Oregon’s back & USC’s down, Michigan stunned by Iowa, Colin Simmons’ celebration + Klatt’s Top 10

- What are we doing? You can't win football games with just one player. Almost like the Buffalo Bills of college football. Yeah, they have Josh Allen, but their defense needs to play a lot better, don't they? Yes. If you act like you're peeing on an opponent, probably a bridge too far. Now it's like every single play of the game has to be a TikTok reel. (dramatic music) - Hey, welcome into the program. It is the Joel Clat Show. I'm Joel Clat, and this show is sponsored by Hilton Hilton for the stay. Thank Hilton for their support, as always, lots to get into here. That was a great day of college football. There's no doubt. We got celebrations to talk about. We've got massive wins to talk about, some losses. Let's get right into it. I thought that the most important game of the day was in Los Angeles. Oregon goes into USC and takes down the Trojans. Huge win for Dan Laning and Oregon to stay on track. After the loss to Oklahoma State, they needed this one desperately. You could make a real strong case, even though they had plenty of ammunition left on their schedule, you could make a real strong case that this was a must win for Dan Laning and the Oregon Ducks. And they played like it. Listen, I'm gonna get to Dante Moore, and I'm gonna get to the injury and the fallout from that. But let's start with just the performance. And the performance really centers around the fact that Oregon has the best backup quarterback in the country, in Dylan Reola. And not many programs are afforded that luxury in particular in this day and age. Remember now, remember. In the NIL and transfer portal era, no quarterback that is good enough to start is going to just sit at a school just because. You know, like, oh, I love the coach. And I wanna go there. And I'm just gonna sit and develop. That's not a thing. Because if you're good enough to play, someone's gonna pay you millions of dollars to do it. Not 100,000, not 200,000, millions of dollars. The top quarterbacks in this border, getting about six and a half or plus million dollars. And if you're just a serviceable starting quarterback, you're gonna be over a million dollars. Like, that's just the reality of where we're at in college football. So this is an anomaly. When you can get a former five star player like Dylan Reola, and he leaves Nebraska to come to Oregon, and now they've done it twice 'cause Dante more did the exact same thing when he left UCLA and came up to sit behind Dylan Gabriel at Oregon. So it takes a unique program. And obviously I understand what everyone's gonna talk about. A fully resource program. And yes, that's absolutely the case. There is no doubt. And there's not many programs that are gonna have the money and the resources on stretched NIL budgets to go out and just grab a backup quarterback to sit there. I'm sure Dylan, I don't know this, this is speculation. And so I'm uneasy to say this, but I'm sure he's making plenty of money at Oregon to sit and be the backup quarterback and then have his day and the sun once Dante more leaves. But guess what, that day showed up early. And you are always just one snap away. Always one snap away. And every single coach tries to communicate that to a quarterback. And it's always difficult to know what that means unless you've been a starter. So Dylan Royola goes in the game and Oregon didn't really miss a beat offensively. They were right on track and he did an excellent job. He was terrific in that game. He started 22 games in Nebraska and it showed all of those situations that come up the clock management late. You're in a tight ball game at one point, late in the second half. That's a tie ball game. Then you get in a one possession. Now you're in the two possession. He's managing the clock. He understands the play clock. He understands when to break the huddle. All these things that only an experienced quarterback could really orchestrate and operate at a high level. He was doing that. And that is to Oregon's benefit. Finding your quarterback early is a brilliant move. I'm sure other programs are going to try this. But again, this is a unique scenario where a guy like Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks are fully resourced enough to go and actually pull it off. And then you need the unique guy that is actually willing to do it and go up there and sit. Like Dante Moore went up to sit behind Dylan Gabriel and now Dylan Raiola and Dylan Raiola will play for the foreseeable future and we'll get to Moore in a moment. I thought that their defense was much better in particular than what we saw against Oklahoma State and more specifically on the defensive line. Remember Oklahoma State ran for like 270 plus yards in that game. A lot of it was their quarterback though. And a couple of really long runs from Drew Mestemaker and that game at Stillwater and that's not going to be USC. But they did a good job against a USC team with an experience offensive line and two really good backs and King Miller and Wayman Jordan. So I felt like the defense played well in a matchup game. And then there's this aspect of Oregon. You can say what you want about the way that they started the season. And certainly it was clunky, OK? Although Boise sure looks good after they handled Western Michigan this weekend and they certainly look like the team that's likely to be the group of six participant in the college football playoff. However, they go down to Oklahoma State totally lay an egg. Score closer than what the game actually was. And Mestemaker and the Cowboys did an incredible job on that day. They come back to get right versus Portland State. It's just a play everybody game. And now they've got to go down to USC and it's like this is where the rubber meets the road. But this is also where we all have to realize that when Oregon walks onto the field, any field in the country, they are talented enough to look eye to eye with the opponent. They walk on any field and they can say if we play our best, we will win today. If we execute, if we don't make mistakes, if we just do our job, we can win today. And that's still true, right? So say everything you want to say about the way that they started and where should they be ranked. I'm not sure I'm going to reveal where I have them ranked in my top 10 in just a moment. But that's an absolute true statement. They will look across and say if we play our best, we win. And they played nearly their best on Saturday night, nearly not perfect. But it's a matchup game you're never going to play perfect. And they won and they won on the road at a place where USC does not lose many games. They did not lose there last year and obviously that's still a very good team. Now let's get to Dante Moore. I was sick, as you guys know, or maybe you don't, I don't know. I struggled with concussions in my career at Colorado. And so it's one of the reasons I'm one of those rare guys that I'm not a really a UFC fan. It's not because I don't think it's a great sport and all the say it like it is. And it's entertaining. I have a hard time watching people get knocked out probably because my history. You can Google it. You can see pictures of me face down unconscious in the end zone when we played Texas in the big 12 championship game. I just, I can't watch it. And so I was immediately devastated and sick when I saw the play with Dante Moore. I know that those plays can be a bang bang situation and they are. But when a quarterback is giving himself up feet first, the defender, I think, has at least a chance, even if he's committed in the air to just kind of pull off. And that didn't happen. It wasn't even close. And we're going to show it on YouTube. I almost hesitate to show it. If you're subscribed to the program, you're going to see it right there. But Desmond Stevens doesn't pull off at all. And he goes in full force, torpedo to the head and then start celebrating afterwards and I'm sorry, but that was disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. There's no place for that. None whatsoever. And again, I bring up the UFC comparison only because, you know, after a guy is totally knocked out, they'll sit there and keep pounding him on the head. And I'm just like, oh my gosh, please stop. And that's a similar feeling that I got on Saturday night. I mean, Dante Moore is fully, you know, bang, he's in the position. His arms are frozen and I immediately started praying for Dante. I'm sorry. I'm emotional now as a dad. So like I get emotional very easily. I started praying for him. I hope that he's okay. It sounds like as we've gotten some updates that Dante did just suffer a concussion, thankfully, thankfully. And we hope that he's going to be all right and have a full recovery. And I think that he'll be on track to do so. But then the fallout from the Desmond Stevens attitude towards the hit afterwards and the celebration and the taunting. And then he goes over the sideline and he's laughing and dapping it up. And I'm just like, man, you know what? There's no place for that as a human. There's no place for that whatsoever. You can be a warrior on the football field and still have compassion for your fellow warriors. Okay. But the war comparisons almost hesitate to do that as well. But it's like nobody's out there to injure the opponent. Nobody. And if you are, you shouldn't be playing. You shouldn't. And I'm going to give Lincoln Riley a lot of credit because they came out and suspended Desmond Stevens for a game next game against Washington and that's a big game for them. So that's a big step for a head coach just desperately in need of that victory against Washington in particular with the implications of the loss on Saturday night. So I'll give Lincoln Riley a lot of credit for that. But the actions there, there's no other way to classify them other than despicable. And hopefully there are some of you college football players that like listen to this. No need for that. No need for that. You can play hard and there will be injuries and there will be unfortunate injuries. And some of them severe. But guess what? There is no space whatsoever for celebrating those. None. None. In particular, when it involves the brain like we saw with Desmond Stevens, Oregon's big victory though, I think has major implications for the rest of the season. For their season, now obviously they still have a tough road ahead of them. They've got to go to Ohio State. They've got a lot of monster games on their schedule. But for Oregon, again, I'm just going to go back to this point that they can walk on the field and know that if they play their best, they can beat anybody in the country. And I firmly believe that. And more on kind of the parody and college football later in the program. But where did I have Oregon in my top 10? They did get into my top 10. I think they deserve to be in the top 10. They are number nine in my top 10. I'll reveal the entire top 10 at the end of the program after I talk about a few of these games. But Oregon is going to be number nine. The AP didn't put them in there. But the AP poll is trash. I'll have more on that in a little bit. And again, like I don't know if I would want to play Oregon and I certainly wouldn't want to play Oregon in their own building. The USC fallout from this and not just from the Desmond Steven stuff. I think it's going to be really easy for a lot of people to fall into the trap of just saying like, oh, yep, same old Lincoln Riley and same old USC. And I don't actually think that that's true. Because you can easily say, yep, it's the defense's fault. They gave up the 40 points in this game and 41. They lose 41, 27 can't get a stop, same old, same old, not necessarily true. Not necessarily true. Why is that? Well, because they did get the stop. And unfortunately for them, they got a roughing the passer penalty. I know Trojan fans are going to hate the penalty. I know Lincoln Riley is going to hate the penalty. In fact, I think I saw in one of his press conferences that he called it a stupid penalty. But in a matchup game, I care about situations. I care about stops and I care about execution and I care about not beating yourself. And here's the thing. When it's third and 15 and you get a stop, you can't execute a leaping foe headbutt into the head of the quarterback, you just can't, like you can't do that. You're putting the official in a bind because Oregon's going to want that call. You know, you get the stop. You did it. You did everything. There's no need for the extra little head nod towards the head of the quarterback. We should know at this point in football that whether we like it or not, that's the strike zone. You know, I played minor league baseball. There were plenty of nights when I was like, that's not a strike. But guess what? That night it was. Now I try to tell that to my, my son, my youngest son, Theo, plays baseball and be like, that pitch was outside. Yeah, but he called the outside pitch all night long. So that pitch was a strike that night. Now, this is before ABS and we get all the electronics. When the strike zone floated and was determined, uh, determined by the umpire that night, it's like the zone was what the zone was that night. Well, guess what? We've been given a strike zone in college football. Some of us like it, some of us don't. But the reality is, is that's the strike zone. Like you just can't do that. And so it was that penalty that ends up causing them to stay on the field defensively, give up the score. And now they're in a situation where the dominoes start to fall and that's when you started to see what we always see from USC. It was after that. So now what do you see from USC? Well, you get into a late possession when they're down and they have to have it and this is where I think a little blame can go towards USC and maybe even Lincoln Riley's way. I think they abandoned the run game too early. There was eight minutes left in that game and they're abandoning the run game and then they get to a fourth down. It's fourth and seven. And I think it's too early for a fourth down at that point. I thought it was too early. I'm like, why are we putting the game on the line right now? Now you could say like, well, because we can't get a stop. But you did get a stop. You see my point like you did get a stop. That's why it's not totally similar to what we've seen previously from USC. But now the narrative is going to be that they've given up at least 27 points and 17 of the 19 games versus ranked teams under Lincoln Riley. They are four and one when they keep teams under 30 and one and 13 when they don't. So the one win was that wild 48 45 win against UCLA in 2022. That's a game that Gus and Ginny and I called no, actually, I think Ginny was in Qatar for the World Cup. That was probably Allison Williams on the sideline, but we did that game and it was a wild game. But that's, you know, like one and 13 at the 30 point mark. So yeah, a lot of blame can go to the defense. There's no doubt. But they did get the stop. Like their offense is going to go on the field in a tie ball game and then they didn't. And then they didn't. So USC is not even in my almost category, so they're not really in my top 15. So that's those two teams. All right, let's go to the stunner and Michigan. How about that game? I think it's going to be really easy to just be like karma, karma, but let's actually evaluate this game for what it was and what it was was a game with two fairly evenly matched teams. Now, I think that Michigan is probably a little better than Iowa, but here's the deal with Iowa. Iowa is going to force you to win the game. They're rarely going to beat themselves. And as we know, we've heard Nick Saban talk about this. We've heard Bill Belichick talk about this, even at the NFL level. Most games are lost, not one. Well, Iowa is one of those rare programs under Kirk fans. And this is one of the things I respect most about Kirk fans. They are not going to lose games on their own. And they're going to force you to go and like execute to the end. So here's Michigan and they outgain Iowa 429 yards to 285. So they largely dominated the game, okay, but but Iowa went on the 11 play 91 yard drive in the final two minutes and they win the game. Why are they in that position when they are wildly outgained like they were? And by the way, that possession was crazy and wild and there were some penalties in there. And I'll get to that. But the execution at the end was insane. I mean, for Iowa to execute the back shoulder fade at the corner of the end zone, Iowa. Punting is winning. Just went 11 plays 91 yards in the final two minutes. Maybe that catapults their offense. I don't know. I think four things ended up beating Michigan. So when I was a player, we used to talk about, and I talk about this with coaches a lot right now too. And if you're a high school player or even a high school coach, you've got to think about it this way. If you're in a game that is fairly evenly matched and you know that it's likely going to be a game that's in the balance in the fourth quarter, then you have to understand that in hindsight, it's always going to be kind of three to six snaps that decide the game. The most impactful snaps of that game. And yes, generally you can only know when those occur via hindsight. And sometimes you have an awareness of those snaps while you're playing. But the deal is is that if you're in a game that's fairly evenly matched like you've got to be buttoned up at all times, you cannot make mistakes. You've got to be iceman ice cold, no mistakes. And you can't beat yourself while Michigan beat themselves. They give a special team's touchdown. That's one. They have a fourth down failure in the red zone. That's two. They have another red zone scoring zone interception. That's three. Excuse me. And then they have a penalty, a personal foul on that last drive defensively that extends the drive and gives Iowa a chance. That's four. So those are four plays and there are others, right? There's, you know, Michigan fans can be like, well, there was a tipped ball here and there was a tipped ball in the last series. But that's the thing is that when you make those mistakes that they did, you're putting yourself at risk to those bounces. And that's what ends up happening. And those four things really beat Michigan in this game. They allowed Iowa the opportunity to win late and then Iowa took advantage like Iowa does. The penalty implications, but by the way, that personal foul, it would have been fourth and 12, except Zeke Berry gets the personal foul from the Iowa 40 with 18 seconds left. We're showing the clip right now on the YouTube show. And it's just a shove late and again, Zeke doesn't need to do that. There was no reason to even put your hands on the receiver. It's clearly over. There's no debt. There's no doubt about it. And again, this goes back to the strike zone. You can not like it if you're a Michigan like absolute blue blood, forgive the pun there. If you go blue all the way and you're thinking like, come on, come on. Well, that's a strike. And you can't do that in particular on a crucial down and in a crucial setting like that. So that gives them now a first down inside of the 50 yard line. Now they're on the plus territory. They go to the 45. They get to throw two in completions. Then they get the tip 29 yard completion. Now you've got daily who's hurt, so the clock stops, because they were going to have to just run up there and snap the ball. You can't spike the ball with two seconds and I don't know if you kind of got that from the broadcast, but you can't run up there, snap the ball and spike it. Two seconds are going to run off by rule. So they have to execute the play in a rush, which I highly doubt they're going to execute the play as well, but daily is injured down the field. So now they get the stoppage, they get to talk about their play and then they execute it and they go in and like give Iowa credit, man, and Kirk fairness being emotional after all these years, he's seen it all. He has seen it all and they've lost tough ball games. There's no doubt. But now they've won these games. They will play field position. They will play multiple possessions ahead in order to gain field position. They will do everything necessary and they will squeeze a victory out of the jaws at the feet because they won't beat themselves. And that's the most Iowa thing of all time. And that's one of the reasons why I love them. Field position, special teams, not in my top 10 Iowa isn't, even though I thought that was a great win. I got Ohio State coming into Kinnick next week, they were almost in my top 10, almost. So they were kind of right in there and like the top 15, I give kind of like five or six almost. They were in that category, didn't really consider them all the way up at 10, but they were certainly in that next group of teams after the huge win on the road. It's tough to win on the road anywhere for any team and Iowa was able to do that. Tough to win on the road for Ole Miss on Saturday, wasn't it? My goodness, how about Florida? What an impressive win. 52-28. Florida is now one of the best scoring teams in the entire country. I believe they're second in the country to Miami, I think, or third, second or third. Sorry if you're not knowing that, specifically off the top of my head. But they now improve to 4 and 0. And this is just a reminder, guys. This is just a reminder. And I'm going to have more on this in a little bit. Florida has good players too. And I believe that the line between sub 500 college football teams and teams that can get up to the 8-9, even 10 win mark is growing very, very thin. Jaden Baas, one of if not the best running back in America right now. By the way, Duke Clark, he's right up there. There's part of me that feels like this might be like Notre Dame from last year with Jeremiah, love, and Giderian price. You've got Duke Clark, you've got Jaden Baas, and these two guys are incredible. And it allows John Someral to play a brand of football that fits him perfectly. Former linebacker, this guy is tough, and guess what they can do? They can go out there and run it 53 times. You remember how impressed I was last year after the Rose Bowl, when Indiana ran it 50 times at Alabama and just kind of bludgeoned them with their run game. That's exactly what Florida did to Ole Miss. 53 times for 300 yards. I mean, well done, well done for Florida. I really like Florida, and it's not just because of their performance on Saturday. I liked what they did against Auburn the week prior. I loved what they did against Ole Miss, they were ready, they were tough. Is it the best team in the SEC? I don't think it's the best team in the SEC, but I do think that there is a pathway to the college football playoff. I really do. You look up at their schedule right now, and now that they got the Ole Miss win, you're thinking to yourself, okay, we know Ole Miss is a very good team, and certainly with sure to add chambles, they have the ability at any point to beat anybody. Now, I'll talk about their defense in a moment, but now let's look at Florida. Here's their next six games. They've got at Missouri, home to South Carolina, at Texas, Georgia and Atlanta, homeOU at Kentucky. Not easy, not easy, but after that performance, don't you feel a little bit different about Missouri, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Kentucky? Even with Kentucky's win over A&M, we certainly are going to feel different about Oklahoma, more on them in a little bit. We certainly feel differently about South Carolina, about that debacle in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, and Missouri just lost on the road at Mississippi State. Now, that was a really good game, and Camario Taylor had some dramatics, if you will, to come back in that game, and they're still ranked, more on that in a little bit, my goodness. But, but, guys, Florida can be ten and two. There's no doubt. There's no doubt. Again, I'll just say this, do I think Florida is the best team in the SEC, probably not? Do I think that they have a legitimate path to be a college football playoff team? Yes, absolutely. They don't even have to beat Texas. They don't have to beat Georgia. They might, you never know, Texas is out here doing every possible thing in their mind to lose games at this point. Now, they didn't on Saturday, but they're trying to. Who knows? If Georgia is not getting gifted, scooping scores in the second quarter from the opposing quarterback, do we really know what Georgia is? They only gained 300 yards on Oklahoma, which is a good defense. I don't want to say that's nothing, but it's like, hey, Florida is legitimate here. Georgia is legitimate and I think that they have a legitimate path to the college football playoff. And now, here's the challenge for them. The challenge for them is that don't repeat the same mistake that Ole Miss just made coming into the swamp. If I was John Summerall, here's what I would do in the first team meeting this week in Gainesville. I would show them all the media clips and all of the shows like me because last week I was doing it with Ole Miss and Trinidad Chambliss and I was crowning them and I was saying, hey, this team is, you know, as good as any and Trinidad Chambliss is your September Heisman and he could be the first draft pick and the NFL draft and so on and so forth. And guess what? That's rap poisoning. And Ole Miss played like it. Their defense ran out there and played like, oh, we've got this in the bag. We've got Trinidad. We've got Superman on the sideline. We can do whatever. And then they give up 52 points. So the challenge for John Summerall and Florida is to not fall into that trap. How do you, as a coach, and this is an old coaching adage that I've always believed in? I think great coaches have to treat winners like losers and losers like winners because losers need confidence and I think winners need to fight complacency. They need urgency. They need it. So you have to artificially create it for them. This is what Nick Sabin was brilliant at. I mean brilliant at. Nobody was comfortable at Alabama ever, ever. Urban Meyer was like that as well. There is no complacency, partly because they were able to stockpile rosters back then USC with Pete Carroll stockpile rosters, Urban Meyer at Florida and at Ohio State, Nick Sabin at Alabama, Kirby Smart at Georgia and it's like, well, how do you fight complacency? You fight complacency in those eras by just saying, hey, your backup is just as good as you. You work hard on Tuesday and Wednesday and if you're not locked in, you won't even start. So your playing time was how you fought complacency then. Now it's different because there's not a ton of teams with enough depth that just says like, yeah, your backups just as good as you. Maybe Duke Clark is, but Jaden Boz and other breed. My point is is that it's more difficult than ever. It's more difficult than ever to fight rat poisoning and now that's the challenge for Florida. How do you go to Missouri and put your best foot forward? So where do I have Florida? I have them in my top 10. Yes, I do. I've got them at number eight. That was a resounding win. I'll be at home, but a resounding win. They beat Ole Miss and they did it with 53 rushes for 300 yards. If you're looking at the Ole Miss perspective in this game, you can't win football games with just one player, right? This is becoming like almost like the Buffalo Bills of college football. Yeah, they have Josh Allen, but their defense needs to play a lot better. Don't they? Yes. We all know that, right? We all know that. We get better on defense and that's Pete Golding specialty and here's the hard part for a guy who's normally a coordinator who's now moved into the head coaching duties and he's trying to handle both is that you can't really be, well, if you're trying to master everything, you're going to master nothing. That's what's hard. I've talked with Ryan Day a lot about this. He thinks it's going to be really difficult for someone to call their own plays and win a national championship because of everything going on in college football. There's too much. And it's pretty clear right now without Q1 lacing on the field that this team is Trinidad Shambles. The defense is in shambles, totally unsustainable to get through a schedule like they're going to play with a defense that's sitting at 119th and scoring defense and I know they've played quality opponents and I get that and those numbers are going to be skewed because some teams are playing air Miami and and other teams aren't. But it's still an unsustainable defense at this point. Lincoln, Riley and USC, you know, all hell is going to come down on them for not getting stops. But guess what? It's the same thing with Ole Miss. You can't do that. You've got to have a defense that can go and do something for you. They give up 38 to Louisville. 24 to LSU is going to be more if LSU has any more time on the clock and now 52 to Florida. Again, they're 119th and scoring. So where did they go? Well, they fell a lot further than the AP sent Ole Miss for me. How about the AP? A.P. keeping them in the top 10. They just got B.52 to 28. I wanted to do the rant right there. Like it was like triggered in me to rant about the A.P. But it's safe for later in the show. You're gonna wanna stick around because I've got a little bit of a rant on the A.P. Ole Miss is outside of my top 10. They are kind of in the almost category. They're there with Iowa, right? I didn't really consider them in the top 10 and I can't believe there are people that did consider them in the top 10. I mean, tell me you are waving an SEC flag without telling me you're waving an SEC flag. My goodness, 50 to 28. So they're outside of my top 10. We'll stay in the SEC right now. Texas holds on on the road. Difficult environment, there's no doubt that they go in and they beat Tennessee 20 to 17 in Nealin and Texas did everything in their power to lose that game. Everything. Very similar to what Michigan did at home against Iowa. Now, the difference in the two games is that Iowa got the bounces and Tennessee did not. So late in the game when Tennessee, wow, you could say like, Joel, they got the on-side kick. Yes, they got that bounce. But I'm talking about like the tip completion that puts you in field goal range that all of a sudden now you can kick a field goal and tie the game and go to overtime. But it's the same type of deal. I always talk about these match-up games and if you do these things, you're likely or putting yourself at risk of getting beat and guess what, you give up a part return, you have 11 penalties for 115 yards, you allow an on-side kick. You're at risk of getting beat and here's the truth about Texas right now. Is Texas a very good football team? Yes, there's no doubt. There's talent everywhere. Now, what's the best part of Texas' football team? They're defense. Their defense is outstanding and they have elite players on the defensive side, more on that in a second. Their offense is not elite right now. They aren't. They did not play well against Tennessee. They did not play well against UTSA. They did not play well for two and a half quarters against Ohio State. The reality is that outside of about 18 minutes of game time, Texas' offense has been just okay. Arch has been just okay. Arch was not great again. He's not anticipating windows. He doesn't play in rhythm. It's like he doesn't quite see it. And if he doesn't see it, he doesn't pull the trigger. You know, there are some quarterbacks that can sit there and throw with great anticipation. And he's not one of them right now. And that's something that he's gonna have to develop for Texas to take the next step. They have to. They couldn't run the football. Now, I know the sack numbers go against their statistics. And so their run game is better than what the stats show. It shows that they ran for under two yards per carry. Did they run the ball better than that? Yes. But did they run the ball well? No. No. And they have to do that. They didn't protect Arch. He was getting pressure and sacks. And this is the one thing that we saw a year ago that became an issue for them. And there are three losses. The loss against Ohio State, the loss against Florida, the loss against Georgia. Said those problems, you don't want them popping up again in your team. So outside of about 18 minutes, now in those 18 minutes they played the best football in the country. And so I could see how you would keep them number one. But that's a problem for me because I'm like, well, that's not any sustained excellence whatsoever. And I would much rather take the bulk of your minutes rather than the minority of your minutes. And so I dropped them. I had Texas at number one. I was honoring that win against Ohio State. But my reveal of Texas right now, they're going to be number two in my top 10. Texas is going to drop a spot because let's face it. That was incredibly sloppy. Now, here's what wasn't sloppy was the defense. The defense was outstanding. And the defense has elite talent. And that talent is led by a guy who I think could be a top two, three, four pick in the NFL draft. And that's Colin Simmons. And what we should be talking about with Colin Simmons is a record day. He had five sacks. This is Derek Thomas style stuff. If you don't know Derek Thomas's, please Google him and you're young. So like I understand, it is remarkable. This is JJ Watts stuff. This is Aaron Donald stuff. Like this is a dominant performance that should be leaving a legacy forever at that school. It should be getting you the Nagersky award. It should be creating Heisman buzz for a defensive player. Like we've seen prior. We saw Mantae tail get buzz. We saw in Dominic and Sue get buzz. We saw chase young get buzz. We've seen defensive guys get buzz in the Heisman race. But we're not talking about that. Are we? No, no, no, no, no. We're talking about not the five sacks. We're talking about the celebration. What are we doing? I like that celebration from Colin Simmons was preposterous. And obviously I'm saying it with a smirk 'cause I'm just like, is that the stupidest thing that I've ever seen? Well, maybe not. But here's just a rule of thumb. Just a rule of thumb. If you act like you're peeing on an opponent, probably a bridge too far, probably a bridge too far. And if you guys will indulge me for a second, I just I can't. I can't. I know I'm 44 and I'm gonna be the guy yelling at the clouds for a second. Okay, so I can't stand, gosh, I can't believe I'm this guy. My dad was an old marine and he was very buttoned up. And like, I used to be young too. But I can't stand the individual celebrations constantly. It's everything. It's every incompletion. The DBs are doing the sword and yeah, you know, they're doing all of it. Every first down, it can be the worst route ever. It could be wide open. You ran a curl and you're open by 10 yards and you catch it and you trip over your shoelaces and you fall down, but it's a first down and they get up and they get the big point, two arms with the point. Every sack got to have a celebration. Not with your teammates. No, no, no, running towards the opposite goal line so that the low end zone camera, which is pointing right at you. There's no one and you've got to have a celebration. I can't stand it. I can't stand it. I also couldn't stand when we tried to officiate that out of the game. So let me just be like super clear 'cause it wasn't that long ago that anything, you jumped up and you were excited and they would throw a flag, you know? A guy would come up and just like point, you know, like, oh, first down, just like a little point like that, flag. And so we were all like, okay, okay. That's a little ridiculous. Maybe let's pull back on the flags, like let the kids be kids, you know, so on and so forth. But now, now it's like every single play of the game has to be a TikTok reel. And I'm like, can we not? Can we not? Here's what I'm gonna just propose. Is that now I would love some team. I would love some position group to just go counter culture. Just go counter culture and just celebrate with one another. Like old school. Like, you know, like, you know how everything comes back? Nothing new under the sun. Like all of a sudden like black shoes are back in. You know, like, yeah, it wasn't, you know, I remember when it was, well, I don't remember. I wasn't born. I'm not that old, but everyone wore black shoes because the Packers wore black shoes. The old Reddale shoes. Go name it was like white shoes. And it was like, whoa, white shoes, no way, right? So I'm just saying that black shoes came back. Maybe somebody, one position group, one team, go counter culture for a quarter. I like bring back the Georgia celebration where the whole team ran off the sideline on a touchdown in their game against what was it, Florida? Yeah, and the neutral site and they all ran down there and just celebrated with each other and they all got flags, you know what I'm saying? But at least it was with each other. Cause here's what I'm gonna just say. That celebration and some of the others like it for Texas were so premeditated that it was disgusting. It was gross. And I just want somebody to go counter culture and just celebrate with your teammates. And like really celebrate. And let me tell you what I think would be intimidating if I was an opposing quarterback. If I got sacked and that group jumped up and they were just like on each other's hats, you know, bang, you know, like, yeah, and they're just celebrating as a unit and like, let's keep going. I would be like, oh my goodness, I'm gonna die. But if a guy's down there just trying to do a TikTok reel for the Grins, like I'm not gonna think anything of it. Because I think the power of celebration in a group is a lot different. If I see a team celebrating with one another, then I know that probably deep down, they're more committed to the greater cause than themself. And that's a dangerous team. So I'm just gonna throw that out there. Any college football team, any of you coaches that listen to this, and I know there are coaches that listen to this, position coaches, all this. Challenge your room. Just challenge your room. One quarter, one play, celebrate together. Celebrate together. How about we not act like we're urinating on an opponent or the field? Like, that's a bridge too far. So that's gonna be me yelling at the clouds. Apologize I took too long to do it, but I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop. I'm just so tired of it. The Glorification of the simple plays in college football is ridiculous. And by the way, it happens everywhere in B.A. You're the worst every three-pointer. We got to have a hands-signal Baseball that's really the worst every home run has got to be a total pimp job and you throw your bat basically over the net It's like run. When did when did we stop self-policing in baseball? What are we doing? Can somebody get hit in the back? Oh, no, we got to throw the pitcher out like can we please self-police? Can we stop pimping home runs like it's a I got to pop our chains out and everybody's got to know that I hit horror on what are we doing? It's just a 45-year-old guy trying to race three boys. That's all that's going on right there Let's try to get it back on track for Tennessee. I'm not into huge moral victories here, but Stuff to build on there stuff to build on. I thought they played well defensively. That's still a good offense I know that they haven't played well, but they played well defensively I thought that they got after the quarterback well and here's the thing with phase on Brandon as a true freshman quarterback Facing that level of defense with that level of stars. I would have been shocked if it did go well So you can be like whoa He was a you know deer and headlights and all this stuff or he wasn't ready. Yeah, he's not supposed to be ready He's a true freshman the game now is built for experience. We know this we've seen it through the playoffs in the last couple of years And guess what he will be fine There was some signs there and sometimes you need to go through those lumps and those growing pains in order to become a better team So listen, he was sack ten times. He's gonna see it better That's also part of the deep choice Offense that they run they have to sit there in the pocket and try to read down the field It's a post-Snap read defense their reading routes that are that are decided on down the field and guess what you're going to be at risk In protection in particular in particular for a guy like Colin Simmons Geez now we're gonna be talking about I I guarantee If that costs him a draft spot if someone's like I don't want any part of that and it costs then then you could make an Argument that that celebration costs him millions of dollars. Let's get to Ohio State I was at Ohio State and I just wanted to touch on Jeremiah Smith for a moment 12 for 217 and four Tuddies Hey, Jeremiah Smith you are the best player in college football and I appreciate watching this guy the way that his teammates talk about him the way that his coaches talk about him And here's the thing that we all just have to realize this is the best player in the sport period Does that mean he's absolutely gonna win the Heisman trophy? I don't know because generally speaking it goes to some quarterback that gets hot late I mean we had people fraudulently arguing for Diego Pavia to win the Heisman trophy last year, which was preposterous But that happens right because it's a narrative baseball and so I don't know if he's gonna win the Heisman He should and he's the odds on favorite at this point 12 for 217 and four This guy is insane and here's the thing He doesn't do it with just one element of his game. He wins with physicality, but he also wins with speed He wins with brute force, but he also wins with his technique. He's got great hands He can win the jump ball in the corner of the inzone. He can beat you down the field He can beat you on a short route. So you can run after the catch He's really a complete player for a guy that's six four two hundred and twenty five two hundred thirty pounds So like man that was quite a performance. Julian Sain was great Ohio State's got to show up their defense their defense was not very good in particular with run defense That still needs work. They allowed a hundred and ninety nine on the ground and at points During that game like listen, I know it's a two-possession game But Illinois has a chance to go down and score the defense had been on the field for quite a long time in the third quarter It starts looking like the Texas Kind of second half until they did get the fourth down stop courtesy of Jalen McLean the veteran safety that they've gotten in the middle of the field So that I think Matt Patricia and Ryan Day are going to be looking at that defense and thinking to themselves like We've we need to do something to sure up what we've got on that defensive side of the football and Illinois was a four-down conversion away from making that an interesting game an interesting game So where did I have Ohio State? Well, I did not flip flop them with Texas. Obviously So I moved them down the spot as well. Ohio State is going to be number three for me in my top 10 Very good team still a team. I absolutely believe can win the big 10 can win in the playoff and maybe even win the national championship. So that's a That's a deep team. It's a young team on the defensive side and they have the best player That's the thing is if they ever get into a moment and they tried against Texas and it didn't go well Obviously late, but man that guy is outstanding. Now we get to kind of this idea about Where everyone moved in the top 25? so The voters are so dumb. Oh, gosh It's not a personal knock. It isn't but here's the deal humans are biased to our to our preconceived Thoughts it's very difficult to convince somebody Of something other than what they believe to be true Okay, we know this in politics and religion I'm going to convince someone to like dump their religion or or change their politics just on a conversation It doesn't happen. So typically speaking humans like are going to hold their belief tightly And that's what we see in the AP poll and since the AP poll is just a derivative Or or derived via humans. I think that you could make a strong argument that the poll that is most biased to pre-season rankings, thoughts, belief patterns is the AP top 25. It's also most beholden to narrative and propaganda And that's the only way that you can explain some of the movement in this week's AP top 25. It is garbage garbage There's no other way to put it Oregon only gets a five spot bump for beating USC on the road on the road Meanwhile By the way, one by 14 points on the road Meanwhile Florida gets 13 spots for beating The 119th ranked scoring defense and college football at home and Mississippi State gets eight spots for beating Missouri at home I'm just going to put it to you very bluntly The only reason that Oregon didn't move up much higher Then those two teams is because they don't have that SEC patch on their jersey period and the other two get that benefit of the doubt There's no doubt in my mind. By the way, Missouri stayed in the top 25 what What are we doing? What are we doing? Everybody else just gets thrown out in a game like that You lose a game like 24 19 ranking and the loser gets thrown out like that's generally what was in particular like Those two teams won at home and I understand Florida had to get ahead of Ole Miss And they didn't want to drop Ole Miss behind LSU and I understand that there and listen I moved Florida all the way up inside of my top 10. I understand that How does Oregon not get a bigger bump than that five spots for beating USC by 14 on the road where USC was undefeated a year ago? Come on Come on. Here's the thing in college football I truly believe two things are happening right now and I think that you'll agree with me on this I think that there are two truths in college football right now I think that the product and the players are better and older than they ever have been I believe that to be true. Okay the second is I believe that the best teams in college football all of the top ranked teams in college football right now aren't quite As good as they used to be In particular when you're looking at it as a margin from what the teams just below them are So the gap between the best teams and the next teams the next group of teams is not nearly what it used to be We used to have teams that were head and shoulders. We saw Alabama play Notre Dame in a national championship game and it was like nope Those two teams don't belong on the field man. I tell tell stories of this exact Sentiment just based on the warm-ups and looking at their roster and looking at Notre Dame's roster right and like we saw the game play out in in that direction It's not like that anymore. It's not like that anymore And if those two things are true if I know that the best teams aren't As good as they used to be as compared with everybody else and yet The players are more experienced and they're better than they ever have been then there's a third thing that has to be true philosophically and that is The middle of college football is just deeper So That's a philosophical conclusion that has to be true the middle of college football has to be deeper and better than it ever has been And I believe that that's also happening right now and so this is what I think It means is this old notion of ranked wins versus non ranked wins I think we have to rethink what that means right now Now, in particular, when we know that the AP poll is very biased towards humans, which are going to be biased to their own belief patterns, like, I can't just say, like, well, Mississippi State got a ranked win and, and, you know, this other team didn't because of a top 25 poll, when I know that there's not much difference between team 13 and 35. Not much difference, right? Like, you're still going to be in a matchup game. I think that now coaching, situational play in particular, like one possession games are more prevalent than we've seen in a long time in particular in conference games. So all of that, like, leads me to believe, like, we need a better metric. We can't just scream from the mountain tops, like, oh, they've got a ranked win. College basketball does this, by the way, they've got their quad system at quad one win, quad two win. We've got rankings all the way down to the 50 and 100 and everything. We just stop at 25, then everybody else is just trash. When we know that's not the case, like I said, like team 15 to 35, probably pretty similar. Do we really think that team 35 and 45 is all that different? No, every team is getting talent. Every single team has an opportunity for movement. We're seeing that with UCLA. We're seeing that with Oklahoma State. We saw it with Indiana. We're seeing it with Florida. Teams can move right away. And so it needs to be a more fluid and better way of evaluating what's going on and valuing wins. I really believe that college football is getting much closer to the NFL in that situational play matters. We are focused on flaws in this sport way more than we are on Sunday. It's so fascinating to me. We, we, we watch college football and we typically just nitpick at the best teams. Well, they don't do this little thing. Well, Ohio State, they're, they're not great running the football in the short yardage or their defense gave up some yardage or Ole Miss's defense isn't quite this or you know, Georgia wasn't explosive enough or Texas makes too many mistakes. And we're thinking, ah, and we just focus on flaws. And then the sun goes down. And then the sun comes up. And on Sunday, we sit there and we look at all of these teams that are also very flawed and we just are like, get your popcorn ready, man. Who can execute in the situations? You know, how can Josh Allen execute in one possession game? It's going to be great. I don't understand how that switch like flips so quickly for us. We should be watching college football similarly. Every one of these teams is flawed. They're, they're more closely bunched than they have been in a long time in a long time, which is why movement like we saw in the AP poll is, is so dumb. So what does my top 10 look like? Now that I trash their ranking, let me give you my ranking. Here we go. At number 10, I had a very tough debate in my head with Utah and BYU. And I gave it to Utah. And I know BYU fans. And by the way, I've, I've met a bunch of you. Your guys are right there. It doesn't mean I don't like BYU. I think BYU is a very good team. They are right there. But I give it to Utah. I think that Utah, there's just something about this Utah team and the efficiency with which they play with and and scally. And I love Kalani Sataki as well. But Utah is going to get that 10 spot. Wayshawn Parker, he ran it for 174 yards. They took care of things in their big 12 opener at Iowa State. You already saw my nine and eight teams. Oregon is nine. Florida is eight. Seven. I'm going with Indiana. Wasn't the greatest performance against Northwestern, but they were trying to do that with a decimated backfield. So turbo Richard left that game early in the game. Now it looks like he avoided a major injury. And there is some hope that he's going to be back in and fairly short order. But those hip drop tackles, man, he goes down with a hip drop tackle out of bounds. And that looked bad, kind of foot ankle injury. But Lee BB comes in. Lee BB Jr. comes in and runs for 200 yards against Northwestern. Now here's the thing. Northwestern is one of these teams where I don't think you can just say, Indiana struggled with Northwestern. Do I think that there's much difference between Northwestern and Missouri? No. No. No, I don't. I think Northwestern is a pretty damn good football team. Aiden Childs was a highly ranked recruit. Chip Kelly is a very creative offensive coordinator at times getting into the wing T that that coach David Braun knows what he's doing. So Indiana is going to stay at seven. I think Northwestern is pretty good. Like I said, Aiden Childs, I wouldn't be surprised if they knocked someone off. Indiana was able to run it for a BB for over 200 yards. They ran it well. They ended up getting the win. Josh Hoover needs to play a little bit better for them. They're still very good on the defensive side. Number six is Alabama. Their offense is becoming scary. Scary, scary. Good. They beat South Carolina by 31. Dylan Stewart costing himself all sorts of money in the NFL draft by the punch to the Alabama player. Now he's been suspended indefinitely because of his behavior on the sideline. So these guys, you know, I don't know what's going on in South Carolina. Looks like they've lost their white completely, but part of that was the fact that Bama is so good on offense. Keelan Russell, like this guy, he's dynamic as a runner. He can throw the football down the field. They've got talent all all over on the outside. He's getting better and better nearly 400 yards of total offense, five touchdowns for Russell and Bama is at six. At five, I stayed with Notre Dame. If I were you and I was combing through this for inconsistencies, this is where I would knock me for an inconsistency because I think this is probably my bias jumping into my rankings. So as much as I just blasted everybody else, I fall victim to the same thing, I will never not admit when I'm wrong or when I think I could be wrong, this could be that spot. Notre Dame is going to stay at five. I thought they took care of business in the game that they should. They were up 35, nothing on Purdue. They won it 49 to 10. I believe that that's a very good football team with an elite quarterback. I'd like to see them run the ball and continue to run it better. At number four is a team that I think I know is really good. They're battling some injuries right now. They're extraordinarily explosive with one of the best players in the country. And that's Miami. They were, they played central Michigan 52 to three. Darian Minces got 12 incomplete passes on the season. 14 touchdowns blah, blah, blah, blah, wake me up when they play somebody Clemson. Maybe it's Clemson. I don't know. Malachi Tony 120 yards, a TD. They're going to be very good. They're going to be right there to the end. You already saw three and two, which leaves my top ranked team and I alluded to this last week. I had this sneaky suspicion that Georgia was the best team in the country. And I was eager to see how they played against Oklahoma and granted. They got a lot of help from John Mateer, but Georgia's going to be number one. And there's something about that team that had coach. Do I still have concerns about some areas of their team? Yes. Just like everybody has some flaws. Georgia doesn't escape that type of scrutiny. I don't know how they can throw the football. He threw a pick in that game. Oklahoma's defense is excellent. Yeah. Their defense is not in any way, shape or form indicative of of what their offense is speaking of Oklahoma. So Georgia, you know, they're really good, guys. Defensively, they're really good. John Mateer was helping them out. That place is always going to be a tough place to play. They jumped out to a 28, nothing, halftime lead. It was 41, 13 in that game, but they only had 306 yards of total offense. So it's like, are they head and shoulders above everybody else? No. But up to this point, I can say to myself, like, okay, I trust that coach. I trust that quarterback. I trust that culture to go in, not lose games on their own. Like I talked about earlier and be one of, if not the best teams in the country, Oklahoma is now two and two. They're going to play Texas next. They turned it over four times. Vinnables is talking about how he thought about taking John Mateer out of the game. I mean, like, man, this is the run game is terrible again. That offense has totally lost its way under three yards per carry, which means they are now sitting at Oklahoma home of some of the best rushing attacks in the history of the sport is a hundred and thirty third in college football in yards per carry. Wow. That's not going to be a great season in Norman. Now my almost category just really quickly. I talked about BYU. They were right there. I almost put them in the top 10. I left Utah on the top 10. I have Ole Miss in that next category. I have LSU in that next category. I have Iowa Mississippi State and Oklahoma State. I think Oklahoma State is very, very good. By the way, our next show, which drops on Wednesday as you know, please subscribe to the show, is going to be our October new bracket prediction. So I'm going to lay out a brand new playoff bracket as we head into October and I'm going to be able to talk more about teams like UCLA. They're massive win over Maryland. Wisconsin got a giant win and come back fashion over Penn State. LSU crushing A&M and much more. But again, that bracket prediction is coming up on Wednesday. Please subscribe to the program. If you haven't, please do so and buy to friend. Follow us on social media, agile, clat show. And wherever you listen to this show, please rate and review us. And as always, watch your celebrations, celebrate together and please tweet.