Is it time to panic about Oregon, Ohio State or Oklahoma? Plus teams to get excited about

low energy unfocused foggy you might be dehydrated whether it's hot yoga over 100 degree weather or too much sun gator light with a specialized blend of five electrolytes was scientifically designed to help move fluids into the body faster for rapid rehydration shop now at retailers nationwide gator light hydrates faster than water is it in you symptoms noted are signs of mild to moderate dehydration consult a health care professional if symptoms persist let's all channel our inner aaron rogers and just relax if i'm a ucla fan it's like yes sark said it himself in the postgame presser now we know we can what's more dangerous than a talented team a talented team that believes welcome back you know what it is this is the joel klatt show i'm joel klatt this show is sponsored by hilton hilton for the stay we thank them for their support as always including their support last week and i want to thank you all for your support and what you guys are consuming here because last week was awesome you guys were awesome um college football continues to be uh phenomenal uh last week we had our most viewed episode of all time uh our most viewed week of a regular season we had a sold-out show in ann arbor we had a sold-out show in ann arbor we had a sold-out show in ann arbor we couldn't do that without hilton and we couldn't do it without you the college football fan so well done thank you so much remember subscribe to the program on youtube and invite a friend because all of this is better with a friend we've got a lot to get into here today here's what i wanted to do today i'm thinking about these these last two weeks of college football and i've been honestly it's like okay we know more about these teams we can we can put aside what we talked about for six months in the off season now we can actually talk about tangible evidence what have we seen on the field and so i'm going to tell you about some teams that i'm panicked about i'm going to tell you some teams that i'm cautiously optimistic we might need to just stay calm and then i've got some teams that i'm just going to flat get excited about because i think that they've got something to them their schedule lines up they've got some players that can be very exciting so that's what we're going to do it's a bit of a fan-based check-in right now and i'm telling you what i'm excited about where i'm cautious and whether it's time to panic for some of you out there and let's start right there because we've seen two games and i've got a team that i told you about all off season that i was super excited about that i thought was going to be a national champion contender i thought that they would absolutely be there in the end and for the second straight year i look to be dead wrong i think it's time to panic for oregon folks oregon's loss to oklahoma state was so jarring because of the fashion in which it happened they were totally dominated in that game their first game was a game that was going to be a game that was going to be a game that was going to First two touchdowns, the Ducks' first two touchdowns were defensive scores. On tip passes, Mestemaker was picked off from Oklahoma State, and they took him back to the house. If not for those two defensive scores, that is a rout, a rout. The film was alarming for Oregon on both sides of the ball, by the way, both sides of the ball. I think it's time to panic. They lose that game 39-31. It's not just the result. They're now dealing with some injury issues. Trent Ferguson on the offensive line, he started at left guard. He's now out for the season with a knee. Their tight end, who I thought was right in there in the All-American category in the preseason, he missed the Oklahoma State game. That's Jamari Johnson. He could miss a few games. That's not good with USC coming up. Their slot safety, Carl Williams, he got hurt when Mestemaker dove into the end zone. This is not great. Injuries are always going to happen, there's no doubt, but you don't want them to happen when you're trying to right the ship, and that's exactly what Oregon is trying to do. I'll go a little bit quicker on most teams, but I wanted to sit for a moment because there's been a lot of chatter out there about tendencies and tells, more specifically with the Oregon Duck and in particular on the offensive side of the football. So if you haven't seen it, Oklahoma State linebacker Tate Romney, he brought up that they found a couple of tells in the offensive line and some of the ways that they were lining up on offense that was a dead giveaway in terms of whether it was a run or a pass. Now, I thought to myself, like, that's pretty bold to say that. It was also backed up by what Aiden Fisher said last year. Remember that? Before the semifinal game, Aiden Fisher had something right after that game kind of similar about this Oregon team, so it caused me to go and do a bit of a deeper dive. So in the last day, I was on a deep dive, both in last year's film from Oregon and early this year against Boise and against Oklahoma State. And what did I find? They have tells. This is not some linebacker that like, you know, one play knew what they were doing. No, no. Oregon has run past tells in their offense, and this is a devastating deal. Now, they're subtle. They're definitely subtle, and I'm not going to give them specifically away. I don't know if that's fair of me. I will tell you it's probably better that Oregon hears about this now. than later in the season, because now they can get it corrected. Their quarterback has run past tells. Their posture of their tackles has run past tells. That's as far as I'll go, but it's definitely there. But the film was also alarming on the defensive side. Let me tell you what's going on on the defensive side, because that's more schematic-based. They had this defensive line that they felt like was an NFL defensive line. In fact, all four of those guys up front turned down the opportunity to go to the NFL in order to come back to Oregon. Granted, it's the NIL era, so they're not turning down a ton of money. They're obviously getting paid at Oregon and getting paid well. But you can tell that the entire structure of their defense is built so that those four guys dominate the game. The reason that you know that is that they play with short run ratios. What does that mean? It means that they defend the pass mostly. They've got safeties back, and the offense can block everybody in the front. Now, when you play a defensive structure like that, you're communicating to the offense that you feel like your defensive line can win their matchup, and that regardless of how many bodies you have in the run box, you can stop the run. The problem? Oregon's not doing that, and they're not doing it at all. And then the safeties who need to be in the run fit because they're short numbers in the run front, they're late to the party. What does that add up to? Over 270 yards of rushing from Oklahoma State. That's what it adds up to. They are not playing very gap sound. Their linebackers are running around tackles, and those defensive linemen, they are getting eaten up. There's two ways defensive lines can play. This is a little bit in the weeds, but there's basically two ways defensive lines can play, two philosophies that defenses will use with their guys up front. Some will try to penetrate and get up the field. So they try to get vertical, and they try to attack up the field and play in the opponent's backfield. This is like Indiana does this. UCLA does this. A lot of teams do this, and those are the teams. Oklahoma does this. These are the teams that go after TFLs and sacks. Now, some defenses philosophically want their defensive line to impact, hold, and read, and then shed blocks and defend the gap. Okay, so it's not a penetrating defense. It is a stand the offensive line up, let the linebackers react, shed blocks, and make the tackle in the hole. So two different philosophies in terms of technique used at the defensive line. Oregon uses the latter, what I was just talking about. They like to hold people up, but they don't want to get up the field. They like to get up the field, and they up at the line of scrimmage, then react and shed blocks. Here's the problem. Nobody is shedding blocks. So their guys just stand up the offensive linemen, and then they're just blocked, and the running backs run right past them. The double teams are moving the Oregon defensive line. Again, it is alarming for the Ducks to turn on the film and watch that, and they're not changing much in their structure, still accounting or relying on those defensive linemen to make the plays up front. It's not happening. It's not happening right now. So the question becomes, is this fixable? And the answer is yes. The answer is yes. Can Oregon become what we thought Oregon could be at the beginning of the year? Yes, they still can. Why, Joel? Because none of this is catastrophic. You can fix the run pass tells in the offense. All it takes is knowledge of it, and then making sure that you have the discipline to fix those things in alignment and posture on the offensive side. And from a schematics perspective of the defense, I would anticipate that they would start playing more closed looks. What is a closed look, Joel? That was a technical term. That means that you close the middle of the field with one single safety. If you've got one single safety in the middle of the field, that means that you as a defense have run ratios up front. You can defend the run with one more player than they have blockers. If you have an open middle of the field with two high safeties in the middle of the field being open, then what you're saying is that we can stop the run with you having run ratios offense, and you can block everybody, but we're still going to win. So is this fixable? Yes, they can change the numbers in the run front and become a much more solid run defense, which is what they're going to have to do. Does that hurt some of the passing structure? Yes, but I think it's one of those things where it's like algebra one before algebra two. You've got to stop the run before you can stop the pass. So all these things are fixable for Dan Lanning and their two new coordinators. It's just a matter of if they do it. They certainly have a difficult schedule to come, and that game with USC is certainly looming out there. So it's definitely time to panic, but it's. It's certainly something that they can address and potentially fix. Let's move on, and now I'll go a little bit quicker on the rest of these teams. Let's talk about Miami. What do we feel about Miami, Joel? Well, if you're asking me. I am absolutely thrilled and excited about Miami. I think Miami is really good. I think they're better than they were a year ago. And I get it. I was the one that was sitting here on Monday talking to you like, I don't know about any of these teams that are playing air, and it's just Stanford and Florida A&M, and I understand that. I get it, and you're going to leave a comment down below. And by the way, please do so. I'll try to react with you and converse with you down in the comments there on the YouTube page. But here's the thing that I'm going to hang my hat on. Darian Mensah looks like an upgraded quarterback from Carson Beck. He looks dynamic, and that's scary because they're still dominating at the offensive line level. Will they do that in a matchup game? I think so because that's the DNA of their head coach, Mario Cristobal. They're still winning on the defensive line. That's the DNA of their program. They've recruited very well. Remember, they're replacing those lost draft picks on the outside, on the edge, on defense. With a ton of five-star players, former five-star players. And then the one thing that gets me most excited, Malachi Toney. Malachi Toney is an absolute cheat code. He is phenomenal. You can get him the ball anywhere, and he can dominate a game. So regardless of how bad they may look at any point during the course of the year on offense, he can right the ship like that. The other part of this that I get so excited for, their schedule is awful. It is awful. They've got one ranked team left on this schedule. It's Notre Dame. They're going to go to Notre Dame. That's their ninth game of the year. That team is absolutely going to be in the playoffs, and they will absolutely be a force in the playoff because of all the things that I was talking about. So get excited about Miami. How about Ohio State after that loss to Texas? I think this is a pretty easy one. This is a stay calm for me. Let's all relax. Let's all channel our inner Aaron Rodgers and just relax about Ohio State. Listen, would they have liked to win that game? Obviously. Were they in a position to do so? Yes. I know and see a lot of Ohio State fans that are in the panic mode because they're like, it's the same thing that always happens. Red zone failures, missed kicks. I understand that sentiment, but let's just take a bit of a chill pill here. Can we? I mean, this is a team that was dominating Texas in their building for three quarters basically, two and a half, but mostly three quarters. What happened to Ohio State? Well, a series of about 15 things had to happen, to Ohio State. Had to happen. Every bounce had to go Texas' way in that end portion of the game in the last three series. Any one play for Ohio State is going to make this a different outcome. Are they going to be okay? Yes, they're going to be okay. Namely, the one thing that they've got to get fixed is the fact that their defense was exposed late to volume. That's what happened. Credit to Texas and their strength and conditioning staff and what they were able to do because that offensive line was blowing Ohio State off the ball. After they got to volume. What do you mean by volume? Well, in the first eight drives of the game, Texas ran 38 plays for three yards per play. Ohio State was dominating the game. They had nine total first downs in those first 38 plays. And again, that encompassed eight drives, eight offensive series. Then in the last three drives, Ohio State saw 40 plays. In the last three drives alone, they gave up five and a half yards per play and 16 total first downs. They succumbed to volume at that point. One first down from their offense gets them more of a breather. See, the fact of the matter was is that the thing that killed Ohio State was the fact that their defense was on the field the entire fourth quarter and part of the third quarter. The entire time. Those three and outs for Ohio State were a dagger. And three and outs in general, by the way, will absolutely kill you. I'm starting to think of it mostly as like a turnover because that's what it is. In those two drives, that Ohio State had on offense, they could not muster a first down. They took 105 off the clock and then like 138 off the clock. Woof. So that's what happened to Ohio State. Then they relied on a field goal kicker from over 45 yards. And when you look at field goal kickers in college, from 45 to about 49 yards in the fourth quarter, their average is about 60%. That's not great. The NFL average is 80%. And they played just like they did a few years ago against Georgia for the field goal, even though they threw that fade. And they played just like they did a few years ago against Georgia. And they missed it. You make that kick and you win. So what's the fix? Well, you've got to figure out the red zone. And what that means is that they're going to have to find some run game in the red zone. And then they're going to have to do some things to execute in the red zone. A lot of times they get stuck in this like, well, we have Jeremiah Smith. And while I totally agree to that extent, you still have to be able to run the ball. And the reason you have to run the ball is because you have to put edge defenders in conflict. You have to. You can't be a drop back team inside of the 20 yard line. You can't be just a running team. You've got to put defenders in conflict. You've got to be able to run the ball successfully to get on the edge, to conflict the safeties, conflict the linebackers so that you can get outside and that you can leverage defenders in the end zone with the passing game. That's how you fix the red zone issues. And then they've got to make some kicks. By the way, the red zone issues, it has been a problem. I know Ohio State fans, two touchdowns and five red zone trips against, or excuse me, Ohio State fans, two touchdowns and five red zone trips against Texas. And you go back. This has been a problem. It was a problem against Indiana last year in the Big Ten championship game. They had one touchdown and four red zone drives. So that's certainly something that needs to get fixed. And it will. Let's all stay calm about Ohio State. Low energy, unfocused, foggy. You might be dehydrated. Gatorade zero powders have been scientifically designed to help improve hydration balance in the body with a clinically proven electrolyte. And no artificial colors or flavors. Great tasting hydration, no matter where you're going. Shop now online or at retailers nationwide. Gatorade hydrates better than water. Is it in you? Symptoms noted are signs of mild to moderate dehydration. Consult a health care professional if symptoms persist. Number four, Alabama. What do we think about Alabama? I think you could easily get excited about Alabama, but I'm just going to stay calm just for a moment. And the reason is, is like, let's let Keelan Russell mature a little bit at quarterback. Let's let Keelan Russell mature a little bit at quarterback. I wanted to get excited about them. And namely, not because of Russell and not even because their defense was dominant against Kentucky. Kentucky scored a defensive touchdown. They had a tip ball up there. A defensive lineman grabs it. He takes it into the end zone. Bama's defense is excellent. Excellent. I'm excited about them. But this, this, this other element of that team showed up in the second half against Kentucky. They ran the ball for over six yards per carry. They stayed committed to the run game, which Ryan, Grubbs doesn't typically do back to his days as a Seahawks coordinator. And they ran for over 150 yards. Now that's a blueprint. That's a blueprint that allows you to keep the pressure off of your young quarterback. He's going to continue to get better. I'm, I'm cautiously optimistic here with Alabama. Let's stay calm. I like what I've seen. I like what I saw in that second half against Kentucky. And, and from that standpoint, you know, I think this is, this is a team that can be reckoned with in the SEC. I think it's a team that can be reckoned with in the SEC. I think that they've got real good potential, real high potential, a high ceiling. If they can run it, bring their quarterback along and then allow him to be, what would you say? Explosive both in the past game and running the football down the stretch. How about UCLA? What do we think about UCLA right now? I am excited about UCLA. Now I want you all to, to just for a moment, realize that this, this doesn't mean that I think UCLA is definitely going to win. This just means that if I'm a UCLA fan, I am thrilled right now with how this season has started. Based on what we've seen over the last couple of years, you bring in Bob Chesney and you feel like, all right, boom. Now we've got the football adult in the room. You've got the experienced quarterback and Nico Iomaliava. And in each of the first two games, their fourth quarter was exceptional. I personally believe that their schedule has been real. San Diego State is a real opponent. Sean Lewis has done a nice job. Cal is a good opponent. Tasha LaPoi, that's a good football team. And each of those games, UCLA had stellar fourth quarters to pull away for wins. Wayne Knight has been tremendous. This is one of the reasons why in preseason episodes, I was talking about him as kind of an all-purpose, preseason, all-American type guy. He's got eight yards per carry and six touchdowns in two games. That's what I'm talking about. Iomaliava doesn't have to do everything like he did in previous years. Chesney knows what he's doing. He brought that entire staff. He brought all that core of players. This is a team that I think is going to knock somebody off in the Big Ten that we don't expect them to knock off in the Big Ten. That's a real team. And if I'm a UCLA fan, it's like, yes, I'm excited about what's going on. Eight clap. Bring it on. Let's go. The Rose Bowl, by the way. The Rose Bowl looks insanely cool right now. They just did a field-level suite. The Rose Bowl looks awesome. The Rose Bowl should be the national championship game every single year on January 1st. I'm going to say it. I might say it in every single episode. That absolutely has to happen in college football. That venue is the best venue in all of football, in American football. I don't care for the corporate environment of these neutral-site NFL stadiums. Give me the Rose Bowl. Give me the sun setting over the San Gabriels. Let's go. I love it. Game fourth quarter finishes at night. Can we please do that? This is a team that could be the 24 version of Indiana. I'm excited about UCLA. You can hear it in my voice. Let's go to our weekend check-in now presented by Hilton. When you need a winning team on and off the field, It matters where you stay. Let's check in on the teams that I just saw this last weekend. Let's start with Oklahoma. What do we think about Oklahoma and the way that that game played out? I think it's time to panic for Oklahoma. I really do. And the reason is, is because they don't have an offensive line and they cannot run the football. And in order to move the ball, John Mateer has to be Superman, or they've got to create explosive plays. And they couldn't do either of those things against Michigan last week. Can you really rely on splash explosive plays the entire season? I don't think you can. It's ultimately what their Achilles heel was a year ago. Yes, their defense is solid, but Michigan had to throw it like four times in the second half. Certainly in the fourth quarter, they didn't even come close to having to put the ball in the air. And that's a close, tight ball game. Their defense could go out there and win. And I think the reason that I'm panicking is because I thought John Mateer was going to play better than that. John Mateer really. Struggled in that game. First of all, the pressure was immense and credit Michigan for doing that. They could not get separation out of their wide receivers. The man coverage from Michigan was suffocating. And then Mateer missed some open guys when they did have the matchup, when they had the structure, when they had the open player, Mateer missed. And that's something that can't happen because the margin is too small for them. It's too slim for them with the fact that they don't have a very good offensive line. They're trying to get healthy up front. They're trying all these different. Combinations and then Mateer has a one pitch sequence. What does that mean? All right, let's get into some quarterback play real quick. As a quarterback, you have to have the feet and athleticism of a middle infielder and the pitch selection of a pitcher, a starting pitcher. You've got to be able to change speeds. Okay, there are different types of throws that you have to make, have to make. You've got to be able to drive the football, right? You've got to throw it with like firm velocity, drive the football with, and then you've got accuracy and the ability to communicate with your ball placement. What does that mean, Joel? That means that if you're facing zone coverage and you've got a route out there that hooks up in between two guys that are playing zone, you've got to not just throw and complete the ball. It matters what shoulder the ball gets completed on. It matters because you're communicating to your offensive player, your pass catcher, where the defense is behind him. You're throwing opposite of the nearest defender so that he can spin off of that shoulder. See, that becomes vital. For quarterbacks. So you've got to be able to drive the football, throw the football firm with accuracy to communicate with ball placement. You can also drive the football out to the exterior of the field, out routes, little comebacks. You're driving that football out. Then you've also got to change speeds and be able to layer the ball. Now, this is not a total touch throw, and it's not thrown with velocity and driving with a fastball. You've got to throw it over a linebacker and in front of a safety. So it's kind of a touch ball, but it's not really a full touch ball because you're not having that tip turnover. Okay, so you've got to layer that ball in the intermediate. Zones in particular over the middle of the field, and then you've got to be able to throw the ball with touch. And when you throw the ball with touch, in particular down the field, it means that your wide receiver has stacked a defender. He's got top leverage over a defender, and you've got to throw it up and over the top with touch so that the nose of the football turns over and you can throw it accurately into your wide receivers hands. Here's the problem with John Mateer. He doesn't change speeds. So what you saw is that when he needed to drive the football in the frame, it sailed on him because he kind of layered that ball. And so it's too high and off the mark. And then when he needed to throw with touch on that interception, when his wide receiver has stacked Jair Hill and has top leverage, he's got to throw with touch over the top and get that over the defender. And what does he do? He tries to layer it in there so he doesn't change speeds. That ball was flat. The others were too high. Where's the change of speeds? So he needs to change pitches, and he's got to get a lot better. And the other reason it's time to panic for Oklahoma, look at what they have coming up in their schedule. Oh, my goodness. That early loss in this schedule could spell disaster for what they've got going on. They've got to face the top two teams in the country in the next three games, Georgia and Texas. Georgia's at Georgia and Texas in a neutral. They still have Florida. They still have Ole Miss. They still have A&M, both top 10 teams, and still at Missouri. Yikes. I mean, we could be seeing a team that's going to be two and three, two and three after their first five. That ain't good. So time to panic for OU. What about the team that beat Oklahoma? Let's go to Michigan. What do we feel about Michigan? I'm excited about Michigan. You could tell me, Joel, like, no, no, no, Joel, you need to stay calm. I'm not going to stay calm. I'm going to get excited. And here's the reason why. They won Kyle Whittingham's way. I talked about this on Monday. His DNA was all over that field. He won the tug of war. I talked about the tug of war. New coaches have to go in, and to win the culture of the locker room, you have to win the locker room, and to win the locker room over, you've got to be more steadfast than the locker room. And that's what that win did for them against Oklahoma. They did it with man coverage. That's Kyle Whittingham. They did it with great pass rush. And they did it running the quarterback, being rugged on offense. Now he gets to step in front of his team this week and say, it works. John Henry Daly was all over Mateer. Dom Nichols was all over Mateer. That pass rush was outstanding. Part of the reason they can win is because they're going to win. The only thing I could get home is that the coverage was as good as I've seen in a long time. For a team that's going to sit there and man coverage, there were no wins for Oklahoma. Not at all. Smith Snowden was outstanding. He was targeted five times. No catches. Jair Hill had that pick. Zeke Berry was outstanding. Where are you throwing the ball? That could be one of the top two or three secondaries in all of college football. So I'm going to get excited if I'm Michigan, because now I've got a blueprint. It's Kyle Whittingham's blueprint. And now someone's going to have to come in there and deal. With a 230-pound quarterback that's running the football, that passing game should open up. And I thought he threw the ball actually pretty well. And then that defense is excellent. How are you scoring points against that defense? I think it's going to be very, very tough. So I'm excited about Michigan moving forward. How about Texas off of the big win? OK, so it was stay calm for Ohio State. And yeah, it was sloppy for Texas. But I'm excited about Texas. If I'm a Longhorn fan today, I am fired up. Why am I fired up? Because the ceiling. The ceiling has now been lifted off of my program. Sark said it himself in the postgame presser. What did he say in that postgame presser? He says, now we know we can. That was the most important comment from any coach across America on Saturday. Now we know we can. What's more dangerous than a talented team? A talented team that believes. And now Texas believes. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't pretty. In fact, they're watching the film thinking to themselves, we should have won that by more. They end up winning the game by one. And candidly, they were a bit fortunate that all those things happened late. You're not going to have bounces off the chest and drop balls and fumbling on the very first play, they believe. I'm excited about that. I'm excited about those backs. Woo, those backs can run, man. Smothers and Brown are difference makers. And when Sark has a running back, and this offensive line looks like they can get off the ball, then they can be dangerous. See, Coleman and Wingo didn't even have to play great. They didn't even have to play great. Arch didn't even have to play great. I thought Arch was average. All these people out there talking about like Arch was dealing. Arch was not dealing. He was missing guys. He was having to run around. Arch did not play a very solid football game at all. He made the plays necessary. He showed more grit than like excellent quarterback play. I'll credit his grit. Man, that was, and that's what you need. You need a quarterback that just wills you to victory. In a lot of cases, he did that over those last three series, the fourth downs in particular. Winning that game against Ohio State tells you, you can. You can go beat Georgia. You can go to the national championship game. You might win the national championship. The most dangerous part of what happened on Saturday is that now Texas believes that they can actually do it. That's why I'm excited about Texas. And that defense is going to be a handful. How about Colorado? I haven't talked about Colorado a lot, but I'm going to stay calm on Colorado. And I thought that this was some restraint on my part. I think it would be easy to get excited based on the way that they ran the ball against Georgia Tech, the way that they threw the ball last week against Granite, FCS, Weber State. But this looks different. This looks a lot more real than any of the versions of Colorado. You see their nine-win team with Travis as the Heisman Trophy winner and Shaduric quarterback. They largely just had like elite upper-level skill position play. And then got by everywhere else. And this looks different. This looks a lot more fundamentally sound. They changed their philosophy in the offseason. They went from trying to go after splash recruiting and roster building to production over potential roster building. And it shows they're a lot tougher on the line of scrimmage. Their defense can actually play up front. They're committed to the run. They do it with a tight end and a fullback at times, which I really love, that physical aspect of the run game. And then Juju Lewis, while he didn't play great against Georgia Tech, had a monster day against Weber State. In fact, sadly, I know you guys are all going to be crying in your milk over this. He did break my single-quarter passing record at Colorado on Saturday. I held that one for 21 years. I think that might be the last one. Touche to that. Congratulations, Juju. Well done. Great performance out there. They've got two more road tests coming up before a potential showdown with Texas Tech. They play at Northwestern and at Baylor. color. I'm not going to put it past them to win both of those games. Wouldn't it be something if Deion Sanders and this Colorado team was undefeated facing Texas Tech in early October? Let's stay calm and let's see what happens over these next two road games. They've already won a road game at Georgia Tech. How about Washington? You guys seen what's going on at Washington? I think it's time to panic for Washington. They barely snuck out a win against Utah State 16-14 last week, despite, by the way, Utah turning it over a couple of times, a third late on basically the final play of the game, but a couple of turnovers there. The offense has not clicked, and that's where Jed Fish's experience and expertise lies. So through two games, they beat Washington State 24-10 and Utah State 16-14. And, yeah, they're 2-0, but I'm sitting here and I'm looking at their schedule and I'm like, oh, I don't know about this. The offense has been hit by a ton of injuries right now. They lost their top two running backs. Jaden Lamar and Quade Cook. They lost Christian Moss to a leg injury. He got hurt right away in that Washington State game. Starting wide receiver Rasheed Williams, hip. He's week to week. Their center, Landon Hatchett, wrist injury. They're hoping he'll be out a couple of weeks. Maybe he gets back for the Big Ten opener against Minnesota. And one of their top defensive linemen, Davis, he missed last week. So they're banged up right now. And, yeah, they're 2-0, but I don't know where we're going here, and this is a roster that we thought was going to be okay, but they got hit by the transfer portal. I like their quarterback, DeMond Williams, but there's some caution lights going on right now at Washington, and I would be a bit panicked if I was a Washington fan with what they have ahead. How about USC? Now, you know I'm high on USC. I think you're probably expecting that I throw them in the excited category. I'm going to stay calm with USC right now. Let's stay calm. The freshmen are really good. I love what they've got going out there. Trent Mosley is a star. Caden Dixon. Wyatt is very good. Their tight end, Mark Bowman, he's excellent at the tight end spot. Luke Wafel, their defensive end is one of the better freshman defensive end that I've seen in a long time. He creates havoc in the backfield. And this is looking like what Lincoln has told us about over the course of the offseason. He's never been more optimistic about a team, at least since he got to USC. But I'm going to be, like, cautious with this one, and the reason is I still want to see it from a defensive perspective against better competition. They allowed 30 points against Louisiana. I don't love that. I still need to see them play well, get after the quarterback, and more specifically, stop the run in a big matchup-style game. Because what we've seen from them when they play the big boys is that they lose the line of scrimmage. Is that going to play out for them moving forward? I don't know. So let's stay calm. I like what Maiava is doing. I think the schedule is starting to set up for them a little bit better than what we saw at the beginning of the year because two of the teams that we saw on their schedule that we thought, eh, that could be trip-up games or downright losses, Oregon and Washington are in my panic category. I think that there is a good chance that if you look at the rest of their schedule, Oregon, Washington, Penn State, even though that's a wide-out game, you've got Ohio State, you've got Indiana, UCLA, you're looking at a schedule where you're probably going to be favored in all but two games. And I think USC would take that at this point. And so right now I'm going to stay calm, and I think I'm going to be cautiously optimistic with USC. College football season is almost here, and if you're like me, best time of year. You're looking at the schedule, checking the match-ups, and circling the big games you have to see in person. There's just nothing quite like that Saturday stadium atmosphere. Now once you pick your game, the next step is finding the best deal on tickets, and that's where SeatGeek comes in. With over 35 million downloads, SeatGeek is the number one rated ticketing app. Featuring more than 70,000 events across sports, concerts, and live shows, I use SeatGeek because they make the entire process effortless. The app makes it super easy to search for your team, compare seats across the entire stadium, and grab your tickets in just a few taps. Everything is sent directly to your phone, so getting through the gates on game day is completely seamless. Plus every single ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee, so you can shop with total peace of mind. And of course I have a code for you guys. You can use code CLAT10 for 10% off your next set of college football tickets at SeatGeek. That's 10% off any college football tickets with, promo code CLAT10. Make sure you click on the link in the description to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account, so you can use it later on. We just want to thank SeatGeek for their support of the show and all of college football. Florida State. Does panic encapsulate Florida State? I don't think it does. Fired their athletic director on Monday. By the way, that was the same guy that gave Mike Norvell his extension. So, handwriting is on the wall there. The athletic department finished the 2025 fiscal year with 470, or excuse me, $437 million of debt. Yikes. It's believed to be the second highest debt marker in college football. Number one would be Penn State. It's a bit of a misnomer though, because Penn State is putting $700 million into their stadium, and that's where all of their debt is, and that's obviously financed a very specific way. To be fair to that 437 number for Florida State, 200 of that was also stadium renovations. Five years ago, the debt was $17 million. They spent over $200 on a stadium renovation. But the debt thing is a big deal. Why? Because if you fire Mike Norvell in the middle of the year, you're going to owe him $50 million. Now, they don't have to pay him up front. The contract would stipulate that he gets 85% of his remaining balance on his contract, and that they would be able to pay in monthly installments up to the end of his contract, which is 2031. So it would roughly be, wait for it, $800,000 a month until 2031. Now, he does have a stipulation that he would have to in earnest go out and try to find employment, and there is offset language. So would they have to pay him every single one of those dollars? Remains to be seen, but I bring all of that up because this roster is limited, limited. Reportedly, it's in the bottom half of the ACC as far as funding goes. They're 3-14 in their last 17 ACC games. And look at their next four games against Power 4 opponents. I mean, this is like panic, panic, panic. Bama this weekend in Tuscaloosa. Virginia, which is a good team, they're ranked. Louisville, which is a very good team, almost beat Ole Miss. And at Miami, who we think is one of the best teams in the country. By the way, they've got a bye week after Miami. So if you're setting your calendars right there, I think this is a panic situation. In Florida State, I don't think it gets better. It's obviously going to get worse. Now the athletic director is gone. We see the handwriting on the wall. BYU, cautiously optimistic about BYU. I would stay calm with BYU. I think that they are very good. But what we don't know is, can they level up? We've seen this before. I know Bear Bachmeier is a grinder, and he's a good player. I know LJ Martin is a good player. I know you're going to play solid defense. I know all these things. I know that you're going to beat teams that are at your level. They are very sound in that regard. And to their credit, we used to talk about that with James Franklin at Penn State. They don't lose to teams below them. They would lose to teams above them. And that's what's been going on with BYU. They couldn't get over the Texas Tech hump a year ago. So I don't know what to make of BYU on that level until they play Notre Dame, until they play a Texas Tech. Now, the Arizona win was solid for them, there's no doubt. When it comes to Provo, October 17th, that's when we're going to find out more about BYU. So at this point, BYU is a stay calm. How about Mississippi State? We don't talk about Mississippi State a lot. And I'm getting into it right now because I am excited about Mississippi State. And I think you should be too. Very similar to UCLA. Just quietly out there. You know, they went up there and hammered Minnesota. Hammered Minnesota. And that's not a bad Minnesota team. That's a good win for the SEC. It's a really good win for Jeff Levy and Mississippi State. He's now. Increased their win total, or at least it looks like he will increase their win total. He went from two wins in their first year to five last year. And they have this guy, and he's a dude now. I love their quarterback, Kamario Taylor. And Kamario Taylor, I think, is the new star in college football. He's like the new kid on the block. He's the one that we can now look at and we can think to ourselves, what did we miss in the preseason? This is what we missed in the preseason. This kid can throw it. He's athletic. He's big, 6'4", 230 pounds. He is mobile. Has an absolute cannon. And he's orchestrating and executing this Art Bryles system. Art's not there, but it's the Bryles system with Jeff Levy. By the way, he's got Kendall Bryles on that staff. Levy calls the plays, though. This kid executes this system really well. They will beat someone that raises your eyebrows in the SEC this year. I am excited about Mississippi State. I really like them. Defense, by the way, is playing well. In particular, last week, didn't allow an offensive touchdown against Minnesota. That one. That one was on the road. Good win right there. Get excited about Mississippi State and, more specifically, Camario Taylor. Georgia Tech is going to be my last team. Time to panic. We already talked about how Colorado beat them. They beat them up up front. Then Tennessee came to town. They ran for nearly 300 yards on Georgia Tech. They were 8-0 last year at one point behind Haynes King and kind of toasted the town. Here we are, and now all of a sudden they've lost six of their last seven. Their only win was a fourth-quarter comeback against Boston, college, I I don't love that. I don't love the trajectory of what's going on at Georgia Tech. I just don't. It's time to panic there. Lots of teams. We got into 15 teams there. Getting excited, staying calm, and time to panic. That's how you should feel, those fan bases. Hey, if you haven't subscribed to the program, please go do so. Share it with a friend. We're obviously generating a lot of momentum. It's awesome, and thank you so much for being a part of this. If you're listening, wherever you get your podcasts, rate and review us. That would be awesome. Follow us on social media, at Joel Klatschow. And as always, remember, please tweet. Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time. We go V! We go V! Ask your prescriber about We Go V, some maglutide injection 2.4 milligrams, a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4WEGOV or visit wegov.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about We Go V. Why wait? We Go V!