The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Ohio State beats Notre Dame to win the National Championship

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to Ohio State winning the National Championship after holding off a late comeback from Notre Dame in the Title Game. Klatt reflects on the journey this Buckeye team and Head Coach Ryan Day went on over the past 12 months, including bouncing back from the devastating loss to Michigan to go on a historic run through the first 12-team Playoff. He breaks down where the Championship Game was won and lost on Monday night while crediting the job Marcus Freeman has done with the Notre Dame program to bring the Irish back to the top tier of the sport. 0:00-1:15 Intro 1:16-6:37 Ohio State becomes National Champions 6:38-14:47 Ohio State wins first national championship since 2014 14:48-21:54 Did Ryan Day silence his critics after national championship win? 21:55-24:53 Ohio State beats Notre Dame 34-23 in national championship game 24:54-28:59 Notre Dame falls short in national championship game 29:00-32:40 Ohio State’s offensive success 32:41-35:25 What does Notre Dame’s future look like? 35:26-38:25 College football is awesome 38:53-40:54 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I don't think Ohio State gets through all the adversity that they were able to get through unless Ryan Day can be the CEO. 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. Hey, welcome into the program. This is Joel Klatt.

This show, as always, is brought to you by Hampton by Hilton, and we have a new national champion, the Ohio. Ohio State Buckeyes have won the national championship. So congratulations to the Buckeyes and Ryan Day. And we will break all of it down right here coming up on the program. Hey, before we do that, just remember rate and review us wherever you're listening to this podcast. Go ahead to subscribe to the YouTube channel. Hit that notification button. That always helps the show and then get involved in the comments.

And then wherever you like to social media, we are there. We're giving you all of our content out there as well at Joel Clat Show, wherever you like to social media. And like, we'll hope that one of those doesn't go offline again this week. You know, we don't know. We don't know what's going on. Okay, here we go. Buckeyes win the national championship. A year after their rival, the Michigan Wolverine wins the national championship. And that's back-to-back national championships for the Big Ten. And this one seems like it's been building for a number of years. Congratulations to everybody at Ohio State. What a remarkable year it was for them. And it did not come without an immense amount of adversity

throughout the season. We'll get into all of that here on the show. The first thing that I want to talk about, though, is just like this team, because I was around this team a lot. And I was around these guys on this team for the majority of not their entirety of their career. And I got to tell you, like, this was a really easy team to root for. I said the exact same thing about that Michigan team a year ago. and I will say it again this year for this year's national champion, the Ohio State Buckeyes. Man, I like those guys a lot. Like there are some high character, high integrity, excellent individuals to deal with,

both on the coaching staff, as well as the players, getting to know some of those guys. And we've been calling their games for years, obviously, and just watching them grow up right before our eyes. And this team in its construction, it was not a team that was bought. I tended to stay out of this whole conversation and narrative about this like $20 million roster and so on and so forth. And that was intentional because I know more of the behind the scenes than most. And in my conversations with Ryan and the coaching staff, listen, their NIL money was spent on their existing players.

Their existing players. It's no different than what happened last year with Michigan, bringing back so many veteran players. And that's exactly what the Buckeyes did. this year. They brought back all these veteran players and, man, they went out there and they all performed at their best. They had so many guys that decided to come back, could have gone to the National Football League, decided not to, decide to stick around and try to achieve something really great. And then they were able to do that. That's awesome. That's just really cool.

Because this game and this sport, I still believe deep down in my heart, should be about the team aspect. You know, part of the reason that I love football so much. And if you don't know, if you're just joining the show and you kind of don't know my background, most of you probably do, but maybe you don't. I come from a family of like a football family. My dad was a high school football coach. I was with him constantly. He didn't always want me to play football. So I played late all the way into middle school before I actually played football. But I love the sport and I love everything about the sport, and partly because I was around it since I can remember, since I was in diapers, I was with my dad, I was riding the buses, I was at practice,

I was in locker rooms, I loved playing, I loved being part of a team. Now I love covering this sport. And the reason is, is because this sport more than others, and I've played others as well, this sport more than those is about a group of men coming together and laying themselves down in order to try to achieve something bigger than themselves, an objective that is bigger than themselves. And that's what this Ohio State team really was all about. Because think about it.

There are countless guys, double-digit guys, both sides of the ball, that could have gone to the National Football League and been fairly high picks. But they didn't. They came back. And they came back for a purpose. Now, did they get taken care of in the era of NIL?

Yes. Was that the purpose in coming back? No, no, it wasn't. I got to talk to these guys. Their purpose in coming back was fulfilled on Monday night to go out and win a national championship. And they were able to do that. And I got to tell you, man, just as a former player, I just, I loved seeing that. I loved seeing that come to fruition and the happiness in terms of this brotherhood that was able to go out and achieve something bigger than any of their individual accolades. Again, that's why I love this sport. I know it's a little bit of a tangent, but we get to witness that on a night like Monday night. And so Ohio State has this group of guys that all come back, whether it's Jack Sawyer or J.T. Tuimoloow, or Donovan Jackson, or Lathen Ransom, or Jordan Hancock, or Denzel Burke, or Tyleek Williams, and Tyler Hamilton, and Cody Simon. And let's see, Igbenosin is one of those guys. Ameca Abuka, Travion Henderson.

All of these guys came back, and they came back for Monday night, and then they were able to win that game. That to me is very special. It's very special, and it's why I love this sport. And why this group, they will never forget this. They will live in the annals of history, not only for our sport, but certainly at Ohio State. And Ohio State celebrates their history as well or better than anybody out there.

And that year is going to go up in the shoe. They're going to have a big old 20-24 in there. And you know what? Congratulations to those guys because it was quite a journey. It was quite a journey. So all of those guys come back. They add a few pieces. Yes, they get a quarterback in Will Howard and obviously Quinn Sean Judkins jumps in through the portal.

Caleb Downs. They get this great freshman receiver in Jeremiah Smith. But largely the core of guys were Buckeyes. And that's where the leadership was, even the four captains that walked out there for the coin flip. They were Buckeyes. And these guys all have played like 50 plus games, just salty veterans in our sport, which is actually really cool. And I'll get to in a little bit. But they go out there and they have a season that is not just sunshines and rainbows. That was not an easy season for this group. Think about what this group had to overcome. The midseason

lost to Oregon, the loss to Michigan, which to this day is, is still bewildering to me, and I'm sure a lot of Ohio State fans. But they lose that game. And then you think about where this program was at. And I shouldn't say this program. I should say, like, you think about where the narrative was at surrounding the program, whether it was, you know, surrounding the coaching staff or even some of the players. And they were able to kind of circle the wagons, go back into their building in their locker room,

and say like, listen, we know who we are. And if we reach our potential and if we play our best football, we can go out there and we can still accomplish something really great. That's tough to do. It's incredibly tough to do to be knocked down flat because that game is such a monumental game. And we all know that. And I don't mean to bring it up,

but it's like you have to understand where they came from just four games ago. They're just knocked down totally flat and they've got to pick themselves back up and then go out there and play a grueling elite four games in a row. Pretty staggering to see what they did. Go out there, Crush Tennessee in front of their home fans. Crush Oregon, the only team that went through the regular season undefeated in the Rose Bowl, played Texas in Dallas, win that game and just a classic game with that huge strip sack and score from Jack Sawyer.

Then you go and you play Notre Dame and it looks like it's yours for the taking. It looks like you're going to cruise to a victory and now all of a sudden you're in a one-score game. And in a lot of ways, like this team, they had been forged through the adversity of the season. And that's a big reason why they were able to come out on top. Four straight double-digit wins in this playoff, Tennessee, Oregon, Texas, and then Notre Dame. This team at their best was the best team in the country. And I don't think that there was really any question about that. This is a team that has it all.

They've got the ability to have answers. I'll talk about that when I talk more about the actual game. But they've got answers everywhere. They've got veterans. They never panic. And I thought Will Howard played one of his best games as a Buckeye. It just reminds me of where we're at in college football. And I keep saying this.

and there's really two more points that I want to make more generally about the team. And the first being that we're at a point in college football where we get to enjoy teams that have guys that come back and stay in school. Like, we don't get this anymore. You know, we always lament in the sport of like college basketball. Oh, we're never going to get those early 90s Duke teams. Whether you hated them or not, it was really cool to see them stay and play for three and four years, the UNLV team before that.

You know, like, we don't get that now. Now, everyone laments that. Oh, you know, all these players leave. And we're in an era that I know is frustrating for fans. And I don't want to minimize your frustration with all the roster movement and everything. But NIL is good for the sport. It's good for the sport. It's long overdue. Players have deserved the ability to go out and monetize their name image and likeless. Nobody has an argument with that. And so now what that's allowed teams to do and programs to do and players to do is stay in school. And now what we're seeing is more veteran teams. And now it's becoming the blueprint for how to win a national championship. Now, back to back seasons, we've had a team that basically committed. They all came back.

Yes, the program invested through NIL to get those guys back. And you've got guys that have played 40 and 50 football games in college that get to go out there and try to win the national championship. and they were able to do that. And that's exactly the case with Ohio State. So everyone asks me, by the way, all the time, you always say it's a dawn of the golden age of college football. What do you mean about the golden age of? Well, that's part of it.

I think what we're witnessing in terms of the blueprint and the makeup of who wins the national championship is part of what I think to be the golden age of college football. It's great right now. I love seeing these guys play 50 games and not 22. not 23. It's like, well, you know, two years gone. Think about how many guys on this Buckeye team played over 50 games. Denzel Burke started 51 games at Ohio State. Ameca Abuka stayed long enough to set the catch record for the Buckeyes. The history of their school, no one's caught more passes than Ameca Abuka. Congratulations to you, man. You talk about a guy that is so high, high character, high integrity, hardworking, one of the most respect. and just like awesome guys that I've ever had the chance to cover.

He's in the same vein of like a Blake quorum and all these different guys that I've gotten to cover over the years. That's what we get now is the opportunity to watch these guys play for the schools that we love longer. That's part of the golden age. There's no doubt. The other side of this that I would just touch out, and you've kind of heard me and noticed that I keep referencing the last two years and Michigan winning the national championship last year and now Ohio State wins it this year. I said this all the way in the preseason. I even said it to Ryan in our Big Noon conversation last summer,

which was this observation that throughout sport, professional and college, we see a driving factor in an organization or programs motivation, motivation, being when they see their rival do something great. And there's an expectation, both from the fans and internally, at programs and organizations, again, both professional and in the college level, where when your rival does something like win a championship, there's like, well, that's the standard, because we're not just going to allow our rival to be ahead of us.

Ohio State had driven the standard for so long. it forced Michigan to go to Jim Harbaugh, and they were killing Jim Harbaugh, and he had to make a change. And then all of a sudden they did. And they made a change through COVID, and they brought in a younger staff, and they brought in new systems. And they were able to overcome Ohio State and then win a national championship. And guess what that spurs? Ohio State's like, nope, we got to do something about that. And all those players sat in the locker room, and they sat there and they thought to themselves,

we can achieve something great. Why don't we come back and go win a national championship? and they were able to do it. I think that the driver of greatness in college football and other sports, but more specifically, college football can be and is a lot of times when your rival is doing something great. And these two rivals now in back-to-back years win the national championship in our sport. I think that that's really cool as well.

I want to move on to Ryan Day. Ryan is one of the great coaches in college football. I've said that for a long time. And I know that the narrative surrounding Ryan Day is always like, oh, he's coaching for his job. I think that's garbage. I really do. He's one of the great coaches in the sport. And now one of only, what is it, three guys that have actually won a national championship that is currently coaching in college football. Kirby Smart, Davoswini, and now Ryan Day, winning a national championship. And I don't know that there's another program, at least right now. Maybe throughout history there's been pockets.

Maybe we're going to enter a pocket with another guy I'll talk about later. But I don't think that there's another program that has higher expectations of their coach than Ohio State. This has been talked about over the last few weeks, you know, at length. Ryan is expected to win every single game he plays. in a lot of circles, he's not only expected to win every game that they play, but they're also expected to cover in every game that they play. And that's it. And that's just the standard.

And anything below that, there's speculation on his job. So it doesn't matter that he's basically the most successful coach from a winning percentage standpoint. No, no, no, no. It just matters like that standard. And I'm not going to sit here and tell fans that you're wrong for your standard. I don't think that that's right either. Listen, part of what makes Ohio State special as a program and special in terms of they don't have downed eras is the standard.

And in a lot of ways, the fans drive that standards. That's the expectation of the 100,000 in the seats and the millions around the country and world that are Buckeye fans. The standard is greatness. The standard is win. When every game, that's what they feel like they should be. be able to do. That's their standard. And they know it, speaking of the coaching staff. Urban Meyer knew it. Ryan Day knows it. Ryan's not trying to run away from the standard.

He's trying to meet the standard, you know, and it's not for the feign of heart. You know, and if you've seen Urban Myers clip out there, I agree with him. It's a job that you go in and you've got to swing at every single day. And it's so funny that that's the language that they use and Ryan uses specifically in terms of you just got to go in there and you got to swing and you got to fight because that's what that's what it tends to be. And I will just tell you this, like, Ryan's a really classy guy. He's got great character. He operates with integrity. He has always been great to us and gracious with us when we go in and cover his team. I considered him to be one of the guys that I would lean on in coaching circles because, listen, you know, you cover all of these guys and

at times, like, there are things that you want to bounce off of them as well. And Ryan's always one of those guys with me. I'm happy for him. It just is what it is. This guy does it the right way. And I'm happy that he was able to go out there and fulfill what I know was his desire for his team. He never would talk to us about, or me personally, about what it would mean for him. He talked about two groups of people, his family at home and his players in the locker room. And he always talked about them, like, almost as equals. And that's what he cared about. And that's what he operated for. And so to see that come out, and he touched on this in his postgame interview as well. But to see him come out of that and win a national championship,

knowing what he dealt with, I think is really awesome. Now, what are the things that make him elite? Well, we knew he was an elite offensive coach and an elite offensive play caller. However, I'll tell you what becomes even more impressive to me is when somebody will correctly view a situation and make an adjustment that doesn't necessarily seem like the most obvious adjustment. His superpower was calling plays. He was one of the great play callers in college football and really in football.

I loved watching the film of him call plays, his rhythm and his feel for what defenses were going to do and when to take shots and so on and so forth. It was uncanny and it was really brilliant. He's a very smart guy. And yet, as a head coach, he had the wherewithal to kind of see this idea where I'm going to take a step back from my superpower. And I'm going to give those powers up to a guy that I trust, first Bill O'Brien, then Bill O'Brien. goes to Boston College, then he hires Chip Kelly, who he's got a lengthy history with. And he's like, I'm going to be a better coach even without my superpower, which is calling plays. And you know what? That was the key difference in this season. I don't think Ohio State gets

through all the adversity that they were able to get through unless Ryan Day can be the CEO. Just very quickly, if he's calling plays, he doesn't have the opportunity to sit down with the defensive coaches after the Oregon game and really go through the switches necessary, both schematically and philosophically of how to make the defense better because the defense posts the Oregon loss was excellent, best defense in the country. And they changed some things. And I've gone over that in previous shows, so I don't have to go through it at length here. Real briefly, they changed the way that they rushed the quarterback.

They changed the structure in the way that they got Caleb Downs involved on more plays through aligning him in the middle of the field. All of those things were a lot better in the back half of the year. He doesn't have that opportunity if he's calling plays and game planning as an offensive coordinator. So that's one switch. Secondly, I think the ability to identify and change what was going on on the offensive side after the Michigan game. That only happens if you're a CEO. The ability to go out and get those players to come back, get them to commit to come back and build the roster.

Get Jeremiah Smith to commit and stay committed. at Ohio State to have the conversations with Caleb Downs and Will Howard. He built the roster. That is the number one skill of a head football coach in our sport, is to build the roster, talent acquisition. And he did that. And I don't think that he can do it as effectively if he's worrying about calling plays all the time. And so this idea to give up your superpower and to take more of a CEO role

and to do that as well as he did. And the first year that he attempted it speaks volumes for him, man. And a big hand for that decision and then for everybody for going along with some of the changes that they made during the course of the season. And then to sit there and get that team ready to go out there and play after that Michigan loss, I'll tell you what. That was some coaching job. That was some coaching job by Ryan Day. Let's get into the game for a little bit. Okay, so this game was always a game that I thought favored Ohio State.

And you saw that play out pretty, I would say, clearly and obviously in the first half. It was not a matchup that was good for Notre Dame. What they wanted to do on the defensive side was not conducive to stopping Ohio State. You cannot stop that version of Ohio State, I should say. No one's beating that version of Ohio State. They just beat everybody in the playoffs by 11 plus points. double-digit points. No one's beating them. Okay. And when they're playing that way, the only thing that starts to slow them down is when you can control the line of scrimmage

enough with your front four and play zone and kind of trap coverage on their wide receivers in the back end. If you're having to play man coverage, you're beat. I talked to them about this all season long and man teams would come in and we'd all say the same thing. There's no way they're going to play man. And even Notre Dame had to back off the amount that they were playing man coverage because it just wasn't working. Early in that first half, Will Howard didn't miss a ball. I think he completed his first 15 passes or 14 passes, something along those lines in this game. It was impressive, partly because you can't hold up in man coverage against Jeremiah Smith and Emeka, Abuka, and Carnell Tate, and the backs, because the backs were a huge part of the game plan

and they were fresh. This idea that you could get two. two backs, take the carries and really share them throughout the season and what was a really long and lengthy season, and get them to a point where they can play as fresh and as fast and as physical as they played in a national championship game, that's why you go out and get Quinn Sean Judkins. That's what was so impressive. So that version of Ohio State, terrible matchup for Notre Dame, terrible matchup. And that played out in spades in the first half. I kept saying, really ever since the Michigan game, I kept saying like, hey, if Ohio State wants to succeed offensively, they're going to get to the quick game early and do it horizontally with some of those screens, some of the kind of the RPO action plays, and they were able to do that. And when they got the ball in space to their playmakers quickly, it was a track meet, man. And Notre Dame couldn't stand up to that.

And here's what is so interesting about that style of play for Ohio State. That style is what opens up the run game. And you saw some of those lanes get opened up early in the game. Now, in the second half, they got much more conservative as they were trying to bleed out clock with the big lead. And it almost came back to bite them. And that's where I just sit back and I'm very impressed with Notre Dame. That game had been, it was totally out of hand. 31 7, 31 unanswered from Ohio State.

And here comes Notre Dame, and they just kept chipping away and chipping away and chipping away. And Riley Leonard kept chipping away. And it's like, dang, and the defense would just, you know, got to get a stop here or there. They force the fumble on a Bucca. And then all of a sudden you look up and Notre Dame is sitting there and it is a one possession game late in the fourth quarter. And it's like, how in the world did this get to this point?

because in the first half, it's a track meet. I watched that game in the first half and think to myself, Ohio State can score 50. And then as soon as they go conservative, and as soon as they start to just try to run the football, kind of in a traditional sense, without some of the quick game and horizontal game that they present, Notre Dame was able to settle in and get a couple of stops. And then they got the turnover. and all of those things allowed Notre Dame to get right back into that game. Now, I touched on this a little bit, and this version of Ohio State was not going to get beat by anybody.

So this is by no means a knock on Notre Dame. I think that Notre Dame had a terrific year, terrific year. This is an elite program, and Marcus Freeman has done an incredible job. That just wasn't a team that I felt like was going to be able to beat Ohio State, and you saw that play out. You saw that play out. There's just too much talent. And what ultimately happened is that there were more answers for Ohio State than there were for Notre Dame. Let's just take it from an answer's perspective.

So Notre Dame goes right down the field and they score on their opening possession. What a series that was. 18 plays, nine minutes. And you're like, holy cow, are they going to be able to do that? And I'm texting with Steve here from the show and a couple of other groups. And I said, I was like, that's totally unsustainable. That drive is totally unsustainable. There is no way on earth that Riley Leonard can continue to carry the ball eight times of possession.

That's exactly what Marcus Freeman ended up saying right after the game. No, we couldn't run Riley every play. It's not right for Riley. And it's not going to sustain a success we needed offensively. you know, we ran them a whole bunch that first series. And, you know, you look at the second series, we had two penalties, which ended up forcing us to punt. And in the third series, you know, we had the miscommunication with the muff snapped,

and that's the end of the half. Second half, we drove the ball. I thought we did a good job, you know, with some tough situations. But we can't run Riley every single play. And that's not what the formula for success is. Okay, so even though they were able to move the ball later in the game, They just didn't have enough answers. Because if they weren't running the football with him, they weren't able to run the football.

And if you're not able to run the football, it becomes a dropback game. And then really, the way that they were able to move the ball is in a lot of ways because of penalty. Until late, when Riley started making some really nice throws and Great House started making some really great plays down the field. So, like, it started to open up at times, but. like their play wasn't sustainable, even getting back to a one possession game, even getting back to a one possession game. It just felt like everything was a giant strain. Now, I don't understand why they kicked the field goal in the fourth quarter,

which ended up being a miss versus going forward on fourth down. But I think that that's going to be water on the bridge, and you kind of talk about game management at a different time. What you did see is that Ohio State did have answers. because when they came out after that first series defensively, what they were able to do is put some pressure on Riley Leonard. They started blitzing on normal downs or base downs in order to take away the run game and take away the quarterback run game

and then force them into a position where they were having to throw the football behind the chains. That's not how Notre Dame is going to have success. And that's where Ohio State was able to really build up the momentum and build up the lead. On offense, they just have too many plays. to attack, too many places to attack. So there's no way that you can manipulate your defense enough or long enough in order to stop them for 60 minutes. I just don't, like, it's just not,

it's not a thing. Now, it wasn't a couple of games, and it's because they got too conservative on the offensive side. When they weren't conservative, when they were able to take shots, when they got the ball out of their quarterback's hands quickly, and then that led to run game, this team was largely unbeatable, and that's why they ended up winning the national championship. Last thing is that play late in the game, I would just say this, man. Jeremiah Smith is one of the best players I've seen in a long time. And it's hard to say that about a wide receiver because a wide receiver can go missing for large sections of the game. And I know that's a frustration for fans, but you're sitting there and it's like, well, where has he been the entire second half?

And then when they needed them most, it's third and long. They've got to have a conversion. It's a one possession game. Things are looking, I don't want to say dire, but it's like things are looking interesting for the first time. What do they do? They dial up just a straight go ball to Jeremiah Smith. Do you know the faith that you have to have to throw it to a true freshman on just a go ball? That's, that is wild.

and it just speaks to the level of play that that guy brings to the table. He is special. And that was a great throw by Will Howard. Speaking of Will Howard, I thought it was Will Howard's best game as a Buckeye. His efficiency in the first half, his ability to move with his legs and get first downs with his legs, I thought was crucial at times. His, I know this sounds great, but like, you've got to have urgency in the pocket and yet move slowly. You don't want to be moving too quick. Like your mind has to process information fast and with urgency,

but you've got to look like you're under control. And Will Howard looked like he was under control that entire first half and largely throughout the entire game. He was tremendous. The other aspect of this offense that I think hasn't gotten enough attention, and I touched on it a little bit prior, the backs were fresh and fast. So Henderson and Judkins are weapons,

because they come in there fresh and fast. They're making people missing the backfield. They're busting off long runs. You can throw it to them out of the backfield. Those guys were weapons. And it just makes me wonder to myself like, man, I wonder what this team could have been if they would have had like their full compliment on their offensive line for the entirety of the year.

Because they would have been a better rushing team than what they were. And yet here they are winning every playoff game by double digits. And they weren't even at their full capacity. or full potential, and maybe nobody was. So that is what it is because Notre Dame also had a bunch of injuries. But that offense was not going to be stopped. If they're playing aggressive, if they're playing that way from a play calling perspective, you know, it was going to be a long night for Notre Dame.

And it was because of the mismatch. When Notre Dame majors in is not what you need to do in order to combat what Ohio State does really well. I do want to just continue in terms of my compliments for Notre Dame. Marcus Freeman has elevated that place back to the elite level. And I know that Brian Kelly played for a national championship, and I know that he went to college football playoffs. And Brian Kelly did an incredible job at Notre Dame. And he brought them back in a lot of ways to a place where they were a prominent,

upper-level college football program. And he did that in the midst of difficulties for. an academic standpoint. It's just tougher academics there than you're going to get it at most places. That's a special place. And Marcus Freeman is a hell of a football coach, but he took the foundation that Brian Kelly laid and he elevated it. That's an elite program right there. And they're not going anywhere. Think about the fortitude and fight and grit that that culture has to have, that locker room has to have, that sideline has to have, to go back out there and just keep fighting and fighting and fighting

when you're getting handled in a national championship game. It's 31-7, and then they just kept chipping away and chipping away and chipping away and now all of a sudden it's an eight-point game. They're going to have a ton of those offensive linemen back. They've got a lot of good, really good young players. They're fast, they're physical, and Marcus Freeman has elevated them to an elite program. I don't know, even though they played Alabama for a BCS National Championship, and even

though they went to college football playoffs, like there was all this sense that, at least for me, that Notre Dame wasn't in that like upper crust that could actually go out there and win it. And now, after Monday night, after this season, and looking at what they have on their roster and what they're going to be over the next couple of years, Notre Dame could absolutely win a national championship. There's not a doubt in my mind. They're in a one-score game in a national championship on Monday night in the fourth quarter.

So that's an elite program. And Marcus Freeman is largely to thank for that because he elevated a great program to a point where there are an elite upper crust program right now. And it wouldn't surprise me at all if in the next few years, Notre Dame is able to host that trophy. Because in a lot of ways, you need some of these, you need some of these kind of forging moments for your program so that young guys feel it. And then all of a sudden, Notre Dame will be the team where everyone comes back

and everyone commits and they're veteran and they've got guys that are out there with 50 starts each and 50 games played in college. And then you're the veteran team and then you win the national championship. I firmly believe that. Marcus Freeman has done one hell of a job. Those were two really good programs out there that really do it the right way. Last thing that I want to touch on here is kind of zoom back out to what we just got to witness, not just on Monday night, but for the entirety of the playoff. Now, did it take too long and are there problems with the playoffs?

yes. And I lament that and I talk about that. And you understand. Okay, you understand that. However, what we just witnessed was awesome. The college football playoff expansion to 12 worked. This thing was fabulous. It was fabulous. As a college football fan, there is no way that you can sit there and witness what we just witnessed, whether it was Monday night or in the semifinals or in the quarterfinals or throughout the entirety of the back end of the regular season, conference championship game weekend, and say to yourself like, no, that wasn't better than it used to be. Nope, that's not a thing. This was great.

This was one of the great seasons that we've witnessed in college football history, and this playoff achieved what we've always desired in college football, which was, without a shadow of a doubt, identified the best team as our national champion, and that's exactly what happened. That is exactly what happened. there is no team that can wake up on Tuesday morning or Wednesday morning and say to themselves like, yeah, but if we would have had a chance, that's not a thing anymore. We don't have a split national champion.

We don't have a team that was left out of a four-team playoff, left out of a two-team BCS national championship game. We do not have a team that has a gripe. Everybody had a chance. Everybody. And everyone got to come to the table, and Ohio State gets to take the trophy home. And that was the best team. The best team in college football was Ohio State this year, and they won the national championship. So this playoff not only achieved that objective, but it made it amazing.

We got to see postseason games on campus. We got to see what a playoff always should do, which is, yeah, you might have a few games that have a large margin in the first round, but we started to get some better games and better games and great games. and that's exactly what a playoff should do, is that you start to weed out some of the teams that, you know, qualify, get themselves in there, but maybe aren't going to make a championship run. And then you get some teams in there. And it's like, listen, they're playing their best football. And you're going to get great football games.

And we got a great football game in the semifinals, each of them. And we really got a quality game, even though it was a large margin at one point, we ended up getting a quality game of the national championship. So the college football playoff has done what. it achieved, what it set out to achieve. Made the season incredible. And this was a great year. I thought we had great matchups. I think that we can have more.

I do. I do think that we're going to get some tweaks. Namely, like, it took too long. All right? It took too long. January 20th and a Monday night is no time to be celebrating our sport. We need to move that closer to the regular season. But having said that, man, like it's hard to argue with what we

got with this actual, legit, 12-team college football playoff, identifying what we all know to be now is the best team in college football, which is the Ohio State Buckeyes. Congratulations to Ohio State. Ross Bjork, Ryan Day, everybody at Ohio State. What an incredible year. On Thursday, I'm going to have my way too early top 25 episode coming out. So you're going to want to come back on Thursday morning because I'm going to have that. And I got to tell you, we're starting to see a little bit of a blueprint now in modern college football with NIL and with Transfer Portal. What's actually winning at the top end? It's not always just how you recruit, but it's also how you retain and you get older veteran players to come back to your team.

I'm just saying, like, there's one team following that blueprint right now. And in my way too early top 10, excuse me, for the 2020. season, you're going to see Penn State in there somewhere. You're definitely going to see Penn State in there somewhere. Another announcement, okay, so I've been teasing this for a long time, and I actually asked you guys on the show, would you want us here at the Joel Clash show to do a schematic series of football and just talk about football and kind of teach football from my perspective, from maybe a coaching perspective, so that you can understand the game better.

because it's the most popular sport in our country by far and the least understood from a schematic standpoint. So we have got the Understanding Football Schematic series coming to YouTube. If you are not over at YouTube yet, you've got to get over there. You subscribe to the channel. You hit the notification button and you will know when all of this is dropping. We have got three videos debuting here soon. In fact, our first Understanding Football is dropping on Monday, January 27th. Okay, so Monday, January 27th on YouTube, get over there.

Understanding Football with the Joel Clash show is coming. Big thanks to Hampton by Hilton. What an incredible college football year. We'll be back on Thursday. And folks, I hope you had a great weekend, a great Monday night, and we'll be back on Thursday.