Top 5 Games that will decide the Big Ten, Schedule Lottery Winners & Losers + Dabo vs Tampering

So the five games that will decide the Big Ten Conference, that's a monster game. And it's a really under-the-radar game because it's not even the best game of the day. There's a huge difference between there are no rules and the rules are not enforced. We need more of guys like Dabo to step forward and say, govern us. This is the second time I've thrown my pen tonight. Touchdown! These fans are the best in the country. A day like today is why we love college football. Hey, welcome into the program. This is the Joel Klatt Show. I'm Joel Klatt. This show is brought to you by Graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support. Welcome back to the program. I know that in the offseason we kind of move to once a week, but we are continuing on here. Lots to get to during the course of this last week here in the offseason in college football. We got the schedule release from the Big Ten. We've got to get to that, obviously. And as you know, in college football, with these big conferences, it is a bit of a schedule lottery. So we've got to see who hit the jackpot in the Big Ten, who's got the easiest schedules, who's got the toughest schedules, and my five games that will determine the champion in the Big Ten. That's all coming straight up. We've got news out of Ohio State. They hired an offensive coordinator. USC hired a defensive coordinator. And tampering is out of control. And Dabo is like big mad about it. So we'll get into the Dabo Sweeney, Pete Golding, Ole Miss Clemson feud and everything going on there. Darian Mensah from Duke. He's now going to Miami. All of it's a big mess. And I'm going to try my best to explain a little bit of it. I probably won't talk a lot about the individual situations, but there are a lot of things that you don't know about that you don't hear about going on behind the scenes. And I'm going to try to, at least my best, to kind of bring all of that information to you in an easily digestible way so that you understand what's going on right now in college football and why we don't have more enforceable rules currently. Okay, now, before we get started, just remember to subscribe to the program. If you have not subscribed, please subscribe to the program because we're going to have content the entire offseason. We've got some very cool things planned for you. We'll have coverage of the NFL draft. That's coming up, obviously, and a lot more, including more understanding football, which will be dropping during the course of the offseason. So subscribe to the show there. If you haven't followed us on social media, you can do that at Joel Klatshow. And that's wherever you like the social media. So we hit all the demographics there. You still like Facebook? Bam. We're on Facebook, I think. I actually don't fully know that. I'm pretty sure we are. I know we're on like TikTok and the gram, as the kids say. We're on X, all of those different things. Not on X. You know what I mean? Can we just call it Twitter again? My goodness. Can we just call it Twitter? Let's get into it here. The college football schedule, at least in the Big Ten, kind of unveiling here. We had the big release day of the Big Ten schedule during the course of last week. And so now we need to talk about who won the lottery of the schedule release. Big picture thoughts on this thing is that these things are wildly imbalanced. And we know this. And this is not – oh, excuse me. Look at me. I'm dropping my pen. This is not unique to the Big Ten. This is every single conference, and this is the era of super conferences. We're going to have really imbalanced schedules. Now, the obvious culprit is the size of the conference themselves, and that's kind of obvious, like I said. And there's not a ton that you can do that gets around kind of the imbalance of the schedule. I would be a proponent that you keep a couple of opponents that are your natural rivals, which everybody has tried to do to try to retain some of that traditional nature of college football. But then after that, I would be in favor of schedules, even in conferences, not just out of conference, but in conference that slated you based on where you finished the previous year. And so the teams that need help get help with an easier conference schedule. And the teams that we think are better teams and that succeeded in the previous year would get more difficult schedules. Now, that's not exactly what happened with this one. It is more random. So because of that randomness, it does feel a little bit like a lottery. So you've got the size of the conference that obviously impacts this thing. And then again, the selection-based playoff model that we currently operate under in the CFP, it affects schedules. And what we have right now are schedules that reflect a selection-based model and a selection committee that is going to honor wins regardless of who they come against. I think that's a problem, and it also just contributes to this imbalance that we see. So you can do one of two things now as a program in college football. You can take the risk and you can schedule a great opponent in the non-conference, and we've seen some of those, and they've been fantastic. Like, you know, Michigan-Oklahoma played last year. Obviously, Ohio State and Texas played last year. Both of those teams are going to play at the opposite location this year. Oklahoma at Michigan, Ohio State at Texas. Those programs kept those matchups on their schedule. But when you do that, all of a sudden, you start fighting with fire here. Playing with fire, I think, is the term. You take a massive risk because that conference schedule, it can go any direction. And if you hit it wrong, now all of a sudden you're behind the eight ball. And that schedule top to bottom becomes incredibly difficult. And we actually saw that this year. More on that in a little bit. I've got my three what I would call like best schedule lottery schedules. I've got my three worst schedule lottery schedules from the Big Ten. That's all coming up. in this era I do think like we need to get to these NFL based schedules just because the imbalance is great and if there is going to be an imbalance I'm a big believer that you try to drive toward not completely but drive toward parity parity has entered college football in a big way Indiana just won the national championship and if we want to retain that I think that we can do some work in the schedule to retain that. I think parity is better for the sport. More fan bases are going to feel engaged. More fan bases feel like they've got a chance. That's better for the sport as a whole. Okay, so we can do that. The way it is now, though, you've got these schedules, you've got these non-conference schedules, you've got the lottery of the conference schedule. Well, that basically means that outside of the games themselves, really the two most important days, and I would argue the two most important days of the entire offseason, the entire offseason, are the day the transfer portal closes and you see what your roster is going to look like, and the day the schedule is released in your conference so you actually see the lottery that you got and where you're going and when. These two days directly impact what you're going to see from a wins and losses perspective in the fall. There's no greater influence than those two days. What does your roster look like? What schedule are you playing? And I know that that's somewhat obvious, but it just goes to show you this is not a throwaway thing. You take a look at these schedules, in particular in this conference, which we'll talk about today in the Big Ten. They are wildly different. Wildly different. And that's why I call it the schedule lottery. So let's get into it. Let's talk about the easiest schedules, the ones that they hit, baby. This is jackpot city. I have got three to one my top three schedule lottery hits in the Big Ten. Let's start with number three. I think number three is Iowa. Iowa got a pretty darn good schedule. First and foremost, their big non-conference game is Iowa State, and Iowa State was decimated, decimated. When they lost their coach, Matt Campbell, he goes to Penn State, and the entire roster basically left. So that's their tough non-conference game. And now it doesn't look so tough, does it? By the way, that game is also in Kinnick. They've got Northern Illinois, Northern Iowa. Then there's this slate right there. You hit the end of September and into October. And you think to yourself like, oh, man, this is really difficult. And it is. And it is. And here's the thing. In these super conferences, you're never going to totally avoid tough matchups. But it matters where they occur. And it matters when they occur. And then, in particular, what's around it. So I already told you about that non-conference slate. Then all of a sudden they go at Michigan on September 26th and then at, or excuse me, home to Ohio state on October 3rd. You could look at that and you could be like, well, dang, they've got Michigan and Ohio state and back-to-back weeks, which is true, which is true. By the way, they follow this up with a trip to Washington. Not an easy place to play. You could stop there and think to yourself, man, Iowa's got a tough schedule, but wait, there's a bye. Then they're at Minnesota, Wisconsin at Northwestern, Purdue at Illinois and Nebraska. I don't see another top six team in the conference on that list. To me, that is a schedule, a schedule lottery win for Iowa. If they can get through that, that slate of their first five, which includes Michigan and Ohio state, maybe with just two losses, And then if they can win at Washington, and now all of a sudden you're staring at a 10-win season because the back half of your schedule is not entirely unmanageable. So again, Iowa, I thought they hit a bit of the schedule lottery, even though it could seem to the layman just looking at it like it was going to be very difficult. Number two, Illinois. Illinois hit the schedule lottery in this one. And again, you look at this and you think to yourself, well, Joel, hold on. They've got to play Ohio State on the road and they've got to play Oregon. Yep, they sure do. But it matters when they happen and then it matters what happens around them. So Duke is on the non-conference schedule for Illinois. They lost their quarterback. Now that's a different team without their quarterback. You've got Purdue right after you go to Ohio State. That's, I think, manageable. Maryland right after Oregon traveling out to Maryland. That's manageable. And then the only other really tough game that you could say, like, well, this might be a top seven or eight team in the conference is Iowa. So, yes, you have Ohio State, you have Oregon, but really the only other tough, tough game is going to be Iowa. They've got that one at home. By the way, they're home against Oregon, which means for Illinois, really their toughest test on the road is at Ohio State. Even if you lose that one. Now you've got Oregon at home. You've got Iowa at home. It's really not a tough slate. So Illinois hitting a bit of that schedule jackpot here in the Big Ten. So number three, Iowa. Number two, Illinois. But the best schedule in the Big Ten. Yes, the jackpot winner. They hit the lottery, folks. And that is new head coach Matt Campbell and the Penn State Nittany Lions. This thing is not difficult. It just isn't at all. First of all, they don't have much in the non-conference. Marshall at Temple and Buffalo. That's obviously manageable, even for a new coach. Remember, they brought in, what was it? I think 20 Iowa State transfers. It might feel a lot like Iowa State, but I tell you this about Matt Campbell and Iowa State. They were a good program. They've got Rocco Beck at quarterback. He's going to be the most experienced quarterback in college football with 39 starts. That matters. That matters in this day and age. We've talked about it a little bit, and I think that that's something that certainly can help you in particular early in a season, but more specifically late in the playoff. And we'll see if Penn State can get there. I can tell you this, their schedule is going to help them. They've got Buffalo, like I said, then Wisconsin at Northwestern, and then they really get the teeth of their schedule. And the teeth of their schedule happens in October. They're going to host USC. Now this is a USC team that has not played well on the road, in particular in the Big Ten. In particular against quality opponents, You saw what happened last year against Notre Dame. Jeremiah Love ran for, I think it was an Irish record at home, like 229 or something, 226. The very next week, they have to go to Michigan, and those are the two toughest games that they have by a wide margin. Then they have a bye week. Then they go Purdue at Washington, Minnesota, Rutgers, and at Maryland. So they only face two of what I would categorize as the top six teams in the conference. It happens in October. One of them is at home. By the way, your lone really tough game on the road is Michigan. They've got a brand new coach. This is the absolute schedule lottery in the Big Ten. Penn State, I don't know if their team is going to be a 10-win team, but their schedule is a potential 10-win schedule. And that is exactly how I would want it. Man, if you would have known this schedule before this hiring process, guys would have clamored to take the Penn State job. Not that they didn't. They got a great candidate with Matt Campbell But as you know it took a little bit of time But if you knew it was this schedule you would have been like yep let go Giddy up So Penn State hit the schedule lottery They have got the best schedule in the Big Ten as I see it. All right, now we got to talk about, well, let me just say, I did consider Wisconsin and Michigan State. Both of those teams, I kind of ranked the Big Ten like 1 to 8, 1 to 7 or 8. And of the top six teams, Michigan State and Wisconsin only play two of them. So Michigan State plays at Michigan. They play Oregon. But the difficult part is they've got a game at Notre Dame, so I don't like that schedule. Wisconsin, similarly, only two of what I would categorize as the top six in the conference, USC and who else was it? Penn State. They also have a trip at Iowa. They also have Notre Dame. So schedules that are manageable, there's no doubt. But the Notre Dame non-conference game did not let them get into my three easiest schedules in the Big Ten for those reasons. Now we get to the teams that really lost this lottery and have the hardest schedules in the Big Ten. And we start with number three. They're going to play three playoff teams on the road. Their bye week happens in week two, which means they play 11 straight games in consecutive weeks because there's not multiple bye weeks this year based on when the season starts. I'm talking about Northwestern. With new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, Northwestern has an absolute bear of a schedule. By the way, their opener is not easy. South Dakota State, that's a really good program. Then they have a bye game, a bye week, excuse me, an off week. And then Colorado comes to town. They will open Ryan field with Colorado, but they've got at Indiana, they host Penn state. They've got at Oregon, Iowa at home at Ohio state. Wow. Like that is, that is not easy at all. That's five of the top seven or eight teams in the conference right there. Northwestern. That is a very difficult schedule. You look at that road for them at Indiana, at Oregon, at Ohio State. Those are probably going to be the three best teams in the conference. They're the three playoff teams from last year, and they have to play them on the road. So Northwestern, they lost the schedule lottery in a big way. They're my third hardest schedule in the Big Ten after this schedule release. Now we go to number two. Number two, they play four, really five teams in my, I would say, top seven and eight in the Big Ten and a monster in the non-conference, Michigan. Michigan has a monster schedule. Michigan, September 12th, is going to welcome Oklahoma. September 26th, they're going to welcome Iowa. They've got Penn State at home. They've got Indiana at home. Then they've got to still in the month of November go to Oregon and to Ohio State. I talked about like when games happen. They've got to go to Oregon and Ohio State both in November. So incredibly difficult schedule. And this is what happens. So not only is their conference slate tough, they've got to face Iowa, Penn State, Indiana, Oregon and Ohio State. But they've got Oklahoma as well. Let's go back to what I was talking about. You run the risk. If you keep that tough non-conference game on your schedule of hitting the conference lottery wrong, which happened to Michigan right here. And now you look at this, and even with a really good team, you're like, man, we better stay healthy in order to get to nine, maybe 10 wins. So I think Kyle Whittingham is a hell of a hire. I love what they did in building their roster. And I hate their schedule. Hate their schedule. And there's a few of these that you just can't overcome. Now, Oklahoma was able to overcome it last year. And granted, they got some teams that were down. And so if you're Michigan and you're a Michigan fan, you're going to hope that it doesn't work out for Matt Campbell and Penn State. You're going to hope that Oklahoma is on a hangover after losing in the playoff and that they're not very good. That Josh Hoover doesn't work out at Indiana. That somehow all that experience at Oregon is not going to be there. and that the depth that Ohio State is run through by the time that the season comes to an end. I mean, that's what your hope is, because if you just play all those teams at full strength, that schedule becomes as difficult as any. But it's not as difficult as my number one hardest schedule in the Big Ten after this conference schedule release, the loser of the conference schedule lottery, and that's Ohio State. Ohio State, by a wide margin, has what I would consider to be the toughest schedule in the Big Ten. So this is what happens all before November for the Ohio State Buckeyes. At Texas, that's going to be a top five team. At Iowa, Kinnick is one of the most difficult places to play in college football and certainly has been for Ohio State at times and every quality team in the Big Ten. at Indiana. That is the defending national champion with a team that we think, at least I think, is still going to be very good based on the way that they built their roster after the transfer portal window at USC. Again, this is all pre-November. Texas, Iowa, Indiana, USC all on the road. Then in November they've got to face Oregon and Michigan. Granted, those are at home But that schedule is daunting. You've got Indiana, Oregon. Those two teams could start the year 1-2, maybe 1-3 in the country. USC is going to be knocking on the door in the top 10. Michigan was in my top 10. Texas was in my top 10. And Iowa certainly will be a top 25 team. So Ohio State, man, I tell you what, I'm concerned about depth for them. I'm concerned about depth for Michigan, but when I looked at after the portal closed and the dust settled for Ohio State, listen, there was a lot of movement. And I know that they didn't lose like, you know, their key stars, but they lost a lot of depth pieces and guys that I would have looked at on the roster and thought to myself, man, like he's going to be a key piece to that team. Now, I know that they brought a lot of guys in as well, and I think that they really like what they brought in. But depth could be an issue, as we've seen in college football. If you don't stay healthy, it is too difficult right now because the talent has dispersed. You can't stockpile talent. Not even Ohio State can stockpile the talent. And with a gauntlet like that, they're going to have to stay healthy. They're going to have to keep their quarterback healthy. They invested in their own offensive linemen. They're going to have to try to run the football more on that in a little bit. And again, that's a really, really difficult schedule. Let's just take the two teams that were the easiest and toughest from the schedule lottery that I had here in the Big Ten. So you've got Penn State and Ohio State. Let's just play a little bit of a thought exercise here. And let's just replace each team's entire schedule. And you start to think of what their record might be if they had the opponent's schedule. Let's start with Penn State. You look at Penn State and their schedule and you think to yourself, man, two really tough games, one of them at home. I kind of like them. I think they certainly have nine wins on that schedule and possibly 10, maybe 11. Could be a good year in Happy Valley in the first year for Matt Campbell. Rocco Becti's experience. Boy, I really like it. I could talk myself into that roster, which has question marks, based on the schedule. now flip it let's say penn state played at texas at iowa at indiana at usc home to oregon home to michigan if you just replace every opponent one for one ohio state and penn state on that schedule i would look at the the way that penn state is currently constructed after the transfer portal window again one of the two most important days in the college football year and i would say well, I think they could probably win six. Maybe seven. I think they could get to seven. If it goes incredible over the moon, maybe even nine. That would be crazy. I think a great year for Penn State playing Ohio State's schedule would be eight and four. That would be a big success. Wild success first year for Matt Campbell. Wild success. That is a drastic imbalance. You're talking about, in one breath, a team that has the possibility of winning 11 games. And the other, a wild success would be eight, maybe, maybe nine wins, just based on the schedule. So these imbalances are just wild. And conversely, if Ohio State, the way that they were constructed, with a quarterback coming back, with Jeremiah Smith on the outside, even with all of the exits that they had to the death pieces during the course of the transfer portal window, you would look up if they played Penn State's schedule and you'd be like, man, if they're not 11-1, something went terribly wrong. But now, with that schedule, they better stay healthy if they want to get to double digits. So, you know, college football is tough, man. This is why I have argued that we should have a better way to build the schedule. I still believe that at least one game for every school in the power four at a minimum, but in the power four, and probably I would take it outside of that, should be scheduled for these teams. One of the non-conference games should be scheduled for them based on where they finished the previous year. One, it would be an incredible boon for television, and you could aggregate those games outside of the current conference television rights packages and sell them back to networks at a premium. because you'd be having games that would get 10, 11, 12 million viewers, and you could raise the revenue in college football. All the while, everybody in college football is dying for revenue. More on that in a little bit. So you get to see like right there. Others that I considered for hardest schedules, losing the schedule lottery. USC, I considered in there. They've got a really difficult schedule. They're going to welcome Oregon. They've got to go to Penn State. That's probably the wideout game, I would imagine, because there's really nothing else that Penn State has on their schedule. And you know that USC has not played great on the road, in particular when they've got to go all the way back east. They've got Ohio State at home. They've got to go to Indiana. Sig hasn't lost at Indiana at home. Dang, man. So USC is very difficult. I thought about them. I thought about Washington as well. I think Washington's got a tough schedule. They've got to go to USC. They welcome Iowa. They've got Penn State at home. They've got Indiana and at Oregon to finish. Yikes. So you could be having a great year. You're sitting there like, hey, maybe we're going to get to 10 wins. And then boom, Indiana and at Oregon. Good luck. Indiana is not an easy schedule, but their non-conference is, I think, so easy. North Texas, Howard, and Western Kentucky. I know North Texas was good last year, but everybody left. North Texas, North at Oklahoma State next year. All right, so that's how the schedule kind of popped out. Now let's talk about individual games in the Big Ten schedule next year. Five games that I've got that are going to decide the conference. So you're talking about conference championships. You're talking about these teams that could represent as conference championships. And as we know, you win this thing in the last two years, at least. And I think Michigan, even the year before that, although it was an expanded playoff, you win the Big Ten and you are the number one seed. I'm almost certain Michigan was the number one seed in that year going into the playoff in the 14th playoff. then of course, Ohio state was after, or excuse me, Oregon was after they won the big 10, even though they lost to Ohio state and then Indiana was, and then ultimately won the national championship. So the five games that will decide the big 10 conference here, they are, and I'm going to rank them and I'm going to go one to five. I think that the most important game on the schedule, not biggest rivalry I'm talking about to crown a champion based on rosters, based on schedules. I think that October 17th matchup, Ohio State at Indiana is likely the biggest game from a meaningful perspective toward the conference championship. That one's going to be a monster. Now, Ohio State will have already played at Texas. They will have already played at Iowa. So they'll be tested on the road up to that point. Maybe they win one of those games. Maybe they win both of those games. but that one's going to be a phenomenal game. Indiana has been so good at home. They've been so good, period. They just won the national championship, but man, there's something about them in Bloomington. They blow people out. I was there for the Nebraska game, not this last year, but the year before that in six first year, blew them out. First big game of the year. Illinois rolls into Bloomington last year, bam, blows them out. And now Ohio state will be rolling in there That October 17th That one going to be a monster game That one number one Number two this one obvious to me because these two teams and rosters play at the top of college football, and that is Oregon at Ohio State, November 7th. That's a monster game. By the way, that's on the back of a trip out west for Ohio State to USC. Here's the caveat now. October 31st, Ohio State goes to USC. They are going to be lobbying hard for a game that does not kick at 7 p.m. Eastern so that they don't have to wait all day and then kick their game and then fly home and get back to Columbus at 4 in the morning and then have a short week of prep for the next week as Oregon comes to town. If you look at Oregon's schedule right before that trip to Ohio State, I'm pulling it up right here, you've got a game at home against Northwestern. So that one's going to be a monster game. That's November 7th. The Ducks at the Buckeyes. Remember the last time they did that, we actually called the game. Mario Cristobal and the Oregon Ducks went out there and beat Ohio State. That was C.J. Stroud's year at quarterback. All right, number three. game that's going to decide the Big Ten Conference, Michigan-Ohio State. It always does, and this one just fell just below those other two, but this one is always going to be right there. Pending on how these two teams that lost the schedule lottery get through their schedules, we always know that one of them is going to be vying for a place in that championship game. You just anticipate it. You think you know it. The rivalry is there, and I can't wait for that game as always. That is my favorite game. It obviously goes on the list. It's number three as Michigan is going to go to Ohio State. Remember, they won two years ago there. I still can't believe they won that game. All right, number four. This one's an interesting one because early in the season, in September, I think that you're going to get a matchup that's going to basically crown one side of the conference. I know we don't have divisions here, but I'm talking about just like West Coast. because these teams all play each other out West, the way that the schedules are made. And so you've got to kind of be the best out West if you're going to compete for and win a Big Ten title. Oregon has done that. And now there's this matchup in September on the 26th as USC is going to host Oregon. I think that's a phenomenal game. USC is confident. Their coaching staff is confident. Lincoln is confident. They feel like they've got a team that's going to compete for and potentially be in the Big Ten championship game. And I'm here for it. I hope that that's the case. Obviously, they've got experience at the right positions. They're going to have to obviously replace a guy like Makai Lemon, who was incredible. That's going to be difficult to do. And they need to get better on the offensive and defensive line. They've got to get better on the interior of their defensive front seven. But if they do, if they do, watch out for USC. There's a lot of confidence coming out. And we're going to know which team we need to pay attention to from the West on September 26th when Oregon goes to USC and they face Lincoln Riley and the Trojans. And then here's a sneaky one. This one's totally off the radar. And by the way, I could have picked a lot of different games here at number five. There are a lot of really, really good games, but there is a sneaky, sneaky game. And it goes back to the schedule lottery like I was talking about. the toughest game that Penn State has on their schedule is at Michigan and I'm going to put that right here October 17th Penn State goes to Michigan and by the way it's likely not even going to be the best game of the day because also on October 17th Ohio State goes to Indiana all eyes are going to be on Bloomington in particular with the way the Buckeyes could or might not get through that gauntlet of at Texas at Iowa and then they'll be going to Bloomington at Indiana on October 17th But here's Penn State over in the distance. Guys, they could be undefeated by that point. They've got nothing on their schedule. Marshall at Temple, Buffalo, Wisconsin at Northwestern and then hosting USC. If they can beat USC, which I think is probably going to be a wide out game. I don't know that to be official, but I would just anticipate that to be a wide out game because it's their most difficult and important home game that they've got on their schedule, which means if they were to beat USC, they could be undefeated going to Michigan. undefeated going to Michigan. They would certainly at that point be, I think, at a minimum in the top 12 in the country. They would have a ton of momentum based on how Michigan plays early against Oklahoma in that home game. That is a monster game. And it could put Penn State on a path where if they were to beat USC and if they were to beat Michigan, we would be sitting there looking at the rest of their schedule off Purdue at Washington, Minnesota, Rutgers at Maryland. And we'd be thinking to ourselves, not only is this a playoff team, but is this team going to go to the Big Ten championship game and maybe win it? That's a monster game. And it's a really under-the-radar game because it's not even the best game of the day. Can't wait for October 17th. So there you go. Those are five games that I think are going to decide the Big Ten Conference. Let's get into some of the news and stuff that we had in college football. I know I took a long time on that. I love this stuff. But again, it's primarily because it's so important. You know, like what you do in the portal, what your team looks like, and the way these ping pong balls fall. I know it's not a ping pong ball lottery, but the way the lottery falls dictates the type of season that you're going to have. and so that's why I love talking about it. Some news, though. Arthur Smith hired by Ohio State. Gary Patterson hired by USC. Big hires there, and in particular, Ohio State, because obviously Ryan Day has the offensive background, so there's always this inclination like, is he going to hire an offensive play caller? Is he just going to promote from within? And if he promotes from within, is he really the play caller? And even though somebody else has the title, but he hires Arthur Smith and Arthur Smith comes from the NFL has head coaching experience out of the NFL. And I just can't help but think of the success that Ryan Day has had with three guys in particular that he's hired as coordinators in his career early in his career, right when he took over for Urban Meyer, he hired Jeff Halfley and he hired Jeff Halfley because he trusted him from his NFL days. And Jeff Halfley came in and he coordinated that 2019 defense and he was outstanding and immediately got a chance to go and be the Boston College head coach. He since moved on to Green Bay and now, lo and behold, he's a head coach in the National Football League. And congrats to Jeff Halfley and good luck. There's no doubt. I love Jeff Halfley. He also had a tremendous amount of success with Chip Kelly, won a national championship when he hired Chip Kelly, largely again, going all the way back to his days in New Hampshire, but an NFL type of guy. And then obviously having success with the best defense in college football last year with Matt Patricia. This is in that vein. I don't think Ryan wants to have to worry about look over the shoulder of the offense. I really don't. I think that he wants to be able to give the keys to the offense to a guy like Arthur Smith, just like he gave the keys to the defense to a guy like Matt Patricia. and now he can be CEO and he can worry about evaluating and valuating talent and then fixing a problem here or there that arose. He was able to do that two years ago when Chip Kelly was the offensive coordinator and he jumped in on the defensive side and allowed them to make some changes that ultimately led to a national championship. Last year, he was never really able to do that. They needed to fix the offensive line in some way, shape or form and never was able to do it and that's ultimately what happened to them it was their demise they couldn't protect against indiana and they couldn't protect against miami they also couldn't run the football lo and behold arthur smith comes in what does he do well arthur smith in his most successful campaigns in the national football league runs the rock obviously derrick henry with 2 000 yards he's had a lot of guys he had what did he have he had Bijan in Atlanta I mean when you look at some of his numbers and and the Arthur Smith offenses in the last seven years in the NFL he's fourth in the league in rush yards per game he's second in the league in percentage of plays that are run plays and he's first in the league in terms of utilizing 22 or excuse me 12 personnel what is 12 personnel, it's two tight ends on the field, one back, two tight ends. The second number is always the tight ends. So when you put multiple tight ends on the field, that means that you're trying to stress the defense with four quick wide receivers who are also big in particular in the form of the tight ends and can also run block. So it acts as a big run, a run heavy set, but it can be a pass heavy set. Now he's used it to run the football and he's done that very effectively. They had really good tight ends a year ago. I know that they like a lot of the tight ends that they've got coming back for next year. So it's just something to be aware of. If you're an Ohio state fan, you've got to understand that Ryan day just watched Michigan win the national championship. They won the national championship, meaning the Buckeyes with Will Howard who could run the football on two great backs, great back and backs and Travion and Quinchon. Then he saw Indiana team that could just lean on the run game. Indiana ran the football 36 times in the national championship game with their running backs for four yards carry under their backs. 3.9. Right? They ran it 50 times against Alabama. Kurt Signetti leaned on the run game. And Ohio State couldn't do that last year. Now, granted, it wasn't just because they had a true freshman back in Bo Jackson. It was because they weren't good enough on the offensive line. Now they need to get better. They need to develop up front. And they need to have a scheme that will fit that. Well, that's why I think Arthur Smith is there. I think Ryan looks at the blueprint. Coach Day looks at the blueprint of what's won in college football. He knows that it's probably best if you're not the play caller. That's number one. It's probably best if you can control the line of scrimmage and run the football well, which every national champion in the last three has done. Really, if you date back all the way, shoot, man, a lot of them have since 2019 LSU. That was probably the worst rushing team of the last, whatever, six or seven that have won the national championship. So he knows what the blueprint looks like. and he can free himself up to be the CEO of the organization. In that respect, this all makes a lot of sense. A lot of sense. And now Arthur Smith is going to have a veteran quarterback in Julian Sand, the best wide receiver in college football in Jeremiah Smith, a 1,000-yard running back, most of his offensive lineback, should be a really good offense, and an offense that, in theory, could control the line of scrimmage and really do some damage up front. Look for those multiple tight ends. Again, that's a real staple for Arthur Smith. number one multiple tight ends usage in the NFL when it comes to two-plus tight ends in his seven seasons. Call and play's up there. Another coordinator hire for USC, that's Gary Patterson. He gets hired there. He comes in to replace Denton Lynn. Denton Lynn went with Matt Campbell. This is the second time I've thrown my pen tonight. I'm leaning over. By the way, yes, I'm gingerly leaning over because I do have some back issues, but that's all right. He comes in to replace Denton Lind, went to Penn State. Patterson is super aggressive, likes to call the defense late. Listen, this guy is like, he is all energy. I've loved covering him. He was so good at TCU for a long time, two-time national coach of the year. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2026. I think it's a little bit of a gamble only because of the aggressive nature of Gary Patterson. But trust me, Lincoln Riley knows what he wants. And if this is what he wants, then that's great. And one thing that I do know, Gary will play great defense now. And this is, I think, what Lincoln has always needed is someone that will fight for the defense. Dan Lynn was a young guy, and I think he fought for the defense, and they got better. There's no doubt. But Lincoln is still the play caller. He is still an offensive guy. This is still a hybrid of the air raid. I still believe deep down they need somebody to fight hard every day within the organization for the defense. Number one, that's Gary Patterson. And number two, someone needs to fight to run the football. his best teams during his his tenure as a head coach going back to Oklahoma have all been able to run the football and when they fall short even at USC and you see this pop up on the road it's when they do not sustain the running game sustain the run play better defense USC could be in the Big Ten championship game so if you need someone to fight for the defense who better than the guy that is like the most energetic defensive play caller that I can remember in a long time maybe since like Mike Stoops Gary Patterson I like this a lot I think Gary Patterson is going to help them. They've obviously faced each other prior. He's been a special assistant and a consultant for Texas and Baylor over the last few years. So he's been around the game. Like I said, I'm happy for Gary. I think this is a good fit for him and for Lincoln Riley moving forward. All right. Now we got to get to this tampering stuff in college football. Okay. So Darian Mensah is going to Miami. Clearly Miami tampered. I'm not even going to beat around the bush. And you know what? Like is what it is at this point. But Mensah was under contract, multi-year deal. And then like all of a sudden he's like, Darian Mensah's in the transfer portal. No, no, no, no, no. Darian Mensah got offered a bag. Like, cool. That's what we've got going on. Dabo was upset at Ole Miss for tampering with Luke Forelli. I can't really explain it better than Dabo explained it. So here's Dabo explaining what happened with Luke Forelli after he signed and was in class at Clemson. Here he is. Pete texted him on Wednesday morning, the head coach at Ole Miss, when he was in his 8 a.m. class. and he said the text message said, I know you're signed, what's the buyout? And Luke also said that Coach Golding also texted him a picture of a $1 million contract. Luke also mentioned to Jordan and to Ben that Coach Golding had had Trinidad Chambliss call him from his phone and that Coach Golding was there continuing to talk on his phone to push him to re-enter the transfer portal He also said that Jackson Dart had reached out and called him But Luke again assured Jordan that he had no intention of leaving. Blatantly illegal. Blatantly illegal. I mean, here's the thing. Everyone's like, there are no rules. No, no, no, no. There's a huge difference between there are no rules and the rules are not enforced. that is vastly different. We all see this, by the way. We see this all the time, every time we travel. Maybe we go and we shop at the mall, whatever it is. And you see like that parent who says something in a governance manner over there, you know, a parenting manner over their kid. Mom, I want the Skittles. No, son. And then it's just like, and the kid throws a fit and then gets the Skittle. was there no rules or were there no rules enforcement? There was no enforcement. And clearly the issue in college football is that there is no enforcement. Now, there's a lot of reasons for that. We all know that this is going on. The problem is, folks, is that people and entities within college football are college football's worst enemy. They're their own worst enemy. Because what's going on in our sport is a perpetual cycle of individuals and entities making decisions in their short-term perceived self-interest that ultimately create a worse and worse outcome for the overall group. That's what we have. it's every single day conferences, schools, coaches players, everybody the college football playoff did this they make decisions in their own short term perceived best interest there's no thought to the long term Pete Golding doesn't care about three years from now He's like, I need for an Aforelli now because I've got to win next year. So we are our own worst enemy in college football and the rules that are there. There are tampering rules. Of course, like, come on there. There was a settlement. You might have heard of it. The house settlement in college football where we've got this new entity called the CSC, the College Sports Commission. That entity is supposed to have some governing power, very similar to the NCAA. And people always ask me, like, well, what is the NCAA doing? The NCAA has been sued so many times by players and schools. They don't care. They're like the parent beat down over the Skittles. It's like the NCAA is handing out Skittles all over the place. They don't care. They've stopped saying no. they're the parent at the shopping market the kids are like, I want some chocolate sure, I want some Skittles, you bet I want popcorn, absolutely that's the NCAA, they aren't even trying anymore there was this entity that was created based on the settlement that is the CSC, the CSC is supposed to have some teeth the CSC, College Sports Commission is supposed to govern the new structure which includes both the revenue share from television revenue distribution and NIL dollars. Now, it's all somewhat complicated, but let me just boil it down to you. In order for the CSC to do their job, the schools have to sign on the dotted line that say, hey, guess what, CSC, we join. Because it would basically be a member institution exactly like the NCAA. So you would basically be saying, yes, I raise my hand. I would like to be governed. I would like rules over this entity that I participate in. That's what the CSE, that's what everyone is waiting for, is these schools to sign the CSE agreement and say, we all are going to play under these rules. That's what they're waiting for. And the problem is a lot of these schools won't do it. We've got states like I believe Texas and I think it's Louisiana that there's state attorney generals are advising the schools within those states to not sign the CSC for a number of different reasons. And I'm sure that they've got good reasons. I'm not saying that everything is of ill will. I'm just saying like it's a mess. It's a mess. So now schools are not even signing the CSC, the College Sports Commission agreement. So they have no teeth. So there's no enforcement, which is exactly what Dabo got into after he described that scenario with Forelli. Here he goes. We have a broken system. And if there are no consequences for tampering, then we have no rules and we have no governance. It's really just that simple. OK, this is not let me be very clear. This is not about a linebacker at Clemson. I don't listen. I feel sorry for the I think it's a symptom of a system that you have a kid that I meet at 930 and he's signed the next. Like, I feel sorry for the young man, to be honest with you. I blame the adults. And again, if you want to have adult world, then there needs to be adult consequences. Okay? So, but this is not about a linebacker at Clemson. And I don't want anyone on our team that doesn't want to be here. I would never want that. All right? But let me tell you what it is about. It's about the next kid. And it's about the next kid. And it's about the message that is being sent if this blatant tampering is allowed to happen without any consequences. This is about protecting our program. This is about college football. That's what this is about. See, I think he's right there. And you can – I think Dabo is exactly right. And you can say like, hey, this is Dabo crying over spilled milk. You might be right. This is also the guy on the pool deck that everyone's like, come on, man, get in. the water's great we've been swimming in here for for years and he's like i don't know man that pool looks a little bit cold and everyone's like no man the water's incredible come on dip your toe in you're gonna love it and dabbo does a cannonball into the transfer portal and then is immediately like that's a polar plunge and i hate it in here and i want out that's that's what that guy was um Listen, Dabo is absolutely right, but again, it's like he's right, and yet we need more of guys like Dabo to step forward and say, govern us. Like Pete Golding needs to raise his hand and say, govern us. Mario Cristobal needs to step forward and say, govern us. Do you know why those two won't want to do that? Because they're succeeding in this model without governance. they're succeeding in the model without penalty because they're willing to do it they're willing to step in there and get dirty and say no no no i'm fighting for next year there is no honor amongst thieves and there's no honor in college football in the way rosters are built anymore it's just the truth and i hate that about it but it is just the truth and the reason that those guys are never going to step forward and raise their hand and say yes please govern us is because they're renters. They know they're not going to be there long. They're not owners. This is why the NFL made hard decisions years ago is because they have owners and they were looking into the long term. They were looking into the future. College football is filled with renters. The NFL is filled with owners. There is a difference and the difference pops up when every entity, individual or entity or program is making decisions in their own self-interest in the short term at the detriment of the longer term for the overall group. I continue to say this, but everything that I'm saying is accurate here. And Dabo is right. College football is going to be hurt by this. And here's the hard part, folks. Here's the really hard part. Unless we get our arms around it, unless the CSC, the College Sports Commission, actually gets some level of teeth, unless we can get collectively bargained agreements done with the players somehow, some way, whether they're categorized as employees or some sort of special exemption from the federal government, unless we get those things, then what we are experiencing is fragile. Because, as I have said countless times before, I think we are in a golden age of college football. It's never been better. Indiana just won the national championship. It has never been better. There's never been more parity. There's never been a time in my lifetime that this many fan bases can wake up in February and say, you know what, this is our year next year. What's the schedule? Did we hit the lottery? We can do it. We can turn it around. It doesn't matter if we've got a first-year head coach. It doesn't matter if he came from JMU. We can turn it around now because we can turn over our roster and we can hit the schedule lottery in what has become the very imbalanced era of schedules, and we can turn it around. Well, guess what's going to hurt that? All this mess. rosters turning over turns fans off the fragile nature of what's going on in terms of no governance we can have roster movement with guidelines with some structure with some guard rails we can have that we can build the right schedules we can do all of these things in college football it's just going to take some hard work and it's going to take individuals and programs, making decisions that are not in their own short-term self-interest, but are in the group's interest for the long term. And if we do that, then we will experience not only a golden age, but a golden era of college football. Our next show is going to be Monday after the Super Bowl. Enjoy the Super Bowl next week. That's going to be awesome. I love the Super Bowl. It's a national holiday. It should be, and it hopefully will be at some point. As you know, I do cover the NFL draft, and I've done it for the NFL Network, sat on that desk for a number of years. And so here's what I like to do. As the NFL enters their offseason, I like to provide you with all of the college players and where they're going to go. My first mock draft comes out the Monday after the Super Bowl. That's right. That's next week on Monday. Make sure to get right here on the Joel Klach show. You can subscribe on YouTube. You can follow us on any of the channels, wherever you like to social media, at Joel Klach show. And my first mock draft will be out. That's next Monday. Make sure to be there for that. And as a reminder, as you know, I'm going to continue to have draft coverage. I'm going to continue to have college football coverage. So make sure to subscribe, follow us on social, and you'll get all of our content during the course of the offseason because college football, there's really no longer an offseason, as we can tell by this. What was that? I think we almost just went an hour in the offseason. We've got a schedule release. We've got news. We've got tampering. Dabo's mad. He's in the cold. It's awesome. See you next Monday, everybody.