The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - BEST BITE: Klatt's favorite 2024 teams to win the national championship

Episode Date: May 9, 2024

FOX Sports’ lead college football analyst Joel Klatt reveals the top 4 teams of his post-spring Top 25 and explains why he has the most faith that one of these teams will win the national championship in 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now we go to our elite teams. This is, I have a line now. Here we go. Top grouping of teams. I got four teams left to rank. You know who they are. Now it's just a matter of where they land. These teams, I feel like, are separate from everybody else in the country.

These are the best four teams in the country. I'll be really surprised if one of these four teams doesn't win the national championship. Start at number four, Oregon. Oregon with Dylan Gabriel is a real good fit in Will Stein, the offensive coordinator system. He's got 49 starts in his career already, which means by the end of this thing, if he stays healthy, he's going to beat Bo Nix's record of 61 starts by a quarterback in college football.

Landing is building a powerhouse. Dan Lannning, if I had to buy stock in one coach in America, it would be Dan Lannning. He's young. He's going to win. he clearly likes where he's at because he had opportunities to go to some of the biggest places in the country, i.e. Alabama, and he didn't. He stayed in Eugene, which means he likes it there. His family likes it there, and he has the resources to win. Every coach is dying to be at a place where they've got resources to acquire talent. That's the new day and age in college football. And Dan Laining has that at Oregon. And he feels like he can win there. And you know what? I'm going to trust that. If I had to buy a stock and a coach, It would be Dan Lannning. Recruiting off the charts, high school as well as transfer portal.

Number three, high school class, number two transfer class in 2024. They added the A&M wide receiver Evan Stewart to replace Troy Franklin. Tess Johnson may be the best slot receiver in the country. Running back Jordan James, he could be a breakout star next season. Oregon's going to be a problem. They're going to be a problem. And I believe that they're at this point, the second best team in the Big Ten. Number three, Texas.

Texas is going to be damn good, folks. Quinn Ewer's back for his third season as a starter. So he's going to be more developed. I think, and I was there in the spring, big noon conversation with Steve Sarkesian coming up this summer, and I got to see them practice. Quinn Ewers is firmly entrenched as their starting quarterback. I know from the outside, people are going to talk about Arch Manning.

Quinn Ewers, he in a large, sense is the reason and the epitome of this resurgence back to the top of college football. And I think he's going to have a big year. In fact, I think he's your odds-on favorite for the Heisman Trophy in a lot of ways. I think he and Carson Beck at Georgia will start the year as kind of that. They have to replenish that wide receiver group through the portal. So Isaiah Bond from Alabama, Matthew Golden from Houston, Silas Bolden from Oregon State, all really good players, two five-star young players, Jonte Cook, Ryan Wingo,

Baxter is back in the backfield, Jaden Blue. Their offensive line is likely the best offensive line in the country. They were good on defense. Like, Texas is going to be good. They're going to have to replace Byron Murphy and Devonre Sweat. That's, and they've got to improve in the secondary. Those are your areas of concern with Texas, but that's no doubt a top four team in the country. At number two is, there's only two left, Georgia.

I'm going to go Georgia. And I debated this at the top a lot. So you know who number one is going to be. Just go ahead and put them up and I'll talk about them both. Ohio State's going to be number one for me. Georgia is going to be number two. Here's how I landed on this. I wanted to go with the incumbent quarterback, Carson Beck.

I really did. And I couldn't argue. I couldn't make up for the fact that Ohio State's roster is the best roster in the sport. What they did this offseason in a lot of ways is unprecedented. keeping the talent that they had off of their own roster, acquiring talent not only through high school recruiting, but also through the portal. The biggest question is going to be their quarterback situation,

and I get it. Like, how do you put them number one? But to me, they can be number one. So let's start with Georgia really quickly at number two. Carson Beck, I think he's going to be a Heisman front runner along with Quinn yours, like I just talked about. There's never going to be a question at Georgia with talent. their last five recruiting classes have all been in the top four with a couple of those as being number one.

The front seven is going to be great. It's always great. Michael Williams is terrific off of the edge, likely a first round pick next year. Malachi Stark's at safety. He's maybe along with Will Johnson, one of the best defensive backs in the country. They're 46 and 2 in their last 48 games. That's ridiculous. Them in Michigan have just dominated the sport of the last couple of years. They're scheduled though is tough. Okay, so Georgia doesn't get any favors because they've got to open with Clemson, who's in my top 15. That's in Atlanta. Road game against Alabama, Texas, and Ole Miss, and a home game against Tennessee. So they've got to face Texas, Alabama, and Ole Miss. So the two other best teams in the SEC, three other best teams in the SEC, all top 10 teams,

they've got to go on the road. Bama, Texas, Ole Miss. That ain't, easy? So George is up against it. They've had a lot of kids transfer out. So I'm looking at that schedule. I get it. Their quarterback is back. I get it the way that they've recruited. And you know what? Kirby Smart has a couple of rings on the mantle. And they no doubt will be there in the end. There's not a doubt in my mind. But the offseason that Ohio State had and the roster that they're going to put on the field, to me, makes them number one. I'm going to start with Ohio State, not on the offensive side, but the defensive side. The defensive side. The Defense for Ohio State is what makes them the number one team in the country because they will be the best defense in the country.

I think that Ohio State is going to have as good of a defense as we've seen in a long time. Maybe all the way back to the 2021 Georgia team. This has draft picks littered all over it in the next two drafts. They all come back. They worked really hard to maintain this roster and this defense is going to be an elite defense. It might not be a team that scores the amount of points that we're used to. to seeing a Buckeyes team score, but the defense is going to be incredible.

And when you've got a defense like that, it's going to allow some growing pains for a quarterback, whether it's Will Howard or somebody else in that offense. It's going to allow growing pains on the offensive line, which they kind of have to rebuild. It allows Chip Kelly to get their feet settled as an offense, settle on a run game, and now all of a sudden you're going to look up in the middle of the year,

you're going to be like, dang, this is going to be tough to beat this team because they don't give up any points. The defense is going to be incredible. They had 11 key players decide to pass on the NFL. 11 to pass on the NFL and come back and make a run at a title. Eight of those players are on defense. Chip Kelly's effect on the run game cannot be overlooked. It's one thing that I feel like they've, I don't want to say they've struggled,

but they have not reached their potential in terms of a run game over the last couple of years, maybe since Trey Sermon ran wild in the COVID year. And Chip Kelly will fix that. They're going to be a better. run team. He runs the ball effectively everywhere that he's been. He's happier than he's been in a long time. Love spending time with him when I did that spring game up in Columbus. And he's got the best backfield in the country. Trevionn Henderson, Quinchon Judkins. I know there's question marks on the offensive line. Chip Kelly has run the ball with question marks on the offensive line before,

and he's done it with less talent than Trayvion Henderson and Quinn Sean Judkins. These two guys are elite. Elite. It means the quarterback does not have to be elite. So whether it's Will Howard or or Devin Brown or one of the young guys, the quarterback's not going to have to go out there and be the centerpiece of this team or this offense. And that's an important part of trying to break in a quarterback in particular in Columbus where expectations can weigh heavy, in particular on the head coach and on the quarterback. So there is my top 25. Ohio State, number one, Texas A&M, number 25. I had those teams that just missed out.

Man, I love looking at this. I cannot wait for the season. There's a lot of time until then, but you know what? There's not a lot of time. So that's why we had to get a post-spring top 25. We've seen this portal open and close in the spring. And now we can start looking ahead to the season and start really talking about things that we might see on the field next fall in college football.

Our first year with the 12-team playoff.