Joel Klatt explains why he’s ‘bullish’ on Michigan after Big Ten Week 1

The FOX Sports color analyst shares with Colin Cowherd why Michigan football has turned the corner this year.

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Let’s get one thing straight before we start off: FOX Sports color analyst Joel Klatt tends to like Michigan under Jim Harbaugh.

A friend of WolverinesWire, we’ve exclusively spoken to Klatt multiple times throughout the years on why he’s been high on Michigan, but near the end of last year, he wasn’t so sure that the Wolverines could get it done.

Fast forward to this year, and like anyone else, he was skeptical. With a new starting quarterback in Joe Milton, a new offensive line, and some key pieces missing on defense, there was a lot of unsure feelings when it came to the maize and blue, so much that Minnesota was a popular Big Ten Week 1 pick in the season opener.

Then, 49-24 happened, and Michigan dominated in all three phases of the game.

So now, talking with Colin Cowherd on The Herd, Klatt says that Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines’ new modernized approach puts them in position to win big going forward.

Perhaps not beat Ohio State ‘win big,’ but win big, nonetheless.

“He has done a good job — and listen: he’s gonna draw the lion’s share of the criticism, because there’s so much focus on Jim,” Klatt said. “The antics and the pants — although they changed to blue, which is interesting. Here’s one thing to understand about Jim Harbaugh: he’s just now adjusting — and this adjustment has been a little bit late, although if it comes to fruition — watch out. Because, in college football, you can’t win at the top end unless you can score 35 points against a really good team. You just can’t. That’s the sport now.

“Bama has had to adjust and we’ve talked about it. Nick Saban has had to adjust offensively — 35-40 points in big games. Ryan Day goes to Ohio State, guess what you have to do against Ohio State now? You can’t beat them with Don Brown’s defense. You can’t just out-defense them and out-tough them in the game. They came close a few years ago, remember? When they had that overtime game. But, then what happened? Ryan Day sets foot in Columbus, Ohio and what happens to that offense? It goes through the roof.

“Now what do you have to do if you want to beat Ohio State if you’re Michigan? Score! You’ve gotta be able to score, and they haven’t even been able to come close to the offensive efficiency. And what I saw last week from Michigan was the corner being turned offensively. Joe Milton, their quarterback, is an incredibly talented quarterback. He’s huge, first of all. He’s got a quick release, one of the strongest arms I’ve seen in college football in the last 4-5 years — stronger than even Josh Allen or even Herbert. Throws lasers, can run it pretty well. And here’s the other part: they haven’t gone pure spread like they tried to do last year with Shea Patterson — run those soft zone schemes in the run game. You know what they did in the run game? They went back to what Harbaugh does well, which is pull guards, pull tackles, power-oriented schemes. And it all has to stem from No. 42 Ben Mason.

“You’re saying: ‘Joel, why are you bringing up Ben Mason?’ Well I’ll tell you why: because Ben Mason was the guy who was a fullback under the old offense, last year Gattis comes in to be a spread coordinator, so last year he goes to defensive tackle. He played defensive tackle last year, and this year, they’re like, ‘You know what? Let’s, out of the shotgun, go back and be a more power-oriented run game.’ So Ben Mason is now back on offense, they’re lining him up all over the place. He had several blocks on key runs and they’re back to getting that downhill.

“You got the power-oriented run game, a quarterback who can throw it, a defense I think can be efficient and certainly rush the quarterback. This may be Jim Harbaugh’s best Michigan team. I’m not saying they’ll beat Ohio State, I’m saying I’m bullish after watching them last week.”

Watch the whole segment below: