The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Oregon beats Ohio State, Penn State stuns USC, Texas dominates Red River & more from Week 7 in CFB

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt breaks down the epic game between Oregon and Ohio State and dives deep into the reasons that the Ducks were able to come out on top. He gives his thoughts on the controversial late call against the Buckeyes and whether Dan Lanning intentionally exploited a loophole in the final seconds to help seal the win. Klatt discusses the comeback win by Penn State over USC and how monumental that result is for both programs. He considers whether Texas is clearly the best team in the country after their blowout win over Oklahoma and if LSU is poised for an SEC Title Game appearance after beating Ole Miss in Death Valley. After narrow wins, how concerned should their fans be about Alabama & Tennessee right now? Klatt also reacts to Colorado’s near-comeback against Kansas State including giving his thoughts on the controversial no-call at the end of that game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kudos to Dylan Gabriel. And for me, he just launched himself a Heisman campaign. 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, everybody.

I'm Joel Clatt. This is the Joel Clat Show. We are presented by Hampton by Hilton. What a day. I mean, we have been looking forward to all. October 12th for a long time, us college football fans. I told you to not go to weddings. A lot of you heated that advice.

So good for you. Slow clap for you. Well done. And you were rewarded because that was a sensational lineup of games. And my goodness, some of those games turned out to be incredible. Even games that we didn't expect to be incredible were phenomenal. Obviously, the headliner was Ohio State in Oregon. We'll get to that and more here throughout the show.

But first, remember wherever you're. listening to the show, please rate and review us, share it with a friend, do all of those things, that would be great. And then if you're on YouTube, please subscribe to the channel and invite a friend to subscribe to the channel. We're growing every day, and I'm certainly thankful for it. Go ahead and subscribe, and we're continuing to work, and we are working behind the scenes on that schematic series. So I'll be teaching football on the YouTube, but that will be exclusive to YouTube, so you're going to need to go over there and subscribe, like those videos, get in the comments below and I'll be down there. And then wherever you like to social, wherever you like to

social, we are there at Joel Klatt show. I'm stuttering because I'm excited. There's a lot to get into here today. And I'm going to start right there with Oregon's huge win at home over Ohio State. I tell you what, man, those ducks played their best game of the year. Well done Oregon. And everybody involved, by the way, the atmosphere was tremendous. I thought Ohio State traveled well, which they should and do. And then the game lived up to the billing. Two versus three, and we got an absolute classic. This was very similar, very similar, not in style of game, but just in feeling of the overall

size and scope of the game and quality of the game, as we had earlier in the year in Tuscaloosa when Georgia and Alabama got all tangled up. I tell you, hard, I'm just going to be this guy. It's hard to argue with super conferences now, isn't it? I mean, think of the games that we have had, and this one certainly right up there at the top of the list, Oregon with a huge win, 32, 31, and an absolute classic at home. Okay, so much to get into because there were so many things that could be storylines coming out of this game. Let me just start with this.

This is the Oregon that we all expected to see in the offseason. These ducks started slow, but it's been a little bit of a slow build, and that was a game that we have anticipated for Oregon for a long time. And in particular, their quarterback number eight, Dylan Gabriel. If you're watching YouTube, you just watched him run in. Dan Laining's got to be thrilled with the way his quarterback played. I've watched Dylan Gabriel for a long time. That was one of the better games that I've ever seen Dylan Gabriel play.

He was sensational. He really was. The downfield passing attack for Gabriel. The clutch runs late in the game, the touchdown run, making people miss in the secondary. He was tremendous. 373 total yards, three total touchdowns in a huge win. And really, it was the fact that he did it outside of what I think his strengths are. I've told you for a long time that this guy is a card dealer.

He's a point guard. That's what this offense was going to be. And you saw a game plan from Ohio State that was designed to stop that. And I'll get into the X's and O's a little bit more as we go along. But first and foremost, to see him throw the ball down. the field like he did, that was incredible. So kudos to Dylan Gabriel. And for me, he just launched himself a Heisman campaign right here in October. And that's what you need. You need stages to launch a Heisman campaign. And that's exactly what Dylan Gabriel did on Saturday

night. He was tremendous. Not many mistakes from Gabriel the entire night. Oregon, nearly 500 yards of offense, seven and a half per play. They ran it for five. of carry. They did not allow a sack. I tell you, man, I tell you, this, this guy was really good, Gabriel. And the offensive line, you got to give them credit. Do you remember early in the season when I was telling you, like, what is wrong with Oregon's offensive line? They were giving up far too many sacks, far too many pressures. Gabriel was under pressure nearly 40% of the time of his dropbacks, but he was never sacked. He did a great job of manipulating the pocket. In fact, as a lefty, it was eerily similar, although not completely, but it reminded me a lot of

Pinnock's performance against Texas last year in the playoff because there was some pressure, not a lot, not as much as Texas was putting on Pinnock's, but there was some. And Gabriel kept manipulating the pocket, getting himself into the correct area in order to make throws down the field. And he made brilliant throws down the field. that defense for Ohio State got lit up, folks. This is a lot more of what we saw late in the season in 2022 from Ohio State when they gave up giant plays.

In fact, that's seven yards per play that Ohio State gave up Saturday night against Oregon. They haven't given up a game where they gave up more than seven yards per play dating back to 2022. Last year was a year in which they prevented the explosive play. And that did not happen on Saturday night. credit Oregon because I thought their game plan was tremendous, but also Ohio State falling back into that trap. A lot of man coverage on the outside, and let's face it, Evan Stewart just kind of beat up Denzel Burke. That was a matchup that Oregon won. And we were wondering for a long time,

like, when was this going to happen for Oregon on the outside with some of those talented wide receivers? Well, it happened in the moment that they needed it most. So let's get into kind of like some of the aspects of what we need to walk through in this game, because there are plenty. That was an overarching Oregon thought. Now, let's go to the Ohio State Defense. What do we think about the Ohio State defense after that game? Well, obviously, something needs to change. Let me tell you what the film showed for the Ohio State defense, because I think it's important that we don't just fall into gross narratives, all right, because I will be the first one to tell you that the five, nearly 500 yards, the seven and a half per play, the five per carry didn't feel like that on the film.

It felt like Ohio State was playing really good defense and then bang, it would be a big play. Okay, really good defense, bang, big play. And so then you've got to go back to the drawing board and you've got to understand, well, why? Why are these big plays happening against Ohio State's defense and for Orrower? Oregon's offense. Well, I think unfortunately for the Buckeyes, and this speaks to the quality of the way that Oregon played, there were a few different issues for Ohio State's defense. Number one, I would say that it was not a great tackling night for the Buckeyes. So that's one thing that jumped off the tape. In space, they did not tackle well. Great defenses always tackle

well. Now, what ends up happening, though, is that a team that doesn't tackle well and plays man coverage, those mistackles, it's like throwing gasoline on a fire. They are magnified when you play man coverage. And Ohio State was largely, not exclusively, but largely in man coverage. So when you saw a mistackle, it immediately became 10, 15, 20 yards. Boom. There it happened. When you play zone, like let's say in Iowa or a team that's predominantly zone, and one guy misses the tackle, there are eyes on that guy. And generally people surrounding swarming and pursuing that ball carrier, and they're not chasing a man. And so what happens is that you minimize the impact or mistake of the mistackle.

Okay? Okay, so that's the mistackle part. Here's another thing that I saw. And this is a more schematic thing. And it's a little bit tougher to understand, but I'm going to do my best. So Ohio State, I'm going to use a technical term here. They were running field defense quite often. And that means that the defensive lineman that is considered a three technique,

which means the outside shoulder of the guard, was to the wide side of the field predominantly. It didn't necessarily follow the tight end or the strength of the offense as much as much as it was called to the wide side of the field. Now, here's what that did. If you did put the tight end, okay, the strength. of the offense to the wide side of the field, which coincided with the three technique. The opposite defensive tackle was a one technique. Okay, so a lot of technical terms here. Here's where the one technique lines up.

He's right on the center, outside shore of the center. Okay, so if you're looking at the short side of the field, there is a one technique, which is lined up on the center, and then a guy lined up all the way outside of the tackle. So between the guard and the tackle on that short side of the field, there is an opening. backer has to be responsible for that gap in run defense. And here's what was happening, is that they were not defending that B gap, the gap just between the guard and the tackle. Please be following me right now. I know that it's difficult if you're just listening, but that's what's going on. And Oregon was hurting them on what I would consider to be

short side or boundary, the short side of the field, runs to the one technique. And when that happened, Ohio State didn't really adjust in time at least. And now, Later in the game, they would put the three technique to the short side of the field and the one technique to the wide side of the field. They didn't adjust in time. So in general, the bigger runs all happened to the short side and because of that. And the safety wasn't coming down and the linebacker was not filling into that gap, the B gap. And that's where they were exploiting Ohio State's defense. So two things so far.

Why did Ohio State give up a bunch of big plays? Well, number one, missed tackles. And they were magnified because they were playing man defense. And two, they did not adjust the structure when Oregon started to attack what was clearly a weakness in structure of their defense in the run game. And that was to the short side of the field in that B gap. And then the last thing was just they didn't get enough pressure on the quarterback. And when you don't get enough pressure on the quarterback, your defensive backs will be beat. Okay.

There's not a defensive back on the face of the planet that can cover for long as long as Oregon was giving Dylan Gabriel to three. There just was not enough pressure on him. So they were able to run big, deep, double-moved routes, meaning the wide receiver was going to stop, fake like he's running a shorter route, and then take off. And so a couple of different times, Denzel Burke got beat on double-move routes on the outside. But here's the thing.

As a corner, you're trying to bank on the fact that your rush will get there and that you're not going to have to defend for three seconds. I can defend for 1.8, 2.1, 2.2 seconds, maybe 2 and a half, but you expect me to defend for three seconds. That's going to be tough, in particular against the speed of Oregon. Those were the three things that I saw on film for the Ohio State defense. Was it all bad? No.

Did it feel like a game in which they gave up almost 500 yards and 7.5 per play and 5 per carry? No. What it seemed like is that Ohio State would play really well for about six or seven plays. And then on the eighth play, bam, they would be exploited, whether it was mistackles, structure, or a lack of pressure. That's what I saw. There was other things that, again, are like very technical that I don't want to get into. The last thing that I would just say is that I thought Oregon's fourth and one call was brilliant.

If you didn't see it, it's hard to explain. I'll just tell you that like the Oregon coaching staff did a great job throughout the game in those crucial moments, and the fourth and one was one of those calls offensively. Okay, so now let's move on. So now we've talked about Dylan Gabriel, how great he was, throwing the ball really well down the field. He was 4 of 4 for 177 yards and a touchdown, throwing the ball 20 yards or more downfield. That's not his M.O., and he did it really well. Then we got to the Ohio State defense.

Three reasons why they gave up a lot of big plays. One was mixed tackles. One was a lack of adjustment in structure, at least in my estimation. in the run game, and the other was a lack of pressure on the quarterback. And then you get to the Ohio State offense. Okay, so the Ohio State offense played really well, and everyone's going to be talking about Will Howard after this game because of the way that the game ended.

I think it's important to note that through the entirety of the game, Will Howard played a tremendous, tremendous game. In fact, when you're watching on film, the more efficient and effective offense, through the course of the game is Ohio States. Whereas Oregon was having to get the explosive play in order to drive the football down the field, which they did.

It was Ohio State that was more efficient. They were the ones gathering up yards, making first downs, holding the ball. But the problem was, is that there was two or three really big moments where Will Howard did not play well. And now everyone's going to be remembering that. And clearly the end of the game

is one of those. Just those three moments that I had started, there was a third and three. When they're up, I think it was 28, 15 or something, and he just drops the snap. If they get that third down, they're going to drive down and probably get some points and maybe extend the lead.

But as it was, the score becomes 29, 28, because he drops the snap on third and three, and they've got to punt it away. The next one was a third and 13 on the next last drive. It's the fourth quarter. They've got a penalty, so it's third and 13, and he's got Jeremiah Smith at the sticks, and he's late with the ball, and it's incomplete because he tries to throw it too far away from him. So that was the second mistake. So those are the only mistakes he's making them. Trust me, I'm like watching this film, he played a brilliant game outside of these three

mistakes. And then the last one was he didn't know how much time was on the clock, and he didn't get down soon enough to get the timeout called in order to get the field goal. So that's, that's the Will Howard angle. And then you've got to look at this just from the entirety of the management of the game at the end. Okay. So let's talk really quickly about the ending sequence of that game. Because there was a lot going on. First and foremost, Ohio State drives down the field. And the first thing that happens is like, Will's playing great, right? The wide receivers are playing. Emeka had a great game. Jeremiah had a great game. I thought Travion should have gotten more carries, but that's beside the point.

That would take too long to get into. They drive it all the way down to the 28-yard line. All right. So at one point on the last series of the game, there's 34 seconds left. It's first and 10 from the 28-yard line. They are in field goal range. They have to feel like they have a field goal points, a win in their back pocket. So at this point, you're just thinking to yourself like, okay, we're not putting the ball in a precarious spot.

I wouldn't have minded a run play at that moment and force Oregon to start taking their timeouts so that you know, you can just end the game with the field goal and leave them no time. That wouldn't have been terrible. But at the 28-yard line, you're still talking about a 45-yard field goal. So this is college, you still are going to want more room. You want to get closer. So they throw an incompletion. now it's 28 seconds, it's second and 10, and now the play happens that I think cost Ohio State the game. They're in field goal range.

You feel like you're probably 82% going to win the game at that point. That's about the percentage that you would think from 43, maybe you get a few more yards, you up that percentage. And they're just trying to throw the ball to Jeremiah Smith on the short side of the field, and lo and behold, they call an offensive pass interference. I was shocked watching the game that they called the offensive pass interference. I talk with officials all the time. And generally speaking, here's what it comes down to.

For offensive pass interference, they want to see clear extension. They want to see the arm clearly extend in order to gain separation. Now, was there contact between Jeremiah Smith and the corner? yes. And was it physical? Yes. There's no doubt. Now, on the film, all night, it had been physical. And in fact, the play previous, Jeremiah Smith is being held the entire time he's trying to run a corner route. Like it was a physical game. And they had let them play for the most part throughout the entirety of the game. And then all of a sudden, the corner squats, Jeremiah Smith is running his route and contacts the corner and then breaks out. doesn't extend. Again, he doesn't push off in order to create the space and the flag comes out.

I thought it was a bad call. Just kind of point blank. And I would say that for anybody. Why? Because based on my conversations with officials, he didn't extend. He doesn't push. All right. Is there contact? Yes. Is there contact on every play before that? Yes. So the fact that the flag comes out there, I thought was it was a poor call. It was a poor call. Now, having said that, this is where it gets dicey for Ohio State because of what I'm about to tell you. The play ends up in bounds. It's a completion.

So the clock is running. As a quarterback and as an offense, as a player, you've got to understand that whatever stops the clock starts the clock. Here's what I mean by that. if an official stops the clock in order to administer something, right, a penalty, something's going on technically, then the official is going to start the clock on the ready for play, and he's going to wind it. If the ball stops the clock by being incomplete, going out of bounds, something along those lines, then the ball or the snap starts the clock. So as soon as Jeremiah Smith is in bounds and the official,

stop the clock to administer the offensive pass interference, somebody needs to be telling everybody like, hey, clock is going to start on the ready for play. I would love to know what Will Howard was hearing in the headset, because obviously we have coached a player communication now, and Chip Kelly is talking to him in the headset. And it looked like to me that Will was screaming at everybody like, come on, let's go, let's go. And you can kind of see him and his hands are going like this. And again, this is on the play, not before the run, but after the offensive pass interference, when time is ticking down and down and down and they're losing valuable time. I wouldn't have minded seeing them take a time out at that point, just because

it's like the time might be more valuable at that moment. Now, you can argue with me on that and that's totally fine. But this idea is that I didn't feel like the offensive line was ready. Will was screaming at the offensive line to get themselves going, and I don't think they realized that the clock was going. So the unit, the offense wasn't ready to snap the football. I don't think that that was a Will Howard issue because I see him on the film screaming and imploring his guys like, come on, we've got to go. The clock is rolling.

So they lose some valuable time at that point. So at that point, now you get to the last couple of snaps, and there's 10 seconds to go. And all of a sudden, Oregon takes a timeout. And now Oregon, after the timeout, they come out onto the field, they run a defensive lineman off the field, and then all of a sudden late, like really late right before the snap, a corner just steps on the field in order to play.

And I'm like, it's really hard for me. based on the way that the film looks, it's hard for me to think that it was anything other than completely brilliant strategy from Dan Laning in Oregon. I don't think it was a mistake from Oregon. I might be wrong, okay?

I might be wrong. But I do think that they put the 12th player out there in order for the snap not to count and to take extra time off the clock. because now Ohio State is desperate. They have to get yards. After the 15-yard penalty for OPI,

which again, we can talk about the actual penalty of 15 yards, which is a greases. They're on the 43-yard line. They have to get yards. And the 12 men on the field is brilliant because it takes time away from them on a play that's not going to count. And I think that the NFL has actually changed that rule where if that were to happen in the NFL,

they would give the offense the time back. I just think it's a fascinating cat and mouse game. And if that's what happened, then Dan Lannning is playing chess. Because then the last snap happens. And we all know what happens there. And that's that Will Howard kind of runs the clock out. He knows that he's trying to get down, but he's also in the back of his head, I feel for him.

Because he's like he knows he's got to get some yardage. And he's trying to leave that one second. And it was so close. It was so close. If he gets down a beat sooner, he probably gets the timeout because everybody's calling it right when he's starting the slide. What's fascinating to me is that they're supposed to, the play is supposed to be dead right when he starts the slide.

When he starts the slide, is it technically still time on the clock? Probably. And is a timeout being called right there? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Phenomenal game. Absolutely phenomenal gain. A bit of a controversial finish.

and I can't wait for these teams to play again. I cannot wait for these teams to play again. That was a great game. That was a great game. Now, what does it mean for both teams moving forward? Well, Oregon's in a great spot because their schedule opens up very well. They don't really play any of the other contenders in the Big Ten.

So you can basically pencil them into Indianapolis at this point as one of the participants in the Big Ten championship game. And Ohio State is the one that still has to play an undefeated Indianapolis. Indiana and still has to go to an undefeated Penn State and play in Happy Valley. Those are not easy games. So now all of a sudden, Ohio State is behind it a little bit in terms of the eight ball. They've got to basically run the table. If Penn State runs the table outside of that game against Ohio State,

then Ohio State has to run the table. They've got Nebraska, Penn State, Purdue, Northwestern, Indiana, and Michigan. So don't tell me these games don't matter because they do matter. And in order to get a potential first round buy, Ohio State probably has to run the table and win the Big Ten. Because I don't think that they can lose another game and still get to Indianapolis. That's why these games matter. Georgia is in the exact same spot.

If Georgia goes to Texas this week and loses, they're not going to Atlanta, which means they're not getting a buy. So Ohio State, there's no room for error. So yes, these games are meaningful. and don't tell me after watching the fans storm the field and watching the emotion after the game from Will, from Ryan Day, from Dan Lannning, from Dylan Gabriel, from, you know, Evan Stewart, all of these guys. Don't tell me it doesn't mean anything because that game was sensational. Oregon, huge win, huge win. And we've been waiting for this. I thought Oregon was clearly one of the four best teams to start the year. And now they proved it. Now they proved it. Okay, another one of these teams that we were expecting and didn't know what we were going to get in big games because of what has happened in previous years is Penn State.

So Penn State storms back and beats USC in overtime. This feels like a massive, monumental win for James Franklin. I understand that USC wasn't technically like ranked, but we know and we can sense how good USC is. I think they are much better than their ranking. They're far better than their 3-3 record. And we know what Penn State has done in big moments in previous years, whether it's Michigan or Ohio State. They have come up short.

This was a huge moment for James Franklin and Drew Aller. They needed this badly because if they go out there and lose, then it's just the same old Penn State. And they were able to come back and win this game. And big credit to Drew Aller, because he didn't play his cleanest game. But, man, he was great in big moments. You talk about coming down the stretch and getting those fourth down conversions, two of them, huge, nearly 400 passing yards.

He bounced back from the three interceptions and was just unconscious late. And then here's the big part for, I think, Penn State fans, is that they got some guys that stepped up in huge moments like Julian Fleming on one of those fourth downs. And they've got some wide receiver threats. if Fleming becomes a threat for them on the outside to go along with Tyler Warren, now you've got something. We know that they can run the football. We know that their defense is a quality defense. Like, they're going to be fine everywhere else. The big question for me in particular, and I talked about this at length with James Franklin,

both on the air and off, was about the wide receiver position. With Trey Lambert step up, would Julian Fleming step up? And now they've got not only some wide receivers making big plays in big moments, but they've also got this tied in Tyler Warren. that went absolutely bananas. How about Tyler Warren, man? And Penn State has had a great tradition of tied ends, and this guy fits right in.

Tyler Warren, 17 catches for 224 yards and a touchdown. By the way, that touchdown, he snapped the ball initially. They got the trick play, the Andy Coddlenicki special. You got, you know, Aller gets the ball and then throws it to Warren, and he makes the contested catch. This guy is a versatile player. He's a competitor. athletic. He catches it well. He runs pretty clean routes. And more importantly,

they're created enough on offense to create structures to get him the right matchup. I really love what they do on offense, and that showed. That showed. So this was a monumental game for Penn State. Based on the way that their season has gone over the last two years, when they get to their major hurdles, they would fall. And this was a major hurdle that they were able to get over. I understand USC's ranking is not, you know, it's not a top 10 win for James Franklin. But boy, it feels like it because that USC team is way better than their ranking or record. We know that.

We know that. If any of you watch football for any amount of time, you'll know that this is a really good USC team. That's the best three and three team in the country. I know that that is not going to be solace for any Trojan fan. But let's talk about USC for just a moment. Nobody's going to want to hear this. including Matt Liner. But Lincoln Riley is right.

They are literally three or four snaps from being 6 and 0. This is a young team. This is a team that everyone was going to say kind of wait and see. Then the expectations went through the roof after that win against LSU. And now they've played three other games where it came down to a play here or there, and they came up short. It's got to be maddening for Lincoln Riley because this team is battling and doing really good things, really good things.

Defensively in particular, based on what they were a year ago and in previous seasons, what the maddening part is, is that it's just now repetitive. It's like, well, now every time we get in this situation, it's not going our way. I was as frustrated as any, you know, Trojan fan watching them leave regulation with their timeouts. You know, I root for, I root for quality play. And it didn't seem like the end of the game was quality play from USC. I didn't sense that. They had a 7.4th quarter lead now in every one of their losses.

They could easily be 5 and 1, 6 and 0, and we'd be singing a very different tune. You've got a mistackle here, an interception there, two fourth down conversions for Drew Aller, which is insane and great for Penn State and equally heartbreaking for USC, but that is the reality of it. Now, are their playoff hopes dashed? Probably, probably. And that's unfortunate because that's a really good team. You ask these teams that are playing USC and they'll tell you like, man, that was really difficult. You know, they had Penn State dead to rights and they came up short. And no one wants to hear it. from Lincoln Riley. And I get it. He makes $100 million over the lifetime of his contract and no one wants to hear it. And Trojan fans don't want to hear it. And they think it's a bad contract. It's not a

bad contract. That team is very close. Man. And they will come through this. I'm a big believer that you still like you win small or you lose small and then you win small and then you win big. They're on their way. They're doing things. That is a far better. And by the way, stop it. And we do this at Fox. and it drives me insane. Would you stop it with the graphics about like, in the first 27 games, he and Clay Hilton are exactly the same. It was the same crap that they used to do with Brady Hoke and Jim Harbaugh. And it was like, you'd have to be buried under a rock

in order to not understand the difference between the two programs and the two teams in those two eras. And so can we stop it with the Clay Hilton and the Lincoln-Riley era comparison? It's not close. It's not close. I'm so sick of that. I am so sick of that. It's such a narrative BS from those of us in our industry. I won't stand for it. If our social team does it, let me know. Flag me. I'm going to get all over there. Well, you know. All right, let's move to the SEC because there are some great games in the SEC. Let's go to the game that wasn't great, but probably is the greatest team in the SEC.

How about Texas's dominant win over Oklahoma? Was not close, maybe close in the first quarter, as Quinn Ewers was knocking off the rust after he's back in the lineup. Remember, he missed those two games. Arch Manning started, and so he was knocking off some of the cobwebs. And it was the 3-0 game at the end of the first quarter, I believe. That's what I remember. And from that point on, not even close.

Not even in the same hemisphere. Oklahoma is not a very good football team right now. The defense was totally overmatched against Texas in those last three quarters. Texas outgained Oklahoma by 170 yards. OU had just 239 total yards. And Texas, to me, looks like the best team in the country. Okay, so did Oregon deserve some consideration to be number one? Yes.

Did I put them there? I didn't. And the reason was because the way that Texas played against Oklahoma. So the dominance that Texas showed kept them at number one for me. Now, could I have switched that absolutely? Because I think a lot of Oregon. And by the way, I didn't move Ohio State anywhere. They're right there at number three.

Why? they won by a point after being in field goal range and then Homeboy throws an OPI. Like those two teams are great teams. 32, 31, that's a great matchup. So boom, they stay right there. I still think Georgia, I'm going to still ride with Georgia. I know that they've got some warts. I'll get into that in a little bit.

Penn State, huge win over USC. They're at five. Clemson is a team that I'm on the bandwagon. I know a lot of people don't want to see that. They don't want to hear that because of the way that they lost to Georgia in week one. That team has developed offensively. far better now than what they were at the beginning of the year. Another game in which they were close to 50 points, they win.

Bama squeaks by. LSU gets the overtime win. Iowa State, by the way, looking very good. In Miami, I just don't trust Miami right now. I just don't. Not with the way the Virginian Tech game played out and the way the Cal game played out. So I keep them in my top 10 because of Cam Ward, but they're in 10th spot.

Texas number one. They've got the number one scoring defense and the number one scoring offense in the country. Now, to be fair, I believe that that defensive statistic is a bit inflated, because although they've played Oklahoma and Michigan, you can make an argument that certainly at the times that they played those teams, that those two offenses were a couple of the worst offenses certainly in Power 4 football and certainly of any ranked teams. So it's not like they're playing offensive juggernauts, and yet they are doing what they should do and are supposed to do if you're a great team, which is shut down a bad offense. And they've done.

that. They've done that. Number one defense, number one offense in the country. Texas is really good. I can't wait to talk about that Georgia, Texas game, by the way. That'll be coming up later in the week. How concerned with Oklahoma should we be, folks? I'm just going to tell you

the panic meter should be ratcheted way up. They are 125th in total offense. I told you when this team lost to Tennessee, I said, that's not a Jackson Arnold problem. It was everywhere. They were awful on offense,

and it has not gotten better. It has not gotten better. When I watch them on film, it ain't even close on the offensive side. Not even close. I know that sounds harsh, but it's true, and now it's bearing out to be true. And now I think all of you probably believe me

based on what I told you after the Tennessee game. this was not going to get any better, and it hasn't. You can change quarterbacks all you want. It's not going to get any better. Maybe Patrick Mahomes could move the football a little bit better, but probably not. You have to have a supporting cast and you have to have a cohesive plan, and they just don't have that right now. Getting credit, credit goes to Texas and their defense, certainly.

They're the number one team in the country in my eyes. But man, Vinnables is in year three, and this is the offense he's putting out there. alarm bells, alarm bells. If I'm just sitting there and I'm thinking of this and let's compare them, let's do it. Why? Because everybody's going to. Oklahoma and USC. Who do I feel better about right now?

USC. And it's not even close. It's not even close. USC is right there. They are right there. Oklahoma is not right there. They are a hundred and twenty-fifth in total offense. And it's not a quarterback problem.

So, like, where do we go from here? I think Brent Venables has to completely redo the offensive side of the football because it's not working right now for OU. That's off of the Red River shootout. Elsewhere in the SEC, great game, great game, great game, great. I mean, it was great game everywhere in the SEC. It really was. And conference games generally give us these closer matchups.

I do think that there's some parody in college football, which I am here for, because why? It rewards execution, game plans, rather than just margin of talent. As we've seen the margin of talent start to diminish between teams, in particular within conferences, what we see is that execution and game plans are rewarded. And I love that.

I really love that. Okay, so let's go elsewhere in the SEC. LSU, now in a huge position, great position. After getting that win over Ole Miss, that was a huge victory. and by the way, another one chocked up for the Joel Clatio. We told you not only LSU would win, but because being in Death Valley as an underdog, that was a big winner for our picks.

It puts them in a position right now where I'm looking at that game, LSU, Texas, A&M. And if those two teams just continue to, if they just continue to consistently try to get better, they should beat the other teams on their schedule. And the winner of the A&M LSU game probably going to Atlanta. I think that's where we're headed right now. I know that LSU still has Bama as well. But that A&M LSU game, there's something about that game. The way that those two teams are playing,

the way that A&M schedule kind of plays out, watch out for that. And by the way, Nussmeyer was terrific. They led for exactly zero seconds of that game and just kept coming back and kept coming back. They beat Ole Miss and now Ole Miss, they're in a really precarious spot. Similar to USC, it's like both of the games that they lost, they probably could have or should have won. And yet they didn't. And now they're behind the eight ball with everything on the line.

All of that money they spent in the transfer portal, all the hype surrounding this team coming into this season. and I don't think you're going to the playoff with a third loss. And so Ole Miss, they've got to feel like, do we have to beat Georgia later in the year? My contention would be, yes, they do. They face Georgia November 9th. And I think that their chance for a playoff berth is on the line against Georgia. There's no margin for error. So again, I'm going to go to this.

The expanded playoff, I was like, it's going to ruin the regular season. No, it's not. The regular season is incredible because none of these games have been diminished. And now all we have is more volume of games that are going to matter as we get into November. Then I'm here for it. Alabama survives against South Carolina. What was that? Where are we at, Bama fans?

Are we, like, panicking? Because my chest is a little bit tight. I'm just like, you know, like, really? 14-0-0 lead. Then all of a sudden they just defense, not. playing great, not playing great. And here's the problem with Alabama, the way that I stated last week, and nothing about that game changed my thought about what Alabama is from last week. Here's what Alabama is. If they play a team that's any good at all, they're going to have to

play perfect on the offensive side and they will likely be in a shootout. Okay. If they play a team that they really should beat, they will by a quite significant margin, 45, 28, 45, 25, 28, 45, 21 unless Jalen Milrow and the offense don't play well, which they didn't, and then they will be in a tight game. That's exactly what happened against South Carolina. Their defense is what their defense is. It's kind of like OU's offense. It's not getting better. Those structures are not working right now. Okay. And so Bama is going to be in tight games in particular if their quarterback doesn't play well. And that was Milrow's worst performance of the season. All right. And again, the big place, 31-yard touchdown, final minute.

They're fortunate that the two-point play failed. If it doesn't fail, they're in overtime. And then they allow the onside kick, and thankfully they get the pick after that. But my goodness, if you're a Bama fan, you can't feel all that great about what's going on. What I do love, though, is that people were pulling up some old clips because what year was it? I want to say it was like 2014 or 15, maybe 16, maybe later than that. But Bama loses to Ole Miss and then they like squeaked by like Arkansas. And then Sabin went on an all-time rant.

It's like, we won the game. You know, and it was like classic Sabin. And I'm just reminded of how good that guy was in terms of getting his team ready to play and keeping his team on edge at all times. And so we're going to see if Kalin DeBore can do that with Alabama because they certainly should not be playing a tight game against South Carolina. Alabama is a far better team than South Carolina. And now that's back-to-back weeks that the tide just don't play well.

Tennessee beats Florida in overtime. And I'm like, my goodness, Tennessee. I thought Tennessee was really good a few weeks ago. I thought that Nico Yamaleava was going to be the guy. He could run it. He was throwing the ball well. I love their defense. They can run it.

And now guess what's happened? Yes, they can still play defense. Yes, they can still run the ball. And their passing game has evaporated. It has evaporated. Only 169 pass yards for Nico, two turnovers in the win against Florida, and they kind of have to survive in order to win that game. He's struggling right now.

And as a young player, man, you're just praying like, when does it click for this guy? And hopefully for Tennessee, it starts to click soon. Offense only scoring 20 points per game in SEC play. So what we saw against OU and what we attributed to like, okay, maybe they just took their foot off the gas. and OU's defense is really good. That's continued. Nico's got to play better.

He holds the ball too long. He needs to get through his reads. Remember what I told you last week? It's like someone needs to get some urgency with this guy. What I don't love about modern passing games in college is that they don't keep the timing of the offense in the quarterback's feet. I had a long discussion with Steve Young when I was out at BYU this last weekend. Steve Young was there and we had a long discussion just about offense

and schematics in the West Coast system. And I loved it. I loved it. I'm a total nerd when it comes to offense. I love football. In fact, I still don't know why I didn't coach, but whatever. I didn't coach and I'm here and I love you guys. So it is what it is.

The West Coast system and their passing game, the timing of the offense was kept in the quarterback's feet. So there was all these different styles of dropbacks. You could have a quick three and firm, a big three and firm. You could have a quick five. and firm. You could have a quick five and close. You could have a big five and close. You could have a quick seven and firm, a quick seven and close, a big seven enclose, which was rare, but occasionally. And those were tied to different concepts. And that concept or the picture that you were seeing,

they were tied to your feet. And so your feet were the progression. Let's say you're running something really simple, right? Like Z curl, Y go. All right? So you've got a high, low read with a curl and the flat route. Your Y is going to clear out. You've got to check down on the backside. It's a six-man protection and here we go. Well, that's a big five in close. So I come out and what does close mean, Joel? That means when I get to my fifth step, I'm going to hitch up. So that hitch up is a close step. Okay, so I'm first close, one to the curl. If I get to my second close, I'm two to the flat route. If I get to my third close, I better be running or checking the football down. So what happens in these offenses that don't keep the timing in the

quarterback's feet? Then he just has to feel the timing. And that's difficult for young quarterbacks. Feeling the timing, you can have panic. You don't know how to get through your progression. That's why I want it on rhythm. One, two, three, get through it and go. What you see from young guys now, and I see it from Nico all the time when I'm watching him on film, is he just hangs, hanging around right here. He's just Teddy KGB on the first read. And it's like, you can't be Teddy. You got to move. A lot of references in there. If you don't understand what I'm saying, that's fine. We're going to get to it, all of it, in our football series right here on the Joel Clash show. And then Georgia wins. They beat a one-win Mississippi State by 10 points and they allowed 31.

Should we be concerned about Georgia? Here's why I'm a little bit concerned about Georgia. While Beck throws it for over 400 yards, which was great, guess what they are not doing very well, running the football. And they run it fine against Mississippi State, but they better. Mississippi State is a one-win team. There are three games. They've played six. So in half of their games, they have run the ball for under four yards per carry. That's not good enough. Okay? So that's not good enough.

They're going to need to be better than that running the football. So are we concerned with Georgia? Let's wait and see for this week. We're going to know everything that we need to know about both Texas and Georgia after this week. And I think Georgia will be ready in that one. All right. Last game that I got to talk about is because it basically, it unveiled what the Big 12 is going to be. And it was that game Saturday night, Kansas State and Colorado.

and it turned out to be a phenomenal football game with Colorado taking the lead late and then Kansas State coming back and ultimately winning the game. First and foremost, like, bummer that Travis Hunter got hurt, but it was clear that he wasn't on the field late. So Colorado takes the lead 28, 24,

with just under three minutes to go and then immediately give up basically a two-play drive. They're trying to play man coverage. They lose the back, get in and says out of the backfield. He has a huge run. He gets up there. about the 50-yard line. And on the very next play, they're going to be in single coverage,

and they're going to fire it right down the field, and it's a touchdown for Kansas State. And I was like, you've got to be kidding me. Like that quickly, I couldn't, in my mind, Kansas State is down four. I don't understand why they're in single coverage on the outside. If, like, force Kansas State just to hand it off. like give safety help. I think that was a poor defensive call from Colorado,

partly because they had to score a touchdown. So force them to do what they don't want to do, which is hand the football off. How do you do that? Keep safeties back. Keep people over the top so that that doesn't happen. And then you can defend the run. Just keep coming up and tackling,

coming up and tackling. And now all of a sudden, they're going to work against the club. clock. Now, as it was, Colorado gets the ball back and with plenty of time because it happens so fast. You're like, oh, well, wow. Now Colorado, all they need is a field goal to tie. And then we get into the last series. Shador walks out there and he doesn't have his best players. Travis Hunter is not on the field because of the injury. Jimmy Horn's not on the field. And Morion Walker is not on the field. However, you got to credit Colorado because they're still in the game. They had still

taking the lead and you get this feeling like, hey, maybe they're still going to go down. there and at least get this field goal, take this game to overtime. And they move the ball a little bit. And then all of a sudden it's an incompletion and incompletion. And now all of a sudden it's fourth and six. All right? And you're thinking to yourself like, well, I think to myself, there's going to be a blitz here. So you've got to get an in-breaking route into an area where Kansas State is going to blitz.

And they come out and they snap the football and they throw a fade. And I'm like, what in the world are we doing? The wide side of the field, they had the in-breaking route. It's a slant right into the area where they're going to blitz from, and Kansas State blitzes, and we still throw the fade down the sideline, we meaning the royal we, us quarterbacks. I don't know why Shador throws that ball. Having said that, that is 100% pass interference. There's not a doubt in my mind.

If I told you earlier that when I talked to officials, what you need for OPI is extension of the arm, what you need for DPI is a restriction of the ability to catch the football, to make a move on the football. So it doesn't matter if the corner had his eyes on the football or not. If he's making contact before the ball arrive that restricts the ability of the wide receiver to make a play on the football, that's defensive pass interference, which that clearly was. And no, the ball wasn't thrown out of bounds. It was six inches from the wide receiver's arm, which was being contacted before it arrived.

So 100% that was defensive pass interference. And now I'm sitting here, and it's like, sure, I'm frustrated and I send a tweet out about that. But then it's like this, the officiating all over college football has been really poor. And in particular with this call, defensive and offensive pass interference, it's not just about Colorado, Kansas State, although I think that that was clearly a missed call. Do I love the play call, by the way? No. No, I don't love the play call.

Throwing a fade on fourth down drives me nuts. Drives me nuts. If you do it on the goal line, I'm going to literally kick the TV. But it was pass interference. It was not called. And it has been egregiously inconsistent throughout college football. Throughout college football. We had the OPI against Ohio State in that game. We had two defensive pass interference calls that probably should have gone against Penn State in overtime, didn't. We had that pass interference call against Colorado.

didn't turn out to be the correct call. And then you've got the, like, the bad review in the Miami Cal game. And it's like, you can have example after example, after example, after example, of poor officiating. And I personally believe that officiating at the conference level needs to be moved to the national level. Because the problem is that there's, and that there is at least an appearance or could be an appearance of buyer. towards the more quality team in your conference because a conference has incentive to keep their good teams good. Because their good teams can go make them a lot of money in the postseason. So there is a financial incentive to keep your good teams good. Get more teams in your conference

into the college football playoff. And yet, it's conference run officiating. It's conference run replay. Well, that doesn't make much sense, does it? No. No, it doesn't. So at least let's avoid the illusion or narrative or possibility of bias and move to a national officiating base. And maybe a lot of things will improve. Now, will it improve pass interference calls? I'm not sure because the NFL struggles with this. College football struggles with this. It's just the most inconsistent call in our sport. All right. That's going to do it for today's episode. We've still got a lot to get into on Wednesday. So make sure to share with a friend and come back on Wednesday. We'll be back with

another Joel Clash show then. We've got more picks on Thursday. And by the way, still on a heater. Hello, John Daly over here, just firing darts down. Another 4-1-1 week. So we went 4-1, 5-0, 4-1. We're now, what, 25 and 12 on the year on our picks. And so, yeah, we're going to beat our chest and tell you that we're good

until we catch a non-heater and go 1-4, which is probably incoming. I have to go 4-1, 5-0, 4-1. probably a one and four soon. I'm just letting you know. I'm just letting you know because they don't build those buildings for nothing what the old adage says. Hey, thank you for listening.

Make sure to share it with a friend and I can't wait to see you guys or be with you guys on Wednesday.