The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Texas A&M stuns Notre Dame, Georgia wins a Classic, Lagway’s Night to Forget & Clemson’s Fall

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt recaps a wild Saturday in College Football with two classic games coming down to the final seconds as Texas A&M upset Notre Dame in South Bend and Georgia stormed back to beat Tennessee in Overtime. Klatt considers where Texas A&M’s ceiling is after the big win and whether Notre Dame’s Playoff hopes are already over after just 2 games. He breaks down why the SEC still runs through Georgia but also gives the Vols credit for their performance, even in a loss. Klatt also gives his thoughts on Brian Kelly’s postgame rant following LSU’s win over Florida and explains why D.J. Lagway is holding Florida back. Klatt then eats some crow for his preseason pick of Clemson to win it all as the Tigers dropped their 2nd games of the year to Georgia Tech before reacting to the news that UCLA and Virginia Tech have both decided to make head coaching changes. 0:00-1:29 Intro1:30-20:21 Texas A&M squeaks past Notre Dame on last second TD20:22-26:11 Georgia comes back to beat Tennessee26:12-39:00 LSU handles Florida39:01-45:03 What happened to Clemson?45:04-51:21 UCLA and Virginia Tech fire coaches Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This guy throws interceptions like Oprah hands out cars. You get a car and you get a car. Maybe it could be a special season for Texas A&M. When you watch him play, do you hold your breath just a bit? Because you're like, something special might happen. Can I say that I'm both still impressed and concerned all at the same time? The SEC still goes through Georgia because those dogs can bite. A day like today is why we love college football.

Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome into the program. This is the Joel Clatt Show, and I am Joel Clatt. This show is brought to you by graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support. Another great weekend of college football. Before I get into it, just remember, do all the things. Subscribe to the show. Leave a comment below. I dove into the comments. I don't know if you know that. That was me in there. Dove into the comments last week. So do that. And I'll try to again this week in regards to some of these incredible games that we're going to get into. Follow us on social media. You can follow us wherever you like to social media. We're there. All of our. content lives there and you can find it shorter versions of it. At Joel Clat Shows where you can find all of our content. Let's get into it. What an incredible week of college football, by the way. And so, like, I'm sitting there and, again, it dawns on me. Let's start with A&M and Notre Dame.

How about A&M 4140 in a classic? Just an absolute classic college football game. And I'm sitting there, and I think all of us can get on board with this. We all love this sport. And it's like more of these plays. please. Now, granted, you're not always going to get great games when really good teams, you know, line up against each other in the non-conference. But more often than not, it is exciting. Even the low-scoring variety, like we saw in week one with like Texas and Ohio State.

Love that matchup. LSU Clemson. That was incredible. Miami, Notre Dame. Now Texas A&M, Notre Dame. More of this, please. And I'll just say just a quick little soapbox. Like, this is why you have to get the structure to the postseason correct because you want to, incentivize teams to play these games in the non-conference. You don't want to de-incentivize scheduling quality opponents in the non-conference. And this game is piece of evidence number one. What do they call? Exhibit A. And that argument before your honor is the A&M classic win in South Bend 4140. And by the way, both of these games, each of the last two years, when the Irish went down and won in college station a year ago. And then this year, obviously, with the Aggies going,

up to South Bend and getting the win by a point. Both of them were great games early in the season. More of this, please, yes, in college football. All of us are behind that, a slow clap for everybody involved. We have to kind of start, and this is unfortunate, because the difference of the game ends up being a dropped snap on the extra point. And my heart goes out to Tyler Buckner. That sucks, man. Like, goodness gracious. I can't imagine how he feels right now. I can't imagine what his night was like on Saturday. Nobody goes out there to fail. Nobody. Everybody is out there to try to do their best. And this is what I think fans can lose sight of because a lot of times you start to treat football players like nameless, faceless objects. And even more so in the NIL era, because I,

and I hear this all the time, people are like, well, oh well, they're getting paid anyways, so I can hate them now. And I just would say, like, these are still kids. They're all trying to succeed. They're all trying their best to succeed and no one's out there trying to fail. And my heart goes out to Tyler Buckner. That is a tough way to lose the football game. Huge win for Texas A&M and Mike Elko. And if you've listened to this program during the course of the offseason and leading up to this season and even early in the season, you'll know that I was quietly a little bit bullish on this Texas A&M team. I like what I see from Mike Elko. I think it's a good fit at Texas A&M, which is really the most important point.

It's not just that they have a good football coach, which they do. They have a good football coach which fits their culture at A&M. It's an incredibly unique culture. One of the most special cultures really in college football from a fan-based perspective, a support perspective, their stadium, everything about what they do is unique at A&M. And you've got to have a coach that leans into that and understands it. And they certainly have that with Mike Elko. So I knew that they had something special there.

I didn't know how quickly it would all turn around and get going. But this is a win that can be a catalyst to something great. Not just good, but great. I really believe that. It was obviously a catalyst for Notre Dame last year and Marcus Freeman. And even though they stubbed their toe later losing to what was it, Northern Illinois, I believe it was. They were able to build enough confidence from the roadwind and college station to ultimately go on a run and finish runner up and go to the national championship game. Maybe it could be a special season for Texas A&M.

I think A&M is an absolute contender in the SEC. No doubt about it. No doubt about it. Let me tell you why. They have found a quarterback that has developed from the first time we saw him. When Marcel Reed stepped on the field last year, it was dynamic as a runner, but certainly lacking as a passer. That's not what I saw Saturday night against Notre Dame.

In fact, the passing game was the thing that I liked most. They went out and targeted and built. their roster with talent on the outside. And when you look out and Mario Craver is going out there and going for 200 against Notre Dame. He now, by the way, leads the country in receiving after his two bills against the Irish. And is anyone else like me, when you watch him play, do you hold your breath just a bit every time he touches the football because you're like, something special might happen? How about the play on the left sideline when he spins out of the tackles, couple of different tackles, stays on his feet and then turns on the jets and boom,

he's gone down the left side for a touchdown. That was incredible. I was on the airplane. As many of you know, I fly United and they had TVs on this plane. And I kind of like jump out of my seat. I was like, whoa! And the guy next to me gives me like this stare like, hey, you be quiet on this plane. I'm like, hey, man, relax. It's college football Saturday. I thought it was an incredible play, but it wasn't just an individual play. It was every time he touched the ball. It was every time he was in man coverage, I'm like, if they target Craver here, something good is going to happen. And Marcel Reed, for the most part, I know his numbers from a completion percentage standpoint weren't like off the charts good. But from an efficiency

standpoint, the completions that he did find were huge. They were getting huge chunk yardage. What was it? Like, 20 yards of completion. Like, this guy, he was, he was terrific. He's got the athleticism and short area quickness. I like what they have up front. So I'm just here to tell you, like here's my bottom line for Texas A&M. This is a team that can absolutely compete for the SEC championship. I'm kind of in on Texas A&M. I don't know if they're going to win the SEC. I think it's an incredibly difficult conference in particular at the top. But it's certainly a team you're going to have to reckon with, in particular with their home field advantage. Kyle Fields is one of the toughest places to play in all of college football. Trust me,

I've played there. They were in the Big 12 when I played. college football. We lost in overtime. It's loud. It's louder now than when I played. This is a legitimate title contender in the SEC. I loved what I saw from Texas A&M. The question becomes, can they handle success? Here's always the thing is that when we see these teams take these giant steps forward, and it's like they do something really special. What ends up happening is you've got to mature really quickly because can you handle that success? because if you can't, you start believing all the headlines. And you start looking around and everybody's tires are filled up.

That's right. Everyone's pumping their own tires. And here we are. And it's like, aren't we great? But that's the exact mindset that goes out and get you beat by a team that might not be as talented as you, but is more focused than you. And we see it time and time again in college football. So for them, the next step for their program is not just getting a win like this on the road against Notre Dame,

but now go out and handle business against teams that you're better than. The best teams in college football always handle their business against lesser opponents. Or for the most part, they do. This is what has allowed Penn State to get really good. Obviously, Ohio State does this. Any but Georgia does this. Lesser teams just don't beat these teams. So that's the next step for Texas A&M.

This is what the schedule looks like moving forward. They've got a buy week. Then they're going to be home to Auburn. They're home to Mississippi State, home to Florida, at Arkansas. These are games that you've got to go win. and then later in the year, then you start to ramp up. Now, we saw them do some special things after the Notre Dame loss last year. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, they were either 6 and 1 or 7 in 1 at some point and really faltered down the stretch.

My advice for A&M would be, don't think about November now. The great teams, the great ones, they not only get those wins, but then they immediately focus internally on their own standard so that they can go out and play their best football regardless of the opponent the next time out. Just focus on what's in front of you, one step at a time. That's the next challenge for Texas A&M, and hopefully Mike Elko and his group can do that, but certainly impressed with that group. Notre Dame, on the other hand, can I say that I'm both still impressed and concerned all at the same time? Listen, this has got to be the best O&2 team that we've seen in a long time.

These two losses are just devastating. One of them on the road at a very good Miami team. And then this one against Texas A&M, which again, looks like a team that can really cause some trouble in the top end of the SEC. So I don't think Notre Dame is a bad team. In fact, and I know that sounds crazy, and I don't normally compliment the AP poll. But I'm glad that Notre Dame stayed in the AP poll because it tells me that they at least watched and kind of understood what they were seeing. Now, I thought that they dropped a little bit too far. I would have had them much further up or higher in the rankings than what they fell to.

I believe they fell to 24, if I'm not mistaken. And I'm glad they're still in the top 25. It's still a very good football team. They just happen to have gotten beat by two better football teams. So what's the challenge? What's the problem? What's going on with Notre Dame? Can I say that I don't think C.J. Carr and the offense are the problem.

Now, I know what you're going to say. I know what you're going to say. Joel, you can't have big interceptions at crucial moments from your quarterback and win close football games. And I agree. I totally agree with that sentiment. And has Carr turned the ball over in critical times? Yeah. In both of those games, he threw interceptions against Miami.

He threw an interception against Texas A&M. But the offense moved the ball. They scored 40 points. I mean, they're a dropped extra points. point away from overtime in this game, which was an absolute shootout, in particular in that second quarter. So Carr is 20 of 32 for 293 yards, a touchdown, but he's got that interception. Does he need to clean that up? Yes. Now, it's his second start. So I think, like, some grace because of that probably is warranted because you see a lot of good things. I thought their passing

game was better in this matchup than it was in week one. So you see development. You also saw them change what I thought was a mistake week one from a game plan perspective and start getting the ball to Jeremiah Love. I thought Jeremiah Love was tremendous. 27 touches, 147 yards and two touchdowns. Now, they were tough yards at times, but he's so dynamic. I don't think they're going to need to get him 27 touches against everybody. Okay. But if you run the offense through love, it takes some of that pressure off of C.J. Carr, and I think they should be fine. Again, they scored 40 points against A&M in this game. So is it an offensive problem? No, not really. Clean up some of those turnovers, and I think you're going to be just fine. More of the concern lies in what I

thought would be a strength, and more specifically, has been a strength over the last couple of years, and that's the secondary. It was really clear in that first half that the secondary was over matched by the speed of Texas A&M on the outside. Concepcion and Craver, those guys were, they were open. And Notre Dame likes to run that man coverage and they were getting beaten that man coverage. Marcel Reed had a lot of time to throw in that game. And so the defense has two things going on right now that is not helping. Number one, the secondary, I don't think, is as good as what they have thrown out there in the last couple of years. You couple that with the fact that they're not getting to the quarterback, almost at all. I don't believe,

that they had a sack in this game, they didn't. No sacks against A&M, only one against Miami. So if you're going to play two good teams, okay, and you've got those 60 minutes in each of those games, and you can only come up with one sack over those two games, that's a problem if you're going to play man coverage. It's not as big of a problem if you're going to sit in safe zones and layer your defense and make sure that you're rallying up and making tackles and forcing teams to snap the ball eight, nine, ten, eleven times in order to score. Okay, it's not as big of a deal if you can't present pressure in the quarterback's face. But if you're running man and you can't get to the quarterback, watch out.

Because it doesn't matter how good your secondary is. It doesn't matter who you have back there. You're not going to hold up for three, four, and five seconds. And there were times you saw it, I saw it. Marcel Reed had all day to throw. So Notre Dame's defense has got to get better. Got to get better. Now let's get to the end of the game.

Let's get to the end of the game because I hate it when officiating. I'm not going to say decides the game, but when officiating becomes a topic, in particular in such an incredible game, late like that. Okay, if you look at the ending sequence, and listen, I hate doing this because each team is going to be like, you know, they're going to think that you're arguing for that team

or that this is going to decide the game. I'm not saying that. All I'm going to say is during the last sequence, Notre Dame got called for a defensive hold. Rightly so. it was an obvious hole. The defensive back almost tackled Mario Craver and the defensive backfield.

You have to throw that flag, and the official did, rightly so. Then they got a first down, an automatic first down, and through that sequence of downs, now you get to the fourth down play. Games on the line. This is the game. This is the game.

There was an egregious hold in the middle of the offensive line. The end kind of like stunts in, and he's going to have a free look. He beats the offensive lineman and has a free look, and he's going to get there right in the face of the quarterback, which again, when you're running man coverage, you have to get pressure.

And he was tackled. He was tackled. You can't tell me that you're going to swallow the whistle on fourth down when it's obvious. Here's what I'd say. And I know that this becomes a big topic. I'm not saying Notre Dame should have won. I'm just telling you.

right now from an officiating standpoint, if it gets down to a fourth down or a play like that, and it's a 50-50, 55-45-45, it's like, was it? Is it away from the play? If there's a shade of doubt, it's like, I'm generally okay with the officials letting the teams play in critical moments to a point, to a point. Like I said, if it's 50-50, 55-45-45. something along those lines. But when it's egregious, you have to call it. You have to call it. And that clearly impacted the play.

Clearly impacted the play. You cannot swallow your whistle just because it's a fourth down. That was a 90-10 proposition, maybe more, 99-1. It's like, that's a hold. The flag has to come out. Has to come out. So that's an egregiously missed call on fourth down. Notre Dame's got to be sick about it, but I mean, that is what it is.

Officiating is frustrating. The targeting penalty in several games in that game and the LSU game, gosh, man. Like, I will just say this quickly on targeting, quickly on targeting. I know I gave a big rant the other week. And to back that up, there was a strong push from several conferences, including I know for a fact of the Big Ten conference, during the offseason to create two different categories of targeting fouls so that you could have a targeting foul that didn't rise to the level of an ejection.

So if it was a football play and there wasn't like malice or intent to harm or use your helmet as a weapon, then there would be a way and an avenue that the officials could call the penalty, mark off the 15 yards, but not eject the player, which is just far too penal. I think the right people are pushing in the right direction. We just got to get it over the hump, and hopefully that'll happen soon. Presents the question now back to Notre Dame quickly, and then we'll move on. Notre Dame, the question is, are they done? Are they done?

Is Notre Dame season over? Can they get to the playoff as a 10 and 2? What's going on now? They're 0.2. Is there a future for the Irish? Here's what I'll just say. That was two last-minute losses to what we believe, and I do believe will continue to be really good teams. I think Miami is a heck of a football team.

They proved that against South Florida. More on that on Wednesday. I think Texas A&M is a really good football team with speed, with solid line play and a quarterback that knows what he's doing, a coach that knows what he's doing. I think Texas A&M is going to be a really good football team. I think both of those teams by the end of the year could very easily be in the top 10, maybe even in the top five, maybe, maybe both of them.

So is two close losses at that point, are we going to look at that and be like, man, they're out. Probably not. So the question is, well, let's answer the question. Is Notre Dame done? The answer is no. The problem for Notre Dame is that there's no margin whatsoever. Nine and three, with those losses and what's left on the schedule is not going to get them in. So they do have to run the table. They're going to have to run out 10 straight victories. Their schedule does them favors in the sense that it can be done, but it doesn't do them any favors in the sense that they're not going to have any, like real marquee teams. However, there are a couple of teams that are beginning to play better. One of them now creeps into the top 25. That's USC.

So here's what Notre Dame fans need to do. You need to root for North Carolina State the rest of the year. You've got to root for USC the rest of the year because you need those two teams to be quality opponents so that if and when Notre Dame can beat those teams, if they're able to beat those teams, then those can be at least looked upon as quality. wins and hopefully for the Irish at that point ranked wins. And then you would also hope and root for Miami to be really good win the ACC and maybe A&M go and play for an SEC title. That's the path. That's the blueprint. That's what you need. Tuffest games on the schedule, I think, are going to be that North Carolina State game. I think that it's going to be the USC game.

Other than that, Boise's not helping them with their resume. Arkansas will see, I'm not sure, Pitt in November. Not totally sure about that. I know you just saw that schedule up on the screen if you're watching YouTube. So not done, but zero margin for error. And you're kind of rooting for some other teams along the way to enhance the resume for this selection-based playoff committee that we've got right now. Other classics. Georgia, Tennessee. Wow. That was an incredible game. And I know that it gets a little bit overshadowed, not a lot, a little bit overshadowed. shadow just because then after that, Notre Dame A&M was such a classic. But man, oh man, can I just, well, I'm going to say this.

There is not many college football environments that can top the checkered out at Neeland. That looks incredible. Incredible. And like maybe the whiteout, maybe like a night game in Baton Rouge. Obviously, that's a reputation that's huge. Maybe Texas A&M for like a monster. But dude, like the checkered out in Neeland is special.

That place looked incredible. It was loud. And they jumped all over Georgia. 217. I'm sitting there thinking to myself, my goodness. All right, Joey Aguilar. All right, Tennessee. Like, here we go.

They're fixing to just run off with the SEC right here because the SEC goes through Georgia, as we know. I mean, even Texas that we thought a lot of in the offseason, they couldn't beat Georgia last year. They lost to him twice. Georgia's still the reigning SEC champ. Like, we need to remember that. So the conference still goes through Georgia,

and they've got Georgia on the ropes, man. got the environment going. Their quarterback is going. It's 21-7. And how about those dogs? Wow. I got to tell you, man, like, the resilience of the Georgia Bulldogs is staggering. It's still incredibly tough to beat that team. Even if their defense didn't play great. Now, I mean, I was a little surprised at the lack of defense overall in the game. I think that you could probably chalk that up more so to quality offense. At least I think. I think. think those two quarterbacks played tremendous. A lot of wide receiver play on the field that I thought was like very, very good, in particular from Tennessee. But it's still a little bit shocking, right? I mean, listen, even the most ardent SEC fan would have to admit, like, you don't always

anticipate a 2015 Baylor shootout to break out in Neeland Stadium against with Tennessee and Georgia. I knew we saw that a couple of years ago with Tennessee and Alabama. So it's a little surprised at the lack of defense, but the quarterbacks were tremendous. It's not like these were average offenses that all of a sudden started marching up and down the field. Both quarterbacks were amazing. Stockton was amazing. Aguilar was terrific in a loss. Tennessee has got to be so thrilled because guess what? You won the trade. I'm sure you all know that, but you won the trade. Aguilar is a total upgrade quarterback for Tennessee, and their wide receivers on the outside were incredible. I'm so impressed with Chris Brasel, six for 177 and three tugs.

His length is dangerous in that offense because if you decide to play man-to-man coverage, which is a way to combat those choice routes that I've talked about for the last couple of weeks, he can defeat that through his length and athleticism and his skills when the ball is in the air. Staley was good, 9 for 97. Mike Matthews was good, five for 59. They've got a really special offense with Josh Hypo. It's explosive. Aguilar is a good fit. You won the trade. That's a damn good football team. A damn good football team. There's no doubt about it. And yet, and yet, like I just said a couple of minutes ago, the SEC still goes through Georgia because those dogs can bite. They have resilience. This is a great proud program. They practice with urgency. They build their roster with urgency. They play with urgency. This is what we didn't see from Alabama against Florida State in week one.

and this is a team that answered the bell in that environment. Again, this is one of the most special environments in college football. It's checkered out. It is loud. And you're down 21-7. And they just started eating the elephant. What do I mean by that, Joel? Well, how do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time. That's like a comeback. You can't get it all back right now. And they just start plodding along and plodding along. And they get a couple of stops and then are able to get a couple of scores. And then it gets into a shootout. then it's fourth down. Stockton drops an absolute dime. The throw he made on fourth down was sensational. That is a big time throw. Huge, man. I mean, like, wow. Again, another one of the moments I'm in the plane and I'm like, holy cow.

And everyone looks at me. Most teams would have folded. Most teams would have folded. They wouldn't have the mental fortitude. They wouldn't have the toughness. And they wouldn't have the quarterback with. with that same toughness to come back from 21-7. I'm sure the defenses will play better moving forward because they're not going to have to see the offenses that they just saw. But it just is a reminder, as good as Tennessee played at home, and as highly as I now think of Texas A&M, and LSU's got a couple of big wins,

and John Mateer and Oklahoma look a lot better. And guess what, folks, you still have to beat Georgia, and that's incredibly difficult to do. That conference still goes through Georgia. It goes through Kirby Smart, and right now it goes through Gunner Stockton. So kudos to the Georgia Bulldogs for that big win and what can only be described

as one of the great environments in all of college football. Death Valley at night, you knew it was going to be a good atmosphere. LSU and Florida, Florida coming off of that loss to South Florida. And if you just look at it and it's like LSU beats Florida 20 to 10. And you're like, oh, okay. You're like a good defensive oriented SEC style game. Yeah. And LSU got going a little bit. And yet it was much weirder than that. LSU all the sudden this year decided that they're not going to play well on the offensive side at all and just win games on

defense, which by the way is so difficult to do. So they all the sudden, change their defense, bring in new coordinator, bring in a lot of new players from the transfer portal, and invest in that area and change the trajectory of that side of the football. And yet, a lot of the questions around that program are now surrounding the fact that they thought they were going to have one of the better offenses and better quarterbacks in the SEC and in the country, and it hasn't materialized. And yet when you ask Brian Kelly that question off the bat, after the win, he reacts like this. Brian in the back, I know you love these immediate postgame sessions, but what are you seeing with your offense?

Stop. Really? Is that the first question? We won the game 20 to 10. Try another question. What do you want me to tell you? I just laid it out for you. We played the game to win the game.

No, I think people want to know why you can't run the ball quite honestly. We can run the ball. Did you see the last play of the game? That's all you need. You just need one. There's some ridiculous questions. And I'm getting tired of it. That football team just worked their tail off to get an SEC win and you want to know what's wrong.

You know what? You're spoiled. You're spoiled. This team is 17 and 1 at night. 17 and 1. Give them some respect. Oh, I love it. I love it so much.

much, I really do. I'm not one to sit here and defend a lot of like what Brian Kelly does, but like I kind of loved that. I love that. And his team loves that. And again, I said this last week in regards to Sark's comments when he bit the head off of a reporter in defense of Archmanning, coaches speak to the team through the media, not to the media.

Coaches don't, I mean, like, I hate to tell you this. If you sit in one of those seats, they don't care about you. and they don't feel like they need you at all. And so when you ask them something like that that is antagonistic towards a sector or a specific group on their team, they're going to get upset. They're going to get upset. And you know what? I don't totally disagree with him because, yeah, you did win the game.

Like, come on, that's the first question after a 20 to 10. How about, like, man, your defense played great. How did you go about fixing the defense so quickly? And I guarantee you, by the way, if the question is, posed like that. Brian Kelly is going to praise his defense. And then we all know Brian Kelly, he'll criticize his own offense. He'll get there for you. But when you lead with that, he's going to defend them. That's the thing that people don't understand. So everyone wants to take this in a vacuum and just say like, Brian Kelly's disrespectful to that reporter. And that

reporter doesn't deserve that. Brian Kelly doesn't care about that reporter. And candidly, Like, I'm fine with that answer because he's communicating to his team. He ultimately answers to his team. That's who he works for every day, every moment is for his team, the psyche of his team, the preparation of his team, the belief that his team has in him and that he has in them. That's what he's doing. So when he does that, his team feels like they have their back.

He has their back, rather, is what I should say. And that's the point. That's the point. And coaches around the country, Ryan Day gets questions like this. He's got to deal with media like that. It's like you get this hard-fought win. Is it perfect? No.

Does he want to play better on offense? Absolutely. And is it going to have to? Probably. Probably. The offense did not look right. I'll talk a little bit more about that, certainly. And we can banter about that.

We can talk about that. And by the way, you could ask him about that in some way. But when it's the opening question, he's going to bite your head off and defend his team. And most coaches would have done the same. You've got to be perfect every week for those people. It's just wild. You know, I talk with guys all the day. Ryan Day, you know, has this issue.

Sharon Moore can have this issue. And it's like all anyone wants to ask him about is the problems. That's it. Not, man, this player really developed or tell me about all the interceptions and what was the game plan defensively? to really him in DJ Lagway and make him throw all those picks. No, the question is, what's wrong with the offense? Oh, man. Blake Baker has fixed the defense.

He has to be a leading contender right now for the Broils Award because of what he's done and what they needed him to do and now how they're winning games because they're leaning on Blake Baker, they're leaning on the defense, and that defense is coming through. I think their offense is going to be better. I just, I'm going to continue to have. my faith in the fact that those players are too good, the system is too good, I think Nussmeyer is too good to play the way that they've played. And candidly, Florida's athletic and they're good. That's not a bad football team by any stretch of the imagination. They happen to have a

quarterback that makes it incredibly difficult to win tight ball games because he constantly throws the football to the other team. When they get into matchup games or even FBS games, This guy throws interceptions like Oprah hands out cars. You get a car and you get a car. I mean, DJ Lagway has got to hold onto the football. That's a massive issue. Credit LSU and their defense for what they're able to do. There's no doubt.

The defense, what is that? They were last in the SEC and scoring, or excuse me, sorry. The offense right now is last in the SEC and scoring, and yet they're undefeated. That's incredible. So what their defense is doing is outstanding, and they did it to Florida, who is now one and two on the season. They've got, they're right in the middle of their most difficult stretch of the year, schedule-wise, and Lagway just through five interceptions, including a pick six in a

20 to 10 game. You cannot make those throws. You can't. It doesn't matter how much talent you have. It doesn't matter that the touchdown pass that you threw, was an absolute dime and there's not many players in the country that can throw that ball on that trajectory and with that touch. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you are at the top end as a quarterback. It doesn't. It matters where your floor is because if your

floor is so low that your team can't win games because of your floor, that's a problem. And that's what's going on with Florida and DJ Lagway. Five interceptions is not going to cut it. You can throw 30 passes, and 25 of them can be perfect, which is never going to happen. But 25 of them can be perfect. But if five of them are awful, you lose. You lose. In fact, I'm going to bring up, because Ryan Day talked about this so well after his teams went over Ohio.

And Julian Sand threw a couple of picks in poor moments in that game as a young quarterback learning. And Day talked about this exact thing that I'm referencing. The fact that it doesn't matter how good you are. You can't make the big mistake. Here's Ryan Day. I thought he played well. A lot of good plays. But what you have to learn, excuse me, learn as a quarterback. I say it's just like golf. Like you can have a great day. But if you hit two in the water, your rounds ruined. Well, it's the same way here. And, you know, a tip ball on a two minute drill could cost you game. and then we got a chance to put him away up three scores, you know, going to get our four score.

And, you know, in that moment, he knows he's got to take the sack, which is not something that he's had to do before. Take your medicine and live to see another day. So a lesson learned. The football is paramount. The position of quarterback is about the football. It's about taking care of the football. It's about operating the offense clean.

And then once you do that as your floor and your floor is high enough where you can go win football games, then your talent becomes the icing on the cake. You cannot start with talent. You can't. You can't. You will fail because your team won't win football games. It might look cool.

It might get on to highlights. But DJ Lagway right now versus FBS teams in his career, 13 games, eight of them starts. He's got 11 touchdowns. Oh, man, that's great. 15 interceptions against FPS opponents. that can't happen. Billy Napier is in trouble.

The problem for Napier is they aren't clean. They don't take care of the football. They're not disciplined. And you lose. It doesn't matter how many good players you have out there. Your floor matters in this sport, both as a team and as a quarterback, specifically.

And as a team, your floor is how disciplined are you? How disciplined are you? How detailed are you? And when you commit so many penalties, you're not disciplined and you're not detailed. 18 penalties over the last two games, 18. They had the spitting call against South Florida. That directly cost them a bunch of yards

and ultimately the games, the game. They had a holding call in this game that wiped out an 87-yard touchdown in a 20 to 10 game in which one of the scores was a pick six. So, like, Florida is beating themselves. They are beating themselves. And that's why, if I'm a Gators fan, I'm so upset because the team's floor is a direct reflection of the coach.

You know, talent raises the level. I get that. I get that. Everyone screams about talent and everyone wants to have talent all over the field. Yes. But there is a baseline level of play that you have to have. There's a baseline level of detail. There's a baseline level of urgency that you have to have or else you get beat. And that's exactly what's going on with Florida. Exactly what's going on with Florida. So, like, are they going to be a four-win team? Five-win team? I'm not sure. I don't think that this team goes to a bowl game, even with all that talent around because their floor is just too low. It just makes you think now after talking about all these games, I want to just kind of revisit, if you would, the top of the SEC.

Because now we've seen a lot of these teams. Let's revisit just, and, and just take a snapshot of the top of the SEC, because I think it's vastly different than what we thought at the beginning of the year. A lot of us, myself included, we're kind of crowning Texas as like, oh, Texas is the team. They're the number one team of the country. They've got the Heisman favorite coming into the season. And candidly, you know, I don't think that they're even the top tier in the SEC at this point.

You know who the top tier is? I think it's one team right now, and it's Georgia. The conference goes through Georgia. I've said that now time and time again on this show. and they proved it on Saturday in Neeland Stadium with that win over Tennessee. So then it becomes who's Tier 2? Tier 2, I think, looks like this. It's four teams, LSU, Tennessee, A&M, and Oklahoma.

Those are the teams that have proven to me. It's like you can go out there and you can win big games. Tier 3 are two really talented teams that have just not looked good at times. Maybe they have looked good at times. Not seeing the consistency with Alabama and Texas. that's the SEC for me right now. That's the tiers. Georgia on top, conference goes through them.

Tier 2 is LSU, Tennessee, A&M, and Oklahoma, and tier 3 is Alabama and Texas. Both of those teams are 2 and 1. I know Tennessee is 2 and 1, and I get that, but their loss is to Georgia. And again, the SEC goes through the dogs. Let me get to another game because it was a wild day. I've got to

I had Clemson winning the National Championship before the year and yikes I had to send out a tweet revisiting that said well I guess I need to adjust off that Clemson National Championship preseason pick yep

little face palm emoji I wear it wrong I was wrong that experience has not paid off. The blueprint did not work. No, Clemson is not a good football team right now. They are not. This is a team that offensively is struggling. Clubnik hasn't even been close to even a good quarterback, much less the best quarterback in college football. By the way, I'm going to do a deep dive on Wednesday's show. So the Wednesday, Joel Clat show, I'm going to revisit my quarterback rankings from before the year.

And I'm going to re-rank what I think are the 10 best quarterbacks in college football right now. It is a fascinating exercise. Trust me, I've just been going through it tonight in preparation for the week. What's happened to some of these quarterbacks that we thought were really talented and that they were going to come out. and have quality years because a few of them have fallen off the face of the planet. Meanwhile, we've got some guys that answered the bell and that developed into what I think now to be really top-tier quarterbacks in the sport. So that's coming up on Wednesday.

And Cade Klubnick is going to be case study number one in a guy that we thought was going to be one of the best quarterbacks in the country and what is going on. This is not a good offensive football team. And it's not even particularly close. It's not like they're 35th in the country in scoring or 45th in the country. or 45th in the country in scoring. No, no, no. It's not even like they're 65th in the country in scoring.

They're 112th in college football scoring the football under 20 points per game. That is not a singular player issue. So for all of the people just ranting and raving about, well, we lost Antonio Williams, our best wide receiver, it cannot just be your wide receiver when you're 112th in scoring. Something is wrong with Clemson's offense. We have seen this, and I thought that they fixed this at a point last year when they started playing well down the stretch. Even in a loss at Texas in the college football playoff, I was like, you know what, I see it.

I see it with Clubnik. I see it with this team. And now I don't. Now I don't. There is something very wrong offensively with Clemson, and it's cost them now twice. Can't just be Antonio Williams. Can't be. It's got to be something bigger than that.

And like the offensive line had experience coming back. how are they not better on the offensive line? I don't understand it. I really don't. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech gets the win, and how about Haynes King? Haynes King is an absolute dog. And not a Georgia Bulldog.

No, no, no. He's a dog as in like, hey, man, I got to tell you, if I had a pickup game tomorrow in the parking lot, let's say at a park, No one plays football in a parking lot. Right.

I mean, like, so we're just going to go to the local park. And we're just going to, like, draw lines, pick teams. Here's a scoreboard. Let's go. I might have to take Haynes King first. Because, like, he's a warrior. I love the way he plays. Love the way he plays.

In particular with what I was just talking about with DJ Lagway, there's no scenario. on the planet that Haynes King is a more talented player than DJ Lagway. And yet, Haynes King is the reason his college football team wins games. And DJ Lagway is the reason his college football team loses games. How is that? How is that? Well, Haynes King has an insanely high floor.

His operation tends to be flawless. his decision-making at crucial times is really good. His team believes in him to the utmost, and then he lays it on the line. Lays it on the line. I mean, over 20 carries against Clemson. Last year, almost single-handedly, I don't want to say single-handedly.

It's always a team game. Last year is willing his team to a potential victory against Georgia before ultimately falling short. Again, like Georgia is still Georgia. Okay, you don't just beat Georgia. I think we're finding that out, which makes the Notre Dame win in the playoffs even that much more impressive,

but it's just difficult to beat that team. Haynes King almost did that. Now he takes down Clemson. And how about the execution of what they pulled off at the end of the game? In a day in which special teams, and in particular the field goal unit, cost Notre Dame a win,

and it cost Tennessee a win. How about Georgia Tech executing? With no timeouts, they run a play, run their field goal kicker on the field, and he just kicks a 55-yarder and it's just like game blouses. And I love it, man. I love it when you see people like that execute. I love it when teams execute.

It's a mark of a really well-coached team. Again, the floor of a team is a direct reflection of their coach. Some of these teams have really high floors. Some of them are very detailed. Some of them do not get penalized a whole lot. Some of them can execute running the field goal unit on, not get a penalty and make a 55-yard field goal to win the game at the buzzer. And Georgia Tech is one of those teams. Loved it.

Maybe Haines King should be considered in the Heisman conversation. Why not, man? Dude's an absolute stud. An absolute stud. It's not always about talent. Sometimes it's about operation and grit and toughness and belief and leadership. And that guy has it in spades. Absolutely love it.

Hey, speaking of coaches, we did have a couple of coaches actually get fired over the weekend. Deshawn Foster is out at UCLA. Brent Pry is out at Virginia Tech. Both of those teams came out this year and played awful. O and six between them. Foster got 15 games as the head coach after taking over in a tough spot. Remember when Chip Kelly left. Brent Pry was 16 and 24 in his fourth season. I'll just say this. Like, I totally get it. I get the timing. and I get the pressure that programs are under to signal to recruits and signal to those that they're trying to get to commit to their school that, hey, like, we're going to go in a different direction.

We're trying to get ahead of that. We're going to try to get ahead of the recruiting cycle. However, I hate this timing. I'm going to be consistent on this. I said the same thing when Texas Tech did this a couple of years ago with Matt Wells and Joey McGuire. Texas Tech fans were still very upset at me for that take. it's not anything personal against Texas Tech or for Matt Wells and against Joy McGuire.

It's about the players on the team. I've said it then and I'm going to say it now. I understand why you've got to make this decision now. I just hate it. I hate it for the existing players because now it's similar to like watching kids go through parents getting divorced. It's like it sucks. It sucks. And it typically falls on the.

the players to try to circle the wagons themselves, make sure that there's some self-discipline there. And in every one of these situations, this is why I hate it. Guys fall through the cracks. They end up flunking out. They end up not going to class because there's just not the same level of discipline. There's not the same level of oversight that's going on because they know that even their interim coach while he's trying to provide that discipline and oversight is not generally going to be there the next spring.

So it just kind of all falls apart. So that's why I hate it for right now, which is why I'll just go back to this that I've always talked about. College football is forced into this position because of a broken calendar. We've got to fix the calendar in college football. Dan Landing is on this with me. A lot of other guys are on this with me. We've got to have competition time, roster building time, and preparation time. And if you had the calendar separated like that, I don't think that you would get as many mid-season

firings, and certainly not after three games, although these two teams looked like awful. But this is, the timing of these moves, is a product of a broken calendar, and I hope that we can fix that moving forward. We need to fix the targeting foul. We need to fix the calendar, among other things, even postseason structure. These types of things, they're important because we want to see more non-conference games, which we talked about tonight. We want to see players not get ejected for making football plays. And we'd like to see coaches get a little bit more runway so that their players don't have to go through a coaching change and lose the level of discipline and oversight that's generally good for their overall well-being. All of that is a calendar problem.

So all of these things need to be addressed by the powers that be in college football and hopefully they will be moving forward. Wednesday, we've still got a big show. We've still got a lot to get to. there was a ton that I didn't get to in this show. I'm going to look at that top QB ranking. I think I'm going to do 10, maybe 5, maybe 10. There's 10 that I can put on there, so I'll probably go to 10. I'm going to evaluate some of the struggles and why those guys have struggled.

You know, so I'll get to a lot of those teams and quarterback specifically. New developments that I'm noticing at some big programs. What's going better and right for Alabama? What have they changed? Michigan with a bounce back after the Oklahoma loss. What did they do differently? Maybe a new back in a different direction in the running game for Ohio State. And Oregon, my thoughts after actually seeing the Oregon Ducks.

By the way, the AP dropped them two spots. For what? For what? Because they're on the West Coast? Probably the AP sucks. See, I complimented them earlier. Now I had to get back to where I really wanted to be. That's going to all be on Wednesday.

So it was going to be a huge show on Wednesday, and then we'll go pick some previews on Thursday. My picks, man, picks were rough. As soon as that Georgia Tennessee game went to overtime, I was like, well, that's a loss. We obviously had Georgia minus three and a half. So that didn't go down well. Did not go down well. Thanks for watching everybody. Just on a personal and side note.

And my team didn't know I was going to do this. but it was a really hard week for everyone. I wanted to just take a moment at the end of this show and pause for five or ten seconds here. Just as a moment of reflection, I'm going to take this moment to pray personally. I'll be praying for you all listening. I'll be praying for your well-being. I'll be praying that the God that I believe in, that Jesus Christ would shower all of you with his peace and mercy and grace. But I wanted to take that time and just reflect for a moment before we leave.

Thank you for listening. Know that wherever you're at, I'm sharing a lot of love your way. And I hope you join us on Wednesday.