The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Oklahoma's Struggles, CJ Stroud leads Heisman Race & Lurking Teams

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt dissects why the Oklahoma Sooners have been struggling this season. The Sooners are coming off back-to-back losses from Kansas State and TCU. Then, Joel reveals his Heisman Tiers at this point of the season. He lists out some obvious names in Tier 1 like CJ Stroud and Bryce Young, but gives some love to less obvious players in Tier 2 and Tier 3. Finally, Joel shares his five lurking teams. Teams that no one else is talking about much, but they have Joel's attention. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Got to get ready for his power because he can, he's got it. He can hit you. What do he do? Does, what he do? Okay. Right there goes. Oh, right there. Okay. All right, Blake Gorham. We see you. I definitely see you, Blake Corum. A little Blake Corum in today's show. Welcome in to the Joel Clatt show. So happy that you're here. I am Joel Clat and this is the Wednesday episode of the Joel Clat show. For those of you that get your iTunes, or excuse me, your podcast off of Apple, they had a delay on Monday. And if you didn't listen to Monday's podcast, go back and download it and listen to it because it was really good. We talked a lot about the coaches that were fired, by the way, two power five jobs opening up on Sunday, Colorado and Wisconsin.

We went through that Michigan game. A lot of stuff to break down on that Monday episode. So if you didn't get it because of that whole weird situation, wasn't our first. fault. Sorry about it. We'll try to correct it, obviously, moving forward, but there was a problem with Apple. And yeah, should be good moving forward. So today's episode, though, we got a lot to get into, and it should be really exciting because now we start moving into October, and we start to see who's for real and maybe who's not for real, right? And we also start to see who is separating themselves for individual awards like the Heisman Trophy? And then who are the teams that are just kind of lurking

in the background that potentially could make a run towards a CFP? or a conference championship. So that's what we're going to get into today. But first, before we get into the quality of college football, if you will, the teams that are playing well, the players that are playing well, I think that we need to talk about a team that is not. And unfortunately, it's a team that I've covered a lot over the last few years and who has had an ungodly amount of success in the last really 22 years. And that's Oklahoma. So Oklahoma, what's going on? We're not very good, obviously, right now.

We've got a lot to get better at and a lot to improve. And our guys have been committed. They've worked incredibly hard. I thought they competed hard the whole day. We've got to give them answers, and we've got to help get them better quickly. OU is not very good right now. You're absolutely right, Brent Venables.

You know, listen, I'm not going to like sit here and do this whole, you know, dumb, hey, this is what I said in the preseason, even though it is. Because I drank the Kool-Aid after their win against Nebraska. I sat on this show and talked about how good they were and how good defensively they looked that day. And if Jeff Levy's offense with Dylan Gabriel was going to play that explosive, then, hey, this team is a playoff caliber team. And then they rolled out there after that beat down to the Cornhuskers. And they got beat by Kansas State.

And you could say to yourself, okay, Kansas State always plays Oklahoma tough, which they do. That's three wins and I believe in the last four. And so you can be like, all right, all right. You know, like we get it. Maybe, and I said it last week, I said maybe you're not as good as you think you are and maybe you're not as bad as you think you are. So maybe they're not as good as we thought they were against Nebraska, but they're certainly not as bad as we think they are against Kansas State.

So let's move forward. Okay, at TCU, and, you know, let's face it, it was kind of a nondescript, granted, undefated, but unranked TCU team. And TCU absolutely obliterated Oklahoma on Saturday. I mean obliterated. My oldest nephew is a freshman at TCU, and he was texting me all day on Saturday during the game. So he's at the game, and, I mean, I can't tell you how excited he was texting me pictures.

He's like, let's go! frogs. And I'm telling you, man, like, they hammered Oklahoma. It wasn't particularly close. The defense for Oklahoma is on the struggle bus, folks. There is something wrong at Oklahoma. We need to address the fact that this is not going well. And it's not just a close game here or there in a deep league that went the opposite direction. there is something worse going on, and that is the fact that Brent Vinnable's strength and identity as a defensive coach is not showing up on the field. Now, let's go back to what I opened this Oklahoma kind of bit with, which was, hey, I told you so. Well, there is a bit of that because in the off season, I remember catching a lot of grief because I said, it's really hard to replace all the pieces that they lost.

They lost their head coach, who is a very successful head coach. I know that you don't like him, Oklahoma fans, and that's fine. You don't have to. And you don't even have to accept that he's a good coach, but we know it on the outside and can accept it and can evaluate it and what it means when he left. There was also a lot of faces that left. They had an offseason of turnover within the coaching ranks and the locker room. And so when you actually sat down in the offseason, I was like, all right, what is Oklahoma going to be? I thought to myself, well, the league's a little deeper this year.

They have all of these new players. I don't know. That was my big conclusion in the offseason. I don't know what Oklahoma is going to be. I don't know what their identity is going to be on the offensive side, which is the only thing that I could rely on as an analyst in past years. I don't know if they will improve on defense, although I anticipate that they improve on defense. But there's a lot of new faces. So I thought to myself, boy, if there was ever a year of transition where you got a two, three, maybe even four loss year for Oklahoma,

which is absurdly rare in Norman, that this was the year that that was going to happen. And Oklahoma fans could not take it. Could not take it. I was a snake. I was this and that. And that's all fine. candidly, don't care. But that doesn't make it untrue. And now, as we see them at three and two, it's pretty clear that it was true. There was far too much turnover for that organization and that

program to come out and continue to play at the level that they had played over the past decade, two decades, and in particular over the past four years, five years under Lincoln Riley. Let's just look at what this is in context of what we've seen the last two weeks. If you're an Oklahoma fan, you have seen 96 points put up against your defense in the past two weeks in conference play, 96 points. Okay. Yeah, that happened in the Lincoln Riley era as well. In fact, in 2018, you remember, it was in November that the defense decided to take November off. They were just like, hey, you know what?

we've got cool mustaches. It's Movember. Like, we're cool. And they gave up 46, 47, 40, and 56 in consecutive games in November of 2018. You know the problem? They were 4 and 0 in those games. So they had an offense that could overcome that. They had an offense that had enough firepower to go out there and overcome the fact that they were giving up a bunch of points. So there's, you know, there's 96 in there in back-to-back weeks with the 40 and the 56. That's a lot of points, but they were 4-0. In 2019, they gave up 89 points in consecutive weeks in conference to Kansas State and then Iowa State. They were one in one.

So they were over to overcome those defensive problems and overcome that with an extraordinary offense and win football games. They don't have that right now. They just don't have that right now. So when you look at what this team was, they were last year 109th and past defense. defense, and they were replacing their top three defenders as it relates to sacks. They were replacing their leader in tackles, TFLs, that's tackles for loss, and interceptions, and sacks. Again, top three.

They were also on the offensive side replacing their play caller, both quarterbacks that played last year, a three-time thousand-yard rusher in Kennedy Brooks and four of five of their top five leading receivers. This was inevitable to some degree, Oklahoma fans. You didn't want to hear it in the offseason. And the Nebraska week, it masked what was clearly inefficiencies that showed up against Utep at times and even Kent State more in particular in the first half. Nebraska masked all of that because Nebraska was a complete dumpster fire that week.

They fired their coach, they played hard for a series, and then threw in the towel. Throw the damn towel. And they did. Gus did too, by the way. Nebraska played so bad, Gus got sick. And I had to call the game by myself.

I mean, that game masked everything that we are now seeing from Oklahoma in the past two weeks. Now, a lot of credit has to go to Kansas State clearly. And to TCU, clearly. More on that in a bit as we get to more of these teams and players that are putting themselves in position. to make a run. But what's happening with OU? What we expected to happen with OU, to a degree. Do I expect them to give up 96 points and back-to-back weeks going forward? No, they should improve. There's no doubt.

But in the off-season, you could see some of this coming. I know you didn't want to see it, Oklahoma fans, but the writing was on the wall. And you look at that schedule. They've got Red River this week, a game in which they'll be an underdog. They've got Kansas, which all of a sudden is not an easy game. They've got at Iowa State, which is one of the more difficult places to play in the Big 12. Baylor, the defending Big 12 champion, West Virginia, Oklahoma State, who's a top 10 team in undefeated, and then at Texas Tech, and we all know how difficult it is to play in Lubbock, just ask the Longhorns. It's not out of the realm of possibility that we are going to get that three, four, maybe even five loss year for Oklahoma. I'm not going to go with five, and I'm not

even going to really go with four for sure, but it's definitely going to be three folks and maybe that fourth along the way. It's the reality of where Oklahoma is right now. I'm not saying that's where they're being, that is where they will be, but it is where they are. This is a great program and a prideful program, and they've got a lot of tradition, and there's only one Oklahoma, and that place is bigger than a head coach, but they lost more than just a head coach. And you can see some of this coming. The handwriting was on the wall and that's what we're seeing as we're reading it in the last two weeks against Kansas State and against TCU. All right, let's move on. Individual players. Folks, it's October, which means that we finally get to start

looking forward towards the Heisman trophy. I think that you can start to see this Heisman race materialize before our eyes. and there's some players that we did not expect that are playing themselves into the conversation. So listen, I know it's my first one that I've done of these on the show. It's the first week of October. So I don't want to just sit here and say like, hey, it's a four-man thing. Hey, these are my top five.

No, no, no. I've got plenty more than five because I think there are performances and players that have been worthy to be mentioned in a discussion like this. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm not just going to throw them out there, willy-nilly and throw spaghetti at the wall. What I want to do is I want to do is I want to

tier them for you. I'm going to have Tier 1 Heisman favorites. I'm going to have Tier 2 guys that are playing themselves into the conversation, and then Tier 3 guys who, with the right performances in October and early November, are going to move themselves up to Tier 2 and potentially even Tier 1 status. So let's get started. Let's go with Tier 1, who's my first guy in Tier 1. C.J. Stroud. This one is a no-brainer, guys. I like, I, You're all rolling your eyes, and we get it, right? And Buckeye fans, you see it week in and week out. This guy is the cream of the crop right now,

in particular with the injury to Bryce Young and college football. He's the best quarterback right now in the nation. That's the best offense in the nation. He will be there so long as they continue to play this way, which they will. Let me just say, like, I mean, they're about to face a really bad defense in Michigan State. He's going to be right here. You look at what he's been able to do, 68%. he's thrown for, what is it, 18 touchdowns, two interceptions.

He's had to deal with the fact that the running back that we felt like was going to get the bulk of the carries has not in Trevion Henderson. And he hasn't had his best offensive weapon in Jackson Smith and Jigma. So he's doing this, putting himself right at the top of this race, even without his best skill position player. I thought he made some huge throws against Notre Dame in that game. And that stage and that moment was important for what I'll get into at the end of this list. You think about what he's got ahead of him, by the way. He still has the Penn State game. He still has Michigan and beyond.

He'll have likely a conference championship game potentially. And then after that, we'll be voting for the Heisman trophy. All right, who's next on Tier 1? Bryce Young. This is a no-brainer. He's the defending Heisman trophy winner, although now we call into question like, What's his status going to be moving forward? What is the health of Bryce Young moving forward?

I did this on a radio show, and I hesitate to do it a little bit. It's very gross. I had an AC joint sprain. Mine was actually blown totally out. It sounds like his is a lesser degree injury than what I had. But I'll just show you like this. I can kind of pull this up. See that?

Yeah, that's my shoulder. I got a lump in my shoulder. Those of you who are just listening to this, kudos to you because you did not just see this injury. If you want to see it, you can go to you. You can go to YouTube. You can go to my social media pages because there'll be pictures of my gross shoulder. I had an AC joint.

I know exactly what he's dealing with. Here's the main point, though. He can play through this, in particular if it's a lesser degree than what I dealt with, which was a totally blown out AC joint. I played two and a half weeks later, and he'll be back on the field. I think that he can still be very effective. It remains to be seen how quickly he will be on the field, but this is clearly going to hurt his bottom line.

Bryce Young won the Heisman trophy. in large part due to the fact that he had incredible numbers last year. And the hard part in trying to defend that or win it in back-to-back years is that a lot of voters, good bad or indifferent, by the way, right or wrong, are going to hold him to that standard, not just whatever standard is in front of him with his peers this season. Now, I don't think that that's the correct way to vote or look at it, but I am at least acknowledging the reality that that's likely how voters will look at Bryce Young. So he'll have to do something that's better than 47 touchdowns,

seven interceptions, and 324 yards passing per game. He's not going to be close to that. At least I don't think in particular with this injury, he's sitting at 14 touchdowns, three interceptions, and only 240 yards per game. So he's going to need to get healthy one, and then he's going to have to have some monster games through the middle of this schedule.

And remember, he was a beast late against Texas, 15 of 19 in the fourth quarter. We've seen him on the stage. He still has the champ game. and beyond. This is a guy that's going to be there until the end. All right, I've only got one other player in my tier one. Who is it?

Caleb Williams. I mean, and by the way, this is the episode where all the Oklahoma fans are just going to throw up the entire episode. I'm sorry, OU fans, but listen, this is the name of the game. Caleb Williams is clearly playing himself into the Heisman conversation. He's on Tier 1. And I think to not acknowledge that is just being. hater. He has elevated this team, not single-handedly. Obviously, there's a lot of other transfers, but it's pretty clear that without a great defense, the entire show is that offense for the Trojans,

and he is the trigger man. All right, he's not turning the ball over, 12 touchdowns, didn't have an interception until late last week. I think that this is the type of guy that could have the stages in front of him, whether it's Utah coming up, UCLA, a Pac-12 championship, game and where they came from a year ago without him. Yeah, granted, Lincoln Riley is going to get a lot of credit, but there are a lot of voters that are going to start looking at Caleb Williams and being like, man, you're a difference maker pretty clearly, judging by where they came from a year ago and then where they're at this year.

So Caleb Williams clearly in my tier one. All right, let's move away from tier one. So those are the three guys that are kind of clearly up there. They're quarterbacks. We get it. you knew that those guys were going to be on the list. Now let's get to some guys that have played themselves into the discussion that you might not be thinking about.

Let's talk about, excuse me, Tier 2 Heisman hopefuls. Let me start my tier 2 with running back from Michigan, Blake Corum. All right, and this is not just because I saw him in the last two weeks. Blake Corum is going to be on my tier 2. Jalen Daniels, the quarterback from Kansas, is going to be on my tier 2. Hinden Hooker, the Tennessee quarterback, has played himself directly onto my tier two.

And then this is the one that I think might be interesting. Adrian Martinez from Kansas State has played himself into my tier two. Let me take these one by one. Let's start with Blake Corum. Blake Corum two weeks ago against Maryland had to, because of injury and fumble woes, be the absolute bell cow for Michigan. They don't like doing that, by the way. They love to split carries.

I know Hassan Haskins got a ton of carries late last year, but why was that injury to Blake Corum? And then all of a sudden you've got Donovan Edwards that was banged up against Maryland wasn't playing in the game. CJ Stokes their freshman back fumbles early in the game, and they're like, man, it's all about Blake Corum. And Maryland, they were going to be a very tough out that day in the big house unless Blake Corum was going to play great, and he did.

So he's reliant. Now in back-to-back weeks, and now they go to Iowa, this was the number one scoring defense in the country. This is Iowa's defense that is clearly one of the better defenses in the country, and this dude put up 29 carries for over 100 yards. So in back-to-back weeks, he's gone 59 carries for 376 yards over two weeks. That's sensational stuff, folks. and he's got all the stages in front of him to get himself into that conversation.

Penn State, at Ohio State. Maybe not better stages than Blake Corum or even C.J. Stroud to some degree. All right. Now Jalen Daniels. Okay, so Jalen Daniels, this is like my favorite story in college football is what Kansas is doing. And Lance Lippold is going to get a lot of credit and a lot of attention, by the way, with some of these Open Power 5 jobs. But the other guy that's going to start getting a lot of credit and should and will and is is Jalen Daniels.

Jalen Daniels has been outstanding for Kansas. He is the reason why they're in this moment as an undefeated hosting game day, hosting an undefeated TCU. This snapshot this week for the Jayhawks is about the fact that Jailen Daniels has been so good. You look at what he's done throwing the ball, 68%. 9.2 yards per attempt, 11 touchdowns, one interception. That's outstanding stuff. But it's not just his ability to throw the ball. It's his ability as a runner as well.

it for over seven yards per carry and he's had five touchdowns. Now, this is what I think is so good for Jalen Daniels. Jalen Daniels might not need his team to be great at the top end because the story of Kansas is resonating wildly in college football and rightly so. So it might just be where he needs to play his team to an eight, nine win season in order to potentially go to New York. And that would be a huge deal for Kansas. I don't think it's as important that he has the stages. It's not as important that his team play for a conference championship or a playoff spot because they're 5 and 0 and ranked because of this kid.

They were at the bottom of the barrel and have risen to the point where they're playing meaningful games in October, October in our sport because of Jalen Daniels. If I move on to Hendon Hooker, I just think he's played outstanding football. 71%, eight touchdowns, no interceptions. He was phenomenal against Florida in that game. He had 349 passing yards, two touchdowns, 112 on the ground, and a touchdowns. That's 461 total yards and three touchdowns.

That's outstanding stuff. Now, here's the problem for Hendon Hooker, is it's about to get a lot tougher for him and his teammates at Tennessee. I think that Tennessee, unfortunately, is a bit of fools gold right now. I don't think that they're going to get through this stretch. They've got out LSU. They've got Bama coming up at home. They've got at Georgia.

This is not the year that they're going to make a run in part because of their schedule. But that doesn't mean that you don't acknowledge what Hendon Hooker has done up to this point. And then my last guy in Tier 2 is Adrian Martinez. And that's the one that's going to raise some eyebrows. But people like he has played unbelievable in the last couple of weeks. That performance against Oklahoma was transcendent. And I also think that this is an amazing comeback story from what he was. at Nebraska, the way that

ended under Scott Frost and with that fan base to show up at Kansas State, clearly be gun shy early in the season and not playing his best, and then show up the way that he did against Oklahoma on the road. That's outstanding stuff. And I love it. He has come alive, 300 yards rushing over the last two games,

669 total yards over the last two games, and he's got nine rushing touchdowns on the year, which is second only to Blake Corum in college football who leads the country and why he's in my tier two as well with his 10 rushing touchdowns. Last tier is just going to get mentions. The third tier guys, here are guys that have some stages and they've got some games ahead of them that could put them on the map.

But here are those guys, okay? These are shoutouts. Shoutouts in the Heisman watch. DJ Ooyangalee. I thought he's been great over the last couple of weeks. The problem is they don't have a lot of marquee games from this point on. And that horrendous, you know, I shouldn't say horrendous. That was in a weak ACC.

That was a better way to put it. A weak ACC. Dorian Thompson Robinson. How about the way he played against Washington? Now he's got a stage against Utah this week as UCLA takes on the Utes, that UCLA team undefeated. DTR playing really well. He's got a chance.

Jemir Gibbs, in particular without Bryce Young out there this week and maybe in coming weeks, if Bryce Young is not out there, they will run the crap out of the ball. With Jalen Milroy, they will run the crap out of the ball. You literally read Nick Sabin's lips when he was screaming, run the ball! So I think Jemir Gibbs is going to have a couple of monster weeks coming up and he could play himself into this conversation.

Spencer Sanders, by the way, at Oklahoma State. Anybody mentioning Oklahoma State? I think that's the first time so far on this. this podcast. More to come here in this episode. Brock Bowers for Georgia. If he continues to have performances like he's had, he will play himself into the conversation and then Max Duggan as well, the quarterback at TCU, because they were fantastic against Oklahoma last week at home. Now they've got the stage against Kansas and an undefeated matchup there in Lawrence. Now, quick discussion about the Heisman Trophy because as we all know, it really comes down to three things for the

Heisman Trophy. And this is why I created this list here. You've got to be a great player. That goes without being said. But you usually have to play on a great, if not very prominent team in college football. If you look at the playoff era, there's only been one Heisman winner that didn't go to the playoff. And that was Lamar Jackson in 2016. His Louisville team was 9 and 4 after it was all said and done. But remember, this guy was transcendent the way that he played the game. He had 5,100 total yards. He ran for. for 1,500 through for 3,500. That's absurd. So that's why he won the Heisman Trophy. His greatness as a player overcame the fact that his team wasn't great on the top end.

And then the last thing that you have to have is huge stages and moments and performances in those stages and moments. So as you're seeing this list, play their games through October and into early November, that's the lens with which you've got to view all this through. Are they playing great? Is it for a prominent team that's likely to go to the playoffs? and is the performance matching the stage in some of their biggest performances and stages that they have during the course of the season. Okay, so that'll do it for the Heisman list. I want to talk a little bit briefly about teams that are quietly lurking out there. We know who are the favorites in all these conferences.

We have a good idea that Alabama and Georgia are in a collision course in the SEC. We have a good idea that Michigan and Ohio State are really good in the Big Ten. We have a really good idea that Clemson is fine and probably going to win the ACC and clearly has a leg up in winning their own division with basically a two-game lead as of right now. But who are the other teams that are lurking that are outside of that conversation that have a legitimate shot at the CFP or a conference championship? Because there are teams like that. And some of these teams, nobody has talked about. Nobody. Let's start.

Who's the first team lurking? Utah. Yeah, this is a no-brainer. And even though they lost to Florida, Utah is absolutely still lurking right now out there in the Pac-12. I still think they're the best team in the Pac-12. Remember now, that one loss at Florida, they had the ball inside the 10-yard line, goal-to-go situations three times came away with three total points in those three possessions. So you could say that they outplayed Florida for the majority of that game.

Anthony Richardson was ungodly during the, during that. came and since then they've been dominant no one's paying attention right you lose in college football and everyone just shoves you to the back burner but what is surprised you to know that Utah you know little old Utah you know physical good defense run the ball everyone's like oh yeah you know Utah's tough they've won their four games since then by an average of 35 points it's pretty good outscored their opponents 184 to 43 so they are dominated the opposition. Great game this week. Great game. They go to the Rose Bowl and they face UCLA. That UCLA team, by the way, they run the ball better than you think. They stop the run better than you

think. That could be a very tough game for Utah and might even be a preview of the Pac-12 championship game. You never know. They've got at UCLA, then they've got home to USC. They still have to go to Oregon during the course of the finish to this year. That's on November 19. They've got six true road games, so they're going to have to earn it, folks, but they are lurking. They are sitting there. And if they were to win out, even with a loss, I do think people would put them in the playoffs. So that's why I've got them there. All right, who's next?

USC. Come on. Hey, we weren't going to go through one of these and not allow the Oklahoma fans to throw up, or are we? This team is really good, in particular on offense. and Lincoln Riley has done an outstanding job. And yes, it can be considered, yeah, listen, it's glitz and it's flash, and is it sustainable? I'm not sure.

I'm not sure if it's sustainable. They've got to start playing better defense. But I will tell you, this is a team that if you're not going to play like great stout, traditional defense, you better gain possessions for your offense, number one, and two, get turnovers. And that's exactly what they do. they lead the country in interceptions. They're athletic enough in the back end, and they produce enough pressure.

I won't say it's consistent, but enough, they'll get creative, they'll manipulate their front structure, they get you in an obvious down situation, and they put something that's unique out there in front of your offensive line. You get a little bit of pressure, you get a little overthrow, a tip ball,

and then boom, USC gets a pick. They're lurking. They could absolutely, they have the talent on offense to run the table. will they or not? I'm not sure. I'm not sure because it seems like they're going to get tripped up. They still have UCLA. They still have Notre Dame. And by the way, they've got Washington State this week. And I don't think that's an easy game. Next. Penn State.

Ah, this is another team. No one's talking about Penn State. Just undefeated. Sorry about Penn State. We only had one question about Penn State coming into this year. And that was, did you fix the run game? And they did. no one's acknowledging it. I am. I think they're in the top 10. There's no other division in football, college football, that has three top 10 teams in the same division.

So here they are. Here they are. That being said, this Penn State team has answered the questions. They run the ball very well. They got these two young running backs. They're really good, and they've totally fixed their run game. Last year, they were 13th next to last in the Big 10 running. running the ball for just over 100 yards per game.

This year, fifth in the Big Ten, with 192 yards. So watch out, because if Sean Clifford doesn't have to be the catalyst to moving the ball and he can go out there and he can operate and he can put his team in the right position and he can be a game manager, which he can be very good at, then this is a dangerous team. That's a team that is lurking. Penn State is lurking. Next up. TCU.

Nobody is talking about TCU. all that they have done is rolled out there and hammered Oklahoma. They're number two in the country in scoring offense. They're number two in the country and total offense. This might be the second best offense in the country to only Ohio State. Max Duggan playing unbelievable ball. 74% 11 touchdowns, no interceptions. Sonny Dykes is a good coach.

And if anything, this should really, tell you how tough it is to win at Cal. This should tell you exactly how tough of a job Cal is because Sonny Dykes was just like fledgling in Berkeley. And he goes to SMU, takes that job, does a decent job, moves over to TCU and bam, here we go. Sonny Dykes is a good coach.

That's a good fit at TCU. He's in the right spot in the country where he's from. I remember Spike Dykes, legendary coach at Texas Tech. So this is a guy that like he's he's not at home per se, but he is at home in the region. This is a good fit move for TCU and this is a really good team, a really good team. I expect them to go beat Kansas this week. I know everyone wants that glass slipper to stay on as long as possible, but TCU is really good and we need to start paying attention because in a tough league, this team is undefeated. That's not an easy place to play.

They could end up in a position where they're playing for a player. off spot. It's happened before with TCU and it could possibly happen again. All right, last team that's lurking. Oklahoma State. Why does no one talk about Oklahoma State? Oklahoma State is really good. And then I'm reminded like Joel checks Oklahoma State's schedule and it's like, oh, they haven't played anybody. They're just hanging out in the top 10, no one noticing. Four and O. Again, horrid schedule.

They're unbeaten. They don't have to go to Iowa State this week. Or excuse me, not this week, this year. Why do I say that, Joel? Well, look at what happened the last couple of times that they took really good teams to Iowa State. In fact, undefeated teams to Iowa State, 2011. Last year, Iowa State giving them their only loss.

So now they get to avoid the one spot that they desperately want to avoid, which is at Iowa State, and they avoid that. All of a sudden, in the back end of this schedule, they're going to have the strength of schedule that's going to start to make up for their horrendous non-conference. They'll have number 17 TCU on the road, number 20, Kansas State, and number 19, Kansas. I think Oklahoma State could wind up in the exact same position

that they found themselves a year ago, which was, if we remember when and maybe you're in, college football playoff in a Big 12 championship game scenario. Remember that six inches right at the end, diving for the pylon, who's going to win? You know, Baylor won the Big 12 and we just kind of forgot about Oklahoma State. Mike Gundy is a really good coach, a really good coach. Every year, they've got a solid offense, they've got a quarterback and Spencer Standers that is playing really good football, and they will be there in the end. That team is quietly, no one talking about them, lurking, sitting there, could potentially make a CFP run.

Now, you might be asking yourself like, Joel, I knew it, you're such an SEC hater. Why'd you live Ole Miss, LSU, and Tennessee off of this list? Well, let me address that really quickly. I don't think anybody expects, and certainly I don't expect Ole Miss or Tennessee, to roll out there and win their division. I just don't. Tennessee still has to play Georgia. They still have Bama on their schedule.

Ole Miss still has to play Bama. I don't see it. LSU is similar to that. Those teams are not in the hemisphere of Georgia and Alabama. The other teams that I brought up here, outside of Penn State, they don't have that hurdle in front of them like these SEC teams. teams. Penn State has proven that they can beat Ohio State. They did win the Big 12, or excuse me, the Big Ten championship. I called the game with Trace McSorley and Seaquin Barclay. We don't have that history with Ole Miss in Tennessee. Maybe with LSU, but you really think that this LSU team, they're struggling to get these wins. You look up at the end of the day and it's like their record is way better than the team that we see on the field. So that's the reason that I left them out. Nothing more, nothing less. That's the reason. That's going to do it for today's show, though. very much appreciate you listening. You can follow the Joel Clatt show on Twitter,

Instagram, all the social media at Joel Clat show. You can follow me on Twitter at Joel Clat. And tomorrow I will break down a bunch of games and I'm super excited because I'm going to throw out there some picks. We're going to talk about this Michigan game coming up, TCU, Kansas, Red Rivers happening this week. No one's talking about it. Why? They're unranked. Utah, UCLA, Michigan State has to host Ohio State. Yikes. Thoughts on that game among others, including Tennessee and LSU. That'll do it for today. Cannot wait for tomorrow. Come on back. Remember, download, share with a friend. Leave us a review. Rate us because it's awesome. Thank you so much for listening to everybody. I'm Joel Clatt.