The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Wisconsin faces Ohio State, 'Bama is without Tua...what will happen this weekend?!

Episode Date: October 24, 2019

Joel lays out some of the most exciting change-ups in college football this weekend, what to expect in the biggest games and what teams will bring the biggest upsets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? Welcome to another week of breaking the huddle. I'm Joel Clatt. This show is brought to you by Dr. Pepper. It is the official drink of Fansville. I'm so excited this week I wore my Dr. Pepper colored sweater. Yeah, that's right. You're welcome, Dr. Pepper.

You're welcome. Lots to get into my top 10 this week. We've got to talk about these 10 teams, including a team that is reemerging into the top 10. I've got a new 10th place team after last week. some of that turnover that we saw, Wisconsin, now out of the top 10 after that really bad loss at Illinois. So I'll get through all of that, and I gotta tell you,

things are really heating up right now because Bama's gonna be without Tua, we'll get into that. How does that affect Bama? What does that look like in particular in a couple of weeks against LSU? What does Ohio State's matchup against Wisconsin look like now that Wisconsin has a loss, so on and so forth?

Lots to get into. First, first, folks, college football fans. This is a remarkable year of college football. I cannot remember a year in which we had this many teams that had legitimate national title type players, rosters, resumes. I think we've got five, six, seven teams, any of them that could win the national championship.

It's a really deep field. By the way, we've also got about that many players that are vying for the Heisman Trophy. This could be one of the best second half of the season that we have seen in recent memory. I can't wait. I think that the second half of the season is going to be absolutely tremendous.

November is going to be absolutely tremendous. And we're going to see, hopefully, the cream rise to the top. And then the pretenders kind of go by the wayside here as we go along in the next few weeks. And that's what the next few weeks is really going to be about, as teams start getting into that third, fourth, and fifth game in a row, in four, conference play, you're going to see more of these teams start to fall by the wayside as they

get out onto the road in tough environments. They will at times fail, like Wisconsin did a week ago against Illinois. So with that being said, let's get into it. The top 10 as I see it this week in college football. Let's start with my number 10 team. Here it is making their midseason debut. I think I had them up there earlier in the year as well before they lost to USC. But Utah, still with only that one loss, Utah is a really good football team. Their defense might be one of the best defenses in the entire country. And when I'm talking about just their front seven, I do believe it's actually the best front seven in the country. Now, some will start to lament from other conferences or they will start to argue from other parts of the country, like who cares the

Pact 12 is not going to go to the playoff. That might be true, although there's an injury in the SEC that might throw things totally out of whack. And maybe just maybe, will the PAC 12 have an argument with a one-lost team as champion, whether it's these Utah Uts or maybe even Oregon that could sneak in to the college football playoff? I think people on the West Coast are starting to get their hopes up just a little bit. And part of that is the fact that Utah is playing such good football. Again, their defense is spectacular. Tyler Huntley has been really good and efficient at quarterback. And Zach Moss continues to churn out yards. He's one. one of the better backs, certainly on the West Coast, but really in all of college football.

When those two guys are healthy and they play all four quarters, Utah over the last couple of years has barely been beat, if at all, when those guys play the entire game together. Remember, Moss was not available for three quarters against USC because he went down in that game. That's a large reason why they ended up losing that game to USC. So Utah sitting there at number 10. That's a really good football team. Notre Dame is going to be at 9. Buy week last week. What a huge buy week that is because now they have to go on the road to Michigan.

I mean, the scheduling gods, i.e. the athletic directors, were very generous to Notre Dame. Michigan had to go on the road, play a night game in the toughest environment in college football. Best environment in college football? The whiteout is tremendous, right? I mean, Penn State, kudos to you, your student section, everything about that environment. Michigan had to go play that night game. Now they're going to get home late. They get kind of beat up, certainly an emotional loss, in particular with how it happened on that fourth down. And now they've got a rested top 10 team waiting for them. That's going to be very tough.

Notre Dame, by the way, running the football, incredibly effective. They ran the ball their last outing for over 300 yards against USC. Number eight is Georgia. Hey, Georgia fans, why are you booing your football team? I don't quite understand that. and I stand with D'Andre Swift in calling you out. You're really going to boo your team? I understand it was zero-zero, you're like, oh, our game plan sucks.

It was a torrential downpour with wind. Where are you throwing the football? You're throwing it just to throw it to prove that you've got, what, offensive elasticity? I don't, like, who cares if they were throwing it or not? They were controlling the game at the line of scrimmage. They were trying not to turn the football over. What happens, the ball pops out? You throw an interception and then it goes the other way.

It's still a zero-zero-zero game. You're clearly dominating Kentucky. They've got basically a wide receiver playing quarterback. My game plan would have been conservative as well. Booing your home team. That's a top 10 team. You're booing them at home? Give me a break.

Who are you? DeAndre Swift, good on you for calling them out this week via social media and in the media. Georgia is still a really good football team. defensively, I like what they are. They can run the football very well. Fromm came back to life a little bit just in terms of his game management. Remember, there was only like 56 yards total of passing. It was a torrential downpour.

Swift was really good. Georgia is still number eight. Now they're going to have, I believe, a bye week. And then they've got this team, my seventh-ranked team, Florida. That's going to be a really good game. So Florida is down going into the fourth quarter against South Carolina, a team that had just knocked off, who was it, Georgia. I wasn't disappointed in Florida because, remember, they were coming off of the Auburn game.

Then they went on the road to LSU, back-to-back ranked opponent. Now they're back on the road against South Carolina, a South Carolina team that's playing with a lot of confidence. You could see that game being close well into the second half. Muchchamp did a great job with the South Carolina team. And yet, after all that, two straight hard games, now you're on the road. I thought Florida played great in the fourth quarter. Was it 21-7 in the fourth quarter? Trask was really good in the fourth quarter.

They showed me a lot in that win over South Carolina. So I'm still cautiously kind of a believer in Florida, the winner of that game, highly likely to win that division and go represent the East in the SEC championship game. Clemson is at number six. They climb up a spot as Wisconsin tumbles out. Clemson sloppy at times against Louisville, but ultimately their defense was really good.

It continues to play great in particular in the second level. Their second and third levels, there's NFL players littered back there. The defensive line, not quite what it was a year ago. They were historically good a year ago. And then offensively, there's a part of Clemson on offense, And let's just talk about Clemson for a sec, because I've been accused of, and I will be accused of, hating Clemson. I don't hate Clemson.

Offensively, they have not quite played up to expectation. And I think that there's an explanation for that. So many times what happens in college football is that you get these great players, and Trevor Lawrence is a great player, these wide receivers are great players. ETIN is a great running back. And you have this expectation that the offense is going to be historically good. And what can happen is, is that in the pursuit of perfection, you lose the simplicity of just executing the offense. I think at times people try to search for too much.

I think Trevor Lawrence is searching for too much on the field. He's trying to make every throw as the future top pick in the draft, the best player in college football. I'm trying to prove that on every snap rather than just check the ball down. Just utilize what's in front of you. Operate the system. When he gets back to that, I'm telling you Clemson is going to be a really tough out. And I don't know if there's any team in the country that can beat Clemson. If their offense just plays under control.

You don't have to be perfect all the time. Let me give you an example. I was talking with Dan Rolovsky. He's a good friend of mine. We were in Detroit together when I was in training camp. He did their game last week. And Dan and I talked, and then I went back and I watched the Clemson film because he brought up a great example. He was like, listen, Joel, they ran four verticals a couple of times.

And the checkdown on second down is just sitting in front of Trevor Lawrence's face wide open. As quarterbacks would say butt naked. And the checkdown is sitting there wide open, and he tries to force the ball down the field, trying to make the perfect throw to prove he's Trevor Lawrence. You know, he's Thor, he's Dandos, he's like, he's the guy, he's got, hey man, just take the check down. Tom Brady has made a career out of it. Just take the check down. Use the offense for what you see and take what the defense gives you.

So it's a good point by Dan. I went and checked out the film, he's absolutely correct. And as soon as Clemson gets back to just utilizing the system, playing what I would call as simple, efficient, and effective football, they're going to be incredibly tough to beat. By the way, that's a really natural thing is to kind of hunt for perfection like that. But sometimes in the hunt for perfection, you can get lost in that and not utilize your own system. Penn State is at number five. Great win last weekend.

There is a little bit of concern that they did it just with big plays. I like what their defense did. And yet, when you look at the stat sheet and you really look at the second half, I would argue that Michigan outplayed them in the second half. Really should have tied the football game up there at the end on that fourth down play. In fact, Michigan had 134 more total yards than Penn State. So something to watch for as they move forward, but their defense continues to play well.

I'm very impressed with Sean Clifford. They got a tough one this week, by the way, up at Michigan State. Oklahoma's number four. I was back in Norman. I feel like I should have an apartment there. Oklahoma continues to show that they're a more balanced team. All right, Alex Grinch on that defensive side,

he's doing a heck of a job. This is why Oklahoma, I think, is a real bona fide national championship team is because they're balanced. They're really good on special teams. Their offense clearly is one of the best offenses in college football, if not the best offense in college football. And now their defense quietly, quietly top 25 scoring defense. Here's why that's important.

Oklahoma last year was terrible on defense. If you go back through the history of college football in the modern age, let's go back to the start of the BCS. Nobody has won a national championship outside of one team that did not have a top 25 defense in the country. That one national champion was Auburn with Cam Newton. They beat Oregon in that national championship game. I believe that they're scoring defense. I want to say, you can correct me if I'm wrong,

somewhere in the 55-56 range. Well, now all of a sudden, Oklahoma looks at that blueprint and they say, okay, if every champ at least has to have a comparable defense, if they've got to have a defense that can play top 25 scoring defense, what should we do? Play top 25 scoring defense. Now they have it with an offense that continues to be historically good. Watch out for Oklahoma. I know a lot of people are saying, hey, they haven't

played anybody, which is correct, but Oklahoma is more balanced now than they ever have been. Bama is going to be at number three for me. I'm really concerned about Tua, very concerned about Tua. I'm going to put the rest of these teams up here so that I can kind of talk about all of them in conjunction, because I think that you've got to talk about at least two and three in conjunction with one another. LSU and Alabama, that matchup in a couple of weeks is going to be unbelievable. this week, they have a buy next week, and then they're going to play each other in the weeks after that, in the week after that. Tua is going to have the same surgery that he had last season before the college football playoff, and it's kind of a tightrope surgery, and it's on the

different ankle. So it's a different ankle. Not great, right? He had 28 days before that OU game last year to get healthy. He's got 20 from the surgery until the LSU game. I have my doubts about his effectiveness and health in that game against LSU. Now, is it all that important because of like LSU's great defense? No, no, not really. But if Bama can't get in a shootout with LSU, what else are they going to rely on? Bama's not what they have been historically under Nick Saven on the defensive side, several true freshmen in particular at linebacker playing.

They're not the running team that they used to be. So where are they leaning right now if they can't throw the football to score 45 or 50 points. That's a concern, folks. If Tua is not 100%, LSU will beat Alabama, they're good enough. They're good enough on offense. They're good enough in the second theory on defense to make life miserable on whoever is playing quarterback for Alabama. If they don't have Tua, I think that could be a really interesting thing. And then Ohio State's number one, they continue to be the most balanced, the most explosive, and the best overall team in the country. They continue to prove that every single week. A big improvement, by the way, on their

defensive side as it relates to the big plays that they give up or lack thereof this year. Last year, 39 plays. They gave up of 30 or more yards. You know that was 118th in the country. 118th in the country giving up big plays with that amount of talent on the field. Guess how many they've given up this year of 30 yards or more? Four. Four. That's the lowest mark in the country. So they've gone from 118 to first. That was their Achilles heel last year. Remember those plays against Maryland? That's why they were in some of those dog fights.

That's why they looked sluggish at times. Now they're not giving up big plays. Their offense continues to be balanced. Their run game is better than it was a year ago. Fields continues to develop from the pocket. The defense is sensational. They get after the quarterback. Chase Young has nine and a half sacks

that's tied for the top mark in the country. Tell me who's better than Ohio State. I'll wait. And there you have it. Let's get to the fan feedback right now, because this is my first. this is my favorite part of the show is that when we get to interact, okay? I like questions.

I love snark. And by the way, we've got a really good snarky one. Someone got me on Twitter and all I could do is just applaud. And we're going to get to that in just a moment. So send your comments in and listen, we can all have some fun. By the way, I love all the graphics. Ohio State, you still need to, you need to solid out your numbers. Okay, I just, I don't like, like, you can't see it.

Don't worry. I'll be there tomorrow. I'll come into the graphics department. I'm coming to town. Wisconsin, Ohio State will be there. Big noon Saturday. I'll come into the graphics department. We can hash this out. We can fix it. We can fix it. It needs to be fixed. By the way, volunteers. You got that? Tears from Alabama. Nice job. I love that. Absolutely. Some snark from the official accounts. No, this is interesting right here. Ban Bobo. Ban Bobo, Buckeye fan. He says, hey, hypothetical here. If Ohio State wins out, how many think they will jump to number one. There is no way. you can argue strength of schedule and not have them at number one. If they get wins over Wisconsin and Penn State, don't forget Cincinnati and Michigan are also ranked teams right now as well.

Kind of a run-on sentence, basically, they start with the original premise. If they went out, would they be number one? I don't think it matters because if they went out, they're going to go to the playoff. If you were to ask Ryan Day and that entire team, hey, would you rather be ranked number one going into the playoff or just get into the playoff? They would say, get into the playoff. We want our chance.

We want a chance to shoot our shot on the biggest stage. And I think that they're going to have an opportunity to do that. If they go undefeated, depending on what happens around them, yeah, I think that they would be one of the teams that you could rank number one. If LSU is number one, would they probably be ranked higher than Ohio State? Yeah, probably, because they've got that non-conference game against Texas. If Alabama goes undefeated, would they probably be ranked higher? Yeah, because they're Alabama, and that's just what the voters do.

But again, I don't think it matters. I really don't think it matters. Their strength of schedule is going to be tremendous. Cincinnati continues to help them out on that. They still have the potential matchup against an undefeated Penn State team. If Penn State can take care of Minnesota here in the next couple of weeks, they've got Wisconsin this week. Ohio State's in great position to get into the playoff.

Remember, it doesn't matter if you're number one. It really doesn't. Just get in there to shoot that shot when you're on the biggest stage. All right, let's see. What are we going up here? I mean, OU 16 for 17 for Jalen Hertz. By the way, the one drop, the one drop was Drake Stoops, Bob's son. That was the one in completion.

He dropped the ball. I love you, Drake. I love you, I love you, Bob. But that was a drop. Oh, man. Jeff Dart says, not arguing he should be on the list. Just curious if you'd consider Tyler Huntley at Utah for your Heisman, I'm consuming, or assuming based on the at Heisman Trophy.

What are your thoughts on him here? I really love what Huntley is doing. I really do. He's been efficient, has not turned the football over. He did throw his first interception last week. But Huntley is doing exactly what he needs to do, which is be efficient for a great defense and a run game that can really churn out yards.

I actually think the more valuable player for them is Zach Moss. So if you're asking me, like, of the Utah players, which one would I vote for a Heisman? It would probably be Zach Moss. I'm not arguing that he should be in the Heisman race. I'm just saying that I think Zach Moss would probably be the player that's more impactful. I did this exercise and forgive me because I just don't know exactly the games that they have played all four quarters together and not played all four quarters together

based on injury. I can't remember a game in the last couple of years where Utah has lost with Huntley and Moss playing all four quarters of football. Something to watch out for, right? Because I think that they actually have a better chance to win the PAC 12 even than maybe Oregon. And Oregon is a really good football team. So watch out for Utah. Jeff, good question. All right. What else do we have here? There's Zach Moss, Utah, nicely done, good graphics. All time leading rusher. Congratulations, Zach Moss. All time leading rusher at Utah. Way to go. Love going to Salt Lake, by the way. Jeff Patton says the more you take shots at Clemson, the worst your comments will

look when they win that third Natty. Last week you had Wisconsin ahead of them. They gone. They will fall one by one. Yeah, maybe and the other teams might fall one by one because Clemson's schedule is garbage because they play in the worst conference in the country. So Jeff, I agree with you. The other teams may fall one by one. And by the way, I don't hate Clemson. I don't even think Clemson is bad. I just talked about the fact that if they clean some things up on offense, I think they could be a national champion again. So I'm with you. They might win the national championship. Is their schedule great? No. Are they bored with that schedule? It looks like it. Can they be bored because the ACC is total trash? Yeah.

None of that suggests that I hate Clemson. Because I have teams rated ahead of them, I mean, Penn State has done more on their schedule so far. Oklahoma has been more dominant than Clemson, in particular offensively. Bama has been more dominant at times. LSU, much better resume. Ohio State, much better resume, and more dominant at times. I think I have them ranked appropriately. It doesn't mean that I hate them. It means that I think that they are a great team, great team, that haven't achieved yet in this season what those other five teams have achieved. That's all.

That's all. I really think Clemson's going to be in the playoff because no one's going to challenge them in the ACC. And I think they're going to have a great shot to win the national championship. Because when he plays well and within the system, I still think the best quarterback in the country is Trevor Lawrence. What about that suggests that I hate Clemson? None of it. Pound sand, Jeff. Get out of here.

All right, let's see. Oh, this is my favorite one. And it comes from a Clemson fan. And I got to tell you, I love this so much. I sent out kind of a snarky tweet about like, hey, I loved my tie. And from this last week, you'd have to go check it out on social media.

But Benton here says, no tie in the long and storied history of men's fashion could mask the misinformed propaganda and bad takes coming from just above that half-ass, half wins or not. I mean, how good was... If Twitter wasn't created for a tweet just like that, I don't know why it was created. I mean, kudos to you. I wish I had a prize for you, Benton, that I could send to you. That, I mean, that is so good. That last line.

The misinformed propaganda and bad takes coming from just above that half-ass, half wins or not. I gotta tell you, I mean, can we be best friends? I know we had a moment on Twitter because I applauded you on Twitter. I said, listen, that's great. That's what I love. Folks, I'm snarky with you. Be snarky back. That's part of the fun.

This is college football. It's supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be fun. Benton, you get it. I absolutely love it. The one thing I will say, it's not a half Windsor. That's a full double, my friend. That's a full double.

Do you think I would go half? What? What am I a banker? Come on. Get out of my face. Vinton, half, half wins are unbelievable. All right, let's get to the last part of the show, which is my performer of the week.

My performer of the week is the environment at Penn State, the student section at Penn State. I alluded to it earlier. That environment, the whiteout was absolutely tremendous. I absolutely loved it. In a real sense, that was one of the reasons why Penn State played so well early and jumped out to that lead.

And Michigan was never able to come back in that football game. So that was my perform in the week. There's a couple of others that I wanted to just throw out there. Baylor continues to play well. So Matt Ruhl, that's one heck of a performance. The holder who has had and battled cancer at Minnesota and got into the game with PJ Fleck and the moment that they had, I believe his last name's O'Brien. Why am I missing that right now? Someone's going to get that so I can get his actual name. But PJ Fleck, kudos to you. That was a great moment. That's what college football is all about. It reminded me lot of USC over the last few years with Jake down there, who is the long snapper and was blind.

I love that, right? So that's a performer of the week. Jalen Hertz, won in completion. You were tremendous in the game that I was at. That's a great performance of the week. And then Lovie Smith in Illinois, beating Wisconsin. I'm going to finish with that because I've got Wisconsin this week. Lovie Smith and Illinois, what a tremendous win that was.

and you kept fighting and fighting and fighting. When you watch the film, it would be very easy for Illinois to just quit because the first series of the game, Wisconsin goes right down the field and scores. And you can kind of see that the wind goes out of the sales for Wisconsin. They're kind of like, okay, that's going to be quick work. We're out of here. And then all of a sudden, Illinois just keeps coming back. Their defense continues to play well.

They create a couple of turnovers late. They're able to get a couple of completions, break a few tackles. They're in a nine-point game, and then they win. I absolutely love it. That's why college football is great. That doesn't mean that Wisconsin is bad. It doesn't mean that the Big Ten is bad. Remember now, remember.

Last week we saw South Carolina beat Georgia and what did everyone argue from the South. See, this is why the SEC is so good. So you can't bag on the Big Ten for a similar type of outcome when on the road, Wisconsin goes in there and gets beat by an Illinois team. I think it actually speaks to the depth of the Big Ten rather than it does to the non-quality of Wisconsin.

We'll see them this week as they face Ohio State on Big Noon Saturday. What was? Casey O'Brien. Casey O'Brien. Cous to you, PJ Fleck. That was awesome. Rowing that boat.

I get a little emotional. I've got three kids. I've got three sons. So when I saw that and the hug that they shared, that was really special. I absolutely loved it. So that was one of my performances of the week. This has been Breaking the Huddle.

I'm Joel Clatt. Hope you enjoyed the show. Remember, bring that snark. Continue to bring things like that. Benton, well done. You're winning to year. so far in the comments section on Twitter. At Joel Clat on Twitter.

Joel underscore Clat on Instagram. Get there. We're going to have exclusive things like a Q&A as well as videos that I post from site when I get to Ohio State this week. Lots of content coming up, so make sure to check out everything on social, including CFB on Fox on Twitter.

All of that is right there. Thank you to Dr. Pepper. Remember it is the official drink of Fansville. Enjoy college football this weekend, everybody.