The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Week 1 Takeaways plus Michigan QB Bryce Underwood’s debut & Belichick’s blowout loss

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt evaluates Michigan Freshman QB Bryce Underwood’s debut over the weekend and points out what he did well and what challenges he will face this upcoming week against Brent Venables’ Oklahoma defense. He also weighs in on the controversial targeting call that will leave the Wolverines without a key player for the first half vs OU. Klatt then sifts through the wreckage of Bill Belichick’s debut as a college head coach after his UNC squad was blown out by TCU and considers whether he can turn things around. He then gives his biggest takeaway from each Power Conference after Week 1, including the ripple effect of Miami and Florida State potentially returning to power in the sport. Klatt also explains why this past weekend could not have gone better for Tennessee fans and which Big 12 school looks like a real threat to go from a losing record a year ago to a Playoff run this season. Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/KLATT10Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount. 0:00-2:13 Intro2:14-10:39 Bryce Underwood leads Michigan to a win in his first start10:41-16:23 Michigan LB Jaishawn Barham will miss first half vs. Oklahoma after being ejected for targeting16:24-21:10 How concerning was North Carolina’s blowout loss in their opener?21:11-26:01 Big takeaways from the ACC26:02-29:19 Big takeaways from the Big Ten29:20-35:10 Big takeaways from the SEC35:11-39:07 Big takeaways from the Big 12 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's dumb. It's always been dumb. And the people within college football need to fix it. But you know what? They're spineless. This team, I think, quietly has some confidence now with this quarterback that maybe they can make some waves in the Big Ten and around the country. Do we really think that they're going to be like great right away?

No. The meme of The Undertaker, he's like in the casket. I think the rest of the Big Ten is sitting there and they're like, I thought that team was going to take a dip. Is why we love college football. Hey, welcome into the program, everybody. I am Joel Klaid. This is the Joel Klaude show, and this show, as always, is brought to you by graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support.

Can't wait to get into it today. We've got a lot to get to from week one of college football. It was a really great weekend of college football, and there was a lot to react to. If you have not caught Monday's episode, I reacted to really the biggest four games. That's over there on the YouTube page. So make sure to go there and subscribe to the show, and you can catch episode number one from this week in reaction to week one of the college football season. And then wherever you like to social media, all of our content is there during the course

of the year. You can find us there at Joel Clashow. And you'll be caught up. You will be caught up on this sport and hopefully learn a thing or two along the way during the course of the season. So let's get started today. We've got a lot to get into. I wanted to touch base with every conference and see what we learned, what we know from

each conference after week one. Now that we actually have tangible evidence, and you heard me say that in Monday's episode, tangible evidence of things that we previously just kind of thought maybe or hoped for in fans' cases from the season. So, a lot to react to. No, one thing that I didn't get a chance to touch on during the course of Monday show was Bryce Underwood got a chance to debut for Michigan. And his starting debut as a true freshman, I'll talk about that, North Carolina, Bill Belichick, and then I'll get into those conference check-in. So let's start with Michigan.

Bryce Underwood leads Michigan 3417 over New Mexico. And was it like super impressive from Michigan? Probably not. I don't think that the defense played as well as that they would want to have played. But if you were just evaluating Bryce Underwood and his debut as a true freshman, I thought he was excellent. I really did. And I went back and watched the tape just so that I could make sure that I knew

and saw all of the plays for what they were. And I thought he was poised. I thought that this stage is not going to be too big for him. He was not afraid to make big throws. He led them in situational football, in particular right before the half in a two-minute situation right down the field. He's 21 and 31 for 251 in a touchdown. And let's face it, like, that was a lot better than Michigan had a year ago

at the quarterback position. And I like those guys a lot. You know, Davis Warren is a great kid, a great kid. And I wish him a lot of success. But didn't look like that. You know, the ability to throw the football down the field and really threaten down the field. In particular, again, I go back to that drive right before the half. There was a third and I think about 14.

He did a great job getting the ball down the field. That looks different. He didn't even really have to show us his ability to run. And that's something that I think will be a real threat and a plus for him as the season goes on. He didn't have to show that against New Mexico. So when you just look at it from a passing game standpoint, I was very impressed. They didn't do a ton. They didn't show a ton offensively.

This new offense under Chip Lindsay, it was fairly static, fairly basic. They leaned on the run game. The run game was again back to the dominance that we know Michigan has in their run game. Ran it for over 200 yards on the ground. Justice Haynes, their transfer from Alabama. he was terrific. 16 carries 159 yards and three touchdowns. That opening 56-yard run was impressive. That ended in a touchdown.

They again have a really good tied end. This time, Marlon Klein. Remember Colston Loveland was really their go-to guy in the passing game. And it looks like they've replaced him with Marlon Klein, who they've been excited about for a number of years. In fact, I remember going into Ann Arbor not last spring, but the spring before. Right after they had won a national champion, and we were talking about the tied-in position.

Obviously, Loveland was going to be back. And they kept talking about this Marlon Klein and how athletic and fast and how he was the next one. Never really panned out last year. But it seems like after this last off season and certainly through week one of this season, Marlon Klein's going to be a big part of their passing game. And that's going to be important for Bryce Underwood because he's going to need a big target that he can go to over the middle. and in what I would call the run-action pass game. Run action pass, meaning the offensive line is faking run, everybody else is faking

run, and then you kind of boot or move the pocket outside of that, and you get the quarterback out there on a run-pass option on the outside. So Marlon Klein was good. He had six catches for 93 yards. A couple of things specifically that I saw from Underwood on the film. Number one is I looked at the first third down of the game. Now, granted, I think it was only third and four, maybe it was third and five. but he stood in there and he never retreated.

I think that's a big tell. When I see young quarterbacks, I'll look at these very specific situations in the game that I know that they're under a lot of pressure and that there have been a lot of focus on that situation in practice. How do they react? Is it too big for them? Are their eyes in the right spot? And they came out in a pretty basic formation and they're just kind of running hitches.

Everybody was running hitches or just like stop routes about four or five yards down the field. And his eyes went to the correct spot, correct side of the field. He never retreated. And he went through his reads and bang. He hits Samaj Morgan with an accurate ball. And Morgan spins out and gets a first down. And I'm thinking to myself like, okay, the guy was in high school last year. That's pretty good. That's well done. You know, it's better than Arch played. And in his road debut for Texas, arch did not play well. And we know that. And I'm not worried about Arch, certainly. But at least for at home against an inferior opponent, I thought I was very positive for Bryce Underwood. Now, what's the ceiling? I think the ceiling could be really high. There are still

things that we need to see in particular when the competition ramps up, which it will this week. So now all of a sudden what we saw Arch Manning have to deal with last week, which was starting on the road for the first time in his career, we're going to see that from Bryce Underwood as a true freshman on the road against Oklahoma this Saturday night. Now, that's going to be very different because that defense for Oklahoma, when they were playing Illinois State, they were fast, they were physical. They played pretty well. Brent Venables is calling that defense for them. And if you just remember for a moment, like what's the DNA of a Brent Venables defense? Number one, they're aggressive. Number two, and this is the important one, I think,

is that they really like to get the play call late from their play caller. Now, there's a lot to get into and unpacked there, obviously. But Brent Venables likes to call the defense late. He likes to see what the offense is in, maybe what they've signaled. Again, you're going to speculate what you want to speculate. But you can catch those defenses. And the teams that have had success against Venable's defense have used tempo. And there were times during the first series against Illinois,

state. I think it was Illinois State. Yeah, I think it was Illinois State. Anyways, I mean, who knows with all these directional schools. But there were times during that game that the defense was not set at the snap of the ball because they were looking over to the sideline and trying to get the call from their play caller on defense preventables. If Michigan wants to take advantage of that, they can. And they can use tempo. Because one thing that you're not prepared for or... If you're an opposing defense, you're not going to be looking at Michigan and saying to yourself, they're going to go fast. This is an up-tempo, fast-tempo offense. You're not going to prepare for that. And while, you know, maybe it's in the back of your mind,

I think it would be a great change up for the Wolverines to use that because, again, there are times when that OU defense just is not set. When they're set, I really like what they have on D. They were fast. And again, inferior opponent, and I get that. but they were fast, they were physical. That's a defense that improved last year. And I think that that improvement is continuing into this year.

If they can catch them off guard, there are things open against OU's defense. Namely, Illinois State hurt them with the quarterback run game, scramble game. Is this the day that we see Underwood finally get loose with his legs? That's a possibility. So that matchup is interesting from that standpoint. And those are the things that he's going. going to see. But most importantly, I think it's going to be incumbent on Chip Lindsay and Sharon Moore to put him in position to succeed and maybe run a little uptempo. Maybe in an uptempo

style of game, you don't have to make a ton of reeds and those are kind of like tank plays. You're not switching plays at the line of scrimmage. I think all of that would benefit him on the road in his first start against OU. Huge upgrade. Huge upgrade in talent, obviously going into this week against Oklahoma. But Michigan, has got to feel like, hey, we've also got an upgrade because they have a huge upgrade at quarterback. And that's a massive deal for them. Last year, they could not throw the football. And yet they still played great defense and won massive games late in the season, including at Ohio State, the eventual national champion and against Alabama.

So this team, I think quietly has some confidence now with this quarterback and his ability to throw the football down the field that maybe they can make some waves in the Big Ten. and around the country. Another thing that happened in that game that's going to be huge for this weekend against OU is Jashon Barham, their linebacker, really good linebacker, edge player for them. He got ejected for targeting in the second half of that game. So that ejection is going to carry a suspension into the first half of OU. And as you know, listen, I can't stand the targeting penalty.

The targeting call in college football is terrible. It's one of the worst things that we do in our sport, in particular, attaching an ejection automatically to a penalty like that, and that carrying a suspension for the next half of football, which in many cases, like this one, is going to be the first half of the next game. J. Sean Barham goes in, he turns his head to the side, he makes head-to-head contact with the quarterback, but certainly didn't target the head of the quarterback, and wraps him up as he's taking him to the ground. if anything, we should be suspending the right tackle for throwing such an atrocious block.

But no, no, no, no, we don't sit there and say, hey, offense, you've got to take care of yourself, you've got to protect yourself. Now all of a sudden, the onus is on the defense. Barham gets a clean look at the quarterback. He turns his head. Does he make contact up high? Yes. He does letter of the law.

Is that technically contact that gets into defenseless player? Maybe, maybe. But it has to be forcible. And in this case, with the wrap up, I think it was. was the wrong call. That's the wrong call. I don't understand what we want the defender to do. If the offense is going to be that bad, then the offense is going to be that bad. So Barham is now suspended for the first half against Oklahoma, which is a massive thing for Michigan and that defense because he plays such a vital role on that defense. That is a bad call.

Number one, I think that letter of the law, I can understand, why it was called, but here's the issue with the penalty in general writ large, not just that one specifically. The fact that we don't have two different categories of targeting is a massive fail in college football, and the adults in the room have got to fix that. It's totally asinine that that play from J. Sean Barham carries a suspension for the next game the same as a targeting where someone is literally lowering their head, using the crown of their helmet, and trying to spear someone and injure them.

Those are two totally different things. Barham is doing – he is making a football play and wrapping up the quarterback while his cheek happened to contact the head of a defenseless player, the quarterback who's in a passing posture, who gets defenseless player protection. And we throw him out of the game. Why are we doing this? We already have changed the way defenders are playing. We have done that.

If you want to call a penalty during the game for a play like Jashon Barrow on the quarterback there of New Mexico, you know, I don't love it, but okay. But throwing him out of the game for that is egregious. And it's got to change. It's dumb. It's always been dumb. And the people within college football need to fix it. But you know what?

They're spineless. the Rules Committee is totally spineless when it comes to the targeting call. And the reason is is because they're just afraid of litigation. They don't want to have the narrative that they're becoming soft in a physical sport. And yet, we look at that, nobody, even the New Mexico fans would have said like, yeah, we should throw him out. He was clearly trying to do something harmful there. No, he wasn't.

He was playing football. right tackle apparently wasn't, which is what put the quarterback at risk in the first place. I'm incredibly tired of having to have this conversation. And those of you in college football that can make this change, make the change. Give us two categories so that in egregious settings, when someone is targeting with the crown of their head and trying to injure somebody, we can throw them out of the game. And when we happen to have targeting letter of the law like J. Sean Barham against New Mexico, yeah, we can march off 15 yards,

but we're not throwing them out of the game and holding them out of the first half of the next game. That is stupid and it needs to change. Hey, you know what? It's time to get out and do something fun, whether it's catching a game or surprising someone with tickets. Live events are back in a huge way,

which is why I want to give the sponsor of today's episode, Seat Geek, a huge shout-out. With over 28 million downloads, Seat Geek is the number one rated ticketing app with more than 70,000 events listed. That's incredible. College football is here. The NFL is here right on the horizon. Major League Baseball is in full swing. And our team here at the Joel show, we use Seatgeek, and we grab our tickets right there for all of it. It's quick, it's easy, and you know you're getting a good deal. That's what I love about it most. Every ticket is

rated on a scale of 1 to 10, so you can see the value at a glance. Green dots mean great deals. Red dots, maybe you should keep looking. Plus, every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee. And here's the kicker. You can use the code Clat 10 for 10% off your next Seat Geek purchase. That's 10% off any ticket with promo code Clat 10. Just click the link in the show description below and you can download the app. The code will be automatically added to your account for later. Thanks to Seat Geek for sponsoring today's show and get that 10% off with Clat 10 right now. Bill Belichick and North Carolina with their debut on Monday night, and TCU rolled out there and blew them out. Now, you got to understand, TCU has dealt with this before, a team that we didn't know what they were going to be like, a lot of transfers and a lot of hype surrounding their head coach. Just two years ago, they faced Dion Sanders in Colorado and Coach Prime's first game as the Buff's head coach.

Now, they famously went down in that game. Gus Ginny and I had the call there in Fort Worth. Shador played amazing. Travis played amazing. had a pick down there on the goal line, and Colorado beat the team that just played for the national championship and it sent shockwaves through the sport. So you really think that TCU didn't have that in the back of their mind as they were preparing for Bill Belichick and North Carolina the entire offseason. They played like it was in the back of their mind. They were terrific. After scoring on their opening drive, North Carolina, basically got outscored by, what, 41, 41 straight for the horned frogs. TCU out gained North Carolina by 320 yards in the game.

The totals were 542 to 222. They gave up, North Carolina did 258 yards on the ground, 284 through the year. And Bill Belichick, on the sideline, I was just like, is this real life? Is this real life? Are we actually seeing what many consider to be the greatest football coach, maybe in the history of the sport, at the college level, with a group of totally new players, 70 new players on the roster trying to make it work. And yes, it was real life.

South Alabama transfer quarterback Gio Lopez. He did not look like he was very comfortable. He was four of 10 for 69 yards in an interception. That interception ended up in the end zone. He was replaced by Max Johnson, who of course had that leg injury last year. Listen, Bill Belichick spent 50 years in the National Football League, 50 years. and now he's got a college team full of transplants, 40 from the transfer portal and several more high school players.

Do we really think that they're going to be like great right away? No. And I told you last week, what was one of the things I told you? This was always going to be one of their two toughest games. They still have Clemson on the schedule, but TCU was their second toughest game. And you could see that. You could see that.

Am I worried about North Carolina? Yeah, a little bit the way that they played, but there were a lot of fixable mistakes out there. Do you really think you're going to give up two defensive touchdowns? Probably not. Can you fix gap responsibility on defense? Yeah, absolutely. And I would trust Bill Belichick would know how to do that. So the defensive structure will get better. Will they give up some of those plays? Probably not in particular as they start to get into a schedule, which I would say is much easier than facing TCU. TCU is quietly one of the better teams in the Big 12, and they proved that on Monday night. And they had something to prove and they went out there and they did prove it.

My biggest question is that the superpower for Bill Belichick during his career in the National Football League was adjustments and situations. And now he's going to have to make massive adjustments with that team for North Carolina. And they're going to have to get massively better in situational football. I would assume one of those that's going to happen, the situational football, but what's the adjustment? I'm not sure. I'm guessing that we're going to see some personnel adjustments because now he's going to have film, and I can guarantee you one thing. If you didn't play hard, you're not going to play next week.

And so he's going to get the guys on the field that are going to play hard and do their job. And because of that, I do think that with the schedule easing up, North Carolina should be okay. let's just tamper expectations, maybe six, maybe top end, seven wins at the most, but they do need to get better quarterback play. Good news for UNC is that schedule, though. It does get a lot easier. And like I said, TCU, they're a pretty damn good football team, all right? Sneaky contender in the Big 12.

Josh Hoover was terrific on Monday night. He's one of the better quarterbacks in that league. And I think as a whole, the Big 12 probably has the best quarterback play of any league in college football. They said they felt disrespected the entirety of the offseason, and they played like it. And again, in the back of their minds, they had done this two years ago. They knew exactly what this was going to be. This was at North Carolina, and they came out there and they played a whale of a game. And good for Sunny Dykes getting that team ready to go because that team, I think, now gives the Big 12 a lot of depth at the top.

That's certainly a team that I'd be aware of at the top of the Big 12. And as it relates to conferences, I say that we go around and we just kind of get a major takeaway from week one. Now that we have tangible evidence of what teams are and maybe what teams are not, what is our takeaway from each conference after the first week of the season? Now, this is not set in stone and this is not the only teams that are good in some of these conferences. A lot of this can change. But at least we have tangible evidence of things that we can actually say about some of these conferences. So let's go through a few of these and talk about kind of my biggest takeaway for each Power 4 conference from week one. Let's start in the ACC.

My biggest takeaway, incredible week for the ACC, incredible week. A Clemson win would have just sent it over the moon, all right? I don't think that if Clemson would have beaten LSU and captured that comeback and ultimately won in their home, stadium, I would have made an argument that no conference in the history of week one of the college football season would have had a better week one. But they didn't. So it's just an incredible week. But here's the thing. I'm still confident in Clemson. They are a team that you could clearly see is a top caliber team, a top 10 team in college football. I'm not worried about Clemson. They're too experienced. They've got experience at quarterback. And they played

toe to toe with what was the most complete team in college football, LSU. That was a great game. And so Clemson is going to be fine. I understand that they lost. It would have been better in their minds if they won. But from the ACC's perspective, they're still a top elite level team. The difference is that Miami leveled up and Florida State came back to the ranks. So those are the two things that come with huge implications for all.

of college football. Miami leveling up is a big deal because we've been waiting for that for a few years now. Mario Cristobal has built quality rosters. Last year, it looked like they were going to level up with Cam Ward. They were unable to do that and lost some games that they shouldn't have lost. That went over Notre Dame was important. It was very important because it proves to me that Miami is developing and that they can win those close games. And they can do the little things necessary to win those close games against evenly matched opponents. That's a huge deal. That's a leveling up. So now all of a sudden Miami elite team. I have them in my top 10. Most people have them in their top 10. That's huge. And then Florida State comes back from the dead. I'm picturing that little,

you know, like the meme of the undertaker. He's like in the casket and he's like, yeah, here comes Florida State. Mike Norville right back at it. A couple of years ago, they get left out of the playoff. They were undefeated and not included in the college football. playoff. They fell off the map last year. Two in ten, most of those losses were by 10 or more. and then all of a sudden, Gus Malzon comes in to coordinate the offense. Costellanos comes in to be the quarterback. Match made in heaven. Here we go. Now we have an offense that can run the football. They were physical at the point of attack. Then you get Tony White in from Nebraska as the defensive coordinator and they were aggressive. They confused Alabama.

they beat them up. They got pressure on Ty Simpson the entire day. And for me, Alabama joins, or excuse me, Florida State joins kind of the elite crust of the ACC. So now all of a sudden they're back. SMU still thinks that they're very good. So now all of a sudden, think about what this means now. Miami leveling up and Florida State being back, all of a sudden, the rest of college football is going to feel very squeezed when it comes to the playoff. Listen, I'm telling you right now before week two of this.

season. Nine and three is not cutting it for the college football playoff. It just is not. There's going to be too many good teams. And that is certainly the case after what I saw from Miami and what I saw from Florida State. Now the middle of the Big Ten and the SEC, they're going to be feeling like, oh, no, you know, a lot of these spots are going to be taken up. What does SMU do now? This is going to be tough. And again, there's a there's some squeezing going on because these routes or paths. that some teams and some conferences thought that they were going to have to the college football playoff that didn't include winning their conference, maybe those aren't going to be available

because now all of a sudden the ACC looks like, looks like a conference that could get three teams into the college football playoff. That would be huge. I'm looking at fourth and fifth place teams from the SEC in the Big Ten and all of a sudden they're going to be looking up and they're like, what's our path? What's our path? And it certainly doesn't include three losses. You know, you better win 10 games if you want to. to get to the college football playoff. So that's a big weekend for the ACC. Big takeaway from the Big Ten, that's a really elite conference at the top.

I tell you what, we thought they were elite at the top. And now we even know that further because in a matchup of Ohio State and Texas, where Texas is the number one team in the country, the pick to win the SEC, Ohio State takes them down, and they weren't even the pick to win the Big Ten. So now all of a sudden, at the top end, you can make an argument because of that win, at least for now, well, the Big Ten has the better top end of the conference. They're elite up there. Easily three of the top five, six teams in the country with Ohio State now with that win, Penn State with their experience, and clearly what we think of the roster at Oregon. And then that doesn't even include the fact that now Michigan has a quarterback, Illinois.

A lot of people like Illinois, and they were ranked in the top 12 to start the year. We'll have to see what Indiana does for an encore from a playoff run. Washington might bounce back. USC might bounce back. Iowa is a team. So now all of a sudden you're starting to see like, ooh, okay, the Big Ten has some real strength and certainly some elite teams at the top. And I think that you can look at that, and you can certainly say that at the upper crust,

now because of that win, the Big Ten would be the elite. preeminent conference in college football. Those three teams up there. Oregon is number six in the AP poll. I know I know I have them in the top five. But that's going to be a really tough conference, a very tough conference. Last thing from that win, Ohio State over Texas. I've got to be thinking to myself, there are other teams in that conference and in the

Big Ten, namely like Penn State. Let's not beat around the bush. Penn State's had a really hard time beating teams that they match up with, okay? They couldn't be Michigan when Michigan was elite. They haven't been able to beat Ohio State in recent vintage. They lost to Oregon in the Big Ten championship game. Now, they did a good job during the playoffs, but remember, the teams that they beat in the playoffs were Boise State and SMU.

Okay. So then they played Notre Dame and they lost. So where does that leave Penn State? Well, it left them hungry and ready to make a run at a national championship to the point where a lot of those. players came back, similar to what we saw from Michigan and Ohio State the last couple of years. Do you think that Penn State is sitting there and they're thinking to themselves like, oh my gosh, you mean to tell me that they lost 14 draft picks and they still look like that?

I mean, I think the rest of the Big Ten is sitting there and they're like, I thought that team was going to take a dip, speaking of Ohio State. And it doesn't look like that dip is going to occur. they didn't even have to do anything offensively and told us that. Ryan Day told us that. Hey, man, we could have opened it up a little bit more. We didn't need to because we didn't want to expose our quarterback to things he shouldn't be exposed to in his first start. And our defense was just fine.

And it was. And it was. Matt Patricia's defense, maybe the story of week one in college football. And that certainly puts the rest of that conference on notice. Still elite at the top for the big 10. How about the SEC? The SEC, let's face it. I mean, the LSU saved that conference for a really bad week. And maybe you could even say an embarrassing week. Let's just put it to you this way. If Alabama would have lost to Florida State, Texas would have lost to Ohio State, and LSU would have been a disaster for the SEC, a disaster. And so LSU saved them. And you know what? LSU looks great. And LSU looks balanced. And they've got an experienced quarterback and a disaster. coach that has been pointing at this for a long time and has done basically everything in the sport except get to the top of the mountain. And he came here for that purpose and they built a roster

and spent them money and fixed the defense. And now all of a sudden, like I see it with LSU. LSU after week one, I know I don't want to overreact, but they should be the favorite in the SEC. They're the most complete team in the country. And again, they've got the experience of quarterback, which we know is so important. I don't really know yet about Georgia, okay? That's to be fair. I know a lot about Alabama. I think I know enough about Texas.

Texas is not going anywhere. I think Texas will be just fine. That's a very good football team, but LSU look better. There were certainly some holes for Texas, namely the quarterback play, the game plan. You know, that was not great. So LSU didn't have that. And for those reasons, LSU for me,

is a favorite in the SEC coming out of week one. Now, there's a couple of other teams, I'm sure, feel good about their weeks. Auburn went on the road and got a win over Baylor. And you know what? I like some things about Auburn.

The Hugh Freeze, Jackson, Arnold, marriage looks like it's got some staying power. They had 138 on the ground. Arnold did. Then there's this other element of that. game similar to like Texas could probably say this too like hey all we have to do is take care of our business and maybe we win that game at Ohio State okay that's fair that's fair um I think that Auburn and Baylor the same could be said for the Baylor Bears Baylor actually got stopped twice inside the 15

yard lines they had drives in with no points and they gave up a kickoff return they had their offense going a little bit and they were coming back in that game so Auburn can say listen we feel good about where we're at, and I agree. I agree. I think if you were a Baylor fan, you would say, listen, we probably should have won that game with the way that it played out and some of the opportunities that we missed. And I think that that's totally fair. How about Tennessee? I think Tennessee feels good about week one. A pretty decisive, convincing, and thorough win over Syracuse in a power four matchup. I think that's a, that is a big win for them because of the offseason that they just had with all the tumultuous news and everything that went on with Nico Yamaliyama.

And to get Joey Aguilar and basically what is college football's first trade straight up, to have Aguilar come out there and look solid and take care of Syracuse like that, play really well offensively, fly around, you know, have a substantial lead and be easily the best team on the field that day against Syracuse. That's a really good week one for them. All right. Josh Hypole has recruited really well. And so Tennessee, this was a big year for them, at least for me, because they had some off-the-field momentum through recruiting. And then you just had to see, could they survive this whole divorce from Nico Iamaleava and get Joey Aguilar? And it looks like through week one, Tennessee won that trade. Tennessee won that trade because Joey Aguilar looked very solid.

And Tennessee still has a roster and they can continue to still build a roster through recruiting. that should be right there. I also look at their schedule now very differently after week one. This is why it was such a good win and week for Tennessee. Listen, I don't love the Georgia matchup, but that doesn't all the sudden look as bad to go to Tuscaloosa and face Alabama. Now, granted, is Alabama going to improve absolutely?

And will it be a tough game? I'm sure it will. But it doesn't look like it used to. Oklahoma, we'll see about Oklahoma and then at Florida. I'm just saying now all of the sudden, if you think to yourself, what is our team going to be? Okay, great. We look solid. Our quarterback looks like he's going to be not just competent, but at times dangerous throwing the football.

Okay, good. So we're improved. And now teams on our schedule, they maybe have lowered a little bit, namely Alabama. So with that game looking differently, I look at that schedule all of a sudden and I'm like, okay, could you be eight and two facing Florida late in the season? Yeah, absolutely. And at that point, you control your own destiny for a potential playoff berth to get to 10 and 2. Like I said earlier, 9 and 3 ain't going to cut it.

Need to get to 10 and 2. If they got to 10 and 2, you would have some massive wins on your schedule right there. You don't even have to beat Georgia. Again, the Georgia one is hard. They lost their starting corner Ricky Gibson for an extended period. It doesn't look like he's going to be available against Georgia. They still don't have their other starting corner, Maude McCoy from the A.C. Yel tear in the offseason.

So there's some things that they have to overcome, but one of the things that they don't have to overcome is the schedule. So four ranked teams left. If they can go two and two in those games, 10 and 2 is not out of the question. And for Tennessee, that was a great week. So not only what happened around Tennessee, before Tennessee, and in particular surviving that trade with UCLA. Speaking of UCLA, let's go to a team they were facing and answer a question about the Big 12. My biggest takeaway for the Big 12 is watch out for Utah. I tried to warn you all in the preseason.

I really did. And I say this every year, death, taxes, and Utah football. That team is for real. Watch out. Watch out. They have what I think is a tremendous opportunity to improve the one weakness that they've always had, which is the offensive side of the ball. They brought in Devin Dampier and here with Dampier and Jason Beck,

immediately the quarterback is still the leader, even though he's a transfer, because he's the one that knows the offense inside and out. He doesn't have to learn new terminology. He can teach his teammates. He then can be the alpha. All of those things are going to help Utah be good right away, which they were. They were using defensive players on the office. offensive side. They were using speed, all hands on deck. They looked at Travis Hunter and they said,

okay, we can do that as well. And they were throwing guys out there, whether it was Barton or others in order to play on offense. And that offensive line is tremendous. Dampier is quick. He's got short area quickness that reminds me a little bit of Kyler Murray. The defense is phenomenal. They were flying around and making life really difficult on Nico Iomaleava. If I'm Nico I'm thinking to myself like, really, did I really have to play Ohio State, get two helmets cracked in my last game, and then all of a sudden come out here and have to play Utah? He did not look right. Overthrows early in the game on guys wide open down the middle of the field.

Then the pressure started to ratchet up, and Iamaleava started to get beat up by that front. And again, this front is physical. Utah is a physical, physical group. They went at 43 to 10. they have 293 total yards from Dampere, and they ran the ball incredibly well against a team that over the last couple of years has been a top 10 rushing defense. I know a lot of people didn't know that,

but over the last two years, UCLA has been a top 10 rushing defense, and Utah just obliterated them on the line of scrimmage. So watch out for Utah. They are going to be a real pain to play every single week. Physical defense, run-oriented attack, which means their floor is really high. That can travel. playing defense travels, running the football travels. So they're going to be good every single week.

It's going to be very difficult to beat them. And that's a program under Kyle Whittingham that you know he's nearing the end. He's contemplating retirement. And so you get this idea of maybe this is a last run type of deal for Kyle Whittingham at Utah. They were on schedule all night against UCLA. It's a balanced attack. And Utah is a team that I am very, very high on. a team that could win the Big 12. There's no doubt about it. All right. So those are my major takeaways from the week. Really love the fact that we have tangible football to talk about. Isn't it great, by the way, that we actually get to view the games and then talk about the games rather than just like the whispers of the offseason. I love that. I love that we're finally back. And tomorrow I'll be back with a picks and previews edition of the Joel Clatt show,

pick some previews of the week two matchups, including that giant matchup in Norman as Michigan goes on the road to take on Oklahoma. That's going to be a big one. I'm going to be in Iowa for the SciHawk game. That's right. Gus Jenny and I will have the call as Iowa visits Iowa State. That's a really sneaky great game because both of those teams,

I think have visions of really big seasons, maybe 10-win seasons, and a win on Saturday would go a long way to get them to that. So we'll talk about all of that on Thursday right here on the Joel Klatch show. Thanks for listening, everybody, and have a blessed day.