The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joel Klatt On What He Took Away From Texas-Oklahoma Game

Episode Date: October 14, 2020

Joel Klatt On What He Took Away From Texas-Oklahoma Game

Thatters, ballers, and bangers. This is Sports Talk 790. Home for your home teams. 134 on the Matt Thomas show. We spend 10-quarter minutes with our good friend, Joel Klat. I believe Joel is still waiting to catch his flight from Dallas back to Los Angeles because the flight was pushed back because the game is still going on between all you and Texas. Are you still in the Metroplex right now?

No. And I do have to tell you, that's always one of the longest games the year. So I did something smart and didn't schedule my flight until seven. So while a large portion of our crew did miss their flight and had to stay over, I was fine and got dinner and made my flight and was home by 9 p.m. Pacific time. Beautiful, right? Beautiful. Planning ahead, guys.

You know what? I actually tweeted during the game of like, Joel, you better change your flight. I know there's a lot of flights from DFW to LAA. so. Now that you've had a chance to decompress in that game a few days, what are you taking away from both teams right now? Oh, boy, that's a great question. Let me start with Texas, because I think that the biggest takeaway for me is the lack of progress. And I'm not just talking about wins and losses. I'm talking about the style in which they continue to lose games and to play. There is a consistent nature to the undisciplined longhorns and the missed assignments, the penalties that kill drives. And that's got to be frustrating.

The fact that they right now don't have a consistent run game, I thought was frustrating for them. The fact that their passing game has not been anywhere close to good in the last two weeks. weeks is, is frustrating. And the fact that the defense just continues to not be able to stop anybody, regardless of how many highly recruited players there are back there, I think is frustrating. They had a team that is clearly in a rebuild, clearly. I mean, like, plain as day in a rebuild at OU, their young quarterback gets benched in the second quarter, and they still can't win the game. Like, that's, that's problematic. On the other. their hand, what a lift for a team and a program that is clearly in a rebuild. And the confidence

that they must be getting from playing more quality defense for 56 minutes out of the 60, for a young quarterback that finally made the plays down the stretch in order to win a tight ball game, for a run game that got back on track for a defensive secondary that took away the easy throw. The week prior, Brock Purdy at Iowa State just killed them by just receiving the snap and throwing really easy completions out to the flat and the slot, little slant passes, and then they would go for big games because they would come up and miss the tackle. Those easy completions weren't there. They were playing tight coverage, making it tough on Ellinger to get the ball out of its hands quickly, and that allowed the pass rush then to get home.

And Ellinger was under duress. So I think this is a huge boost for them. I think it's something that they can candidly use in the recruiting trail and talk about the rebuild and how they're going to be right back at the pinnacle, the Big 12 soon. And we'll see if they're able to get to that championship game. They're going to need some help, obviously. But if they play like they did on Saturday, I think, you know, oh, you can and potentially will be, you know, anybody left on their schedule, including even Oklahoma State. So right now the top two teams in the league, as I happened to, I was in Lubbock with my son. We watched Texas Tech and Iowa State. Is Iowa State and Oklahoma State the top two head and shoulders about everybody else in the division in the

conference right now? I think Oklahoma State is obviously, and just by record-wise, yeah, you're sitting there with Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Kansas State, as a team that should be reckoned with because that TCU team's not bad, and they went down there and it flat played some defense against Max Duggan. And think about it. Iowa State couldn't stop Max Duggan. Texas couldn't stop Max Duggan. And there's a... Kansas State that come in and they play really well. So that Big 12 is crazy. If you had to ask me right now, who do I think plays for the Big 12 championship game this year?

I believe it's going to be Oklahoma State against either of those two teams, Kansas State or Iowa State. And I think coming into this year, if you would have told somebody like those are going to be your three best teams, they've been like, this is crazy. But it's certainly frustrating. And if that's the case, trust me when I tell you this, the people down at Texas are not. going to be happy in a year in which this really should have been their year with the roster that they had. I don't want you to give away company secrets, but you kind of intimate a little bit. I may have been through your Twitter.

I don't know where I saw it, but do big-time administrators or coaches or boosters want to lob a little phone call to you or a little email saying, hey, we're not happy with Tom? Do you get that stuff a lot or rarely or none at all? Let me choose my words. Choose them. Carefully. Take them very carefully. I get that type of contact enough.

Okay. And it happens, right? And I'm not, but I will say it has not happened with anybody around, affiliated with, or connected to the Texas program this year. Okay. We'll leave it that. LSU, Florida, postponed, Joel. Florida's AD basically saying we got all the COVID we went to college station.

Is that shade or our schools, even the super mega conference is not behaving themselves these last few weeks? Well, I know Florida was unhappy with the crowd size. And they believe that the announced crowd was not what was actually there and in person. Now, believe what you want to believe there. I would say that like shade or no shade, fault or no fault, I think all of us, all of us around college football fans included would be incredibly naive to believe that this season was going to go on without a hitch at any level, right? I mean, I don't care if it's high school is trying to play, college is trying to play, regardless of the level, regardless of testing

protocol, the NFL, regardless of protocol. Like, this was always going to happen. And I think that what we should be more concerned with rather than just like, hey, there's a postponement. Yeah, it's a postponement. Will we rather see the game? Sure. I would love to see Florida and LSU both try to bounce back, in particular on their defenses side, which both those defenses played terrible last week, one against Missouri and LSU, and the other there against the Aggies. But I would rather, and I feel like this has been lost, and I think it's a disservice not only to the public, but also just to the fan bases in general. What's been loss is we throw out this news of these positive tests as if it's just like,

Well, it's all doom and gloom. And in reality, you know, it is for a period of time. And the overwhelming majority, you know, basically 100 percent of these young men and even staffers so far have come out of this and have been healthy. And I think that we should celebrate that fact and we should champion that fact and saying like, hey, this is this is a positive that we're getting through this. And while we have stops and starts and no one wants to see that, it's not the end of the world because we can and will get healthy and move forward with the season. But I think that there is a certain level of naive thinking to think that this was not going to happen. And even in the SEC, the almighty SEC, now as far as the shade being thrown at, this is happening across the sport.

Remember, you know, I can't remember. There was a kid that came out on Twitter and it was like, hey, check Arkansas State because we were fine before we played Arkansas State. And then Kansas State had a spike after they played Arkansas State. And I think this is the problem when you get individual schools being responsible for their own types of protocols. Here's what's so fascinating, Matt. Did you know, did you know that it's up to the individual program, how they are adhering to the guidelines in terms of contact tracing and isolation and quarantine after positive tests. So some teams, this is absolutely true. Some teams, if you're in a meeting room with a team with a teammate that tests positive, regardless of if you were six feet away or not, you're

out. Bam. Like you get contact trace. There are other programs that are only isolating a contact trace if it's your roommate that gets tested positive because they're saying the six feet that we're adhering to within our meeting rooms is good enough to avoid the contact training. So, and this is within conferences. See, I think we're under this assumption that every team within a said conference, SEC Big 12, whatever, is adhering to the exact same protocols, and that's not the case. Well, they're all... And I think that that's got to be one of the most frustrating parts about what's going on in

the season. Well, what I'm noticing, Joel, is that all these conferences are bragging about their multiple tests per week. Okay, so you're having these tests. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're still following the rules. The rest of the time these coaches and kids are together, right? Well, that's exactly, that's exactly right. And like I was saying, there's no protocol.

The SEC doesn't mandate like, hey, no team meetings, right? Hey, you know, we're not, you can't do position meetings. Do you have the contact trace based on X, Y, or Z? All that's left up to the school. So now all of a sudden, these schools have their autonomy. me. And, you know, one guy gets it. And then all of a sudden, you know, they're talking about Baylor. Baylor is talking about how, like, a negative test, you know, was the first domino. A false negative. Yeah.

That caused a big spike on their team. So I think everyone's trying to learn as they go. And unfortunately, this is not going to be the first game that's postponed. To quick wrap it up, A&M with, I tell you what, Jimbo can beat Florida, no matter what school he's coaching and he loves beating those gators regardless. Mississippi State was impressive with their win against LSU, but have been terrible since. Can Iguys go on the road this week and beat the

Bulldogs? I mean, absolutely. It's just a matter of which Mississippi State, which Mike Leach team are going to get. You guys there in Texas, you understand exactly what I'm talking about. There is an offense or a coach that has higher peaks and lower valleys than Mike Leach over the course of his career. It's one of the big reasons

why there's a ceiling on his offense. There's a ceiling on him as a coach, and he's never won a division championship. There was only one year he tied for it, was 2008. He was 11 and 1 with that great Texas tech team. Right? Like, you can go out there and stop it. Now, if you don't adjust and if you let them get going, then it's going to be a long day.

So I'm really interested to see how A&M can bounce back defensively, in particular, after giving up, you know, over 400 yards and seeing how they play against that Mississippi state team. Well, I love you like a younger brother, and I religiously watched the 11am kick. You don't have to do it this week. I might be hard-pressed. I got to be brutally honest with you. I just don't have any interest in Kansas, West Virginia.

Although you get good ones out of it. My man. My man. That might make two of us. Don't tell anybody. Don't tell anybody. By the way, that Gus Gasms this week are over the top. Ellinger was just fantastic.

I say what you will. Putting Gus Johnson and Joe Clout on an overtime game, multiple overtime game, where Gus is going to lose his lunch. It was a great call. You guys had a great job, and I look forward to talk with you next week. I appreciate him, Matt. Have a good one. We'll see you later.

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