The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Ohio St has their starting QB, why the SEC is struggling & Klatt’s Top 5 Atmospheres he’s called

Episode Date: September 13, 2023

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to the news that Ohio State has named their starting QB for the rest of the season. He breaks down what he’s seen from Kyle McCord and the Buckeyes this season and where they need to improve before they face Notre Dame in two weeks. He then discusses what Miami’s win over Texas A&M means for the race in the ACC and why he believes Mario Cristobal’s team is in for a big season. He then gets into why the SEC is struggling so much in the big early-season matchups that they’ve dominated for years and why the Pac-12 is winning those games now. Finally, he dives into the mailbag to answer listener-submitted questions including Oklahoma’s chances vs Texas before ranking his Top 5 atmospheres in games he’s called in his career. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the Joel Clad Show, Ohio State has a brand new starting quarterback. Is the you also back and we dive into the mailbag all coming up? 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 one of those days where you fall in love with the sport all over again. Welcome into the program.

This is Joel Clatt. This show is presented by Hampton. by Hilton. Lots to get into today. First of all, thank you for all of your support of the show. I know that I've talked to you about the ratings of the game that Colorado played against TCU and against Nebraska, but also this show, there's so many new people finding and joining us here at the Joel Clatt Show. So thank you for that, growing really rapidly. If you want to follow us, you can on any of the social medias at Joel Clat Show. You can check in with us. We've got all sorts of content there.

And then just make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast. And then also subscribe if you're watching on YouTube. Make sure you subscribe and then comment below and let us know how we can improve things and just overall how we're doing. It's been a great start to the season. There's no doubt. And there's been so much interest in the sport. And yet that interest hasn't been circling around the normal. powers. There hasn't been a lot of talk about Georgia, even though they've won the last two national

championships. There hasn't been a lot of talk about Ohio State. And they're normally a team in a program that kind of sucks the oxygen out of the room in college football. They are a massive, massive brand in this sport. Well, we're about to start talking about Ohio State. And that's because they're finally putting a flag in the ground as it relates to their quarterback, such as it situation, and they have named Kyle McCord, the starting quarterback now moving forward, and he will not split reps with Devin Brown. So Ryan Day is going with Kyle McCord, and there's some significance to this. There's a lot of significance to this, but I will tell you, just from an individual quarterback's perspective, this is such a good thing. You don't want this type of competition to drag out.

number one, these guys did not serve two different roles or purposes within the offense. Okay, so this was a true competition. One of them needed to win so that they could have the confidence to know that they were the number one quarterback and that they would get all the reps. I've told you before, quarterback is a reps position. And there's only one way to get them. And that is the live reps during the game. So if you look at the drives so far this season, you'll see that Kyle McCord has had

14 drives this season and Devin Brown has had six. Well, now those six opportunities that Devin Brown had were not six opportunities that Kyle McCord had. You can never get those reps back. Okay. So that's why it's important to have a starting quarterback that is a loan starting quarterback in particular when he's in a developmental mode like McCord is as a first year starter for Ohio State. Now, he played a little bit better against Youngstown. There's no doubt. There are still some areas of concern for this team. Let me go through them. First and foremost, as you know, this fan base, you Buckeyes, I know you, I've been around you, I hear you, you have outsized expectations every single year. It's really two things. Beat Michigan, win the national

championship. If you don't do those two things, the season is considered somewhat of a failure. And so the last two years, I mean, you obviously hear the grumblings. Now you come into this season. And this team so far against Indiana and Youngstown has not quite measured up to the expectations that the fan base has had. Let's just face it. And so you hear, you hear all these people like, oh, this isn't going to be good enough. And I feel like they forget very quickly. you Buckeye fans, you have forgotten

the style in which your national championship team in 2002 played. That was a team that won a bit ugly, but they won. And I know it hasn't been pretty yet for Ohio State, but they've won, albeit against Indiana and Youngstown. Not great competition. That's coming. That's coming. So what are the areas now with the starting quarterback

and Kyle McCord, what areas does Ohio State have to improve in? Well, let me get into those. I've watched all the film of Ohio State. The run game has to improve. I personally think that they need to run between the tackles more often and not so much on the edge. When they're trying to run that wide stretch play, I just don't feel like that suits their personnel up front.

they get a lot of unblocked second level players because their linemen don't, when they're blocking the stretch run, they don't do a good job of getting to the second level from the double team and pushing that double team up to the linebacker. So you get a lot of free second level players, and that's what really hurts them in particular on short yardage. Now, when they run in between the tackles, those big offensive linemen can come off the ball and move more forward

and not so much sideways. When they're moving forward, generally speaking, they do a better job, although not perfect, but a better job of getting up to the linebackers. I also think that they need to incorporate some man and gap schemes into their run repertoire because I think it fits their personnel better. Now, having said that, they have elite talent in the backfield. Travion Henderson made some runs against Youngstown

that makes us remember that he was such a highly rated recruits. It makes us remember that this guy has the talent to be in the Heisman conversation and was before the season. All right. There are times when even unblocked players are sitting there right there, ready to tackle Treveon Henderson, and he can make a miss, right? They've got elite talent. And Henderson is certainly one of those guys with elite talent. But the run game in general has got to improve, in particular in short yardage. They've got to do a better job of picking up first downs on third and short.

less than three yards, you've got to be able to run for a first down in particular against Youngstown. Now, what else has to improve? That's number one. Number two, the quarterback play in general. While Kyle McCord quote unquote won the job, it was a problem that they were in this position to begin with. I believe that it was because neither of them played well enough to be the bona fide starter from camp on. I told you in the preseason that if you're an Ohio State fan, what you want is that both of these guys are playing lights out and making it tough on the coaches to decide. What you didn't want is both of these guys to be inconsistent

and making it tough on these coaches to settle on someone because of mistakes. And now after watching two games, it's more of the latter. McCord does some things really well. and clearly he's a talented player. He wouldn't be at Ohio State if he wasn't a talented player. But he also does some things really poorly. And he misses some things out there. Some very easy throws.

He'll walk on, in particular on third down, he'll lock on a receiver or a particular route and won't come off of it, even though there are other routes that are wide open. There was a route against Youngstown where they're running just kind of a curl-flat combination to the wide side of the field. It's a three-man route because basically the inside

receiver, the third receiver, he's running what's considered a wall off kind of curl, and he can hook up basically over the ball. And what he's doing is why it's called a wall off is he's trying to prevent the middle linebacker from running underneath the curl area. And then you occupy the curl flat defender with the flat route, and then you run a curl behind it. So the wall off route is going up, and it's a one-on-one with the linebacker, and he hooks up over the ball. Well, McCord stares him down and throws the wall off hook. And the curl route was wide open. Okay, so that's an example.

Now, he also does some things very well. The first touchdown pass to Marvin Harrison. That was a great throw. He threw another little corner route, beautiful throw along the sidelines. So the talent is there, and the more reps that he gets, you can anticipate that he's going to get better and better

and more consistent and more consistent. That's obviously what you want if you're a Buckeyes fan. And the reps are an important. important part of this. They're going into a stretch now where they've got a game that they, you would absolutely think that they would win this week. And then they get ready for Notre Dame, which looks like a much tougher opponent in particular because they've got a quarterback and Sam Hartman that has really solidified their offense. Well, Ohio State needs that as well. What does that quarterback need? He needs reps. That's what development is all about. So now he's going to get

those. The offense on third downs has not been good enough, whether it's running for the short yardage first down or being able to throw the ball. They're converting about 23 and a half percent of their third downs with McCord at quarterback. That has to increase. If you look at the numbers of what their offense is this year versus what they were a year ago, it's pretty drastic and it needs to improve dramatically and quickly. Scoring last year, second in the country. This year, 71st in the country. Yards per passing attempt. Last year, third in the country with C.J. Stroud company. This year, 42nd in the country. Rushing average, last year, 12th in America. This year, 63rd in America. And this is the big one,

third down percentage. Last year, they were 28th in the country. This year, 119th. Those have to improve. And you would think that they would start to improve when your quarterback can develop through the reps that he's going to get now as the starting quarterback. And for their let's hope that they do get those reps. The last thing that they need to improve, and this is a defensive side of things, they had a hard time getting off the field, even against Youngstown.

And part of that is that they don't play in the backfield enough against the opponent. I'm giving you all the things that they need to work on. Why? Because we know all the things that they're very strong at. They're so talented, and they are an elite team, an elite team. A team that plays the way that they played

the first couple of weeks should be in tight ball games, regardless of the opponent, but they have just out-roastered their opponents so far. Eventually, that won't be a winning formula because they will face a Notre Dame. They will face a Penn State. They will face a Michigan where they can't just out-roster or out-athlete the competition. And they will need to do the little things well. Well, one of those little things is playing in the backfield of the opponent. They need to get more production in terms of tackle for loss, pressure on the quarterback, and sacks.

Those things have to increase. And in particular with the defensive line that they felt like was really going to be a strength, and I still think can be a strength. Those are the areas that I look at right now with this team that have to develop, and they have to develop quickly. They've got to go on the road in a couple of weeks to South Bend, Indiana, and that Notre Dame team looks awfully good. Offly good.

Now, they've played a low level of competition, but let's face it, so is Ohio State. I want to go back to what I initially said, the outsized expectations of the fan base. And I know that I just fed the fan base a little bit of fuel there with the things that they need to work on. But remember, this team is an elite team. Ryan Day has never had a quarterback that hasn't had a very successful season. The track records suggest that the offense will eventually be just fine. It just so happens that that progress is going to start taking place more rapidly now with McCord getting those reps as the bona fide starter.

It's going to be a big one though, a couple of weeks. I mean, an absolutely big one. By the way, just get the ball to Marvin Harrison more. And they were doing that. And they did a great job of that against Youngstown. Hey, it's my favorite time of year. As you know, it is football season. And as you know, I take it very seriously.

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 and their warm, friendly service. By the way, their free hot breakfast, that's a game changer and it's delicious. 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 told you on Monday's show that we would talk about Miami and I wasn't lying because the U is bad. Well, I don't know if they're absolutely back, but that was an impressive win over Texas A&M. And only a crazy day with like prime Texas over Bama, USC, like it knocked Miami to the second episode of the week, which is wild.

4833 Miami wins and really handled Texas A&M. credit to Mario Cristobal, credit to the hurricanes. You faced a little adversity. 17-7 early in that game, you can think to yourself like, oh, man, here we go again. And all they did is just rip off 41 points. Good on Miami. And there are some things that are going on with this Miami team that make me believe that this is a team that could wind up in the ACC championship game.

I really believe that. first of all, that offense looks way better than a year ago, way better than a year ago. Tyler Van Dyke, quarterback play. He played great. This was the 2021 version of Tyler Van Dyke. This is why at the beginning of last year, if you remember in 2022, we were all talking about, hey, Van Dyke's one of the best quarterbacks in the country. Miami had some real hype.

it didn't pan out largely because of injuries, but also because of style. Okay, hear me out on this. Miami has a new offensive coordinator. That offensive coordinator is named Shannon Dawson. All right. I'm a big believer in the way that you were raised. Your blueprint, your fingerprint, your fingerprint, I think I should say. Let's use fingerprint.

Your fingerprint as a coach. Where did it develop? who raised you as a coach? Well, Shannon Dawson really cut his teeth under the air raid system, namely Dana Holgerson and Halmummy. Coached with Halmummy back at, what is it, Southeast Louisiana, coached under Dana Holgerson. Like that's his tree.

So he's got the spread roots and the passing roots and the simplicity of that simple. That's the way that he learned it. and I'm sure he teaches it, okay? If you go back to 2021, Tyler Van Dykes' offensive coordinator was Rhett Lashley, who's now the SMU head coach after Sonny Dykes moved on. Ret Lashley, while not in the exact same tree, was a Gus Malzahn disciple.

Spread simplicity. Okay, now more so in the run game, because Malzon formed that offense more from a high school perspective. But again, at its core, at its fingerprint, that offense is about simplicity for the offensive players and spreading out and using the space. And then you allow the quarterback to operate in that space, get the ball to the playmakers. So now you've got Shannon Dawson, who at least is similar, not in the same tree, obviously, but similar to the offensive play caller that Van Dyke had his most success with in 2020.

Red Lashley. I think that makes a big deal. Let me give you an example. Okay. I'll give you a personal example about this. I cut my teeth in this sport under the West Coast offense. Pretty pure West Coast offense. We used to watch old Bill Walsh tapes of him installing plays.

You know, so to me, a very basic, obviously, like super basic play would be like, you know, a green ride open, 22 Z curl, Y go. Super simple. 22 is a protection Z-curl-Y-go is the concept. So for me, I learned concepts, and those concepts had words. You know, you know, Trey-Ride, Z-Div, two-jet, Z-drive. And I know like a Z-Drive is a concept. So to me, I see a picture up when I hear that concept. I love that offense. I understood the protections. I understood how to manipulate the formations, who the adjuster was, all these different things, right? I understood that all you had to say was right and you could line up basically

10 guys. And then based on the word, whether it was wing right, tray right, deuce right, red right, green right, eye right, open right, all these different things. It would move one guy. And that one adjuster would then make a different formation. You could get into different personnel groups. So in that offense that I loved, we had personnel groups. We had the pro personnel group. We had zebra personnel group. We had Eagle personnel group. We had U group. We had Tiger. We had Vandal. All of those were different personnel groups. Now, there are some offenses that do it very differently. They call it 10 personnel, 11 personnel, 12 personnel, 21 personnel. And that offense, or those styles of offense, are numbering how many backs do you have and how many tight ends do you have in the game? So if it's 10 personnel,

you have one back, no tight ends. What does that leave you? Four wide receivers. You get what I'm saying. offensive football is all about language, and there are some languages that some players are more comfortable with. So when you get a quarterback that had great success with an offensive coordinator and a play caller, generally speaking, if you put him in a similar offense and language and feeling in how they read things and how they communicate things, he'll go back to having success. I went to the NFL and in Detroit played under Mike Martz. It was a very different offense. It was a digit system. So we would get into like King Wright, 095F post.

So you would call every route, zero route, nine route, five route, F post. So we had the digit system. That was difficult for me because I wanted to see a picture versus call every route into the route concept. I wanted to call it Texas because 095F post is basically 22 Texas or 24 Texas or 2Jet Texas. Okay, I digress. I appreciate you letting me nerd out. All of that dissertation is background on why a guy could not succeed with one play caller or offense and does succeed with another. It's my belief that Tyler Van Dyke is more comfortable in a Shannon Dawson offense because it's similar to Rhett Lashley.

They have the same fingerprint. And that's really going to pay dividends for Miami. I'm a huge believer now that Miami can be a team that makes a lot of noise. in the ACC. One thing I do know is that Mario Cristobal is going to recruit well. He did it at Oregon and he's been doing it at Miami. The other thing I know about Mario Cristobal is that he's going to have solid offensive line play. He did that at Oregon. It's why they played for the Pack 12 championship a few times. He's going to do that at Miami. That's his DNA. He's going to do that. And they played really well up front on Saturday against Texas A&M. You think about Texas A&M. They've

got a lot of blue chip recruits and players on their defensive line. And yet, Miami's offensive line, while they didn't run the ball great, they protected Tyler Van Dyke. Amazing. In fact, Shannon Dawson said after the game, protection was as good as we've ever seen versus A&M. Tyler didn't get touched. He looked like he was in complete control. So now you've got a quarterback that is more comfortable in an offensive system and an offensive line that has a DNA with a head coach that they want to dominate and they're providing time for that quarterback. All of it leads to 48 points.

And an offense that now in an ACC, they could have some fireworks there. If I look at the ACC, all the sudden, all the sudden, in the first two weeks, everything changed. Coming into the year, I really thought Clemson was going to be good. That didn't pan out to be the truth.

Now, maybe they're better than I expected. But one thing we do know, Florida State is an elite team. Their handling of LSU was impressive. They are the favorites now in the ACC and should be. The question is, who's the second best team in the ACC? Now that's a more interesting question. And after Miami absolutely dispatched

of one of the most talented teams in the country in Texas A&M, right? I mean, they're in the top five on the talent composite A&M is, dispatched of them. I think they're fourth. Now Miami can at least have an argument to lay claim to that number two spot. Look at the ACC. It's somewhat wide open now.

I think Florida State's going to be in the ACC championship game. Who do they face? Might be Miami. It might be Miami. You've got North Carolina in there because their quarterback is really solid. You've got Duke after they beat Clemson. And then you still have Clemson possibly. I really think with Clemson taking a step back, Duke beating them, Miami's got a great shot.

In fact, if you're asking me, which team is better? Miami or North Carolina? I would say Miami is better as a team, but North Carolina has the better quarterback. But wait, all of a sudden, Tyler Van Dyke, he's more comfortable now with an offensive play caller that is more his speed with Shannon Dawson. I'm a big believer. I'm a big believer in Miami right now. they're going to be 5 and 0 when they face North Carolina. That's a huge matchup, and I can't wait for that game.

They very well might be the representative in that ACC championship game. And then wouldn't it be amazing, by the way, that like we finally, when Florida State and Miami went to the ACC and originally, it was like, well, they're going to play every year for the, now we might actually get it. We might actually get it. All right, let's move on. Let's talk about a couple of conferences. because I tell you, like, feels like opposite year to a certain degree in college football.

SEC struggling in the non-conference, Pact 12 thriving. A few years ago, we never thought we would say that, ever in a million years. But you just look at these results right now, and it's hard to wrap our minds around what's going on. The SEC is three and six versus other Power Five teams this season. That's the worst among the Power Five conferences. Now, it'll get better as the year goes on because they're going to have winnable games, I think. But man, I look at this conference and it's like what they built themselves on was two things. National championships, which might not go away because Georgia might win the national championship.

Okay, so this all might be a moot point. But the depth of the conference is certainly not what it has been in the past. And the reason I know that is because the second element of what I was going to talk about is they always won the big non-conference games. Always. Think back to the past, right? Last season, Georgia destroyed Oregon. Maybe they just need to put Georgia in these big games because they beat Clemson up the year before. Alabama destroyed Miami the year before in 2021.

LSU beat Texas in that big game. Georgia beat Notre Dame. in 2019. Every time there was a big game, SEC, other conference, regardless of who it was, the SEC would win. And they had more talent, and they had more players drafted, and they were winning national championships. And listen, they might still have the most players drafted. And they very well might win the national championship. But the difference is, is that it looks like it's going to have to be Georgia. It looks like this conference this year, at least, and this might and probably will change in the future.

But at least for this year, this conference, the SEC, resembles more of what the Big Ten was in 2019. And over on the West Coast, the PAC 12, more resembles what we normally think of the SEC to be. What do you mean, Joel? Well, here's what I mean. Georgia is obviously the number one team of the country and should be and should be.

the second highest ranked SEC team is now ranked 10th. We haven't seen that forever. The third highest is 11th. That's Tennessee. LSU then is 14 and Ole Miss is 17. That's a big gap. That's a big gap. Similar to, let's say, Big 10, 2019.

Ohio State was elite and everybody else was like, well, I don't really know. Probably good enough to be ranked, but I don't know if they're top end. in particular when those teams, two of them, Alabama and LSU that are ranked, lost horrendous games in the non-conference. Think about these results now that we have this year in the non-conference. Alabama lost to Texas. LSU lost to Florida State. Texas A&M lost to Miami.

Florida lost to Utah. And South Carolina lost to North Carolina. Now you could say like, well, you know, games can go either way. Every one of those results was by at least double digits. Wow. That's not what we're used to, certainly. Now the PAC 12 is sitting there. They're six and three versus other Power 5 conferences.

You've got Utah's win over Florida and Baylor. You've got Colorado's win over TCU and Nebraska. You've got Oregon over tech. You've got Washington State over Wisconsin. So now all of a sudden the Pac-12 is the one that's putting their flag in the ground and saying we're the deepest conference. And then you look at the rankings and they're littered throughout the rankings. There's eight of the 12 Pac-12 teams in the top 25.

It has to do with quarterback play, folks. Why? Why is this happening? I'm not just going to sit here and belabor the point. Why is this happening? Quarterback play. That's why it's going to be cyclical to some degree. The Pack-12 has the best quarterbacks in the country by a wide margin. In fact, if we're being honest with ourselves, in particular after Daniel's performance for LSU against Florida,

state, we could probably make an argument that there are six, maybe seven quarterbacks in the Pact 12 that would start anywhere in the SEC. So why is it changing this year? That's why. That's why. I think that we overweight the talent composite and we underrate or wait what the composite is in relation to quarterback play. You see, because a great quarterback or even a good quarterback, he can erase a lot of, I would say, deficiencies on a roster, whereas it takes an unbelievable roster in order to erase the deficiencies of an inexperienced or poor quarterback. We've talked about it all day long if you really think about it.

Ohio State is winning because their roster is erasing the deficiencies of their quarterback up to this point. Miami, who probably isn't as talented as Ohio State, they're playing at probably a higher level than even the Buckeyes. Why? Because their quarterback is playing at a higher level. Well, it's the same thing going on in the Pac-12. These quarterbacks are the best quarterbacks in the country. Caleb Williams, Michael Pinnock's, Bo Nix, Cam Rising, Shadour Sanders, all of those guys would start, period, anywhere in the SEC. So that's why it's changing this year. That's why it'll still be cyclical. The only question is, what does that mean for the playoffs? In the last year of the four-team playoff, I think we are moving towards a scenario where we've got to start thinking and reframing our minds to start thinking about the second team from a conference really should be out of the PAC 12.

At least after two weeks, that's the way it is. The Big Ten will have a lot to say about that with their three teams, Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State. They'll have a lot to say about that. But I can tell you this, the champion out of the Big Ten and the champion of the Packers, 12 will have faced a far, far tougher road than the champion out of the, even the ACC, but yes, certainly the SEC or the Big 12. So something to keep in the back of your mind as we move along in the season. Hey, it's time for the mailbag.

Love the mailbag. Let's get into it. This mailbag is sponsored by Hampton by Hilton. Hilton for the stay. Let's get into it. All right. Lee says, hey, Joel. the show and love the quality college football content you make. I appreciate that. Lee,

I'm an Oklahoma fan and was wondering if you think they have any shot of beating Texas in Red River this year. If so, how do they do it? Well, yeah, they've got a shot, right? It's a rivalry game. So Lee, like, they have a shot. Is Texas better than they've been in the past? Yes. Yes, they are. Texas is an elite team. Texas is much better at the line of scrimmage than they've been in years. They've got a quarterback that seems to be calm and poised and ready. Now, one thing to, that Texas has shown, and I even said this on Monday's edition of the program, Texas does still have a tendency to play to their level of competition, and they've done that this year, and their uninspiring performance against Rice and their great performance on the road

against Alabama. Now, that's not going to pay off for you because they'll be ready to go for Red River, just like they were a year ago. I think that Oklahoma will need to do three things really well in order to win that game. First and foremost, they need to take a page out of what Alabama did in order to stay close in their game against Texas, which was forced Texas to kick field goals when they get into the scoring territory, certainly into the red zone. If you can do that, then you can hang around and you've got a chance. The second thing that you've got to do is what Bama couldn't do, in particular in the second half, which is stop the run. If you can stop the run, you put the game onto the quarterback. And while while yours played well,

part of the reason he played well is because they threw it when they wanted to rather than when they had to. And he has shown through the years, in particular late last year, that he can struggle when it's just a drop-back game. And that's all that they've got. TCU did that to him for the most part. The last thing that you've got to do is you've got to protect the passer. Alabama was unable to do that. Texas's pass rush in front seven, I believe is underrated and we're not talking about it quite enough. They can get after the quarterback and they did on Saturday and Oklahoma is going to have to protect Dylan Gabriel. So if you're looking towards Red River, that's really the equation, the blueprint for OU. Force field goals, stop the run and get

after the passer. Next up. Doris chimes in. Doris, thank you for listening. And here we go. She says, hi, my boyfriend was listening to your podcast at work and saw you wearing this hat and he loves it. I want to get it for him. Sorry. I want to get it for him. Sorry, I want to get it for him for his birthday coming up and wanted to know where you got it from. Well, Doris, you were talking about this hat. And I decided to wear both of them. Yeah, there you go. We got both of them now.

These are my Rose Bowl hats. They're my favorite. I have a really good relationship with one of the guys who is an executive with the Rose Bowl. And I live here in the Southern California area. and Deden gave me these two hats. I've never worn this white one. I wore the white one so that you could all see it. These are hands down my favorite hats, period.

I have no idea where you get them. I know that they're custom. I don't think that they sell them. So I don't know what to do. I'll tell you what I'm going to do. You know what we're going to do? I just thought of this. I'm going to, Deiden listens to the show.

So, Deiden, you're listening right now. We're going to get some hats and we're going to do a giveaway on the Joel Clatt show. We're going to give Rose Bowl hats away. There'll be some sort of contest, some sort of giveaway. I'm not sure what it is. I'm thinking of this on the fly. This is so exciting.

And we're going to give some of these Rose Bowl hats away because a lot of people chime in about the Rose Bowl hats. That's what they are, Rose Bowl hats. I believe that it's a Travis Matthew hat with the rose on it. I don't think you can buy it, though. So we're going to do these exclusive. We're going to give away hats on the show. It's going to be amazing.

I think I might even throw a little Joel Clat logo on the side, but you might not want that. I might just do the rows. I don't know. I'm getting very excited. I talk fast when I get excited. Let's move on. Last one here. Let's go last one.

Brett here, lifelong diehard Michigan fan. I live about 30 minutes outside of Ann Arbor and attend about three games a year at the big house. I have a two-part question for you. One, what are your top five venues in college football? and what is the best game atmosphere you have ever announced a game at? You know what? I've got to mix those two. I can't really do because venues like, trust me, I did a COVID year of football.

Venues don't really matter. Atmospheres matter. So I'm just going to give you the top five games atmospheres that I've ever experienced. Okay. So this is, and keep in mind, I've never done an SEC game. So I don't have LSU at night on this list. I won't have like Tuscaloosa or, you know, Neeland Stadium. all of those have have and should be on people's list obviously those are amazing places

this is just games that I have called this is me and Gus best atmospheres stadiums and stadium environments and games that I've called in my time we started in 2015 yeah so this is our ninth season also I'll go five to one five to one five game I was just at I've been to Folsom field countless times, hundreds of times in my life. I've never seen an environment like that at Folsom. It was electric. The 2023 Nebraska at Colorado game, I'll always remember, certainly being a native of the state, a fan of that program, and then on the Lum, that was pretty special to see what went on. Shadour was doing the old school. Dion dance. CU was rolling in that game. And to see the energy there and feel the energy, I think is a more important way to put it, was

pretty special. Number four, Penn State traveling to the shoe at Ohio State, 2017. This was one of the great games and environments I have ever been a part of. That's why it's on the list, obviously, so it's redundant that I said that. Having said that, the opening kick of the game, right? Like, I barely had my headset on, and Saquan Barkley takes it the distance. I've never heard or felt a stadium with that much energy go that flat that quickly. It was an amazing return. Ohio State that here had struggled, by the way, on the kickoff team. And sure enough, he takes it over the left side and was like a rocket down the left sideline. Scores, Gus is going crazy. And from that moment on, Ohio State's just trying to climb back in that game.

And they never quite got back in the game until the end. And then at the very end, The sun is going down. The World Series is later that night on Fox and J.T. Barrett finds the wide receiver in the back of the end zone. The fans came rushing out after the game. That was incredible. So that's number four. Number three, also Penn State, although this one was a Nittany Lion win, but I love the game for a different reason. It was at Wisconsin.

It was the first game back from COVID. The jump around scene in that game, and by the way, it was a great game. The jump around scene. I still don't have words for it. The outpouring of human emotion to be back from COVID in a stadium, it was electric. I'll never forget that. It was like an earthquake up in the booth.

Ginny was jumping around on the sidelines. We stayed live to cover it. It normally happens during a commercial, but we stayed live on Fox to cover it. It was a great decision by our production team. And that was an amazing day. Amazing day. All right.

Number two, my best two. Number two was at the old Cotton Bowl when Oklahoma and Texas hooked up in Red River in 2018. The crowd split 50-50. Such a unique scenario. OU was down 21 in the fourth, tied it up. Kyler had a ridiculous run in that game, 67 yards. But then it was the young kicker from Texas. and a call that I'll always remember

because I think it was one of Gus's best calls that I've ever been a part of. That game was insane. That environment was insane. I remember walking out of the stadium and just feeling the energy in the state fair. That was an incredible day. My number one environment and venue

that I've ever experienced was Ohio State, Michigan, the game 2022. I'll never forget that game. Even though last year's game, they were both undefeated. That game with the snow falling, the pictures that were going on, the streak that Ohio State had over Michigan at that point, and just the outpouring of emotion,

I've never seen that fan base that loud. I've never seen them pour out onto the field like that. you know that that that was pretty special i just remember you know mr bright side playing while it looked like 80 000 people were actually on the field and the snow is falling and they're singing mr bright side and i took a video of it there's only a few times in my career i've ever taken a video of the atmosphere that was one of them that was the best atmosphere i've ever been in and probably ever will be in because i just don't you can't replicate that situation with the drought that Michigan had over Ohio State.

They had only won to believe it was one time in like 18 years up into that point. That was a pretty special day. So there you have it. Brett, those are my best five venues slash atmospheres that I've ever been a part of in games that I've actually called. All right. That's going to do it. Doris, we'll see about trying to get you a hat.

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