The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Potential paths to the CFP & Oklahoma State Coach Mike Gundy

Episode Date: November 18, 2021

Subscribe to FOX Sports college football podcast the No. 1 Ranked Show w/ RJ Young on Apple Podcasts: http://sprtspod.fox/numberoneranked& Spotify: http://sprtspod.fox/numberonerankedshow On this episode of Breaking the Huddle, Joel Klatt talks to Coach Mike Gundy about how his program has evolved over the past few seasons. Klatt also explains how teams outside of the top four have a potential path to the College Football Playoff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, Kenfolk, it's R.J. Young. I am Fox College Football analyst here to tell you about the number one ranked show podcast. Each week, I sit down with coaches, players, and legends of the game for a unique conversation about all things college football and recruiting. Plus, I share my perspective on the top storylines from Saturday and react to the college football playoff rankings. Subscribe to the number one rank show with R.J. Young on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or you'll watch. your favorite podcast app. Welcome to Breaking the Huddle, everybody. I'm Joel Glad. This show is presented by Dr. Pepper.

It is the one fans deserves. Lots to get into on another great week of college football. We've got another version of the committee's rankings out. We'll get into that. We're going to tell you a little bit about Oklahoma State. Folks, Oklahoma State, watch out. Are they like a party crasher here? Are they going to the playoff?

Are they going to be a Big 12 champion? Maybe, maybe. So it's time to maybe focus in on what they're doing well on the field. and we'll also talk with their head coach Mike Gundy a little bit later in the program. We'll get to some of the social media feedback because it's prevalent this time of year, right? So a lot of you guys don't agree

with some of my opinions that I've thrown out there. One, I care very deeply about that. We'll get to clap back a little bit later in the show. But first, I want to get into some of these rankings and let's talk about plausible scenarios for teams that actually have a path, excuse me, to the playoff. Let's look at first what the committee gave us, us on Tuesday night. This is what they gave us, Georgia, Bama, Oregon, Ohio State, Cincinnati,

at 5, Michigan, still ahead of Michigan State. They doubled down on that because remember, set aside viewing the games, folks. It's the most asinine thing I've ever said. And I think Gary Barta is a smart guy, but I mean, how would you like to be trotted out to defend the indefensible? Not a fun position to be in. Here's what I would do with the playoff rankings. this is kind of like clats playoff rankings Georgia that's easy I still like Oregon at number two do I think they're the second best team in the country I don't know Ohio State three Cincinnati four Bama at five and Michigan State at six does that really matter is that any good I'm not sure I'm sure you know you guys are all like up in arms about like what I gave you right there is it is it right now

I don't really know what does matter though is the playoff rankings and more so than what is happening this week, November, late in November, November 16th. It's about roads and plausible scenarios for how teams get to the college football playoff. So let's think about that for just a moment. Okay? Let's start with the top two in the playoff rankings. Clearly, Georgia, who is already in the SEC championship game, has the easiest path

to the playoff. Even if they lose to Alabama in the SEC championship game, As long as they're undefeated at that point, I think we all agree that they would still go to the playoff. So Georgia's kind of this team is like, you can basically shoe in one of the four spots for the Georgia Bulldogs. Alabama is a different scenario. Now, granted, they've got a hard schedule here in the back end of the season, Arkansas, then the Iron Bowl, then potentially Georgia. And while I don't think that they're going to go through that undefeated, it's certainly a scenario where they could. If they do, they will absolutely be in the playoffs.

That's a no-brainer. Now, if they lose one of those games as a two-loss team, I just, I don't think the committee is going to put them in as a two-loss team. Maybe that's against my better judgment with the way that they view Alabama generally, but I just don't think that they will. So I think Bama is basically either going to be the number one team in the country running the table or they're going to be out. It's kind of all or nothing for Alabama.

So that leaves potentially a spot open. This is occupied by Ohio State, this fourth spot, but remember, it's really just. just kind of a Big Ten place holder. As long as the Big Ten champion, whether it's Ohio State, Michigan, or Michigan State only has one loss, the Big Ten champion is gonna go. Again, if they only have a loss.

So there's two spots, right? Georgia's kind of a shoe in. Ohio State's kind of a shoe in. Bama's a toss up all or nothing. Oregon, if they went out, we're probably suggesting that they go, but remember, they've got to play Utah this week in a game that's gonna be very tough and probably Utah again.

that Pack 12 championship. Cincinnati's got their toughest opponent. So let's talk about the scenarios. I think, folks, if you just go based on like kind of Vegas, you basically got two spots held and two spots basically up for grabs. Okay. That means that you've still got Cincinnati alive, Notre Dame alive, Oklahoma State alive, Oklahoma alive, maybe Wake Forest with an outside chance.

Those teams are still alive. Even OU folks, going all the way down to 13, just play it out for a moment and you'll see exactly what I'm thinking about. Let's say SMU beats Cincinnati, Georgia beats Bama, Utah beats Oregon, the Big 10, excuse me, plays itself out. Well, now all of a sudden you're sitting there with a one-lost Cincinnati, a one-lost Notre Dame,

and a one-lost Big 12 champ, Oklahoma, basically vying for one of the last couple of spots. So it's not out of the run, of the Sooners could actually go from 13 late November all the way into the top four. It's really not outside of the realm of possibility. Wake Forest, I think, has a little bit more difficult road. They might need a little bit more to go on. But obviously, Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State are going to have a shot. And Notre Dame, people think I'm great. Notre Dame has got a legitimate shot at this thing when you start looking about what's ahead of them,

who's going to play themselves out. So all of those teams that I mentioned that are not in the top four right now. Cincinnati, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, all of those teams, you have a plausible road to the college football playoff. So I guess in the sense of we want more teams involved at the end of the season, we've got a little of that this year. This is maybe more teams than we've had in it at the end than previous seasons. And in that regard, it should be exciting here as we come down to the last couple of weeks of the regular season. Okay, let's talk about Oklahoma State a little bit because this is a team that after last week, people are starting to recognize and they think to themselves, wow, there's a path to the

playoff for Oklahoma State. What does that look like? What is it, what is this team all about? Haven't heard a lot about them during the course of the season. So let's check out what we've got with Oklahoma State. Let's start with the fact that their run game and defense has been dominant of late. So let's start with the run game. Their run game is about the zone principles, okay, zone running game. When you're talking about zone running game, what are the things that you need to think about when evaluating, watching, figuring out what this zone running game is all about? First of all, it's about blocking an area, not a man for the offensive line. So, for instance, if I'm an offensive line, let's say I'm the guard. And to my right is the B gap, to the inside of me is the A gap.

And I'm responsible for the B gap. Whoever the B gap player is, I'm going to step with my right foot and then I'm going to work up. Maybe it's a double team with this guy as we're working up to the B gap player. Maybe a B gap player is right there where I'm going to block him right away. But it's more about an area, not a specific man. So whoever comes in that area, you're going to try to block them. Then it's about getting movement, not necessarily down the field, but laterly so that you can create some movement in the defensive front and then get some sort of a chop block or a backside block that opens up a lane for the vision of the back to then see that lane and take off.

thing we know about zone style running is that it takes reps to get really good at it because of all the nuances of area not man movement the vision of the back the teams that are really committed to run in the football as far as the zone scheme and we'll do it against any sort of defensive front generally have more success so how does this play out on the field a lot of bullet points let's see how it plays out on the field let's take a look at their last game against tc u first of all nice little dynamic formation you got three wide receivers and the tight in on the same side so you're cutting down on the backside players. Here's the movement now.

Here we go with the offensive line, area not man. And then there's the backside. He works up and he cuts off the backside. The vision of the back plays in. And there Warren is off to the races for a big game. Let's take one more look at that. Again, the formation is a pretty unique formation. You've got four basically free release.

That means one of these guys is ineligible because he's covered up. But you get the movement. You only have a few backside defenders. You seal off one of them. One of them is going to go with the quarterback. and then here we go, there's the vision of the back. So there's a nice little zone-style running scheme executed perfectly, but they can do it to the strong side as well.

Let's take a look at the next clip. This next clip, what they're going to do is they're going to run towards the strong side again. But here what you're going to see is there's eight defenders in the box and only seven guys to block them, but they don't care. Why? Because it's a reps business. Cover up the front side.

Here we go. Area not man, you're getting movement laterally. Now the play side opens up for the back. This is the vision. so he can go backside or he can go playside. Now it's play side again. So he's on this track. You're getting movement in the eight guys in the defensive front.

You're going to leave one of them unblocked. You cover up the color. Great job by the offensive line. Now it's about the vision. He knows there's an unblocked player in the backside, so he keeps it front side. And then down the field, you've got guys working hard in the run game. So there's a couple of examples of why Oklahoma State is running the ball so effectively,

and this is giving them a real chance down the stretch here to maybe crash the playoff, maybe even go to the college football playoff, maybe win the big 12. What are they doing on defense? Because it's not just their ability to run the ball. It's also what they're doing defensively. And by the way, Jim Knowles, their defensive coordinator, deserves a lot of credit and probably should be on a very, very short list for the Broils Award. He's up for it. There's a few really good assistant coaches, top assistant in college football gets the Broil's award. But Jim Knowles, I'm telling you, what he's been doing with this defense, they're the number or two defense in the country on third down, giving up only 24% conversion rate.

Let's take a look, though, about how they're doing this. They do this by getting pressure and sitting heavy. How do you get off the field on third down, which is really the main objective of a defense? How do you get off the field on third down? Let's take a look here at what they're doing on third down. This is last week against TCU. This is ability to get pressure. You show five in order to occupy all the offensive linemen that you get, bring a guy from depth.

Now the safety comes in there. All the offensive linemen are occupied with those five guys. You get a free rusher and everybody else is sitting heavy right at the chain so that the quarterback can't get the ball out. One more look at it. You occupy the front five with five of your own. You bring somebody from the back end. He's going to come and insert himself into the pressure. It's hard to locate that as an offensive lineman.

But then you've got to make sure that the quarterback can't throw the ball quickly. And sure enough, here we all are all of the defensive backs are within a yard of the wide receiver. Let's take a look at another clip. This next clip, what you're going to get is you're going to get six guys up front. So you're looking at kind of a cover zero man style coverage on the outside, but I want you to see at how heavy they sit right at the chains. You see the chains right there, that green line. Look, everybody's within a yard and you've got defensive ends dropping out right under those routes.

Very difficult to complete that pass. Let's take a look at another play. And there's another one just like this, where you're going to have six guys up at the line a scrimmage, you've got man-to-man coverage right at the line to gain. That green line is the first down marker. You drop out a couple of defensive tackles. There's nowhere to go with the football. They are committed to sitting heavy right at those third down markers. That's how you get off the field, allowing only a 24% conversion rate on third down. Folks, when you can get off the field on third down, and then you can sustain drives with the run game, what you do is you

eat up time of possession, you protect your quarterback, who, who maybe isn't the most dynamic quarterback in college football, but this is how Oklahoma State is winning with defense and run game. They're committed to that zone style run game. They're committed to their style of defense, getting pressure on the quarterback when they need to, and sitting heavy at the chains in order to get off the field. And it's a combination that Mike Gundy has got to be happy with.

Welcome back into the program. We just took a look, took a look, excuse me, about what Oklahoma State is doing on the field. Great running game, really good on third down on defense, getting off the field. Never more apparent than last week against TCU. But let's talk to the man himself, the guy devising those game plans. Mike Gundy, the head coach of the Cowboys.

Coach, what's going on, man? How are you? Another week for us. We've been fortunate and just enjoying the players, trying to get ready for practice today. You guys have peaked at the right time, you know, the margin of victory over the last few weeks, your running game, the defense.

Everybody seems to be playing their best football here late into the month of November. That's the exact goal of the head. coach, you've got to be happy with the way your team is playing. I am pleased with us progressing each week. I told the staff that really a sign of a good team and a good coaching staff is if you can get better each week. Doesn't always work out that way, but we have improved each week. We've had two complete games. We played really well in all three phases against Kansas and then again against DCU. You know, the other games, defense is carried us offensively. We've had a few issues here and there, particularly with injuries and skill players. We've gotten more healthy now

than we have been. So we're playing good football at this time. Hopefully we can continue it on. Coach, I think from the outside looking in, maybe though there would be people surprised at the style of which you guys are playing. Great run game, great defense, because they're used to seeing what you guys were maybe four or five years ago, which was explosiveness on offense, try to outscore people. You remember those Bedlam games that just went wild with points. Can you take me through the evolution of how you guys landed on this philosophy and this group of players to play this style of football? Early in the season, we lost three wide receivers. And we played two or three games where we had we were starting true freshman wide receivers. So to a certain extent,

you're not going to be as good on offense. And the only way to overcome that is play really good defense, be sounding special teams, and slow the game down. So years ago, and I used to go to cross campus over here and watch Coach Settin, Eddie Sutton, practice basketball. He told me one time that if you don't feel like you're as confident in your team, you want to make sure that you travel up and down the court the fewest amount of times. And so really that's the kind of team we've been up until a couple weeks ago, because we've played well on defense.

We're experienced. We've got a lot of reps there. And we played well on special teams. And then offensively, we've gotten a little bit better each week. I love that coaches, regardless of sport, can give each other advice. Like you said, you know, Eddie Sutton giving you advice. And now you've got a defense that you've leaned on this year. And Jim Knowles has been outstanding for you.

The defensive coordinator, he's up for the Broils Award. What you guys are doing on third down specifically, I just gave our viewers, a little bit of a look at how you guys get pressure on the quarterback and as well as how heavy you sit at the chains on those middle third down third and four third and five third and six making it difficult for quarterbacks to complete those those passes in particular over the middle what Jim Knowles is doing defensively for you guys has been outstanding I'm really proud of our defense and then obviously our defensive staff and coach Knowles and he's been with us now for four years and we've made changes.

Coach Knowles is a very intelligent person. He understands concepts and schemes, but then he also was able to adapt to our league and really college football. I mean, the game has changed defensively, the way offenses are playing, particularly over the last two years. And he's changed some concepts and schemes

based on our personnel and the teams that we play in this league. And he's done a great job. You know, I'm looking forward to assigning him to a long-term contract. after this season, keeping him with his. He settled in here and Stillwater really likes the community. And obviously, the people here are really fond of him. We had a quick conversation before we started this interview about college football globally

in a general sense and how much parity there is this year. Outside of Georgia, everybody that makes a poll, whether it's you for a coach's poll or me from a media perspective, it's easy. You put Georgia there at number one. And then you sit back in your chair and you think to yourself, okay, where are am I going two through 15? You know, I mean, what can you attribute this to, Coach? Have you ever seen a year like this in our sport? I think what you mentioned, one is we have super seniors playing now. There are some, you know, we have six of them on our team. We have

four of them that play quite a bit. There are teams in our league that have as many as 12 with eight guys playing a lot. And I'm guessing it's that way across the country. So nobody could take into account these super seniors. which changed college football and has created all this quality. I mean, everybody is pretty much the same. And I vote. And for me, it's the same way. Georgia is clearly the number one. And then Alabama's been two, but Alabama's had two or three games that I've seen. I just happened to be able to watch them at night based on wherever I was where they could have lost those games. And then you go all the way up to 18 or 20 and you have teams that are

playing really, really good. So it's hard to slot anybody in. And you could flip number five or six and number 16 or 17 and nobody would say anything about it. So that has created an atmosphere and taking the stock market of college football through the roof. The fans love it. The television market loves it. And that's what's making this game so fun right now. People watch every week because they don't really have an idea where anybody should be right. Yeah. And at least from my perspective, I think it makes the case for an expanded playoff. You know, wherever that number lands so that we have more teams and fan bases engaged like we do this year late into the season. Coach, OU has been the team that runs the Big 12.

They've won six straight Big 12 titles. You guys are now right in the thick of things in the race to not only get into that game, potentially win a Big 12 title. Take me into what you feel like it'll take here in the last few weeks to bring that title back to Stillwater. But we have to stay at the pool. We've been very fortunate that we've played fantastic on defense. You're around a lot of coaches. You play the game.

My fear is at some point, defense might have a letdown. They play at a high level for 10 games. That's my worry. The thing that makes me feel better is we have experience on that side of the ball. We have a lot of reps. So hopefully those guys can push through that, continue to play at a high level. We have become a more physical run football.

team over the last month. That's always been a big part of what we've done here at Oklahoma State and then be sound in special teams. So my message to the player was that simple to our players. And the other side that we have to be careful of is not listening to people tell us how good we are. Coach, it's been a pleasure, man. Best of luck the rest of the year. It's been a great watching you so far. And we will see how this all plays out. Appreciate your time, bud. Oh, appreciate you. If we can help you, let us know. Have a good one. All right, time for a little clat back. Let's get at it. What do we got here on Twitter? Scott Jones says you didn't like the BCS. You don't like the bowl system. You don't like the current

playoff. I'm willing to bet if the league's accepted and did everything that you said in a few years, you'd want it changed. No, that's absolutely wrong. They just never built these things correct in the first place. It was small tweaks with the BCS. Like, for instance, don't let a team that didn't win their conference play for the national championship, like Nebraska and 01, or what we saw with Alabama, the year that they played LSU. Right now, they open Pandora Box. Right? Pandora's Box is the playoff. Well, now you've got to build it correctly. That's all I'm saying. If you're going to build a house, build it correctly. That's all I'm saying. If we do that, then I will be happy, Scott, mark my words.

All right, Jenny, Gus and I, Big Noon Saturday at Oklahoma. Iowa State plays Oklahoma. Great week of college football, folks. I'm sure it will shake things up here in the playoff scenario as we get down to the end of the season. I'm Joel Clatt. This is Breaking the Huddle. has been brought to you by Dr. Pepper, the one fans deserve.