 What's happening, everybody? Super excited about this. Here we go, we've got the national championship game about ready to kick off. Bama and Clemson, I'm Joel Klatt. This is the Heisman Trophy winner, Steve Owens, right here, my man. Okay, so Steve, so you know out there, Steve is my right hand man during the season. So he provides a ton of research for me. He's kind of my eyes in the booth up there. So Steve and I have been engulfed in college football all year. He's also Shannon's researcher and producer on Undisputed. So he got up early this morning. He's here with us tonight. Steve, welcome, man. Thank you, this is great. I mean, this is great to be in a big spread out room. Normally in the booth, Joel can test like this. We're usually very tight with each other, so it'll be nice to kind of spread out a little bit. What do you think here, what do you think? But yeah, I'm looking forward to it, man. I could be good to sit down and watch a whole game where we're not in front of the mic. I can't wait, I cannot wait. So this is what we've got going on. Okay, you can watch us and I want you to do a few things. One, be interactive tonight. Two, invite your friends, because this is more fun the more people that we get in. I want you to be snarky. I want you to bring the sarcasm. I want you to bring the legitimate questions. We're gonna try to get to them all. You can watch us on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Caffeine TV. That's right. We are here with Caffeine TV. If you're on Caffeine, I'm not quite sure where you're at right now, but I'm gonna get with the program soon. I'm kind of an old guy, I'm about to turn 37. We're learning a lot today. We're learning a lot today. Someone said, hey, are you on Caffeine? And I was like, yes, I just had a coffee. And I didn't realize that it was an actual platform, but now I know and I'm super excited about it because more people than merrier. So hit us up with all your questions and everything. And again, invite your friends right now. This is a great second screen experience. You're gonna watch the game on your main TV. You've got us on your phone, your laptop, maybe your iPad. And we can be interactive. I'm gonna be breaking down plays in particular since ESPN's not giving you the coach's film room. So we're gonna talk a lot about the X's and O's. We can talk a lot about anything that you want. This is gonna be a really fun night. If you were with us the last couple of years, it was one of the most fun nights that just watching football with you, all the fans, and we can get it going. Here we go. Predictions, it's about kickoff right now. I've got Bama 38, 35 and a high scoring affair. I agree, high scoring. I'm going Clemson 35, 31. Trevor Lawrence does it tonight. Steve also tried to talk me into Indiana over Michigan earlier this year, but don't worry about that. You know, so I'm gonna tell on that one, but I feel better about it this one tonight. I kid, I kid. So here's the deal. Okay, first and foremost, now you've invited, you're settled in, you've got your nachos, your beer, your soda, whatever, six packs of soda. And let me just tell you, right off the bat, I already like Clemson's chances a lot more than Oklahoma. Even though I think Oklahoma actually matched up better with Alabama because of Kyler Murray and because of that potent offense, but what Oklahoma did not get because of their own accord because of Lincoln Riley, they didn't get the ball first. Clemson gets the ball first here. I think that's a big deal. Yep. Until it's batted down. Yep. Yeah, I mean, we never really saw Alabama in trouble until the Georgia game. Right. And one thing that we've talked about throughout the years, we need to see what this team does when they're put under pressure. Yeah. And Oklahoma did the exact opposite of that. They were like, hey, we're gonna spot you four scores. Let's make you as comfortable as possible. That was not solid. So you can just tee off on Kyler. And to his credit, I mean, Kyler's that good that he made it respectable. But yeah, I think first few possessions here are pretty big actually. A little option pitch. Too much speed for Alabama. Now you get kind of what I think it's gonna be the crux of the entire game, which is, because I don't think both teams are gonna be able to just line up and run the football. Right. Both defenses are too good. Too good. Now it's third and seven and it's gonna become, and it was two years ago and it was last year, it's gonna boil down to just quarterbacks. Who's can play better? And even early in the game, it starts with a situation like this, like Trevor Lawrence on third down against one of the better defenses in the country. Tried to go to Renfro. He was blanketed and Clemson goes three and out. So, Bama is interesting because they do start so quick and in particular on defense, I feel like opposing offenses are almost psyched out. They've gotta be dealing with Quinn and Williams up front, the pressure, the size of the corners. I think it takes them by surprise a little bit. Yeah, I think there's definitely an adjustment period when you see Alabama. And there's certainly just like an off factor at first, but I think if any team can cope with that, Clemson's seen these guys for the last few years. But until you see it live, I think there's really a series or two of just like, oh, okay, these guys are bigger and stronger than anybody we face so far. Good punt, fair catch all the way back at the 20. All right, so here you go. This is what Bama does, right? They have just stolen the extra possession because now they're gonna get the second half kick and now two of it goes out there. Here's the deal with them early in games. And I've gone back and watched a couple of their games early. They go for the jugular. They play with tempo more early in the game now. They do a lot of things that put stress on the back end of your defense early in the game. They do things creatively with their formations and their motions. So be prepared for that right away. They're not one of these teams that come out and go, hey, let's ease our way into the game. They come out and they're one of those boxes, boxers that come out and just generally throw haymakers, RPO to start things off and easy completion. And already Alabama's got a second and short. This is when you might get something creative and you're gonna get somebody down the field. And that's where Clemson has struggled. Just to give you some sense, by the way, the past defense for Clemson, that's where they have gotten hurt. Remember Clemson gave up 400 yards to A&M through the air, 500 yards to South Carolina through the air. And so watch for the slot receivers here to the left side. Now you got some motion. Who is that? Boom, RPO. Man, they RPO people to death early in the game, don't they? Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, like what you're saying about, they don't ease into the game. Like if you've got the best car in the garage, step on the gas right away. Yeah, why not? Like show it right away. There's no reason not to. And I think Saban's realized that. I mean, that's something obviously this year is looks completely different from what we've seen in years past from Alabama. We'll talk more about that the way offenses and coaches have adjusted in particular a guy like Saban who was one of the most staunch. Oh, pick! Oh boy. Pick six! Oh boy. Where's the turn? Oh, look at this. Oh my goodness. Yeah, we got mascots. We got mascots going on. Turnover, turnover chain. Hey, yeah, this is Connor by the way. Connor is in the tiger costume. He's gonna get the turnover chain. Does it fit over your head? Nope, yeah it does. Turnover chain for Connor. Unbelievable. Maybe to his worst pass of the year. Is he trying to throw another? No, this is a straight pass. Did he just miss him? That's just a corner on the outside and he comes off of his man. Oh, I gotta go on the whiteboard for that. Here's what we got by the way. We got two mascots today. We've got Ben as the elephant. I don't even know what they call the elephant. Ben's the elephant. Put your head on, you're gonna scare the kids, Ben. Al, the elephant. And he's hanging his head. Go hang your head. Sit in the corner and time out, Al. And now, and we've got the tiger for Clemson. He's doing push-ups all night. So here we go. We got push-ups. Oh, he's clapping in between the push-ups. You might wanna stop that. That's a pretty early score. This is not smart at all. That's some confidence right now. That's some confidence right now. Connor broke the turnover chain. Connor, well done. Well done. Here's what we had. All right, come on up here. We got whiteboard. I'm just gonna go on that left side. Okay, so you had what was what I would call like a trips look like this, all right? And then what they did is they motioned in, okay? When you motion in like this, so two is back here. When you motion in, what you're trying to do is reveal coverage, all right? What I thought that they did is they revealed what looked to be a zone coverage. So you didn't have any movement follow-in. No man player was following in. So you've got the corner here. You've got a safety here and you've got the other safety in the middle of the field over here. It was a single-width formation. So I believe they just had a tight end over there. Not sure I would have to look at the tape. But as this guy comes in, there wasn't a lot of movement in the defense, all right? And then it's just a really simple route, okay? So you get a slant on the outside and just kind of a drag right there. We call this dragon on the West Coast system, slant drag, okay? And it's a very easy read. It's inside out. We always read it one there, two there. Just totally poor read because this corner, he just steps right in front of that out route. He never broke. So these two players right here, the corner and the safety, they would be in kind of a zone bracket technique where this guy's gonna be sitting for the inside route. This guy's gonna be sitting for the outside route. So they're not going with a man. This motion should have revealed that to Tua. He doesn't see that no man follows him inside. If you're in a zone coverage, you gotta know that those guys are sitting or squatting on you. So the corner squats, he sees just this out route like this and jumps in front of it. That's pretty easy pick right there. Nice defense from Clemson, but that's basically what happened. That motion that Alabama had there on the third down, that should have cued Tua into what the coverage was and he should have been able to find the window versus zone, you gotta throw the slant. You've gotta throw the slant. You can't throw that ball outside of the flat versus what I would consider a zone defender on the outside as a flat defender. You can't throw a flat route into a flat defender like that. Anybody knows that. That is a massive, massive mental error from Tua Tungova Loa on the first possession of the game. My goodness. Didn't see that one coming. I did not see that one coming. I think that was how this would start. Unbelievable. Woo! All right, so remember to share us. You're on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and caffeine TV and then you can follow us on Twitter and give us questions there as well. I'm at Joel Klatt, Steve. Steve Owens here. Just Steve Owens or Steve Owens here? Steve Owens underscore here. I do follow Steve. I just didn't know his actual handle. You're one of millions. Yeah, exactly, exactly. I would call you a social media influencer. Thank you. So send your interactions and your questions right there. Man, that was incredible. Okay, so now they're showing it right here. They've got a little bit of a pressure. Ah, look at that. See that outside player? He's got his eyes all over the quarterback, like I was saying and then he just dumps off right there. That's incredible. Pick six to start the game. All right, let's see Bam under a little pressure. Now you know Nick was gonna run the ball there. I mean, that was maybe the most obvious play call that you could possibly have. Yeah, I mean, last time we saw Tua play against a high quality defense, unfortunately. He struggled. Can't throw Oklahoma in that category. No, he can't. It didn't go well. And, you know, we saw these astronomical numbers at a Tua, but, you know, when he played the top defenses. He did struggle. He wasn't as great as the gaudy numbers suggest. I mean. Against the top four defenses that he played this year, he threw three touchdowns, three interceptions. So he was 50-50 on the TD, the interception ratio. Now you would say three and four because of Clemson's rank, the five top defenses. The other defenses that he faced, he threw 33 plus, what, four touchdowns. So he threw 37 touchdowns and no interceptions. Yeah, he's all right in those ones. I don't want to call him a front runner, but you can, I mean, you can say, right? I mean. But yeah, it's fair to say he wasn't as great when he faced these great defenses, which, you know, naturally, it's gonna be the case with just about anybody, but we'll see if he tries to get it right back. And he does. And he does. Unreal. By the way, I had a bunch of people on Twitter, I said 38, 35, they're like, no way it's gonna be that high scoring. All right. Connor and Ben are gonna be doing push-ups all night. All right, Al, AKA Ben. Now, Connor did clap push-ups. I wouldn't recommend that because it seems like we're gonna get after it now all night long. Jerry Judy runs right by the safety. Ooh, yes. Get after it. Get after it. You gotta love that. Ooh. That was an interesting kick. Not great, but got through. Okay, so now there's the weakness for Clemson. Their defense against the slot. Oh, just an awful, awful defense in the back end. All right, what do we got here? We got three players here. You had a backer walked out. You had a corner. You had a safety like that. I believe it was something like that. Again, I'm not gonna get these formations exactly correct because one, I don't have all 22, so it's hard to see the entire route. But essentially what you got here is this is Judy. And as you get man to man, you got some sort of clear out. He's coming under like that. Some sort of smash concept. But then this is the matchup that they're wanting right here, okay? So as long as you've got time in the pocket, now you can exploit this safety in the back end and he does it beautifully. What I thought he did a great job of is that he sold the corner for a while. So he didn't wait to get all the way up on the safety and then give him like a short move and then out to the outside. He came and then right at the top of your, they would call it like the top of your stem at like eight or 10 yards, he gave a hard three steps towards the post. And what that did is that got the safety to turn his hips, eyes, and movement and momentum towards the middle of the field. And then he just turns around, he doesn't break it off all the way to the corner either. You don't want that. He just takes it basically straight right back through where he was originally aligned. So now it looks like it just a down the field seam route, like a seam go route, but he sets it up with a nice post move. He gets the movement and then just takes off through his back shoulder and then he's gone. And then it's the beautiful ball from Tua. That's where Tua excels by the way is his down the field accuracy. So there you go. Jerry Judy strikes right back. I thought that we would see one of those on their first series. They didn't get to it because they had a third down. They threw a pick six on a really poor read from Tua. But that's what happened right there. Again, I thought that the whole deal, and this is what I think is gonna be really tough for Clemson all night, is dealing with that wide receiver core. That's just gonna be a problem. So, especially covering the slot and those guys run great routes, great routes. One thing that I, and we'll have to look at this when we come back, but I believe they blitzed a few times now. What do you think about that as a way to go at Tua? I mean, it worked once, getting in the pick. Good question. I think that you've got to mix it up. So a lot of times what people will talk about, right? People always ask me like, well, do you think that they should pressure them or do you think that they should, you know, sit back in coverage or whatever? To me, I always thought that as a quarterback, the most difficult was just the team that was changing it up from snap to snap. You get different looks all the time because as soon as, if you can hone in on anything that is consistent, now you can attack it. So the teams that change it up, look like Brent Venables wants to play some man coverage. I would not recommend that with the likes of Jerry Judy on the outside and rugs and waddle and, I mean, they got, they got, I think, second or third or certainly a top five wide receiver core. And they're all coming back next year. Yeah, I think. Just in case anybody thought there was gonna be a reprieve next year. Yeah, 100%. Also what you're gonna get tonight, Steve and I are gonna have a way too early top 10 coming up. All right. That's gonna be fun. Let's do that. Remember throwing your comments, questions. We're gonna get to those. We'll try to be as interactive as we can. We've got the mascots doing pushups. They're already tired and it's only seven, seven. You know what? We're three minutes in right now. I'm a little fearful for the kids watching because we've got mascots with their head off. That's true. We better not get to those guys. That's like rule number one about mascotting. In fact, I got a story about that from Chip the Buffalo mascot from CU. Oh, Trevor Lawrence, what are we doing there? Well, so now we've had Clemson's defense have success. We've had Alabama's offense have success. We've had Alabama's defense have success. The only unit that has not gotten their feet yet and no rhythm whatsoever yet is Clemson's offense. Yeah. I think you're gonna see ETN here. I think I'd be shocked if- I'm not gotten very much run right now. There we go. Make this third and manageable. What's the question? Come on. This is how we're gonna do questions. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. That's Tori over there. She used game day ready and her fatigues. Yep. And we do have the football questions. So she's throwing the football in. That was a bit of a rough pass, but that's all right. That's all right. I like this service here. It's like a message in a bottle. There's like a scotch tape. Listen, folks. Only the best for you on this live stream. Here we go. All right. Connor Reardon via Instagram. Connor, what's up? Thank you for watching, my friend. He says, what Alabama offensive player will have the most impact in the game? I would say one of the wide receivers and now that I'm gonna cheat, it's gonna be Jerry Judy. Yeah. I mean, if you're not, yeah. I mean, I'm assuming based on this question you can't say Tua. That's too obvious, right? That's like hockey is like, oh, who's the most important player? Good goalie, obviously. So it can't be the quarterback. If it's not the quarterback, I would say Jerry Judy. Yeah. One guy that I'm curious to see how he does is Jacobs. See if they can run the ball at all. I doubt they'll be able to. I just don't know if they're gonna be able to run the ball. I doubt it. But if they can, I think that. Here's the way I think Alabama. Makes them borderline unstoppable. If they're running the ball, I think it's because they throw it first like they just did for a touchdown. And they get those safeties out of there. And then they, then they get it going a little bit running the football. Third and 14, do not turn the ball over. That's all I would tell the quarterback. Don't be an idiot. Check it down. If he's not wide open, don't throw it. And he's wide open. That's pretty good. Just haymakers. They're just like, bam. This is like Rocky versus Apollo. I love it. I love it. Do you have any fatigue with this matchup? I don't. You better not. Because they're like, you know, if they weren't the two best teams, like they're just so much better than everybody. I shouldn't stand like this, right? You're going to say, I'm getting the crotch shot. Oh, we got expert cameraman. What a throw. He was wide open. These past defenses, man. They're going to get shredded all night. Here we go. All right. How about that? All right. We haven't even hit the 10 minute mark yet. It's 14-7. Oh, Connor. We're on the internet. Get your ass over there for push-ups. This guy's going to need a protein bar soon. Yeah, he is. Do we have EAS shakes around it? So you can't do clap push-ups. All right. So what is that? Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. I hear some grunting. 10, 11, 12, 13. Oh, a little presumptuous on that PAT right there. All right. Connor, do you think you can do 21-clap push-ups? Sure. Yeah, what is it? Oh, oh, no. Oh, we got it. We got it. Listen. All right. Listen, he's got a mascot head on. Let's give him a little slack here. Well, he's got a mascot head on. Listen, folks. He's a little boozy from the push-ups. Full service, full service. Don't, oh, wait. Careful. He'll be all right. He'll be all right. Do I know what I'm doing? Absolutely not. But this looks really good. It looks good. It looks really good. Yeah, let's tighten that up. Thanks, Al. Appreciate it. Tighten that up right there. We might need to spread out this tripod a little bit. Connor, we're going to need you to calm down. I don't know. Can we, uh, well, yeah, you know what? That's going to do for now. It's a little, you know, guys, we might need to do something about that. You know, Joel, you're a talented guy, but, uh, stage hand might not be important. I'm definitely not a stage. What do we got here? We've got no shot right now with this tripod. All right. That's OK. I thought that Bambo was playing man. And anytime you can get outside of the defense when you're playing man, then you got a shot. I could be wrong. It was hard to see. Looked like they had a couple of wide receivers out here. They get Etienne, the tail back going. And here, if you can get outside. So there's always a support player in defense. And if you can get outside of the contain, so there's usually an in-man on the line of scrimmage, and then there's some sort of support player that comes from the second or the third level of the defense. If you can outflank or get that support player blocked and then get him blocked on the outside or get outside of this guy, you're going to have a shot. Then it just becomes open field as your guy better than the guy trying to tackle him. There's really no schematics outside of that. So you're looking for the in-man on the line of scrimmage. And then any of these support players come in, and it can even be a safety like this. And if he comes up and he gets a good block, now, you know, you get to flow this way. You get flow this way. And then he finds, let's say, he just finds a little bit of a crease. He breaks one tackle. And then you can get a score. But that's what you always have to look at. When a runner breaks onto the outside, what is the in-man on the line of scrimmage? If he's getting, this is called a reach block. If he gets reached and gets that outside shoulder blocked by the offensive lineman or a tight end or whomever, then it just becomes about a wide receiver or a tight end or somebody out the back field. If you can get the support player blocked like this, now it's a race to find a seam. So that's anything that you're looking for in an outside play. Lots of scratching to basically said, one player didn't do his job. And then ETN is better than the people trying to tackle him. So did you get a lot, by the way. That's why in the big 12, all the running backs are better than all the people trying to tackle them. So you get a lot of touchdowns on the outside. Oh. Over-under was 58, by the way. We're going past that. We're feeling pretty good right now on the over. All right, so do you think now, after that drive, OK, so let's see what happens here. So you get outside, then you got one of the support player, 15, just gets a little bit of a block like that. So you get outside of the in-man on the line of scrimmage. You get any sort of block on the support player, and then it becomes just one-on-ones on the outside great block by the wide receiver. And it goes in for a touchdown. You think running on the outside is the best shot for these guys? Probably both sides. I just don't see it between the tackles for either of these teams. I wonder if Saban is just going to be like, hey, this is just going to be a big 12 shootout, or if he's going to try to slow things down now. Because as soon as Oklahoma started to gain a little traction, didn't they pull within 11, got a lot of momentum, and then Alabama went on like a seven-minute drive? I believe you're right. I believe you're right. And all of a sudden, they just halted the game. And it's like Kyler didn't see the field for a while. I get the sense that that's, and see how the tempo has totally changed here. They're just kind of slowly getting up to the line of scrimmage. Plump the brakes for a second. Right. Get the defense a little bit of a rest. Second and three. RPO. Great tackle on the outside. Tavon Wallace, who is good, but he hasn't played. I mean, their safeties have been a weak point. That was a really good tackle on the outside. So Clemson's playing, man. I mean, Alabama's going to have big plays all night long. I'll tell you one thing. Clemson is not intimidated at all. Can't you just tell the way they're moving? They're like one team that just doesn't care. They've beat them before. Georgia's close to that, but they weren't close in the sugar bowl. Boom, man to man, and just got rocked. That was a great throw. In breaking routes, you've got to put the ball right on the frame of the wide receiver. You hear me saying that a lot during our telecasts? Anytime your wide receivers are breaking inside, you can't lead them, you can't do anything. That ball's got to hit them in the frame, and that's essentially what that ball did from Tua. That was really nice. Really nice. Big conversion. If they have to punt right there, this is what they did to Oklahoma to death, right? Clemson's going to have to change and play zone, and then you know what's going to happen then. The run game will get going. They're throwing them out of man coverage right now. Brent Venables is like, ah, damn it. It's all defensive guys say. Timeout Clemson. By the way, this is a Big 10 officiating crew. It is a crew that is made up of an all-star crew, so this crew has not worked together their entire season, like most crews. The referee is Mike Cannon. They are from the Big 10. The replay official tonight is Jim Kremmerling, and what you need to know is that Mike Cannon and Jim Kremmerling have gone together, so they're the ones that work together every week. The replay official and the head referee, but the rest of the crew on the field is just an all-star crew. So you've got Ed Feister, the umpire, Tripp Sutter, the head linesman, Ron Tippett, the line judge, Frank Steritor, Gene Sun, the field judge, John Hayes, the side judge, Mike Elliott back judge, Brent Durbin, the center judge, if any of you are wondering. Can I ask you a question about umpires and referees? Yep, come on. People talk about chemistry within a group. Is that real? I think it is. If I'm a player, I would much rather the officiating crew have worked together all season rather than an all-star crew. All day to throw ain't gonna work with man coverage. These defenses are gonna get shredded. This is great. By the way, I guess who's sitting at home right now smiling ear to ear. Oklahoma? Mike Stoops. He's like, see, everyone, no one else can do it either. Yeah. Ruffin couldn't do it. Ruffin couldn't do it. Brent can't do it. Nick can't do it. Right down the field. And they're taking like three minutes off the clock already. Oh, that's a good incompletion right there. Good incompletion. Yeah, see these guys need to take over. Yeah, exactly. If they're gonna win this game, like in terms of just like gunning it down the field, like those big boys. Then it has to be the pass rush. Yeah, no doubt about it. Oh my gosh. Cleveland Farrell just took, who was that? Who's 70, their left tackle. That's Jonah Williams. Jonah Williams is gonna be a top 10 pick. Cleveland Farrell just put him on his butt. Might not be anymore. Good call. Way to go. Peanut gallery. Uh-oh. Why did Harris just fall down? Yeah. Yeah. Might be here for about four more hours, guys. Must be nice to have like three, five star running guys. Yeah, I mean. I think it was Najee Harris. I believe he was the national player of the year and he's third running back. Yeah. Everyone was like, oh, he's gonna come in and be a Heisman trophy winner. Third string. How we doing? There's still, it still looks like they're in man. Yeah. Can I ask you a big picture question off of that? I love a big picture question. If you're the national player of the year and you're running back, why would you go to Alabama? It's a great question. That's a great question. I mean, listen, you never think to yourself, you all, I guess- You always believe you're gonna be the guy, right? You're gonna be the guy, right? I think that's the answer, right? And I guess that's a question for Alabama as a whole. Why do all these quarterbacks go and like, to the same place that the number- Totally, can I ask myself that? Went to the last year. All the time. It's like, well, that doesn't matter. I'm gonna be the one that beats him out. Mm-hmm. Oh, nice run. Yeah, I got it. Touchdown again. And a long drive. That's like Vintage, Nick Saban, and Alabama. That drive is why they're so good. Even though I don't think he quite got in. Nah, it's gonna be close. We're gonna hold off on push-ups until we get a definitive look. Wait, wait, oh, down. I think he's short. Gets another few minutes here. All right. I thought that the left knee was down before he's in, but they're gonna score anyways. This is gonna be the definitive look, Ben. No, it's not the right thigh, Kirk. It's his left knee. Right, see? There we go. Sorry, I said I wasn't gonna say that. Left knee. Left knee. Oh, I feel like everybody at home watching one of my games. What an idiot. Or me in the back of the booth. Yeah, yeah. Steve's in the back of the booth always like, just doing this all day. Get it together. What was that drive? It started with like 10.30, like that was like a four-minute drive. Almost four exactly right now. It's nine for 75 right now. What did I say before the drive? You might know a thing about this. I knew that was gonna happen. That was vintage, man. It's good. Vintage Nick Saban in Alabama. These guys need rest too, I assume. I mean, how big is that, like, how big is rest? Like, I mean- Within the game, for the defense, I think it's very important. Why didn't we get this look before? Down, short. Yep. Freeze it three frames before that. I can't watch a game, which I'll critique in the broadcast. I can't do it. I'm sorry. Can we not freeze it right there, please? Yeah. Again, no freeze. Driving myself crazy here. Thank you for the freeze. I'll be yelling at my director during our game. His name's Rich Dewey. He's a great guy. I'm glad you made it about nine minutes before you- No, I couldn't help myself. I couldn't help myself. You should watch games with our entire crew. That's all we do. Talk about the, why did they take that replay? We're the worst. Just the worst of what the game is. This is the first national championship game in a few years. Butch Jones, siding. Way to go, Butch. You made it in. All right. This is the first national championship game in like three years that the head referee hasn't had gigantic arms. Remember they had Mike DeFee a couple years ago? Something to work on in the off-season. There we go. You don't want to be that guy. Hey, I think Sabin loves this. Takes more time off the clock. Yeah, let it bleed. Oh, he's a little open. Oh, stat pattern. I wish I had those play calls. Stat pattern. All right, Al. All right. All right. Connor's mad. He's turned into a fan over here. He wants to do 57 push-ups tonight. Oh, he's over here now. All right, Ben. Ben's going, part three. I don't even know what you're on, Ben. Six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 11, 14, 15. You did 15. No one accused Alabama of being a great academic institution. I kid, I kid. We're gonna have people all over us tonight. Man. Roll tide. Roll, roll, tide. Roll, all right. Joel, you don't know what you're freaking talking about. Tide are gonna roll you up. Joel. No, it's not even Joel. Joe. Joe Klatt. Whatever your name is. You don't know nothing about Bamba roll tide. Roll. I read all Alabama fan tweets like that, even when I'm alone in my hotel room. Yeah, yeah. I think I should read all tweets like that. Didn't just for fun. Did Bamba make that kick? They missed it? Stop it. We missed an extra point because we were counting Ben's push-ups. This is a fail of epic proportions. Too much focus on the mascots. I'm doing an Alabama accent. We missed it. They missed the extra point. That one might come back on you. On me, on them. This is just online, you know? Like, oh my gosh. Joel, why don't you focus on the kick? Joel, don't you dare focus on our kickers. We haven't had a good kicker in five years. It hasn't stopped us from winning championships. Why don't you focus on something besides the silly elephant pulse push-ups? This brings up just a really good time to get into Cody Parky. Too soon. And just kickers in general? I just, I'm sorry, but I happen to be of the belief that you have one job. Everyone, like, it was so in vogue today on Twitter to be like, lay off of Cody Parky. No, I get it. Like, I don't need the vitriol. I don't want anyone threatening Cody Parky. I think that's dumb. But to say that that loss for Chicago wasn't Cody Parky's fault is false. Right? I know that the kick was somewhat blocked. I get it. I get it. Make the damn kick. I'm just, yeah, I just can't. And then the extra point. The guy hits an upright on an extra point. An extra point. Can I make a point? Not everyone has Mason Crosby. Touche, Touche. Steve brings up a good point. So I played at Colorado with Mason Crosby, who's still in the league. And there were several times when Mason was the only reason why we scored points because our quarterback was awful on those days. I was the quarterback. So thank you, Mason, for saving shutouts at Miami, against Texas, there were several games, maybe against Nebraska one time. There you go, nine extra points. How do you miss an extra point? Steve, Steve played soccer at Gonzaga. Could you make an extra point tonight? Yeah. Of course you could. Pretty easy. Like it's not. Like it's Alabama. College extra point is ridiculous. These are the best players that you can find in high school. They have the number one recruiting class every year. How do they not have a kicker? I don't, now they did just sign the number one kicker in the country. Right, I am perplexed by this in college football all the time. Think about it, Florida State for years couldn't find a kicker when they were on their run as one of the best teams in the country. You got that off the graphic over there, peanut gallery. Don't worry about it. Yeah, oh, oh, question. Everyone, everyone, wait. Tori's about to watch out. That was the best throw of the night. Well done. She used yellow box tape. Interesting, can we get an upgrade? I kid. All right, so as Alabama bats a ball away, he says, what are the chances Sabin or Dabo go pro after this game? Zero, that comes in from shake and bake 100 on Instagram. A little bit of shake and a little bit of bake. That's what I'm talking about. I'm not going to lie, that was awesome. I don't think either of these guys are going anywhere. One, NFL teams don't pay what these two are making. Two, they can be here forever as long as they want. Sabin's already done that, doesn't need it for his legacy. Dabo is on his way to being in the conversation for one of the greatest coaches ever. And if they win tonight and building a program to take on, I wouldn't go anywhere if I were one of these two guys. What great situations they both have. Yeah, where's the upgrade? Like, I mean, you go take a mediocre middle of the pack NFL job and be just constantly worried about getting fired in two years. I didn't think Pat Fitzgerald should go to the Packers. I didn't think, I don't think, listen, I think that it's a better life for a guy like even Lincoln Riley in college. He can be in Oklahoma for 15 years. If he makes, I mean, he can make close to $100 million in 15 years. Totally. And you got way more power in college than you do in the NFL. Yeah. Nice stroke, Tori. Well done. Coaches in the NFL come and go. These guys... Well, let's say you go to Green Bay. Yep. It's like, if you don't win the national championship, everyone's just like, oh, get them out, or the Super Bowl, get them out of here. How big do you think the lifestyle difference is? I guess you have to kiss the butt of 16-year-olds and I guess that would get old. Recruiting, I guess. Yeah, I think that would be my one thought is a reason you don't have to deal with recruiting. I guess. And the slog of it. Oh! But at the same time, I mean, I assume that's why you have these staffs to... Right, and these two... Take a chunk of this, chunk of that work out. These two have two of the best coaching staffs in America. This is exactly how you draw it up if you're next saving. You come out after the 14-7, right? Yep. As you get a long drive, rest your defense, make a couple of adjustments. What happens after the rest? All of a sudden, Quinn and Williams comes in, makes a huge play, they get the ball back now, just over midfield with a chance to go take the lead. Good route. Dude, these wide receivers. Tua complaining about some pain in his right hand that Rush has gotta start to get home for Clemson if they're gonna have any chance stopping Alabama. Oh, big hole up front. I'm surprised that the defensive line's not playing better. Yeah, haven't really gotten Tua to run him pretty well. If I was Alabama here, I think this would be a shot. I know that goes against what I was just saying about going a little bit slower. Maybe they're just gonna hammer him with the run game. Yeah. Goodness, great catch. Jerry Judy, he was somebody's pick-to-click tonight. I don't know who's it was. I don't know who's it was. Let's see. I'm not afraid to pat myself on my back. Whoa, did you see he almost hit the umpire with that ball? Here's what's happening in the passing game, though. Steve, Tua's getting time to throw. Yeah. I mean, aside from the pick, they're getting pretty much whatever they want. Yeah, and how about Tua after the pick? He's been sensational. Been quite good. This is that same blitz look. Watch this upper-outside linebacker. Safety comes in, man. Gashing him. It's like in between the tackles, too. They're getting like, I think they're about seven to carry right now. And every back that touches the ball is totally fresh. And he's a five-star player. Yeah. It's probably helpful about this time of year. I mean, Clemson does a pretty good job of that, too. They kind of, they kept ETN from getting too many carries as well. Oh, pressure. Good move in the backfield. I love the schematics in the red zone because there's so much different than the regular field. There, because you can disguise for so much longer on defense before you actually show your hand. Because there's not the space that you have to defend down the field. And there, they disguised their blitz for a long time. I think that Tua would have probably checked out of that play if he would have seen that pressure coming. But he was unable to see it because of the red zone. Watch a little play action. Watch a little play action here to the topside. That wingback. No. Oh, what a big stop. Third down. Go. Oh, is he going to trot that kicker out there? He's watching the second point. Can't do that. Go. Butch Jones getting the airtime right behind Saban. Way to go, Butch. Champions of life. This is totally the kicker. Because normally you would kick this. You would think. Right? You would think. I think that you throw the ball. Oh, no, it's Wildcat. Oh, how do you stop that? I don't know how you do that unless you just have an insane individual effort. Because you can't have the numbers. Yeah, when you've got a five-star running back. Right. I mean, the snap was low, and he was still able to get it. Butch Jones, he is a champion of champions tonight, getting a lot of airtime right now. I tell you what. Question for me is, the easiest touchdown that they got was the little bootleg. I mean, they've run it now five straight times. It's got to be coming. Is that just a quarterback in me, or is it just? Even another cheap touchdown. This is when Nick goes ballistic, usually, is these self-inflicted wounds. I hope on the next play, because it's just good TV. So they did tackle over. So the tight ends on the left, and the extra tackle is over there as the tight end on the right side. So that's an unbalanced line. That's not a flag. They just shot tape on the ground. Inside screen, hate it. Hate that play call. Loxley has got to call a better play than that. That is the middle of the field play, unless it's run as a wedge screen. You know what I mean? So you see the Patriots do that, but they'll do that at the one or two yard line when all the wide receiver has to do is fall into the end zone. You can't get four or five yards on that wedge screen, because you're running right into the pursuing defense from the middle of the field. Hate that play call. Again, there's three yards difference between that being a good play call and a bad play call. But that's just on your play sheet, you cannot run the wedge screen from the, so the wedge screen is just a little, they take the outside wide receiver and you run them on a little bit of a motion towards the slot receiver, and then you snap it right away and throw it to him, and he tries to just like dive in. But you can't do that from the four yard line. That's a bad call. I'm kind of a snob when it comes to play calling, and that was bad. That was bad. Yes, question. Keep the questions coming, good throw, way to go. I tell you what, Tori is like too much. She threw a pick early and it's just come back and then lights out. You know, call it what you wanna call it. All right, here we go. Let's say who is the best team in college football outside the ones playing tonight? Evan Nicole on Instagram. Evan, we got a whole commercial break to break that down. Okay. I'd say Oklahoma. Right now, or this season? Yeah, this season. Who was the third best team? Yeah, who's the third best team in the country? I'd say Oklahoma. I mean, Oklahoma outscored Bama 35-17 in the last three quarters. Yeah. I think they're the only other team that could hang. You know who? I know who you're about to say. The third best team for last month was Ohio State. They just took too long to get it together. I have a hard time arguing with that. I mean, but to be fair, they were not the third best team for the whole season. I think you're right, but, you know, they took too long to get going. This is where I felt like the committee had a point with Ohio State is like, you can't lose by 29. Yep. Right? Like, Oklahoma's floor was a loss to Alabama and Texas, who was a really good 10-win team. Right? The 29-point loss. I hear you at their top end, by the way. So here you go, Evan, on the top end. Yeah. At their best. Do I think Ohio State would have beat Oklahoma? Maybe. They would have had one of the rare teams that could hang with them offensively because of past days. And Ohio State had played Oklahoma last week. Who do you think wins that game? Oh, such a good question. Oklahoma. I think Ohio State. Really? Yeah. I think they... Granted, I think it's like 55-52, but I think it's OU. I think they hit a gear where they found something. What we saw... I agree with you, both teams would score 50. What we saw against Michigan was so impressive. I know, maybe that's just like stuck in my head forever. Like, that was... Let me just, all right, full disclosure. Let's take people back into Thanksgiving week. Steve and I were a bit enamored with Don Brown's defense. We were. Absolutely. And we... Yeah, I believe I did call them war daddies at one point. Thank you, Kristen, in the back for that. I don't really need people bringing up my awful takes. But that's why you love... Yeah, I mean, that's what's stuck in my head is what Haskins turned into. But then, on the other hand, they were wearing overtime with Marilyn. That's true. That's true. They're good was good, they're bad was bad. Yeah. Whereas OU, they just were like bad on offense and great on... That's not gonna work. Shovel pass. I'm gonna do this for you, Bama fans. Uh-oh. Shovel pass. Freakin' hate the shovel pass. Do you? Yes. I think it's a dumb play. Because you're relying totally on trickery. Yeah. There's no other option, right? Tua's got no other option at his disposal right there. He can't run it because his pitch key comes up the field. And so all of a sudden they call another... There's no answer that you can have as a quarterback. I would much rather throw a pass and I've got answers. And he... Did he make it? I think he got it. Oh, this kid. Is this the same guy that missed the last kick last year? Last year? Check. Remember, end of regulation. I almost died for him. Is this the same guy? I don't know if this is the same kid or not. Oh yeah, push-ups, push-ups. Oh yeah. Ben the elephant has 16 push-ups. Two, three, we should have had a counter. Four, five, six, seven. Steve's really helping on this counting, isn't he? Dynamite. 15, 16. All right, well done. Well done. I feel like Ben's not rooting for Alabama because he doesn't want to do... He's like... I see him over there when they score and he's like... While you were busy counting, I was busy looking up last year's game. Not the same kid. Not the same kid. Thank you. Thank you. Oh man. All right, remember, keep inviting your friends into the broadcast and then let us know what you want more of. Do you want more of the analysis, your questions? You can get those questions to us on any platform, Instagram, Facebook. If this kid just kicked it out of bounds, Nick Saban's going to strangle the kicker. Shoot to the kicker right now, director. Oh no. Director, get a shot at the kicker. Saban's gonna lose, there we go. Strangling. No, stay on the kicker. I don't need your from play to play graphic. The kid's gonna get strangled on live television in front of 30 million people. I want to see it. I mean, am I wrong? I don't know, I'm kind of interested in the number of CFP appearances right now by the senior class. All of them. All of them. CFP appearances for Clemson or Alabama. All of them. This senior class has won how many games? All of them. A lot, a lot of games. Oh my gosh. All right. Well, the game has slowed a little bit. They need to stay on the field here. Again, Clemson's offense hasn't done a ton outside of finding some running success. Lawrence is overwhelmed as you get bailed out by a penalty here. A little pass and reference down the field. Boom. Here we go. Question. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Coming in hot. I tell you what, this is. Tua is fired up over there. All right. Dwayne says, keep it going guys. I have to rely on YouTube to watch the game. I'm a truck driver. Dwayne, we are here for you. My friend, I love you, Dwayne. Is he inferring that he's driving currently? That would be dangerous like this. Screen pass is dangerous. Screens, man. Screens against his defense. Nice miss tackle. Over pursue, always get you beat. Those guys pursuing from the inside, they've got to stay on the inside shoulder. Oh, oh, that's the last zone read they're going to call. Didn't go well. The offensive play calling Tony Elliott. It was just like, okay, that's enough of that scratching off the play sheet. We tried. We tried. You can also send us questions to Steve or me directly at Joel Klatt, at Steve Owens underscore here. They keep showing this like, are you trying to get a targeting called? I can't not talk about the broadcast, Steve. You can't. I think he just mentioned it, yeah. So they're thinking about. But there's not targeting from an offensive player in college football. The ball carrier, like there is in the NFL. There's not just the lowering the head rule, I believe. Quinn and Williams is tired now in this series and I don't think he'll be a factor on the next couple of plays. So I think that you can run the football even here on third and five, if you deem it four down territory. I don't know if or why that they would, if they get down to like a first down play, watch them rub routes on the top, those three receivers on the top. There it is, crossing route, crossing route. If you get time versus man coverage, that was the whole deal with Ohio State and Michigan. So he gets a bunch of time. So watch here, from the right side, you're gonna get the guy all the way across. Man, all deals with time. And what did I say right before the play? Quinn and Williams tired. I guess he was not in the backfield. Quinn and Williams. Yeah, this just feel Ohio State-ish how they were just doing those crossing patterns all day in Michigan. All day long. Then push. Second down, they can do that again if they want, right away. If they wanted to, they could tempo, hand it off again and they score a touchdown, but they're not going to. Good call by that official. If you're gonna run it here, why wouldn't you have just done it with tempo? That's my, like if they hand it off, you just allowed them to get set up. Hand off, they score anyway, so it doesn't matter. Again, I'm just picky with the call. You know what I mean though? If that's your deal. Oh yeah, here we go. I keep forgetting about the push-ups. Can we wait until after the PAT? I think that's what we're gonna do. We probably should pay a little bit more attention. Conner is excited to let everyone know Conner has been doing clap push-ups. I think that's gonna end on this one because he's gonna have minimum of 20, maybe 21. There's no way that happens in the second half, right? No way, no way. All right, 21. Here goes Conner in the tiger costume. One, two, oh he's going for him. Three, clap push-up, four. Man, this is five. It's a mistake. I think it is too, that was six, seven. I mean, it's nine, 10. There's some slowing down happening, 11. I can't have bounce that he was getting. Oh no. 13, 14, 15. He's still doing a good form-pish-up. That was 16, 17, well done. Nine, 21, well done. And one for the extra effort. All right. That's one tuckered out tiger. All right, tell you what. Conner and Ben are dying for halftime. They really need halftime. They need halftime here right now, right? Am I right? Don't worry guys, you only have 11.38 left in the second quarter. Yeah, you'll be fine. You'll be all right. The game is only taking eight hours. Okay, I've got some questions here on Facebook that are, excuse me, on Twitter. Remember, at Joel Klatt, at Steve Owens here. Does Fields give OSU a better chance to get into the playoff? That comes from Donald Swift. Donald, good question. Justin Fields transferred from Georgia. He's going to go to OSU and he's actually going to apply for a hardship waiver due to those racially charged comments that he got from a baseball player from the stands to the field earlier in the season. That baseball player is no longer on the baseball team. I've heard a lot of mixed feedback about whether he's going to get the hardship or not and be eligible to play. Let's just assume that he's eligible to play. I have heard that Ohio State's new staff under Ryan Day is very smitten with Justin Fields. And let's just say Tate Martell was much more of an urban style quarterback. Run first, JT Barrett style quarterback. So even with all the tough talk from Tate Martell on Twitter, which there's been plenty. He was not pleased with the idea of somebody coming in and taking his job. I think that Ohio State should be pretty good. You're talking about potentially getting to the playoffs. I don't think it's about Fields. I think it's actually more about can you replace some of the production at wide receiver and does the defense improve? And that was the big news today. The defensive line coach, Madison. Greg Madison from Michigan gets hired as the code defensive coordinator at Ohio State. So that was a big hire for Ryan Day. Let's go of Greg Sciano. He also hired a guy that he was in San Francisco with. What's his name again? Let's see, Jeff Halfley. Jeff Halfley was, I believe, a secondary coach. Secondary guy, yeah. Remember, so the two code defensive coordinators last year, one Greg Sciano, he was fired. The other Alex Grinch, he moved on to Oklahoma. So Lincoln Riley's trying to fix his defense with that. So to answer your question, Donald, I do believe that the chance for Ohio State to get to the playoff is more about the defense than it is fields or Martel. That might be dumb because you got to have a quarterback, but... Do you think Fields is a better fit for Day? Probably, I think Fields probably throws better, but Martel is a good thrower. That just didn't have him throw it. So I think that's going to be an incredible battle in the spring. Jordan didn't let Fields throw a whole lot when he got to play either. No, no. Maybe that's a little... I've heard a lot of different things about Fields and what his motivation was for transferring, but... Another one of those five-star guys going in behind a five-star guy. Well, I heard there was a lot of family influence and about leaving Georgia. So interesting. Let's do it. Question. I love it. There we go. All right, here we go. Nick on Instagram says, is Trevor Lawrence the best freshman QB ever? I think that's pretty tough. Trying to think of some other great... Well, in terms of pro-prospect or the best freshman season that I've ever seen. Right, because like... Johnny Manzell. Did he say true freshman? He did not. He just said freshman. Yeah, Manzell had a pretty good... Manzell was a redshirt freshman. I would say Manzell's was the best because it was Heisman, but it was a redshirt. So from a true freshman, yeah, this was pretty good. Jake Froms was really good. To his performance in one half was exceptional as a true freshman. So those are the ones that I kind of think of off the top of my head. All right, a little run game, a little more run game. Second and three, now third and one. Bama is going to go right back to a little bit of a slow-it-down game. I know it. Tyler, Tyler Irish on my Twitter says, will Brian Kelly win a Natty before he leaves Notre Dame? I think it's going to be really tough. They don't have a roster right now. I think that was proving in the semi-final. I think Bama's going to have to punt it away. They were just short on third and one. There's that D-line. There we go, Clemson. People will, by the way, Clemson fans get all been out of shape when I say Clemson rather than Clemson. He can't go. He can't go for it here. No, he can't. Did he just say go for it? He looks a little upset right now. Wow. Is Sabin going to go for this? Wow. No! Own side of your 50? Bad choice. I'm just saying it. Regardless of if they get this or not, this is an emotional choice. I mean, this, they don't. It's a wild get. Oh, I got through it. Oh, and they were ready for it too. Did you see those safeties just screaming down there? Watch the safeties. Just come screaming down there. Oh, he has him. Dead to rights. He played it as well as he could play it. Oh. Oh. I tell you what, though, man, in these national championship games, Sabin leaves nothing in the tank. Think about it. He put two in last year. He had the fake, the onside. He had a kickoff return. There was all sorts of different, a fake kick. God, that's like nine minutes left in the second quarter. I know. On your own side of the 50. It's a little, little panicky. I don't, I don't disagree. Like, even if I'm, obviously if Clemson's, if I'm Clemson, I'm disappointed. But that's okay. I'm a little happy. They're freaking out. Like, this is the whole thing we've been wanting to see is them under pressure, how would they react? Yes. You know, what was it, like that stat until the, I think it was still the SEC championship game. Maybe that was like, they had three snaps. Oh. Like, that's what he's so good at. How about that move? That's what he did to Oklahoma like 10 times. Geez, look at this move on the outside. One on one, one on one. Nope. Oh. No thanks. No soup for you. Geez. I think you can get a healthy dose of that until they stop them. Yeah. Run, run, run. And then you'll get a little play action. Yeah. Like the other two backs feel like more of like the battering ram Sabin backs, like he's the guy. He's got a little like, He's got something, something extra. Nope. Oh, going for it. Oh. What a terrible throw! Ooh. Wow. Unreal. Sabin's got to be so livid right now. You don't have to do pushups, but you do have to put on the turnover chain. Clemson now plus two with the turnover chain. Well done. Well done, Connor. This is the second time that a corner has just fallen off right into the route. Where's he throwing that? Like he looks like he was upset with Judy for something like. He should be upset with himself. Did Judy let up a little bit? Like he looked like he didn't quite. Maybe, but still he's got like a guy right over him. Yeah. Yeah, he looks. Hey man, that's on you. D'Shawn with his $3,000 sweatshirt. Someone told me that was $3,000. I'm like, for what? Whatever that brand is, it's ugly. Shots. Ha ha ha. The official sponsor of the brand. No. Oh no. Someone's, I mean, it might like, there might be some swag to it and all. I couldn't wear it. I mean, he's pulling it off. He looks cool, but that's an ugly sweatshirt. All right, here we go. Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me I'm wrong. Here's what happened real quick. All right, you had a safety inside like this, you have a corner like this, and you've kind of got like a backer on the outside like this. So they're trying to hit Judy again. He's got that same move where he's going down the seam. Because the safety's inside, Tua thinks that he's going to have a chance to dump it over the top. What he didn't realize, and this guy just runs a hitch on the outside. The corner just fell off and picked off that ball. He's got to throw this ball on the outside. That's the read. You've got to read the corner. That's twice now. Tua has not read the corner and just thrown it directly to him. Downgrade, and it fell scout. Downgrade. Then he raises his arms like it's Judy's fault. What's Judy supposed to do? You just threw it right to the Clemson guy. It's a brutal throw, brutal decision. Any of you watching that know my cell phone number, you can hit me up on my cell phone as well. You should give that one out. Tell you man, Clemson just took a couple of big shots and they just came right back, didn't they? Alabama's not going to win if this stays at a minus two turnover deficit. Sure. I'm just telling you. Yeah. They look comfortable. Very comfortable. They're not panicked. Dynamite, drop in. They haven't really gotten to Lawrence very much lately either. I even feel like Clemson can do, like they're not forced into anything like oh, we're having success with this. We're going to stay there. Like I feel like they've had success with a number of different things. They've thrown it down the field. They've thrown it short. They've had some success in the run game. Yep. Looked like disaster. Wow. Who didn't want to see these two teams play? Right? Like this is a great game. My big argument is like, if the games weren't good for some reason, then I could see it. Like last year's weren't good but it was a semi-final. The two before that were classic. As good as it gets. Every championship game that they've played have been fantastic. Oh, time to throw. Got him. This is big time right here. Watch him up, up, up in the pocket and then boom, throws a rocket right on the frame in breaking route. I think Clemson's going to win. Bama needs to stop here. Look at them. You know, one thing that Bama doesn't have, I heard this from a couple of coaches that played them. They don't have a lot of depth on the defensive line. So they feel like the more snaps you can get against them, which they don't normally have to face many snaps, the more snaps you can get against them, like they're not great. You look at the defensive line right now, it's the first half and they're tired. Yeah, I wonder like, I mean, so many of their games were over by halftime that the starters didn't have to play fourth quarters. I mean, you know, they didn't really have to put themselves in a spot where they could get exposed late. Hey, there's your favorite play. I hate the shovel pass. I don't care if it works or not. I hate the shovel pass. E.T.N. having a day. Clemson, here we go. I'll tell you, Connor's all excited, but this is getting really nasty for you. You're at 27, wait and tell the P.A.T. please so that we don't have a repeat. That's a better design at least for the shovel pass because they actually pulled a guard around and they mashed everybody down. So he did have options there. Three touchdowns for him now. How about that drive? Two. They're comfortable. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. 26, 27, 28. Nice, nice. This kid needs a half time. Man. Let's try to talk about the difference between the two shovel passes, all right? First off, what you got from Clemson when they were defending Alabama's shovel pass is you got a little bit of a stunt, okay? So what you do on the shovel pass is that you leave the end unblocked and whether the tackle's in here or whatever and you've got a linebacker here. Maybe you've got a nose here, depending on if they were down near the goal line. Got another tackle and you got an end. Probably got another backer here and then you just kind of like straight up, straight up, straight up, straight up. Cause remember it's kind of inside the five. At that point, you basically got one guy left, right? Cause you got like a safety and he's just going to be, you know, maybe he's defending one side or the other. Two grass ones. But here's the difference is what Clemson did is, cause what you're going to basically do is you're going to block down and you're going to come down and you're going to come down like this. You're going to come down like this and you're going to leave him unblocked. The difference was, is that they inserted this safety here and this backer walked outside and came in that gap and they didn't adjust. This tackle for Alabama needed to actually block that linebacker and leave only one player unblocked because he didn't, he came in and they continue to try to double and he came into this safety. Now all of a sudden Clemson had two players for two players. So he comes up the field, to it goes to the, to that side and then you've got the little shovel pass. But here this backer had walked out or one of the two. I don't know exactly who it was, but one of these two had walked out and then he was sitting right there for the shovel pass. So he's got nowhere to go with the ball. Okay. Here's the difference is Clemson got a better look. Alabama was what I would call static. So you had like backer, backer, backer, something, something along those lines. But what you didn't get is there was no STEM late and there was nothing that they did. And then you had another adjustment that Clemson made that Alabama didn't in what they did. And it accounts for someone that's unaccounted for when you block down like this, you block down like this, you're blocking here and you're trying to get this double teams to go up here. And what they did is they, this probably comes back like this. They pulled this guy around. So mashed down, mashed down, he comes up field and then you come in and then you're following this and he was designed to block that extra guy. So the fact that they pulled the guard actually was a better design than what Alabama tried to do because they could account for any STEM player or any extra player in that defensive front inside the five. Ooh, 28, 16. Bama, a little shook. A little shook. All right, so last year, Georgia Bama. Bama's getting it handed to him. They're quarterback's playing really poorly in the first half. He switched quarterbacks at halftime. SEC championship game, Jalen Hertz came in and leads them to a victory. Just saying. Just saying. I think you could see some rotation at some point. Bring him in, get a little zone read game going. It's not out of the realm of possibility right now. Not saying he should, I'm just saying. I got some other questions here on Twitter. Let's see. This one comes in as the sideline oxygen better than the oxygen level of the air at sea level. Barnes, that's a good question actually. Good question, yeah. Cause normally you would see it like in Denver or places like Assault Lake, you would see the oxygen and it makes sense. It's just pure oxygen. So yes, it's better cause it's pure oxygen. It's not. Cleaner? I mean, like you're just consuming the, it's not, does that make sense? Like it's, it's like concentrated. That's, I mean, I used to do it at even out sea level because it's like. Even at sea level, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it seems like you're getting the purest form. But it's not just air, it's just like pure oxygen. Go get a scientist. You know what I mean? Shut up in here. Does that make sense? It does, to me. Maybe we need to consult the, the Twitterverse to tell us if we're wrong. You know what? I've got a Google machine right in front of me. While you're doing that, I'll ask a follow up question. We've got, I got on Twitter here. This is from Tyler Welsh 34. Tyler wants to know, what are the odds Texas makes the playoff next season? Follow up, do you believe Ellinger could be a Heisman sleeper? Let's start with the first one. Okay, Texas to the playoff. Interesting, I think that they're gonna have a shot. I would not be shocked if they started in the top six. Yep. To begin the year. Probably. I think a lot of it has to do with a couple of factors. We gotta see what little Jordan Humphrey is gonna do. Yep. A wide receiver. And what does that offensive line look like next year? Cause they're gonna have a few guys that are gonna be no longer there. They've got a shot, I think. Yeah. If they play that style of game, I think a lot of teams in the big 12 are gonna have a hard time with them. And if you win the big 12, and even only one loss, Oklahoma has proven back to back years that you can get to the playoff. So there's a chance for Texas to go to the playoff. Ellinger as a Heisman, gonna be tough. You're gonna have both of these quarterbacks to deal with and their numbers are gonna look better than his. So he's gonna have to have like an epic Tebow-esque year. Like 15 touchdowns rushing. Yes. Which he could do. I'm talking about like 20 touchdowns rushing. Yeah. Close to 30 touchdowns. You know what I mean? He's gonna have to put up close to 50 total touchdowns, I would assume. All right, big series here for Bama. Down 12, they are getting the ball to start the second half. So they can conceivably take a lot of clock here, score, get the ball to start the second half, score and take the lead. So that's an interesting part. There you see the replay of exactly what I was talking about that. By the way, did you see the flat route? Did you see the hitch? Wide open. Two is not seeing very much. By the way, oxygen from a bottle is better because it's compressed. Boom. Okay. There we go. There you go. Why aren't they sticking on the ground? What are the ground stats right now? Pretty good for Bama. Pull it up here. Bama average in little under six of carry. Pretty good. I would stick with the ground game seeing as my quarterback refuses to see the corner. Little shaky right now. Can't escape there. All right. Folks, this to me is when football becomes interesting. When the offensive team gets four or five yards on first down, it's really not that interesting to me because the chances that they're going to move the chains are high. It's significant. As soon as a first down play goes for little to no gain, now my interest is peaked. I'm like, okay, this is a shot to get off the field for your defense, right? You basically got two snaps in 14 yards and Bama stays on the ground. Oh, okay. Could have been a lot worse. Could have been a lot of work. Third and six. What do you do? Well, if you're a corner, you can do anything because Tua is blind to the corners apparently, but if he throws a shovel pass, I'm quitting. I hate the shovel pass. I will say, I'm a little surprised we haven't seen hurts at all. Like just in like maybe throw him on for a player. Yeah, just any sort of screen, you know, scheme. Uh-oh, look out. Boom, oh, fumble. He is, wow. Not reading it well right now. Look at this. See how they overload here? Overload, overload, but then he backs out. Oh, it looks like he, did he just hit him right in the growing? I'm gonna say midsection. Look at this. Ooh. Maybe a quad. We're gonna hope for a quad. Go with quad. We're gonna go with quad. Let's go with quad. There's a quad on that one. How about Clemson right now? Ham. Just hammering Alabama. Giving it to him. So I was up in Santa Clara last night. Were you? I was, and I went to a couple of the functions there and the deals that they had. Yep. And I was actually able to see a few of the SPN people because all of them were there. Because they, and by the way, they do such a fantastic job of like making college football big. And a lot of them were there. And everyone, and I was actually talking with Todd Blackledge, who's, I think he's my favorite analyst to watch, okay? And he said he's done Clemson a ton. And he said that this week, there was a really eerie, calm confidence about him. Like, we know exactly what happened last year. We know exactly what type of team we have. And we're gonna beat him. Yeah. So you're seeing that play out. Now, whether it happens or not, we'll see. But I thought that was an interesting tidbit. Yeah, because that's what we talked about. Like, they're one team that's not afraid. Like, the all factor's gone. At least for Clemson. For Clemson, yeah. They're one of the very few teams that the all factor's gone. Boom. Nice. That was a good throw. Way to go, Tori. All right. So when does Jalen go in? Rick says on Facebook. Yeah. I will tell you, this is the worst Tua has looked from a recognition standpoint all year. He's normally on point, recognizing defenses, understanding what the schematics are, getting out of bad plays. And tonight, he's not seeing anything. He didn't see that pressure right there. When you get overloaded like that on the side, one of two things happened. It was either an egregious breakdown and protection. Or you've gotta know that you're unprotected in that spot. I'm not gonna put it out of the realm of possibility that he didn't know if he was, or he was supposed to be protected on that. And that certainly can happen, but he's not seeing it very well. No. Not at all. Are you surprised at that? I'm surprised. I am, but he looked shaky against Georgia. Georgia's like the closest I could think of like a proxy to what Clemson is. And he threw some, he threw that bad pick in the end zone there in that game where he just did not read it. Yeah. And he was right in a guy's chest in the end zone. Yeah. Kirk's saying exactly what we're talking about. I love watching Kirk too, by the way. Two minutes. This is big right here. This is big because this negates the quote unquote extra possession of Bama getting the ball to start the second half. Yeah, you've gotta throw that ball right there. So if Clemson can go down and score in this two minute scenario, they're gonna be 35, 16 and a half. Wow. Hey, this ain't Georgia either. No. You know, like, there's one team in the country that's just as good skill-wise as Alabama and it's Clemson. Georgia's good, but I mean, we saw Texas physically handle them. So you can sense that comeback and it wasn't. If Clemson walks in scoring 35 points, this is a massive drive. 31, a lot of throws in this first half for Lawrence. Two to one pass to Rush right now. Is it really? Yeah. It's a great question. I'm not sure. He's not that big, you know? So it's hard because there's not a lot of backs in particular feature backs that are slight like that, you know? Five, 10, 200. I can't, I mean, all the backs that are like feature guy like Melvin or Todd or you know, not a big fan of the family shots either. I can't stop. I can't stop. I can't stop. All right, 153. Got a question here. Keep them coming by the way. Keep inviting your friends by the way too. And how about some more snark? All these are like legitimate questions. Way too nice so far. Way too nice. Let's get it, let's get it, you know, popping. Joel, you're gonna join the CFP committee next year from Taj on Facebook. I don't think that they would let me within 50 yards of that room. I'm pretty sure it's just because I haven't been served the restraining order, but that entity doesn't want me anywhere. I shouldn't say that. A few people from the committee asked me to go down and be part of like their media, the mock deal and I politely declined because I said if I actually see how the sausage is made then I'll really kill you. So I did not go down. Boom. Too much time. This kid's gonna pick him apart if he's got that much time to throw. And a flag down. Is it gonna be a hold? Are they gonna bail Bama out? This is the one thing I can't stand about Bama. Let's be honest here. There are some teams that it's always that, there's always a flag that helps them. I'm not saying this is gonna be against Clemson, but never mind. Hit out of bounds. It's against Bama. Is this a hit out of bounds? That's not a hit out of bounds. Oh, he didn't. Come on, officials. I didn't like that. I didn't like that call. Bad call. All right, now we're a what? Plus side of the 50? Yeah, for sure. Gosh. Throw it deep, throw it deep. Love it. He knew he had it. Yep. He just shorted him a little bit. That's why this kid's so good, man. He's pretty smart. Yeah. He found his footing pretty quickly in this game, didn't he? That first drive little. Yep, a little shaky. And then even the second drive, it was a little shaky. Yep. Now they're in field goal range. Last thing you can do here as a quarterback, you can't take a sack. You can't turn the ball over. So you immediately go into more of a conservative mode, conservative mode. Gotta see the throw. Boom, sees it. These inside breaking routes, they're just killing them right now. Killing them right now. Lauren's already about 200 yards right now. They are shredding Bama's defense. Shredding Bama's defense. Notre Dame's out there somewhere saying like, hey, they didn't do this to us. Oh, Quinn and Williams. That's a possible answer for Notre Dame's college football playoff case. Yeah, that's true. Kristin, I've got a better NFL comparison for Quinn and Williams than I do Travis Hettian. Quinn and Williams is in Damakansu. He's been that dominant this year. If he wouldn't have been just a one-year starter, I think he would have had some run in the Heisman conversation, but as one year as a starter, it just wasn't going to happen. See the best defensive player you've ever seen? In college. In college, yeah. These are my top prospects, by the way, in this game for the draft on each side. The three top for each side. Quinn and Williams would be number one. Deontay Thompson's a really good player. Jonah Williams is fantastic. And then Farrell, Wilkins, and Lawrence, all guys up front. Of course, Dexter Lawrence not playing in this ballgame tonight. But those would be the three top prospects. And I would expect all six of those guys to get drafted in the first 15 picks, 14 picks of the draft, somewhere right in there. Third down, Blitz. He's got him. All right. Had him. He had him. But it's still a safe ball. He didn't take a sack. He's got to put this on the wide receiver. You can't expect that your running back is going to catch this ball high like that. You know what I mean? That's just a bad ball. I know it's tough, but you got to throw like the fadeaway jump ball or something like that. You got to jump a little bit and get it right down onto his frame. All right, kicking. One job. Hey, listen, you can't walk out there with white three-quarter tights and miss a kick. These guys, man, I tell you. Cash. I tell you. All right, 31. All right, 45 seconds, though. You got three times. Oh my gosh, Connor is over there so upset right now. OK, Connor. You can know, not in the first half. We can't let him off in the first half. You got 31 push-ups you got to do. Stop doing the clap push-ups. Yeah. In the second half, you can go to knee push-ups. All right? Yeah, that is a boom. I mean, he doesn't get a half time to rest. Yeah, in fact, no, no, no, wait. Just do push-ups until you can't, and then we'll let you adjust. 31. 31. 31. By the way, everyone hit us up right now, Instagram. You can hit my Twitter, Steve's Twitter, our Twitter, College Football on Fox. How many push-ups do you think you can do in one set? Your max one set of push-ups, as good a push-up as Connor is doing right now. Connor, we haven't counted for you, so I'm just going to say 10, 11. I've been about four, five. Huh? You're sure changing them. Eight. Nine. Oh, that hurt him, too. 31. No, no, no, no, no, no. Get down there. Get down there. You know what? That's OK. You're fine. You're fine. It's been a long half. You shorted yourself. You're a millennial. Ribbons for everybody. Go ahead. Go ahead. I mean, you can do it for your entire generation, or you can go take a seat. Yes. Yes. Boom. Good throw. Good throw. $10,000 riding on the final score. Alabama 47, Clemson 43. Joe Davidson said that. Does you want to bet me or he's saying that's what he did? You're trying to. More of a statement than a question. This does seem like more of a statement. I'm rooting for you, Joe. 10 large is a big bet. That's a stack. That's a. 43 is an odd number. Those numbers are odd. 43 is an odd number. I will tell you that. There's no doubt. What do you think about this right now? Another 2 a mistake with 41 seconds. I'm just sensing right now that 2 is going to throw a pick. I don't know why. I'm just sensing that. In the booth, I would be saying, hey, he's got to be careful here. Second along, you're going to get some pressure. He's been duped by some looks. If that happens, Hertz is walking out of that locker. Maybe. Maybe. They dip out of it. He just doesn't have anything. I love Clemson's game. Hey, you know why Brent Venables makes over $2 million? This game plan. He's really good. I mean, you've seen some automatics from them. So on that little short motion on the last series, the corner wasn't going to be blitzing. And then on the short motion, he's like, hey, I'm coming right there. You know those little like checks, automatic checks on defense that is they're really tough to see from an offensive standpoint. And Alabama's just going to let it go. Yeah, they just let it bleed. Wow. Well, there you have it, folks. Clemson, 31-16. Bama's going to get that second half kick. Well, like you said, they did it last year. Yeah, but they had a new quarterback that came out of the locker room and played unbelievable. Let's see what Saban says. Steve, you've got a question for you. Sure. I can look into it. I would assume it was Georgia last year. I would assume Georgia. It's true, Bama. Got to be last year, Georgia, right? Yeah. Play better. There's a few things. Analysis? One is, yeah, that's hashtag analysis right there. One is, they've got to figure out the protection issue. Because there's clearly an issue where two is not seeing the protection, whether it's just the straight pressures from Clemson or if Clemson is bringing what I would call an odd pressure. And by that, I don't mean the front in odd, but odd just meaning there's not a pressure profile. It's not a real structure of a blitz, but then just one guy comes. You could call it like a green dog or something like that, like a dog pressure, where it's just randomly one guy comes and it's impossible. I don't know. I think that they need to come back out. I thought they had the most success when they were running the football. And then all of a sudden when, I know that sounds crazy with two as the second place in the Heisman voting, but I think they've got to run the ball. Yeah. It keeps their defense off the field. Averaging a little under five a clip right now running the ball. All right. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to take a quick break at half and then we're going to get back and we're going to go live back in the second half. So thank you for watching the first half, but it's only getting started. We got a lot of stuff coming up in the second half. And it's going to be good. Bama's going to make a run. Okay, folks, they're going to make a run and you want to be here because we're going to have all the breakdown. We're going to have everything you got. We're going to see if Conor can still do pushups in the second half. So join us back. Remember, keep your phones, keep your laptops, iPads, right by you because we'll send out, you'll get the notification that we're going live. Check back with us. You got caffeine, you got Instagram, you got Facebook, you got Twitter, you got YouTube. We'll be back in about 15, 20 minutes. All right, so quick break and we'll be back. Roll time, roll time, roll, roll time.