Klatt: Kiffin faces more pressure than Swinney
Fox Sports' lead college football analyst Joel Klatt joins The Dan Patrick show to discuss if Lane Kiffin or Dabo Swinney face more pressure to succeed ahead of Clemson vs. LSU's marquee matchup this weekend.
Video Transcript
Joel Klatt teams up with Gus Johnson, Jenny Taft on Fox Sports Big Noon Saturday.
Starting this Saturday, Indiana hosting North Texas, and then, following Saturday it'll be Oklahoma and Michigan.
Good to see you again, Joel.
Help us not overreact to North Carolina winning against TCU.
Well, I think a, a small bit of overreaction may be appropriate, only because, of how well they played on the defensive side.
And the way that they adjusted in that game after the first three series, you know, TCU scores 10 points, and then from that point on I thought that the defense for UNC played excellent.
They, they didn't allow explosive plays.
They largely shut down the run game.
And if they can just do that, they'll be more competitive than they were a year ago.
You know, yes, th- this might not be Kurt Signetti at Indiana the first year going, you know, 10 and two or, or 11 and one and getting into the college football playoff, but this is going to be a more competitive team.
Remember, this exact same game a year ago was a blowout.
TCU hammered North Carolina.
And so that growth, I think, provides a, a fair bit of optimism that this team under Bill Belichick is gonna be more competitive, from the four and eight version that we saw a year ago.
I think that they still struggled offensively, the lack of run game i- is, is concerning to say the least.
But if they can continue to play that way defensively, they'll at least be in games.
And I think with, with a, a guy that's instilling the type of situational football, and you would think the discipline, they could possibly win some of those games, and maybe they can be a bowl team.
They only had three penalties, Dan, and so those things are, I'm optimistic about.
And if there's something to overreact about it's like, okay, this team's probably gonna be in a lot of one possession games during the course of the year.
More pressure this year, I know it's gonna sound strange here, but Lane Kiffin or Dabo Swinney?
Man, you know, Dan, Dabo, doesn't Dabo just have enough in the tank?
Right?
I mean, like he, he's won national championships at Clemson.
Meanwhile, Lane Kiffin, you know, L- Lane Kiffin makes one of the more selfish moves in the history of college football.
And I'm not, and I'm not blaming him for it, but it was.
The, it's, let's just call it what it was.
Leaving Ole Miss in the middle of their playoff run.
And now he's at the center of this, this eligibility controversy, which is a mess, and they spent upwards of $45 million on the roster, all that money to get him.
And, and you look at the expectations at LSU and I, I personally think that it's not about at LSU, like, "Oh, we just wanna be competitive and..." No, no, no, you, you've gotta go compete for SEC titles.
You've gotta go to the playoff.
You gotta win games in the playoff.
I don't know if that's the expectation of Clemson fans right now.
I think that they would love that, certainly, but if they look around and they really look at their roster and they look at what happened a year ago, I don't, I don't know if that level of expectation is there for, for the Tigers.
So more pressure, I would say, is on Lane.
Now, not necessarily for his job right away- Yeah because it's an exorbitant fee to try to get away from him.
But just in, in the sense of expectation and pressure, I think Lane is under more of it than Dabo Swinney who, who at this point is, he's kind of a legend in the seat.
You know?
He, it's gonna be his decision whatever happens.
What about Lincoln Riley on that pressure seat?
Yeah, I think there's a lot of pressure on, on Lincoln Riley, in particular because he has brought that on himself in, in a lot of, ways by stating how good this team is and, and stating, "This is my best team."
So he's ramped up those expectations which he's confident, and I think you could see that on Saturday.
That was a very different USC team than we saw even a couple of years ago.
You know, they had a, a really good team with Caleb Williams.
We all know that.
But it was largely because of the brilliance of Caleb Williams running around, creating big plays.
It was a splashy USC offense that relied on big plays.
They could run it a little bit, and they did not play very good defense.
This was a lot different than that, at least for the first three quarters.
They were methodical, long drives, throughout the entirety of that first half.
Great two-minute series.
They didn't rely on big plays.
In fact, their longest play was 33 yards.
Only two of their plays went over 20.
So it was sustained line of scrimmage dominance, which is different than what we've seen for USC in the last few years.
And then their defense in the first three quarters was excellent.
That game was, was not a 42-26 game.
They thoroughly dominated.
It's 35-3.
The, and, and that's, I think, more sustainable, in particular with the Big 10 schedule.
They don't have a lot of tests early until Oregon comes to town, and we'll see what happens then.
But I was optimistic for USC based on what happened on Saturday in The Coliseum, even if there wasn't a lot of people in the stands.
Okay.
Is that a big deal?
Dan, you, you've spent enough time out here in California, right?
I mean, I hate doing this.
I'm from Colorado.
I'm a, I'm a college football guy.
I like to see the stadiums full.
I love the fan bases that show up no matter what.
No matter what the weather is, what time of year it is, no matter the opponent, and they show up.
And there are a lot of fan bases like that.
It doesn't matter who Ohio State plays, there's 105,000.
Michigan, same deal.
You could say the same for a lot of the teams down in the SEC who have tremendous support.
USC is just n- not that way because LA is not that way.
I don't think it's indicative of the wider support that they get.
I live in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, and I can tell you everybody is talking about USC.
I think it's over 90 degrees, and in LA when it's over 90 degrees, it might as well be 150.
No one does anything.
You should see when it rains out here.
Yeah.
Th- Dan, like, it, it's like a blizzard in the East Coast.
No one drives when it rains.
So you can call us on the West Coast fair weather, and that might be accurate, but I, I wasn't concerned necessarily with the lack of fans in the stands in a week zero game when it's, you know, in the Coliseum it had to feel like it was 105 degrees.
Talking to Joel Klatt, Fox Sports lead football analyst.
He, has the game coming up this weekend, Indiana hosting North Texas.
When do we get a scheduling czar in college football?
Gosh, I hope soon.
I really hope soon.
I do, I do know, having conversations with the people that, are in the room for the playoff expansion, right?
The, the conversation about the playoff structure.
A, a part of that playoff expansion will be a scheduling agreement with the SEC and the Big 10.
So th- that's what everyone's driving to, because they know that the expansion 12 and, and, and, and specifically the structure and the criteria or lack thereof that the committee uses to put teams into the college football playoff, there is no incentive to play a difficult game.
Ask Texas from a year ago.
They get beat by Ohio State in the first week of the season, and that essentially keeps them out of the college football playoff, as a nine and three regular season team.
So no incentive to play a big game.
So you have to do one of two things.
You either have to mandate those games and schedule the games for the teams, or you have to change the criteria the way that you select college football playoff teams.
If they do expand to 24, I think that there's gonna be some appetite of the coaches that say to themselves, "Okay, well, we can, we can suffer that loss.
We're willing to play that game."
But more than that, there will be a scheduling agreement between those two conferences and probably the other two Power Four conferences as well, where they're playing nine conference games and at least, at a minimum, a 10th or that extra game against a Power Four team, and some of them multiple Power Four opponents.
And I do think that that scheduling agreement will be, as you suggest, kind of a czar.
It'll go on an annual basis based on where you finished a year ago.
So we'll have the best teams playing each other.
It won't just be, hey, you know, Rutgers is playing Georgia.
Okay, that's a Big 10 SEC matchup.
But it's not the matchup we necessarily wanna see.
No disrespect to, to Rutgers, even though I'm sure they'll take it.
It would be Pod A, Pod B, Pod C based on where you finished, and then those matchups would, would basically form the spring prior to the season.
And so I'm, I'm anticipating that, and I'm excited for that, and that's one of the reasons why I've been a proponent of, of the expansion of the playoff.
I'm looking at, the latest DraftKings odds.
They've got Ohio State and Notre Dame co-favorites to win the national title.
But they're gonna take different routes to get there, because- Oof Oh- Ohio State's got a tough schedule.
Yeah.
Notre Dame does not.
So why do you think that they would be co-favorites?
Feels like Notre Dame has a pretty easy path to get certainly to the playoffs and be able to host a playoff game or so.
I, I mean, absolutely.
I mean, the two paths, Notre Dame might as well be on a freshly paved four-lane highway with no traffic.
They've got, like, an escort in front of them with this schedule, you know?
They will be in the college football playoff.
I think that this is a nod to the consistency that Ohio State has brought over the course of, of decades.
They win 10, 10 games rolling out of bed.
Now, this schedule is the most difficult schedule they will have ever faced.
They've got to go on the road to Texas, which is one of the more talented teams in the country.
They've got to go on the road to Iowa, on the road to Or- Indiana.
They have to host Oregon.
They've got the Michigan game, obviously.
They've got to go to USC.
USC was undefeated in the Coliseum a year ago.
So it's, it's a, i- incredibly difficult schedule.
I think that there is a nod to Ohio State because all of us believe that they will navigate that and get themselves into the playoff.
What did they prove two years ago?
It doesn't matter if they have a bye.
They can host a game, be the eight seed, and go on and win the national championship.
And they've also got what I believe is, is a more playoff-ready roster this year.
I know that sounds crazy.
Maybe not defensively, but their offensive line is, is more experienced and should be better.
Their failure last year really was short yardage.
They probably beat Indiana if they can execute on a fourth and one.
And, and that lack of short yardage quality really affected them a year ago, and I think that should be different this year.
But it's, it's a tip of the cap to Ohio State, which has become largely, along with Georgia, the most consistent program in college football.
I've had a couple of different former quarterbacks, Brady Quinn most recently, and I said, "I'm gonna make you the GM of the Arizona Cardinals.
You're gonna have the first pick in the draft next year.
Who you taking?"
Oh, man.
And he said CJ Carr.
I think I would say CJ Carr as well.
We'll see how the, the season plays out.
I think right now I would have a really tough decision between Dante Moore and CJ Carr.
I think CJ Carr is, is the prototypical NFL quarterback, and I think that's where th- th- things can get lost in translation, is at the NFL level you still have to own the game from the pocket, you know?
And, and I know some guys are, are doing it a little bit differently.
And yes, it helps, and is it great when you can do all the extra things?
Yes.
But the prerequisite, the algebra one of, of quarterback play is owning the game and controlling the game from the pocket in particular and big moments, two minute, third down.
And he looks like he can do that.
Now, Dante Moore is an excellent player.
We'll see how Arch plays this year.
I thought he was excellent at the end of the year last year.
But I think my decision right now, if you forced me to pick right now, it would be CJ Carr.
A little side note right now.
My middle son, Sam, who's 12 years old- He was, when he was six and began flag football, they just named him, it was like in one of these NFL leagues, you know, and so he was the Cardinals.
He's become a massive Cardinals fan, Dan.
I can't, like, I can't understand.
And I keep telling him, I'm like, "Hey, man, you know, like, I'm from Denver.
We can root for the Broncos.
They were right there in the AFC."
He's like, "No.
I'm a Cardinals fan."
I'm taking him to the Cardinals Chargers opener this year.
And he is dying for a quarterback.
He's like, "Dad, tell me they're gonna get a quarterback."
So he's gonna love this clip right here, just dreaming of a guy like C.J.
Carr.
I had, a source tell me that Notre Dame was so in on C.J.
Carr that they were told if they backed off Dante Moore that C.J.
Carr would commit to Notre Dame.
And Notre Dame backed off Dante Moore, so they waited for C.J.
Carr.
So.
Well, I think they made a good decision.
Yeah.
Isn't it interesting, by the way?
Well, I mean, Dante's a great player.
It's not like one has flamed out and the other is, is succeeding.
I think both of them could've or would've succeeded, in particular last year with the way that they ran the football.
But isn't it interesting?
And, you know, for, for, for about a decade Notre Dame was really good under Brian Kelly.
Really good.
You know, 10 wins.
And all of us started to believe this narrative that there was some sort of ceiling on Notre Dame.
Like, yeah, you know, they're good, but you can't really win it there.
I think it's, it's amazing what Marcus Freeman has done to level up Notre Dame back to the point where they are recruiting in the top five in college football.
They are a destination.
And maybe this is a product of the current structure of our sport and, and the dollars that they have and the support that they have through NIL and even the transfer portal.
But just the tip of the cap to, to Marcus Freeman.
I think he's done an incredible job.
I hope he stays in college football longer.
I, I doubt he's gonna stay in college football for a long period of time, 'cause I think, the NFL's gonna come calling.
They came calling a year ago and he stayed.
But man, he's done an incredible job.
If I gave Brian Kelly a do-over Does he not use the fake accent?
Is it So it's one of two decisions, Dan.
Is it does he not go to LSU- Yeah and just stays there at Notre Dame?
Yeah.
Or does he go and, and not use the fake accent?
'Cause the fake accent at the basketball game was really, like I mean, was it not the clearest sign, like, this is not gonna work?
You know, I, I don't know if, if this is Man, the fake accent was a rough look, and then he did the dance with the recruit and it's like, ugh.
It was, you know, every Gen Z-er was, what do they say, cringe.
They're probably gonna cringe that I used the word cringe.
But man, that, that did not work out.
Tell Gus we said hello and, thanks- I will thanks for joining us.
I appreciate your time, Dan.
Have a good day, bud.
That's Joel Klatt.
He'll be with Gus and Jenny Taft.
They have big noon kickoff on Saturday.
It'll be, Indiana hosting North Texas
