The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - USC finds their next Star, Notre Dame’s Ceiling is Rising & the NCAA continues to get it wrong

Episode Date: August 28, 2023

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt gives his takeaways from the first games of the year as USC and Notre Dame opened their seasons with wins. Klatt gives his reasons why Trojan fans should still be optimistic about their defense despite an uneven performance. Next, he goes into how Freshman WR Zachariah Branch overshadowed Heisman winner Caleb Williams and why he’s going to be a major game-changer for Lincoln Riley’s team. He then gets into Notre Dame’s blowout win over Navy and discusses what the addition of Sam Hartman does for the Irish’s ceiling this season. He also discusses how it’ll affect the matchups with their big-time opponents coming down the road: Ohio State, USC and Clemson. Finally, Klatt discusses the recent rulings by the NCAA to suspend LSU star DT Maason Smith for the Florida State game and to deny Colorado Offensive Lineman Tyler Brown’s waiver for immediate eligibility. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on the Joel Glad Show, we have actual games to react to, but I promise not to overreact. But I can't promise that when it comes to the NCAA. 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. Welcome into the Joel Clatt show.

Everybody, I am Joel Clatt. and we are presented by Hampton by Hilton. Very thankful for Hampton by Hilton. Great people and going to be a great partnership here moving forward with the Joel Clyde Show. So let's get into it here today. And before I get into everything, as you know, follow us on social media, subscribe to the show, subscribe to the new YouTube channel.

We're going to have all sorts of really cool stuff for you all season long. You can do that. Any of the social media is at Joel Clat Show out there, you know, X, Instagram. TikTok. We got to take it. For a 41-year-old, we're very hip on the social media. We got to get into the live action, though, and I'm so thankful for it. Finally, the offseason is over, and we can kind of stop talking about everything else going on in college football

and start talking about actual games on the field and what we're seeing and what plays are being made and maybe what plays are not being made. So all of that's coming straight up. Let's get into the two games that we saw this last weekend, week zero, if you will, Well, I hate calling it that. It's like the first week of college football. Just like next week is kind of the first week. It's like the first opening week of college football.

Everyone's playing their first game. So USC plays San Jose State. Notre Dame plays Navy over in Ireland. There was a few other games. But those are the two games that I want to sit on and kind of react to. Let's start with USC because USC is in the top 10. And a lot of us had a lot of questions surrounding USC. Now, if you go back to the preseason,

And what did I and many others talk about in terms of USC? We were excited to see Caleb Williams play again. Obviously, we wanted to see some of those new pieces on offense, how they were going to fit for Lincoln Riley in that offense. But more specifically, I wanted to see the defense. Is the defense going to improve? Is this a defense that is no longer allergic to tackling, as I like to put it in the preseason?

I don't know if we got definitive answer. about the defense. I don't want to go either direction. I saw headlines here in the Southern California area for major outlets that basically the defense is not fixed at all. And others saying like, oh, no, look at some of these individual snaps. This defense is going to be great. I'm not going to fall in either one of those camps because I think that there's still a lot

to be learned about USC. Let's just back up and kind of go through them one at a time. First and foremost, they allowed 28 points to San Jose State. Now, San Jose State isn't bad. Let's just like, let's call a spade of spade. They were not nearly as bad offensively as like Navy was against Notre Dame. They had some guys, all right? And they made a few plays.

And so from that standpoint, I think USC had a tougher draw in their opening week rather than Notre Dame. But it's not a comparison to apples to apples. So what you have to do is you've got to look at some of these, you know, transfers. They started four of them on defense. they had a true freshman out there as well. So there's a lot of new names. I thought Mason Cobb played well, Bear played well at times.

The main takeaway from me was that I thought the defense showed signs that they could be better. I didn't say good or great or dominant. I just said better. There were definitive signs that they could be a better defense than last year. Not hard. That's a low bar. But they had some size and physicality up there in the front seven. they were faster.

They tackled better at times in the open field. So I was like, okay, while it's not perfect, I think that there are elements here to build on for this defense and Lincoln Riley. That's going to be important because when you look down the road, you know, they're going to face some incredible offenses and get themselves into some games where that defense is going to have to make stops. It's not that I take issue with.

It's just, I think that some of the problems with USC, listen, allergic to tackling, that's fixed with personnel. Okay, so there's three things that you have to evaluate. There's coaching, there's scheme, and there's personnel. They've clearly tried to address the personnel. Now you've got to look at like coaching and scheme. All right. I thought that the scheme was sound. Now, there are times, let's just take for example, they allowed a third and 22 to be picked up by a quarterback scramble in the first half.

that drive ended up in the end zone. Okay, so this drive leads to a TD. That should never happen. A third and 22 at any point should never be converted. Okay. And it's my belief that defenses in general, and I think that USC falls into this at times, they play too aggressive.

And when you play too aggressive, you leave your players on islands, islands and you magnify small mistakes. When you play high risk, high reward defense, everything is magnified. One gap responsibility not fit in the run game is going to cause a big play. One miss tackle is going to cause a big play. You get my drift. And so when you're in a third and 22 scenario, that's not time to be aggressive.

Now, there is a school of thought that you want to blitz and you want to try to force the quarterback to maybe increase his timing and maybe get the ball out of his hands and rally up and make the tackle. But that type of pressure would be more of a zone pressure where you're maintaining your levels of defense. The more aggressive that you play, the less levels that you have, the less levels that you have, the less safety net you have. Okay.

So when you're in third and 22, it's fine to be aggressive, but maintain your levels so that those levels can then catch mistakes and then you can get the ball to the ground, you can force a punt, then you can move on. Because the name of the game for them is stealing possessions for their offense. They did it so well last year in the name of turnovers. Well, a third and 22 is basically a turnover in modern college football. You got to get off the field. Some of that is scheme and play selection related.

They move a lot up front, stem, stunt, do all these different things. And then they can play aggressively at times and at times too aggressively. If you look at some of the best defenses in the country, yes, they've got great talent and they can just sit there and play defense. But also, what they're doing is that they're forcing the offense to execute a higher number of times in order to score rather than giving them the option to magnify a small mistake and get a big play. So philosophy could be playing into this.

And if you've got a great offense like they do and might be exceptional, which I'll get into in a moment, then they might need to look at philosophy as well. They've clearly addressed the personnel. I think they were bigger up front. They were more physical up front. They were faster at times. They tackled better at times. Now they need to address some of that schematic nature.

How aggressive are you playing? How much are you magnifying the mistakes that your defense makes? And how much are you not magnifying? How much are you giving your defense out when they do make small mistakes? So that's the defensive takeaway for me. Now let's go to the offensive side of the ball. Behind him is Austin Jones in a new set of downs. The ball is dropped.

Caleb picks it up trying to make some. something happened, throws long, and it is complete. And the 30, the 20, the 15, 10, 5, and touchdown, USC, Taj, Washington. Something out of nothing. It was a fumbled snap. Caleb went back. Most coaches will tell you to fall on the ball, not Caleb Williams, not Mr. Heisman trophy, picks it up and throws a touchdown pass.

How do you do? All right, now let's talk about that offensive side. Sensational. sensational and we shouldn't have thought any different. Caleb Williams was terrific. I thought he tried at times. I felt like he was trying to not not prove, but develop more from in the pocket.

We know what he does outside of the pocket and he's not going to be, listen, to say that he like needs to be a better pocket passer is minimizing his ability. I felt like he was making a concerted effort to control the game from the pocket, which is great, he didn't have to be outstanding, except for that one play, which you heard. He drops the ball. He's on them.

And then bam, it's just like, you know, God turned his right arm into a thunderbolt. Like the guy is just special and he creates a touchdown. So the offense was solid. The run game was solid. Now let's talk about the guy who stole the show. The incumbent Heisman trophy winner is on the field. presumptive number one pick is on the field. A bunch of really good players that had been there before,

transfers, established college players, they were there. And who was the best player on the field on Saturday night? The true freshman in his first college game. Zachariah Branch, whoa. I was talking with a few different guys. all former players, you know, and I text with them. We all watch games. And we all, and all of us said, like, there are moments and players.

I should say that I should say it like this. There are players that all you need is one play to watch them live. And you're like, yep, that's it. Whatever it is, that's it. That's Zachary Branch. That guy can absolutely move. His kick return was exquisite. The patience, he basically like takes a couple of steps slowly, then explodes.

He's his sixth gear right away. And then all of a sudden, without breaking stride, kind of like mini hurdles the guy. And then breaks left, cuts back. His vision was outstanding. The explosiveness was like through the roof. Mark my words, Lincoln Riley is going to have a field day with Zachariah Branch. This is the perfect type of player for a guy like Lincoln Riley. Lincoln Riley a few years ago got in 28 different formations in the first 30 snaps against Texas in the Red River shootout.

Right? Like, this is what he does. Jordan Addison in the backfield last year against UCLA on a wheel route. He is going to create so many different issues for defenses with Zachariah Branch. This is going to be so fun to watch. And I have not seen, I have not seen a true freshman like this in a long time. This is like mini Tyreek Hill on the college football field. This dude is lightning in a bottle.

And if he doesn't score every game, I think it's going to be a total upset. Because every time his hands touch the ball, I was immediately holding my breath. Like, what's he going to do? What's he going to do? The cutback, the suddenness, the burst. It was sensational. And by the way, game not too big for the guy. I know it's just San Jose State.

But he's playing in the Coliseum for the first time. Number one wide receiver recruiting, recruiting the country, excuse me. and he comes in there and he scores a touchdown and he's just like yeah like i've known i was going to do this my whole life buddy zachariah that's what it's supposed to look like right there right there that is what it's supposed to look like so u sc fans should be very excited for their offense as you kind of knew that you should be all right let's move on to noturday hartman to the shotgun standing on his own 20 looking throwing into the end zone touchdown jaden thomas seven yards deep in end zone on the deep in route.

The ball was put right on him. All right. So Notre Dame, now, it was less exciting than the USC game. It was more dominant. Now, I'll be it, and I said it a little bit ago there. Navy was not San Jose State even, right? Like, Navy has got a lot, a lot to work on. That's not going to be a very good team.

They were really bad up front, didn't have much of a plan, right? I mean, they're going through a wild transition where a coach gets fired who was the most successful coach in their program's history. And he gets fired and they don't clean house. They hire from within. Very strange. Very strange. A lot has not been talked about it.

But they move on. Okay, that's their prerogative. This is going to be really tough for Navy. They have not been very good the last couple of years. And then that showed again against Notre Dame in Ireland. Now on the Notre Dame side, I thought that the offensive line was pretty good. Room for improvement, but certainly better and more stout than what they were at this point a year ago, which is going to help any quarterback, namely Sam Hartman, who is vastly different.

I mean, you talk about just watching a team and being like, well, yeah, that's different. That's how I felt watching Notre Dame in comparison to a year ago and what their offense was. All right. So when I looked at Sam Hartman, I immediately thought, boy, this wide receiver crew is a lot better. Boy, this run game is a lot better. Why? Hartman can control the game. Like you have an adult at quarterback now.

He can make the throws. The throws are accurate. They're on time. There's yards after the catch out there. All of a sudden now the length and speed of this wide receiver core, which was not accentuated in previous seasons, all of a sudden is accentuated and highlighted. Why?

Because you got a real quarterback now. So Notre Dame, for me, this is not an overreaction. There's things that they can get better at. I don't know exactly what their defense is going to be. Their ceiling is a lot higher now. Still a really tough schedule. I'll give you no doubt. Do I still think that they're going to like,

now all of a sudden they're going to the CFP. Pump the brakes. They still have USC. They still have Ohio State. They still have Clemson. So you can't just beat down Navy with basically a great running game and a veteran quarterback. And all of a sudden,

I'm going to jump on your bandwagon as a CFP contender. However, however, these three games all of a sudden become more interesting. I did not think Notre Dame had much of a chance. Sorry, Brady. In any of these three games until Saturday. Then I see Sam Hartman play and I'm like, okay, now it's different. The difference now lies in the other teams better prove that their question questions are answered by the time that Notre Dame rolls around. Ohio State, you better have

your quarterback figured out because if all of a sudden you got to score 35 on the road against Notre Dame, that's going to be tough. You're not just going to beat them with your, you know, fixed run game and physicality like you did early last year at home. A USC, if your defense isn't actually better, you're going to have trouble winning that game. the road. Hey, Clemson, that guy that you're going to face in a gold helmet through, what, six touchdowns against you last year? I believe it was six. A lot of touchdowns. And so all of sudden, those three games change a little bit. And now the questions kind of move to the other side of the ball. And now Notre Dame fans, I would be a little bit more confident. Listen,

And we know the Domer fans. And trust me, I know a lot of them. They are walking off the plane from Ireland like the rock. Like swagger on 10. And it's like, relax, pump the brakes. Still a very tough schedule. But your ceiling is definitely higher. It also brings up another team for me.

And this is a little different. if it looked that much better, what does Alabama have? Right? Tyler Buckner transfers to Alabama. Tommy Reese, the coordinator, goes to Alabama. Now, Alabama fans, and rightly so, I'm not saying that you're doing this blindly. Alabama fans will say, we're Alabama, we still have Nick Sabin, will be fine. and in large degree, I absolutely agree with you.

Absolutely agree with you. Tommy Reese didn't go down to fix Alabama's offense. He went to be a part of the Alabama program. So there's a little, you're not relying on Reese to go in there and like revamp the offense. He's going to run what Nick wants him to run. The bigger question, though, is this quarterback scenario. Notre Dame went and got Sam Hartman. Remember that.

Like Buckner, they went and got Sam Hartman, and it was clearly an upgrade. Bama had to go get Buckner after Springball. They did that, I believe, because they weren't comfortable with their quarterbacks in spring ball. If Jalen Milrow had played great in the spring, Tommy Reese would not have called his four. former quarterback and said, hey, come on down here for what?

To be a backup? No, no, no. That's not how this works. Tyler Buckner did not transfer to be a backup. He transferred because there was a legitimate spot open. There was a legitimate spot open because the battle was not even close to one. And you could presume that the coaching staff wasn't even comfortable with what happened in the spring. So the question remains, after we watch Notre Dame beat Navy, I immediately started thinking to myself like,

yikes, what are we going to see for Alabama? Now all of a sudden, I'm desperate to know. I'm desperate to know and to see what happens at Alabama, at quarterback, at offensive coordinator, and what that's going to look like. Again, I'm going to fall back on this. Do I trust Nick Sabin? Absolutely. I trust Nick Saban.

So it's going to work out in some way, shape, or form. I just can't wait to see how that works out. Hey, it's my favorite time of year, by the way. It's football season, as you know, and I take it seriously. So when I'm traveling on the road to watch my favorite teams, I can't risk calling the wrong play with where I stay. Wherever I go, I know that I can count on Hampton by Hilton. I can depend on their comfortable rooms and their warm, friendly service,

and their free hot breakfast, by the way, game changer. whether you're cheering on your team from the stands or never leaving the tailgate, Hampton by Hilton will always give you that win. I want to get into another subject here. A couple of things popped up. We'll have another show, by the way, this week. Wednesday, I believe, we're coming out with our next show. Wednesday, I'm traveling to Minnesota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Thursday night, Colorado, TCU on Saturday.

Wednesday we'll have our next show, the Joel Klaz show here on the opening week of the season. It's here. Loving it. Celebrating college football with you. We'll break down a bunch of games on Wednesday and get into some other things. There is some loose ends here in terms of the offseason to tie up. Let me tie those up just quickly. And it's something that I'm piggybacking on from a previous episode.

A couple of more instances in which. We're seeing the NCAA and their incredible ineptitude. I mean, they're, I tell you, they are staggeringly bad at what they are charged to do, which is basically protect student athletes. Let's get into a couple of these cases. All right. So we've seen it reported that Mason Smith and Kayshan Boudet were participating in that autograph signing in the summer of 2001, just before the NIL legislation was adopted July 1st.

Kishon served his suspension last year, but Smith couldn't remember because he was hurt, which means that he would be suspended for the first game this season. LSU learned this earlier this summer. There's this great kind of nuance to this where Brian Kelly was like, well, let's find a week zero game then, like, let's because we don't want to lose him for Florida State because this guy is a main contributor for them. And so they exhausted all these options out there to try to schedule a week zero game. By the way, when they're doing that, they're telling you the quiet part out loud, which is,

this is such a stupid ruling from the NCAA. Oh, let's just go through it from this standpoint. The NCAA will technically call this an impermissible benefit. Now, if this were LSU straight paying for his electric bill, maybe you could maybe maybe you could convince me that like hey that's an impermissible benefit

nah okay maybe if someone paid him you know 10 grand directly and for nothing for nothing he didn't tweet

appear nothing it was just like hey man here's the old school remember the program like you know get the envelope and it's like here's 10 grand and an envelope for nothing. Maybe, maybe. But again, the world is changing. This was literally in the grand scheme of things, a whisper before the NIL legislation changed things in terms of name, image, and likeness. A whisper before that.

and he goes and signs his name and gets paid for it. And the NCAA blows the whistle? Are you crazy? Insane or stupid? Probably all three. It is mind-blowing to me that they think that this is like, yep, we got him. Are you serious?

Are you serious? You've heard me say, and I will continue to say, we are in the middle of a long string of dominoes that are toppling over. And those are instances in which everybody gets their eyes opened and their frustrations up with the inept bureaucracy, which is the NCAA. This is another one of those dominoes. Mason Smith gets a one-game suspension. he's their best player and one of their most important games of the year. So like the NCHA is going to butt in

on like the actual competitive nature of the season because the guy signed his name, a whisper before the NIL legislation changed. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Spare me the letter of the law crap. This is about understanding what's going on in the larger sense,

In the larger sense, the NCAA is a robotic bureaucracy. This is just one instance. I'll give you a better instance. Let me tell you about Tyler Brown. Tyler Brown is at Colorado. Tyler Brown was denied immediate eligibility after his second transfer this offseason. He started his career at Louisiana Lafayette, transferred to Jackson State, and now has tried to follow Dion to Colorado. Now, if that's all you knew, then it's like, well, that's not allowed because he's not a graduate, so he's not a graduate transfer, and you're only allowed one transfer in kind of the free era of the transfer portal.

Okay, okay. Now, hold on because, wait, Joel, you're going to tell me there's more of the story? Yeah. In fact, there's a lot more to the story, including specific language that the NCAA puts into hardship waiver language when it comes to transfers outside of the single free transfer or outside of grad transfers. Hardship waiver claims go through all the time. And you know what?

It doesn't matter actually what the hardship is. It matters how much money you have and which lawyer you can hire to go argue it in front of the NCAA. because they're terrible at this. Let's talk about Tyler Brown. Tyler Brown was denied his immediate eligibility for his second transfer, despite citing mental health reasons for his transfer. Now, you could say, Joel, everyone uses mental health.

Anyone could use mental health. Okay. Okay. Tyler began his career at Louisiana Lafayette. They had a coach named DJ Looney, who Tyler was very. very close to. In fact, as Tyler put it, had become very much a father figure to him when he didn't have many father figures in his life prior. DJ Looney died in front of Tyler on the field

tragically of a heart attack. Tyler could barely go on. Didn't know how to function. How would you feel if your father figure died in front of you of a heart attack? Maybe for some of you that figure has. Can you imagine the heartache and the pain? Would you want to go to class? Would you want to play football? So he transferred. So he couldn't do it.

Couldn't be there anymore. It reminded him too much of that tragedy. So he transfers to Jackson State. Luckily for him, he found a coaching staff led by Coach Prime that welcomed him with open arms at Jackson State. So there Tyler is. And he finds another coaching staff. He's like, man, again, I've found this father figure type of environment and an environment in which they did not look down on him for opening up about the struggles he faced after he watched DJ Looney die in front of him of a heart attack.

And how hard it was for him just to go back to playing football. Then he suffers an injury at Jackson state. When he was away from football, his mental health struggles increase because now he no longer has that outlet to work through some of these issues. He gets healthy, he gets back. His coach, Coach Prime gets an opportunity to go to Colorado. He tries to follow him to Colorado. And the NCAA denies his waiver. Who denied that? What suit stuffed in cubicle 87B denied that waiver. Because that's what this reeks of, a robotic bureaucracy that doesn't care about the humans in the situation that can't look at a situation in totality and can only

look at a situation through black and white colored glasses and the letter of the law. the letter of the law should not apply in a waiver case. It states in the waiver language in the NCAA, they claim to care about mental health of the athletes, but they sure are showing that in this case. How does this get denied? And then it becomes somewhat public, and hopefully it's going to be more public after this on Joel Klaus show.

Hey, NCAA, do something about. this. This, you, I can't, I can't get over it. This, this reeks of mall cop, all of this. The Mason Smith, the Tyler Brown, all of it, it reeks of mall cop. Even Jim Harbaugh, reeks of mall cop. It's like, they're desperate just to catch people. It doesn't matter about the situation.

It doesn't matter that it was COVID and no one knew what was going on. It doesn't matter that Mason Smith was a whisper before the NIL and he was literally, literally signing his name for money. It's his name. It doesn't matter that Tyler Brown saw his father figure die in front of him, and he's trying to follow his new father figure to a new place where they've got more resources for mental health. No, no, no, no, no, no. Because, hey, mouth breather and cubicle 87B, black and white.

We got them. Good job, Paul Bart. Bart, whatever, mall cop, because that's what the NCAA has. become this will become another domino this is another domino and guess what guess what happens and this is what people fail to realize is that the NCAA is kind of a governance model but it's not a governance model that is just there for like for sure this is a membership model these teams and schools and conferences have to opt in to the membership of the NCAA when you're this petty when you're this non-empathetic, when you're this bureaucratic, in particular in a robotic sense,

when you're this inept, when you're this insecure, when you're this much of a mall cop, people will stop being members, hopefully. When you've got big members like Michigan and LSU and Colorado and conferences saying, hey, you're, you're toying with the competitive balance of the season with this overly bureaucratic model, they will stop being members. That's why I tell you, this is another domino in a long string of dominoes that will eventually topple over to where we don't have the NCAA. And that moment cannot come soon enough. Sorry, Mason, that you're going through this.

Tyler, my heart goes out to you. I wish you could play football this year. Maybe you still can. Maybe this video will land on the cubicle desk of 87B and you can rethink that waiver. All right. That'll do it for the Joel Clatio. follow us on social, any of the social media is. You can subscribe on YouTube. We're going to have a lot of cool stuff there. And then we got a new show coming out on Wednesday. I love it. We've

got games. I'm going, I'm traveling this week. Here we go. We're traveling. Nebraska, Minnesota, Thursday night. Colorado TCU on Saturday. It's going to be a huge week on Fox for college football. And I can't wait for it. Thank you for listening. Throw down your mailbag questions. The Joel Clashio Mailbag at gmail.com. We'll get to those during the course of the year and maybe even on Wednesday. And again, thanks for listening. Have a great week, everybody.