USC has made the Big Ten Conference a 5-team race says Joel Klatt | Dan Patrick Show | NBC Sports

Joel clatt Fox Sports lead college football analyst he'll be on the call with Gus big noon kickoff in an arbor Texas in Michigan let me ask you about Lamar Jackson and that style like how would you if somebody didn't see Lamar how would you describe his style oh gosh that's a great question I would probably I would describe his style as conflict um he's constantly putting the defense in in conflict because of his ability to impact uh with his legs now I've been a big believer and I talk a lot with Daniel Jeremiah about this when we lead up to the draft you know because listen I'm in the college game so that style in college is probably preferable to be honest with you but as as you go on DJ and I like to play this like confetti test in the draft and we take a look at all the quarterbacks leading up into the draft and we're like okay close your eyes and picture the confetti reigning down can you picture him winning a Super Bowl his style of play his person ality all of the things that we try to evaluate in the draft process and and with Lamar there's there's one thing there's one thing that that sticks out at times which is at some point in the playoffs and this goes for any player you're going to have to as a quarterback control the game from the pocket now that doesn't mean that you can't impact the game outside of the pocket but at some point you will have to control the game from the pocket and and I think that to your point regular season versus postseason there are times when when maybe that's lacking you know but but to be fair it's like I don't study the tape of those NFL Playoff games that's from afar you know sitting there as as a fan watching some of those games all right so you have the big game at uh noon it's going to be Texas in Michigan Texas is favored by seven does that point spread say more about Texas or more about Michigan probably a little of both uh to ride both sides of that fence I think Texas looked really um efficient and in control and physical and they they looked like a team that resembled what Alabama has been in the past you know and that's kind of what Sark wants to do and build a team that's versatile can do a lot of things play physical play Fast uh all all of the things that you would need to go win a National Championship meanwhile I think that we looked at what Michigan was as 15-0 National Champion with guys that could take them above their style and philosophy like Corum and McCarthy and these guys and then we watched them against Fresno State and Dan to me it resembled a lot of the 20156 early harbom Michigan teams journeyman quarterback Jake rudock remember him he was a transfer from Iowa Wilton Spate was a quarterback back in 16 those teams were good and philosophically really sound but they lacked some of the pieces that could take them above their philosophy and their ex's and O's that's what it looked like kind of on on U Saturday night against fr resno State and I think that's why you're seeing the line where it's at let's do the confetti test with Quinn yers close your eyes can you see Quinn yers with confetti raining down upon him this season well wait wa wait which confetti are we talking about the little mini Lombardi trophy confettis that somebody cuts out which is incredible or are we talking about like the square college football confetti that's Square yeah the cheaper version for National Championship can you see raining down on I can I can I think that this Texas team is very versatile I think that they are very they're deep they've got probably I would say the well the most experienced offensive line in the country certainly they got four guys that have started for the better part of three years up front in front of him and their most talented guy might be the fifth that that isn't one of those experienced guys um I think that the only thing that is concerning for Michigan is that they're having to replace Byron Murphy and tandre SWAT they're two defensive tackles and you might be thinking yourself like well what do you mean in our game in the college game it's not necessarily about your quarterback although that's important the national champion always has an elite defensive interior defensive line that can control the game we saw that last year with Michigan we saw the two previous years with Georgia and and so Texas is going to have to overcome losing those two guys might not be all about Quin ERS as much as it is that defense which is what I'm excited about for Saturday Dan because that's exactly where Michigan is going to probe and they're going to try to soften up that that's their entire MO is to try to control the game at the line of skirmish so that aspect of Texas's team is going to be tested I said after uh well the Monday after watching USC play um they won the perception like the perception victory of the weekend was USC because we saw them be tough we saw them play defense we as opposed to the last couple of years I don't know how much a perception Victory counts you know it's still one win but it did feel like USC addressed a lot of the issues that we've been waiting for them to address are they a real play more yeah I think so and I think to your point on two different fronts Dan I think that there's you know now all of a sudden the Big 10 is really a five team Race not a four team Race so all of a sudden the top end of the Big 10 looks much more difficult for teams like Penn State Ohio State Oregon and Michigan um and then you have this this this narrative that starts and remember you know our sport is still sub subjective and we're still going to put teams into this playoff even though it's expanded through subjective measurements and when you beat a team like LSU from that conference the SEC that's huge not only for your program but also for the conference because those two teams coming into the season USC and LSU were largely thought of very um in a very similar spot within their conference maybe four five six right in that range so if you can win those games it becomes really important from a narrative standpoint to see how many teams your conference can get into the playoff at the end of the season so twofold on that and I thought that the defense played tremendous didn't we kind of forget in in a very we are so man our brains move so fast it's a quick Pace Society everyone's like oh man Lincoln Riley can't coach it's like hold on time out yes he can and he has for the entirety of his career and now all of a sudden if he gets a defense that can play that tough um then I think the rest of the Big 10 certainly was put on notice what would what would be a successful season for Colorado oh gosh that's a great question um before last Thursday I would have said they could win eight or nine games after last Thursday I'm less confident and and the reason is is while they have Elite players I think they have two players that might get selected in the top five in the NFL draft Travis Hunter and shador Sanders outside of that they tend to make the exact same mistakes and play the exact same style that we saw even early last year and and that growth hasn't really occurred they mismanage the clock they don't have a creative Run game so they throw the ball constantly when they have to rather than when they want to um if you wanted to give them some Kudos you would say their run defense was a lot better this year in particular against a team even though they were FCS but North Dakota state is I think all of us know that are sports fans they're a tough-minded run oriented program uh that's highly successful but those things about the the clock management the undisciplined play at times in particular like a few of those penalties on third down if they do that against Nebraska they're going to get beat maybe handily because Matt rules built something pretty special at least I think in Lincoln in particular with a freshman quarterback if shador Sanders and Travis Hunter play elite football they can beat almost anybody on their schedule but everything else has to get better so I think that a successful season for for Colorado right now is probably a bowl game feels like this 12 team playoff is meant for Notre Dame to be in there every single year uh it was almost I mean it is this is TV it's a TV show and you want Notre Dame to host a playoff game it just feels like Notre Dame is I mean are you okay with that do you get the the same feeling that hey sec's going to be represented big 10's going to be represented Notre Dame's going to be in there get a couple of outliers you know most likely they are I'm really interested to see what happens let me just like peer into the future before I answer your question specifically I peer into the future I just sense and feel within the next four or five years Notre Dame will have more of a scheduling arrangement with with a conference that will make their SCH more difficult so there's that because this is what's the it's not necessarily the problem of Notre Dame I think Notre Dame's really good Marcus Freeman is a heck of a coach obviously and and that defense looked Elite and so I have no problem with Notre Dame being in the playoff and and quite frankly they probably will be ranked higher than what their seed is I think they're probably going to be ranked in the top four because I don't know who's going to beat them on their schedule the issue is their schedule their toughest game at least before the season was probably this road game at at Texas A&M now it looks like it's the road game at the end of the year at USC but between those two bookend games Dan with Florida State losing twice I mean it's like 10 straight scrimmages I know that that sounds harsh but like that that schedule it's it's totally in their court if they want to play um and hold their own standard they'll be undefeated facing USC and they're going to be in the playoff Appalachian State at Clemson tomorrow night if Clemson loses tomorrow night um could you repeat that real quick you you cut out for a moment Appalachian State Clemson if Clemson loses tomorrow night oh my gosh oh my gosh don't do that to me I can't do I can't even I can't comprehend um you know what Clemson reminds me of Dan they remind me a lot a lot of 2010 Texas um Texas had that six-year run with Elite level quarterback play Vince Young to Colt McCoy but what ended up happening is is over those six years the program's roster started to deteriorate but we didn't know it because Colt carried him and he cared him to that national championship game he gets hurt they lose to Alabama and we thought that Garrett Gilbert was going to be like well he'll be fine because he's a five star and you know he's he's Texas's quarterback and they they fell off the face of the planet you know and it took them until last year really to kind of like write the ship the key was is that Texas missed on recruiting a quarterback and I think Clemson has done the same now Kade kumnick I'm hoping that this turns around but this is what happened with deshun Watson to Trevor um Trevor Lawrence and at the end of Trevor's tenure yes they made the national championship game but he carried them past that Ohio State team he carried them to that point and you look at the draft pick since he's left and it's fallen off the face of the planet just like Texas Texas went like 10 years without an offensive player drafted until last year and we're starting to see that with Clemson so to me it's not about Dabo and the transfer portal or or he's unwilling to do this or that it's that they've missed at quarterback we didn't see the deterioration of the roster like we didn't see it at Texas and and I think that's the issue and I tell you what this is not the game I would want to play If I Was Clemson after losing to Georgia App State like app State's going to be ready to play wouldn't shock me if they if they beat Clemson but at the same time I think that the Tigers at least I hope the Tigers write the ship for their sake tell Gus we said hello have fun tomorrow we'll be watching thank you great appearance Joe I appreciate it Dan have a good one bud that's Joe clatt Fox Sports lead college football analyst and it'll be Fox's big noon kickoff in an arbor it's Texas Michigan we'll come back got our play of the day we'll settle on our poll question your phone calls as well Rich Eisen will join us coming up next hour we're back after this