The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Why Ohio State is going all-in and should we be worried about Alabama?

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt discusses the current state of Alabama’s program as the Tide continue to lose players in the transfer portal following Nick Saban’s retirement. He reveals how far ‘Bama has fallen down the hierarchy in the SEC and what their expectations should be for Kalen DeBoer’s first season in charge. Klatt then discusses the busy week at Ohio State as the Buckeyes added All-American Safety Caleb Downs and 5-star QB recruit Julian Sayin from Alabama. He points out how college football history has shown that rivals’ success is the ultimate motivator and that is playing out in Columbus following Michigan’s National Championship. Klatt also explains why Ryan Day is giving up play-calling to Bill O’Brien and details which areas Day will now shift his focus towards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on Joel Clad show, the exodus from Alabama, should we be worried and the Buckeyes loading up. College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. Believe that we are at the dawn of the golden age of college football. It was an epic day of college football. It was just one of those days where you fall in love with the sport all over again. Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome into the program.

I'm Joel Clatt. This is the Joel Clatt show. Hey, wherever you're listening, go ahead and subscribe and follow the show wherever you're listening to your podcast. Remember to follow us on social media wherever you like to social media at Joel Clat Show. And of course, on YouTube, make sure to subscribe to the program on YouTube and comment below on all of these videos because I like to jump into those comments and actually have conversations with some of you. If you've seen some of the last couple of shows, you'll see those comments down below on those shows. So make sure you're a subscriber. and get down there and comment, and we'll have a lot more for you here during the course of each week.

There's no offseason in college football. And this week is evidence of that because this is a down week where we're supposed to be talking about the divisional playoffs in the National Football League. And lo and behold, we have mountains of news and really important stuff happening in college football with some of the biggest brands in college football. So let's get into it. Alabama, the wake. of Nick Saban leaving the, you know, the remnants of what's going on there remains to be seen. And it's continuing. And they're losing some really good players.

Now, the question becomes like, should we be worried? Because anybody can hit the panic button. And there's some good players leaving. And anytime any good player leaves a program, it's plastered all over social media and everybody's fans, you know, that program's fans tend to downplay it as much as they can. And then wherever that player is going to go or commit to, that fan base thinks that that's the savior. Okay. So it's, it's one of two reactions. Both of them are wrong because it's always more than nothing. And yet, it's always less than everything when these kids leave and transfer and move spots. So from

Alabama's perspective, I'm sure that there has been some sentiment within the fan base that this guy is falling. Nick Saban walks out the door. A number of transfers walk out the door. And I think it's fair to ask, like, what does this mean? Where are we headed now with Alabama football? And I think that it's appropriate. And I said this on social, if you want to follow me personally on Twitter. I'm at Joel Klatte. And I said this out there on Twitter. I just basically said, they should be fine. Kaelin DeBoer is an unbelievable coach. And you, yet there's just no way that they can sustain the level of dominance that they have sustained for the last 16 years plus with Nick Saban.

And I got a lot of like, duh, clat, like, oh, tell me something, breaking news, but, but in all honesty, it's true. And the problem is, is that I don't know if Alabama's fans, I don't know if you tied fans have really gravitated towards this and actually grasped what that means. What does it actually mean what you're dealing with right now? Because it's not going to be as dominant as it was under Nick Saban. It's not going to be as easy as it was under Nick Saban. This man was the greatest college football coach in history.

You were just on the greatest run that we've ever seen from any program in the history of the sport. That's not going to continue. It's just not. And what you're starting to see is the evidence of that with some of these exits. So what are we seeing with Alabama? Well, last year's team, number one team in terms of the talent composite in college football. There was not a more talented team in college football. In fact, 74 players on the Alabama team last year were either four or five-star recruits when they came to Alabama.

That number is staggering, to be quite honest with you. That's the reason that they were the number one composite team in college football. Now, it didn't work out for them. And now they're losing a lot of guys. Now, you can get any number of different total number of transfers. Some of them might be like Waterboy Walk-ons. Others are five-star S-C freshman of the year, Caleb Downs, right? So you're going to get the entire spectrum of guys that are leaving Alabama.

So the total number I'm not quite as interested in as I am. What is the elite talent that is leaving Alabama? So let's just look at the four-and-five-star players that were recruited as four-and-five-star players that are going to walk out the door. So you've got the best coach in history walking out the door, and then how many elite blue chip prospects, and that number is 12. Okay, 12. 12 is a lot for every program in the country outside of like three. And one of those three is Alabama.

Why? Because they had 74 guys that were four and five star players on their roster to begin with. Now, this is not an exact science because some of those players are also going to leave for the draft. And I understand that. But it does give you at least just some context for what's going on at Bama. So is the sky falling? No, of course not. Did they lose more blue chip players than anybody else?

Yes, yes, they did. But they can handle it. And in so many ways, Alabama was built for this. These transitions are always going to be messy. And in particular, when you don't have the succession model that you've seen at Oklahoma or Ohio State with Lincoln, Riley after Bob Stubes with Ryan Day after Urban Meyer, when you don't have the succession model, it can get messy. And by the way, we're starting to see these coaching moves and how it materializes in the new

era of Transfer Portal and NIL. And guess what? I'm not sure that the succession model would have worked as well as it did for Oklahoma and Ohio State if you tried to do that now. Coaching changes are just going to be messy, regardless of how well your organization is built. And you can make an argument that Alabama is built as well as anybody. Certainly the talent composite would back that up. So 12 blue chip players, that's a lot. Among those pretty elite players, safety Caleb Downs, he was the second team All-American. They're starting left

tackle, Caden Proctor. He was a true freshman, started every game. Isaiah Bond. Excellent wide receiver. He's headed to Texas. Proctor's headed to Iowa. Amari Nyblack. He was a really good tight end. He was, what, their second leading receiver on the team. Des Ricks, he was a former top 50 recruit, a guy that just signed and committed and was just there as a true freshman in the spring of a senior year, Julian saying, saying, sorry, you're telling me, never mind, there's, there's too many puns in there. Julian saying, even though he's not a factor on that roster even last fall, he's transferring out. So that's the number of guys. those are some of the blue chip guys.

They're going to be losing their top three leading receivers from last year. Burton going to the draft, Bond and Nyblack, both transferring to Texas. Their second leading rusher, Roydell Williams, he's transferring to Florida State. So then the question becomes like, okay, what's the answer? What's the fix? What's Kalin DeBoer going to do? Because he's got to stop this. At some point within this 30-day window that these players have autonomy and agency and can jump,

he's got to do something. Now, I don't think that that means just like bring in all new guys. He's got to circle the wagons and retain the roster. And it looks like he's doing that to some degree as best as he can. Heck, he's got 74 guys that are blue chip players. I mean, a lot of guys are stalin. Jalen Milrow hasn't jumped. You know, and that's a fit that I'm not sure what it's going to look like with him and

Kailen DeBore, but he hasn't jumped. Is he going to recruit wide receiver talent? Is he going to get the right quarterback? Is he going to get the right offensive linemen? This is one question, and I didn't bring this up when we were talking about Kailin DeBore and just like the Sabin news on previous shows. And I'm not trying to be a pessimist here, but I would say the only thing that I wouldn't say DeBore has shown a real elite nature with is in recruiting. okay and and that's something that Alabama's going to expect is that their roster resembles what Nick has built for the last basically decade and a half

I think that you can argue that after these exits, they're still going to be a top five roster, which guess what? They're still probably going to be just fine. But it does, you know, beg the question, what is DeBoer going to be able to build? So he gets Austin Mack out of the transfer portal, his former school, Washington. He was a red shirt last year and a top 75 player in last year's class. Probably he's a quarterback.

He's going to be replacing basically Julian Sayin. He got his really good center, Parker Brailsford from Washington. He was a freshman All-American, so he can replace McLaughlin who left. They got out of the portal, L.T. Overton. He was one of the top portal transfers before Downs jumped. He's a former five-star. He was at Texas A&M. Domani Jackson, really good corner, five-star player from USC.

Both of those guys transferred and committed to Alabama when Sabin was still the coach. So that's interesting. And no movement on those guys as of right now. So where does that leave Alabama in the SEC? Where are we at? And this is where it's going to get a little. This is where the separation is going to happen. Because I think that everyone's acknowledging that's like,

oh, well, yeah, you know, this can't continue and Nick was great. And, you know, we were on this great run. So, you know, I get it, but DeBore's great. And I don't think what people are realizing is that the expectation is not going to change.

This is, and I've heard this from Bama fans, so this is me basically reporting, like this is what you have told me is that you're spoiled. All right. What in 2009 and 10 and 11 was electric environments and such an excitement about what was going on in the program and the winds that were taking place, regardless of who

they were taking place over, turned into this is what should happen. Okay. I think that Alabama fans, to some degree, and Nick Saban has talked about this, by the way, in press conferences right after games, he's talked about the entitlement of the fans. And that's not going anywhere. That's not going anywhere. So Bama is not going to be what they were. And yet, that's going to be the expectation. It's just going to be.

They're going to expect that they're in the playoff. They're going to expect that they're competing for and winning the SEC championship. And here's the thing, with what's going on in the transfer portal, If you look at the rosters right now, I think that it's fair, it's fair to say that Georgia and Texas are the better programs right now. I think that that's fair. Even as much as I love Kailin DeBore. And I'm not saying that they can't go win the SEC because obviously they can. But Georgia, with what they do in recruiting, what Texas has been able to do with Steve Sarkeesian,

with Texas going to the playoff, with Georgia winning back-to-back national championships over the last couple of years, I think it's fair to say that those two programs right now have a lead over Alabama. So now all of a sudden, Bama is going to be thrown into this mix where they're going to have to compete with and knock back kind of the next six. Because there are teams like raring to go chomping at the bit. You know, Vinnables has recruited well at Oklahoma. Ole Miss has done an amazing job. Lane Kiffin, the, you know, the portal king. LSU's not going anywhere.

you know that they're going to be motivated. Tennessee feels like they've done a nice job. Mazoo feels like they're on the up. You know, Auburn is still going to be Auburn, in particular in the Iron Bowl. And yet the expectation is going to remain. So now you're entering into a super conference. I don't think you're in the lead or the permanent spot in that conference anymore. And I do think that that's fair with Georgia and Texas and what they've done over the last couple of seasons. And yet the expectation is going to remain. So that leaves us now with. Kaelin DeBoer at Alabama with a roster that's not quite a Nick Saban roster against a league that's going to be better than what the league has been in past years. And he's going to be expected

to compete at the highest level and definitely go to an expanded playoff. Because even missing the four-team playoff was like unaggast to the Alabama fans. It's like, we can't miss the playoff. And that was a four-team playoff. And they didn't miss it often. No, no, no. They were always in there. you can ride them in there at the beginning of the season, even in a year like this last fall, when we didn't think that they would get there. Guess where they were at the end in the playoff?

And so now it's expanding to 12. And you think for one moment that those fans won't absolutely revolt if they miss the playoff. So it comes down to just like a total number of losses. And you start to look at the schedule and you start to think to yourself, All right. What's the minimum here? I think that three losses is the max that a team can have and still go to the playoff. I just don't see the four loss team still getting into the playoff.

Maybe I'm wrong. And again, I don't know exactly how this is all going to play out in the expanded playoff. But three to me just seems like the number for some of these at-large teams, specifically in the SEC and in the Big Ten. That's where the majority of the at-law large teams will come from. I don't see over, you know, maybe there's a second team from some of these other leagues, but probably not, probably not. Their champions are going to get in. And then the at large teams are widely going to be coming from the SEC and from the Big Ten. And I think three is probably the number as far as losses. I think over that is interesting. So here comes the toughest games. And Alabama is going to be tough playing a ridiculously tough schedule. They've got to go to

Wisconsin. Now again, are they going to be favored against Wisconsin? Yeah, probably, but it's on the road. They've got to play Georgia. At least that's at home. They've got to go to Tennessee. That's a tough place to play. They've got to play Missouri. That's an up-and-coming team. They've got to go to Death Valley and go to LSU. Pray that that one's not at night. They've got to go to Oklahoma, a place that they haven't really been and is, you know, tough place to play. And they have the Iron Bowl. So Caleb DeBore's got his work cut out for him. So is it time to panic at Alabama? No. No, but is it going to look the same? No. No, it's not going to look the same. I know that they were looking for, you know, possible transfers to come in.

I think DeBoer and his recruiting style is going to be under scrutiny because it's not like he was churning out top five classes at Washington. Even though I know that he's a great coach, like guys, I know he's a great coach. And can he get it done at Alabama? Absolutely. In this first year, remains to be seen. know that he was after Noah Fafita and Teteroa McMillan at Arizona, didn't get him down. Those guys, Fafita and McMillan are going to stay in Tucson. So that's a big pickup for Brent Brennan. Fafita and McMillan are excellent players are really the reason and the drivers for Jed Fish to get that 10 wins. Then Fish bolts and he's now in Seattle taking over DeBore's job at Washington as DeBore takes over for Nick Sabin.

They're all trying to get each other's players. And guess what? Fafita and McMillan are staying put in Tucson. So good for them. It's not a demise at Alabama, but it is certainly, you know, a tremor. And there's always going to be people that are lurking, programs that are lurking. Because when someone is reeling, someone else is going to be trying to take advantage. That's just the nature of this business.

That's the nature of college football. And at least for this week, and we'll see how it is. moving forward, but at least for this week, the program that took most advantage of the situation was Ohio State. And what was Alabama's loss, in particular with Caleb Downs, which is now kind of the biggest transfer in the college football landscape, was Ohio State's gain as Downs goes to Ohio State. Now, early in this process, it was projected 100% that he was going to go to Georgia. So this is a major win for Ohio State to get a player, the caliber of Caleb Downs to come to Columbus. And this was on the heels, by the way, of a lot of guys on that

defense specifically that decided to forego their NFL draft proposition and return, stay in Columbus, and play another year. A bit of their own version. of unfinished business. And now you add what I think is one of the best defensive players in the country. I thought he was the Tide's best defensive player. He was one of the best safeties clearly in America. And now you add him to a defense that was already going to be one of the two or three best defenses in America.

That's a huge get, a huge get for Ohio State. Now I'm going to come back to before we get into all this Ohio State stuff. I'm going to come back to this. Remember, if you're talking about from an Alabama perspective and an Ohio State perspective, Ohio State thinks are like, well, now we're going to win the national championship. And from Alabama's perspective, it can be sky is falling. It's not sky is falling and it's not guaranteed that you're going to win the national championship. It's always somewhere in the middle. It's always somewhere in the middle because it's just one player.

All right. And I would think, and the way that Alabama is built, that they can move forward from this. but it's still a massive get on the Ohio State side. So they get Caleb Downs. They also get Julian Sane, who again hasn't taken a snap yet in college football. And I'm going to refrain for calling this like giant. Yes, he was rated basically the best quarterback in this last class.

Him and Dylan Raiola. Rayola went to Nebraska, saying now he enrolled at Alabama for this is spring of his senior year. And then he's now in the portal. and he is now committing and going to Ohio State. So that's huge. And now Ohio State is all loaded up. Okay.

So now let's talk about Ohio State for a moment. And let's bring it back to this notion and this fact that there is no greater motivator on earth than when your heated rival wins a national championship or has any success. You know it and I know it. In our personal lives, it remains true. but it certainly remains true in college football. Let me just give you, and I was going to do this a little bit later, but before I get into this Ohio State stuff, I just want to take you through a brief history of college football

and how rivals are so good for each other. Yes, we hate each other, and yet we need each other desperately. Why? Because it drives each other to greatness. And this is what I love about college football. You look back at some of like the blue blood, cream of the cream, top of the crop rivalries in college football and how they started to trade national championships.

Why? Because it's like, well, that team can't be playing at that level without us playing at that level. So the level of commitment from everybody, whether it's the fan base, whether it's the coaching staff, whether it's the administration, the support, everything around it starts to get ratcheted up. This is the best part about rivalries is you look through the history of college football and check this out. Blue Blood rivalries. I'm going to start like in the 80s. Because Miami in the 80s, they started winning titles, 87, 89, 91. What did Florida State do?

They were like, no, no, no, no. We're better. We can go and do this. So what do they do? They win a title in 92, or excuse me, finished second in 92, win a title in 93. And then they went another title in 99. What happens after 99?

Miami's like, nope, this is our role. What do they do? Second in 2000, and they win the title in 2001, finish second in 2002. Think about like Florida, Tennessee in that conference. What happens? Florida spurred by Miami and Florida State, they win a title in 1996. And what happens? Tennessee, bam, 1998. Why?

It spurs you to greatness when your rival achieves something that you want. And what happens? Michigan wins the national championship in Ohio State. You can feel it. You can sense it. There has not been this level of commitment from a fundraising standpoint in a long time. And look at them. bam, all these commitments from guys that are going to return and guys that are coming out of the portal.

And I get excited because this is college football. It's happened in the SEC for years, right? I mean, LSU and Florida win national championships. Alabama's like, not on our watch. We're going to hire Nick Saban. And they begin their run. And guess what happens? Auburn's like, not on our watch.

We're going to get Cam Newton. And then Georgia's finally like, not on our watch. We're going to get Kirby Smart. It just goes back and forth. And back and forth. And that's why I love it. I really do. I mean, in a lot of ways, Florida State's title and what was it,

14, Spurs Clemson to their title in that conference, rivalries drive the sport. And it's not just for the games against each other. It's what the other achieves in particular that you want. And so here we are. COVID-year, Ohio State plays for a national championship. Michigan redirects, re-plans, and starts targeting that goal. They now win a national championship.

What happens and you can feel it? You can sense it. Ohio State transitioning. Re-gathering the troops, if you will, and forming a new plan to go out there and try to compete and win a national championship. And I love it. I love everything about it. So what happens?

Well, here's what happens. For the last month, Ryan Day is committed fully, basically, to fundraising and and diving into NIL. And it's not just to go out into the transfer portal. See, that's where I think people get it wrong. It was to retain their own players. That cost Ohio State a lot of money. Think about all these guys that are returning for Ohio State.

This ain't for free, by the way. Trayvion Henderson, Ameca Abuka, J.T. Tuimolo, Jack Sawyer, Denzel Burke, Donovan Jackson, Tileak Williams, Lathan Ransom, Jordan Hancock, Ty Hamilton, Cody Simon. I listed off a bunch more than what you're seeing on the screen. The one on the screens are just like the big ones. I mean, it's wild. That costs a lot of money.

So what does he do? He's got to go and fundraise. And think about this too. Like there was a bit of a moment of necessity for Ryan Day to do this. Why? They're in a transition for president at Ohio. state. They were in a transition at athletic director. So Gene Smith stepping away. And before Ross York gets hired from Texas A&M, it's like, well, who's going to do this? Well, that necessity and

that void was filled by Ryan Day. And Ryan goes out there and pours himself into that and says, no, no, no, no, okay, let's commit. Let's have a plan. Let's move forward. We're close. We know we're close. So let's have a plan and let's move forward in order to achieve the objective. Let's not panic. Let's not freak out. Let's go achieve the objective. Because from his mind, right, think about this. If you're Ryan Day, I'm not talking about a fan. Okay, a fan, again, sky's falling.

We're going to win the national championship. And it's always in between. Is Ryan Day disappointed? Absolutely. There's no doubt. And guess what? He's doing and has done over the last month what I think really good coaches do, reevaluate, form a plan.

So he sits there and he starts to formulate a plan. Well, what do I need to do? Well, I need to get more resourced. Okay. So he goes and he gets more resource. And in his mind, he's thinking to himself, you know, we were not that far off from basically winning a national championship in each of the last two years. I don't think that that's a crazy proposition.

Now, maybe this year it was a little bit more far off than the year before. But listen, I think all of us. would acknowledge that two years ago, playing Georgia, in Georgia's backyard, by the way, in Atlanta and the Peach Bowl, they're a field goal away from beating Georgia, and they would have won the national championship. So to him, he's a missed field goal away from a national championship. Now, this year, he's got the eventual national champion in their building,

and they're driving to score to win the game. And they throw an interception. Now, I'm not saying the thoughts like, but in his mind, it's like, hey, guys, we're right there. So let's commit, let's refocus, let's have a plan, and let's move forward to execute that plan. Because the only thing that doesn't work at that moment is to freak out. You cannot throw everything out.

You cannot make wholesale changes at that point. There was a sector of the fan base that has said, like, well, if he loses to Michigan, they've got a change direction. say, we've got to get rid of Ryan Day. Are you aware of what's going on right now in college football when you try to make a coaching change, whether it's retirement or firing or just moving for another job? It's chaotic. You cannot change coaches in modern college football.

And I'm talking about modern, modern college football, new age college football, without essentially all hell breaking loose on your roster. Because of the agency that these players have and the autonomy that they have to move, there are no guarantees that anything is going to work out. So they've got one of the most talented rosters in football. He works hard to retain some of those guys that could go to the draft and they decide to come back. That's part of the plan. Get more resourced.

And then as opportunities arrive, he can spot transfer portal players to go and get with some of those resources and to pull them on that will complement and ultimately be really good pieces for them moving forward. And here are some of those pieces. You look at what they got on the incoming transfers. Now they've got one of the best safeties in the country, Caleb Downs, Quintan Junkins, the best running back from the SEC, and maybe in America, to pair with Trayvion Henderson in the backfield.

You get Will Howard, a quarterback that has won a Big 12 championship, Seth McLaughlin, Center from Alabama, and Julian Sane. Those are just some of the pieces, right? So you get that with the guys that are coming back, and now all of a sudden, you are building something at Ohio State that can ultimately reach the goal of potentially winning a national championship. I think that that's fascinating. I think it's incredibly fascinating.

One last thing before we get to the big move on the coaching staff is look at the quarterback room now at Ohio State. It's really wild. You look at the quarterback room so they get Will Howard. Devin Brown didn't go anywhere, so he's still there. He started the bowl game. Lincoln Kynholz is still there. He's the one that came in in relief of Brown in the bowl game.

Didn't go great. but I know that they still really like and believe in Lincoln. I wouldn't be shocked if he's a backup this next year. I really wouldn't. And then you got the two young kids that are coming in as true freshman, Aaron Nolan and Julian Sand, and they can slug it out. And here's the beauty about those two guys. They can go and slug it out, learn this offense,

and play and develop under Ryan Day. And whoever loses the competition can go, somewhere else. That's modern college football. So everyone's like, well, why would he do that? Well, it's like, because it's not the end all. It doesn't ruin your career. If you get beat out and you lose one quarterback battle, you can just move on. And so that's what they've got in the quarterback room. And that quarterback room will be coached by a new coach. And that's where we get to, I thought, maybe even the biggest news out of Ohio State, and that is Ryan Day will not call the plays,

and now it's going to be Bill O'Brien, who they hire as the new offensive coordinator. Interesting. Very interesting piece. Now, I think it also goes hand in hand with what I was talking about about Ryan feeling like he needed to go and get resourced and pour into other areas of the program in order to make the program as a whole better.

well, part of that is you got to relinquish some responsibility, and he's going to relinquish some of that responsibility to Bill O'Brien, who has a wealth of experience. I mean, the guy has coached Tom Brady for crying out loud, and Bryce Young. Like, I know it wasn't great in New England this last year, but Bill's got a lot of experience. And from from Ryan's perspective, I think that he was looking at this. and he thought to himself, you know what? I would rather bounce and develop and collaborate with a more experienced guy rather than groom an inexperienced, talented young guy with a lot of potential.

Why? Because I think they're trying to gear up for a run now. I'm not trying to groom a play caller. you know, and I do, I think there's going to be a lot of speculation about Brian Hartline in all of this. And Brian Hartline, if you don't know, he's one of the best assistant coaches in America. He's their wide receiver coach. And obviously they've had as good of wide receivers as any in the country. And look at what they're doing in the National Football League.

He's a great recruiter and he's a great wide receiver coach. I don't know if Brian, and I know Brian pretty well. I don't know if he wants to be a coordinator. I don't know if he wants to be a play caller. I do think he has aspirations for being a head coach at some point in his life, but I don't know if he wants to go the route of being an offensive coordinator and then a head coach. And I don't think he has to. And why I don't think he has to is I think that the sport has changed enough to where we can value just recruiting as much as we value calling plays.

When you're trying to build a roster, recruiting is the end-all-be-all, whether it's for transfer players or high-stores. school players. Okay, so he's shown an elite level of recruiting. Well, that's going to eventually land him a head coaching job at some point. Okay, so he's going to have those aspirations moving forward, and that's why I don't think he got the play calling duties right now as a new offensive coordinator. And now it goes to Bill O'Brien, who's not a young guy with potential, but rather an experienced guy that has been through it that Ryan Day can collaborate with. I think that's what happened. All right. So you look at this and is Bill O'Brien the play caller that Ryan Day is? No. But guess what? If I'm a Buckeye fan, I would take a lot of solace in the fact that guess who is on the headset as well, Ryan Day.

Okay? And every single thing that happens in the game plan, Ryan's going to have a 30,000 foot view and be able to poke holes in it throughout the week. And guess what? That's going to make Bill O'Brien better. That's going to make the entire staff better. So in a lot of ways, I think that this can and will and should work out. Now, we'll see if it does. We'll see if it does. But that's the way that I would look at this. Okay. Last thing in this topic, this whole idea that these coaches in college football, you know,

I don't know if it's possible anymore. to actually win at the top end being your own play caller. Because I don't even know if it's possible to do the job of what we think a head coach should be doing in college football right now and do it at an elite level. I think it's too much and it's too scattered as it's currently constructed. I can't imagine also trying to call plays. I think that's a bridge too far. We're asking college coaches to be elite coaches, elite GMs and roster builders, and elite mentors. Because remember, in college football, the coach bears responsibility when some kid gets arrested on the team or anything that happens on the team or within the organization or with an assistant.

See, in the NFL, that doesn't happen. The head coach never bears responsibility for those actions. Those actions are just the responsibility of that adult. But with these 18 to 22 year olds, man, I tell you what, that head coach, you know, what type of program is he running over there? My goodness. That's the way that we think about it. And so we want these guys to do everything at an elite level, and that's impossible.

You can't do everything at an elite level. You know how I know that? It's not even done in an elite level in the NFL. and they're not even asked to be the mentor that the head coaches are in college. We don't even in the NFL give guys now the responsibility to try to build the roster and be an elite coach. That didn't work. We tried it in the 90s, guys like Mike Shanahan and who was it, Mike Holmgren, who got all the power. Parcell's got all the power at some point.

There was only one head coach in the National Football League this year that was both the GM and the head coach. His name was Bill Belichick. And you can say he's one of the greatest of all time, but guess what? didn't work this year. The NFL has proven that you can't even do it at the NFL level. And here's the thing about it. At the NFL level, we try to make it easy on the guys to build the roster. That's not afforded the college head coach.

You see, at the next level, the head coach, if he's the decision maker and roster builder, roster builder, he can have free agency. He has a salary cap guy. He knows how much, how many resources he has. I didn't even talk about fundraising, by the way. I didn't even put that in my trifecta of what we expect coaches to be elite at. But he's got the resources. He's got the cap number.

He can go and he can sign free agents. And then he can go and he can evaluate and he can draft players. And then he can go into the OTAs. So it's all compartmentalized and it's all super organized and structured so that everyone can have success. But in college, it's an absolute disaster. It's a tornado. All right. it's trying to do etch-a-satch in a tornado.

You can't do it. You can't do it. And so here you are as a head coach. And now you're being asked to do all of these things at an elite level in the midst of chaos while you're trying to build a roster during a season and during bowl prep. And now I've got NIL. Now I've got a transfer period with the early signing day. And it's a disaster.

It's crazy. Ryan understood that. So what does he understand? He understood that he needed to get out of. of the play-calling business so that he could pour into the roster business. He needed to delegate some of that coaching responsibility so that he could dive into the GM and the mentor side of things. And he thinks that that's going to pay dividends for this program moving forward.

And it's hard to argue with him. Basically, he's built a roster that could be one of the best rosters in college football this next year. And in his mind, he's not going to be staring in a play sheet every day on Saturday. So now when, like, let's say, like the defense makes a play, he can be right there in the celebration. And in this day and age, when a player can walk out the door, don't you think it's valuable when that player, regardless of position or side of football, feels like his head coach is on his side and cares and is involved? Not with his head in his play sheet. I think that could be a powerful thing. So that's part of the plan. I started all this Ohio State section off with like,

have a plan moving forward. Well, this is part of the plan. Delegate some of this coaching responsibility. Dive into the roster building. dive into fundraising and NIL. Dive into the mentor side so that you can start to retain some of these defensive players and then invest in the entire team and not just the offensive side and not just the call sheet and see where the chips fall where, and let the chips fall where they may at the end. of the day. So where is he spending his extra time? That's where he's spending his extra time. If you're wondering. We will be on Harbaal Watch for really the rest of the week. Next week on Monday, make sure to come back. We'll have another episode of the program. In the meantime, enjoy the NFL football, enjoy the offseason as much as there is, and make sure to subscribe to the show

because every time that you follow us or subscribe to the show, you will know if we get news relevant enough to drop a show on you. You'll be the first to know. You can dive into the comments. I'll be there and I'll be conversating with you during the course of the week.

I don't think Colin plays works at the elite level. There's a reason we haven't seen a play caller win a national championship since Jimbo Fisher. And I think it's even harder now in the NIL era. So Ryan's giving up play calling duties, and that's why. Never a dull moment in college football. Appreciate you all for listening, and we'll be back next week with another episode of the Joel Clash show.