#NFLVideos: Ohio State–Michigan Preview + Top 2026 Draft Prospects with Joel Klatt

Ohio State–Michigan Preview + Top 2026 Draft Prospects with Joel Klatt

What’s up everybody? Welcome to Move the Sticks. DJ Bucky uh joined by our good friend Joel Clatt, the voice of college football, the voice of Fox as he has a rather big game this week. Joel, uh Ohio State Michigan. How you doing, buddy? I’m good, man. I uh picked picked a great week to to come on the show, but I will say I do these teams so often. It’s like the only two teams that I could roll out of bed and just do, you know, someone in the middle of June’s like, “Hey, you gotta call Michigan Ohio State.” I’d be like, “Okay, I’m good. Fine.” Yeah. What? But, by the way, I’m curious about that, you know, because I do with the Charger games. I see the same team. Bucky does the Jags. He sees the same team. So, you’re just preparing for that opponent every week. How do you approach it when you uh, you know, from a broadcasting standpoint when you’ve had these teams so many times? What do you look like what are you looking to get out of your meetings with coaches in a week like this one? I mean, honestly, this week I’ll just be like, “How you guys doing? What’s up?” Yeah, you know, like that’s that’s it. And it’s literally five minutes of player availability. Okay. Yeah. You know, it’s just like how how are they doing health-wise? Where are you guys at? And then I’ll ask a couple of of schematic specific questions just about how they want to attack or or do anything like that. But no, there’s none of the, you know, generally speaking, if you’re doing a team for the first time, you’re going to have 20 25 minutes of like, all right, run, you know, take me through like who are the alphas on your team and and you know, what are they like in the locker room and you try to get a feel for whatever’s behind the scenes, but certainly don’t have to do that with these teams because I’ve been around them so often. Yeah. And and speaking about this, because this is a huge ripper game. I love hearing you guys call about this. What is the thing that you look forward to the most when you call Michigan Ohio State? Um, the utter vitriol that I receive online from both fan bases. No, I’m because you’re a homework for each team. Oh, yeah. And yeah, you know, I love Michigan. I love Ohio State for each fan base. So um no but honestly it is understanding that these games are where legacies are made and we will always remember each of these games and you can go back you know years 06 and and Woodson and the late 90s and and you think of the iconic moments really in our sports history and they they originate from games like this and in a lot of cases this game specifically the 21 game in the snow with Hutch son and a jabo getting after the quarterback. Like these are these are incredible games. And then to understand the enormity of what this rivalry means to each place, but also in the pantheon of college football because this game always means something at the top end of our sport. That’s where I think it differs dramatically from other rivalries is that this one is born out of hatred, proximity, and meaning, which not every rivalry has all three. Yeah. and year after year after year after year, they’re right there up at the top with this being an incredibly meaningful game in the conference and in the national landscape. Uh I I was going through watching some of these top guys as I’m starting my draft stuff and uh tell you what, man, I have not seen a better player than Arvel Reese. Uh going through that’s a I’ve got a that is a top three pick right there. Easy. I’ve got a I’ve got a random one for you by the way. Sorry to interrupt you. I just want to throw this out cuz this is going to be like a grenade. You ready? Mhm. I think he could be a better version of Micah. Yeah, I know you’re going to say that. I already knew you were gonna I could have written that down. Yeah. And I would have said Joel was going to say he’s a better version. Well, you didn’t and I said it first. So there. So I I’m I’m I was looking at him and I was thinking of that was the first that was the first comp that came to me and I’m like, “Okay, Micah, man. Same conference. It hasn’t been that long. Can play off the ball, can play on the ball, explosive, violent, all that stuff. He’s better on the ball though than Micah Micah is. Like he he can be a run stopper. PS, do you see that play against Penn State? It’s like the first second down and he’s just like bam and just throws the tackle to the ground and I’m like, “Oh, oh, okay.” Yeah. I’m going through some of my like some of my first notes that I wrote down, Joel. Um, violent, can jolt, separate, and close. Uh he can roll his hips. He guys he lines you play him in a fore even though he’s standing up and he’s fine in there. He doesn’t get moved. Um he just attacks blocks, thuds off blocks. He can set the edge with one arm. He’s just everything he does is violent and physical. So when I was going through thinking of guys who played like that, Buck, you’ll remember this one. Um is guys who had some of the on the ball off the ball, but then played both fast and there was just they played with a different strength level and a violence level. To me, the Micah thing, I thought he was more I thought when I watched Reese, he was more of a violent football player than Micah was. And so, and this is not a perfect comparison. He’s a better version of this player, but you remember when Brian Cushing was at USC and he looked like he was faster and just more violent than everybody that was on the field with how he played the game. Yeah. I’m like, he’s like Jaylen Walker and Brian Cushing, like kind of like kind of like together. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a That’s a good one. I I even I didn’t go back that far. I’m not old like you, so I didn’t go all the way back to Cushing. Um uh I just did the two Penn State guys that we’ve seen. He’s the best. He’s the best version of Abdul and Micah put together cuz he’s got the offthe-ball traits of Micah and he’s got the on the ball traits of Abdul Carter that get off the speed and yet he plays um gap or integrity much more violently and sound than Abdul did on the line of scrimmage. So depending on need, which you know the first pick is always a need-based pick. We’ll see who who trades. I think he’s going to be the first I just call it position player, non-carterback taken in the draft. Yeah, that’s I would agree. I would definitely stamp that statement, Buck. So So think of this too. Um just to like because now you’ve watched and I know you watch more specific one individual, but Buck, think about this like you know all of us who have been around this sport for a long time. I think I think that we all appreciate defenses that are built front to back and inside out and you’ve got to be good right down the middle. I know that was a big Baltimore thing. Be good right down the middle. You know, hard edges, those types of things. Ohio State has four first round draft picks right down the middle of their defense. Yes. That’s I mean I can’t remember in one draft like that’s going to happen this spring and I can’t remember you guys would have to help me if there’s a defense like that. Maybe 21 Georgia was similar to that. That’s the first place. You got Caleb DS. You got DS at safety who’s a firstrounder all day long. You know the comps are going to be Palamalu and you know these these versatile players that can play on all three levels. You’ve got Arll Reese, off the ball, on the ball linebacker. Sunny Styles, who’s going to be a first round pick. He’s, if he wasn’t playing next to Arvel Ree, we’d all be salivating about Sunny Styles. And then Kaden McDonald on the interior has played insanely good football. And I think that the switch from Jim Null’s defense to Matt Patricia’s defense has meant the most to Kaden McDonald because Matt walked into that room and he looked at Kaden and he watched the film and with a clean slate slate he said okay I can run what I did at New England because I’ve got my Ted Washington Vince Wolffork style player that can line up in a zero and really impact the center because Matt as you know they want to affect the center and the quarterback on every single snap and Kaden McDonald does that and so that switch into what I think is a really it’s an NFL front that plays a lot of odd front, a lot of bare defense and Kaden McDonald is going to be a first round pick as well. I found the answer, Joel. I feel this is what you can see. I want to give you one thing for the broadcast. It just I just want to contribute one thing and I don’t and you know me, I don’t ask for attribution. I want you to take it and run with it. So, I was just going back through I was going back through. So you go to uh it is 2018 in the first round Alabama. Ma Fitzpatrick, Don Payne, Rashan Evans. Oh, so they had three. They had three of them. That’s the best one that I could find. Like going through looking at some This team’s going to have four. They’re gonna have four. So that Yeah, there’s a lot. Alabama’s had three a bunch. Um but I can’t I can’t find one with four. But I mean that’s that’s pretty good. Good. I mean that I literally went to Georgia and Georgia and Alabama are the two. I didn’t go through that 21 Georgia team, but that would be the other one I would look up if I were you. But like that Alabama group that was when I wonder if they were right up thousands of Miami early 2000 Miami if they had the other team Reed DJ Williams Jonathan Taylor. Yeah, that’s all I can think about. The only other teams that I can think with the Miami teams in their heyday, the early 2000s when we just started scouting and those things. Joey, you talked about non-position players at the top of the board, but you know, man, our draft coverage is gonna center around the quarterbacks and whoever emerges, whoever we say. So, Indiana kid and those you have Alabama, Ty Simpson. Just tell me what you’ve seen the quarterback landscape. Um I I love that each of them have played themselves into this position and it hasn’t just been like like oh we think that this this good because we thought coming into the year like Clubnik and Nusmeer and maybe even Arch and there was a lot of names being thrown out Beck even before last year and maybe he would become healthy and these two guys have played themselves into this position. So that’s what I like the most. Then if you just evaluate them, there’s two things that I have a really hard time with. And guys, I’m gonna try to get over it because when I get hung up on a trait or something along those lines, I’ve been burned. Like Herbert burned me, Allen burned me because I was hung up on these little things that I didn’t like about whether it was their, you know, completion percentage or something along those lines, right? So Tai Simpson’s not huge. And so his his stature gives me a bit of a hang-up and his experience or lack thereof gives me a bit of a hang-up because the more that I do this and the more that we see guys win in the NFL and the more that we see guys win Super Bowls in the NFL, they all have really long college football careers and Simpson doesn’t have a ton of starts. And you know, when you look at it’s a much more you’re much more likely to have a rough time in the NFL if you’ve got fewer than 20 starts in college. And the guys that excel, everybody that’s won a Super Bowl since Brady won his first has had 30 or more starts, close to it. Brady’s had like the fewest at 27. Aaron Rogers at like 27. Everybody else 30 plus. Um, you look at who’s excelling right now. Knicks is excelling right now. He had he had just short of a million starts in college football. Just short. So that experience factor and Mendoza has that. Now now Mendoza is a very specific offense with a lot of RPOS’s, but he makes really great throws that series against Penn State, the two-minute series against Penn State. Uh scouts will fall in love with that. Gets sacked on first down way behind the chains and they go four verts right down the field. And he he gets three different guys completions. Noacowski, the tight end. He’s got Cooper down the seam. Then he goes to the back shoulder on Becker on the sideline. Like th those three throws, some offensive coordinator is going to be like, “Give me that guy.” So sitting here now, I think Mendoza for me would would be the guy that I would lean to. Uh but I don’t want to disparrage a guy like Tai Simpson who makes bigger throws more often than Mendoza does. I would also say to your point about that number of starts, if you go back to the Aaron Rogers, Tom Brady years, look, they didn’t play as many games. You didn’t have the playoff, you didn’t have all these conference championship games. So these guys, that doesn’t include Rogers junior college starts. Yeah, exactly. So that’s what I’m kind of getting at is 27 back then is almost probably more like mid to high 30s now because that was as much experience as you could get. Now there’s some a little more runway to get some more games played in there. By the way, I’m just trying to Do you buy that? I would love if both of you Oh, yeah. Heck yeah. You guys to me. Yes. And to me, now that they can pay, now that colleges can pay, I think some of these kids are nuts to go inexperienced into the NFL. You’re you’re you’re to me, you’re stepping over a dollar to pick up a quarter. Like, just stay make okay, you might not get that NFL money right now, but you’re going to have a longer career. You’re going to have a more successful career. You’re going to make all your money on those second and third deals. and the colleges can pay you now. It’s like it’s it’s it’s this or nothing. Like you’re gonna make good solid money in college which is going to benefit you, you know, going forward. I think that’s a it’s a huge huge part of it. And you you’re you’re not going to be afforded the time. We’re already seeing with JJ McCarthy. JJ McCarthy with Minnesota. It’s like, oh gosh, they’re running out of town. He started going crazy like what are we doing? they’re making these determinations on these guys faster and faster because it’s not as much of a financial commitment as it used to be in the old CBA. So teams can flip the page on you sooner. So knowing that I’m not going to get as much of a chance once I get to the NFL, I want to arrive as a ready-made, you know, fully functioning player and not count on the NFL to develop me. Buck, you know, when you sit with Mendoza, he he’ll say one syllable and you’ll be like, “Oh, this is Kurt Cousins.” Oh. He’s got that like football nerd maturity about him. Like that’s that’s who he is. I’ve seen Yeah, I’ve seen interviews with him. I’ve seen him talk. I’ve seen him just elaborate and be very exhaustive with his explanation on plays, which is what you want from your quarterback because as he has to relay all the information to the team and those things, you want him to know it from backwards. All of that stuff. Um, give me somebody else that you’re surprised by like as you’re looking at the college landscape. Another guy that we need to quarterback wise quarterbackwise. You can go anywhere with that’s a good one. Let me go to Indiana. Uh Elijah Serat the wide receiver. Oh yeah. Big frame and I get Nua vibes from Elijah Serat where and forgive me for not knowing this off the top of my head. I don’t think Nua was a great tester. Am I right in that? He wasn’t I don’t know. I don’t remember if he ran cuz yeah he was hurt I think going through that process. So I don’t know if Serat would be a blazing tester but man like you turn on the film and this guy is a contested catch master. So he he wins through contact and as you know at the NFL level like you’re not going to be afforded space. So you better be able to win in a contested area in particular when you get late in the season and into the playoffs. And he does that. He’s a master at the back shoulder. He’s a really smart player. He’s got great hands. So, Elijah Serat is a guy that I really like. Um, another one would be, man, I’m giving a lot of skill guy. Mai Lemon at USC. He’s got JSN vibes written all over him. He’s uh he’s kind of a a JSN style player. Um, yeah, those would be the two guys off the top of my head. Uh, those are good ones. Mai Lemon, play strength, and we had talked about that, Joel, many, many years ago. you know, going back talking about play strength and guys who can be grounded to the catch and guys who can win in crowds because you’re not going to have I mean, I don’t care how athletic and explosive you are, you’re just not gonna be able to get that same separation at the professional level that you get in college. So, you better be strong at the catch point. I I want to How about how about the year JSN has had? Oh, he’s gonna have 200. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. The guy throwing the ball throwing it pretty good, too, though. I don’t I know some people don’t want to hear that. Yeah, we we’ll see if he can play well when the pressure’s on. Well, yeah, we’ll see. I guess we’ll get there. I mean, he’s he’s done pretty well so far. He’s like the opposite of Bo Nicks. Bo Nicks has like struggled in normal downs and then it’s when he needs to be great in crucial situations, he’s been great. And like that’s the opposite of Darnold. That’s a tangent. He got hit 50 times in that game against the Rams last year with no tackles, but that’s neither here nor there. I mean, he had 16 weeks. Um, let’s go to uh the 2004 Miami Hurricanes. Shawn Taylor at safety was a first round pick. Jonathan Wilma was a first round pick at linebacker. DJ Williams was a first round pick at linebacker. And a guy by the name of Vince Wilfork was a first round pick as a defensive and that was all that that that was that year. Not just eventual first. It was that that sprintific. There you go. Yeah, I’m stealing that. That’s getting in the broadcast this this week. Here we go. Lucky coming up with Miami there. Um, by the way, I want to get on on two more players from this game, this Michigan Ohio State game. And apologies to Michigan, because I’ve just done more of these Ohio State guys so far. Uh, Caleb Caleb DS, like I I was trying to think of the best way to describe him, and I’m going back through my notes and I’m like, this guy is sound and disciplined for for safeties, which can be a flash position, like you want to see the big splash hits and the one-handed interceptions. Yeah, he can give you some of that. But to me, watching him and appreciating him over games is just the fact that this guy is a firm tackler. Every he takes proper angles. Everything he does is sound and disciplined and smart. And I go back to Bill Bich saying way back in the day, you can’t win with dumb safeties. I’ve never heard this guy talk. I’ve never asked anybody, but I guarantee you this guy’s smart because he plays smart. Super smart. Smartest defender I’ve ever been around covering college football. Um, just my conversations with him are the same conversations I have with coaches. Like he understands the game as well as anybody and he’s a sponge and he will tell you that Matt Patricia has been incredible for him because Matt will just sit there and teach and they’ll watch NFL tape and they’ll do all sorts of things. So Caleb’s one of these rare players um like an Ed Reed or a Paulalu um that you can give him things that are outside of the schematics of what you’re running and he can execute them. So like like for an example like they’ll give him like hey in this set like if they’re FSL and and you get a motion now this is like game game specific so this is I’m not giving any you know tips to what be talking about for Michigan. So this is just an example but for instance against Penn State um they brought a backup quarterback in that was probably a wildcat guy. So that’s indicator number one. They go FSL and then they motion into the core from the boundary. Two, three tells for run play, right? In particular, their split zone with a little bit of a read. And so Downs outside of the structure of the defense just runs down and blitzes off the edge because it’s like, oh, like I’ve got this green light. And Matt gives him the green light. There’s no other rotation. There’s there’s nothing else. Caleb is just afforded that uh leeway and agency by his coordinator because he understands it and he trusts it and he makes a tackle for loss on the play and and you look at it and you’re like, “Oh man, well, you know, that’s great blitz by Matt Patricia.” No, no, that’s film study on Tuesday night and Wednesday night and a green light given to a safety similar to a green light that would be given to a quarterback. You know, if you see this, look, check into this play and get us into that’s what Caleb does for for them on defense. And then his versatility. We call him the Swiss Army knife. He covers well. He can play in the deep middle. Then all of a sudden he’s in like a rover position. They call it tricky where he’s lined up at eight yards in the middle of the defense. And he’s the a gap defender, which is wild as a safety. And and he makes the play at one or two yards. Uh he can play on the edge, he can blitz, he covers in man. He returned a punt last year for a touchdown. um exceptional football player, high IQ, great person, cares, wants to be great. I mean, he’s he’s a no-brainer. He’s the he’s um along with your quarterback, the face of your franchise almost immediately when you draft him. One more one more player, Buck, then I’ll let you finish up here with Joel. But last one I want to hit you on because I love getting these backtories on these guys that I’ve had a chance to watch. I know we’re going to talk about Jeremiah Smith all year next year and great great player. Carnell Tate is not a good Robin. He is another Batman when you watch him out there. He is a number one. And I’m telling you, like he has got a bounding running style and he gains ground as well as any receiver that I’ve seen in a while. Like he covers ground. He tracks the ball incredibly well. He is a darn good player, man. He’s He might be a better deep ball catcher than Jeremiah. He tracks He tracks He’s got to have a baseball background, man. He tracks it so pure. He is he’s an incredible player. Overcome a lot in his life. Um which I think leads to the type of man he is and and player he is. Couple of things. Number one is I don’t think that we can discount the fact that he comes from this program. Every receiver that leaves this program is ready for the NFL. Period. Look at a Mecca this year. Look at JSN. Look at Garrett Wilson. Look at Marvin. Like every guy. a Brian Hartline is the best wide receiver coach in America. And if you come out of his tree, you will have been coached really hard. You will understand how to play the position. You will understand defense. And Carnell is one of those guys. I think he’s a first round draft pick. And I I would agree with you. You put him on any other team in America where like the freak show is not on the other side and and he’s the best player on the field. Um so I would agree with that. And then his story, guys, um right when he got to Ohio State as a true freshman, right before his first fall camp, his mom was tragically gunned down in the south side of Chicago and he lost his and he lost his mom. And Ryan talks about one how devastating that moment is obviously, but also the purpose that that gave him and and the level of of attack that he then put into his craft. Um, after that, incredible story, an incredible human, and a really, really good player. Wow. All right. So, since I had the last one, I’ve been reeling because my alma moater in North Carolina has not been doing well with the Bill Bich team. So, I just I mean like it is what it is. I knew that. I I knew we were in to North Carolina with you, man. No, no, no. Hey, Joel, did you know there’s adult adult cheerleading leagues? Did you know this? But, but I’m I’m actually I’m actually not going to ask a Carolina question. I feel like you’re having to bear a lot of the heat because people have these expectations of Colorado now that Dion is there. Just give me your take on the state of Colorado’s program being an alum and knowing what it was before he got there and what it’s been like since he Yeah, I mean, listen, fans lose perspective really fast. Um, really fast. And and I understand that. Um, but Colorado is in a far better position than what they were in before Dion got there. And here’s what’s happened this year is they missed on some recruits and didn’t develop on the offensive line as well as they should have. That’s their issue. They needed to make a change at offensive coordinator last year, didn’t and brought in what I think is is a poor scheme into this year that didn’t help the young players that they had. And then they they partly missed one on scheme and on transfer quarterback with Kaden Salters which didn’t necessarily pan out. They lose elite level players and Shadur Sanders and Travis Hunter more specifically and and Jimmy Horn on the outside which they were able to just throw the football around and they won a lot of close games last year. Well, the margin in college football has never been closer and in particular in the Big 12. This is a really balanced league. They got a little bit worse and have lost those close game. you can point to several games. They were right there for Georgia Tech at the end and lost that game. They were right there at TCU lost the game a poor turnover and a couple of others. So, you know, these people that are like, “Oh, this is a disaster.” No, it’s not a disaster. This is college football. At a program like Colorado, if you miss on a couple of players, you’re going to fall on the opposite side of that small margin. And that’s where they’re at. And what they need to do to get back is they need to hire a really good offensive coordinator, develop better on the offensive line, and then have a system offensively that really fits this young quarterback moving forward. Juju Lewis, who’s not going to play this week. They’re going to protect his red shirt. But yeah, I do think it’s like the narrative out there. People are like, “Oh man, you know, like that’s that’s really terrible.” No, it’s not. It’s college football, guys. The margins are really thin right now in college football. The parody has never been greater in our sport. top to bottom. So, that’s really what’s gone on at Colorado. Yeah, that program was dead on the table when Dion got there, as you know. So, people forget where that thing was before he arrived and had a little blip this year. They’ll get back on track next year. Joel, I don’t know why you did it, man. You had no business doing this show this week with all that you got going on. But, um, we do appreciate it. You guys don’t want to get into lane. Every other show that I do, we talk about Lane. No, we’re not we’re not every other show, man. Like, we’re we’re a little deeper than that. I love you guys. You guys are the best. You guys are the best. Appreciate you, buddy. Have a great call. Uh all of America will be watching, not just us. We look forward to your call, man. And appreciate your friendship, buddy. Uh same same. Thankful for you guys on on this Thanksgiving week. I hope your listeners have a wonderful Thanksgiving. And I cannot wait for this game. By the way, 30 degrees, snow flurries. Oh, let’s go. It’s the only game It’s the only day of the year that I’m fine being cold. That’s Let’s go, man. Cannot wait. Have a great call, dude. Appreciate you, bud. Thank you. See you guys. The great Joel Clatt. There he goes. Uh Buck, love him giving us a little time. Literally the busiest week. He’s the probably the most requested guest uh this week because of that game he’s going to be calling it. I I love it, by the way. I have no dog in the fight. I really do not care who wins. But I hope we get I hope we get a slugfest. That’s what I’m DJ. Look, I’m I’m just thinking about all of the the pressure that Ohio State walks into this contest with considering the streak that Michigan has been on. how Michigan feels about Ohio State in terms of feeling like they kind of have some ownership over them. Yeah, there’s gonna be a few little um fights and scuffles and skirmishes and all that. But I’ll put them in the tunnel at the same time would be my advice. Why not? Like I mean it should be a little combative. That’s what we’ve seen for so long. A little chippy. When I was there, I went there one time and DJ they literally fought in PR. I’m like what is going Oh yeah. Like I thought it was I thought it was a robbery like those fake robberies where we see oh and I was like oh they really they really do not like each other like this is really a real my dad’s from Ohio so he he is all he’s a Buckeye fan so he is he’s locked in on this week. I think they want this more than they want a national championship. It’s crazy but I think it’s legit. Yeah. But anyways we’ll see what happens. All right. Appreciate you guys hanging with us. Hope you guys have a wonderful weekend. And we will be back on Monday with Brian Baldinger as we look back at an incredible weekend of football. Uh have a wonderful, wonderful time with your family. We’ll see you next time right here on Move the Sticks.

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