The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Penn State shocked by UCLA, Texas has big problems and who is #1 in Klatt’s Top 10?

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to Penn State’s stunning upset at the hands of a winless UCLA team and breaks down the issues that he sees with this team right now – and who doesn’t deserve as much blame as he’s getting. Klatt also explains why Texas was beaten by a 3-loss Florida team and his level of concern with Arch Manning and the Longhorns going forward. He then reveals his latest Top 10 and makes his choice for the #1 team in the country following Ohio State’s blowout win over Minnesota and Miami’s road win over Florida State. He wraps up the show by giving his thoughts on Michigan following the Wolverines’ win over Wisconsin and why Bryce Underwood gives them an opportunity to make a Playoff run this season. 0:00-1:54 Intro1:55-20:54 What’s wrong with Penn State after back-to-back losses?20:55-30:41 UCLA pulls off upset win over Penn State30:42-39:09 Florida upsets Texas39:10-1:00:48 Joel Klatt’s Week 7 top 10 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every single year, there's some Saturday in October where we get these wild outcomes. The best player in a Penn State uniform on Saturday against UCLA was Drew Allen. You know, it wasn't Arch's fault because the offensive line was terrible. They only have one SEC loss. And if they play their best, we could see a path to the CFP. I think the SEC doesn't have a great team. They've got a lot of good teams. Hey, like today is why we love college football.

Hey, what's up, everybody? Welcome into the Joel Clatt show. I'm Joel Clatt. This show is brought to you by Graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support as always. Hey, if you haven't done it, subscribe to the show. We're up and over $250,000. So thank you fans for sharing our show, telling people about it,

and continue to invite a friend because college football is always better with a friend. There we go. I love saying that. And then follow us on social media. Wherever you like to social media, all of our content lives there during the course of the season. at Joel Clatio, you can get all of our content and shorter snippets. By the way, I've really enjoyed jumping down on the comments. I'm sure we'll get more of that because again, today, what are we going to get? We're going to get my brand new top 10. That's right. That's coming straight at you. You guys have enjoyed that on Mondays, so we're going to continue to do that. But today we actually have to start with those giant games and more specifically, a couple of big upsets in college football, wild day in college football. And this is one of the things that I think is so great about this sport. is that every single year, there's some Saturday in October where we get these wild outcomes. And certainly there was not a more wild outcome than out in Pasadena where UCLA,

winless had not been in the lead versus anybody all year took down Penn State in the Rose Bowl. That was an incredible performance by UCLA, but I think I'm going to have to start with Penn State because that's where the conversation is going to be. this was the preseason number two team in the country, bringing back a lot of veterans. And the expectations could not have been higher for Penn State. And now all of a sudden, all hell has broken loose for the Nittany Lions. Back-to-back losses, an emotional wide-out loss overtime to a really good Oregon team that all of us believe is one of the best teams in college football.

And listen, what was the conversation? It was more about Penn State continues to lose these type of match-up games. But what they had not done, and everyone knows this, is they had not lost to teams that they should beat. They hadn't done it. Really, their last loss in a situation like this was the nine overtime game in 2021 against Illinois. This was tried and true. James Franklin had gotten them over this hump of losing the inexplicable game. It was the games that meant everything that we were wanting to see Penn State take a step forward. And here, what we have is the classic trap game. I answered this question last week about trap games, and really I said there's two ways

you can have a trap game in college football. The more classic one is the Texas version at Florida, which we'll talk about in a moment. But this is the one that's a little more sneaky, where you have a really emotional loss or win, just an emotional game where you've got to expend 100% of your energy, emotional energy, everything in it. And then all of a sudden, the result of that game lingers. And it can happen if you win or lose that game. But in this case, it was a loss that Penn State suffered at home and then it lingered. And you could clearly see during the course of that game that that team was not as prepared as it needed to be to go out there and play even UCLA. A team that was 0 and 4 had fired both coordinators, fired their head coach, and had nothing to lose. That is a

classic trap. In fact, it happened a few years ago after Ohio State had, beaten Penn State, I believe it was in 2017. Sequan Barkley took the opening kickoff back, and Ohio State claws back, and it's this big emotional win. Crowd storms the field afterwards. J.T. Barrett, just an incredible comeback in that game. And then the next week, Ohio State went out and lost to Iowa, on the road at Iowa.

And again, that's kind of that classic trap game. This was that for Penn State, not trying to give them any excuses, but you're on the road, team that you don't respect, and all of a sudden, they're in a ballgame. And UCLA emptied the bucket. I loved UCLA their plan, everything about what they did. And again, I want to give them their flowers, and I will do that right after I evaluate what's gone on at Penn State. Let's start on the offensive side of the football, even though they were able to claw back and get within a score of that game. And we'll talk about their defense, there's no doubt.

But this offense is where I think the lion's share of the criticism lies. and that's because their quarterback, Drew Aller, has been at the middle of a lot of these games where their fan base feels like they come up short. And I'll just say this about Penn State's offense. And I said this last week as well. When I watched their offense, what they're trying to run and the pieces they're trying to run it with aren't fitting right now. And they've got to figure that out. And they better figure that out quickly now with two losses. backs are clearly up against the wall.

Talented pieces that it's just not working. So they have to go back to the drawing board and try to look at what do our players do best and how can we best put them in those positions to succeed. That's really what a coach's job is. That's what they have to do right now because it's not working. And certainly on Saturday, that was the case. This is what I think is telling about Penn State is that when you look at the last two weeks. And you look at what the game plan was. I'm talking about base downs, first half,

what they spent their entire week in preparation, getting ready to do. It has not worked. It didn't work against Oregon in the first half, and it certainly didn't work against UCLA in the first half. And you can't just chalk this up to like, well, they weren't ready to play. That is a way that like a fan can describe it. And I don't want to disparage fans. But I will just tell you that something in the plan is not working because you can prepare yourself schematically for success. And we saw UCLA do that on the opposite side. But that's not happening at Penn State. You look at the first two halves each of the last two weeks, Oregon and then UCLA, really, really bad.

First half versus Oregon, 69 yards, 92 versus UCLA. Like, you can't, you can, you cannot come out and play that poorly when you're trying to execute a plan that has been built over the entire week. That's it. That is a problem. So again, it goes back to fit. And again, it goes back to like, what do we do best schematically? And what do our players do best? What can they execute?

And then that marriage needs to happen. There was obviously what I feel like were some calls that they're going to want back from a play calling perspective, namely that fourth downplay that they ran on fourth and two down a score, and they run the quarterback reed power with Drew Aller. And it's like, listen, man, this is not Tim Tebow. This is not Cam Newton. This is Drew Aller. He is a classic pocket passer just because he can run for four or five first downs a game,

which he did doesn't mean that he is a running threat. And so when you've got, you know, Ketron Allen and Nick Singleton, and you've got a run game that you feel like you can lean on and all this experience on the offensive line, I think you need to go in a different direction. And I thought they would have learned that lesson last year in a huge game against Ohio State when they had first and gold down to score inside the five-yard line

and Tyler Warren didn't touch the ball. You know, in the most critical moments of the game, your best player has to touch the football. Now, you can argue that that might have been Drew Aller. Then you might have a point because Penn State fans. This might come as a bit of a shock. I've watched every play, every play. And what if I told you, Penn State fans,

that the best player in a Penn State uniform on Saturday against UCLA was Drew Aller? Would you agree with that? Because if you just read the articles or if you're on the chat boards and you read what's being said, you would think that the problem is, is Drew Allen. I don't think that that's accurate. I don't think that that's accurate at all. In fact, I believe and I know that Drew Aller was the best Nittany Lion on the field on Saturday, and he was in a wide respect. The only reason that Penn State had a chance to win that football game in the first place. And that's even being in an offense and trying to execute scheme

that he's not necessarily fit to execute. That dude plays hard. Now, that's not enough, and I'm not suggesting he was perfect either. So I don't want to get the two conflated because no one played great for Penn State, but he was certainly the reason that they were in that game. And I believe that the criticism coming his way

is not appropriate. Now, it's always going to be there. And as a former quarterback, I understand uniquely, and I'm fully aware that the quarterback is always going to get more credit than he should when the team is playing well, and he's going to get more criticism than he should when the team does not play well. So listen, that's what you sign up for. And I know Drew would say that as well. I've talked to him before.

Like he understands that. And all of us that played that position understand that. But I'm here to tell you as an outside observer, and I know what I'm looking at, Drew was not the problem on Saturday. He just wasn't. And in fact, he was playing outside of the X's and O's several times just in order to get the team to where it was, scrambling for first downs because the offensive line played very poorly. They didn't run the ball well. The wide receivers are not playing well. Let me just give you a couple of examples.

He had five rushing first downs versus UCLA. He had four rushing first downs versus Oregon. And a lot of those are when things break down. Now, when that happens, there are two ways or reasons why a quarterback has to rush for a first down when things break down. Either he doesn't know what he's looking at and he just utilizes his legs to get out and to escape. That's not the case with Aller. He knows what he's looking at. His eyes are in the proper place, at least the way that it looks to me.

And here's what he's looking at. He's looking at a wide receiver core right now that continues, continues, even with different players and a rebuilt roster continues to be an underperforming unit. And I'm not just talking about the stat sheet. Because remember, as a quarterback, I don't care who catches the football. And neither does Drew. Okay. Julian Sayan doesn't care who catches the football.

Here's what a quarterback actually cares about. Pictures. Are they clean? Are they on time? Do you create? And Bill Belichick said this. I believe it was in the Indianapolis Super Bowl. when they played against the Giants and Eli the second time.

I remember I was sitting there. I was doing Radio Row at the time at a station in Denver. I hadn't moved to L.A. and hadn't started my more national job with Fox. And I was doing a local radio show in Denver, and we went to Radio Row, and we sat in on some of the coaches' press conferences that they had with obviously our press credentials.

And he was asked about wide receiver play. Because you remember, like, wide receiver play, apart from Randy Moss, New England never really prioritized wide receivers. And he said, listen, there's really only two things that I care about with a wide receiver. Can you create separation and do you catch the ball? Right. And then I would add a third as like a more an offensive guy is like, are you on time and creating separation?

Here's what I'm seeing with UCLA's wide receivers. Or excuse me, Penn State's wide receivers. They do not get open. They do not run with urgency. The speed with which they play is a notch too slow. They cannot get off of bump coverage. So they're jammed constantly at the line of scrimmage, if that's the technique that the defense is playing.

Thus, the picture is late. Thus, Alar's got nowhere to throw the football. And then he's got to escape the pass rush, which is generally in his lap because the offensive line is underperforming. And several times he escaped as not a guy that's going to threaten you with his mobility, but just with sheer courage and competitiveness, he got those first downs. Again, he ran for five first downs. Not all those designed. In fact, very few of them. Three or four of those are just him, competing, moving the chains. All right? Because when he's

looking down the field, he sees guys that are not running hard, jammed, covered. That's a problem. That's a problem. There was even a play late in that ball game where it looks like he overthrows the tight in on a little wheel route into the end zone. And obviously, that's a touchdown that they desperately needed. And I'm sure a Penn State fan would have said to themselves like, oh, Aller's got to hit that. And yes, yes, he does. But he's not the only variable in that equation.

He's not. Now, you got to put it on them. And I understand that. But he's also throwing to a spot. And he's got to assume that once his tight end gets a step and has leverage over the top of the defender that he has to use. speed to create the space. You got to go. You have won. The one thing you can't do as a pass catcher in that moment, once you've gotten a step past the defender and you're running down

the field is slow down. And the tight end slows down. Drew throws it to a spot he thinks he's going to be at. The tight end turns himself around and it looks like it's overthrown. The ball was actually well thrown from Aller. These, I'm sure, sound like excuses. And I'm not trying to be any apologist here for Drew. He's got to play better at times. There's no doubt. There's no doubt. And he wasn't perfect. But Saturday was not on him. It was not on him. The offensive line was not good. And then the game plan was not good. Let me just give you a quick synopsis. And this is, again, what I saw. When I'm watching that film, I saw them try to run that stretch quarterback power that they did on fourth down one other time during the game. And it was all the way back in the

half. I believe it was the second quarter. It was the second quarter, actually. They were going left to right. And it was a first down and minus territory, first and 10. Okay. And they tried to run it, and the back was blown up. And he did not make a good read. And he gave it to the back. And it looked like the quarterback run maybe would have been there if he pulls in and takes it up the middle of the field. So on film, and they're watching on the iPads, I'm sure they think to themselves like, hey, we can get into that set again or run that concept again out of a different set. And maybe the quarterback run is going to be there. But it went for minus seven. Minus seven. Now, there were other short yardage opportunities that they had during the

course of the game. A couple on third down. I believe one of them was on fourth down, but a couple on third down, they got into an unbalanced or I would say power set into the short side of the field and just ran a toss sweep. You can go back and watch this, by the way, Penn State fans. Toss sweep, short yardage, short side of the field with linemen and tight ends in front and they mold UCLA. Easy first downs. Easy first downs. You get into a second quarter, fourth and two. And now it's fourth and two. And it's like, okay, what's your fourth down plan during the course of the week? What is it? Especially fourth and short, even with that offensive line, even with those running backs, your Penn State, their UCLA, you should be able to run for the first down. It's fourth and two.

And they get into a spread set and they run a mesh concept where they got two drag routes, trying to cross the field. Great versus man coverage, right? Absolutely. I would call it versus man coverage. There's no doubt. One problem. It's zone.

You can't run mesh on fourth and two versus zone. So Aller sits back there. The mesh doesn't affect one defender whatsoever. He's got routes on the outside that are jogging off the line of scrimmage. They're not open. And he has to take a sack. And if I'm a Penn State fan watching at home, I'm probably thinking to myself like,

Oh, Aller, come on. Not his problem. Play call, terrible. Play execution, even worse. So these are the things that I see on film. Now you get to fourth and two. The game is on the line. And I don't quite understand how you would go back to a play concept

that got a minus seven earlier in the game. I constantly, so Steve is with me here. And during the course of games, when he's also with me in the booth, we will earmark plays during the course of the game. Always, every single week in the booth, we're constantly ticking off plays. I'm telling the truck down our production truck. Hey, they're going to come back to that.

That was a successful play. That was a successful formation. In a big moment, they're going to need something late in the game. They're going to get back to what worked. What I don't understand is why we'd go back to something that did not work, in particular at the biggest moment of the game. Now we get to the defense. I know that was a long dissertation, but again, like,

it was pretty bad. The film was for Penn State. You get to the defensive side of the football, they couldn't get a stop. Comebacks are like puzzles. They happen one piece at a time. And can you imagine if you're trying to do a puzzle and you're trying to put it together one piece at a time, right?

And somebody, after you put a piece in, just comes over it, maybe you've got a little brother or something, a little turd. And he comes in and just pops a piece out and takes it and steals it run into the other room. Are you ever going to be able to complete the puzzle? No. The answer is no. And that's exactly what happened on Saturday to Penn State. Every time the offense put another piece into that puzzle to come back, what happened? UCLA drove

right down the field and scored. Penn State couldn't get a stop. They didn't tackle well in space. They didn't play well with their defensive line. Their defensive backs did not play physical. And Nico Iomaleava was brilliant. He was terrific. Looked like the five-star quarterback that we all saw at moments against Tennessee and then certainly showed up on Saturday against Penn State. He was a real threat. Reminded me of the first half against Ohio State in the college football playoff

when he was really Tennessee's only offense running the football. And that's very similar to what he did against Penn State, and they could never get a stop. They couldn't get a stop when they needed it. Offense would get within a score. UCLA would extend the lead. Offense would get within a score. UCLA would extend the lead.

and that's got to be absolutely maddening if you're a Penn State fan, if you're a player, and if you're Jim Knowles. You know, he was brought in there on a pretty hefty salary as a guy that has had a lot of success everywhere that he's been, going back to Duke as a defensive coordinator, and Oklahoma State as a defensive coordinator, and obviously at Ohio State with what they were able to do finishing number one in the country last year, and they couldn't get it done. You give up 42 to a team that was 130. fourth in scoring offense coming in. I mean, that is a moment right there. So nothing worked for

Penn State. Nothing. It is drawing board time for the Penn State Nittany Lions. So before we get into UCLA, the elephant in the room, obviously, is going to be Coach Franklin. And James Franklin and everyone talking about his job. But here's the deal. He's not going to be worried about that right now because what he's going to be worried about is all the things that I just discussed. And ultimately, and he knows this, and he even said so at the end of the day, you know, he's going to be responsible for fixing all the things that I just described during that lengthy dissertation about his team. And that's going to be his charge, is to go through that and fix the things that are broken. And we'll see if they can do that moving forward. Now we move over to the other side and we take a trip down memory lane presented by graduate by Hilton.

Nostalgatic stays in your favorite college town. Again, I love staying in graduates in all of these college towns. And I want to take a trip in the way back machine here and just show you what do we got, a little deja vu. And that is Jerry Newheisel being lifted up and carried onto the field, off the field, whatever you want to call it, both as a player when he was a backup back in 2014. He comes on, leads the Bruins to a win over Texas and AT&T Stadium. And here he is on Saturday as the newly minted play caller being concerned.

carried off by his guys after dropping a 42 burger on what all of us thought was one of the better defenses in college football. So New Highlands old twice in his life been carried off by the Bruins on the field. What a moment for him in the trip down memory lane there presented by graduate by Hilton. So let's get to UCLA here. And I got to tell you, man, how about an eight clap for UCLA? You, CLA. UCLA. UCLA. U.C. L.A. all the sudden, you see all the flags. You guys know I live in Southern California, right? And I live in a neighborhood.

Like, listen, you're either one or the other here. You know, a lot of USC fans. And obviously, you see the USC flags all the time on Saturday. I have not seen a lot of UCLA gear or flags. And sure enough, I come back home on Saturday. I landed late and I'm driving back into the neighborhood to come home. And sure enough, man, these houses that I know, UCLA fans live in these houses, but sure enough, those flags are out like on the porch.

UCLA flags. And I'm like, you know, good for them. What a moment in college football. Think of the turmoil that this program has been in firing their head coach, Deshawn Foster, one of their own. That's painful. Firing coordinators. And they came out there and played an unbelievable game. Like, they were the better team on Saturday. This was not fluky. I get it. they came out and onside kicked and this or that. But Penn State blocked the punt. Like, listen, they were the better team. They converted when they needed to convert.

They outgained Penn State. They did everything better than Penn State. They were better on third down than Penn State. Their quarterback played great. Nico Iamaleava looked like the five-star player. That's what he looked like. He looked like a guy that could put the team on his back and go out there and win the football game. And, you know, I mean,

Everybody except for one fan base in America has got to be at least mildly, like, happy for the guy. I know that Tennessee fans aren't going to be happy for him, and that's fine. I totally understand that. I get it. But what a story. Coming in there, they had no success this year. I mean none. Like I said prior, 134th ranked offense, scoring offense in the country.

And they roll out there and drop 42, go up and down the field when they needed an answer, they had it. And again, it was largely Nico, whether it was with his legs, making some great reads and throws throwing the football down the field. He was great, man. That's what a five-star player looks like. That's why fan bases get so excited when five-stars commit to their program is because they envision big games where that player can take over and go and win a game. And he was able to do that. New Heisel was terrific with his game plan. He was. He was, really was. Like, obviously he's going to be an offensive coordinator somewhere. Maybe it's at UCLA for the rest. Well, obviously, yes, he is for the rest of the season going to call plays at

UCLA. But I'm talking about like full-time play caller, offensive coordinator. Give that man a big job because he executed really well. The game plan was solid. They neutralized the defensive ends. They attacked where Penn State was weak. All of that stuff is true. And here's the reality about college football right now. Here's the reality is that the really good teams in our sport are not quite as good as they used to be because they can't stockpile talent. And that talent is going to disperse. They just can't be as deep because guys are going to be unwilling to take less money and sit as a backup when they can go get starter money through revenue share and NIL somewhere else, and they have the open portal to do that. So the bad teams in college football are going to be better.

When was the last time you saw an O'N4 team with a talented quarterback like Nico Iamaleava, former five-star, that can put the game on his back? Very rarely. By the way, this is going to apply for Florida and Texas here in a moment. The margin between bad and good is shrinking in college football. And so I actually do believe that we will get a little bit more of this. Maybe not this year specifically, but as the years go on, we're going to get more wild Saturday in college football because that margin is shrinking and becoming a little bit more, although not quite as balanced as the NFL, but a little bit more like the NFL where any given

Saturday, any team in particular in these big conferences, and in particular when you've got long travel days, when this happens, you're going to get wild outcomes. Now, there was one other thing that happened on Saturday that meant a lot to the UCLA community and a lot of us that knew and loved this person. So if you notice, and I believe that they touched on it in the broadcast, although I didn't have the audio on the entire time. And then I, of course, watched the game tape, which didn't have the audio. But you notice the hearts on the field, the two hearts, and the initials, A, D.

Those initials were for Andrea Donahue. Andrea Donahue was the wife of Terry Donahue, who was a legendary UCLA head coach and had so much success at UCLA. It just so happens that I'm neighbors with Andrea's daughter and her family. And we've gotten to know their family fairly well. Our kids go to the same elementary as Terry and Andrea's grandkids or did. and we've gotten to know other grandkids of the Donahue's because they actually baby sat for us. So we've gotten to know the Donahue's fairly well. Andrea Donahue loved the Lord.

And her faith was very important to her, as it was to Terry. And that's the way that they raised their family. They were fiercely loyal and loved their family. Terry has passed and now Andrea has also passed and that was in this last offseason. I used to see Andrea quite often, whether it was at church or down on Balboa Island where she lived because her grandkids were here.

Obviously she would be in the neighborhood sometimes. Her daughter, Nicole and other kids that she had that we knew. And I will just tell you this. like Andrea loved the Lord. She loved her family. And she loved UCLA football. Loved it. And I loved Andrea.

She was a light. She was the perfect coach's wife. She built into people. I didn't even play at UCLA. I didn't play for Terry. And she would come up to me every time I saw her. And she would be like, you know, you're doing a great job for college football.

And she would build into me. She didn't have to do that. She was incredible. She was incredible. I miss her. And I know others miss her. And I'll just tell you, like, there was something very powerful about the way that UCLA played

during the course of that game. And I think it was Andrew. I really do. Like I said, I miss Andrea a lot. She was an incredible woman. Her legacy is going to live on for generations. One of her granddaughters is now a teacher at the school that my boys go to. She's a wonderful teacher. And they did it right, man. They did it right as a family. And they loved all those UCLA players. You should have seen her funeral. It was packed with all the players that she would love on. like her own sons. So I know that's kind of a long discussion, but I just wanted to point that out because, like I said, there was something really special going on on the field

on the UCLA side. And part of that was Andrea. Part of it was the game plan and the belief that those players had in themselves. It was a special player in Nico Iamaleava. And I just love this sport because of moments. like that. You don't get that. And I love the NFL as well, but man, it's just more corporate than that, you know, and there's something really passionate and tribal and beautiful about this sport.

And that's why it makes me emotional like this. I love this sport. I love this sport so much. And Saturday was another reason why. Let me, as I kind of gather myself here, I do need to touch on this Texas Florida game, get into the top 10 as well. Okay. So, Texas, Florida. Okay, this was in a similar way a trap game and more in a classic sense, obviously, with Texas. Red River is on the horizon. They're going on the road the week before that game, which is always monumental. And they're facing a team that they probably didn't have an immense amount of respect for, although they should have based on the film. But that team was much better than their record. And guess what that team had, former five-star quarterback, DJ Lack. So here's a one and three team with a five-star quarterback.

Here's an 0-and-4 team with a five-star quarterback. Goes back to my point about margin. Good teams and underperforming teams are probably closer than we think. Offense was a mess for Texas, an absolute mess. And the defense gives up 29 to an offense in Florida that had not done much at all this season. A team averaging 11 points versus FBS opponents. On the offensive side, none of it was good. Like, I can't defend Arch like I did to Drew Aller because Arch did not play well.

But neither did anybody else. And in a lot of cases, you know, it wasn't Arch's fault because the offensive line was terrible against Florida. That defensive line for Florida owned the line of scrimmage. Texas couldn't run the football. They couldn't pass protect. Steve Sarkeesian talked about it, you know, after the game. And he was pretty matter of fact about it. it. And this is what most offensive minds or coaches would look at. When you can't block,

you can't play. And when you can't play like that, you can't win. This was Steve Sarkeesian after the game. We couldn't run it tonight when they didn't know we were going to run it, regardless of when they knew we were going to run it. And so we've got to, we've got to improve that. You know, we just cannot be a one-dimensional team. When guys can just start rushing the passer and not worrying about the run, the game gets really difficult. So we got to find a way. We've got to find a way to generate some run game and generate some run game outside of arch. You know, we've got to find it with the runners. And that'll be a task of ours, you know, tonight, tomorrow, Monday to put together a plan

for next week. And so that's the number one team in the preseason and the preseason Heisman trophy favorite that has totally underperformed up to this point. And against Florida, it was bad. It was bad. That defensive line absolutely took it to them. They've got to fix their offensive line. It was as bad as I've seen in a while.

And here's the thing about Sarks' offense. Everybody, you know, loves the numbers that they put up and some of the passing numbers that they've had. You think to Mack Jones and some of those USC offenses. But here's the thing. At its core, it really needs a run game. You can go all the way back to his days as the head coach for Washington. They had Bishop Sanky, a great tailback. They always had good tailbacks at USC.

They had great tailbacks at Alabama. Great tailbacks at Alabama. and they were able to run the football well, which then allowed them to throw the football when they wanted to, take the shots necessary to get the safeties out of the box, and then continue to run the football well. Those dominoes are not falling over for Texas at this point. And the reason is because the first one is not falling over. They are not blocking up front in the run game. They can't generate anything.

Arch was their leading rusher. You know, outside of that, the backs really didn't produce anything. when they did give arch time, he didn't throw the ball well or accurately down the field. In fact, one of the first times that I was watching on film, I'm like, oh, that's a clean pocket, overthrow pick. And I'm like, geez, man, this is, it was all bad on the Texas side. And they've got to clean that up. I think what was not more alarming, but I think equally as alarming was the fact that their defense didn't play well.

I thought their defense was one of the better defenses in the country and still do think that. But Texas did not stop Florida. And maybe it's Dallas Wilson getting back. The really good young wide receiver for Florida, he was terrific and had a great day from a production standpoint. But Florida was able to run the ball. They had a hundred-yard rusher. They protected lagway. He got plays down the field.

When this team creates explosive plays, they're incredibly difficult to beat. And now we start to see like, well, that's what Florida could be. We knew their defense was pretty good. They showed that early in the year, even in losses to South Florida, even the loss to Miami, even in the loss to LSU. Like, their defense hung in there and gave their team chances to win. Their offense just couldn't produce because they couldn't produce the splash play. Well, I didn't think they were going to be able to do that against Texas, and they did. And because of that, they scored 29 and won it.

I thought that Texas would maybe get to 21, 24 points, and that that would be. enough. They get to 21 and it wasn't. So the defense has a lot to answer for in this one. On the Florida side, I know this is going to sound negative, but it's like, it's almost maddening to me the roller coaster that Florida gives us, that they can look so bad and then so good and then so bad, like it inspires zero confidence moving forward for them. Now, having said that, you know, they only have one SEC loss. And if they play their best, we could see a path to the CFP. Now, their schedule is really, really difficult, right? So let's take a look at some of their most difficult games. And I know they're sitting on

three losses, but they're going to go at A&M. That's coming up this weekend. They've got Mississippi State, then they've got Georgia, which is not going to be easy. At Ole Miss, not easy. Host Tennessee, host Florida State. Those games are not easy games. However, I would say this. And this is the only three-lossed team in America that I would say this about. They have enough left on their schedule where if they could win out, huge if, huge if, if, if they went out, I think they would be in Atlanta. And if they're in Atlanta and they have wins over some of these really quality teams that we've seen during the course of the year, they're probably in the playoff,

Even at, you know, what would that be, nine and three? Now, if they lose that game in Atlanta and go nine and four, that's another scenario. But this is the only team that I could see making an argument for at nine and three. Even if they went nine and three and didn't make it to Atlanta for some reason, some tiebreaker reason, it's just one thing to look out for. Now, that's maybe opposite for Texas. I think Texas, their back is up against the wall. if now you look at their remaining schedule, they're sitting on two losses.

Now they've got one SEC loss, and they're going to have to go out there and beat some really quality opponents and probably went out in order to get themselves in a position to be a CFP team. That Oklahoma game is no longer a game that without Mateer is going to be a difficult game for Oklahoma. Now all of a sudden I'm looking at OU and I'm like, well, hold on, if Florida's defense can cause that type of havoc against Texas because of their lack of Quality O line play. Oklahoma can do the same because that defensive line has been outstanding. OU's got one of the best defenses in America. And if you're telling me that they can get Texas, you know, as we used to call, like lock the gates, get them in there and slow them down.

Maybe they don't have to score a lot of points. You know, there's been these whispers, the Chipotle rumor. Have you guys heard about the Chipotle rumor about John Mateer, standing in the Chipotle tells some guy like, yeah, I'm going to be ready for Red River. maybe, I don't know. It's wild. It would be great. It's only in college football where the starting quarterback for the Sooners is sitting at Chipotle. It doesn't happen in the NFL, right?

Like Josh Allen, well, maybe Josh Allen goes to Chipotle. I don't know. Chipotle's delicious, so why not? Maybe he would or maybe he would just order it. I'm not sure. But you're looking at that game and it's a lot different now than it looked even before this game against Florida. So Texas is up against it.

man, I just, I never in a million years thought we would be in this position. So now it's time for my top 10. But because we've got these teams that have fallen out, I'm just like, we've got to take a look at what the preseason top 10 was. Let's look at the preseason AP top 10. And we look at what went on. And it's like Texas was one. Penn State was two. Ohio State was number three.

And Clemson was number four. I mean, we are eight and seven between those three teams that were in the top four in the AP poll. Now everyone's saying like, ban preseason polls. Sure, that'd be fine. I would be totally fine with that. I've thought that they have misled the college football public for a long time. And I actually think that they mislead the committee, which then becomes like the de facto college football world in this committee room as they're trying to select CFP teams at the

end of the year. And we're giving them these preconceived notions of what a big win is, what isn't a big win. And really, we don't know. We don't know. It's harder to predict this sport than ever before because of all the movement that we see in the transfer portal. And that's the evidence right there. Three teams in the top four, they're unranked. Other teams in there that they fell and fallen way below expectation.

Really the only teams that have exceeded expectations, maybe are Miami, Ohio State. Well, maybe not Ohio State. They were right in there. Maybe Oregon exceeded them. Maybe Alabama's right where we thought they were. I think they started eighth. They are eighth. You know, but it's like we just don't see these teams that are like, yeah,

We knew that was going to be them, and they're exactly where they're at. So I wanted to look at that before we go into what this top 10 looks like for me. All right. Let's go. Top 10, my top 10 as we get into October. At number 10, I'm going to go with Oklahoma. Now, remember last week I did not have Oklahoma in there. I thought the mature injury was going to be really difficult for them to overcome,

and it might still be when they face a good opponent. They beat Ken State. here's what I do know is I do think that that defense is pretty real. The defensive line is pretty real. And that's going to give them a chance, even if Mateer is not on the field. And even if Mater is not totally healthy moving forward. It brings me back to that comment. Brent Vendables was asked like, why are you going back to call him the defense?

And he's like, because I'm good at it. It's like, yep, you sure are. There are one or two in the country in a lot of categories, them in Ohio State, right up there, right up there at the top of the sport. not expected to have material back for Texas, but listen, Chipotle rumor. I'm rooting for it. I want to see them on the field, and I want to see the Chipotle rumor actually come to fruition. At number nine for me is Georgia.

They beat Kentucky 3514, handled their business, did everything that they needed to do. We know that Georgia has some flaws. There's no doubt. We also know that they are potent and that they could beat anybody. There's no doubt about that as well. So Georgia is going to continue to sit in there. They're number nine. At number eight, I'm going to go with Texas Tech.

And just a couple of quick thoughts on Texas Tech. I watch all of this film. And like, you can see when a team is good. And then you can see when a team has a good record. Those are two totally different things. And I think you guys know that in college football. This is just a really good team. And I think that we have to start wrapping our head around,

this team being an elite team in college football. They dominated Houston 35-11. Game was not even close to as close as that score because they settled for a couple of field goals on some possessions. They are explosive on offense. They can throw it. They can run it. And then their defense is incredible.

The pressure rate that they have, like for instance, they put more pressure on Houston on the quarterback than anybody last week. You know, I think the only other team that put that amount of pressure on the opposing quarterback was Florida on Arch Manning. They were constantly in the backfield. They've got really good linebackers. Jacob Rodriguez, you're watching on YouTube right now with his interception. He's going to be an All-American candidate and a Buck Kiss candidate. There's no doubt.

He's constantly around the football, causing turnovers. It's productive in terms of tackles. And then, like, they've just built a really, really good roster. That is the best team in the Big 12. they're going to have a couple of big tests coming up. I know that they go to Arizona State in a couple of weeks. And Arizona State, by the way, is going to be on the back of having to play Utah. Arizona State plays Utah next week.

Then they're going to have to play Texas Tech at home the following week. That's going to be difficult for them. And that I think advantage Texas Tech. So that's, listen, I know what I'm looking at. And I'm looking at an incredibly good team right there. Alabama is going to be at number seven. They beat Vandy. They ran for 146 yards.

on almost four a carry, so that was a little bit better than the way that they tooted the rock against Georgia. That's my question for them, because I know they're elite throwing the football. I think they've probably got the best passing game, pure passing game in college football. Doesn't surprise me with Kalin-Dabor's background, Ryan Grubb's background. Simpson's a great fit for them. They've got weapons on the outside. I don't necessarily know if it's truly in Kalin-Dabor's DNA and Ryan Grubb's DNA to be great running the football, but they ran it effectively enough against Vandy,

certainly more effective than they were on the ground against Georgia. That does need to increase, though, because here's the thing with Alabama. As great as they are throwing the football, Washington found this out with Michael Pinnock's. You're going to run up against a team that puts pressure on that passing game, which already happened week one when Florida State was all over Ty Simpson. You see, that's one of those things that doesn't always travel.

when you all of a sudden don't have a great day protecting the passer, you're going to be very vulnerable. And that's where Alabama is going to be at. But right now I've got them at number seven. At number six, I've got Indiana. Again, I think Indiana is the elite team. You watch the way that they play offense. Their defense is incredibly opportunistic. Scheme-wise, they game plan as well or better than anybody.

Kurt Signetti does an incredible job every week. of putting his players in position to succeed. And going back to what I said, that first conversation surrounding Penn State. That's the coach's job. Signetti does that really well. And their defense does it as well. I'm always impressed when I watch Indiana on film. And Mendoza has kind of taken their offense to another level.

I thought Curtis Rourke was really good, in particular before he had that hand injury last year against Nebraska. He had the surgery. They were never really the same after that. Mendoza has increased the level of offensive play and execution, and that's huge for Indiana, and they run it well. At five, I've got Ole Miss. With Shambliss, their offense is more dynamic.

Defense played really well against LSU. Ole Miss is right there for me. That's some good wins for them, and I'm going to put them at number five. And number four, I've got Texas A&M. Now, I had the four box going and my phone. So I had the iPad with the four box going on YouTube TV and the plane. Thank goodness when I've got good internet on these airplanes.

Got the four box going, then I have my phone going. So I got five games going on my way home every single Saturday night. One of the four boxes was this Texas A&M game. And it was sluggish at times early on the offensive side. And, you know, like I thought to myself, well, is there offense as elite as I thought? And then it clicked, right? And it started to get going. And Craver gets the ball in space and he's as fast as anybody in the country.

And Marcel Reed starts to play a little bit better. but guess what was the constant and now has been the constant over the last two games in conference. The defense. The defense has been outstanding. Two straight weeks of great defense. In fact, on third down, the most critical snap on defense. The last two weeks combined A&M's defense is one and 23. I should put that the other way. The opposing offense is one for the last 23. So they've stopped 22 of the last 23 third down opportunities of the opposition in league play. That's really difficult to do.

So they're playing great. And I think that A&M at this point is a team that could probably beat anybody else in the SEC. I think that the SEC doesn't have a great team. They've got a lot of good teams. They have not had a team separate themselves into the echelon of the top three, who are going to be Miami, Oregon and Ohio State in some order. But they've got a lot of good teams. And A&M right now, at least for me, is at the class of that

because of the way that they played last week. Number three, and listen, I know that this is a razor's edge between all these three teams. Here's how I'm going to put them, and then I'll discuss all three. So I'll just do all three right now. Miami is going to be number three after their win over Florida State, 28, 22. Oregon is going to be number two. And then Ohio State is going to be number one.

one. And listen, I get it. If you voted Miami number one, I get that. If you voted Oregon number one, I understand that. If you voted Ohio State number one, I get it and I support it. So let me start with Miami. That game was not as close as the final score. We all know it if we watched it, 28, 22, but Florida State clawed back in that game and started doing things totally, you know, it became school yard ball in a lot of sense in 17 play drive. Miami's defense starts getting a little bit tired. But man, when it was regular football, like, let's just line it up and play. Miami dominated Florida State.

Their defensive line dominated Florida State. Castellanos had nowhere to go with the football. And offensively, they're showing quality run game, good offensive line play, and a quarterback that can be elite and explosive. Tony, Cadarious Tony on the outside is really good. Man, these guys that come in and reclassify and play so well, Ryan Williams, Shaquim Stewart, the defensive tackle for USC. It kind of blows my mind how well they play early in their careers.

They led that 28 to 3 in the fourth quarter. That's more of the game that I have in my mind. Florida State keeps getting back in it and back in. And by the way, they got close to covering. And, you know, I was I was given four and a half in this one. By the way, picks three and two this. week. Three and two, man, I needed a winning record like I needed air to breathe. Number two was Oregon, like I said. So again, I really like Miami. I really do.

Two is Oregon. The win over Penn State is obviously a huge win for them. Now they're going to have a monster game against Indiana. That's going to be a huge game at home for Oregon. We'll see if they can rise up again and beat another really quality opponent, top 10 opponent. This one's going to be in their house. And I'll just go back to this. Dante Moore is playing incredible football. And right now, he would probably get the nod for me as the Heisman trophy winner. I think he's been that good and he is that good and will be that good. The defense played great, stopping the run against Penn State, made plays when they needed to in overtime with that interception. The run game has been solid. Deere Hill,

their true freshman back is one of the best backs in the country. He's very efficient run of the football. But my number one team is going to be Ohio State. And so with Ohio State at number one, that was also one of the games I had on in the four box on Saturday night. They just dismantled Minnesota. It's not very close. And here's the bottom line for me. They are the team that has not shown a real weakness in any game. And that's why they're number one.

They are suffocatingly good because they have answers. If you take away their deep passing game, they'll throw it short. If you take away their short passing game, they'll run it. They've got the best offensive player in the country and Jeremiah Smith. If you take him away, oh, Cardinal Tate is probably a first round draft pick on the other side. Tate was incredible. Nine catches, 183 and a touchdown against Minnesota. Hey, that's a pretty good number two.

Hey, by the way, if you single cover Jeremiah Smith at any point, whether it's in the regular spot on the field or in the red zone, they just throw it to him and he makes a play, whether it's a touchdown or not. They can run it with fast backs that are getting better every single game, namely their freshman Bo Jackson, who's right up there in some of the efficiency numbers, average yards per carry, things of that nature. Oh, and hey, by the way, they've got a five-star quarterback that's starting to look like a five-star quarterback.

The most accurate passer in college football at 80%. He's in the top five in passer efficiency. He's only thrown the two picks, and they happened a few weeks ago. Like, he's really good. So Ohio State's number one. Oh, by the way, that whole dissertation about answers and the way that their offense is playing and how elite they are and suffocatingly good they are,

guess what I haven't talked about yet? The single best unit in college football, the Ohio State defense is the elite unit in the sport, period. They are great at the line of scrabble. Kaden Curry has become a real factor as defensive end. They have the best tandem linebackers in the country and Sunny Stiles and Arvel Reese. And they have the single best defender behind all that in Caleb Downs. It is the best defense and single best unit in the country.

And here's what's scary about that is that a lot of these guys are really smart players. and Matt Patricia has taken them to another level. I can't believe I'm about to say this because they were number one in the country. They won the national championship and they were the best defense in the country a year ago. Ohio State's defense is better this year. They're faster and they're more intricate. And then they can execute those intricate systems and schematics. The scary part is that Matt Patricia has elevated this defense.

they are prepared, they execute, they're fundamentally even a little better than they were early last year. That's a scary proposition. So why is Ohio State number one over the other teams? Not that they're bad, the other teams, not that they're, you know, like wildly better. This is the, no, no, no. It's just like they haven't shown a weakness.

They've got the most elite unit in the sport. They've got the best offensive player in the sport. they got the best defensive player right now, Caleb Downs. Like, that's a tough out. And so that's why they're the number one team in the country. Now, a couple of teams that I was thinking about just on the outside of the top 10 and did not quite make it. I know this raises everybody's eyebrows when I say this, but when I watch film Notre Dame, right there, right there. That is a top 10 team.

You look at the teams that they lost to and now isn't it starting to make sense a little bit more? And they were right there. Snap away from A&M right there against Miami. the road. So Notre Dame was a team I thought about. Georgia Tech as a team, warrior at quarterback, man. Haynes King can just drag his team across the finish line. Missouri, I thought about Bo Probula. Anyone? By the way, Penn State's offense better suited for Bo Probula. You know, that's a problem. And then I also considered Michigan. And Michigan is a team that I just saw last week as they were able to beat Wisconsin at home. A Wisconsin team that actually played their best football game of the

year during the course of that game. So they won that game 2814, Michigan did. And I considered them in the top 10, but they do still need to develop. It's a young team, young quarterback. What I love most about their team right now is Justice Haynes. He had his fifth straight 100-yard game. You give him a crease at all, and he is a threat to take it the distance. He's got speed, long strider, once he gets loose. You're watching that on YouTube. And he's physical, and I do like their run game. Their offensive line did not play well against Wisconsin. The film is not going to be great to them, in particular on that right side. But it is a good team. It's a better Michigan team than what they were a year ago. This is a team that a year ago finished the season on a high note, beating Ohio State,

beating Alabama. They played pretty tight against Indiana. In fact, in their last four games last year, I don't think anybody really realizes this. They played Indiana, Ohio State, and Alabama in that last four. And in that span, were the number one scoring defense in the country, even facing those offenses. So I do think that that defense can and will be elite. They are trying to grow with some young players right now, namely some red shirt freshman over there on the right side of the offensive line. You've got a true freshman a quarterback I'll get to in a moment.

You've got a true freshman wide receiver, Andrew Marsh, that you're trying to bring along. You've got some true freshman corners that they're trying to add to the depth, a red shirt freshman linebacker that they're trying to get going in the depth. So again, kind of a young team. They're experimenting and now have landed on J. Sean Barham on the edge, which makes them a really quality team. But really what makes them go is the fact that they've got a better quarterback option than they had a year ago. Remember, they threw the football really poorly last year.

They were in the mix with the academies in terms of their passing numbers in particular, their passing numbers as it relates to catches from wide receivers. That's changing. We saw Underwood throw the ball well to Andrew. Drew Marsh on the outside, Donovan McCulley on the outside, which is McCulley is starting to become kind of a go-to number one wide receiver. So as Underwood starts to develop and his skill set starts to become more apparent, this is going to be a dangerous team because this is still a defense that's going to

play really quality physical defense and now the offense has answers. I keep saying this and giving this term. And it comes down to Underwood. and it comes down to him continually improving, developing, in terms of his game. Here's what I would say about Bryce Underwood. He is insanely talented. He is lifting the level of all the players around him because the defense has to account for him with his legs and his ability to throw the football down the field.

He's got a great arm. And at times, he throws the ball a little bit too hard. And I've talked about this before, but as he learns to change pace and become a much better passer rather than just a really talented thrower. See, those two things are actually different. Once he becomes a really quality passer, the sky's the limit for this team. I really believe that. And they've got room to grow. Their ceiling is still way out there. And part of that is the development of Underwood. He is tremendous as a talent. But there are things he has to do better. And in particular, when he's throwing in the short areas, he needs to learn how to pass the football,

not throw the football. Can't throw a fastball all the time. Part of the reason they lead the country in drops right now, I believe they've dropped 14 passes now after Saturday against Wisconsin. Part of the reason, not totally, but part of the reason is because he throws it too hard in the short areas. And it's just like, boom, you know. Is that the worst thing in the world? No, because I think it's better to have to tone someone down than try to get something more out of a guy that's not there. That's impossible. Toning something down? Absolutely possible. So when you see that development from Underwood, that's when Michigan becomes a bit scary. And they're going to have a really tough opponent this week when they travel to L.A.

And they face USC in the Coliseum. That's going to be a great game. I really do believe that's going to be a great game. Watch out for Donovan McCully. Watch out for Underwood continuing to develop. I think those are the things that they're right on the horizon for Michigan. Good team, though. Sharon Moore has done a heck of a job.

and he was super excited to get back from that eight-day suspension. Now he is back. They've got a couple of tough games here in their next few. They've got Washington coming up. They've got this USC game. And then not a ton until they get to Ohio State. There is a scenario where this team continues to get better and could wind up as a 10-and-one team hosting Ohio State on Thanksgiving weekend.

I could see that. I could see that. That'll do it for today's show. on Wednesday, I've got a really fun experiment. We're going to do 10 games that are going to decide the rest of the season. We did this in the off season, and they're kind of the obvious big games that we were

looking forward to for the regular season. But now as things have played out, there are different games that all of a sudden look a lot different on the schedule that are going to shape the season, the rest of the season, and the college football playoff race. And so I'm going to go through those 10 games that are going to decide the season,

something that we did in the summer. We're going to revisit that on Wednesday. Wednesday. Remember to subscribe to the program, if you would. I appreciate you all listening, and I really love this sport, as I'm sure you know, and hopefully you kind of feel through the camera as you're watching. And I hope you love it as well. Subscribe to the show on YouTube. Follow us on social media at Joel Clash Show, and we'll be back on Wednesday with more.