The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - UCLA's Chip Kelly & Top 10 Rankings after Week 1

Episode Date: September 9, 2021

Joel Klatt is back for another edition of Breaking the Huddle, and this week he is joined by UCLA head coach Chip Kelly! They talk the Bruins' win over LSU, and how impressive RB Zach Charbonnet has looked so far. Joel Klatt also goes through his Top 10 rankings, and breaks down tape of key defensive plays from Week 1. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is up, everybody? We've got a huge show for you today on Breaking the Huddle. I'm Joel Klaude. I'm going to give you my top 10 teams. We're going to break down some of the quarterback play and the massive mistakes that were made in big games by quarterbacks that caused teams to lose. We've got Chip Kelly after the huge win against LSU. He's going to join us, and we've got clap back. That's all coming up today on Breaking the Huddle brought to you.

by Dr. Pepper. Remember, it is the one fans crave. Let's get right into it. It's a busy day. My new top 10 in the country after week one. And let me start by saying that this is a week that we need to all just calm down, okay? Let's not overreact about a big win. Let's not overreact about a loss, okay? No team after week one is as good as you think you are,

unless you may be Alabama, and no team is as bad as they think they are. So it's somewhere in the middle. Let's go through it. Now, first, I want to talk to you about the teams that almost made my top 10, but not quite. Okay, I'm talking about Penn State. They were right there at that 11 mark. I really wanted to put them in the top 10 after an amazing win that I saw firsthand against Wisconsin. But remember now, they did just barely squeak that win out. They were dominated at points during the game. The defense had to be on the field for 95 plays. They've got to fix some things offensively, so they didn't quite make it. I'm talking about, let's see, Iowa State. They fell out of my top 10. That performance was just not going to get a. done. They've got Iowa this week. I like some pack 12 schools almost there in the top 10. Oregon, UCLA, Utah, all right there. I'm a little higher on Utah than most people. Oregon, you're right

there and we'll see what happens with Kvon, Tibado, in preparation for the huge game this week against Ohio State. Now let's get into it. All right. Number 10 for me is going to be Florida. I get it. Penn State fans, you should be upset with me that I put Florida here instead of Penn State. Because Florida did not look good. Okay, I just think that Florida's overall roster is still very talented and they're going to stay at number 10. At number nine as we move up the charts here, we've got Iowa. Listen, I'm a big believer in Iowa. I put them now inside my top 10. If you go back to what they did the last six games of last year, they were really, really good. And then they opened up with a Big 10 opponent in Indiana, who was a top 25 team and throttled them. In fact,

in that seven-game win streak, all against Big 10 opponents, you know Iowa is winning by an average of 22 and a half points over the last seven games, all Big Ten opponents. Watch out. Okay, I know They can be boring, but they're still really good under Kirk Farrants. Okay, as we move up here, number eight, I've got Notre Dame. They're going to stay idle for me. A lot of people down on Notre Dame after that Florida State game. Listen, Notre Dame fans, calm down. I think that there's room for optimism, even with that close win against Florida State.

Okay, so Florida State's much better than we thought that they were, in particular under McKenzie Milton. Here's the biggest draw I have from that game about Notre Dame. You found a quarterback, right? Jack Cohn is really good. I think they'll run the ball fine. Kiron Williams is not going to run the ball for under three yards per Gary during the course of the year. Okay, you've got a great tight end.

I think the defense will get fixed under Marcus Freeman, and Jack Cohn was absolutely legitimate. So Notre Dame fans, just relax. I think you're going to be just fine. All right, we move through the top 10 now at number seven, Cincinnati. Listen, Cincinnati was one of these teams. They were one of the only teams that we thought were going to be good that then showed up on Saturday in week one and prove that they're good. Desmond Ritter deserves to be in the Heisman conversation. Hey, Heisman voters. Desmond Ritter, check out what he's doing right now. Now he's doing it again this season. Desmond Ritter should be on your Heisman ballot if you're a Heisman voter at this point. They're number seven, Cincinnati. Number six, I'm going to stick with Texas A&M. A lot of people were sliding them into the top five. I'm still going to put them at six because let's be honest, that was unimpressive. Haynes King, three interceptions. They had the lean on their run game. The defense was terrific. They've got a big game against Colorado this week. Unimpressive. But again, don't overreact to their

performance. I think they'll be just fine, but they're going to stay at six. Now we get into the top five. It's the same top five that I had earlier, but Clemson's going to go from up higher down to number five for me. And let me just sit with Clemson for a moment. Okay, Clemson fans, you need to relax. Everybody around college football relax with the whole Clemson is done take. They're not going anywhere. What teams in the country can do to Clemson what Georgia did to Clemson? Maybe two? Maybe. Alabama and Georgia. I don't see another defense that can do to DJ Uyongolayle what Georgia's defense did to them. Oh, and by the way, Clemson just held Georgia to three points offensively. So it's one mistake. DJ makes the mistake. J.T. didn't make the mistake. So J.T. Daniels didn't

make the mistake. They won the game. It's that close. That was a razor-thin margin. Everyone's like, oh, Clemson, oh, they're going to have problems. they're going to struggle with who? Who in the ACC can do that to Clemson? Come on. Clemson's at number five. I think they're going to be just fine. All right, here we go.

Number four, I dropped Oklahoma down. Listen, this is, for me, Oklahoma has got to learn how to finish games. This was the problem last year. Remember, they had the big league against Kansas State, couldn't hold on, lost that game. They have the big lead against Tulane, lost that lead, had to hold on late. Hey, oh, you, this is not for the fan base. This is for the Sooners themselves. You've got to learn how to finish games.

You guys are great early. I mean, bam, shot out of a cannon in particular at home. Finish the game. This is a problem now, right? A pattern seems to be taking place here early in the season. We saw it early last season. You got it fixed by the end of last season. That team has desperately got to learn how to finish.

As we get into the top three, Ohio State. That was a pretty gutty performance against a good Minnesota team in a win. road on Thursday night. At number two, Georgia moves up there with the win against Clemson. But like I said, razor thin between Georgia and Clemson. It was one mistake by the quarterback. Number one was obvious. Alabama. Folks, you come in with expectations. You're the best team of the country. You're the defending national champions. You lose everybody. And then they came out and what they look like, Alabama. All right, kudos to that program and Nick Sabin. Because they understand what a sense of urgency is. Some of these other teams don't, right?

But guess what? Alabama, they came out. Alabama understands what it means to be great. You know what it means to be great? To have a sense of urgency and an expectation that is not held externally, but internally. Their expectations for themselves, I guarantee you practice is harder for the tide than it is for the games. All right, Miami didn't really have a chance. And that's one of those things. Everyone's like, wow, what's Miami going to do? They played Alabama. What do you want Miami to do? Right. Guess what? Miami's probably still right where we thought they were, about 15th ranked in the country. So here we go. There's my, I guess, underreaction, top 10, right? Let's not overreact. Let's underreact to the first week.

And now my favorite part of college football. Can you get better? Can you develop? What adjustments will you make in order to be a great team moving forward? So there you have it. Let's get into the film room. Okay, there was some mistakes made by quarter. in giant moments that turned matchups. Every one of these matchups that I'm about to show you was ranked matchups and a quarterback made massive mistakes that ended up allowing their team to lose, right? Now, great defense, yes, and there was certainly some of this

that was schematic from the defensive side that you'll see, but these were quarterback mistakes. Let's start with the game I was at. Madison, Wisconsin, Graham Mertz and Wisconsin. They've got fourth in goal, okay? We got about three minutes left. It is zero coverage, meaning all man to man. They're going to blitz the two linebackers here.

And as we take a look from the back, they're going to rush these two guys, at least initially, in order to get the back up in blocking. This is key, okay, because that safety who's in man-to-man now becomes a free player when the back blocks. Watch this. And then Brisker, now he can float over on Merch's eyes. Great design.

And he falls right under the best player for Wisconsin, Jake Ferguson. Brilliant design from Brent Pry, great execution and intelligent. from Brisker, but that's why it's a mistake from Mertz. Okay, folks, Mertz has got to recognize coverage. He's got to understand that that's man-to-man. There's nobody there to hold Brisker if the back blocks in pass protection.

Great design, but the quarterback's recognition has got to be better. All right, let's move on. Clemson, Georgia, top five matchup. Let's see what we got going on in the defensive structure here for DJ Uiungaleli. It's zone. It's cover three zone. That means that these routes. that are spot routes, they're going to sit and not run across the field.

You've got to understand that as a quarterback, and you can't drag this guy across. You've got to throw it to him on his frame. The wide receiver C zone, he's going to sit down and just kind of settle in that zone. DJ throws it inside as if it's man leading him across the field right into the safety's point of view, and it's a pick six. Again, it's recognizing coverage. All right, these are things that have to be fixed from a quarterback. and then the ball placement has got to be put right on his frame.

So that you know at home, if it's zone coverage, the wide receivers are not going to be running across the formation. They're going to settle. The wide receiver is expecting to settle, get a ball on the frame, and it's probably a first down. DJ leads him as if it's man. It's picked off. It's a pick six.

Georgia ends up winning the game. Let's move on. Another ranked matchup. Iowa against Indiana. Michael Pinnock's coming off that knee injury. Let's recognize coverage, folks. What is the coverage at the snap? He claps his hands.

He's going to have a hitch on the bottom. He's got free access. Why? The safety was rotating up to the top. So it's just a simple hitch thrown at five yards on the outside shoulder. This is just about execution. But the problem is he throws it at six yards to the inside shoulder. Watch this.

Wide receiver kind of dives over to his left. That ball can never be thrown inside. Pick six. It's the second of the day for Iowa. That happened with a minute 50 left in the first half. It was 2110. Okay, Indiana was going to get the ball to start the second half. So you've got a chance there with a minute 50 to drive down, all right, and cut this lead down to the point where you could potentially get right back in it with your first series of the second half.

And all it was was execution. You recognize coverage, number one, as a quarterback, and then you have to execute the ball placement. We saw Mertz not see the coverage, not understand what the coverage could potentially do based on what his back was going to do. We saw DJ lead a receiver when he shouldn't have led a receiver. We saw Michael Pennix throw it to the opposite side of a wide receiver when it should have been on the outside edge of the wide receiver. All I'm trying to say is this is why, this is part and parcel to my conversation earlier, this is why you shouldn't overreact because guess why?

These things will get fixed. Remember, quarterback is the only position on the field that you just cannot replicate in practice. So the growth and the development that happens from game one to game two, Two should be quite severe. And we'll see all of these guys grow and get much better and not make those mistakes as they move forward this year. Welcome back into breaking the huddle. I'm Joel Clatt, joined now by the head coach

of the UCLA Bruins, Chip Kelly, after a huge win last weekend against LSU. Coach, what's going on, man? How are you? We're good. You know, we wish we were playing this week. But because of the schedule and playing a week zero game against Hawaii. we're off in week two here.

And then we're getting ready to play a really good Fresno State team in week three. Well, and that Fresno team, you know, obviously gave Oregon all they could handle last week. So, yes, you're going to have your hands full. There's no doubt. But let's look back just a moment. And I'm sure you were proud of what your guys were able to do against LSU. I think it caught the college football world maybe by surprise. Did it catch you by surprise how physical and how good your team played?

No, you know, and that's the one thing with our players is that, you know, everybody, when you upset somebody, as they say, even though I think it was a two-point point-point spread, you know, that you shocked the world. But we didn't, we didn't shock ourselves. This team has prepared really, really well since last January. You know, it's a mature group. You know, obviously one of the byproducts of COVID is we had a lot of returning players that could return. So it's an older veteran team. We got a lot of fourth-year kids and fifth-year kids. have played a lot of football. They know what it takes and they are 100% into that part of it. They really like the prep part of it. So we've always believed that you don't rise to the occasion. You sync to your level of training and this group has trained at a really high level. So this has been, you've talked about it a little bit. It's been a slow build, but I don't think people realize where you had to go when you first

got there as far as numbers go. You know, I think at one point, coach, I'm not mistaken, you only had like four. 56 scholarship players, something right around there. Yeah, when we played SC in my first year, we had 57 scholarship players. And then with the NCAA rules, they changed the transfer rule and some of those other things where you could lose quicker, but you couldn't add more than 25 in a year. So I think our second year, we were at like 71 or 72. And then the next year we were at like 76.

And this is the first year we've actually been at the maximum number of scholarships. So we had 115 kids out for spring ball, Joel, and my first year, I think we were in the mid-60s for spring ball. So it's just our depth is better. And that allows you so many different things. It allows you to practice better. You're not always having to go good on good. You know, you can give looks.

You're developing everybody in the program. So really the depth, what's changed since year one to year four is the depth in the program. And it's allowed you to be more physical, right? I mean, let's be honest now. When you turn that game on, when I turned that game film on, coach, it was obvious to me who the more physical team was at the line of scrimmage, both sides of the ball. And that was the UCLA Bruins. And, and, you know, that development for you guys and what you were able to do on the ground, both stopping the run, held them under 50 yards rushing. You guys ran the ball for over 200 yards. In fact, the discrepancy was 161 yards. You guys outrushed the UCLA.

or excuse me, LSU Tigers. That's all about development and physicality at the line of scrimmage. Yeah. I mean, you have to be tough and physical to play this game. You know, and at some point in time, you're going to have to put your cleats in the ground and you've got to be able to block.

You've got to be able to get off blocks and you've got to be able to tackle. And, you know, it's still a fundamental football game. And we always preach that. And we've been preaching fundamentals since we got here. But you're seeing kids that are in their fourth year playing up front, you know, and so I've had four years of fundamental training, four years of growth in our strength and conditioning program, four years in our nutrition program.

So it's a byproduct of all of it. But the game of football is still a game of ground acquisition, and you've got to be physical to do that. I love that. Ground acquisition. I'm going to steal that. I don't know if I'm going to give you credit or not, but I'm definitely going to steal it. Hey, the transfer portal has affected everybody.

right you know negatively and positively everybody's losing some players here and there everybody's gaining players and we're seeing that throughout college football shoot i saw niles pickney the defensive tackle from clemson he goes to minnesota he was there in my my first game there ches malusi goes from clemson to wisconsin he was big uh for wisconsin saturday you guys dipped into the portal and got a guy who i could you could say argue came home uh to be closer to home but zach charbonnet has been unbelievable through uh two weeks of the season. He's averaging over 10 yards of carry. He's got four touchdowns. Can you tell me, you know, when you first realize, hey, we got something special here, number one, and two,

what's the difference between a transfer guy and his level of purpose versus even just a first year freshman? That's a great question and a great point. Right in the beginning of the spring, we recruited him coming out of high school and really liked him. But he, he, he's a He had some Midwest ties and wanted to go to Michigan and then was really successful. I mean, he set the Michigan freshman scoring record. He had 11 touchdowns as a freshman out there. So when his name was in the portal and he had heard he may want to come back home, we were really excited. He's a great kid.

He's a really good student. He was in the Ross School of Business at Michigan. You know, he kind of checked all the boxes. And then when we got him and started going through spring practice really on that first day. And I've said this before. I think the unique thing with Zach is he's obviously 6-1, he's 220, he's physical, he can run all those other things. But I didn't know how good a vision he had. And when you saw the first kind of couple of practices in the spring where, you know, he hit something and then slide and then bounce outside and then gone, you're like, whoa.

You know, like he's got, you know, that innate talent that all the great running backs have. In high school, you and you will evaluate the film, you never get to see the end zone copy, Joel. So you're not sure. You know, you just, he hits a hole and comes out the other side. you're not sure what he saw. When you started to see it from that perspective from behind, you know, I thought we had a pretty special player. Well, and he's proven that on the field.

Listen, enjoy the off week. I know that you've got work to do, nose to the grindstone. Can't wait to see you guys against Fresno State. I really appreciate your time, man. Congratulations on a big win. And we'll see you down the road. Hi, Joel. Look forward to get me for a game out here.

Oh, man, I can't wait. I can't wait. Can't wait to get back to the Rose Bowl. Have it going, bud. We'll see you. Time for our favorite segment. Hello, Clat back. Here we go.

Let's get to all the social media backlash that yours truly got after week one. Let's get to it here. The Maria Howard, don't know who she's a fan of, says, love Joel Clad, but this is not only conservative, speaking of my top 10, but also lazy team rankings regarding his top 10. This is sad. Don't be sad. Maria, don't be sad. Remember, I'm not going to fall into the trap of overreacting after week one.

And speaking of, you might have seen my original rankings where I still had Oklahoma higher than Ohio State. And the basis of that is like, listen, I understand you have to evaluate the totality of the game. But remember now, Ohio State was losing going into halftime. I'm not crazy. Like that happened, right? So they played a poor first half. Oklahoma played a poor second half. Oklahoma was great in the first half. Ohio State was great in the second half, right? So even these things out, it'll be okay.

Don't overreact. Let's continue with some of this reaction on social media. BG coming out of the woods says all the talking heads bow down to Bama. Even a novice like myself could see that UCLA had the most impactful group of transfers in the nation. Talk about it. I literally just talked about it. Like five minutes ago, BG. We had chip in the monitor and I literally gets overused on social media.

I literally just talked about it. Zach Charbonnet, you're on my Heisman list. You're a great transfer. And BG, I literally just talked about it. Hey, let's have a great week two of college football. Remember this is breaking the huddle. Same time next week right here on at college football on Fox and FS1. It is brought to you by Dr. Pepper.

It is the one fans deserve.