Ohio State crumbles, Notre Dame holds on & Georgia separates + Michigan coaching change & Top 10

As strange as it sounds, I was more impressed with Miami than I was Notre Dame after it was all set in time. From a player's perspective, Ohio State, everybody can share some blame in this. Even Jeremiah Smith, Georgia destroys Ole Miss. I am the captain now. Hey, welcome into the program, it is the Joel Clat Show. I'm Joel Clat. This show is brought to you by Hilton, Hilton for the stay, and we thank them for their support as always. Hey, welcome in, great week into College Football. Once again, let's get right into it. If you're, excuse me, and you hear it in my voice, I'm going to be drinking my tea here tonight. I came down with it as we all probably have, so I'm going to try to get through this. I might have a couple of coughs here and there, but listen, we're going to get through it, because there's a lot of great things to talk about here from Saturday and College Football. It was build up to be one of the great days that we have had in the season. And honestly, did it live up to that? Not quite, not quite. It wasn't the amount of great football games that we would expect from the slate that we were anticipating. There have been other weekends that have given us more drama, but there was some great performances. And I think in a lot of ways, this is a weekend that really separated things out. And we're getting a more clear picture of what teams can do what in College Football. And I think that is a great thing. So let's go through some of it. Let's start. There's a lot of places to start. Let's start in Columbus, Ohio, because that I think was the most resounding game and I think is going to have implications longer lasting and they don't involve the CFP strangely. Because of the program involved, obviously, and that way that they lost the game Ohio State goes down Oregon scores 38 unanswered points after falling behind 14, nothing. And they come storming back on the road in the shoe and they win 41, 28. That was, that was something. That was something. All right, let's, let's start with Ohio State. And I'm going to try to work through this quickly. One, to save my voice and to despair you guys of 15 minute dissertation on Ohio State. Okay. Let's start with this. When you're at this point preseason number one, now your third loss in nine games and you're barely into November, as I've stated before, when you hit rock bottom, whatever program it is, whether it was Dan landing in Oregon at some point during the course of the season or a big loss for, for a Georgia team after the Auburn game or whatever it is, you have to evaluate it. You have to evaluate it with clear eyes and honesty. And it starts at the head coach. And so what Ryan Day is going to have to do is evaluate his entire program at this point because of the failure to reach expectations during the course of this year. And he's going to have to evaluate the scheme. He's going to have to evaluate the players and he's going to have to evaluate the coaches. And then even beyond that, kind of the entire program, you know, from, from a culture perspective. But let's talk about those first three, because that's, excuse me, that's what we can do here on this program. So let's, let's start with those three. Okay, let's, let's break this down. Even Jeremiah Smith. And I know, trust me, I'm going to get to their lack of usage of Jeremiah Smith. It had to feel a Buckeye fans like 2015 revisited was Zeke not getting the ball against Michigan State. You know, I, I can sense that frustration from, from Ohio State fans. However, the film suggests that everybody shares in this. Jeremiah didn't even play great football. Now, I know that he put up some numbers. There's no doubt, but, but even Jeremiah didn't play great all, all game. There were times when he was slow off the line of scrimmage. He didn't win the 101 ball down into the, uh, in zone early in the game. Now, it wasn't hurting him at that point, but that could have set a tone. And you never know what that does to the defense. If you can take the top off and score that touchdown in the 101 situation, he was laid out of his brakes. There were times when the routes weren't being run, I'll, I'll be honest, full speed. And that was a bit alarming to see for me, because I've come to see a standard on film from number four at Ohio State that is higher than what was on film on Saturday's game. And I know that there was frustrations of his and I'll get to those outside of that. There were misdesignments all over the place, both sides of the ball, including special teams. There were poor fundamentals, uh, being, uh, enacted everywhere. Offensive line, more specifically, the offensive line is, is not playing well at all. Um, there's a lack of detail route depth, route pictures. The spacing wasn't right. Detail on defense was wrong. Guys weren't aware of, of second release, third release on their side from a backer perspective. Like, there was a lot wrong with the film. A lot wrong and a lot of it, you know, the players have to assume that responsibility because of that misalignments, lack of these details. And most alarming at times, there, there was some effort issues. And I always really hesitate to, to use that on a program like this because, you know, that's, that's the one that raises the most eyebrows internally. And, and in particular, in a locker room, but there were, there were some effort issues. Um, the offensive line, let's start there is not playing winning football at all. At all, they're not getting targeted. They play with high pad level. They're, their angle of their backs. They're not physical. They don't win in the run game. And so they can't establish a line of scrimmage on offense. That's a problem because then everything stems from that. Now, Luke Fahey is drifting in the pocket. His fundamentals, they go out the window because now he's drifting side to side. He doesn't have a firm base. He's not throwing the ball with accuracy. His clock is sped up. Therefore, the wide receivers are late. Sometimes wide receivers are creating a picture in different timings from one another. Fahey's feet don't match that timing. And all of it can kind of stem from those offensive line issues at times. The tackles allow far too much pressure. And then in the run game, like I said, they can't really establish anything on base down. So you're not throwing the football because you want to. You're throwing the football because you have to with a true freshman quarterback. With this point is you can tell on the field way too early. So it's a cascading waterfall effect of issues for their offense. If your offensive line doesn't play well, there's no chance in the game. There's really not. Like I said, Fahey's issues can stem from the offensive line, but certainly his footwork needs help. And I know you get to Jeremiah. I know he's frustrated and we'll get to the scheme and philosophy after this because his frustrations I think had to do with when he blows up in the third quarter. I think it was late in the third quarter or early fourth quarter. He blows up at the sideline and we're showing that clip right now on on YouTube. And you never see this. I have covered this team more than any other team in my career. And I have been around Jeremiah a lot and this is not him. And I think that that frustration was was layered. The frustration was when he was open, he wasn't getting targeted. Number one, when the lack of targets were frustrating to him and then the routes he was running. And so this goes to the scheme. And the issues of I'm running in a curl. I'm running a hitch. I'm running an over. I'm in one spot. There wasn't a lot of motion. There wasn't a lot of creativity with the formation. Maybe that's because you've got a true freshman quarterback who is on the field too early. And so you can't do a lot of things formationally. There might be a lot of different reasons. But the fact of the matter is there was virtually no creativity with Jeremiah Smith. How to get him the ball in specific ways. It was just we're going to line him up out there. And then if they take him away with the coverage, we'll just throw it to other guys. That can't be the plan. We went over this against USC. I think that's what his frustration was. Is like, hey man, like are you guys really not going to throw me the football for half the game? As we give up 31 straight points, I have not gotten a target. And I'm just running curls and basic routes and and out routes and hitches and hitches over the ball. It's like, you know, let me impact the game. I've never been in his shoes and candidly none of us have. All right, so we can say, hey, you can't blow up like this. None of us have been in his shoes as being a player that knows that you are supremely gifted. And all you need is chances to impact the game and you will. And then you're not given those those chances. I made this and this, this could be a little too far. But imagine, imagine what we would say. You know, if and again, I hesitate to say this, but like would Kobe and Michael like it if Phil Jackson just like went away from them for a quarter in the offense. And they're just like, hey, what are we doing? You know, so like the frustration from him is different. Why? Because he has more of an impact on the sport. Okay. Now we get to the kind of the coaches side of things. What you see on film, you're either coaching or allowing. You are either coaching or allowing. And that's a problem because again, there's a lot of misdesignments. And then there are times when you look out there and they're totally misaligned. And that's happened now on defense a couple of different times. And it's and it's cost them touchdown plays. So against USC, they were misaligned and they gave up the second snap screen pass to Mosley. He goes the distance. Well, now you've got issues during this game against Oregon where they're misaligned. And they got hit. I think it was deer hill hit that run where they're missing all the tackles on the outside. They were misaligned. They've also got some issues in terms of this defense. Doesn't quite have the players that it has over the last couple of years. So they've got to roll the dice and create success. And so to do that, they have to be more aggressive. And to do that, it's more risky. And when you play risky defense, there's a chance that you're going to be beat. A couple of those big plays, they were rolling the dice. They were throwing some pressure on one side of the field. And Oregon, quite frankly, on film had the perfect play called to beat those pressures. And maybe that was a tendency, and maybe that was planned. I'm not totally sure, but I will tell you this, there were some perfect play calls from the Oregon side. So credit their coaching staff, what they were able to do. And then the coaching side in terms of the targets for Smith. And again, I'm going to try to work through this quick. Jeremiah Smith, 336 left in the first quarter. He catches a ball for 32 yards on their way to a 14 nothing lead. He does not get a target for 26 offensive plays 16 passing attempts. Now all the way deep into the third quarter with three minutes 45 seconds left in the third quarter. It's fourth and two. And the score is 31 14. If you're going to take anything away from this, you cannot allow your team to go out there. I don't care. Like if it's Arthur or Ryan or Luke Fahey, if you're a decision maker with the ball, whether you're calling the play, whether you're the head coach or whether you're the quarterback making the decision where the ball goes, that cannot happen. You cannot go half the game, 26 offensive snaps, six passing attempts, and allow Oregon to roll off 31 straight points and you not target Jeremiah Smith. You can't do that. You cannot do that. And so that's on them. And so you've got this idea of what the film says, you're either coaching or allowing. You've got the obvious problems of not targeting your best player. And you've got the misalignments on defense and having to roll the dice and getting caught in those situations. Those are coaching issues. And then the scheme, I think, was the frustration that Jeremiah was using. It's a simple offensive scheme. And that gets to my last point here on Ohio state. They've had the most players drafted and back-to-back drafts. 25 players drafted over a two-year period is tied tied for the most in the common draft era with Georgia in that 2022, 2023 draft, 15 of those 25 for Ohio State were off the defensive side of the ball. And here's the thing. You have great players. And when you do have great players, they can mask coaching and scheme issues. They can. You can just out player other teams. And we saw it with Texas at the end of the Mac Brown era and all the sudden, I'll screw it. I hate everyone. All the sudden, those players leave the building and possibly some of the coaching staff and some of the scheme that you relied on possibly isn't up to par. And those great players can mask that. And when they're gone, now, now you're left with what you have. So is it the players? Is it the coaches or is it the scheme at Ohio State? Because this is a this is a dire situation. Ohio State fans don't know what to do with themselves. This is this is like apoplectic territory. What do you mean? We're not playing games that have any significance for the CFP? What do you mean? Now, I don't know. Maybe they can run the table and chaos happens. It happened in 2014. But I don't assume that it's going to happen. The bottom line is if Ryan is honest with himself at the end of the day, and I think he will be. And I know that he will be is that he's going to he's going to know deep down that there are issues with all three at Ohio State right now. And this is what's so frustrating for the fan bases. There's not a simple answer. You can't just say it's the players. You can't just say it's the coaches and you can't just say it's the scheme because it's a combination of all three. And I think that's what's so so frustrating. Dan landing gets a huge win. Oregon give them credit. They made the huge huge decision. No, no, no, not the fake pun to fire your offensive coordinator in the middle of the season. That takes a tremendous amount of courage. You know these people. You know their families. So Maringer out Jay Johnson in who was an analyst and they have changed now. Jay Johnson is last game against Northwestern was his first game as the coordinator. They're much better in the second half. They were down 14. They come back. They win the game down 14 in the shoe against Ohio State and Ohio State's backs against the wall. And they roll off 38 unanswered. Like this team has some character to it. And Dan needs to be given a lot of credit for that. A lot of credit for that because like he said in his post game press conference, he knows exactly what's Ryan what Ryan's going through because he went through it. He went through it when his quarterback went down and now all this all of the sudden again, screw it all. I hate everyone. I'm going to keep saying that and I'm never going to apologize ever again. That's the last time I'm going to stop. It's all the sudden from here on out. Dan landing knows the problems with trying to recreate what you thought you were and find an identity with a new quarterback. Now that's where Ryan's at. Ryan's going to have to fight for the culture of his team just like Dan had to fight for the culture of his team. And guess what Dan one Dan one and he found a combination at quarterback and offensive coordinator and what can we do and what can we do to win and one of the things that he needs to do to win is is roll the dice and he did that with that fake punt and that fake punt was brilliant. It was a it was brilliant from a schematic standpoint. He'd said that they'd been working on it since fall camp got to look two times in a row. And again, this goes back to coaching and scheme. If you're a punt return unit, you can't give the same exact look every single time or else you are ripe for a fake punt. So he said that they gave him the same look on the previous two puns and so they knew that if they got back into that set, that's what they would get. That's all you're looking for as a coach. You're looking for one formation, one thing during the game where you know exactly what the other team is going to do. And if you can find that whether it's a punt, whether it's a kickoff, whether it's an offensive play, a down and distance, a situation, you're looking for that one silver bullet, one that you know exactly what they're going to do. And then you game plan that situation. And that's what Oregon got. And that fake punt, all the sudden spurs them to go all the way back in that game. He had a terrific. This goes to coaching as well. Terrific time out call the scores 24 14. No one's going to remember this. I immediately think to myself, that's brilliant. Ohio State finally gets into a formation where they're using Jeremiah. They put them at the point and they start to motion outside them and then back inside of my believe is what I remember on film. And you can tell that Oregon doesn't adjust right. And now there's a single safety and there's a guy bumping Jeremiah. Now he's in man coverage, but there's a single safety, but he's kind of offset to the opposite side. And this defensive back doesn't adjust. No one adjusts. And now Smith has a clear one on one. And before the snap Dan landings like nope, time out, time out. It's 24 14 burns a time out in the second half. I believe it was on Ohio State's first series in the second half. So Oregon had just scored and and here's Ohio State trying to go down and answer him. And he calls it time out, brilliant, brilliant. So well done, Dan landing. And listen, this team has a path to the big 10 championship game as much as everyone wants to hate on that. They do. And I did exactly what I tried not to do, which was take too much time on that game. Let's move on to Notre Dame in Miami. And trust me, I'm going to get to Bama. I'm going to get to Georgia. I'm going to get to Utah. I'm going to get to UCLA, my top 10, all of it. So that's all coming up. All right, Notre Dame holds off Miami. Now Notre Dame in the first half looked like a team that was that was playing with their backs against the wall. That was really, really, really good. And in the second half, I saw a team in Notre Dame that was trying to hold on. They got a bit comfortable. And then I saw a team in Miami who found themselves without their star, meaning like they found the way that they could have success, their identity without their star player and Malachi Tony. So it left me with this conclusion. I've seen three games this year. I think we, thanks, Mav. We've seen three games this year, where we can honestly say at that point that the two teams playing on the field were easily two of the best five, six teams in the entire country. I felt like that in week two in Texas and Ohio State were playing. And is Ohio State still that team? No. Okay. So I'm not trying to say Ohio State is still that team. So save your criticism. I felt like that when Georgia and my Alabama played. I think we all did. Now is a great game. And then now I've, I felt like that on Saturday and I watching Miami and Notre Dame. I love each of the quarterbacks. CJ Carr and Darian Mensa are both fabulous quarterbacks. I hope they make great pros someday. I think Fit has a lot to do with that. So, you know, that, that remains to be seen. And they're different. Like CJ Carr, prototypical. You can tell he processes very fast in his mind. He's got a great platform. And then he can make every every single throw. So his arm talent kind of jumps off the tape. Mensa's a little bit different because his arm is not going to impress you on tape. He's not going to drive the football and threaten the defense down the field. But what he can do is he can with timing and accuracy get it to those spots if all things are perfect. So not quite the elite talent that maybe CJ Carr is. But Mensa is terrific. He also processes well and he's deadly accurate and quick with the football of the intermediate zones and on in breaking routes. And you saw that with some of those slant passes during their comeback in the second half. Um, one of the things that I, I thought was so impressive in this game was the fact that Miami, I know it sounds crazy because they won. Miami actually impressed me more than Notre Dame in this game. I know that's, I know that's crazy. Like I said, this Notre Dame's in a great spot. They're, now they're both, they're both headed to the playoffs in my estimation. I, they, and they should. They're both really good teams. They're two of the only teams in the country that can line up and, and I would honestly say like, okay, I want to see this against who I now think is the best team in the country. That's still coming up. As strange as it sounds, I was more impressed with Miami than I was Notre Dame after it was all said and done. And let me tell you exactly why. Miami found something in this, in the third quarter specifically, with on the road, it's below 40 degrees. Like this is not where Miami succeeds, guys. It's, it's just not the, the argument against Mario Christball over the last couple of years has said he couldn't win big games on the road. All right. Well, they don't win this game in, but it wasn't a bit, big mistake. It's not like they got a punt blocked in the national championship game when the opposing team wasn't even trying to block the punt. You know what I mean? Like it wasn't a penalty that they, they commit in a roughing the passer fashion against SMU that allows SMU to beat them on the road. Like this, this felt different. Okay. So they, you know, they came out and got kind of bum rushed early. All right. All right. And guess what? Then they regroup and they don't have their star. And they find ways to have the, have have, have success. Elijah Lofton, Burkette is, is it Burkette? Gosh, my pronunciations are awful. The, the wide receiver that transferred from the Ivy League, he's sensational. He can create space. And he did so a lot of times in particular attacking that man coverage that Notre Dame was living in until they finally got after it after they were hitting those slants. Like they found an identity in how a way to move the football and still be in the football game without Malachi Tony, without dominating in the run game. And with their defense still, you know, kind of finding themselves, even though they got a couple of three and outs in the third quarter that allowed them to come back. So when, when I, when I look at that second half with Miami, I'm like, you know what? I kind of like that team because if you add Tony to the team that I saw in the second half in South Bend, then you've got a team that can win a national championship. Now, is there defense still an issue? Yes, but even without Tony, they went up there and almost scored 30 points. Okay. So like, I'm going to give them a pass. And I know that we aren't in the business of giving a pass, but that's, that's the way I feel. That's the way I felt about this game afterwards. And that doesn't mean that I don't think Notre Dame is very, I'd still think Notre Dame is very good. I really do. The injuries on the defensive side bother me a bit. The fact that they didn't get out of man coverage for so long and until they were getting shredded bothers me a little bit. And then once they were in zone, they were not nearly as dominant of a defense. And I know they're just trying to hang on at that point, but you get what I'm trying to say. I still love their offense. And I think their offense in a more point guard style, possibly a little bit more up tempo, not crazy up tempo. But the idea that you can allow CJ kind of cook, that's where they're at their best. If they try to slow it way down and play to their floor, that's, that's when then I think that they can, they can get beat. So again, I was impressed with both teams. And I think both teams are going to go to the playoffs. Lastly, the controversy with the play in the end zone with the, I think it was Lofton, Elijah Lofton. First of all, great ball by Minza. Boom. Dime. Absolute time. That was phenomenal. What was the final five minutes? Did they get the call right? The answer is yes, unequivocally. Yes. I was saying it watching the game. I have no dog in the, in the fight here. Miami fans, you can be mad. Mario Chrisball is as big mad about it. Mario Chrisball is wrong. The call was exactly right. There have been a lot of bad calls in college football. That one was correct. And here's the best explanation I can give, I can give for you. If that play, you take that play, okay, and let, let AI just, just put it in the middle of the field, right? So take away the in zone and the sideline and the, and the paint, right? It's not a navy in zone now. And it's, there's no pile on. And now just have the exact same play in the middle of the field at the 32 yard line on the hash. Is that a complete pass? Pause for dramatic effect. The answer's no. The answer's no. And we all know it because he didn't have enough time nor did he make a football move come into the game that would allow you to say, yes, that's definitely a catch and a fumble. See, that's the idea is like that has to be a fumble for it to be a touchdown because for it to be a touchdown, he has to be a runner in possession of the ball and moving in a football manner, which is a lot, which is what allows a runner to just touch the goal line. And, and the play to be dead and it for be it, for it to be a touchdown. He's not a runner until it can be a fumble. If that's not a fumble at the 32 at the hash, then it's certainly not a catch in the end zone. It's an easy, easy description, ladies and gentlemen, and that's the best way I can describe it. If that's in the middle of the field, is it a catch and a fumble? The answer's no. It's an incompletion. So is it a completion and a touchdown in the end zone? The answer is no because he's not a runner and doesn't get the benefit of the doubt of that possession and the goal line necessary for it to be a touchdown. So was the call right? Yes, it was right. It was right from the get go. It was right and replay. They did not screw over Miami. If you're still yelling about this, you are wrong. Quick drink a tea here. All right, we're getting through it. My voice is going to hang on, I think. Bama. Here we go. Let's go, Bama. Bama beats up LSU 31-13. Great performance by Bama. After hearing all the talk from from Gibroni's like me, guys like me with a big mouth saying that you don't deserve your ranking, getting all hot and bothered. They came out and played great. They played really, really great. And they played the game in front of them because you can't sit here and say, oh, they went in there and dumped LSU because they didn't. They dumped them on the scoreboard, but but not in the game. The game that we all watched and that I watched on film was that score was not indicative of the game that we saw. What Bama did a great job of is they played the game in front of them. And I thought that their game plan was great. Kailin DeBoer outcoached Lane Kiffin. And he did that. He and Kane will Mac, by the way, the defensive coordinator. And the way that they did that is that they made a bet in this game. Their bet was Lane Kiffin was going to Lane Kiffin. And that's exactly what happened. Let me explain. They understood that Lane typically is very aggressive and that that aggressiveness could be used against him. And the way that you get Lane to be aggressive is that you let him have some success. And then once he really, really wants points because they're executing at that point, he'll be too aggressive. And so what Alabama did, Kane will Mac basically said, we're going to play a bend, don't break style of defense. And I think that that coaching staff for Alabama did something that is I got to say pretty courageous. And they said, listen, guys, because not many people would do this because it can it can backfire. And then it can look really bad if it backfires. And I'll tell you why they said, we're going to go play the game and win it on the scoreboard and not worry about the stat sheet. So they played pretty safe defense between the 20s. And and then once LSU got towards the red zone, now they would roll in, you know, a change up here or two on the film. And they would get them off the field. And then they would get Lane to go forward on four down. And that was their gamble. Their gamble was like, listen, we understand that there's going to be some high leverage moments and high leverage snaps in this game. And we think we can make them. And and we think that we can bait Lane into going for things that he wants to go for. And that's that's what happened. So they play a pretty evenly match game. If not LSU kind of dominating in the stat sheet, but it doesn't matter because Bama wins on the scoreboard because LSU is over four on four down and turns the ball over twice. So your minus two in the turnover margin. And you go for it four times on four down and fail. Guess what? You lose the game. You lose the game when you don't play well in the red zone in big matchup games. And we all know this. And that was Alabama's bet. And then the other part of the Alabama game plan is that they bet on the fact that Keelan Russell was going to play Keelan Russell football. And he did. He was terrific. Keelan Russell is one of my favorite players in the country. And when he's good, they can beat anybody. They really can. Now I don't think that they're great on the offensive line, run in the football. And they weren't even great protecting Keel and Russell, but he was terrific, manipulating the pocket, finding areas to scoot up, get himself free, and even be courageous and throw the ball in the face of pressure. He did a really nice job. They didn't light up the stat sheet, but they were able to wear out LSU, get him positions to score points, and then ultimately take advantage of a couple of short fields late. One of the reasons why they had 31 points and were dominated on the stat sheet is that they had two touchdown drives. One was 25 yards. One was 18 yards after the long, Ryan Coleman Williams return and the fourth down that LSU went for. Now, Russell outplayed Leffitt, and when your quarterback outplays the opposite quarterback, you stop him four times on fourth down. You win the turnover battle by two, and you play better in the red zone. Guess what? You win. You win. You win on the scoreboard, and it doesn't matter what happens anywhere else. Now, the risk in that is if you play for that, that style of game and get beat. Let's say, you know, something happens and they do succeed on one of the fourth downs, or something happens and you lose that game 27, 24, or whatever it is. And the stat sheet looks bad. Now, everyone's after you. So that's why it's a courageous game plan to play for the scoreboard and not the stat sheet. Because when you play for that style of game and you lose it, you know, that can be a problem. LSU outgained Alabama by over 170 yards, but it doesn't matter when all those high leverage moments go one way. For instance, on the film, Leffitt did not play well on fourth down. There were a couple of different ones. There was a third down that he missed. There was a fourth down that he missed, in particular, the one of the fourth downs at 17, 13, I believe at the time, 17, 13 at the time. And they're driving and they get to fourth down. And he gets one of the blitz looks, you know, and Bama didn't blitz a ton, you know, in the middle of the field, but here they're going to, they're going to heat him up here. And he's got a switch release on his left side and a stop route. And then just two, what I would call under. So you've got one, you know, bench out of five yards and another bench out following him. So it's an under concept from that right side. Well, there's no switch release over there. That's more of a zone beater on the right side. Well, you've got a man beater on the left side. And you get man with a little pressure right here. So you've got one free safety back. You've got one spy for Levitt because he can run and then everyone else is in man coverage and Levitt looks over here and he throws the bench route. It's man coverage man. Your spot route was wide open because they cross release and he's standing there open by five yards for a first down. So again, quarterback failure there on a third down earlier in the game. Guess what happens? His eyes are in the wrong spot against blitz zero. No safeties in the middle of the field. Alabama finally starts to lie them up. They get a blitz. He's got the side of just wide open. His eyes are in the opposite side of the field. Then he finally looks over here and he fades away and he throws it out over wherever wide and he doesn't succeed. Russell made the plays he needed to make on third down in particular. Some balls that he threw in the corner in the end zone that were dimes. Levitt didn't. And in those games, that's what happens. That's what happens. So is LSU still a good football team? Yes, but Bama was so much cleaner of a football team on Saturday. That's why they won the game and credit to Kaylen Bore. DeBore because when you play that way, you can do things like be nine and two against Kirby smart Steve Sarkisian, Lane Kiffin and Dan landing in his career. He gets a lot of heat and even for guys like me and I think partly is because they just don't run the football well enough. But you know what? That's fine. Kaylen DeBore deserves a lot of credit because he wins these high leverage games and other guys don't. Lane's record and these games and ranked opponents in the SEC is not very good at all. Now it's not even close to DeBore. Again, I'm just going to say this again. Kaylen DeBore is the most underrated big game coach other than Kirby Smart and College football. Kaylen DeBore is nine and two against Kirby smart Steve Sarkisian, Lane Kiffin and Dan landing in his career. Most underrated big game coach that we have in America. So where is Alabama? Finally to the top 10. Here we go. Alabama is going to be at number nine. I can't put them. Oh, I didn't reveal Notre Dame earlier. I'm sorry. Notre Dame and Miami. I failed on that guys. That's my fault. Oh, screw it guys. Leave it in. This is fun. Everyone sees me make a mistake. Some sick. It doesn't matter. We're all good. Notre Dame's at three. Miami's at six. Both of those teams can win the national championship. I should have revealed those earlier. Bama is at nine. They're at nine. I'm still not going with the committee partly because you're going to see who I have at seven and eight and you're going to be like, well, yeah, that makes sense because I'm still going to make sense. All right. Not just going to throw things out there. Willie Nilly and then say, see guys, you know, and by the way, Bama's performance did not validate their ranking from the CFP committee because it still doesn't make sense. And we'll get to that later in my top 10. Kiffin was expected to get to the playoffs this year. That's a $50 million roster. Now they're right on the edge being eliminated. They still have Texas next week at Tennessee and their next two and they still have, I guess, a possibility to go nine and three. So we'll see if they make the playoffs. I don't think it's totally out of the question. But they are teetering. Listen, this is a disappointing year in Columbus, Ohio, full stop. It's a disappointing year in Eugene, Oregon, full stop. And we are right there in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And those are three of the most expensive rosters in all of college football. All right. Georgia, let's get to a team that's just like, hey, all you can do whatever you want to do, I am the captain now. Georgia destroys Ole Miss 42 to seven, not close all year of question, whether we have a dominant team in college football. And that's been a common question for a lot of people that do what I do. Like, oh, do we have a great team? We don't have any great teams. We got a lot of team parity is, you know, back in college football. And yes, well, that's largely true, overwhelmingly true. I think we're starting to see some separation with Georgia right now. Georgia is the most dominant team in college football this year. They have one bad game on the heels of an emotional win on the road against Alabama and the game in which they lost it, you know, turned the football over some silly penalties. And like Kirby says, well, the dogs beat the dogs. I've got a bad Kirby in particular when I'm horse, but whatever. Georgia's floor is so high. They're incredibly talented on defense. They're going to have one of those defensive drafts like, well, maybe not quite like Ohio State had last year with four in the top. What was it? 11, four in the top 32, three in the top 11. I've got medicine in my head. I can't think straight. They're going to have a draft like that. They're likely to have three, four, maybe a fifth first rounder. This is, this is a team that I think is going to be imminently difficult to beat. If that's a term, I don't even care. They are an elite defense, elite. Trinidad Chambers had no chance. And I think Trinidad Chambers is fantastic. And he had no chance. Chris Cole, so many players on that side of the ball, they are incredible. They find ways to create success on the offensive side. They can run the football and because they can run the football, what can they do? They can throw the ball when they want to. When you throw the ball when you want to, you can dictate terms to the defense. You can get into sets and into looks and build into success and use the exact same personnel groups and formations and movements to make it look like you're running the football. They have to commit because you can do that so well and then you can hit them with shots over the top. So they're able to create success in the passing game because they run the football, even throwing the football on, on, you know, base downs on schedule so much easier as a quarterback than throwing the football on obvious schedule or passing downs. That's not very fun. And they don't have to do that as much. Now they can and they do. And I think Gunners is a good player, but this is a defense running game team. Floor is ridiculously high. I don't think you can win the national championship or go to the national championship without beating Georgia. I think that the national championship and college football goes through Georgia this year. That's the way it looks because the game that they just played on Saturday night was complete and it was dominant. Now is Ole Miss done. I don't think Ole Miss has done. They've got three losses. Two were blowouts along with the loss to Florida. The battle Miss defense showed up. This is the problem is that they're like the it's not the it's like Harvey two face and you know the movie and he's flipping the coin. It's like which one are you going to get from Ole Miss's defense because there's weeks that it's really good. Missouri rolls in and Missouri can't do anything. Then the battle Miss defense shows up in the swamp and here at home. This one was more alarming because at home they've typically been better. Remember Chenet at Chamblis hadn't lost the game in Oxford as the quarterback of the Ole Miss Rebs and here they go down in huge fashion. They've got a good shot at finishing nine and three. Their last three is Adolkloma. By the way, they won with Jason Witten as their offense coordinator. They've got the FCS game. Remember when all those articles came out like the SEC got rid of their cupcake weekend. Did they? And the egg bowl at home. So that's all Mrs. stretch down, you know, down the stretch. That's their games down the stretch. And can they get in? I know. I don't know. I don't know. I think it's an outside, outside shot. So where's Georgia in my rankings? You guys know where Georgia is in my rankings. Georgia is number one. As they should be. And until further notice, because that's the best team in college football. That's the team with the highest floor. That's the team that I think can play the best and most dominant style of defense, regardless of who's in the number one defense in the country, statistically or total defense statistically, scoring defense, so on and so forth. It doesn't really matter. They may end up in that position. They may not end up in that position. But the 11 guys that walk out and play the best defense in college football, wear a Georgia Bulldogs uniform. So they're number one in the country. How about Utah, man? What a year? What a year for Utah. Morgan Scally steps in first season as Utah head coach. And it's gone swimmingly well. Now this team may have a chip on their shoulder. And I think that they probably do have a chip on their shoulder. Kyle Wittingham did not leave Utah to go to Michigan. I've heard and seen that narrative out there like their coach left. No, their coach didn't left a leave. He retired. And Morgan Scally had been the coach in waiting for some, I want to say it's like seven years. I could be off. But the first time they ever mentioned the term for Morgan Scally coach in waiting was I think close to seven years ago. And so this has been building for a long time. And I have talked with a few people near the Utah program who have said in the last couple of years, you know, Kyle was taking a big bit of a backseat, not all the time, obviously, and not in press conferences. But like the kind of the culture and energy of the program was kind of Morgan's. Okay. And that's the way that they've played this year. They've played a bit like like a team that is just playing for their normal head coach. They've got a chip on their shoulder. And they've got a guy that I think deserves to be in the Heisman conversation and Devon Dampeur. Currently, the fourth bed's best odds behind CJ Carr, Dairy and Mensa and Jeremiah who's still in there. It's not always pretty with Devon Dampeur. But man, it's exciting, right? Like, gosh, this guy, again, he's going to make some mistakes. And you know, he'll scramble around and at times you're like, oh, no. And then yeah, it's an exciting brand of football. He makes them explosive on the offensive side. They still have these guys on defense that can fly around and they still are going to play that aggressive style of defense with a lot of man coverage and a lot of blitzing. That's Morgan's DNA. That's what they are as a team. And that DNA is now kind of seeped into even their offense. Like they're kind of a go for broke offense at times. Like they they've been in some some dog fights this year. They were in a dogfight with Colorado and Boulder. Kansas was within a score of them in Salt Lake at one point this year. Like they've been in some of these games and down 10 to Houston at home at halftime and they come out and they just win. And this is why Utah will always and forever to your boy B death taxes and Utah football. And this year more than ever. Here they are doing what they do. And that was a big win for them at home in the Holy War 28 20 over BYU. And that's a BYU team that has been a thorn in their side for the last couple of years. I think the last three BYU as one. Um, that's a huge win for them. You guys don't understand. If you're listening to this around the country, you do not understand what that game means to the people in the state of Utah. That rivalry is one of the most fierce, intense and nasty rivalries in all of college football. Full stop. So for them to win that at home in that environment and obviously everything that went on afterwards, that was a huge win. Here's the hard part for Utah. They've got to go on the road next week and face a pretty good team in Arizona. By the way, Gus, Jamie and I will be on the call. Can't wait to get the Tucson's Tucson and see see the youths, baby. See the youths see the cats. Brent Brennan. Here we go, man. No, if a Vita, I can't wait for this game. I really can't. But this is the trap game we've seen this time and time again in college football this year is that a team wins a game like Utah won over BYU. Like so emotional. BYU did it earlier this year. They beat Notre Dame. Go to UCF. Get bounced. So we'll see Utah. What you can do. We will see Wayshawn Parker was dealing with a heel injury versus BYU. But sounds like they got some good news on that moving forward. So hopefully Wayshawn Parker is going to be all right. The Devon Damper leading the way, defense leading the way. So where's Utah right now? On my top 10, Utah is number five. I love Utah this year. I think Utah is well on their way to a college football playoff birth. Now they just beat the team that beat Notre Dame. So BYU beat Notre Dame. Now, Utah beat BYU. Now BYU's got a couple of losses. Obviously they're going to move down a little bit. But now Utah, even if they don't win the big big, I don't think the big 12 is is is relegated to a one big league, one bid league anymore. I think that this is a league that could get to if Utah were to go and lose the big 12 championship game at this point, I think Utah would still go to the college football playoff. And that's when you start to knock out some of these teams like the, oh, nine and three, whatever is certainly going to go. Not necessarily. And that's one of the reasons is this kind of a big 12 log jam. Now with BYU with a win over Notre Dame and might not even get into their comforts championship game because of Texas Tech. By the way, Texas Tech won a wild wild winded pat pat my homes and Baker Mayfield get back on the field. They won a wild game over West Virginia with 1200 yards of offense. Like when did we go in the way, way, way back machine with with Doc Brown and the DeLorean and go back to 2012 and just start playing old big 12's football. Love it. BYU now's lost two of three since the win over Notre Dame and their one win was a lack lackluster win over Arizona State. Not great. They did get LJ Martin back, but Bach Meyer through the four picks. The one near the goal line was a just, I think there was under six minutes left. And I spun through the film of that one as well. They're throwing RPO and it is wide open down eight. It's 2820. It's like, what's the two point call? Like that's how opening it, like can't, can't miss him. Oh, boom, got him. Bang, you know, just frame him up, touchdown cougars. And he throws it just a little too low. It's the goal line. You still have to layer the football. You can't just drive it through there because you got all the linebackers up there. You don't have holes in intermediate coverage or underneath coverage at the goal line. If you're in the low red zone, you understand you've got to, it's like throwing the ball over a goal post, but then getting it to come down like only 10 yards past the goal post. You've got to get it up and over and just a little bit of touch. He throws a laser beam, boom, picked off. I'm like, oh, that was a heartbreaker for Bare Bach Meyer. That was one of his four picks. Last one's a Hail Mary. I wish we would stop. I wish we would stop with the Hail Mary pick. Like so the quarterbacks got to where the minus rushing yards for sacks and he gets an I and T for a Hail Mary I and T like, come on. What are you doing? Stat geeks. Hey, stat geeks. Can't you do better than that? Like, can't you decipher that? Can we just like, can we do better? They do in the NFL in terms of rushing yards, but just across football. Can we stop counting interceptions on Hail Mary's against quarterbacks? Dumb. Where's BYU in my top 10? They're still in my top 10. My BYU is number 10. They are number 10. There was obviously a lot going on. I don't even think they were in my top 10 a week ago. So I actually moved them into the top 10 based on what happened last week and how it happened. I still had Ohio State in the top 10. They obviously moved out that game. How it played out 28 20. I still have them kind of right there. And so they're they're number 10 just behind Alabama. All right. Michigan loses to Michigan state 15 to six. Wasn't even that good. It was really 15. Nothing. And then right after the game, they fired former Utah OC. And now Michigan OC Jason Beck. So Jason Beck is out offense hit a low point for Michigan. Shut out by a two win Michigan state team for basically the entire game. And they didn't do anything offensively. I mean, nothing before the last drive of the game. So they had a 70 75 yard drive to end the game in order to score that loan touchdown to make to create those six points up until that point with five minutes left in the game. They had 115 total yards like guys. They they are abysmal on offense. And so Jason Beck got fired. And it just hasn't worked. He was the highest paid coordinator in the country. He was making $3 million. Now they owe him 10 million subject to an offset in his buyout for mitigation. The defense still hasn't allowed more than 21 points in a game and they're five and four. Like it's crazy. And I can't, I've got to pull this sheet back because you can't talk about Jason Beck and Devon Dampeer off of what I talked about earlier today when I said, hey, sometimes players mask problems with scheme and coaches. I think Devon Dampeer is a case study of that. Like Jason Beck had Devon Dampeer in New Mexico. Then he had Devon Dampeer at Utah. And then the next year, so it was like straight seasons. Then he doesn't have Devon Dampeer. And it's just like off a cliff. Because last year Utah's offense was fine. They were great. In fact, statistically great. This year, Michigan cannot play offense out of a wet paper bag at all. At all. It is round peg square hole all day long. None of it fits. The line doesn't know how to block anything from a stretch perspective. The quarterbacks haven't been able to execute any of the plays whatsoever. The running backs, they can't run on the perimeter and get the, the horizontal stretch with the vision to cut and penetrate after the horizontal stretch. And yet they kept trying to do it. They kept trying to do it. And they kept trying to do it. And there was no identity whatsoever. None. None. Their offense was awful. And it is awful. Like it's, I, and it's, I shouldn't say it that abruptly. But how can your defense not allow 21 points in any game this year? And your team is five and four? That is stunning. Kyle had to make this move. I know Kyle didn't want to do this. One, you don't want the program to absorb a $10 million buyout, dead money. Now again, subject to offset and mitigation. You don't want your program to, these programs don't have 10 million extra dollars laying around. They'd be invested in the roster. Obviously. So one, just the money, two, he knows him. He knows his family brought him from Utah. Like he doesn't want to make that move. He had to defense hasn't given up more than 21 points in a game. And they're five and four. That's wild. Good for Pat Fitzgerald. That's a huge win for him. And maybe a, a program booster, something they've needed some positivity there. They've had an infusion of, of investment into that program. So they do have a little bit of money. Pat's a really good coach. It has not worked out to this point this year. Maybe this is a springboard for them. Remember what happened late last year for Wisconsin. I'll just kind of throw this out there as a bone for Michigan state late last year for Wisconsin. We none of us, we were all surprised Luke fickle kept his job. And, and he kept his job and they got a couple of ranked wins late in the year. And it was like, Oh, I guess, you know, Wisconsin played a little bit better. They found an identity and they brought that into this year. And while, yes, they're not a playoff team. They're not going to go to the big 10 championship. They are vastly improved, speaking of Wisconsin under Luke fickle this year, even after the shutout lost to Iowa. Maybe this is that movement for Michigan state as he tries to rebuild things in East Lansing. The game I was at, sorry, it's taken me this long to get to it, Bruins fans. By the way, neither Michigan or Michigan state are my top 10 on a serious note. UCLA. I kind of love the Bruins, guys. I'm going to get laughed at for this and you guys can mock me in the comments all you want. I don't think it's an easy place to just go win. And I understand Mississippi state did that earlier this year fully aware of that, fully aware of that. It's hard for me to explain the idea of a bad matchup. Mississippi state and their style of offense is the exact wrong matchup for Minnesota. And the reason you know that is because there's another loss in there for Minnesota against Purdue. And Purdue base does very similar things from a schematic standpoint that Mississippi state does. When you spread Minnesota out, then you can really take advantage of them. And every other game, Minnesota has been a tough out, a very tough out ask Indiana, ask Michigan, ask Iowa, all these teams. And UCLA walked into that building and they took care of business. There we go. All right. I'm back. I'm back. We've seen injuries, derail seasons at Oregon and Ohio State. And it has not derailed anything at UCLA. Ty Defenbach has stepped in here at UCLA and they can they just continue to to move along down the tracks and not only that, but they get better every week in particular throwing the ball. Those two strikes to to my cell right down the middle of the field back-to-back snaps for 75 yard bombs. Defenbach looked great. And by the way, those were some of the prettiest deep balls that we've seen in college football. How many times as you're watching on Saturday, do you notice that a quarterback under throws a deep ball? A guy is one. He's open by a step and the ball is under throne. It happens. I'm, I'm telling you guys 90% of the time, quarterbacks in college are terrible at the deep ball in general, analyzing here. Defenbach threw two dimes on time from the pocket in stride. My cell gone. Tuddy house call. What you normally see in college football is a guy short those throws. Then the player gets tackled. Then that series, you know, gets snuffed out at the 25 and they've got to kick a field goal. And then it's a three three point job drive rather than a seven point drive. But now it throws like that. So Defenbach may have found something there. And this is still a team with Wayne Knight. And Wayne Knight is one of my favorite players to watch in all of college football right now. I know he's small, but Mani reminds me exactly a Darren Sproles, who I played against. He reminds me of of MJD watching him and actually playing him in my sophomore year at Colorado as well when UCLA came into town. But this guy is so explosive. I know he's small. I understand that. He takes away the defense's angles better than anybody I've seen so far this year. There were multiple times when Minnesota and you're watching these plays on YouTube, by the way, if you're there and if you're there, subscribe, please. That would be awesome. There are multiple times when when a Minnesota player has an angle. Now, granite. Bit of a blizzard check on both of those. And if you know, you know, so we got a blizzard check on both of those, but he just takes away the angle. Bam. Defensive player has an angle, takes it away gone, right? He gets the edge on the other one. And that first step, and that's one of the things that Bob Chesney told us during the meeting, deep in box, only eight completions, 300 yards. They ran the football. I thought Wayne Knight was terrific, terrific. I love watching him plays versatile. The all purpose side of that. And then got to sit with Bob Chesney for the first time in their coordinators for first time, Colin Hitch, Hitchler on the defensive side, Dean Kennedy on the offensive side and Bob as a head coach. And I was got to, I just got to tell you, I loved it. And I don't love every single coach's meeting. I loved those ones. And let me tell you why. He was, and I said this during the broadcast, he was relentlessly positive about his staff, his players and his place. And that is so refreshing, because that's not always the case. I sit in meetings all the time when guys want to complain, blame, defend things about their program. We don't have X, Y, or Z. I'm not going to say the specific things that I hear because you hear them in the media as well. Well, this guy isn't blah, blah, blah. You know, well, you know, that's the way I do it. And this is the way we do this and that. And it's like, okay, that's fine. And I understand that there's a time and a place for all of that because everything has issues. But the message I got from Bob Chesney on Friday in their hotel before that game was, why wouldn't you come to UCLA? Why wouldn't I want to be at UCLA? Are you kidding me? This place is amazing. You know, it's, it's the rarest college to get into because there's more applicants than any other university in the country. It's the number one public university in the country. We're in Westwood. We're right there. We're in Beverly Hills. What do you mean? We're around successful people. This program has tradition. Our athletic department is the best athletic department in all of college intercollegiate athletics. And it's like, we're a great football program away from being the best program in all of America. It's full stop. Like this is incredible. Why wouldn't you want to come and breathe the rare air of UCLA? And I, my, my job was on the floor. I've sat with every UCLA coach going back almost two decades. I heard that pitch very much. Why wouldn't you come and breathe the rare air of UCLA? I was like, dang, this guy is good. And it wasn't a greasy sales pitch either. He was genuine. about it. I love sitting with Bob Chesney. I know exactly why they're having success. He's detail oriented. He demands things out of his players. He's specific in his recruiting and what he wants from from the types of players that he has. He brought a staff with him that believes in him and he believes in them, you know, like they know what they want to do from a scheme perspective. They know how they want to go out there and win games. He knew that they had big plays out there when he talked to Jenny before the fourth quarter. And he said, we got big plays coming up right now and they knew that because they knew the scheme didn't keep Dean Kennedy knew what was going on. My conversations with both coordinators were some of the better conversations that I've had with with, you know, a lot of coordinators. A lot of coaches are very protective. And these two guys, they talked football with me, man. And they knew exactly what was going on on that tape. And they knew how to attack it. And before the game, I was like, this is something. This is something. I don't know if they're going to go undefeated. I think that this is a playoff team. I don't think that there's any doubt. I fully expect them to be an Indian apolis to play for the big 10 title. I think Illinois is a tough test. That's a Friday night at the Rose Bowl this week. Then they've got to go out to Michigan. I have no idea what Michigan is going to be. None whatsoever. And then they've got the big cross-town rivalry against USC. So where are they at right now for me? UCLA is number four in the country for me. UCLA is is a damn good football team. They play great defense. They've got length and athleticism. They've got all Americans on that side of the ball, probably two of them, maybe three. They've got really good defensive backs. They got a great back, a quarterback that's getting better. The offensive line, they can run the football. What what's not to like for UCLA? It's their schedule, jewel. All right. Well, I'm just telling you right now in that matchup and in that location, that was an impressive performance on Saturday. I fully expect that they move up. Hopefully the committee will allow them to move up. So that's where UCLA is at. I only have two more spots. We talked about a lot of teams. That's fun. And my voice hasn't given out one more drink. Here we go. All right. Let's get through this top 10. You see BYU there at 10. You see Bama at nine. And I know people are going to be upset with Bama. Bama fans think that I hate Bama. I don't hate Bama. In fact, I just direct you back to what I talked about earlier, giving a lot of praise to Bama. Tennessee is going to be at eight. So why is Tennessee at eight and Bama as at nine? Well, because I have two eyes and watch Tennessee beat Alabama, which the committee apparently did not do. Now Tennessee beats Kentucky. That's a really good win for them. They run the football, man. And what I've loved about Tennessee over the last year and a half, yeah, two years, is that I feel like Josh Hypole got away from just being the deep choice, you know, throw it all over the lot type of team. And he he is a run oriented team now. And that's been an evolution over the last few years. And it's taken root. They're in an active aggressive defense that creates some havoc. And so they ended up putting on a clinic against Kentucky. And that bottom kind of fell out for Kentucky. They ran the ball for 240 yards. Defense didn't allow a touchdown to Will Steins often. So Tennessee is in there. Again, head to head win with Alabama. I, you know, like you can't give Alabama. Hey, committee, by the way, if you give Alabama credit for a valuable win over Mississippi state this week, we all quit. Seven is Texas. Why is Texas seven and Tennessee eight and Alabama, Alabama nine, Joel, because games matter. So Texas seven. Tennessee is eight because Texas beat Tennessee. Tennessee is eight. And Alabama is nine because Tennessee beat Alabama. See committee. It's not that difficult. Well, Notre Dame lost to BYU. Yeah, but BYU has two losses. So they're not like comparisons in this one. And they just aren't. Texas came back to win at Missouri arch through for nearly 303 touchdowns. Real quick, that the call I believe is in replay. Questionable third down conversion in a tight game. And that was not the correct ruling. That was not you can't award the fumble and recovery and first down in replay there because it has to be in what's called the immediate action. So if that happens, right? If a quarterback if the call in the field is like, no, it's incomplete, but like the ball comes out or even if the ball comes out as a runner is going down and they're saying, no, like, you know, he's down. And the ball squirts out. And then it's grabbed right away by the opponent that immediate action. You can award the ball to the opponent. Now you can't award any progress off of that, which is what we saw with the big 12 a couple of weeks ago in that BYU Arizona state game, which that was the wrong ruling, but this was not the immediate action. You had a Missouri player that had a chance at the ball that basically kind of like ran past it because he's hearing a whistle. So at that point, once players have given up and there's not an immediate action where they have any sort of reaction to the whistle, then you can't award like possession because it's technically a fumble. So I thought that that ruling was wrong. I thought it was totally wrong. Texas trailed 20 to 13. They scored the last 21. Colin Simmons returned, but he only played 18 snaps. No, Cam Coleman. Wingo played. I thought it was good. I thought it was good from Texas. Not great. It was good. I don't know what it would have been like. That's a third down, by the way, when that call happened. Like that was a huge call impacted the outcome of the game. All right. Miami at six already talked about them. I was impressed in a loss. Utah death taxes, Utah football, UCLA at four Notre Dame at three. Number two is Indiana. I think this is just because I this might be more anticipatory. I still think that that team just knows how to win. I think that they're going to be really formidable on offense if they go with Grant Wilson in a way from Josh Hoover, not because Josh Hoover isn't good. Josh Hoover was very good early, actually. It's because Josh Hoover is injured. And I believe that that injury doesn't allow them to be at their best. And if they can be at their best, Charlie Becker is a monster. The defense is elite. They're number one in the country in yards per play defense. They were a great defense. Last year, every coordinator that I talked to in college football, I always ask them similar questions. I say like, hey, what's the toughest offense you faced? What's the toughest defense you faced? Well, who do you think does the best most with the least, least with the most, so on and so forth? And the common answer for who's doing the best job on defense, Indiana and Bryant Haines, that's the common answer. I still believe that this team does a better job than most of winning the game in front of them. So they're the reigning national champion, defending national champion. And they're a one-loss team by a by six inches in a game in which Ohio State really was the real Ohio State with Julian saying it quarterback. So I think that they're the number two team in the country. Almost in. I had Wake Forest, USC, Texas Tech, Iowa, Kentucky, Wake Forest got beat up. I'm sorry. They're about to go beat up or they did beat up Merrimack, 77 to nothing, FCS team. They've won six in a row now. They're only lost 33-20 to Miami, respectable. They've outscored their last five opponents, 264 to 31. So they've got a huge game this week against SMU. SMU blew out Virginia Tech this week. I've got USC up there in my almost category off this week. After the win over Ohio State, they're going to travel to Indiana. That would put them right in the playoff mix. And they I believe they control their own destiny to, if I'm not mistaken, to Indianapolis. There's a lot of scenarios. But if they beat Indiana, that would be, they would be well on their way. Texas Tech won the classic Big 12 style of game. 53 48 1200 yards of offense, 101 points. It was 41 27 and a half. I guess the offense looks better with Thomas, Tommy Castellanos, right? Let them to a win over Arizona last week. Big game at a Oklahoma State this week. I'm losing it guys. That's okay. Couple of more. Iowa beat Northwestern 24 10. So they still have a chance to be 10 and 2 was 24 to 3 until the final two minutes. So they handled business there. Watch out for Iowa. I still think Iowa can be 10 and 2. Like one of their losses is to like the real Ohio State. You know, they get walked off by Minnesota and kind of a rivalry game. Dang, man, I wish the committee would give Iowa more love. And then Kentucky is in there. The playoff changes took a bit of a hit. Blowout loss of Tennessee. Now they've got two out two blowout losses this year. Alabama by 28 Tennessee by 28. They've got three winnable games down the final home stretch home versus Florida. They've lost four there last five at Missouri and Louisville. So we'll see what Kentucky can do in Will Steins first year. It's going to be interesting. Thanks for bearing with me there. I know it was a bit of a long show and I didn't really intend and for it to be a long show. but it wasn't what it was. There was a lot to talk about. Subscribe if you would. Follow us on social media at Joel Platte Show. Write and review us wherever you listen. And we will see you on Wednesday after the rankings release. We'll play off rankings and then I'll probably yell and scream and it'll be fun. So that's on Wednesday. Come back then.