a team that can play at a really high level and a really low level. They had high highs and low lows.

So like I said with with J.J. McCarthy, right, maximize top end potential and minimize downside exposure. That's the exact opposite of what Texas has been able to do over the last few years. It always feels like one step forward, two steps back with Texas. They beat themselves far more often than the opponent comes in and just handles and beats them. Why? Because one, they're really talented. And two, they just make too many mistakes. Fall starts, turnovers. Texas fans know exactly what I'm talking about. That's why this week, a success this week I feel like for the fans would look like a cover and a team that forced Bama to beat them rather than went out there and beat themselves.

I think that that would be a successful week. Now, I'm not into moral victories. I'm not calling this a moral victory. But the bottom line is, this is one of the best front sevens that you're going to face in all of college football with Will Anderson out there, Tua, Tua at linebacker, who is a really smart guy, fourth year in the system, even though he transferred because he was in Pruitt system. Now he's in saving system. Same thing.

So he's a smart guy. He makes everybody right. Long, athletic, deep at corner and safety. And you're starting to true freshmen, right? So it's an uphill battle for Texas this week. I don't think that I'm saying anything that anybody would disagree with. So what does success look like? Probably a cover and a team that goes out there and doesn't beat themselves.

If you force Bama to beat you and you don't beat yourself, I think Texas fans will look at that and they'll say, you know what, that's growth. That's progress. With a team as young as what we are, with our offensive line as young as what it is, our quarterback as young as he is, I think that they would take that.

Not into moral victories, but I think that they would take that. Much more on this game tomorrow. Thursday's episode of the Joel Clat Show is going to be a full breakdown of not only Texas, Alabama, but some of the other big games that we're going to see on Saturday here week two. So make sure that you're coming back tomorrow and listening to the pod. All right. Now I want to check into some fan bases.

So here's what we're going to do. After week one, there was some interesting performances, and I want to check in with you fan bases and suggest what you guys should be feeling here after watching what you watched week one of the season. So we're going to have this as a rating of like relax, sit tight or be concerned. I don't quite know which teams are going to be thrown out here. So fans buckle up who we got, who we're talking about. Iowa. Ooh, Iowa. Oh my goodness.

Be concerned. Be concerned. I'm sorry, Iowa, and I've defended you for a long time. And you know what? You should be defended. And in some regards, you're probably sitting there like, hey, you know, Tori Taylor for Heisman. Tori Taylor's the punter for Iowa.

It just feels like I'm concerned for Iowa because it's not changing. you have to do either one of two things to get better offensively. And remember, this is an offense that I think finished like, oh gosh, 100th, 95th, 99th, something like that last year in scoring. They were worse than that when it comes to explosive play, something like 105 in explosive plays of over 20 yards. And there was no explosiveness. So you've got to either change personnel or change scheme.

And I don't feel like that's on the horizon. So that's why I'm concerned. Iowa fans, you kind of feel like you've been. beaten into submission into the style in which you love to watch football. It's like, listen, we're going to punt and rely on our defense. That's great. And it's working. And I love it.

And I love you. And I can't wait to get to Kinnick, but I'm a little concerned moving forward. I'm a little concerned. You know what? Iowa fans feel a little bit like the kid that was homeschooled when you were younger. You remember him. A little too sheltered, doesn't know what he doesn't know. It's like he thinks it's really good, but he doesn't really know.

that's kind of what Iowa fans feel like. That's why I'm concerned for Iowa. Charlie Jones walked out the door. We just saw Charlie at Purdue last week against Penn State. He had like a million catches, at least compared to what he had at Iowa. Gus said at one point, it was like his third or fourth catch. And he's like, that's more than he ever had in the game at Iowa. I was like, wait, really?

There's like eight minutes left in the first quarter. So you're like, well, that's why he's at Purdue. All right, next. Who we got next? Penn State. Ooh, Penn State. I was just talking about them. I want to say concerned.

I'm going to say sit tight. All right, sit tight, sit tight. Sit tight. I'm pulling back. Let's not get too hyperbolic here. Sit tight, Penn State fans. You got to get better running the football. What was it?

Last year, I think Penn State was something like, I don't know, 115th, 117th and yards per carry, just over like 3.2. yards per carry. It was terrible. And it was the reason their offense was stagnant, and they had to rely on that defense, who had some great players, by the way. Jekwon Bristker comes to mine. Arnold Evacady comes to mind. Brandon, what was it? Brandon Curtis, their linebacker. And they have to get better running the football. You have to get better run on the football. But the reason I'm not going to the concerned level yet after they ran for about 3.1 yards per carry against Purdue last week. And by the way, Purdue was like,

I don't know, 12th in the big 10 stopping the run. So it doesn't look good. It could easily be a concern. Here's why it's a sit tight because you got a true freshman. I still think Mike Yurchich and James Franklin are going to figure out a way to allow Nick Singleton to be successful. He was way too talented. So this is a wait and see for me.

I think that they're going to change some things formationally, get him deeper in the backfield and allow him to hit it going downhill a little bit more. That will help him in particular as a young. young back and he's special. So I do think their run game can get better, but it really needs to get better. Not quite concerned yet. It's a wait and see for me. Sit tight Penn State fans. You might see some better days running the football ahead. All right, who's next? Utah. Oh, Utah, relax. Relax. You're going to be just fine. Utah fans, Utah fans. Listen, Listen, listen, there's a lot, listen, there's a lot of talk out there about like, hey, you know, Utah's out of the

playoff, Pac-12's out of the playoff. I don't know if that's necessarily the case. It wasn't a great look for the conference for that loss. That being said, we have to understand that I think Florida was severely underrated. Okay, so if Florida is more properly rated, in the preseason. Let's say they're 15, and Utah loses that game. Are we as panicked? No. No, of course not. And by the way, what happened? Florida jumped all the way up there. I think in the AP poll, they're 12. Where's Utah? 13. They didn't drop very far because there's an acknowledgement that, hey, like if Anthony Richardson, the quarterback from Florida plays that well, then they're going to be pretty good. And the Gators could be the second best team in the SEC East. Meanwhile, Utah

had the ball inside the 10-yard line three times and came away with three total points. So in a large respect, Utah should have won the game, even with Richardson playing that well, being a dynamo, kind of doing his best like Tim Tebow, Cam Newton impersonation. Richardson was phenomenal. Utah had a real hard time with his speed on the outside, which the only cause for concern that gives me is like, how am I going to match up with Caleb Williams later in the year with USC when he's he's running around but as it is Utah is going to be fine you look at their next four or five games they should absolutely be five and one when they play USC later in the year and so that's why it's a big relax okay cam rising's going to play better than that you're going to

execute better than that inside the 10 yard line all right like they should have won the game anyways Richardson was was Superman Utah fans relax who's next Clemson Oh, man. How about that game against Georgia Tech? I'm going to say sit tight, although it's a borderline, folks. It's a borderline. I think Clemson fans know that the score was not indicative of the way that that game played out. And the questions surrounding Clemson, moving forward, are clearly about the offense. Their coordinator leaves Tony Elliott. And now DJ O'I. Ungalele comes in. And he did not play well a year ago. He had that quality performance against Notre Dame two years ago, in a loss, by the way. But he did not play well a year ago, more interceptions than touchdowns. And what I saw from him against Georgia Tech was a guy who just, he wasn't playing fast. All right, the ball is not coming out with conviction. His decisions are not made with conviction.

And so I'm concerned about their offense. Their defense is incredible. Brian Brzee, like these people up front, these defensive linemen, these guys can play. That's going to be a great defense. I don't see them giving up more than, I don't know, probably 13, 14 points a game. And their schedule's not that difficult, and they will figure out this quarterback position. DJ Ouyungaleli, if he continues to play like that, and Cade Clubnick comes in and continues to play the way he did in garbage time late against the yellow jackets, then it's going to be Cade Clubnick the rest of the way.

Davos-Sweeney, he doesn't play around, folks. I mean, remember Kelly Bryant, took him to a playoff? Bam, four games in, Trevor Lawrence is your starting quarterback. So he will not play around. If he feels like he's got a better option, he will move in that direction. And Cade Clubnick, he came in and the ball did move with conviction. His decisions were made with conviction. And so at least judging by game one,

I think Clemson could be better and have a higher ceiling, with Cade Clubnick. We'll see how that plays out. So for Clemson fans, it's a sit tight. wait and see how that one plays out. All right, last one. We got time for one more. Who we got? LSU. Oh, concern. Concern. Concern. That was my concern. LSU fans. Yikes, man. It's not going well for LSU right now. Your best player is clearly disgruntled. Kishon Boutet. your coach, who I think is a great coach. Brian Kelly did a wonderful job at Notre Dame at Cincinnati. The dude can coach football,

but it's not going well at LSU. That team that was on the field against Florida State was not coached well. You don't drop two punts and allow two kicks to get blocked if you're a really well-coached team. In fact, you show me a team that is really buttoned up on special teams, and I'll show you a head coach that is a really buttoned up coach. That's why it was so surprising to see the way that they played. The problem is, for me, is that LSU,

there's not a lot of positivity surrounding the program right now. It's not a hire that everyone was super excited about outside of LSU. And now, Brian Kelly tends to be the butt of the joke on social media. That's not a good play. That's not a good thing. All right? Maybe they'll figure this out, and I think that they're really talented, and he's an excellent coach.

But for right now, I'm concerned. This is heading in the wrong direction at LSU with the way they lost to a Florida state team that was, what, 8 and 13 under Mike Norvell and was trying to choke that game away in the second half. And LSU stole a loss, just stole a loss from the jaws of victory. So that's a cause for concern. All right, that'll do it for this episode of the Joel Clat Show. remember to follow us here at the at the show at joel clatt show on twitter and all the social media

handles you got instagram you got facebook you got um twitter at joel clatt show all of the content you're going to see this uh thrown out there i encourage you to share this with your friends uh folks because this is going to be better the more people that interact and the more fans that are engaged That's why, again, I did this. I'm super excited about this. I can't wait to continue throughout the season. Remember, we're going to be dropping episodes every single Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. So tomorrow's episode is going to be a look ahead, week two games. I got you covered. All right? Big breakdown of Texas, Alabama. That's where I'll be with Gus and Jenny for Big Noon Saturday. Big Noon kickoff will be there as well. You can follow me at Joel Clatt on Twitter at Joel underscore. clat on Instagram. All this content will be put out on all of those channels during the course of the week. Thank you for being here, folks. Remember, go back, listen to episode one. Lots of good content there. Share this one with your friends. Can't wait to see you tomorrow, folks. Episode three, we break down week two in college football. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening.