Week 11 Picks & Predictions: USC-Indiana, Texas-LSU, Ohio State-Northwestern, Utah-Arizona & More

The action's on the court, and as the official beer sponsor of the NBA, Michelob Ultra is getting fans closer to the game with a chance to win courtside seats, merch, and more. Visit MichelobUltra.com slash courtside to enter. Michelob Ultra Courtside 26-27, no purchase necessary. Open to U.S. residents 21+. Begins on October 1, 2026 and ends on June 30, 2027. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at MichelobUltra.com slash courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes, and details. This guy is just all gas, no brakes, and not like the fake saying Texas way. Legitimate way. He is a football-playing Jesse. Noel Fafita should be the poster child for what you love about college football. Let's get a good old-fashioned Big 12 shootout. That's what I want. I'm just giving points out like Oprah all day long. What could go wrong? Hey, welcome into the program. It is the Joel Klatt Show. I'm Joel Klatt. This show is. It's brought to you by Hilton. Hilton for the stay. And we welcome you in. Some picks and previews. Here we go. Get you all set for a great day of college football here on Saturday this weekend. Listen, we've had some epic days this season. We really have. We've had some incredible Saturdays. I think we're going to get another one on Saturday. The action's on the court. And as the official beer sponsor of the NBA, Michelob Ultra is getting fans closer to the game with a chance to win courtside tickets. Courtside seats, merch, and more. Michelob Ultra Courtside 26 to 27. No purchase necessary. Open to U.S. residents 21 plus. Begins on October 1st, 2026 and ends on June 30th, 2027. I really do. I'm super excited to be at the game I'm at. Let's start there. In Tucson. As Utah travels to take on Arizona. Now, this one is a CFP ranking top 25 matchup as number two Utah, undefeated, coming off of the Holy War, travels to Tucson to take on Brent Brennan and the Arizona Wildcats. They're ranked 23rd in the country. Here's what I love about this game. These two quarterbacks. I love these two quarterbacks. Devin Dampier from Utah and Noah Fafita from Arizona. I just want to talk about these guys for a moment here because. First and foremost, Devin Dampier really should be in the Heisman Trophy race and I think he probably deserves a trip to New York. If not, maybe even win the whole thing if they can continue this run and they remain undefeated and they go into the playoff as an undefeated. He's unbelievable. I cannot explain to you how exciting he is to watch on tape. When I'm watching the game, so as I'm preparing for this game, I'm watching, you know, all these games for Utah and this guy is. He's just electric, man. He's got no quit in him, first of all. Like, he's not sliding. He's not running out of bounds. This guy is just like all gas, no brakes. And not like the fake saying Texas way. Like, not like legitimate way. Like, this dude just played. He is a football playing Jesse. Is it the prettiest version of the position that you're going to see? Probably not. Probably not. You know, is he going to be a great NFL prospect? Eh, I don't know about that. No, but man, let me just tell you about something. Like, the touchdown run he had early against BYU. Try to explain it quickly, but basically it's just an RPO. It's a normal RPO. He can hand the football off. He can run the football himself around the left side, or he can throw the little screen that they have set up over on the left side as well. And he, you know, he does the run fake and the defense kind of takes that away. And so it looks like he's going to pull the ball and maybe run to the left or throw the screen, and then he just darts back behind his running back on the running back's play side. And you know that that's not the design because the running back doesn't go and lead block. He's as surprised as anybody. A damp here is running past him, and he just runs for a touchdown on the right side. It's like schoolyard stuff. It's so much fun to watch. Like, this guy and the way that he plays. He's getting the RPO, and he's sprinting towards the line of scrimmage and firing the post route down the field. You just don't see. Guys play like this really anywhere. It's a unique style of football. They're very explosive on the offensive side. They can score a lot of points. Their offensive line has done well. They can run the football well. Way Sean Parker has been a little bit banged up with a heel injury, but I think he's a guy that should be healthy as he gets into this game. So I'm really a big fan of Utah. You guys know that. I've always been a big fan of Utah. Morgan Scali has this team playing great football. Their defense is, again, aggressive. Man coverage on the outside. Like to pressure. They're going to force the issue. They're always going to force the issue. And they have done that beautifully this year. And they're undefeated, and they're number two in the country, and they're staring at a Big 12 championship game spot. They're staring at a potential Big 12 championship and a berth in the college football playoff. And that's exciting. That's exciting. Remember, and I don't think it's lost so many Utah fans. Like, it wasn't that long ago that this was a Mountain West program. This was a group of six program, and they got themselves into the Pac-12. They won the Pac-12 a couple of times, played in the Rose Bowl. And here they are. They're looking for a playoff berth. This has been one of the more consistent football programs in college football over the last decade or two. And they're looking for that berth into a college football playoff. And this could be it. This could be it. And this could be the quarterback to lead them. And then you've got Arizona and Noah Fafita on the other side. I am a huge fan of Noah Fafita. He's been there his entire career. For all of you that kind of like lamented the current status of transfer portal, NIL, you know, players leaving, this and that. Noah Fafita should be the poster child for what you love about college football. He has stayed in one spot. His coach, Jed Fish, he left to Washington. He stayed at Arizona. He was there with his high school teammate, Tedaroa McMillan. He went off to the NFL, one rookie of the year. And all he's done is produce and produce and produce. And now he's going to be making his 44th career start at Arizona. He's got some good, he's got some good, wide receivers on the outside. Isaiah Mizell, Gio Richardson, top two targets out there. Brent Brennan has done a heck of a job with that program since he got in there after Jed Fish left. Danny Gonzalez, their defense, they are aggressive. They're going to bring a lot of blitzes. They're pretty good at home. And we've seen them last year, BYU struggled at Arizona. Like I think Utah coming off of the emotional win, like we've seen all year long. I think that they're going to be in a dog fight in this one. And I think it's going to be a fantastic game. 7.30 Eastern on. Fox, Fox, Gus, Jenny, and I have the call. So can't wait to be in Tucson. And that one should be a great one. Shout out to all my family, by the way. My mom grew up in Arizona and all my family's out there in Arizona on her side. And I know they'll be tuned in. They love the Wildcats. So can't wait for that one. Big one in the big 10 USC at Indiana. Okay. So Indiana is favored by seven and a half. They got bumped by the college football playoff. Committee five spots for sitting on the couch. Apparently they didn't like the chair. You know, Kurt Cignetti has his chair, his famous chair that he always sits in and everything. Apparently the committee hates his chair because Kurt was sitting in his chair and they, they bumped him five spots. Wild. If you hadn't gotten my reaction to the college football playoff rankings, that was yesterday's show. Go back and check that one out. It's on the YouTube channel. You can subscribe when you're there as well. Um, Indiana is welcoming USC though. Both teams are off of their off week. So a couple of weeks to prepare. And, and my biggest question mark in this game is not actually about Indiana. And I know that there's some question marks surrounding Indiana and their offense and their quarterback and who's going to be the quarterback on Saturday. But my biggest question for this game is actually for USC. What version of USC are we going to see in Bloomington on Saturday? Because Lincoln, Riley's team has shown us that they can win some big games. And then they've showed us that they can play really poorly on the road, namely at Wisconsin and not have a ton of answers on the offensive side and not try to run the football. And so it's tough for me because one of these programs is very consistent and they're going to play the game in front of them. And they've done that incredibly well over the last 25. And I gave this stat in yesterday's show. Indiana has won 24 of their last 25 football games and a national championship. Mixed in there. Their only loss was a foot out of bounds by six inches to Ohio State when Julian Sane was in. So this isn't like the Fahey, Ohio State. This is the Julian Sane, Ohio State. It's their only loss in their last 25 games. And so, yes, my question is going to be about USC in this game. What version do you get? Because to beat Indiana, it has to be, not it better be, it has to be the best version of USC. The buttoned up, version of USC. The no turnovers, no penalties, sustain a run game, play good defense and tackle in space. It has to be all of those things for USC to go to this place and win. We just don't see this team lose many games because they play the game in front of them. They typically win the field position battle. They almost always win the turnover battle. And they win because they play great defense. They'll sustain a run game. And this is not what we've seen from USC over the last couple of years. Indiana's defense is very difficult to play, schematically and their defensive line. Their defensive line is one of the best defensive lines in the country. I'm sure the committee hasn't watched much of it, in particular knocking them down five spots, but that's all right. I always say those in passing, guys, and then those are the little comments that end up like everyone takes and write an article about it. Uh-oh, Klatt takes a shot at the committee. I mean, it was in passing, all right? Context, context. This defensive line is very active, and they're very good. They can produce a lot of pressure on the quarterback, and they can generally stop the run. That's not good for a USC team that typically doesn't do well if they can't establish the run, and then Maiava is sitting back there with a lot of pressure on him, like he was in Madison when they faced the Badgers in Wisconsin. When you get to the Indiana side, I do have questions. about what we're going to see on the Indiana offense. I think we all do right now. But if I'm making an educated guess, can't we assume that it's going to be better? That would be my guess. My guess is that it will be better. Well, why do I guess that? Because it's either going to be Grant Wilson, which was better than Hoover when Hoover was injured because we saw him come back in that Minnesota game, create some explosive plays down the field, or it's going to be a healthy version of Hoover. And when he was healthy, he was doing just fine on the offensive side. So after the off week happened at the perfect time for Indiana, I think you're going to get a better offensive team from Indiana just based on one of those two things. Either Hoover's healthy and he's playing or Wilson's going to play, and both of that is better than the injured Wilson, or Hoover, excuse me, that we saw in the early stages against Minnesota. That's at least what I say. And again, that defense is going to keep them in the game regardless. I don't think USC is going to run off and hide and score 30 points in this game. It's too difficult to do that against Brian Haynes, their defensive coordinator. He's too good. Can't wait to see Charlie Becker with a more healthy quarterback, whether that's Hoover or Wilson, because I think Becker is one of the best players in college football. This guy almost single-handedly put that team on his back against Minnesota late. He got them in field goal range. Now, granted, it was a dime from Wilson, and then another dime from Wilson for the touchdown in overtime. Becker is sensational. Coming off that eight grabs, 149 yards and a touchdown against Minnesota. He's putting up monster numbers. This guy is going to be a top 10, 12 draft pick in next year's NFL. NFL draft. So here we go. What's the pick, Joel? Well, USC has struggled to run the ball this year. They're 100th in the country in yards per carry. I think that they're going to have to run the football to succeed in this game and to keep the pressure off of Maiava. One thing that they do have going for them is all of their sensational freshmen right now are back and healthy. So Trent Mosley, who is an absolute dynamo. I think this kid is fantastic. He's like a mini, not a mini, a young version of Malachi Tony. And by the way, I actually think they're the same age because Mosley's not young. But you know what I mean. By class, he's young. Luke Wafel, he's been dominant on the defensive line. And then Mark Bowman, we saw him with that catch and run against Ohio State. He's fantastic as well. They're all healthy. That will help them. There's no doubt. Those three guys are going to have to play great. I actually think it's their three best players. I think Maiava needs to level up his game. I think that the offensive line needs to do a better job for USC. And that's the question. Can their offensive line do a better job against this defensive front? Well, listen, if you're telling me that USC has to go east to the eastern time zone, face the defending national champion, not turn the ball over, not have penalties, not panic and go for it too early on fourth down like they've been accustomed to on the road, yeah, that game against Wisconsin just looms in my mind. So I'm going to have to go Indiana here. I'm going to give the seven and a half and go Indiana wins at 28-20 at home. And I'll give the seven and a half. All right, Northwestern at Ohio State. Ohio State favored by 12 and a half in this one. How invested is the Buckeyes team right now? I think that's going to be a question in this one. I think if I know them well, which I think that I know them well, I believe that you're going to get a good version of Ohio State. I thought that last week and for the, the first quarter, I thought that that was true. And then the fake punt happens and then it just steamrolls, snowballs, whatever you want to call it. In this ball game, they are going to stick with Luke Fahey. I was a little bit surprised at that. I was surprised that he was in the game for the entirety against Oregon with the way that it was going. Now they're back at home. I think the fan base wants to see Tavian St. Clair. It's not going to happen at the start of the game. It's pretty clear the way that Ryan Day has talked about that situation. That Tavian has not earned the trust of the coaches or the players in the organization. If he had, he would have been on the field by now. There's no other way to put that. And he has, he has said as much as, as softly and plainly as he possibly can. Speaking of Ryan Day. Now for Northwestern, it's unclear at the time that we're recording this. And remember folks, you got to give me a little bit of a pass last week. We didn't catch the Malachi Tony news. We record this more midweek before some of that news comes out because I've got to travel. All right. And so like, you have to bear with me on that. So it's unclear at this point when I'm talking to you right now, whether Aiden Childs is going to play for Northwestern or it's going to be Nico Marchio. If it's Marchio, I like Ohio State. If it's Aiden Childs, you know, I think that they can put up a fight. But the bottom line is, is that Northwestern, Northwestern has been banged up in the secondary and they've struggled in that area to this point. And you still have Jeremiah Smith. Now, again, again, how bought in is Ohio State? I think that they're going to be bought in. This is a proud program. These guys want to leave somewhat of a legacy. Jeremiah still has a lot to play for, not just in the stat sheet, but potentially in New York for a Heisman trophy. And you never know, you, you never know, excuse me. I'm still fighting off this cold, but you never know. If you just run the table, let the chips fall where they may. One of the questions I have for Ohio State is about their defense. They've obviously got something to prove. They gave up 30 then 41 in the last two games. I will say though, both of those teams, USC and Oregon had elite talent on the outside. I don't know if that's the case with Northwestern in order to kind of expose the Ohio State defense because the Ohio State defense had to take some risks in both of those games. They do have to fix some of their alignment issues. They have been misaligned several times. I'm going to take Ohio State 3420 Ohio State covers the 12 and a half. I'm going to roll with the Buckeyes there in that ballgame. All right, Texas at LSU LSU season is on the line in this one after suffering their third loss of the season last week against Alabama, Texas is on that three-game winning streak. Arch is playing a lot better. They dropped two in a row and back-to-back games. Remember back in the middle of the year, but they've righted the ship a little bit. That was a big win last week over Missouri on the road. It's unclear right now whether they're going to be all the way back healthy. Cam Coleman, of course, missed that game against Missouri last week. He's dealing with a shoulder issue. Arch is going back home to Louisiana. Remember that's where he's from and I think this is a game that is going to be dictated on LSU's ability to get to the quarterback because when Arch is under pressure, that's the Arch that turns the ball. Over and this is a team that generally produces a lot of pressure. Even last week against Keelan Russell. They were able to produce some pressure now. They didn't get the sacks that they needed but they had 13 quarterback pressures. They only got him down to the ground twice though. Russell is a better pocket manipulator than Arch Manning is he made some plays and some throws in that game and Alabama was fairly committed to run in the football. Alabama's game plan was pretty remarkable last week. They were a bend don't break defense allowed Lane. Kiffin is just, you know, gobble up the yards in the middle of the field. Then they stopped him in the red zone fourth down so on and so forth. And then they ran the football and they were able to do that fairly effectively. Texas has struggled in pass protection this year. My voice is going out, but that's all right guys. We're going to power through Texas has struggled in pass protection this year. This is not the game that you want to struggle and pass. It's a game of protection. And if you want to protect the quarterback, you've got to commit to run in the football. I don't know if Texas going to be able to do that on the road. I think that Arch reverts back to the turnover Arch that we saw earlier in the year because of that pressure and and they're on the road. It's going to be at night. I like I just think that LSU is going to put them in a bit of a bind because I don't think Texas is going to be able to sit there and run the football like they were able to run the ball against Ole Miss earlier in the year. LSU is leaning on Sam Levitt a little bit. I think Levitt made some mistakes in particular on fourth down last weekend, but but they've got talent and listen, they gained a lot of yards. I don't expect them to go over for on fourth down and lose the turnover margin by two in this game. That was the difference last week against Alabama. I think that that it's flipped. I think that they get to Arch. I think that they get some turnovers. They win the turnover battle and they win the game at home. LSU wins the game 30 to 24 and they cover the four and a half there. Four-and-a-half-point favorites, I think they cover the four-and-a-half. Wake Forest at SMU, big one in the ACC. Winner is likely going to face Miami in the ACC championship game. Two really high-scoring offenses in this one. Gio Lopez set out last week. That was precautionary. He should be good to go this week. Wake Forest wide receiver Carlos Hernandez has been great for them, averaging over 100 yards per game. Jake Dickert has done a great job at Wake Forest. Excellent job in his two seasons. They're in a position now to make a run to the ACC championship game and potentially to the playoff. Their only loss was against Miami, but now they've got to go on the road and face SMU in a location that they generally don't lose. In fact, in fact, SMU has not lost an ACC home game since they joined the conference three years ago. I mean, guys, right? Kevin Jennings has been much better. From a turnovers perspective, lately, I think it's a high-scoring game. But for me, SMU at home, Rhett Lashley at home, Kevin Jennings at home, that's when he can be a special player. And I think that he wins the game. I think that they beat Wake Forest in a high-scoring game. It's only a one-and-a-half point spread. I think that SMU covers the one-and-a-half. SMU 42-35, they get the job done. Hey, college football season is in. It's in full swing, and this is the time of year when you start looking ahead at the games that you really want to go see in person. Once you pick the matchup, the next step is finding the best deal on tickets, and that's where SeatGeek comes in. With over 35 million downloads, SeatGeek is the number one rated ticketing app with more than 70,000 events listed across sports, concerts, festivals, and more. I love using SeatGeek because it makes comparing tickets really simple. Every ticket is rated on a scale. One to ten. So you know if you're getting a good deal. Just look for the dots. Green dot means good. Red dot means bad. Plus, every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee. And of course, I have a code for you guys. You can use code CLAT10 for 10% off your next set of college football tickets at SeatGeek. That's 10% off any college football tickets with promo code CLAT10. Make sure you click the link in the description to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account so you can use it. Later when you go in to purchase. Just a huge shout out to SeatGeek. All right, let's get to our weekend check-in presented by Hilton. When you need a winning team on and off the field, it matters where you stay. Texas Tech at Oklahoma State. Let's get a good old-fashioned Big 12 just shootout, shall we? I mean, that's what I want. Tech had one with West Virginia last week. Oklahoma State's been putting up a million points lately. I mean, come on. Let's go. Let's go. I mean, I did some of those old classic. In fact, you know what game I called? I called, there was a West Virginia-Baylor game, and I think it was in like, oh, I dropped my pen. I think it was in like 2012. Geno Smith, and it was like 72-64 or something like that. Like, no joke. I called it. It was bonkers. I want that. I want that this Saturday in this matchup. I think we can get it. Thomas Castellanos has injected. He's injected some serious life into that Tech offense over the last two games. He's been a huge threat with his legs. Jacoby Williams has been good for them at running back as well. Drew Mestemaker, I think this guy is phenomenal. He can make every single throw. His tape is fantastic. He's going to be one of the first quarterbacks taken in this draft. Mestemaker can do it all. He's averaging nearly 350 total yards per game and has 33 total touchdowns. So the guy, like, he's going to score some points. I think Tech is going to score some points. Caleb Hawkins is fantastic for Oklahoma State. I think he's one of the more underrated players that we have in the country. Stillwater is going to be jumping. Oklahoma State still has a path to the Big 12 championship game, although it's narrow, but it's still a path. And Texas Tech is sitting there, and they're trying to get back to the Big 12 championship game after winning that conference a year ago. So what do I think is going to happen? I think Oklahoma State wins the game. They're at home. Mestemaker is fantastic. If they get into a shootout, they're going to be comfortable in that, even though Tech could probably be comfortable in that situation as well with what just happened against West Virginia last week. But now you're going to get into a shootout against Mestemaker, and I like Mestemaker in that situation. How about this for a score? I want Oklahoma State. I like Oklahoma State 50-45, covering the 3.5. That's right. Give me all of the points, and here's my picks as they stand here in Week 11. I'm going to take a look. Take Indiana to cover the 7.5, Ohio State to cover the 12.5, LSU to cover the 4.5, SMU to cover the 1.5, and Oklahoma State to cover the 3.5. So I'm just giving points out like Oprah all day long. What could go wrong? I'm only like, I don't know, 3-20 in my last 23 picks. That's a fake number. I don't know if that's the actual number. It feels like it. I've never bet a dollar in my life. So all of this is just like for fun, and I'm trying, guys. I am trying. Every time I give a score, I talk over these picks with Steve and previews. I do this mostly for the previews. I love the previews. I love talking about these games, and it's like, well, what's your prediction? It's like, oh, so I give a score. So I'll be like, I don't know. I kind of like Oklahoma State like 50-45, and then I'll ask like, so what's the line? So I actually don't. I don't create the score before knowing the line, or I don't know the line before creating the score. I think I said that backwards. Whatever. And then he's always like, oh, it's 3-1⁄2. And I'm like, why is it so close? Why can't I get a little wiggle room? And I'll be like, I think Ohio State wins it by like, I don't know, 31-20. And he's like, oh, it's 12-1⁄2. And I'm like, ah! I don't know how you guys do it out there. Streets are rough. These streets are rough. Hey, subscribe to the show. If you would, that would be great. Follow us on social media. That would be cool as well. Rate and review it. That would be awesome. And leave a comment down below. And then enjoy the week into college football. Gus, Jeannie, and I live in Tucson, 7 p.m. Eastern on Fox. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. 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