Texas Survives Ole Miss, Indiana outlasts Michigan, USC falls to Wisconsin, Big 12 upsets + Top 10

Indiana is a high floor team. They execute details. They don't generally make mistakes. They're going to be difficult to be. Hold on! Hold on! Is Wisconsin going to be 10-2? College football is ridiculous right now. It's ridiculous. Hey, welcome back to the program. This is Joel Klatsch. I'm Joel Klatsch. This show is sponsored by Hilton. Hilton. For the stay another great day at college football. My gosh, every single Saturday, it feels like it just delivers. We've got drama. We've got upsets. We're going to cover all of it right here on the program. I want to start in Austin, Texas. That game on Saturday night was a phenomenal college football game. And it looked at one point like, Texas was just going to run away with this thing. And it was going to be arch and sark. And it was like, we're back. They're up 24-3 and a half time. They charge into the locker room and I got to tell you that Texas team that I saw on the first half. I'm thinking to myself, boy, that's one of the best teams in America. There's no doubt. Then all of the sudden in the third quarter, Texas turns into the inconsistent Texas team that we've kind of seen over the last few weeks. And maybe even for in a general sense over the course of the year. And here comes Ole Miss Stormman back. And there's Trinidad Chamblis. And I'm loving watching Trinidad Chamblis. He's dropping dimes everywhere and all of a sudden. There we go. You guys got me. I'm changing. I'm trying. It's 24-24. And it was a ball game. And that's where I want to start. Because here's the deal. Texas ends up winning this game at 34-27. And in this game, you experienced everything about Texas that we can possibly experience this season. The highs and the low. So Texas, it's pretty clear. We've got a solid body of work right now for this Texas team. And they are extremely talented and easily one of the best teams in the nation at their ceiling. And then their floor is like way down there. So we talk about this in the draft season. We talk about prospects. This is a high ceiling low floor prospect right now. There's nothing high about their floor. Because when it goes wrong, it goes terribly wrong. And when it's good, it is like dang. That looks amazing. And I know that that can be frustrating at times. If you're a Texas fan, there's no doubt. There's times when it's frustrating for all of us watching this team. Because you think this team should be better. And you know what? Sometimes they are. And then sometimes they are. Let me just put it to just point blank period. If Texas ran the ball 42 times for 207 yards on anybody, they win every game in the country. There's no team in the country that can stand up to Texas. If they run at 42 times for 207, they are winning the game. You know, that's the type. That's the era that we're in right now. There's no great team that I can say like, no, but, but that wouldn't work against them. If they could do that, what they were able to do Saturday night, 42 carries 207 yards. They're beating anybody in the country. Sark at his best runs the football all the way back to his Bishop Sanky Washington days, his USC days, his Alabama days calling plays at his best. He runs the football. And then everything from that is built off of it. Can you imagine? Can you imagine a moment, a game that Texas was able to dominate on the line of scrimmage like they were able to do for large portions of the game against Ole Miss. And they were buttoned up and then commit penalties. They beat Ole Miss and had 14 penalties. It is wild again, such a high ceiling, such a low floor for this Texas team. 14 penalties, 134 yards. So what do we make of this team? What is Texas at this point? Let me tell you exactly what Texas is. Texas is a team that tries way too hard to be centered around the player that they shouldn't be centered around. Arches very good. He himself as a prospect, high ceiling, low floor. He makes some bonehead airs. He turns the ball over too much, but boy, when he hangs in the pocket and the face of pressure and he's throwing the ball down the field like to touchdown to Wingo right down the middle of the field, man, it's really, really good. So they mirror their quarterback in a lot of weights and I'm just telling you right now, they shouldn't. If Texas was less arch centered, they would be better because they could lean into the run game, try to be more buttoned up operationally and stop with these, you know, double digit penalty games. And if they were able to do that and they had an operator at quarterback, by the way, I'm not suggesting they change quarterbacks. I'm just talking about where are they centered. If this is not an arch team, they are a better team. And that doesn't mean that he doesn't play quarterback. That means that the offense doesn't have to run through him. And there's a big distinction between the two of those. So I want to be very clear about that. He needs to be at quarterback in order to reach that ceiling. But I'm just telling you right now, if they built a game plan that was centered around owning the line of scrimmage and then getting to the passing game, think about Indiana last year. Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman trophy. Why? Because they ran the ball first. If this was a run first team, a power team first, then they would be a much better team. I think that team would be scary and I think they would be the best team in the country. Arch had three turnovers. Nine on the season now is second most in the country. You know, I just think back to that Indiana team. This team has an incredible ceiling. They've got a very good defense. They were able to play pretty solid defense for stretches in particular in the first half against turn it out of chambles and Ole Miss. And they were able to do that even without Simmons who who wasn't out there. I think that they've got the highest ceiling in the country. If they're owning the ground game, they're ripping off four, five, six yards. They can play action to Coleman, Wingo. I know Coleman left the game with the shoulder injury and we'll see kind of two big determined what his availability is moving forward. But if they are owning the line of scrimmage and then they can land haymakers, now you're talking about what I've always talked about, which is kind of that 2020 Alabama team. That's the ceiling. If you envision something for Texas, that's what it would be. That defense is outstanding. Now, they did get news left tackle Trevor Gooseby is going to be out for the season with a knee. That's not great. But again, probably, at least in my estimation, if I'm a coach, I'm thinking to myself, okay, now we've got a shift in the offensive line. What do we do? We've got to protect the quarterback. How do we protect the quarterback? Run the football. I thought their backs were outstanding. And if this is not an offense that has to be arch centric and it can be run game centric and then capitalize on arch at his ceiling, they become dangerous. They become the team with the highest ceiling in the entire country. So where are they at? I'm high on them after this win and it's not just because they beat Ole Miss, it's because you saw it. You saw it. You saw the 207 on the ground. You saw the ceiling. And it's too enticing for me not to put them in the top 10. I know that they lost two straight games and I get it. The 14 penalty scare me. And I understand that they were, shoot man, they're a completion or two away from getting their hearts absolutely ripped out. I mean, ripped out by Trinidad Chambles, but they didn't. They win the game. And so Texas is going to be inside of my top 10 at number eight at number eight. And just think of it the way I explained it. If this is a run first team like Indiana in 2025, watch out. Watch out for Texas. So they're going to be number eight in my top 10. Remember, I'll reveal some of these as I go along as I've done each and every Monday here. And then at the end, I'll reveal the complete top 10 and it is a brand new top 10. Obviously with all the shakeups that we've got with these top 10 teams losing, including Ole Miss, who was there. If you look at Texas's remaining schedule, you look up and you're thinking to yourself, okay, Mississippi State, Camarillo Taylor re-injured his foot against OU. That doesn't look all that scary. At Missouri, never know because listen, if bad Texas shows up, they could absolutely lose that game. Good Texas shows up. They will absolutely win that game. At LSU is going to be a monster. I mean, a monster game. I can see that as kind of a play in game in the SEC. Maybe not for the SEC championship because who knows what's going to end up with happening with tie breakers in the SEC championship. But as far as the playoff goes, that November 14th date at LSU, that's going to be an important one and then they've got Arkansas and A&M. Both of those teams have struggled a little bit, even though A&M put up a decent fight against Alabama on Saturday. The Ole Miss angle in all of this is that I still love Trinidad Chamblis. This is still a team that only has two losses, and I still don't want to play this team because of Chamblis. Now, credit to Texas's defense, because it's not like he lit the world on fire, right? As far as completion percentage goes, he didn't throw for 300 yards in this game, but Mani was coming back. That third quarter was outstanding. They get the defensive touchdown on the sack fumble recovery for a touchdown. And then here he comes. And this is a guy I just don't want to see in those crunch time moments. And when they got the onside kick, I thought to myself, oh my gosh, this is going down in Austin. Can you imagine after a 24 or three lead and then building up another lead in this game, what was it? A 10 point lead. So it's right. I think it's a 10 point lead at one point. It's 34, 24. And they go down and they kick the field goal. And then they get the onside kick, and I'm like, oh my gosh, two different double digit leads in this game. And if they were to lose that game, that would have been terrible for Steve Sarkisian, terrible for the entire program down there. Ole Misses is a team. I can't bet against them in most games because of chambles. He's too good. And the defense was really good for stretches. And then all the sudden all of a sudden, gosh, I'm going to get there, guys. I'm going to get there. All of a sudden, the defensive backs who were great for the third quarter, all nowhere to be found in particular in run defense. And Texas just ran all over them in that fourth quarter and good for Texas and good for Sark to find that, find those runs and ultimately get there. All misaligned to just outside of my top 10. There were number seven coming into the game and they were inside of my top 10. They just fall outside of my top 10 after the game. So Texas, here they are, a big old ceiling for Texas. Still two losses, but I got to tell you that that's a team. They're probably the only team in the country that I would even make an argument for a college football playoff birth with three losses. They have the win over Ohio State. They have the win over Tennessee. Now they have a win over Ole Miss, even the way that they played against Oklahoma and Florida. If they were to be nine and three, somehow, some way. I don't know. Now, I think that they could probably win all their games, but as you know this year, it's crazy knowing it's going to win all their games. Nine and three, I can make an argument in particular off of that non-conference. You schedule, you're willing to play Ohio State two years in a row. You beat them at home. They're sitting up there way up there in the top 10. So that's ultimately why I would say, yeah, that's probably a team that could go at nine and three and more on the big 12. The big 12 was kind of the sticking point for me with the nine and three teams making the college football playoff, but now that the big 12 is starting to eat itself with tech going down with BYU going down more than that later in the program, I can see a nine and three in particular if it's Texas. All right, the game I was at, Indiana and Michigan. Indiana basically outlasts Michigan in our game. Defenses were outstanding, outstanding. And I had people actually ask me like, is that fun for you to call it? Yes, it is incredibly entertaining for me to watch two defenses go to work like Indiana and Michigan did on Saturday in the big house. Indiana ends up winning the game in overtime 13 to six. Defenses were incredible. The offenses were not. We're not for two very different reasons and we can get into that. Let me start with Indiana. They won the game. This is still a team that I think is going to be very difficult to beat even though we have seen them in their last three games really struggle on offense. They've gone into the fourth quarter and three straight games with under 10 points. I think it was six and one seven and the other and six in this one. So yes, they won, but are there alarm bells? Is there a caution flag somewhere with this? I think a lot of people would say yes. Here's the only thing I would say about that. I thought they played the game in front of them on Saturday as well as anybody. And this is one of the superpowers that Kurt Signetti has. And I don't think every single coach and every single program in the country has this is that they're able to zone things out, block out the noise. They're not playing for their beat riders. They're not playing for their fan base. They're not playing for narrative. They're not playing for the broadcast. They are playing to win the game in front of them. And SIG does that about as good as anybody in the country. And that is about as high as a compliment as I can pay a coach other than I would love to play for him. I think in college football and I think you guys would agree with this. There are a lot of times when we see coaches and programs try to destroy narratives with the way they play versus playing their opponent. I've seen this a lot. I've seen it in Michigan Ohio State games. I see it with Texas sometimes. You know, you're kind of like forcing an issue. And that's why I said what I did about if Texas is not arch-centric, then they've got the highest ceiling and could be the best team in college football. Because that's true. That's true. He makes too many mistakes for the offense to run through him. Right? So you can't make it a thing. You can't play against narrative. And I don't think Kurt Signetti cares what it looks like. I really don't. He only cares that he wins. Think about the types of games that they've won this year. Think about it. Northwestern. They're in a tight ball game. They lose turbo Richard in that game. It's Lee Beebe who started the year as the third back. Because remember Kobe Martin was one of the starters. He went down in week one. Turbo Richard was the transfer from Boston college and like, oh, yeah, Lee Beebe was coming back after a knee injury from last last season. And so here we are against Northwestern and Kobe's out. Turbo Richard is out. And what do they do? They find a way the game in front of them suggested that they could run the football gain explosive plays in the run game. And they ultimately did that to go and win the when the football game. All right. Then we have the Nebraska game. What was the Nebraska game? It was a low pitch count game. They just weren't getting snaps at all. The defense was struggling a little bit. They were, you know, they were allowing too much on the perimeter in the Nebraska game. And it was costing them. Anthony Kalandry was running around. They didn't play great on the perimeter on the edge of their defense. They weren't getting the at bats in the run game. Nebraska is flying down with the support players. And so what do they do? They did two things. One, they got on the edge with their defense. And they totally adjusted their defense at halftime with Bryant Haynes. And then they went to the RPO. Okay. You're going to fly down in support. Boom. Here we go. We hit the RPO. Marsh goes for a touchdown. They get a fourth down. Marsh. Another touchdown. They win the football game. Okay. So we get to the Ohio State game. And it's pretty clear that Ohio State has been able to handle the run game with their front. So their defensive line is playing very well. And then on the outside, they've been able to play some man coverage. And so what do we do if we're Indiana? Well, we're going to have to throw the football to get back into this thing. Okay. So let's play the game in front of us. We're not trying to make Nick Marsh happy because he transferred here. We're not trying to make Josh Hoover happy because he transferred here. We're not trying to force our identity onto our own team. We're not trying to say we're a passing team or say we're a running team. We're going to play the game right in front of us. So what do they do? They got after they posing quarterback. And then they threw the ball in the fourth quarter. And ultimately it came up what five, six inches short or left, if you will. Almost one that football game didn't. Ohio State's really good. Then we get into the Michigan game and now Josh Hoover is banged up as we've learned now and obviously banged up during the week from the Ohio State game and they can't throw the football in this game. They can't. I'm watching the film and I'm like there's no stretch, vertical stretch. They're not even trying to vertically stretch the defense. Not even trying. There's more called runs versus the RPO runs than I've seen in any game that they've played this year. This is what the film suggests. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, obviously they are playing around what they feel like is a banged up quarterback. They're playing around that and they're trying their best to how do we navigate this? What are we doing? They get a turnover. They get some points and then all of a sudden they kind of go all of us sudden. I you guys, I hate everyone. I hate everyone because now I can't even say that. Anyways, all of a sudden you've got this offense that can't do very much and what do they do? They play the game in front of them. They punt. They play field position. They play for field goals. They're just out there allowing their defense to win. They're just running the football. Hoover throws a pick and then they don't attempt to pass until overtime. That pick was on their first possession of the second half. So this is why I say like Kurt Signetti does such a good job just playing the game in front of him. He didn't care what it was going to look like. He'll answer the questions afterwards even said he was thinking about replacing Hoover. Why was he about to replace Hoover? Not because Hoover was bad, but because he was uneffective and couldn't throw the ball the way they'd normally throws the ball. And so they completely adjusted their game plan and they go out there and they win the game. They win the game. On defense, they did an outstanding job against Michigan who's got their own issues on the offensive side. They'd never had to commit resources extra resources to stop the run game for two reasons. One, their front is excellent and they could largely handle the run game for the most part. And number two, Michigan was not threatening them with any sort of sustained run game in between the tackles. I love some of the adjustments that they made. They allowed their ends to go up field knowing that Michigan wants to be a perimeter oriented run game, even though I have no idea why. And they wanted to be out there and they took that away immediately. They took that away. Then in situations and crucial situations, they were able to play coverage. They were able to loop defensive ends. They get a sack on third down and then there were two really important plays in this game that I think accentuate what what is so great about Indiana and how well coached they are. There was a third and one in this game. Michigan got a third and one and they tried to go tempo right up to the line of scrimmage and they try to run up to the line of scrimmage. And we're just going to snap it and we're going to hand it off up the middle and Indiana executes a twist in their defensive line. Landino and Olsen saw me execute a twist in the defensive line. And I'm thinking to myself, that's not called from the sideline. He stands up and says, no, no, no, they stop them right there. And I'm thinking to myself, wow, that is a privilege. Free built defensive stunt or twist based on short yardage with tempo. Why? Because they understand that short yardage, you get a short yardage play and then the offense runs up there and they want to snap it quick. What is the offense going to do? Well, they're not trying to execute any really difficult details. They're probably running the football between the tackles. So why don't you get your defensive ends free by twisting. You just slant your defensive tackle out, loop your defensive end into the middle and then he's free, unblocked and he can make the stop and that's exactly what happened in his fourth down on, uh, fourth down for Michigan. That's such a great example of how well coached they are and how they can execute the game plan beautifully veteran players up front. And then third and one, third and goal, I should say from the one yard line. You know, Michigan has their rhino package in there and Oson saw me plays it perfectly. He is so disciplined. He understands that he's not in the run fit to the opposite side. So if there is a run to the opposite side, he does not have to fly down there and be Superman with a cape on his back. What is he responsible for? He is responsible for near side contain that's his, that's his job on the play. So the play starts going away and what does he do? He just softly moves himself up field because who's the only player that can break contain on that side? Now it's the quarterback. Here comes the quarterback right into his lap and it's just an easy sack and it's great coaching. Number one, but even better discipline football from their defensive front seven. They are so well coached. Those are examples of it examples of it. No one better than Indiana in terms of high floor. Their ceiling might not be where some of these ceilings are, but man, this is a high floor team. If Texas is a low floor team, Indiana is a high floor team. They don't generally make mistakes, even though Hoover threw that interception. And for that reason, they're going to be difficult to beat. They are just going to be here until the end. Someone is going to have to play very well to beat them. Am I worried about their offense? Yeah, there's a part of me that's worried about their offense, but they played the game in front of them. And for that reason, I've got them at number three in my top 10. So Indiana is in here at number three. Let's get to Michigan. Indiana is wasting one of the best defenses in all of college football right now. Jay Hill, the defensive coordinator and these guys on the Michigan defensive side of the football. This is a top three, five, and that's, I think, conservative. I think you can make an argument that they're one of the two or three best, but I'll just say one of the three to five best defenses in the sport, in the sport. I know that Indiana was playing largely one-handed and they were doing a lot of things differently than they would want to do in the way that they were attacking this defense. But this defense was outstanding. They did not have. They were short-handed, by the way, as well. Dom Nichols did not play in this game. The defensive end. And he's excellent. John Henry Daley is not 100% at defensive end. They've got some young players out there, including some freshman defensive ends. But they are excellent. Their structure is good. Their secondary is phenomenal. I think it's one of the two or three best secondaries in all of college football. They cover, and they support the run. Let me tell you what I saw in film, and I thought this was so great from Jay Hill. Jay Hill, the defensive coordinator, what you see from him at times is a lot of man coverage. And he'll mix up the style of man, you know, sometimes it's man in order to blitz. Sometimes it's man in order to cover, all right, and they'll do things like rather than playing, so they'll play like cover to man and have two high safeties and man underneath. They'll play cover one robber, which is a free safety deep, and then a robber in the middle of the field and man underneath. Sometimes they just play man-free. One guy deep, everybody manned up underneath, and maybe a twist in the stunt and one line backer on the blitz. They do all sorts of that. And then I saw a different variation on Saturday. I wish I could have seen this live in real time, and I'm kind of kicking myself. This is when I kick myself. They took their concept of cover one robber, okay, so they've got a free safety deep in the middle of the field. And then normally this guy, the other safety would just drop down and be what I would call in the hole, right, about eight to ten yards over the ball, and he's in the middle of the field, and he's trying to rob middle routes. That's why I call it cover one robber, and everybody else is in man coverage. So they took that concept, one robber, and they, they, I'm inventing a term here. It was one support. And so what would happen is Chris Braci from his safety position would just run down into run support, and he's a completely unblocked player, and he was all over the field. It was a great scheme, a great scheme. They didn't use it on every single snap, but they used it quite often, and it was effective. And they, they didn't, they didn't just stop the run because Indiana had some successful runs in there, but it was difficult on them. It was very difficult on them. And then the coverage on the outside against these two great wide receivers, Martian Becker, was outstanding. So these guys can cover, they can tackle, Indiana started to try to block Chris Braci with the wide receivers, so the wide receivers get these big inside releases, and here they come, they're trying to block the safety that's running downhill. And what happens, the corner just replaces him in support, and so you've got Jeyer Hill, and you got Zeke Berry, and you've got Smith Snowden, and they're making tackles in the run game. They're tough and rugged, they cover that are fast, they've got good ball skills, and then the front seven gets after it, fantastic defense, fantastic defense. That is a championship level defense, and the offensive side is struggling. And struggling is putting it nicely, let's start with this. If you're struggling to this point, and it's not going well, as a coach, you have to evaluate things, you have to evaluate things. You have to evaluate them in three tiers, players, scheme, and coaches. You have to evaluate those, and you have to be honest, okay? You can't do it through, you know, maze and blue glasses. You can't sugarcoat things, you've got to be honest with yourself. Is it the players? Is it the scheme, or is it the coaches? Sometimes it's a combination of all three. Sometimes it's one, and there's a glaring weakness in one of those pillars. But here's the thing, you can't change the players at this point, even though they have tried largely, they've played with five different combinations of offensive line, not because guys are getting benched, but because of injuries. So you've got all these different combinations of offensive line. Now you've switched the quarterback out, and you've got to move to scheme. You have to move to scheme, because the scheme is not fitting what they're doing. So in a by-week, and as the season progresses, as an offensive guy, and I was a quarterback, there's a process that you go through as a team. You don't know exactly in preseason and in fall camp what you're going to be. It has to reveal itself in game, okay, in a live game. What are we? What are we good at? What do we do well? What do we not do well? What do we do poorly? All of those things materialize during the course of the season, and it's on you as an offense and more particular, the offensive staff, to evaluate really two things. What do we do well? And then it's incumbent on you to take what you do well and build upon that, and you take what you do poorly and you throw it out. That's evolution. That's developing. That's developing an identity that is leaning into an identity. You can't press upon a group of players, your identity as a coach. You can't do that. You can do it from a culture standpoint, and you can want to do certain things schematically, but if it is not happening, you've got to look at what's going on. And this offense right now is not working. If you look at the numbers, okay, so I'll give you some numbers. I'll give you some some some film as well in the last six quarters of football, last two against Penn State, and then against Indiana. If you look at the yards that they gain, running the football between the tackles, it's seven point four yards per carry. When you look at the runs outside of the tackles, on the perimeter, it's one point four yards per carry outside the tackles. That is a glaring message of what do you do well and what do you do poorly? It's right there. It's right there. If you look at the season, yards per carry between the tackles, it's about 5.7 outside of the tackles. It's about just over three, three point three. By the way, those three point three yards outside of the tackles, on outside of the tackles runs, that's 136th out of 138 college football teams. It's not working. They've run it outside, and this is where it really kind of rubber meets the road. You could tell me like, well, Joel, they run at 80% of the time inside the tackles, but that's not the case. That's not the case. And if you told me that, I could say like, okay, well, at least you're trying to keep people honest. Maybe this is a schematic thing where you've got to get stretch out of an end in order to attack in the interior, that can be fine. But when the numbers are the numbers, and you're 136th in college football running the ball on the perimeter, and then you tell me they've run it outside on the perimeter outside the tackles 67% of the carries, which is the fifth most in college football. Now there's a disconnect. Now there's a disconnect, and this shows up on film. This shows up on film. The most effective drives that they had, and even stretches of drives, were when they were trying to attack downhill in between the tackles. That's what their backs can do. Marshall's a downhill runner, Jordan Marshall. Savion Heider is a downhill runner. And the horizontal stretch offense is not working. I know I showed some film on that a couple of weeks ago, and it largely got pinned on Bryce Underwood. This is not a Bryce Underwood thing. It was the same exact schemes that we saw against Indiana that we did against Minnesota. And it was largely the same result. I thought Carr had little chance in this game, in particular, in the passing game. Let's get to the passing game, 'cause that's just the run game. Well, in the passing game, here's what's going on. One, they don't run it all that successfully, so it's very difficult to influence the defense with play action pass. And if you can't put players in conflict, then it's very difficult to get players open. So Carr is sitting back there and nobody's open. All right. And on a few passing concepts that there are people open, he's not finding them. So I'm not here to tell you that Carr played great. I thought that he battled for a 19 year old true freshman against Indiana's defense. He battled and he scrambled around and he gained some yards. There's no doubt about that. But the issue in the passing game is that there's not always influence in the passing structures. Okay, so what am I talking about there? All right, well, first and foremost, I've got a great description of passing game in the YouTube channel. All you gotta do, go find it. You can subscribe. It's called Understanding Football. And I walk you through a quick passing game, three step passing game and dropback game. And you can listen to that and you can understand that passing game is about pictures and spacing. And it's not that every guy in the picture or in the spacing can get the ball on any given play. I mean, there's ways that that happen. It's that you are influencing defenders. You are walling off defenders in order to put certain defenders in conflict. All right, that's how you complete passes. That's how you get guys open and that's how you create space. They don't do that very well. One of the reasons why they don't do that very well is that they drop back and pass with a sixth offensive lineman on the field quite often. In fact, their Rhino package, which is a sixth offensive lineman on the field, they used it in over half their snaps on Saturday. Now, it doesn't help them run the football more effectively, like it used to and like, let's say 2023 when they would throw extra offensive lineman on the field, like they did against Penn State and they ran it 34 straight times. They did that successfully. One, they had really good offensive lineman and they had Blake Corham in the back field. Right, you don't have that right now. So the Rhino package goes out there and it's not giving them the bump that I would expect and in particular in the passing game because when you drop back and pass with a sixth offensive lineman on the field, that's supposed to be another pass catcher, like a tied end. And if he's not out in the route concept, then he's not influencing the structure of defense. If he's not influencing the structure of defense, then they can double and have numbers on the other parts of the picture. So for instance, and for example, on the interception that cars throws that it was batted up into the air, they're trying to run in cuts on third down. They've got the Rhino package in, but it's supposed to be a three by one set. Well, that tied end or the Rhino, if he has any sort of middle route, he's going to influence the middle linebacker who has to go with him just based on the numbers. But if that's an offensive lineman who's just gonna be in and pass protection, then that Mike linebacker is a free player and all he did was float with the eyes of the quarterback and all of us sudden, the passing window into the boundary side of the field was filled with four defenders, partly because they're not influenced by the five routes that could potentially be out on the field. I know that that was a ton of technical stuff. And I'm really sorry if I lost you right there. I would go watch understanding football, but I'm here to tell you that a lot of things are not working for Michigan. They've got to go and identify what do you do well? What do you do poorly? You take what's going poor and you throw it out. Now, I don't care if it's been successful in previous years at previous locations, you throw it out. And you say, "What do we do well?" And then you build on that. I think that this should be a downhill running team with boots and play actions off of that with tight ends on the field in delay check downs like they were able to get in some of those route concepts on Saturday. Oh, man, I was really trying not to get too technical, but I think that I did. Leave a comment down below if you understood that. If you didn't understand that, if you want me to explain further anything along those nights, I'll try to get down to the comments and answer questions. Wisconsin knocks off USC 24/7 in Madison. How about Wisconsin? They're now five and two. That felt like an old school Wisconsin team, didn't it? Hey, who knew Wisconsin with run game and defense, you could do this. Remember, Luke Fickle came in there and we thought that he would be this way and they tried to go air raid, it didn't work out, and they fell off the cliff for a couple of years, including back-to-back shutouts last year, but late last year this team started to build. And I think Luke Fickle started to win over some of these people. They brought in Jeff Graham Grimes to coordinate the offense to get back to a running oriented offense, to get back to a ball control offense. They invested in the defense, and now they're one of the better defenses in the Big 10, and one of the better defenses in all of college football, and they proved it on Saturday night against USC. Run the ball, dominate on defense. Now, they only threw the ball for 58 yards and beat USC 24/7. That is a Wisconsin win. If I'm a Wisconsin fan, I am thrilled with that. I am like, yeah, there we go, we're back. We're back, we're back to being us. We might not be back for a playoff spot just yet, even though I think that are in the thick of this, in particular, with the remaining schedule, but we're back to being us, and now we can build on being us, and now that we have identified what we can do well, we can build on it, and we took what we do poorly, and we threw it out. And this has happened over years. There's no doubt, but it's working. It's working. What we saw late last year in that build, in a couple of those wins over ranked opponents last year, and then even the way they played against Notre Dame early in the year, it's working. I know that they went out and got beat by UCLA. UCLA is one of the three undefeated in college football. Right, like that's nothing to scoff at. They're two losses are to Notre Dame and UCLA. So like Wisconsin can play. Colton Joseph is a dog, solid run game, great defense. It's gonna take you a long way in college football. I'm just gonna point out some of these teams that we know can do this on any given Saturday. Georgia can do this on any given Saturday. Indiana can do this on any given Saturday. UCLA does this, Utah does this. Now Wisconsin, Texas at their best, at their ceiling. What do they do? 207 on the ground and they, they dominate Ole Miss for stretches of that game. It's, I know this is gonna sound crazy. It's not that hard. I think coaches in college football try to get too cute way too often. Way too often. You don't have to trick everybody all the time. Sometimes the old fundamentals and foundations of this sport are still true, are still true. Run game, defense. Wisconsin has it. They are number three in the country and yards per play on defense. They did a great job attacking with the blitz. Once they realize USC didn't have an answer for the blitz. Man, here they came. Here they came. I can't wait to call their game. In fact, big noon Saturday will be Iowa, Wisconsin. This week I cannot wait to see this Wisconsin team playing Iowa. I hope it's a defensive battle and I think that it will be. Again, only losses Notre Dame and UCLA, Iowa this week. And then look at their schedule. All right, I know you're watching some highlights right now of them kind of getting after Jade Mayavo with USC not having any answers. I thought their offensive game plan was poor to say the least. Wisconsin's remaining games at Iowa this week. That's a game I'm calling. They've got Rutgers on the 7th of November. At Maryland, Purdue and Minnesota. Hold on. Hold on. Is Wisconsin going to be 10 and 2? Ooh. All right. All right. And I'm about to throw a shot. And I don't mean to do this. I don't mean to do this. And you tell me expansions not going to be good. Okay. Okay. This is real, man. This is real for Badger fans. And I know that you've been so unhappy. So unhappy. I've got relatives that are Badgers. And they have been distraught over the last couple of years. And now it's real. Now it's real. I can't wait. Good for you, Luke fickle. Guy won. Everybody in the world won. And they're like, they're keeping Luke fickle. That's crazy. There's no way you can keep Luke fickle. Five and two on the way to 10 and two. I don't know. I don't know. All right. How about USC? They finish with minus 17 yards rushing. Like, that's crazy, guys. Minus 17. Now I know five sacks. But if you just pulled the sacks out and you look at what their backs did, their running backs had 20 carries for 40 yards, not going to cut it. Their longest run all day was seven yards. The seven points is the lowest offensive output in the Riley era at US. And I know that I told you in the picks and previews and trust me, you guys can spam me to death in the comments. I know I was 0 and 5 last week. It's ridiculous. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day. No one's playing the same two weeks in a row. I try to, we all try to speak in these definitive language about what a team is and what a team is it and yet they're different every single week. They're different. And here, USC is a great example of that. USC was so much better than this every week. I wasn't that devastated for USC that they lost to Oregon. I almost could be like, you know, okay, so Oregon beat you. And I know that that loss looks worse now, but at the time it wasn't as devastating, Saturday was devastating for USC, devastating because of what it pointed to down the stretch. If they can't handle quality defenses and teams that will line up and run the football and then play quality defense and get after the quarterback. Look what's left on their schedule. Their schedules horrendous for them based on what we saw on Saturday. They still have Ohio State. They still have Indiana, both of those defenses are excellent. And oh, by the way, their rival, the UCLA Bruins, excellent defense. They've got three opponents left on their schedule with top 10 defenses. Whoa, all right. So if that's what you look like against Wisconsin, like good luck, the rest of the, where was the plan against pressure? They were bringing kind of house blitz, you know, cover zero blitz, cover one blitz where they're sending one more than you can protect. And there was no plan. There was no plan. I didn't understand that. I didn't understand that because I firmly believe Lincoln Riley is one of the better offensive coaches that we've seen. And his track record proves that out multiple Heisman winners, multiple years that they're leading the country and yards per play offense like it happens all the time. I thought that they would run the football better. Their offensive line played poorly again. Their O line just cannot get it done. They can't win the line of scrimmage. And then there was no plan for the pressure. You know, at some point I just kept watching the back constantly be in the protection. And when the back is constantly in protection and you can't get anybody else open, at some point you have to adjust, at some point. Because if the back isn't in protection and it's what I would call a scat release, meaning he's not checking in protection and then getting out on his route, he's just going to get out on his route. And you're only going to have five in front of my Ava. And I know that sounds counterintuitive. Joel, they're bringing house pressure. We can't just protect the quarterback with five. Yeah, you let the quarterback protect himself at times. And you allow the back to get out because now the defense is in conflict. What is that blitzing linebacker going to do? Is he going to peel with the linebacker because he's supposed to be a man coverage? If he doesn't, then the running back is wide open. And if he does peel, then you've protected that player and blocked him with the route. I didn't see that much. I just kept seeing the running back in protection. That's one answer of a number of answers you can have. Where's the screen pass? Where's the short routes? There's a run game that can get them out of the blitz package. None of that materialized. And because of that, USC got ran off the field and they got drilled 24/7 in Madison. And that was just a devastating loss for USC because of the way that it happened. What they were facing and what they're facing now down the stretch. Let's look at the big 12 wild day in the big 12 two top 10 teams go down. Number two BYU, they went down to the bounce house and got bounced double OT 3931. That was a wild game, wild game. I can understand the kind of let down for BYU. The high of beating Notre Dame, then you travel across the country and you face a U.S. UCF team that with no disrespect, you know, you're thinking, well, they're not as good as Notre Dame. They're not as good as us. Heck, I had them at number one BYU speaking of them last week. So what have we seen every week this year in college football? A team be too high on themselves. They read all the press clippings and they eat the rat poison. That's what it is. That's what it is. Classic let down game. UCF has their backup quarterback in. They've got a great crowd. And then you get some horrendous officiating once again, once again, I still don't know what was going on late in the game. There's a field goal. UCF's trying to win the game. They kick a field goal. It gets blocked, but they kicked it on third down because there's just a mess with the clock. They didn't understand how to do it. They're like, screw it. Let's just kick it on third down. It gets blocked. But then UCF a player recovers it and he tries to run for the first down and then he gets stopped, you know, short of the line to gain and it's third down and he's a runner. But it's a free kick. So does the clock stop. But by the way, his helmet got ripped off and a flag comes out. Then all of a sudden the flag is is waved off and now it's not a flag. And then is it a 10 second runoff? Is it not a 10 second runoff? It was a hatchet job by the officials there. So finally, they're just like, no, let's just go to overtime. Okay. So they're just like artificial 10 second runoff. Let's just go to overtime. Let's wait. The officials wave the white flag. If you listen to Terry McCauley on social media, he would tell you that the clock should have stopped. Third down, UCF recovered is it should have stopped because it was a free kick and after every free kick the clocks up guys, I don't even know. But whatever they wave the flight, white flag, they go to overtime, then they stop UCF. And we're in overtime UCF's kicking a field goal and a BYU player is rushing and kind of gets pulled down and he's down in front of the kicker and the kicker on his second hop, which you're only allowed the one like falls over and flops and and the guy who's rushing literally got like pulled down, he's just falling down and he's with the UCF player, which you can make an argument. He's being blocked into the kicker. And again, the kicker is hopping forward on his front leg, flops and they call a roughing horrendous call. Almost as bad as the roughing the passer, officiating in college football is so bad right now. It is so bad right now. We have got to nationalize officiating anyways, Kalani Sataki, he disagreed with the call, but of course he took the high road because he's a gentleman. Anyways, BYU goes down, BYU goes down. And where's BYU at in my top 10, well, they stayed in my top 10. I put them all the way to 10. They were number one last week. They go all the way to number 10. That's kind of where they were sitting before they beat Notre Dame. I put them back down at the bottom of my top 10. So they are number 10. Indiana is at three, BYU is at 10. Tech was upset by Cincinnati 3724, tech was underwhelming all all season until they beat up on who was it. I think it was errors on the state. They ran it all over them. And so I was thinking like, okay, here we go. We're back. We're back to the high flying offense. Their defense looked like they played well. They got to Cincinnati. Defense was a no show. Total no show. Will Hammond turn it over a couple of times. Bearcats ran all over them, 255 on the ground. That's crazy. JC French through four touchdowns for Cincinnati, great win for Cincinnati. Good for Cincinnati. There's no doubt 3724 and tech goes down. So BYU tech, they go down. Then Utah is playing the big game against Houston late, the late late game. They came back from a 10 nothing deficit in order to win that game. Really great. Second half. Damn. Pure was excellent. One of the only reasons that they didn't score in the first half, they moved the football, but then they turned the football over in the second half. Damn. Pure got going. The defense got going. They held Conor. Wigmond only three points in the second half. And they turned a 10 nothing deficit at halftime into a 21 13 win. And so Utah stays undefeated, but now they're the only undefeated in the big 12. So what does all this mean? Well, I think it means Utah is still really good. I still think BYU is very good. I just don't think BYU is going to get the benefit of the doubt. So where does Utah fall in my top 10? They go up to seven. Utah's going to be at seven. I think that they're going to be a tough out. I don't know how they would match up with some of these other teams around the country. And I know BYU is still a 10, but that's going to play itself out. Holy war is coming up. Those two teams will play, which is going to knock one of them out of the top 10, at least in my estimation. Maybe it won't for Utah. I don't I don't know what happens that week, but for the big 12 last week, I told you that it was a transformational win when BYU beat the fighting Irish. And I thought, well, maybe this is a multiple bid league now. Is it two? Is it three? The tech goes down BYU goes down. And I think we're back into this, this mode. It's probably a one big bid league. And unless it's Utah that gets to the champ game with only an undefeated record and then loses one, maybe they get a second at that point. But this is why back to my original thought on Texas. This is why I'm coming around to Texas as a potential nine and three getting into the playoff is because the depth of the big 12 now is taking a hit. And I'm back in this mode where I'm thinking to myself, maybe it's just a one big bid league. A couple of games that I want to get to right here, LSU, LSU. looked really good. Second straight blowout win, this time at Auburn, who had just beaten George of the week prior and they went into Jordan Hare and did it. 38 17 LSU kind of reminds me of Texas in that at their best, I think that they can be very, very good. I think that they're very good at their best high ceiling when they're healthy and when things are healthy and when things are good, I think it's going to be tough to beat LSU. Even Ole Miss had to have that emotional night where LSU is coming back and then obviously LSU loses to Kentucky but now Kentucky is a really good team. So maybe that doesn't look as bad in particular in the fashion that had happened in overtime when Will Stein goes for two in that overtime. Levitt is playing a lot better over 400 total yards against Auburn. He's not scrambling as much. Remember I was throwing the caution flag up about how much he ran and the fashion in which he ran early in the year. He has not done that as much. Only what five scrambles against Auburn. There was previous Kentucky. He didn't run as much in that game and so on and so forth. They get trade as greenbacked, five catches for 50 yards in the touchdown. That makes their offense a lot better, a lot better in particular when you got a guy that can operate in the middle of the field. So I like LSU. I really do. I think that this is a team that I'm coming around on. I told you during the course of the preseason that this is probably going to be one of the more talented teams that we see all year long and they are. I told you that Lane Kiffin falls out of bed and they average 40 points and 500 yards and where are they at right now? Up 40 points and 500 yards. Just over that in each of those categories. So they're going to be a tough out. There's no doubt. Other SEC games Alabama needed the fourth quarter come back to beat A&M 31 20. I don't know what to do with Alabama. I just don't. I wanted to like him a lot after the Georgia loss. And now I'm back to back weeks like, why are you struggling with A&M? Like eight. I just want Alabama to be more consistent and they're not and they're not. And I think that's what you get when you lean on the passing game. If I'm being frank, because I'm going to go back to what I said earlier today, what are the best teams in the country, the teams that can play weekend and week out, win games, put together winning streaks. What do they do? What do they do? When you really boil it down, they run the ball and they play defense. And I don't know if I can trust those with Alabama. I really don't. Tennessee was disappointing. They lose to South Carolina 2724. I don't know what to do with Tennessee either. SEC is kind of eating itself. And this is what everyone was worried about that that's an SEC flag waiver with moving to nine conference games. Because remember, they thought that they were special and could just play eight conference games and that it was still the gauntlet. Like nobody else plays a gauntlet like us, even though they played one less game. But now they moved to nine and it really is a gauntlet. There's no doubt. And they are eating themselves. I have no idea who I trust in this league outside of possibly Georgia. Maybe it's Texas at their best. And yet you look up in Georgia and Kentucky are the only teams that don't have two or more losses in this league. So trying to trying to put two teams in Atlanta at this point in the season, we're about to be in November. And I have no idea. I have no idea. Who's the second best team in the SEC? I think Georgia's the best team in the SEC, even though they lost to Auburn. Who's the second best team? Well, ceiling wise, it's probably Texas consistency wise. It's probably Kentucky. Who do I think it's going to be LSU? They get Texas at home. So we'll see if LSU can do that. Let's take a look at the rest of my top 10. I've got BYU in there at number 10. The rest of this is going to look like this. Kentucky is in there at number nine. They beat Vandy 3417. They're now 71 on the season. Let's avoid the upset and move along. Nothing to see here. And I credit that. I credit that. I think for too long, we, we just kind of moved away from like, well, they should win that game. And we're all like, yeah, that doesn't mean anything. That team is, is, is nothing in nobody. Okay. And so listen, I'll give BAM a credit where it's due. They ended up getting the win over Texas A&M may, may not have been the way that I wanted it to happen. But you can say the same thing about Indiana that I talked about early. They found a way to win the game in front of them. And that should be credited. That should be credited for all of these teams. And you certainly can say that about Kentucky. It's 3417. And in an era of parity, let's credit where credit is due. You see Texas and Utah in there at eight and seven at six. It's going to be UCLA. Comfortable 2810 win over Michigan State 245 rush yards on 48 carries over five poor per rush UCLA. What else do they do? They play defense. They're allowing under nine points per game over the last four. This is one of the better defenses in the big 10, one of the better defenses in college football. They got a bit of a scare in this game. If you were watching it, tie deep in box. They're back up now starting quarterback went down. And it's like, oh, my goodness. Are they going to be on their third stringer? But that was right at the end of the kind of the first half, but he stayed in the game. I like him a lot. Tie deep in box. I like their run game even more. I'm a big fan of Bob Chesney. And they're out there just winning football games. And that's not what everybody can say in the country. Now we get into the top five. Georgia's number five. Despite the loss to Auburn, I still think this is one of the more complete teams in the country. And it's certainly a coaching staff and a roster that I feel like I can trust. So from that standpoint, I put Georgia at five. Notre Dame's going to be four. Obviously off of the loss to BYU. And I know they have one loss. Now BYU has one loss. And I, I see you in the comments already BYU fans. I see you. I get it. I get it. But CJ cars still elite. I still believe in that defense. And let's face it. They should have had another snap in a second left on the clock. Three is Indiana. You already see that number two is going to be Ohio State. I know that Ohio State was two last week. And I did not, not move them up to number one because I just can't until I see what they are on offense with a brand new quarterback. What are they going to be? I know they can play great defense. I do not know if they can run the football that consistently. And I don't know what they're going to be at quarterback. And who's throwing to Jeremiah Smith. So for that reason, I couldn't put them at number one. And I had to go with Miami. They destroyed pit 5223. Mensa through for almost 400 yards and four touchdowns. Tony went crazy 16 for 194 and three tugs. That's a good football team. And I think they're going to be there in the end. They certainly don't have the toughest schedule of anybody. I can't wait to see them play Notre Dame. If Notre Dame were to lose that game with already one loss on the docket, who knows? And we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Quick news and notes of stuff that went down in college football. Dave Doran was fired at NC State. Dave Aranda bad day for the Dave's. Dave Aranda fired at Baylor. Doran was in his 14th season. He'd been there forever. Aranda was a little less than that. I believe he was there. What is it? Four seasons? Some along those lines. And then Oregon and not a shocking move moved away from their offensive coordinator. Drew Maringer. Remember, Maringer was was promoted from within when Will Steine left and became the head coach Kentucky. Steine was a coordinator at Oregon last year. And this offense just hasn't looked good. Grant, this is a tough one because, you know, for guy like Drew Maringer, you get the chance to call plays and everything's going okay. You know, you lose the game to Oklahoma State, but it's going, it's going okay. You're playing well against USC. Dante Morgos down and then the three straight games, they've been held to 17 or less. And that's, that's not going to do it. Now, again, all with backup, quarterbacks, but you spent a lot, a lot of money on Dylan Reola. They lost Dine. Oregon already has three losses. And that's the change that they decided to make. So there you have it. By the way, NC State, you hear some rumblings about possibly Philip Rivers to NC State. That would be interesting. That would be very interesting. I would be into that. Hey, on Wednesday, we're going to have our last last bracket prediction. It's going to be the last time we can give you a bracket prediction before we get actual college football playoff rankings from the committee. So on Wednesday, my last bracket projection, that's coming at you on Wednesday. I'll get picks and previews on Thursday. We're going to try to get a win. It's been a struggle. I'm going to try to look at what I'm doing well and what I'm doing poorly. And I'm going to try to build on what I'm doing well. I'm going to try to throw out what I'm doing poorly. So I'm going to do that. I'm going to evaluate what's going on on the picks front. We'll have that on Thursday. That's all coming straight at you this week on the Joel class show. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Subscribe, follow, rate and review, all the stuff. And please tweet.