The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Travis Hunter wins the Heisman: Joel Klatt reveals his ballot & Penn St loses a QB before Playoff

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to Colorado’s Travis Hunter winning the 2024 Heisman Trophy. Klatt reveals who he voted for on his Heisman ballot and what made Hunter��s season unprecedented. He also discusses why he believes the vote was so close with Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty and why Shedeur Sanders deserved more recognition from voters. Klatt also considers the role Deion Sanders had in Hunter’s Heisman season and why it was a uniquely perfect match between player and coach. He also discusses which players could be in New York next year for the Heisman ceremony. He reacts to the recent coaching moves in the sport and explains why coaches like Rich Rodriguez and Scott Frost are returning to their former schools in this new era of CFB and why it was smart for Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame to extend the Irish coach’s contract. He then reacts to the news that Penn State QB Beau Pribula is entering the Transfer Portal less than one week before the Nittany Lions’ Playoff game and blames the system for putting the player in a no-win situation. Klatt then offers solutions to the calendar which includes moving the Army-Navy game to a new date. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Travis is a unicorn. Ashton's just remarkable. Now, that doesn't take anything away from what Ashton Genty did. He was phenomenal this year. I love watching this guy play. There is, though, however, a difference between remarkable and unprecedented. College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. I believe that we are at the dawn of the golden age of college football.

It was an epic day of college football. It was one of those days where you fall in love with the sport all over again. Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome into the Joel Clat show. I am Joel Clad. This show, as always, is brought to you by Hampton, by Hilton. We're very thankful for their support, and this thing is rolling along. I know that we've got this little bit of a break between the regular season and the postseason, this playoff starting up, but man, there has been a lot of news coming out. So we're going to talk about all of it. We're going to talk about the Heisman Trophy, how I voted, and why I voted that way. We'll get our thoughts on all of that, including next year.

some names for next year. We've got coaching moves that we've got to talk about, including West Virginia and UCF. We have got portal news to get to, and I have got a fix for college football towards the end of this show that I think you're going to love. So you're going to definitely want to stick around for that. But first, remember wherever you're listening to this show, rate and review us. If you're listening wherever you get your podcast, that would always help invite a friend in there. That always helps as well. If you're on YouTube, thank you very much. subscribe to the YouTube channel. Make sure to hit that notifications button

so you know exactly when we drop all of our content and then you can be there. Leave a comment down below. I think that a lot of those comments are really good. I think it's good discourse down there. So far as online discourse goes, it is pretty good in those comments. So get down there and comment.

And then wherever you like to social media, we are there. We had, by the way, shout out to Kiara and everyone on the digital staff. Two million views on one of those TikTok videos this week, or was it last week? I don't know. But that's a lot I've been told. Apparently, we're big with the TikTokers. I've had a couple of the players, by the way, this year as I've been talking to players around the country. They'd be like, oh, yeah, man, I catch all your stuff on TikTok.

And I'm like, so there we go. So if you're on TikTok, you can find us there as well. All of our social media handles are at Joel Klatt show. You can follow me personally on X. I'm at Joel Klat. Okay, let's get into it. I do this every year, and I do a little bit of a rundown of how I voted for the Heisman trophy, why I voted that way. So let's first bring up how I voted.

I voted Travis Hunter number one, Ashton Genti from Boise State number two, and Shudor Sanders, number three. So that was my Heisman vote. That's how I cast it. That's how I see it. And let's talk about why. All right, let's start with Travis Hunter. It's really hard to be an All-American.

Very hard. It's the elite of the elite. That's why they call them All-Americans. Trying to do that on both sides of the ball is basically impossible. It's unprecedented. To be an elite player on both sides of the ball is something that we've never seen before, ever, ever, in the history of college football. Travis Hunter is completely unprecedented in our sports history. So let's just start with that fact.

That is an absolute fact. And I believe he is clearly the best football player in the sport. And it's not just me saying it. A guy who I think is maybe one of the best players in the sports history, college or pro, also believes that. Here's Charles Woodson on Fox NFL kickoff. Travis Hunter, a special player, there's no two ways about it. I see what you did there.

You see what I did? It brought me great joy to see you up there on that stage last night because you are what the Heisman Trophy is all about. It's not about the best running back. It's not about the best receiver. It's not about the best quarterback. It is about the best player. And you were that.

Coach Prime, shout out to you for allowing us to witness the greatness that it was this year with Travis Hunter allowing him to play offense and defense. And you went out there each and every. game and you made all the plays. So congratulations to you. We were all in all watching you this year playing the ball the way that you did. And we can't wait to see what you do next. So congratulations for being the 89th Heisman trophy winner. And guess what, man, those Heisman commercials with me and you on defense against all of those officers of players. We're going to have some fun, man. The Heisman house is going to be lit. I love that. Charles Woodson. It is fascinating. I think

there was a large pushback against Travis Hunter. And I just want to address that pushback before I get into him as a player. Because, again, he's totally unprecedented. There's no comp. There's no comp for Travis Hunter. He's clearly the best player in college football. And I think that that bears out with a lot of the data. But just one thing on some of the pushback,

he got a lot of that pushback because of who he plays for. And that's very apparent. There is a sector of people that just didn't want to see Dion Sanders and Colorado and Chodor Sanders and Travis Hunter have any success at all. There was a sector of people like that. And there were a lot of people that voted that way. I saw a few ballots. People posting this online, which is wild posting that they didn't even have Travis Hunter in their top three. That's absurd.

And that reeks of bias, reeks of it. That reeks of something other than actually watching this sport, covering this sport, and voting with some honor about what happened on the field. Because, again, this guy did not have a comp. It's totally unprecedented what he did. You know, I look at what he did on just one side of the ball, like the offensive side of the football. And he is the bulletin of the company.

Award winner, Best Wide Receiver in the Sport, which in and of itself is insane. Is insane. To reach those levels, to have a season like that, in the Power 4, he was second and catches, third in receiving yards, and first in touchdown catches. That's wild. That is wild. Just to have a season like that, I saw some people posting online like, oh, he's kind of like an above average wide receiver.

Above average? He's the Bolitnikov winner. He's an All-American Wide Receiver. Oh, and by the way, he's also the Benerner. Award winner, the Paul Hornega Award winner, the Walter Camp Player of the Year and the AP player of the year. So he's playing All-American Football on both sides of the ball, which is bananas to me. It's absolutely bananas to me. Four interceptions, one force fumble. That force fumble ended up winning a game for them in that wild game that they were able to win against Baylor. There's only one comp for Travis Hunter and he doesn't wear a football uniform. And that's Shohei Otani.

Otani and what he's doing in baseball being a premium pitcher and position player slash hitter is the only comp for what Travis Hunter is doing. This guy is absolutely incredible. His instincts are incredible. His athleticism is through the roof. His football IQ is through the roof. His playmaking ability is through the roof. He's the best player in college football.

And there was also some pushback on this fact that like, oh, it was just his number of snaps. Well, one, no, and I just read off all the accolades that have nothing to do with his snaps. It's just what he was doing in domination on each side of the ball. And then you've got to take into consideration that he was doing all of that while playing 1,443 snaps of college football. That's crazy, everybody. Just letting you know that is absolutely crazy. And I want to try to give you some sort of context about exactly how many snaps that is. because, again, 1,443 snaps is a lot.

But you might be asking myself, why? Like, how do I know? Joel, like, give me some context for that. Well, okay, his 1,443 snaps are 387 more snaps than the next closest player in college football. 387. That's a lot. That's a lot. So the difference between number one in snaps and number two in snaps in college football,

the entire sport, is 387 snaps. Now, if you were to go from number two and then subtract 387 snaps from that player, like, where do you get to? Well, I can tell you, you get to player 1,236. So you go from Travis Hunter to the number two player in college football in terms of total number of snaps. And then to take that same margin and place that margin below the number two player, you've got to get to player number 1,236. What? What? Okay, so it's not just volume, though, because he's going out there and playing

All-American football on both sides, Bolitnikov, Horning, Walter Camp Player of the Year. Now the Heisman trophy. Again, in the Power 4, just his wide receiver number, second and catches, third and receiving yards, first in touchdown catches. He had four interceptions. He had one force fumble. He only had 38 targets as a defensive back. I've heard people take swipes at his defensive numbers. It's like, well, he doesn't have. defensive numbers? Exactly, because the ball doesn't go his way. What is the number one compliment any offense can pay a defensive back? Don't throw it at him, which is exactly what happened.

38 targets in terms of starting corners in the country, that's 231st in the country. So he got no action. Why? Because every offensive coordinator and quarterback would go into that game and say, we're not throwing at number 12. Why? Because number 12 is the best corner in the country. debatable with Will Johnson right in there. I think he was as good as any corner in the country.

So why did I vote for Travis Hunter? Because Travis Hunter was doing things that we've never seen before in the history of the sport. We might not ever see it again. It wasn't just a historic season. It was a totally unprecedented season. He was doing things that, quite frankly, bend the mind. The number of snaps and the level at which he played in those snaps is something that I just don't think that we're ever going to see again. I really don't. And that brings me to my number two choice for Heismesey because I, like some people just hated Travis Hunter, so they left him off their ballot totally. I completely disagree with that strategy. I want to honor every great player in college football. Therefore, a clear number two for me was Ashton Genty. And it was

actually pretty close. And I think it was pretty close for a couple of factors. So before, I talk about Gentie, I do want to talk about some of these outlying factors that I think made this race really interesting. It wasn't just the fact that we had this unicorn of a player in Travis Hunter. It was also the year that we had because it was such a unique year in college football. Think about it this way. We didn't really have a star or a productive star on any of like the big boys, the top five teams in the country. Because normally that's where our Heisman trophy winner comes from is like the best running back or namely the best quarterback on the best team. Well, Oregon had a great year and Dylan Gabriel was very solid, but his numbers really

didn't do anything when you would compare him to players like Cam Ward or Kyle McCord or Chodor Sanders or some of these other quarterbacks around the country. And quite frankly, like some of those quarterbacks just had too many. losses that I mentioned. So you didn't get that quarterback push that you normally get with this trophy, which makes this year, 2004, I think incredibly unique, very unique. The fact that Dylan Gabriel wasn't a real favorite at any point, never really got the momentum going on his side, opened it up for a lot of different players, including a hybrid unicorn like Travis Hunter and a Mountain West running back from Boise State that was doing remarkable things.

remarkable things on the football field. I love watching Ashton Genty. Another factor that you have in all of this is the fact that I think Travis really kind of locked in this Heisman with about three weeks to go, which meant that for the last month, everyone was trying to find alternatives. Because again, there was a sector and unfortunately a large sector of people that just didn't want Travis Hunter. and they didn't want Dion Sanders and Shudor Sanders, and they didn't want any part of that.

So they looked for avenues to try to find an alternative. And Ashton Jentee was that alternative because of the remarkable season that he was having. And then all of a sudden, it got very close late. I don't believe it should have gotten that close. Again, Travis is a unicorn. Ashton is just remarkable. Now, that doesn't take anything away from what Ashton Jente did. He was phenomenal this year.

I love watching this guy play. there is, though, however, a difference between remarkable and unprecedented. There is a difference. And as remarkable as his season was, it wasn't Travis Hunter. And so you look at his season, it's like 344 carries. I actually love his volume. It shows me that he's willing to take those carries and can produce through a high volume of carries, which a lot of running backs can't do, just south of 2,500 yards.

Here's what I love most about him. I think that his combination of strength and balance make him very unique. His ability to produce through contact. Nobody had more yards after contact than Ashton Genti. He was remarkable at it. I love his vision. He's an elite back. He had a lot of catches last year, over 40 catches in a season.

This year, not quite as many, partly because why expose him to more hits and touches when he's already getting 26 touches a game just in carries? Right. So he would get a couple of more touches. through the year, get him to about 28 touches a year. But man, what a player. I mean, I'm telling you, he is as good as any back out there. I think he's got a good chance to be a first round running back in the NFL draft. Unfortunately, for Genti, as is the case with every

running back, it's so position specific in terms of value what teams actually need a running back, where are they going to value the running back position, that it's not like other positions where you can just say, yes, absolutely, he's going to be a first round player. Now, do I think he could be the first running back taken? Yeah. I think he's got that type of ability because he's phenomenal. He's a remarkable player. I love watching Ashton Genti play. He is in a lot of ways, everything that you want in a back, everything.

Now, again, I wish he would have had a few more catches this year, but he had them last year. I would say that the knock against Gentie, you know, would be probably like the Mountain West aspect of this. You wonder to yourself at times like, well, are there other guys that could have done that? What would Scataboo have done if he could have played a Mountain West schedule? And I think that that can enter your head. Now, is that a knock against Gentie? No, it's not. I think it's the reality of the levels of college football and maybe the schedule that he played.

Okay. I think that his production being compared to Barry Sanders was a bit of a stretch. Barry did it in 11 games, folks. All right? Barry's mark doesn't even encapsulate his season because at the time in 1988, they didn't count bowl game yards, which he had like another 300 yards. His real number is like 28 something. And like that's the real number.

So to say like, oh, he's about to break Barry's mark, no, no, he's not. No, he's not, which is fine. Again, he was tremendous. And that's why I put him at number two. In a lot of ways, that was unprecedented for me to put a group of five player at number two on my Heisman ballot. I thought that that was an acknowledgement of how great his season was. And again, I think he's got a bright future. My third, I thought, was much more difficult. The third slot was really difficult. And there was a lot of players. that I considered in that third spot. Scataboo, I considered.

Cam Ward, I considered. Dylan Gabriel, I considered. Shudor Sanders, I considered. And ultimately, I landed on Sanders. And the reason is, I just think he had the best quarterback year of anybody. And again, there are a sector of people that just don't want anything to do with the Sanders

and with Deon and with Colorado. But if you actually look at Shadur's season, what you're going to find is that nobody had a better quarterback year than Shadur Sanders. Because no one was under the amount of pressure he was, both from a production standpoint and a pressure standpoint. Here's what I mean by that. If you combine what he meant to the offense and what he was facing from the opposition, no one was close to that. He was actually sacked 38 times. And when you look at Choudor, like, that's what, fourth in the country, something along those, yeah, fourth most in the country.

He led the country in completion percentage at 74%. He was second and passing touchdowns, third and passing yards. And he accounted for 82% of Colorado's offense. That was the best in college football. So not only was he being sacked the fourth most times of anybody in college football, but he had the most production as a percent of his team's offense. 82%. That is a huge number.

Just to give you some context, that's just not good for this year. That's the third best in the last 25 years in college football. So again, best quarterback year I thought was Shador Sanders. That will play out in the draft. I do believe he's going to be the first quarterback selected in the NFL draft. And it's because he's got this rare combination. And I talked about this when I did their guys. game late in the year against Utah. He's got this rare combination of both surgeon and artist.

And that's rare. Normally, quarterbacks really lean heavily into one or the other, and I feel like he's got equal parts of both. When he is protected, which was rare, but when he is protected, he is surgical. He has a real command of the game. He's highly intelligent. He's got a command of the timing of the game and the spacing of the route structure. He can throw guys open. He's got a stronger arm than you anticipate, but he also can change pace on the football. Layer it, throw it with touch, throw it with accuracy into tight windows. When he's protected, he is surgical. And that's something that'll pay dividends for him moving forward, absolutely. But then he's also got this, like, artist component to him. And I think that's the one that gets overlooked a little bit. And the

reason that they live with 38 sacks and that he lives with holding the football a little bit longer than other quarterbacks is because he can make those plays. He's got like this, this Fran Tarkington style, almost like a Jake Plummer style, ability to evade and get away and yet keep his eyes downfield. And then he's very dangerous when he's outside of the pocket, eyes downfield, trying to throw the ball downfield. So this combination of artist and surgeon is something that I love about his game. It's one of the reasons why I think he had the best quarterback year of anybody in college football. The numbers bear that out. The production bears that out. The pressure bears that out. And that's why he got my vote as number three on

my ballot for the Heisman Trophy. A lot of people throwing out the old, you know, Buffs, bias and everything. I don't believe that's the case. I just ran through my exact thinking. And you can take from that what you will. Speaking of this Heisman, I just want to throw back a little bit because I don't know if you remember our preview episodes, but there was a value proposition thrown up by yours truly, right here on the Joel Clash show, a 60 to 1 value proposition for Travis Hunter to win the Heisman trophy. And I said in the preseason, I was like, that's the best value bet.

in the Heisman odds right there. Boom, that's your bet. And listen, if you've been following our advice right here on the Joel Clashio, you would know at this point that we are 49 and 30 against the spread this season, which is 62%. 62%. All right? Like, congratulations, and you're welcome. And now we just hit on the 60 to 1. That's the granddaddy of them all. And by the way, we have people listening to the show that have emailed us that took the bet. Let's go with Michael. I'm not going to use his real name. So we're going to just, we're going to do this real Goodfellis style here because Michael, I don't want you to have to report anything about what you're about to win and cash in on. So Michael, Michael, air quotes, he writes into the mailbag. He says, Joel, because of your

preseason bets, I am about to win 12K on Travis to win the Heisman. Thank you for the awesome pick and I want to know what you're hearing slash thinking on what he will play in the pros. Michael, congratulations. All of you congratulations, by the way, on the picks. Mike, I will say this about Travis and the pros. I think Travis is going to be primarily a corner in the pros and then he'll be like a third wide receiver. I do think he's going to play both ways. I think it can happen and he's proven that he can do it at a high level. Again, an extremely high level. It's not like he's an average defender and a great wide receiver or an average wide receiver and a great defender.

He is a great player on both sides of the ball, All-American caliber player on both sides of the ball. And that was playing 1,400 snaps. You won't have to do that at the NFL level. See, that's why I think he should be a number three wide receiver. When you're a three-wide receiver on an NFL roster, you're going to get between, I don't know, 28 and 40 snaps, depending on the personnel groups used

and the game plan used that day. Well, then you go play defense. You're going to get like 60 to 70 snaps max on the defense. side. Maybe you can even take a couple of those off if you played nickel. And now all of a sudden you're playing far fewer snaps than you would be in the college game at the National Football League level. There's breaks in between. The pace of the game is much slower. I think Travis can play both ways and I think that he will play both ways. That's my guess kind of moving forward for him. I think that we should also discuss

What was Deon Sanders' role in this Heisman Trophy? We don't always discuss a coach's role. Sometimes it can be like the system that got players, the volume of numbers that they got, and we'll talk about that, specifically with quarterbacks. But this is different because it's not a system, it's a belief. And I think Dion did play a huge role in this Heisman. trophy. For obvious reasons, yes, but I want to discuss a few. The question of like, could Travis have done this anywhere else? Everyone thought he was going to Florida State before he flipped

and went to Jackson State and went with Deon Sanders to Jackson State. Could he have done this at Florida State? My answer is no. Could he have done this for any other coach? My answer is no. this is what makes the entire situation unique, and this is something that I think you need to hear from me. I'm around coaches all the time. This is my job. This is my life in a lot of ways. And I'm here to tell you, Travis Hunter would not have done this anywhere else. He is one of one, and he's playing for a guy who's one of one. You see, it takes a unique rare, almost unicorn level of these next two things that I'm going to talk about, which are foresight and fortitude. Foresight and fortitude. You see, his coach has to have those two things in

abundance, in abundance. Let me give you the examples exactly what I'm talking about, the foresight. You see, coaches generally live day by day. They have the blinders on, and they are going about and they talk about constantly like, what can I do today that will make me better? How do I get better today? And that's a great mindset. I am not knocking that mindset, but that's how coaches live.

They live day to day. And what becomes impossible for them is to kind of like see through the forest and like see what's on the horizon. You see, I think Dion has incredible foresight. And the example would just be like a normal week of practice. Let me paint a picture for you. Let's say you're the head coach and you've got this player playing both ways. And let's say like maybe he even got like banged up a little bit and maybe the defense didn't play all that well.

And there were some miscommunications in the secondary or the offense didn't play well. And the quarterback and the wide receiver, maybe they weren't on the same page that week. And here you are the next week in practice and the media is breathing down your neck. And here's your best player. He's your guy, but he's not practicing on Tuesday or Wednesday because he needs to rest because he played both ways on Saturday. So he's there and he's got the call sheet and he's taking mental reps, but he's not in pads and he's not practicing. You see, you've got to have incredible foresight and fortitude as a coach at that moment to not scrap the entire plan because every other coach in America would not look at the horizon at that moment.

No, no, no, no, no. Not with the media breathing down their neck, not with the offensive coordinator demanding the time from the player and the defensive coordinator demanding the time from the player. So his staff is demanding the time. The media is demanding the time. Everyone's demanding it and the coach just wants to go day by day. And guess what?

Dion's the only guy that was going to live with that. Do you know how I know that? Do you know how I know that? because he told us that he doesn't care what you think about him. Check this out. I don't care. Look at me. What about me would make you think that I care about your opinion of me?

Your opinion of me is not the opinion that I have of myself. You ain't make me so you can't break me. You didn't build me so you can't kill me. You know what? God established me. So you ain't nothing. you can do to me. I've been dealing with this foolishness since peewee football, man. I've been him. I've been a difference maker, a game changer. I've been that guy. He's been the guy.

He knows he's been on the horizon. He knows what it takes. He knows that Travis Hunter can do it. He believed in him. And he's got the foresight and fortitude to handle the arrows when people are telling him it can't work. Deon, it can't work. He can't, he can't, he can't play at this level through the entire year. You're going to expose him to injury. What are you doing? Deon Sanders does not care what anybody else said. That's totally unique among college football coaches. I'm just telling you that right now. Every other college coach that I have ever come across would have folded in the scenario that I just put before you. because they can't see the horizon.

That's just a fact. And again, that's not a knock. That's not a knock on those coaches. And in a lot of ways, it just goes to show you how unique it is to have a guy like Dion Sanders as a head coach in college football. What a remarkable time, man.

We're going to have Bill Belichick in North Carolina and Dion Sanders at Colorado. Like, this is, what a time to be alive in college. football. But the simple answer to the question, like, could Travis have done this for anybody else? The answer is no. There is no other coach in America that would have allowed this, and there's certainly no other coach in America that would have had the fortitude to do this for two straight years. So in a lot of ways, Travis owes that Heisman trophy to Deion Sanders, and Deion owes his success at Colorado to a guy like Travis Hunter. And we all know that.

And that's what it should be, a reciprocal relationship. in this sport between great players and great coaches and the belief and trust between the two. And that's why I think Deon's going to be at Colorado because I think he loves college football. I think he loves being the coach at Colorado. I think that Colorado has let him be totally and authentically himself. That is his program.

And even Travis has been telling people this week as he's been on the award circuit like, hey, man, he's not going anywhere. So I firmly believe Deon's going to be the head coach at Colorado next year in 2025. And in 2025, who are the players that we're going to be talking about for the Heisman trophy? It's going to be here before you know it. So like my early list of candidates for the 2025 Heisman trophy, I know some of these

are obvious, but I'm excited for next year. I think we're going to have a lot of great players. You've got quarterbacks like Arch Manning, DJ Lagway, sellers from South Carolina. He's been good. Drew Aller at Penn State. He's been good. Maybe John Matier, who, who's at Washington State, I think all of those guys are solid.

Running backs like Jeremiah Love, I love Jeremiah Love. See what I did there. Jeremiah Smith and Ryan Williams, all of these guys, I think that we're going to hear a lot about them. They're going to have solid odds, specifically Archmanning, going into next year for the Heisman Trophy. And there's going to be a lot of change in college football, maybe not as much as what we've seen over the last couple of years,

but I did want to get into some of this coaching news. So meanwhile, over at West Virginia and Central Florida, we're just running it back, folks. They make their new hires and Rich Rodriguez going back to West Virginia and he'll coach the Mountaineers. And Scott Frost is going back to Central Florida and he will coach UCF. How about that? We're just putting a band back together.

This brings up a lot of thoughts, by the way, about the coaching profession and college football in general. I think that there are two beliefs among college football coaches. I do think that both of these are wrong. One of them only recently has become wrong, and the other one I think has been wrong for a long time. So here's the two beliefs, and then I'll go through each of them. the number one belief that I think most college football coaches, I'm talking about head coaches and assistant coaches, but most of these guys all have this like inherent belief that the grass is always greener on the other side.

Maybe that's a human characteristic, but I'm telling you, man, in college football circles, it runs rampant. And, you know, I talk to these guys and every one of them believes that all of their competitors don't have the same issues that they deal with. Oh man, if I was just there, my budget problem would be different. Oh, man, if I was just over there, my admissions problem would be different. Oh, man, if I was just over there, the recruiting, you know, the natural recruiting region is different. Oh, if I was just over there, like the strength staff is different. And their commitment to football and the admission standard and so on and so on and so on. The relationship with the school, the relationship with the fan base and all the media.

Every single coach looks at his situation, and he views the grass being greener in other situations. It's just the inherent nature of this sport. And what's interesting is that I think that you also get this from the school side. I think athletic directors do this as well, and they think to themselves like, you know, I wish my coach was a lot more like that guy. And so what you've got in the past is a lot of movement, a lot of movement in this sport, whether it's from the schools and the administrations that are moving on from coaches, paying out these buyouts, and just trying to redo everything with a new coach, or it's coaches moving to the grass being greener somewhere else. And they just think that all of their problems are going to be fixed by location and program.

And the reality is, is that that's not true. It's just not. I'm around every single program, big and small, and every single one of them, has problems. Every one of them. Every one of them has inherent issues. Some of them bigger than others. Sure. You bet. And you might say like, Joel, you're crazy. Like that school, it's got everything. No, that's not the case. Every single school I go to, every one of them will point at another school and be like, oh man, they don't have to work as hard for their NIL dollars like we do. and I'm always looking around.

I'm like, why is it that every single school tells me that? You know? So again, there is an inherent belief in college football circles that the grass is always greener. I'm just telling you that that's not always the case. And I think that this in a lot of ways is an acknowledgement of that. Rich Rodriguez going back to West Virginia, Scott Frost going back to UCF. And Notre Dame, by the way, didn't even bring this one up, signing Marcus Freeman to an extension, getting ahead of anything that could come up down the stretch here as he's in the playoffs

and could potentially make a nice little run in the playoffs. So not only is the administration in this case for Notre Dame saying like, hey, grass isn't always greener. Has it been perfect with Marcus Freeman? I don't think it's been perfect with Marcus Freeman. Is he a damn good football coach? Yeah, you bet, you bet. And why not build?

Why not be where our feet are and build and lean in? You know, because from an admissions or excuse me, an administration standpoint and a program standpoint, think of the cost that takes now to switch out your coach, the buyout of his contract. And I'm not suggesting that Marcus Freeman was going to get bought out. I'm just saying like this acknowledgement from even the administration, like let's wrap this guy up and extend him and do the right thing. And like, grass isn't always greener for us either. And now Rich Rodriguez and Scott Frost, this is an acknowledgement of like, maybe I had it really good. earlier in my career at Central Florida and at UCF, or excuse me, and at West Virginia. And Rich Rodriguez even kind of said that when he was like, you know, maybe I shouldn't have gone to Michigan.

Why did he go to Michigan? Well, that brings me to this second belief that coaches have. And that is that there is a finite, small number of schools, a very narrow number of schools that you can actually win at the top end with. And that's the one that's actually changing currently. And it is only recently beginning to crumble a little bit. Because in the past, I would have agreed with those coaches. And when coaches would tell me like, Joel, I've got to go. I've got to go because like you can actually win there.

And I'll be like, yeah, you know what? That makes sense. That makes sense. Because there was a narrow path to actually win a national championship. But what have I been talking about for a long time here on this show over the last couple of weeks, which is like, we are expanding the avenues and the paths to success in college football, which now allow guys to stay at a location and actually win at the top end

and be relevant in the sport at the top end and be defined as successful at the top end. That has been a really important, a very important truth in college football that has only been materialized this year with the 12-team playoff with these four teams that are now in the college football playoff that are just like bonkers to me. You've got Boise State, you've got Arizona State, you've got SMU, you've got Indiana. And it's just like, you bet, man. You've got to love this. So now not only is there an acknowledgement from both programs and coaches that the

grass is not always greener on the other side, and I'm here to tell you that's absolutely the case. But there's also a breakdown of this belief of the narrow few number of schools that you can win at because in operation, we've got four schools in the college football playoff that you would never. Maybe Boise State, because you would think like a group of five. But Arizona State, if you had Arizona State SMU and Indiana in your playoff at the beginning of the year, that was not a good pick.

And yet, here they are. Here they are. And by the way, I really love that. Coaches just walking and going to different places, trying to improve their spot, you're always just trading problems for problems. Why not just be where your feet are at? Why not be where your feet are at? Make the best of what you know

and then move forward from there. And you know what? You can find yourself winning in the top end, which is exactly what teams like SMU, Arizona, State, Boise State, and Indiana are doing. Speaking of next year, Bo Probula will have a new school and we've got to talk about this transfer portal issue.

Boerpula is the backup quarterback that has played a decent number of snaps for Penn State, really in every single game. But Bo Perbula posted on Sunday to X that he is transferring from Penn State. And he does this now, what, five days, six days before their first playoff game as they host SMU. And I tell you what, man, this is wild. And I hate it for Bo Perbula. And in his tweet, he mentions the fact that he hates that he's in this situation. And why is he in this situation?

Because the transfer portal is open during the season. And it's going to close December 28th. All right. So I tweeted out that, listen, the NCAA has built an incredibly flawed system that is impossible to navigate for these young men. The fact that we have an open transfer portal, while the season is still happening is crazy. We have to fix this. We absolutely have to fix this.

I feel terrible for Beau Pribula, and guess what? I actually think he's going to regret this later in his life. I'm sitting here now at 42 years old. Do I think he probably is trying to navigate this the best that he possibly can? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. He's trying to. Is he stuck in an impossible situation?

Yes. Yes. And again, the powers that be are, are making decisions and creating systems that are bad for the individuals that are actually competing in the sport. The players are the ones that are hurt. This transfer portal being open in December, while the season is still going on, and more importantly, when the college football playoff is going on, hurts the players. Because Beau Perbula didn't really have a choice.

I know that Devin Brown is staying at Ohio State through the end of the season and then he's going to transfer. But the problem is, is that the transfer portal for a quarterback, and this is what Devin Brown is going to realize real quick at the end of the year, the transfer portal for a quarterback is like musical chairs. And success as a quarterback is highly dependent on fit. So you've got to find the right chair if you're a quarterback looking to go and start somewhere. So what's he supposed to do? I mean, I'm not going to sit here and tell the kid, hey, man, forget about your own future and just do it for the team. I cannot in good conscience sit here and look a kid in the eye like that and say that.

Do I wish he could do both? Yes, of course I wish he could do both. Why don't we have a system that helps Bo Perbula? I get very frustrated about this because the same people, that built the old systems are trying to build the new systems in college football. And the problem with that is that they continually look after the old systems while making the new ones. And so the modifications that they make when making these new systems and rules in the sport do not fit.

They are not compatible. So here's what happens. You build in a transfer portal window, but your postseason in college football is built all around bowl games. And bowl games in a playoff system are like oil and water. And yet you're trying to make them work together. And what's the only way that they work together? Extend them way out because this bowl game's got to be on this date and that date and all these special cases. And now we've got to move it out.

So now the national champion isn't going to be crowned until January 20. and yet the transfer portal ends on December 28th. How does that happen and how is that good for anybody involved? It's not. It's not. So I feel really bad for Bo Perbula and I'm not just going to sit here and roll rail on the system because everybody knows it's flawed. Everyone going through it. The coaches know it's flawed. The players know it's flawed. We know it's flawed. and the people that don't want to do anything about it

are the ones that are sitting there trying to protect old systems while building new ones at the same time. Old wine does not fit into new wine skins. It's biblical. That's been around for thousands of years. Okay, so let's stop. How about we have some new wine skins? Like this fix.

Are you ready? One of my favorite games of the year is always the Army-Navy game. Just happened this last weekend. I loved it. I loved every minute of it. I loved the pageantry of it. I love the pure Americana of it.

I love celebrating our nation. I love celebrating kids that aren't playing for the right to go to the NFL in a lot of cases, but playing the game that they love for the institutions that they love and the academies that they love and for their fellow cadets. Look at the joy on their face. All these players from Navy, the joy on their face as they run over and they sing the songs in front of the cadets and look at all the cadets and they're packed in there like This is amazing. I love this game. What does this game have anything to do with the transfer portal?

Well, because like a lot of things in college football, this game is being squeezed. It's being squeezed by all of this nonsense going on in the month of December. It used to be where Army Navy had its own game, or excuse me, own day. And in some ways, yes, that's the case, but we play bowl games on Saturday. and we played Army Navy on Saturday. And you've got the portal opened up. And now we're trying to get the college football playoff getting started. And we're announcing Heismans.

And we're doing all of these different things. And guess what? This game that should be a showcase event for our country is being squeezed in multiple different directions. And I've got the fix for Army Navy and the postseason. And that is clear out the Army Navy weekend and allow the playoffs. to start early. Where does Army Navy go? Week zero. Week zero. Think about it. Let me just paint the picture for just a moment. No other football game happens in America until Army Navy play on their own day.

So there's no college football in week zero. No, no, not like we know it now where there's these random games and random places and some of them played overseas and so on and so forth. No, no, no, no. No. We kick our sport in America off with Army Navy. It's the only game, and it's week zero of college football. And we blow it out. The commissioners of leagues are there, of the NFL, the president is there. There's flyovers. We march cadets and we do it at night. It's on the network television. And, man, it is a showcase event. and every football fan in America is going to be right there. Because guess what that game then signifies?

That game is like the national anthem to the season. And it is the showcase game for our country that launches us into our favorite time of year, which is football season. Why? Because America. That game deserves that. It's being squeezed right now. It's being squeezed right now.

And we could showcase it better. And we could kick off the season and get. guess what that would allow us to do? Start the college football playoff right away after the conference championship games. Start playing the games and finish your season before you start making roster moves. So then you can start the college football playoff right away. Conference championship games, the first week in December. First round playoff games, the second week of December. Third week of December, quarter final games. Fourth week of December, Simbi final games. And guess what? We are finishing the college football season. at the latest, the week of January 1st, at the latest, play the games. Retain the momentum. You'd stay away from the NFL playoffs.

You would retain the momentum that is created with an incredible November in our sport, and you would own the month of December. You kick things off with Army Navy as the national anthem for our sport and our country in August on week zero. And then you play the games, and then it's done, and you'd still have a week, week and a half, two weeks, before spring semester opened up at institutions across the country, which is when you could transfer. And then you could actually have a transfer window outside of the season.

You sign your early signings. Now you have a transfer portal window that is outside of the season and you don't have this nonsense. I feel bad for Bo Perbula. Bo Perbula got put into a scenario where he is in a system that is not designed for him. It's designed for a bunch of old guys that want to retain old systems in the midst of new structures. And that doesn't work. This renovation has not

worked. It has to blow up. And we need to fix it for the kids that play this sport. We really do. And that's how we're going to do it. That's how we're going to do it. And anybody that wants to make me commissioner for a day, that's like lunch of day one. There's some things that are I might even do a show. We might do a show. Would you want to, would you want a show of like day one commissioner clatt. Like, what would he do? That's what we'll do. We're going to do that soon.

We're going to do that very soon. Our next show, though, is going to be a preview of the college football playoff, which I cannot wait for. Huge games this week, obviously. So we're going to preview them. I will be making all of my picks. And in fact, I'm going to give you an entire bracket prediction with our next episode. That will drop on Wednesday.

So I've got Wednesday will be my picks and previews. for round one in college football playoff plus the entire bracket that's coming to you on Wednesday right here. Remember to follow us wherever you like to social media at Joel Clatt show. You can follow me on X. Personally, I'm at Joel Clatt.

And it is the best time of year. We've got fixes for college football. We've got the college football playoffs. We've got it all. We've got it all. Thanks for listening, everybody. Have a blessed day.