The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Ohio State, Notre Dame, Penn State and Texas all move on in the CFP + tweeting at Lane Kiffin

Episode Date: December 22, 2024

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to the First Round of the College Football Playoff as Ohio State, Texas, Penn State and Notre Dame all advanced to the Quarterfinals. He states why this is the version of Ohio State he’s been waiting to see and why they can win the National Championship. He breaks down what made Notre Dame and Penn State’s emphatic wins so impressive while giving Texas credit for withstanding a great performance from Clemson’s Cade Klubnik. Klatt also discusses the discourse around the Playoff this weekend and why it was so negative. He explains why he was so frustrated with the conversation questioning Indiana and SMU after their losses that he ended up tweeting at Lane Kiffin. 0:00-1:56 Intro 1:57-4:50 Joel’s Big Takeaways 4:51-15:50 Ohio State’s impressive game plan 15:51-23:34 Texas advances to quarterfinals after beating Clemson 23:35-30:42 Penn State blows out SMU 30:43-34:24 Notre Dame beats Indiana 34:25-47:05 Joel’s frustrations with the CFP discourse 47:06-48:19 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I wish that the rhetoric would have been different. I really do. And I wish it would have been more responsible. To be candid, I felt like it was irresponsible. And it was coming from some like really prominent places. 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, what's up everybody? Welcome into the Joel Clatt show. I am Joel Clatt. This show is always brought to you by Hampton by Hilton. And we have got a pack show. It is right after the game. We are sitting down to record this right after Ohio State just got finished up. Ohio State and Tennessee from the shoe to kind of conclude this first round of the college football playoff. And so we're giving you some immediate reaction. We don't normally drop episodes on Sunday, but that's what we're going to do here. So we've got our episode ready to go for you in the immediate reaction after this playoff college football, which I love. Now, before I get into that, remember wherever you're listening to this podcast, go ahead and rate and review us, please, share us with a friend if you would over this holiday season. Just, you know, I don't know, call up a buddy and be like, hey, guess what I listen to for college football? It's the Joel Clats show. That would be awesome. If you're watching on YouTube, congratulations. We've got a lot of content coming for you that is

unique and it is exclusive to YouTube, and that's going to be coming in the new year. So go ahead and subscribe, hit that notification button below, and you will know when everything drops. Get in the comments as well, because that's always fun. And then wherever you like to social media, we are there, and you can find our content in more digestible forms, those smaller snippets, if you will, at Joel Clatshiel, wherever you like to social media, we are there. Okay, we've got to get into this weekend. I've got so much to talk about, obviously, with these four games.

But first and foremost, folks, and I don't think enough people say. at this weekend, in particular, you know, in a lot of the places that I was digesting college football, I just want to celebrate the sport really quickly and say, that was awesome. That was awesome. If you're disappointed, you know, I don't know what to tell you because that was terrific this weekend. The first round of the college football playoff was phenomenal. It was really phenomenal in so many ways.

And I understand that the games weren't as competitive as maybe one. we would hope for. But I'm here to tell you that's not always the case anyways. Okay. So I'll get into all of that a little bit later. And trust me, I will address some of my Twitter actions later in the show and specifically my tweet at Lane Kiffin, whom, by the way, I love. But I'll address that later in the show. And I've got a lot of thoughts about what was going on as far as the discourse around college football specifically in these playoff games I've got all of that lined up, but that's going to be at the end of the show because I want to celebrate these games and some of these performances first. Because, again, I thought it was awesome.

I've been waiting for this all season long, and I know you have as well. And I don't think anybody, anybody really, and I don't think anybody has. But no one can argue that this hasn't made the regular season even better. Like college football, the entirety of the season was better because of the expanded playoffs. and now it was finally here, and we got to watch actual playoff games in some of the best venues in our sport. That's why it was awesome. Like we got to see in Notre Dame Stadium, the Irish take on Indiana in a playoff game. We got to see Penn State at home in a whiteout.

We got to see Texas in front of $100,000 at DKR, and we got to see the shoe in like an unbelievable matchup against Tennessee in which Tennessee fans are showing up in crazy numbers in the shoe. And like we get to see those environments. Come on, man. Like that's incredible. If you love this sport like I do, then this weekend, even without the most competitive games, was still awesome.

I was so excited for these games. And in a lot of ways, they delivered because of some of these environments in particular, some of these northern environments. And that was one of my biggest takeaways on Twitter is my main takeaway home college football playoff games. they're electric. And more of these, please, more of these. In fact, in the future as the college football grows and maybe expands,

but tweaks and whatever it does, more home playoff games. That's the biggest takeaway from what was an incredible day of college football. Let's get into that last game that we just saw, that I just saw that you just saw, from Ohio State, as Ohio State absolutely handles Tennessee. and that was so impressive. Final score, 4217, obviously not really even that close. Ohio State totally dominated this Tennessee team. And this is a game that was supposed to be kind of that 8-9 game, closest matchup in the college football playoff based on seatings. And here's another takeaway that we're going to have the entire show is it is really hard to win on the road.

Okay, these home venues, they produce great environments, great electricity. There's no doubt, but great home field advantage. All right, all the home teams win. Ohio State goes out there and made it look fairly easy. And we'll get into how they did that in a moment. But man, like home field advantage is a thing. And remember, because of the way that this playoff was constructed, now albeit a bit flawed,

but the way it was constructed with the two buys going to Arizona State and Boise State, remember the teams that hosted, they were between the third and sixth ranked teams in the country. That's not the seed that they got, but as far as the rankings go, these teams are incredible teams, as we all believe that they are. Okay. And it is very tough to win in someone's building who is this good. All of these teams, very rare that they're going to take home losses. All right, that's just kind of the nature of the beast.

Now, does it happen sometimes? Yes, it absolutely does. Does it happen often? Absolutely not. and that's because these home field advantages are, I think, significant. And again, why I want more of this in the playoff moving forward. Now, let's get to this Ohio State team. Okay, so Ohio State, why did this look so much different than the last time we saw

them against Michigan? Well, they leaned into exactly what I thought that they would lean into. Remember in the preview episode right here on the Joel Clash show, I told you that Ryan Day fixes things as well as anybody in the country. And he has shown a history of this, whether it was from 2019 to 2020, when they lost to Clemson to then ending up beating Clemson to the playoff in 2020,

the offensive game plan was so aggressive in 2020, kind of fixing the things that maybe they feel like they left on the table in 2019. Well, the same can be said in 2022. They get beat by Michigan and yet still make it into the college football playoff. And, man, they threw some haymakers offensively against Georgia in that game. Remember, now, even in a loss, they went out there and played sensational offensively. So in the back of my mind, I thought to myself, they understand that that was a poor game plan

against Michigan. They understand that they can't roll out there in front of their fan base and not play in space and on the perimeter. They can't do that. That's not a game plan that their fan base would have accepted, okay? And rightly so. So they went out there and they fixed the issues that they had against Michigan. I said that they would play in space, that they would play with a little bit more tempo and get that talent and speed the ball in those areas to affect the defense.

And that's exactly what happened. That's exactly what happened. Man, the aggressive nature just in that first quarter, it was like an avalanche, just rolling down the field. Tennessee did not stand a chance. Why? Because they don't have the secondary to hold up against Ohio State's wide receivers, number one.

But two, it was like, The aggressive nature of the play calling didn't allow them to get their feet really set in that game. Taking shots to Jeremiah Smith, getting the ball to the Wemke, Abuka, getting the ball to the backs in space in order to affect the defense, man. That game plan is where they should live. Ohio State does not have to prove to anybody that they can run the football or be tough at the line of scrimmage. Man, go play in space, and that's one of the best offenses in the country. I think that was proven out against Tennessee.

I think that was very much proven out. And in a lot of ways, this is the offense that we've wanted to see all along. They have been planning for a long run into the playoffs all season, which is why that they've played slow. They've played deliberate from like a speed and tempo standpoint all season long. And in the conversations that I've had with Coach Day and Coach Kelly, going all the way back to last spring, we talked a lot about the long nature of the season,

how it's going to resemble more of what the NFL is versus what the college has been traditionally. And one of the things that they talked about is this idea of pacing themselves and making sure that they are ready to go both from a schematic standpoint and from a freshness standpoint with their skill guys late into the season.

They felt like they were going to have to play 16 or 16. 17 games. And lo and behold, here they are. They're going to have to play 16 games to win a national championship. And so that in a big way influenced the way that they wanted to use tempo or the fast speed of the offense throughout the regular season. Now, their best, without a doubt, when they're using their speed, using their talent, playing in space, and playing fast. I know that they don't want to do that all the time, but that's when they're at their best. And there's, there's no doubt about that. There's no doubt about that. And when they are in that mode, they're incredibly difficult to stop.

Incredibly difficult to stop. It's still, like, it still boggles the mind. You watch that game, and I know, again, it just ended. And at least a part of me in the back of my mind is like, how was the game plan against Michigan, the game plan that they, like, I still, it's still, again, I know, I'm probably ripping band-aids off for Ohio State fans that are going to hurt. But the aggressive nature against Tennessee was there. Meanwhile, on the other side, the defense was totally dominant against Tennessee's offense. Tennessee's offense really didn't stand a chance. Now, I was really looking forward to see Dylan Samson, and he didn't come to fruition at all.

He got back in late in the game. He didn't really get any carries. Josh Heipple was cryptic at halftime with Marty Smith about what was going on. like I didn't understand what was going on from a Tennessee's offensive game plan perspective. And here's why. Okay. I won't get into a ton of X's and O's, but this one was interesting because Ohio State's defense, I felt like played one of the most unique game plans that they had played all season long. Now, meanwhile, Tennessee's offense and their structure and what they do to attack you is unique. In fact, there's not a lot of teams that do what Tennessee does. It's this old kind of art-brile-style spread.

downfield choice passing game, spread run game. And what they do, it's a numbers equation. So they're going to spread you out as wide as they can possibly go with the wide receiver splits. And then if you put enough run defenders in the box, they'll throw the football on what they would think to be passing numbers. And if you defend the pass and you don't have enough run defenders, then they'll run the football. So to them, it's just a big math equation over and over again. Well, this is what Ohio State did, is that they just went back and they played soft pass coverage most of the time, not all the time, but most of the time.

And they said to their defensive line in their front six, really, with Cody Simon at linebacker and Sunny Stiles at linebacker, they were like, those guys are going to handle the run game. And those guys are going to handle the pressure up there. And then we're just going to leave everybody else in coverage. And what that did is it forced Nico I Malayava to hold the ball. And when he holds the ball, now all of a sudden the pass rush can get home, which it did. And in order to get them out of that defense, you have to run the football. And Tennessee was never able to run the football.

In fact, the most effective run game that they had was Nico E. Maliavo either on a quarterback draw or on a scramble. Ohio State's defense played really well and proved why they are one of if not the best defense in college football. I've been saying it since the spring. I thought that they could be the best defense in college football. They are statistically the best defense in college football. They came in as the number one total defense and the number one scoring defense in the country. And they didn't prove anything other than that against Tennessee.

Tennessee really didn't threaten them at all. They had a couple of nice drives and credit Nico for settling in in those drives in particular right before the half, but never really threatening Ohio State. And I think that was, I don't know about the shocking part, but that was the part that was certainly at the forefront when you're talking about this, this potential upset that Tennessee could have had. There was just nothing there. Like, Nico didn't have anything to go to down the field,

and there wasn't any run game. And this is what happens in road environments. If you're Tennessee, you have to be able to run the football. You have to. Because then it allows you to take some pressure off your quarterback. And the pressure in terms of both the pressure, from the defense and the pressure of production. You see, if your quarterback just has to put a cape on his back

and be the best player on the field at all times, it's going to be difficult because those are tough conditions. That's a tough defense. That's a tough environment. That's very difficult for a young quarterback to do. And by the way, this played out in every single one of these games. So when Ohio State stops the ability of Tennessee to run the football, now it's kind of a wrap.

With Ohio State playing aggressive on the offensive side, now it's just a matter of what is the margin going to be. And in the end, the margin is really about 32. Tennessee scores kind of a garbage touchdown late. They make it somewhat respectable, 4217 really wasn't that close. It really wasn't that close. This Buckeye team, when they play that way, again, huge caveat, they're virtually unbeatable. and this is what I have always talked about as far as the flaw in the college football playoff is that the number one seed in the entire thing, Oregon now has to play that Ohio state team, which is wild.

And Dan Lannings not going to complain, okay? He's not going to say anything other than that's the next game. And if you're going to win a national championship, then you've got to beat the teams in front of you. Because Dan Langing is that dog, right, man, like he's got that in him. Okay, so Oregon's not going to complain. But I will just tell you, like, something is broken that Oregon as the number one seed has to play this Ohio State team in what is their first round and the second round of the overall playoff. That's very difficult to do. Speaking of tough road environments, by the way, Texas is a tough road environment.

And Clemson goes to Texas and they lose that game. And Texas is able to win. And listen, this was going to be a hearty ask from this Clemson team. This is a team that I don't think any of us this year, in particular after they lost that first game to Georgia, any of us thought to ourselves like, yeah, they're definitely going to make a run. So in a lot of ways, this team overachieved to get to this point. Thanks in part to Fran Brown and the Syracuse Orange for beating Miami. They get into that game against SMU. They beat SMU.

And they really earned their way into the college football playoff. And you know what? They played that way. They played that way. of all the road teams, Clemson gave the best performance. Now, it's in part because of their entire program and everybody. And yes, everybody has a role in that, but mainly it's about the quarterbacks. I just told you in the last kind of evaluation of that Ohio State game and Niko I.m.

A. Maliava with Tennessee, if you can't run the football, your quarterback has to be Superman. Well, in this one in Austin, Clemson could not run the football, and Klubnick basically did turn into Superman. Kade Klubnick is the only reason that Clemson is in that game. At one point in the fourth quarter, it's a one possession game. They're sitting there on a fourth and goal to try to make it a one possession game even deep into the fourth quarter.

And why is because Klubnik was terrific. He was really terrific. And you know what? Like, let's be honest, kind of happy for the guys. He's on a homecoming. He played in the Austin area in high school. And here he is coming back. He's playing against former high school teammates in Michael Taff. He's playing against a former college teammate in Macuba back there who transferred from Clemson. And Clubnick was the reason Clemson is in that game.

It's 21 to 7 at one point. It looks like it's getting away from him. And he just kind of willed his team back into that game. And that's what it takes to be in the game and have a chance on the road against the top an opponent. Your quarterback has got to play great, in particular when you're not running the football, and Clemson could not run the football. I'm a big believer in this Texas team. You guys have known that the entirety of the year. Okay. So when I look over at Texas, it was always going to be a tough ask, even with Clubnik playing great, because Texas is an impressive bunch. They, in so many

ways, epitomize the style of team that can go win a national championship because they're balanced. Texas can win fist fights. They can win track meets and everything in between. And it's that kind of balance that makes them scary. Now, what they did in this game is that they just won the line of scrimmage over and over and over again. Their defensive line, their offensive line just continued to win the line of scrimmage. It forced the game onto the shoulder of Klubnick, and even though he was great, it was just too much to overcome.

because the Clemson defense couldn't stop the run at all. Jaden blew with the huge carry, 77-yard touchdown, bang, right after Clemson is able to make it a one-possession game in the fourth quarter. And so the run game shows up. If you're looking at the run game dominance for Texas, they ran the ball for 292 yards to Clemson 76. And I know that totals can get wonky because Texas is obviously going to run the football more with a lead than Clemson is trying to come. from behind. So you kind of go down to the nitty gritty and you try to look at per rush. Texas ran the ball for 6.1 yards per carry, Clemson 3.2 yards per carry. It's not enough. It's not enough. If you can't win the line of scrimmage, your quarterback has to be incredible.

And then even when he's incredible, you've got to get a stop. And Clemson could not get a stop. This Texas offense had struggled a little bit in the last half of the season. In fact, four of their last seven games, they scored 20 or fewer points. And so my question was going to be about this Texas offense. And namely Quinn Ewers, you remember from the preview episode, I thought to myself, OK, can Texas go out there and score 30 plus points? Now, they did, but I had my doubts coming in. Ewers and his immobility, in particular against Georgia, led to some sacks

and the fact that, like, yeah, they didn't run it great in some of those games. and it was totally different in this one. The offensive line showed up, played fantastic. They were able to run the football, control the game at the line of scrimmage. And when they're able to do that, this team becomes virtually unbeatable because Ewers doesn't have to do anything out of what his ability level is. You see, in the games where Texas struggles running the football, then they struggle.

Because as good as Quinn Ewers is, I just, there's something about the way that his game has progressed during the course of his career. If they don't have a run game, it tends to fall apart. If it's just on him throwing the football, there's so much pressure on Sark to scheme guys open because there are not a lot of instances where you just watch Quinn Ewers from the pocket and he's just driving the football down the field in intermediate zones and throwing guys open and just really commanding the passing game. Full field reads.

What you see a lot of is one-on-ones, scheming guys open into the flats. What I would call is free access throws. A corner is off. You take a free access throw. You throw based on the run ratios. And then you're just flipping out what's called a leverage throw. Like those are where ewers excels. Not when he's just commanding the game from the pocket.

And he's reading out concepts and throwing guys open. Now, to be fair, that's incredibly difficult to do. And there's not many guys that can do that, in particular at the college level. But when they can't run the football, that's what they need him to do. And that's when things start to fall apart. If they run the football for 290 yards, then this team can win the national championship. Because one of the most underrated parts of their team is their defense, which is what made what Klubnick did all the more impressive. Because this is a defense that generally doesn't give up that amount of yards. So again, this Texas team, highly, highly impressive.

They are balanced. They can win the slug fest. They can win the track meet. That's dangerous. As you kind of press forward for Texas and you look at that matchup with Arizona State, like, they should win that matchup. There's no doubt in my mind. They've got to focus on Scatibu,

and he means everything to Arizona State. because remember Arizona State also lost their best wide receiver, a guy that was a transfer from Colorado. And so they're down their number one wide receiver. And while they've played fantastic and Kenny Dillingham will have them ready to go, this defense, which in a lot of ways is second only to Ohio State in the entire country, they've got to have their eyes firmly focused on Scataboo. And then on the offensive side, they have to run the football.

Don't let the game fall entirely on the shoulders of Quinn Ewers. If they do that, then they'll win handily over Arizona State. I think it's a good draw for Texas. And right now, I would fully expect them to be playing in the national semifinal. Texas is able to beat Clemson, even though Klubnik was Superman. And then we get to the first two games in the playoff. And this is where there was a lot more discourse, but I want to just talk about the games first and foremost. And really, when you think about it, they fell into the exact same blueprint.

print as the two that I've already talked about. And that is, is that you go into very difficult places to play against very good teams. Both of those teams, Penn State and Notre Dame in these cases, are similar to Ohio State and Texas in that. What do they do well? They play very good defense. All right. And offensively, they've got some firepower.

Okay. So again, that's why they're top 10 teams. So when you go into that setting, you have to find. a way to run the football. If you can't run the football, then all of a sudden the pressure is all on the quarterback. It was all on Nico Yamaliyava and the shoe. Couldn't get it done. It was all on Clubnik. And even though he was amazing, they still lost the game. So now you go into these settings and you've got SMU at Penn State. You've got Indiana at Notre Dame. And the quarterbacks didn't get any run game. They didn't get any run game. Let's start with SMU and Penn

State. So Jennings for SMU goes out there against Penn State, and he gives Penn State a 14-point advantage. The game is over at that point. SMU is not coming back from 14 points down against Penn State in that environment and in those conditions. It was not happening. It was not happening. You look down at Penn State, they held SMU to 1.6 yards per rush. So there was nothing on the ground. So Jennings had to do it all for them, and he wasn't seeing it. And you can tell at that point, it's like, okay, the quarterback is seeing ghosts. He's throwing the football right to guys, Tony Rojas. There wasn't an SMU player around Tony Rojas really anywhere.

And the ball all of a sudden lands in Rojas, and it's like, here we go. Football is life. And he's taking it 59 yards for a touchdown, which was an incredible, incredible return. But again, if it's all on your quarterback, he has to play incredible. Jennings throws two pick sixes, spots Penn State 14 points, and it's over. It's over at that point. The magical season is done. This Penn State team is playing their best football right now.

There's no doubt. And I thought that even after the loss to Oregon. So they go to Indianapolis. Remember, so Michigan loses or excuse me, beats Ohio State. So Ohio State loses in the last weekend of the regular season, which puts Penn State into the Big Ten championship game. So they kind of, you know, I don't know, back in, but they find themselves in Indianapolis.

And they're playing a really good Oregon team. And James Franklin's biggest hurdle at Penn State has been their performance, his ability to win big games, in particular against teams that are top 10 opponents, where you would say it's like, Penn State's the underdog. Okay. So we know this. This is kind of what the narrative has been.

We know that this has been out there. I would make an argument that their performance this year against Ohio State at home and then Oregon and the Big Ten championship game has been two of the better performances that they've had in a long time, maybe since they won the Big Ten

back in what was that, 2016. team. So they're getting better in those moments. And to me, even in a loss, Penn State started to play that style of football where you're like, okay, I could see them winning one of these games. I could see them getting this done. Then they roll out there against SMU. And it wasn't even all that pretty.

And they won handily. They won handily. So for like looking forward, they've got a defense that is super out. Athletic gets after the quarterback. Jennings was under pressure the entire day. I love Abdul Carter. They've got an offense that is finally doing what James Franklin has hoped they would do. So the reason Andy Codalnicki is in there at Offensive Coordinator,

he made a switch, namely because he wanted to have a guy that would be more creative and explosive against the better competition and more specifically that he would get the football to his stars in the big moments against the teams that matter. Andy Codalnicki didn't really do a great job of that against Ohio State and his first real opportunity. He did a much better job of that against Oregon. So now that he's learned that lesson, I think that this is a much more dangerous Penn State team than people realize. And they get a great draw. They get to go play Boise State. They are better than Boise State.

Without a doubt. There's no doubt. Now, does that mean that they will win? the game? No, it does not mean that they will win the game. It means that they're going to have a great chance. I think that Ashton Genty is a remarkable back, and they are going to have to play their best against the run in order to keep him at bay. There's no doubt about that. But this Penn State team is playing really well. I love their defense. I love their defensive line, the aggressiveness of that defensive line. And then offensively, they're getting the ball to the right guys. Ketron Allen and Nick Singleton, big days today in the playoffs.

That's exactly what should happen, in particular in those cold conditions. And in a playoff game where you've got to win in order to advance. Get the ball to your best player. Singleton and Allen were definitely, I think, focal points of the defense in that first half, yes, but overall in the entire game. Tyler Warren probably could have gotten the ball a little bit more. But, you know, that's neither here nor there. If you're looking forward, the one question is, is like, what are you going to get from Drew Aller?

Now, was Alar great in this playoff game today? No, he wasn't great. But he does show flashes. I thought he was much better against Oregon. And he shows the ability to run for a few of those first downs. And I think that that's been really critical to their offense, the ability to pick up first downs with his legs. There's been like four or five, six of them a game that he's. he's been able to go and pick up, and that's been big for them. And so moving forward, like, this is a team I, again, also fully expect to be in the

semifinal, them along with Texas. They've got the road. You know, again, they are better than Boise State. So you look up and all of a sudden you're like, yeah, I could absolutely see them doing that. I could absolutely see them doing that. Then you've got that night game on Friday. and Notre Dame taking care of Indiana.

Notre Dame did everything that they needed to do, and in particular, they got that big interception early. Okay, so they go out there. They don't really do anything. They throw the pick from their perspective. And then Curtis Rourke throws the pick to them. The next snap, boom, 99-yard touchdown, Jeremiah Love. So essentially, not exactly, but essentially,

the same thing that happened in the Penn State SMU game, which is there's a 14-point swing because of a quarterback mistake. In the Penn State game, Jennings throws two pick sixes, they're down 14. In this game, Rourke and Indiana are driving in to take the lead, really. I mean, to put themselves on the board first against Notre Dame. Take the lead in this game early in the game.

And he throws a red zone interception in the game. The next snap, Jeremiah Love, boom, 99 yards for a touchdown. So you could have seven going one way and you get seven going the other way and basically a snap of the football and it's right there. There's your kind of a 14 point swing. So essentially the same thing that happens. And then after that, Rourke was not the same. He did not play with the rhythm that I saw him play in any other game.

You've got to give Notre Dame credit. And this is one of the best defenses in the country. we saw, by the way, this is in all four of these teams that played at home, they all play great defense. Notre Dame being one of them. They stopped the run, just like I talked about in every other game. So what happens? It goes all onto the shoulder of Curtis Rourke. Indiana runs the football for 2.3 yards per carry. That's not enough. That's not enough. Notre Dame is too good at that point. and their run game is too dynamic. And Riley Leonard playing better.

Playing better. I don't think he's a great passer. That's just truth be told, that's what it is. Is he a serviceable enough passer? Probably, I think that they've got better wide receivers and talent on the outside than people realize they certainly are talented at running back. Jeremiah Love was apparently dealing with a little flu issue. And so even after the 99-yard run, he didn't have a ton of

carries, but because of that issue, they still had talented backs behind him. And now you look forward to their matchup against Georgia. And it's like, well, shoot, man, Georgia struggled with the mobile quarterbacks that they faced this year. And that's exactly what Riley Leonard is. You know, what Riley Leonard lacks maybe in his ability to throw the football down the field, he certainly makes up for in his willingness and effectiveness in running the football. That's exactly what Georgia has struggled with.

So like Georgia's going to have their hands full. They don't have their quarterback, Carson Beck. And now this team that has a great defense, Notre Dame, that has explosiveness and speed on offense, in particular at running back, and a tough-minded quarterback that knows how to run the football and throws the ball serviceably, you know what it is? It's like a better version of Haynes King and Georgia Tech,

like a much better version. So we've seen Georgia struggle in those moments. Does that mean that Georgia is going to lose? No, it doesn't mean Georgia's going to lose. Kirby Smart always puts together a great game plan. and this Georgia team is as, I would say, proud as any in college football. So they'll show up and they'll be ready to go. But man, I'm telling you, impressed with Notre Dame.

This is what I wish the rhetoric would have been like during the course of the weekend, is that, hey, can we just sit here and celebrate the teams that are actually playing really well? Notre Dame is a damn good football team and they played great on Friday night. Penn State is playing their best football and they are getting better and everything that James Franklin has hoped for is starting to come to fruition. And now they're going to have a chance to play 60 minutes for the right to go to the college football semifinals. That's amazing. Watching playoff games in some of these venues like DKR is phenomenal. Texas is certainly one of the teams that you would say they're balanced enough and explosive enough and tough enough on defense that they could win.

a national championship. Ohio State, when they're right, and when the game plan is right, and they're playing in space, and they're playing aggressive on the offensive side with the way that their defense has shifted after the Oregon game, man, I tell you what, that team could win the national championship. Why wasn't that the discourse this weekend? Why? Now let's get into some of my frustrations about what went down.

Why was it that we sat there and had to hear from all of the United States? of these folks in college football that all of a sudden the results in these games in the first round of the college football playoffs were an indictment on the loser. But don't, don't worry, don't worry. It's only on an indictment on the loser if the loser is in a conference that we don't like. I can't stand that type of rhetoric and stance. I just can't. And here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to try to remain like as calm as I possibly can while going through this, because some of this is going to be tongue and cheek, but some of this is dead serious. Okay. College football right now is amazing. With all the problems that we have in this sport,

our sport right now is phenomenal. And this weekend should have been a celebration of that. really good teams hosting playoff games in incredible environments. I don't really care who the opponents are. Because quite frankly, in a 12-team playoff like we have now, there's going to be flawed teams that get in, whether it's Indiana because of their strength of schedule or SMU because of their strength of schedule with only one loss each, you know, two, I guess, in SMUs, if you're looking,

at the conference championship game, or if you're looking at a three-loss team from the SEC, whether it's Alabama or Ole Miss or South Carolina, those are flawed teams. Those are flawed teams. So this idea that all the sudden, because Notre Dame beat Indiana handily, Indiana handily,

and Penn State beat SMU handily, all the sudden, It was an indictment on those programs and an indictment on the playoff. I took issue with that, and I was taken back by that because this should have been a time to celebrate what we had. The 12-team playoff made the regular season incredible. It really did. And it has expanded the meaning of success in our sport. And we have more fan bases now more than ever that feel like they have a chance, that they have a chance.

And with some of the rhetoric out there, it was like, you don't deserve this. What do you? Wait, wait, wait, wait. What? No, no, no, no. Let's go through what actually this is about. Okay, so there's two things. There's two things.

If you really look at this weekend, there's two things that need to jump out at you. And this is, I think, what we should have at least understood going in, but apparently some don't. Number one is this. These types of margins that we experienced in the first round of the college football playoff happen all the time. All the time. It's been happening in in the college football playoff in the 14 model forever. We've had some absolute duds for semifinals and in the championship game.

I witnessed firsthand Georgia score 60, what was it, five points on TCU. Okay. So let's not be revisionist in our history as if like, oh, everything else used to be incredible. Now this 12 team, this is just a bridge too far because look at these margins. That's not a thing. Okay. We've had large margins forever in our sport. Hey, and by the way, there's large margins in the NFL as well. If you look at last year's wildcard round of the NFL playoffs, it wasn't good. It wasn't good. And yet, I didn't hear anybody. anybody start yelling and screaming about the Eagles don't deserve to be in the playoffs playing the Bucks

as the Bucks are winning 32 to 9. I didn't hear anybody saying, why are the dolphins in the playoffs? This is ridiculous as they're getting beat 26 to 7 by the Kansas City Chiefs. Did you know that last year in the 2023 NFL wildcard round, the average margin of victory, And those six games was 17 and a half points. 17 and a half. Home teams went 5 and 1. Why?

Because it's tough to beat good teams in their home stadium. In the NFL, just like in college football. The only one team that lost at home was the Dallas Cowboys. That was to the Green Bay Packers. They lost by 16. Only one of the six games was a one-possession game. We always talk about it like the NFL, every game is one possession. Not in the playoffs, it wasn't.

Five of the six games were two possession games. Only one was a one possession games. The Rams and Lions played a one possession games as the Lions beat the Rams 24, 23. Okay, so I'm here to tell you this happens and this is no different than any other sport. So again, why was I taken back by this reaction that every one of these results was an indictment on the losing team? It's because this shouldn't be a thing. You know what is a thing? Home field advantage.

It would have been candidly shocking for any one of these teams to walk into these buildings and beat one of these teams. So you have clearly superior teams by the rankings themselves who are getting to host football games. If we put them in a neutral site, we wouldn't have expected upsets. And yet now we put them at home. And we're expecting upsets and we're expecting great one possession games. I just don't agree. I don't agree. And I wish that the rhetoric would have been different.

I really do. And I wish it would have been more responsible. To be candid, I felt like it was irresponsible. And it was coming from some like really prominent places. And I was frustrated by that. I was frustrated by that. And because of that, I got into a little spat with Lane Kiffin on Twitter.

So here's the thing. I really like Lane Kiffin. I've covered him for years. He's one of my favorite coaches to cover. I love Lane. Text with Lane. And yet he has been out there playing these hypothetical games for days. Ever since the committee gave us the 12.

team playoff, he has been chirping on Twitter. And he's been talking about, you know, what a mistake the committee made and this or that. And it was finally my breaking point. And it was my breaking point because of all the things I just talked about. It's like, listen, this is the moment to celebrate the sport. This happens in every sport, including the NFL, including the four-team playoff. It's hard to win on the road. And yet here we go after some of these results.

he's like, way to keep us on the edge of our seats committee, riveting. And I just, I couldn't. I was broken. And so I fired back if your team played half as well as you tweet, you would likely be in. And obviously that went wild. And you know what? Is what it is. Not going to take it back.

Not sorry I tweeted it. Love Lane. Love Lane. And by the way, part of that is complimentary. He tweets incredible. He's great for college football. I love that Lane Kiffin is at Ole Miss. I hope he stays in college football for a long time.

He's a great follow. Love Lane. Again, I'll say it time and time again. But this idea that he was going to continue to play these hypothetical games, I just get fresh. The easiest position to argue from is the position of a hypothetical. Because there's no proving you wrong. Well, we would have played better than that if we would.

we've got a chance to do so. Oh, okay. Like, where do you go with that? Other than, like, well, you didn't when you played Kentucky at home or Florida on the road when your quarterback was crying in the fourth quarter. Like those things happen. So I don't know what to do with that. You can't argue with someone that always wants to play hypotheticals. And I tell you, there was a lot of trophies being thrown out in hypothetical scenarios. you know, and then from those same people, it was like awfully quiet when Tennessee was getting absolutely drilled by Ohio State on Saturday night. Isn't that interesting? I think it's interesting.

Listen, Lane, if you wanted to be in the playoff, you had your chance. In fact, you were in, my man, like you were in the playoff. And I love you. I love it. I really do. I love you, but you blew it. Like you lost a game that you shouldn't have lost. And so you weren't in the college football playoff.

And that's what it is. I just didn't want to hear the whining. And so that's what it was. Now, people keep telling me, it was like, well, that's what's great about college football. Joel is that it's subjective and we all have an opinion. And I understand that. I just, what started to make me frustrated was this idea that we're going to tell Indiana and

SMU and those players that work their. guts out and had remarkable years for them. And in a lot of ways, unprecedented years for the locations, specifically Indiana. And then we were going to tell them, like, they don't deserve to be on the field. I don't think that that's right. So like, I don't think that that's right. And I get it, that it's subjective. And this is part of what makes college football great. And I understand that. And it's part of what makes a podcast like this possible. And so I appreciate that about the sport. I just want us to kind of make sure we understand the game, make sure we understand the guardrails. Like, what are we really talking about?

And I'll go back to this again. This happens all the time. Happened in the NFL last year. And it's really hard to win on the road. And by the way, what made this special is what made it hard, which was the home games. That's kind of like the end. Now, will we get a playoff maybe in the future that's not as subject? Maybe. We might get more paths to automatic bids and maybe we won't have this conversation.

But as is, here we go. Quarter of finals are set. Texas and Arizona State, Ohio State and Oregon, in the Rose Bowl, Penn State and Boise State, and Notre Dame and Georgia. I'll be at the Rose Bowl. I always am. I can't wait. That's why I wore my Rose Bowl hat. It's the annual tradition. I take my boys there. It's the only game I get to attend football games. that I get to attend with my sons every single year. So we will be in the stands as Ohio State and Oregon Tangle, and that's the one that we will all be waiting for. Winners of those four games will go to the semifinals and then we'll crown a champion sometime late next month.

I wish it went a lot quicker, but it won't. In the meantime, I will be back with preview episodes for the quarterfinals. We will recap the quarterfinals right after those games take place on the first, and that you will be able to get, I believe, the second. And then we will preview the semifinals and recap the semifinals. We will preview the national championship game and recap the national championship game. And I believe that we're going to have one extra episode within all of that as we get in through January, including my commissioner for a day. Here's what's coming up on the Joel Clatch show.

I'm going to do an episode solely designated to things that I would either change or, implement in college football if I was commissioner for one day as a new year's resolution. So that will be an episode that you will look for here as we turn the calendar from 24 to 2025. Thank you for being here. I love this sport. Thank you for all the interaction on Twitter. Even if I didn't love it some of the time, I thought it was interesting.

And it's what makes our sport go round. Enjoy your week and have a very, very, very. Merry Christmas with the ones that you love.