The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Who should LSU call to replace Brian Kelly? Klatt’s Top 10 & Michigan looking Michigan-y

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt reacts to the news that LSU has fired Head Coach Brian Kelly and breaks down where LSU sits in the hierarchy of best jobs in the sport and who they will be calling to be their next coach. Klatt reveals his latest Top 10 and considers how high to rank teams like Alabama after their comeback win over South Carolina and Texas A&M after dominating LSU on the road. He explains why Indiana is starting to remind him of a recent National Championship-winning team. Klatt also reacts to Lane Kiffin’s great soundbite after the big win over Oklahoma. He then explains why he’s so encouraged by what he’s seeing from Michigan in recent weeks. Klatt wraps up the show by discussing Texas’ comeback win at Mississippi State and whether they deserve to continue to be ranked over teams like Iowa after narrowly escaping against lower end SEC competition. 0:00-1:51 Intro1:52-19:52 Brian Kelly fired by LSU19:53-42:25Joel Klatt’s new top 1042:26-45:32 Michigan beats Michigan State45:43-51:48 Texas comes back against Mississippi State Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the best job available. The college version of the NFL starting quarterback. Gotta have that quarterback to win a Super Bowl while you can't win in college football without a marquee coach. There's two people that are going to get calls and I think that LSU is going to force them to turn down $15 million a year.

I'm really thankful that my wife is never like, hey, why didn't you coach? Because I think about it all the time. I'm like, I could go get fired. Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome into the Joel Klatshow. I'm Joel Klatt. This is brought to you by graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support. As always, love staying in these graduates all over the country, getting to call these college football games.

Hey, if you have not subscribed to the show, what are you doing? Come on. You got to do that. Invite a friend. That would be awesome. At Joel Klatt Show on all the social media is out there. You can follow us there. You can get all of our content going on. So yeah, subscribe, follow, do all the things. And that would be awesome. Good Saturday at college football. Maybe not the best Saturday that we've had this fall. But, man, It's just like the sport never disappoints, the emotion, the passion. And certainly the expanded playoff has, I think, heightened college football every single Saturday. We've got more fan bases that are engaged at the top end. The expanded playoff has been a wild success.

Even if the format isn't perfect, the expanded playoff has been a wild success. I feel like we sense it, we feel it, we get to celebrate it every single week, certainly when we come back here on Monday morning and talk about what a great weekend it was. but even just during Saturday, you know, flying home, watching all the games at the games that we're calling. It's really awesome. Now, what isn't really awesome, and this is where we're going to need to start, is when guys get fired. Because obviously, no one wants to get fired personally, and then as a player, you don't want to lose your coach. And maybe sometimes you want to lose your coach.

But generally speaking, you don't want to lose your coach means your year is not going the way that you had planned. And LSU has pulled the trigger, and Brian Kelly is out at LSU in the middle of his fourth season down there. haven't even gotten to November, excuse me, we're still in October. We haven't even gotten to November. And we've got massive high-profile jobs coming open and none more massive or more high-profile than Brian Kelly and LSU parting ways following that 24-point home loss to Texas A&M. And I think what ultimately the nail in the coffin for Brian Kelly wasn't the fact that they lost to Texas A&M. But it's the thought for the Baton Rouge.

faithful for the Tiger faithful of A&M coming in there, which is a team that's trying to level up in the SEC, whereas LSU feels like they are a top tier SEC team. They have this tradition and belief that they own their stadium at night. It's the toughest place to play in all of college football, and it's a great environment, which it is, by the way. But then A&M comes in there and just starts rolling on them in the second half. They've got their band there. they've got a large, large contingent of A&M fans, because that's a school with a passionate fan base that travels really well.

They used to do it when they come up to Colorado when we were in the Big 12 together. But they go down to LSU and they travel really well. And at times in that fourth quarter, it was like, well, hold on. Is this like Kyle Field Light? And for LSU fans, that's just a bridge too far. They're too proud for that. And I think that was the nail in the coffin, even maybe more so than the loss. And obviously the style of the loss plays into that.

So we'll get to that in a moment. And obviously, I'll bring you my top top 10, excuse me, later in the program. And obviously, A&M impressive. And they will move up in my poll where they will move up to. You'll have to wait and see. I think that this firing brings a lot of questions, though. And the first question I think that a lot of people have, or at least they ask of me, are you surprised of the timing of the firing?

As we're getting these earlier and earlier, again, Penn State, Florida, now LSU, all coming open in October. And I will just say this. I am not surprised at the firing of all, or the timing, I should say, of all of these firings. Not at all, actually. Athletic directors are forced to act this way because of the structure of the sport. It is the business model that they are in. And so they have to react to current realities. And the current reality right now is that the structure of the calendar is forcing them. to be prepared for roster building in the first week of December. Now, you guys have heard me, if you've listened to this show for any amount of time, you've heard me for years now, lament the fact that I think that the calendar in college football is broken. And the calendar being broken, this is an unintended consequence of that.

We're going to continue to have these. A few years ago, when they moved the signing period from early February to now the early signing period in early the first week of December, I thought that was a, terrible move at the time, still do. We should not be signing high school players in December. I understand some of the reasons for they want to get them into school for the spring semester of their senior year. We can debate whether that's great for those kids at another time. But I understand the timing from a logistic standpoint, but from a realistic standpoint, it is bad for the sport because of what we're seeing right now with some of these firing.

So you've got the early signing day in early December, and then now you're going to have the transfer portal window, which is going to be a single window now rather than the dual window that we've had in the past. Just if you haven't been following along, it used to be open in the month of December and then again in the month of April. And now what we're going to get is that we're going to have

a single transfer portal window open in January, which it's moved back a month, but it still kind of overlaps in this roster building and season time frame. You see, here's the problem. is that you have to have your ducks in order if you're LSU or Penn State or Florida in order to be able to pull the trigger on a singular coach and his support staff in order to go take advantage of the early signing period and the transfer portal window

because that's the only way that you build your roster. You also have to have a plan in place and signal that plan to the rest of the boosters and the support staff and the support system around your program so that you can have the necessary resources to not only buy out your coach, but hire the next coaching staff, and go out in the portal and have enough money to sign a good class. You know, there's a lot going on, but that's why we're getting these firings so early is an unintended consequence of us not having our ducks in order in college football from a calendar perspective. Why do most, not all, but most firings in the NFL happen after the regular season? Why? Because everyone operates under the same structure, which is we're not building our roster for months. We know what the salary cap is. We know where that money is coming from. So we don't have to make a rash decision.

So that's number one is that the calendar, I think, is broken. The timing is not a surprise to me. They're forced into this in many ways. Do I like it? No. No, I don't. I wish that we could fix the calendar, but that is what it is at this point. There's another factor in all of this, and that is that boosters have more of a say now than they ever have, than they ever have. Now, this has been talked about over the last week or so by many out there, but I would just tell you this, is that in the past, athletic directors and coaches would raise a lot of money, a lot of money. And that money was generally used for facilities, personnel, not players, before NIL, although in some places and cases it was used for players. but you get the gist of what I'm talking about. It was used for infrastructure of the program.

Well, when you're investing in infrastructure, you understand as the person investing into that or as a booster investing into that, that the return is long term. You're building an indoor facility because you hope that the indoor facility is going to lure recruits two and three cycles into the future. You are building a locker room,

doing an addition on a stadium. You need funds for that. But the people invests. investing into that project or, you know, foundation, they have this understanding that the ROI, the return on investment, is not going to be immediate. But now it's very different because that money that you can give goes directly to a player. And we need this player. The conversation goes like this. Listen, we're about to lose this player in recruiting unless we can up our offer from $800,000 to $1,000 to a million, $8. A million more dollars. And they're like,

like, oh, man, do I want to part ways with $1 million? I guess so, but guess what comes with that? An expectation that that million dollars is going to be seen and felled on the field immediately because that player is going to help us win games now. And so if I'm a person being asked for that amount of money, I probably own a business or have been very successful in business. and I understand that that investment in a short term means that if that doesn't return, someone's got to pay for it. So now you have all these kitchens or excuse me cooks in the kitchen. You have all these opinions and those opinions, they feel like they are warranted.

And they're substantial. And listen, I'm not going to give another million dollars or another $5 million to this program unless that guy is gone. And so I think that an athletic director right now, And the current state of college football has a lot more voices in his year. And those voices tend to be more influential because of the resources that those voices have. Those are two reasons why I'm not surprised by the timing of this firing. When you think about the money being spent right now, Brandon Marcello tweeted out,

and I thought this was wild when I saw this. He tweeted out, we are up to $167.9 million in total buy-all money committed to $4.4.5 million committed to fired FBS coaches in this cycle, and it's not even November. We haven't even gotten a final decision on Mike Norvell at Florida State. We haven't gotten a final, you know, obviously on Hugh Freeze at Auburn. That's not going well, and they're going to be others. This is wild. We are going to be north of 200, probably close to $250 million in buyout money, dead money. that is a staggering amount. When you're talking about all of these programs around the country,

and every single one of them, the athletic director will come up to me, and I'll ask them like, well, what is your biggest need? Oh, resources, we need money so bad. And they're going to spend a quarter billion dollars on coaches to not coach. That is a staggering, staggering amount. Why? Why do we get this? Well, they're the most valuable piece. the college version of the NFL starting quarterback.

Gotta have that quarterback to win a Super Bowl. Well, you can't win in college football without a marquee coach. You just can't. You just can't. So then it starts to beg the question as we talk about this carousel. Like, okay, now let's start stacking this up a little bit. I know that I went a little bit long on the timing of it. If you start stacking up this job, let me just say this point blank as crisply as I possibly can.

this is the best job available, period. In fact, I would put LSU in the top three jobs in all of college football. Now, some would argue with me on that. I firmly believe it's in the top three, but I don't think that you can argue it's not in the top five. So semantics here, but we're talking about at a minimum, a top five job in all of college football, which is staggering. And we've seen this job open up before. And because LSU opened up before, we saw Mel Tucker get a giant contract at Michigan State.

We saw Jimbo Fisher get a giant contract at Texas A&M. Like we've seen this song and dance before, except now it's coupled with other high-profile marquee top 10, 11, 12 jobs in the country in Penn State and Florida. So you've got some massive jobs open. I think you could claim like 30% of the top 10 best jobs in America are open right now in Penn State, Florida. Florida and LSU, but LSU is really the cream of the crop. Again, I think that Texas and Ohio State are better jobs than LSU, not by much, but I can't think of another program that is. Some would argue with me that Georgia is a better job. Okay, that's fine. And I believe that that's also very close. And then some would argue that Alabama is a better job. I don't believe

Alabama is a better job than LSU. I think LSU has more resources. And quite honestly, you know, outside of Nick Saban's tradition, they're, like, LSU can be successful. Clearly, Alabama is one of the most national championships in all of college football. They have a storied tradition as tradition rich as any place in college football. They're in the center of a recruiting hotbed. It's not a bad job. It's a top five job in all the college football. I think LSU is a little better.

I think they're financially more stable at LSU than Alabama. That's kind of where I sit. So at this point, you have to ask yourself, all right, where are we going here? If you're Scott Woodward, like, what are you doing? Who are you calling? Okay. Well, the only way that I can play that out is if I'm the athletic director. So if I'm the athletic director at LSU, let me just tell you what my process would be.

And it wouldn't be that much different than Penn State, although the pool would be a little bit different. the first thing that I'm going to do, if I'm the athletic director at LSU, and like I said, LSU has a lot of resources, probably deeper resources than everyone actually realizes, like deep, deep resources, maybe top one or two resources in all of college football. And so money will not be a factor in this. I don't think it was a factor in Brian Kelly's. I think the structure of his buyout was probably more of what they were talking about, but I don't think money is going to be a factor in what they go after.

Therefore, there's two people that are going to get calls, and I think that LSU is going to force them to turn down $15 million a year. And that is Urban Meyer and Nick Saban. I think both of those guys will get that call. And if I'm Scott Woodward, I think that you have to make that call. If I'm the AD, I'm making that call to both of those gentlemen. And by the way, if they both turn me down, great. And then we're going to have a really lengthy and quality discussion about the candidates that they really like around the country. and the coaches that they've either worked with or coached against that they like,

because I think that's a type of list that will really help me if I'm the athletic director. Okay, so those two guys are going to get the first two calls. And then it goes to maybe the more feasible ones, although who knows? Maybe one of those guys will be the next coach at LSU. And then you go to the next call. And here's the next call that is made. And I think the next call is going to be Dan Lannning. Dan Laning obviously has a past in the SEC, and he's been successful there as a coordinator of the

national champion Georgia team in 2021. Then he goes to Oregon and he's been very successful building them into a perennial power last year, the undefeated number one seed in college football playoff. He recruits well out of the portal. He recruits well out of high school. He's got great energy like Dan Lannning is a home run. So he's going to get a call. And Oregon will probably have to match a $15 million a year offer. I think that's where LSU is going to be if they're talking about Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, or Dan Lannning. If Dan doesn't leave, and listen, I know that Dan really likes it in Eugene, and just a couple of years ago, he turned down Alabama.

So, you know, like he's turned down this level of job prior. His family loves it in Oregon, and I think he loves the autonomy in Oregon, and he's building something that's very special and very well might end in the national championship this year. I think they have that caliber of team in terms of this year with Dante Moore, quarterback, and that defense and how they can play. That's a call. And then my fourth call, and I think it's my final call, is going to be Lane Kiffin.

And Lane Kiffin is going to get a call. And this is why Lane Kiffin, you know, is going to be such a hot commodity, is that if you look around right now, I said three of the top 10 jobs in college football are now open. I can't remember a cycle in which we had this high profile of jobs open and ready and willing to spend money and ready to swing big. And yet, I can't remember as thin of a talent pool in the coaching search. Lane's going to be at the top. And Dan Landing is going to be at the top of everybody's list. Nick Saban's getting the call.

Urban Myers getting the call. Bob Stoops might get a call because the list is thin. And this is where you have to ask yourself if you're LSU, like what's the best fit? Because what didn't work at LSU with Brian Kelly wasn't the fact that Brian Kelly's not a good football coach. It said he wasn't a good fit at LSU. and candidly, we all knew it this first week on the job when he gave us that fake accent.

We'll never be able to unhear that. Every time I saw him in an LSU shirt, that's what I thought of. And I tried not to. The guy's the all-time winning his coach at Notre Dame. He knows how to coach football. He didn't forget how to do it. He wasn't a good fit at LSU. Jimbo Fisher didn't forget how to coach football at Texas A&M

after winning a national championship at Florida State. he wasn't a good fit at Texas A&M. And now Mike Elko, who maybe wasn't the sexiest hire of the entire, you know, carousel that year at A&M, is a great fit at A&M. He understands it. He knows it. He loves it. And guess where they are sitting here in the top five in the country in college football. So that's a great fit and it's working out.

So LSU, I just talked about the big swings that they could take. But I will argue this last point. You don't make this higher if I'm the athletic. director to win the press conference. You have to get a guy that fits your program, your fan base, and what you want to do at LSU. You can go take a huge swing, but if it's the wrong swing, you're going to be sitting right back here in three or four years, doing the same thing over again, spending another $100 million to buy out another coach, even though Brian's not $100 million as well, what, $53 million? $53 million. Hey, guys, I'm really thankful that my wife is never like,

hey, why didn't you coach? Because I think about it all the time. I'm like, I could go get fired. I mean, I really could. Fit is going to be very important for LSU. I think it's one of those things that if they get this right, this will return to a perennial power each and every year. And like I said, my calls,

Sabin Irmaier, Dan Lanning, and then Lane Kiffin. Now, you could say, like, Lanning's not going to leave Oregon. And listen, I hope he doesn't. I really do. I hope he doesn't. He did turn down Alabama.

LSU is a better job than Alabama. I think it is. I think it can be argued all you want. I know Bama fans would argue with me on that, but that's the way kind of I feel about it. And it boils down to resources. Let's get into the top 10 as I see it here in college football. This top 10 continues to evolve.

And I will just tell you, I've gotten a lot of comments down below in the show. And I do get in there, by the way, almost every Monday and I go in there and try to answer your comments. So if you haven't subscribed, subscribe to the show, jump down on the comments and then I try to get down there, answer questions, things like that. Like last week, some guy was like,

this guy always asks us to comment and that he's down here answering questions. And he never does. And I was like, hey, man, what's going on? Anyways, I do get down there and I do personally answer some of those questions. Here's the top 10 and some have asked, well, what do you base this on? Just who you think is better? is it resume? Is it both? And it's always some combination of both. It's always some combination of both. Is that the right way to do it? I don't know. I don't know. I don't think it's a perfect way, but this is how I see it right now.

Some of these teams have earned their rankings. Some of them just are here because, like, I know they're that good. And that's the way I'm going to go. Here we go, 10 to 1, top 10 in college football. At number 10, BYU. BYU just keeps on winning, and the last two weeks, very impressively. At home against Utah, a team that we all thought a lot of, and by the way, Utah in the last three weeks has hammered Arizona State, lost at BYU, and then drilled Colorado. I mean, drilled Colorado.

At one point around halftime, the total yardage was like 400 to minus two in that game. It was ugly as a former buff or a buff. I should say, I'm not a former buff, I'm a buff. So BYU just keeps winning. I'm saying that about Utah because it's like the BYU win against Utah was impressive. And then they went on the road, speaking of the Cougars, and they beat Iowa State. And they did so in pretty impressive fashion. And so those are two massive wins of two quality opponents, top end Big 12 opponents.

Now we start having to think about like, hey, is BYU the best team in the Big 12? Can Texas Tech beat BYU? And that's a game that I'm certainly really looking forward to seeing here upcoming in the next few weeks. BYU is excellent. Bear Bokmire is terrific. I love his maturity as a true freshman quarterback. And Kalani Sataki, by the way, he's a guy that should get talked about more with some of these job openings. Because this dude is just a really good football coach.

Now, I talked about fit. He's a great fit at BYU, obviously. That's one of the reasons why he has such a tremendous amount of success. They're mature. They're always older. They're physical. They can run the football. They play really good defense.

It's a great fan base. Love BYU there in my top 10. At number nine, I'm going Miami at nine. I thought it was a sloppy first half against Stanford before they kind of buried them in the second half. And what worries me is those six quarters, the four quarters against Louisville and the Friday night lost. And then the opening two quarters against Stanford, it's like, okay, I'm starting to see the peaks and valleys of Miami. Don't love the valleys. I really don't.

You know, it's one of those things like you play golf with a buddy or even in your own golf game. And you have that one shot that you're like, oh, gross. For me, it's just a block high cut fade bubble nasty gross. And it's like, that's in the bag. Well, for Miami, they've got these six quarters now that are like the bubble block fade cut gross. And I don't like it. Having said that at the top end, Miami does at times control the line of scrimmage. play really quality defense. I like their quarterback when he's not turning the football over.

So peaks and valleys with Miami, but pulling away from Stanford in the second half, I thought was really nice. Number eight is Ole Miss, Ole Miss with a big win on the road at Oklahoma. And it was a gutty win because the game was playing out very similarly to their previous week when they were on the road against, oh God, now I'm blanking it. It was Georgia. Had to be Georgia. Yeah, Georgia, because Georgia has 18 lives and doesn't die. But they're scoring, they're scoring, you know, they're going back and forth. But in the crunch time, they couldn't get it done offensively. And then they fixed that this week and against a very good defense in Oklahoma,

they played well down the stretch defensively. Lane has a really good team at Ole Miss. Now, are there some deficiencies? Yes, I think their defense is going to run up at some point against an offense that is going to be too much from them. Heck, they did that just last week against Georgia. However, however, you look at the remaining parts of their schedule, and this is a team that, like, that's a likely SEC championship game team.

Their schedule is pretty easy moving forward. And so, you know, in the SEC, there are some teams that hit the schedule roulette, some of them that hit the schedule lottery. This is a lottery. They've got South Carolina on November 1st, the Citadel, Florida, and Mississippi State. Like that's not difficult, folks. And so Ole Miss might very likely end up in Atlanta in the SEC championship game. We'll see if they can get there.

Now, they're going to need some help. There's a lot of teams in there with just a loss, but they have a road that is more manageable than others. Speaking of Ole Miss, and I can't move on from Ole Miss without touching on Lane Kiffin. One, Lane's going to get offered from Florida. He's going to get offered from LSU. He's obviously going to get a huge offer at Ole Miss. Lane Kiffin is going to be a top two or three paid coach in college football next year,

and it's probably going to be at either one of those three schools, LSU Ole Miss or Florida, and he's a hot commodity. Now, with that comes a bit of risk. And I know that those schools know that. He's obviously a little bit of a spark plug on social media. I tangled with him last year. I didn't even tangle with him. I stuffed him in a locker last year.

Let's be honest. I mean, it was low-hanging fruit. I took it. Am I proud of it? Yes. And so Lane, at the end of the game against OU, has a flare up with an OU player. And David Stone, the defensive tackle, I guess had been chirping him. You know, Lane's about to do the interview with Molly McGrath.

And then all of a sudden he's like, oh, you're a lot quieter now, aren't you? They start chirping. It looks like David Stone is just trying to dab him up. And then Lane is asked about it in his post-game press conference, and this is what he had to say. David Stone at the end of the game for yourself, just the emotions of being this moment.

You talk about reflecting, what is it? I mean, that specifically, but just the moment of you walking off this field with the NCC Roadway in a place like this. Is that number of zero? Yes. Okay. Just making sure.

I was like, who's David's known better than I knew it? That's just me. I mean, he was talking the whole game to me and I did a good job I felt of not talking back. He just kept telling me you ain't going to score and all this so I didn't go try to find him. He was just walking by so I just

saw him so that's just that's just kind of me. Oh, I mean, listen, there's two ways to think about this. One, like, never change Lane. And I like Lane. I still text with

him every once in a while. Lane's a good dude, really good football coach. great offensive mind. Great play caller. Man, just like a surgeon, calling plays. I love so many things about that answer. Love, hate, whatever.

You can just say, like, let me point out a few things about that answer. Number one, he knows who David Stone is. So when he's like, is that number zero? It's like a way to minimize David Stone. And it's like, yes, Lane. It's number zero. What other player did you have?

Oh, like, was that one of many interactions you had with an Oklahoma player after the game? So that, that I thought was funny. And then when he's just got, he's got nothing else except like, yeah, you know, that's just, that's just me. And then I love that he pats himself on the back. Like, I did a really good job and not saying anything during the game. You're the head coach. I love this guy. I love this guy.

It's like, you don't get pats on the block. don't get flowers, Lane, for not trash talking the players who are 18 to 22 years old. You make a lot more money than they do. I know they're making a lot of money, but you make a lot more, and your money is guaranteed. Oh, my gosh. I was proud of myself for not saying anything during the game. Oh, yeah, you know, because you wanted to church him between calling plays. It's hilarious.

I love this guy. And by the way, I'm reminded in a situation like this. Like, Lane's great for college football. I love Lane Kiffin. And yet, if you don't like Lane, you are so mad at this situation. How dare he talk to players that way? Those are kids.

You're probably also the same type of person is like, they can transfer? I mean, Lane's hilarious. Is that number zero? Yes, it's number zero, Lane. Yes, it is. This guy is incredible. Oh, my gosh.

I was proud of myself. Oh, never change, bro. Is he the most bro college football coach that we have? It's got to be. Got to be. All right, we continue. Sorry, I digress. Number seven.

Notre Dame. I know. Come on, leave all your comments down below. Go ahead. They've got two losses. I don't care. They are really good. The last five games, they've got the 12th rank scoring defense. They can run it on anybody. They just did a great job defensively against USC, holding them to 24 points. USC is one of the best offenses in all of college football. They're in the top five in terms of yards per rush, yards per pass. Like, Notre Dame is really, really good. I know they lost those two games early. I mean, I'm not going to explain them away, but hey, have you found out that A&M is really good? Absolutely. And that's a wild game that could have gone either way. Game against Miami on the road could have gone either way. Notre Dame's going to be a tough out. Notre Dame's number seven. And I really don't care what you say.

I really don't. Number six, Oregon. Kind of an ugly win against Wisconsin, Oregon this last week. Offense just wasn't quite what I thought that they would be. Although Wisconsin does have a decent defense. That's one thing about Wisconsin. Now, Wisconsin couldn't do anything on the offensive side of the football, so the game was never in doubt.

But I do like Oregon still. And there's this part of me that thinks about Oregon. And I think about the way Ohio State grew from their midseason loss a year ago, in particular on the defensive side. And I think about the urgency with which Dan Laning coaches and the fact that this guy is what I would call a Stone Turner, Here's what a stone turner is. He will turn over every single stone to figure out what's going wrong, what's going

right, how are we going to get better? The guy just looks in every nook and cranny. He is a tireless, energetic worker. And so because of that loss, I do think that they're going to be able to focus and evaluate and develop past that. And so to me, they're number six. Number five is Georgia. Gosh, man, this team continues to be hard to kill.

I really love Gunner Stockton. I'm getting a lot of Max Duggan vibes from Duggan, dragging that TCU team to the national championship game. This team is constantly flirting with death and yet really hard to kill. They're like the older action hero. You go to the movies and it's like, are they going too far in this scene? Like, hey, Tom, should you be riding your motorcycle off the cliff with a parachute? It's like, that's kind of what Georgia is doing to me right now. Is they giving me like, what is even that I call?

Like, dead protocol or whatever, the last mission impossible, Mission Impossible 37, whatever this one is. And he's like riding off the cliff. And you're like, you know, that might be, might be a smidge too far. You might, I know you're hard to kill, Tom, but you're flirting with death. That's how I feel about Georgia right now. Constantly in multiple possession deficits. And yet, come back. resilient, most resilient team in the country, Gunner Stockton.

I have more respect for Gunner Stockton every time I see him play. Because of his competitiveness, his will, you see it. It's like his soul is poured out onto the field. And I love that. I really love that. Number four is Alabama. I think Alabama at their top end is elite. They can potentially win the national championship.

Now, when Ty Simpson isn't at his best, isn't lighting it up, you know, they're a beatable team. And we saw that a little bit this last week against South Carolina. There's been three games this year that he hasn't just, like, lit it on fire. And I would even say in one of those games, he did for a half, and that was the Georgia game. But three games, he hasn't been greater. Florida State, Georgia, and South Carolina. And every one of those games are the only three games that he's been below 65% completion percentage. And lo and behold, you know, they're in tight games and lose one of those games. Now, they were able to come back, but their lack of run game is stark right now.

And it needs to get better. And I continue to harp on this, but it's the truth. They're 15th in the SEC and rushing. Both LSU and Oklahoma read it, run it better per carry than Alabama. And those two teams stink running the football. That's a problem. I know that Alabama is elite when they're on, but when they're not, they can lose to anybody.

And I think you saw that against South Carolina. And by the way, by the way, these coaches make a lot of money to make wrong decisions. Shane Beamer goes up seven late in that ballgame and doesn't go for two to get a multiple possession lead. What? Like what? I don't understand.

I don't understand that. Shane Beamer should have gone for two. If they get it, it's a nine-point game. It's two possession. South Carolina wins. If they don't get it, it's a seven-point game. And I don't think that there's any world that Alabama is going to go down there and go for two and put their season and maybe their playoff hopes on the line on one snap.

They're definitely going to overtime. If Beamer goes for two, the game ends in overtime, period. But he didn't, which forced Bama to play it a little. bit differently and now they have to go for two. And now it's, I mean, I don't love it. I don't love what went on. But Bama at their best is excellent, is excellent. Okay, now we get into these like really good teams. And let's start with Texas A&M. Texas A&M and, you know, they end Brian Kelly's tenure there at LSU. They're down at half in that game. And at no part, I'm watching the game the whole time on the flight back. And at no part did I feel like LSU was the better team?

A&M had the better pass rush. They have the better run game. They have the better offense in general. They can throw it. Marcel Reed made a couple of great plays. Marcel Reed didn't even have to play great. He threw for 57% and two picks. And they beat the doors off of LSU at night.

So, like, they have answers all around them. Again, they've won games in several different ways with their defense, running it, throwing it. their true road games this year, they've scored over 41 or more points in every one of their true road games. That's elite, man. That is really, really good. Mike Elko just fits there. That's why LSU needs the right fit. That's why Florida needs the right fit. That's why Penn State needs the right fit. This is a case study and a guy that was a big swing to win the press conference in Jimbo Fisher,

and they're giving themselves national championship trophies, but he never fit the culture at A&M. Mike Elko fits the culture at A&M. Maybe he didn't win the press conference, but you're winning on the field on Saturday and Saturday nights, which is exactly what they did this last week. Wouldn't surprise me if they're in Atlanta. I don't think that their remaining schedule is all that difficult. Listen, it's harder than, like, let's say,

Ole Miss's remaining schedule, but they travel to Missouri, and Missouri just lost their quarterback Boe Perbula to an ankle injury. So I don't know what Missouri is going to be like, even at Missouri. South Carolina, Sanford, and then at Texas. More thoughts on Texas coming up a little later in the show. Number two team in the country.

So that's Texas A&M. They're really good, really good. Number two is Indiana. Indiana is a complete team. I saw them live in person against UCLA. Complete team. Every team I, every coach I talked to that either has played Indiana or is preparing for them says the same thing.

This team is so sound. They are so well coached. I know it's boring, but it's true. They are just a complete team. They run it well. Their offensive line is solid. They stop the run. They rush the passer.

They can throw it. They do everything right. And even better than that, they're really well coached. They just don't make mistakes. And yet, they also have high-end talent. In that regard, it reminds me a lot of the 23 Michigan team. That was fundamentally as complete and sound a team as I've covered in college football in my entire time.

They went undefeated, 15 and won the national championship. The difference with that Michigan team was it wasn't just being fundamentally sound. They also had elite talent. And that's exactly what Indiana has. People don't want to come around on that, but they do. On their defense, they have all-American caliber players. Maybe Kamar is not playing that caliber up to this point in the season from a production standpoint up front, but they have all American caliber players on all three levels of their

defense. McCall Camara up front, Aden Fisher, the linebacker, we'll see about his injury. He left that game early in the game. And then DeAngelo Pons in the back end as a corner. They're excellent on defense. That's one of the best defenses in all of college football. It's not Ohio State good, but man, they're really good and they're really sound. And then, oh, by the way, on offense, they're going to have two or three all big 10 offensive linemen, maybe an all-American. Cougain's playing great at center. They've got a Heisman Trophy caliber quarterback and Fernando Mendoza. just a good college quarterback. He's going to be a top 15 pick in the NFL, probably this year.

He's an elite quarterback. And then they have an elite set of wide receivers on the outside, led by Elijah Surat. Surat and Cooper, as a tandem, there's only one tandem that can even compete and maybe surpass them just a little bit, and that's Jeremiah Smith and Cardinal Tate. But these two guys are elite players. And then they also have a run game that is hard-nosed, physical, and is absolutely brilliant at plus runs. Kind of got stumbled there. Plus runs, meaning it's block for four, they gain six. Blocked for six, they gain eight. Blocked for eight, they gain 20.

Like, they're always moving forward. I really love him be in the backfield. So that's just a really good, really good team. My one question for them is going to be depth. That's it, because this is a long road to get to the national championship, but depth. And then number one, Ohio State. They still have the number one unit in the entire country, and that's that defense. And let's just put it to you this way.

If you're looking at, like, passing metrics from an offensive standpoint, we all know Alabama is an elite passing offense, and Ty Simpson is great. And yet, by the numbers, you can make an argument that Ohio State is better. Now, you might not win that argument, but it's right there, razor's edge. We're talking about the elite of the elite passing games in all of college football. Just so happens, Ohio State also runs the football way better than Alabama does. Now, not great, but way better than Alabama, who, by the way, is like next to last in the SEC in terms of rushing yards per carry.

That's not going to help them. And oh, by the way, Ohio State's defense is like the best defense in the sport. So they not only have that to hang their hat on, but then they can go to this offense and they've run the football to win it. They can throw the football whenever they want, and they don't want to all the time. It's just like, I know it's boring, folks. I know it's boring, but like that is the elite team in college football. Just outside of my top 10, I thought about Vandy, I thought about Georgia Tech,

I thought about Texas Tech. Good win for Vandy, although I got to be honest, like, with Pribula out to not take more control of that game and basically win. because a Hail Mary finished six inches short of the goal line. Don't love that. Georgia Tech worries me because they're so reliant on Haynes King. And then Tech is just battling some injuries right now. Now, Baron Morton's probably going to come back a quarterback,

but Will Hammond, their backup quarterback, who was playing because Baron Morton was injured, Hammond tore his ACL. Skyler Gil Howard is out until at least the postseason up at the defensive line. So depth is becoming a question. Clark Lee is doing a really nice job at Vandy. we'll see. We'll see if Vandy is continuing to be for real. By the way, Clark Lee is going to get a call from one of these openings. Because, again, I just don't, the talent pool is a little bit thin right now as far as like no-brainer hires that you would go out and get at all these high-profile places.

But Clark Lee will definitely get a call. Hey, I did want to touch on a few other teams before I get out of here. Michigan beats Michigan State and kind of handles them. right? And it's like the exact opposite of Alabama. Ty Simpson, the quarterback at Alabama, has to play great in order for Bama to feel comfortable about winning. Whereas Michigan, this is a very like Michigan-esque style of team that's leaning into this style, which is like, hey, we don't care what our quarterback does. We're still going to dominate the game anyways. And by the way, if he plays really well, then you have no chance. and that's what you're starting to get with Michigan.

First principles, foundational stuff, running the absolute crap out of the ball, playing really good defense. Michigan ran it against Michigan State for 276 on the ground. Both Haynes and Marshall went over 100 yards. In the second half, this is what I'm talking about, about just like very Michigan. Excuse me, 27 runs, two passes,

and they scored 21 points. This is the second half of Penn State 2023 all over again. This is the second half of Ohio State 2021 all over again. Like this is, they love this. They love this more than anything at Michigan. Playing this style, playing this physical, grind it out, break your will style of football is their favorite thing to do. And oh, by the way, they blitzed a season of,

low 11% of the time. Just two weeks ago, Michigan was blitzing more than anybody else in the country. And because of that, they were manipulating their structure on the defensive side, and their defense wasn't playing up to their capability. And now in the last two weeks, they have blitzed next to zero. I mean, 11% this week, it was 19% against Washington, way below their season averages. And lo and behold, like, it's really good. And it's really good because it's really complimentary.

You see, you can chase shutouts and you can chase, like, vanity defense and like, oh, we want to stop them for 100 total yards and a shutout. And you can take chances, and that's a high risk, high reward style of defense. But if you just pull back from that and you play complimentary style of defense at Michigan with the way that they can start running the football, with the time of possession that they could charge up, that's when you win football games. You win them handily and you win them in the second half, which is exactly what happened for them in the second half

against Michigan State. Now you're looking up, it's like very likely a nine and two team going into that last game against Ohio State. That game's going to be at home. They've got Purdue, Northwestern on the road, at Maryland, and then Ohio State to finish things off. So that's the Michigan schedule rolling along. I shouldn't say anything about it.

We'll definitely do that Ohio State game, maybe another one in there. Texas came back from 17 points in the fourth quarter. That was wild. That was the best they've looked offensively all season long. Second straight week that they go into OT with a bottom tier SEC team. Archmanning, career high passing yards, except right in that overtime, he gets hit, diving for the first down, concussion.

Now all of a sudden he's got to leave the game. But they came back from 17 down, and that did show a lot of character for them. This has not been the season that Texas has expected. They were the number one preseason team in the country with the Heisman favorite. And it has not gone the way that they thought. They thought their offense was going to be excellent. It has not been. They thought their defense was going to be excellent.

And it has been, but it's had to carry them. Before the game, if you follow this like we all do, and I'm sure you do, you saw those reports that Sark was open to the ability of going to the NFL or the possibility of going to the NFL. When I saw that, I was like, whoa, what? Now, I know better than to retweet something like that. It sounded and looked fishy to me. I know Sark.

I think he's very committed to Texas. And it was so prevalent out there that he had to actually deliver a statement via his representatives before the game And then he was asked about it after the game, and this was his answer. The report that did come out this morning about the NFL, do you have interest in the NFL? Yeah, I'd love to touch on this. So bear with me for a second, because it really pisses me off that one person can make a report

that in turn the entire media sports world runs with as factual. To the point of my agency and my agents have to put a statement out, that they never have done. Historically, CAA, Jimmy Sexton, and Ed Manowitz have never did do that. But I had to do that to protect my locker room and my team. And I thought it was absolutely ridiculous. I thought it was completely unprofessional of that person to put that report out. And the fact that everybody ran with it is borderline embarrassing for the media.

And I respect what you guys do. I really do. And everybody else. But the fact that everybody ran that as truth is really embarrassing. Okay. So I've got a small circle when I make decisions on what I do and what I don't do. And nobody would speak on my behalf without me knowing. And so where that report came from, I'd love to talk to that person because it's absolutely ridiculous.

Okay. He's got to say that for his locker room. And I personally believe him until that's false. I think he's at Texas. He loves it at Texas. That's a great job. That's a top two job in college football. Top two job, maybe the best job in college football.

and he's got it, and he's battling through a tough year right now, primarily because the offense has not been great. I do want to just point one thing out, though. So Texas stayed in the polls. They are number 20 right now. They're six and two. And let's just take a little bit of a comparison here of why is one team ranked and one team not ranked?

Okay. And I think it has to do with where you start and where you're at now. Okay, so to start the year, Texas was the number one team in the country. And we thought that they were going to be incredible. And we had that huge game at Ohio State. It was great. Iowa started as the 44th ranked team in the country.

If you look, all the teams receiving votes all the way down, 44th ranked team in the country. And here they are. They're both six and two. Now, Iowa is not ranked right now. And I started thinking to myself like, why is Iowa not ranked? They just thumped Minnesota.

It's a good football team. They were just tied in the fourth quarter with Indiana who we think is the number two team in the country. And everybody else does too. They were tied with them. 1313, 13, with like a minute 50 left in the game in Kinnick. Their other loss was on a last second field goal at Iowa State and a rivalry game on the road.

Meanwhile, Texas, they're six and two. They've lost to Kentucky. No, excuse me, they beat Kentucky and they beat Mississippi State to bottom-tier teams. Close wins over time against Mississippi State and Kentucky. Their losses are Ohio State and Florida, and candidly, not particularly close. Now, I know the Ohio State one looks like a one-possession game. That's really a two-possession game. It's 14-0 until late, late into the fourth quarter.

And Ohio State didn't do anything on offense to try to push the envelope. Florida beat Texas handily. Meanwhile, Iowa, they have a close win against Penn State. It's kind of the way they play. Last second field goal lost to Iowa State on the road. And their other loss is Indiana. Tied 13-13 with a minute 50 to go in that game. Preseason ranking 44, preseason ranking number one.

So one team's ranked number 20 in the country. One team's unranked. Is it because of the preseason rankings or is it because of narrative? I just posed the question. You guys can answer that in the comments below. That'll do it for today's program. I will be back on Wednesday with more Joel Clatchio. We did have a bounce back week in the picks and previews there.

Four and one. Thanks for that late touchdown Michigan State on that cover on the 14 and a half. So four and one, better than the O and whatever it was, six. Was it O and six? Someone will remind me in the comments. It was O and six. Four and one this last week. We'll get to pick some previews on Thursday.

We'll have more Joel Class Show on Wednesday. I really appreciate you watching this program, being a part of this program. I love college football, as I know you do. And I can't wait for this last month. We're getting down to it. We've got about a month left with the regular season. Here we go. We'll be back on Wednesday.

Have a great week, everybody.