Joel Klatt has seen a lot of Michigan football over the years, and he admits this year may be different — but still kind of the same.
On his post-spring game reaction video on the Wolverines, Klatt noted that while the coaching staff and personnel will look a lot different, the mission and tactics used to achieve said mission are the same.
There are some returning players expected to carry the load, such as Will Johnson, Kenneth Grant, Mason Graham, Colston Loveland and Donovan Edwards. But if the maize and blue want to return to the College Football Playoff and continue building on the past three years, some players previously unknown to the national audience will have to step up.
On Tuesday, Klatt shared three Michigan football players who could step up based on what he saw from the field on Saturday.
“Who are some of the guys that maybe you don’t know about that really impressed me on Saturday?” Klatt said. “On the edge, a guy named TJ Guy — not just a guy, but TJ Guy. A sack, good pressure throughout. A big reason they were successful was the fact that they could rotate throughout the defensive line, specifically at the edges. So TJ Guy in rotation is going to be important. Now is he going to be asked to be in a star, leading role, get 10 sacks? No. But if he’s a guy that can have production, can be on the field in critical moments against big opponents, that’s going to help them become a bigger defense overall, because then the starters — like Josaiah Stewart — won’t have to play the kinds of snaps he would otherwise have to play. So a guy like TJ Guy would be very important.
“How about Zeke Berry? He flashed in Saturday’s game. Coach Moore talked about it with me on the field. Charles Woodson was talking about it as well. He was constantly around the ball and he’s going to looking to fill that role that was left, a huge gaping hole by Mike Sainristil, who’s one of the best defenders not only on their team but in the country. I think towards the end, I would categorize him as the best defender on the best defense in college football. You’re gonna have to replace that guy. Zeke Berry made a lot of plays on that defense on Saturday and he’s a guy that they’ll really be looking to to be productive next year.
“On the offensive side, it’s going to be important that they have a second tight end. Because Colston Loveland is probably the best tight end in the country. They need a second because of their philosophy, their structure, the way they like to run offense. They want to be in 12 personnel — one back, two tight ends. So they need another tight end. Watch out for Marlin Klein. Marlin Klein is a guy that played a lot of soccer in his youth, is fairly new to football, so again, he’s perfect for this development structure that Michigan has. And grew up in Germany. He’s fast. He had four catches on Saturday. Didn’t really get out but they say he may be one of the fastest players on the team. His emergence will be huge. If you can flex out Colston Loveland and guy that can run 4..4, 4.35 in a guy like Marlin Klein? That’s dangerous! And that’s very dangerous in an offense that could feature a running quarterback.”
Where does Bryce Young rank against other recent No. 1 overall QB prospects since 2012
When it comes to the NFL draft there is no such thing as a surefire selection, especially at the quarterback position. I mean shoot, look no further than this year’s Super Bowl which featured the San Fransisco 49ers and their Quarterback Brock Purdy who was Mr. Irrelevant just two seasons ago. Even as good as we’ve known Patrick Mahomes to be, nobody thought his career would look anything like this coming out of college as he fell to No. 10 in the draft.
The 2024 NFL draft is already being widely regarded as one of the most talented drafts in recent memory with several players already being considered generational talents such as Marvin Harrison Jr. and Brock Bowers. However, it is the quarterbacks in this year’s class that have the attention of the NFL scouts.
UNC’s Drake Maye have been considered a generational prospect for the past two or three years now, LSU’s Jayden Daniels is coming off of a Heisman Trophy, Washington’s Michael Penix finished second in the Heisman race and led the Huskies to a national title appearance, Oregon’s Bo Nix just broke the NCAA record for most career starts in college football history and Michigan’s JJ McCarthy is coming off of a national title victory just to name a few.
However, USC’s Caleb Williams has been the apple of everyone’s eyes as the most heralded prospect in recent memory. Joel Klatt of FOX Sports ranked all of the Quarterback prospects since 2012 and he ranked Williams as No. 1. He had former Alabama quarterback [autotag]Bryce Young[/autotag] on the list as No. 5. So, despite as ugly as the Panthers season was, remember there is still a lot to love about Young’s game.
If I were to rank, as prospects, the QBs since 2012 (Andrew Luck, RGIII) here is how they would stack up 1) Caleb Williams 2) Trevor Lawrence 3) Joe Burrow 4) Drake Maye 5) Bryce Young *note: evaluation of Mahomes was difficult & no QB had suceeded from that offense prior)
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NFL draft analyst Trent Klatt ranks Caleb Williams as the best QB prospect since Andrew Luck
Scouting NFL players is an extremely difficult task that sometimes feels like a completely guessing game, but scouting the quarterback position in particular is one of the most difficult things in all of sports. The number of hits or misses from teams drafting a quarterback falls in the negative range; even when quarterbacks are considered “can’t miss,” there is always that chance of missing something that just doesn’t translate to the next level.
On Wednesday, NFL draft expert Joel Klatt made in a bold claim in regards to the top quarterback from this upcoming class, ranking Caleb Williams as the best prospect at the position in 12 years.
If I were to rank, as prospects, the QBs since 2012 (Andrew Luck, RGIII) here is how they would stack up 1) Caleb Williams 2) Trevor Lawrence 3) Joe Burrow 4) Drake Maye 5) Bryce Young *note: evaluation of Mahomes was difficult & no QB had suceeded from that offense prior)
Even with the obvious high level skillset of Caleb Williams, calling him the best quarterback in over a decade given the ones that have come out is quite the claim. Williams does seem to hold a unanimous consensus as the top quarterback in this class, and it is interesting to see some experts come out and show just how highly they think of him.
If Williams is half as good as the analysts are praising him to be, it becomes a no-brainer pick for the Chicago Bears at the number one overall selection. Though we have seen before what can happen to even the best of the quarterback prospects who take their talents to the next level, it’s never an exact science.
Fox Sports’ Analyst Joel Klatt projects that Oregon Ducks quarterback Bo Nix would be a perfect fit for the Denver Broncos.
With the 2024 NFL Draft coming up in a couple of months, the next several weeks will be filled with the pre-draft process as players around the nation work to up their draft stock and convince prospective teams to take a chance on them in April.
There are a number of former Oregon Ducks who fit that bill, several of whom went through the Senior Bowl process, and have been invited to the NFL Combine later this month. The most prominent figure is quarterback Bo Nix, who is coming off of a historic season in Eugene that saw him finish as a Heisman Trophy finalist. A lot of draft analysts are conflicted on where Nix will end up getting drafted, with some projecting him as an early first-rounder, while others think he could fall into the second or even the third-round.
One analyst who has seen a lot of Nix’s games over the year, both at Oregon and Auburn, is Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt. He recently gave his opinion of where Nix should get drafted on the Joel Klatt Show, saying that the Denver Broncos make a lot of sense at No. 12.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kiupGnz_XCc
“The guy that I think fits best in that mold as an experienced, smart, point guard-style, accurate passer, ball in the right spot at the right moment is Bo Nix from Oregon,” Klatt said. “I like Bo Nix to Denver at 12.”
The Broncos are currently in a bit of a transition phase after moving off of Russell Wilson last year. While they have Jarrett Stidham on the roster, there is a strong belief that they will take a QB in the draft this year, or go the free agency route otherwise.
“Nix at No. 12 makes so much sense to me for Denver because of the fit of his style, what his strengths are, and what Sean Payton wants out of the quarterback.”
The QBs in this 2024 class are very talented, with guys like Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, and Drake Maye leading things at the top. Nix is currently thought to be behind those three, grouped with passers like Michael Penix Jr. and J.J. McCarthy.
There will be a lot of scouting opportunities for NFL teams over the next several weeks, with the combine and Oregon’s Pro Day soon after. We will see what the Ducks’ QB is able to do with his draft stock during that process.
Some really good, in-depth thoughts from the best in the business. #GoBlue
There’s been a changing of the guard in Ann Arbor. Jim Harbaugh returned to the NFL, and Michigan football hired offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore as his replacement.
And if nothing else, Moore has one big fan in his corner: Fox Sports color commentator Joel Klatt.
Though Moore has big shoes to fill, Klatt believes the Wolverines made the right move, namely because of what he was able to do in the four games he coached for the maize and blue in 2023 when Harbaugh was suspended.
“Sherrone Moore is announced as the new head coach for the Michigan Wolverines. This was a no-brainer,” Klatt said. “That’s my first thought overall is that this is exactly what should happen and what was going to happen. And they superseded that law about the seven days and they’ve done that before. That’s why it was so surprising when that was a topic after Jim Harbaugh left for the Chargers, but they get it done. And Sherrone Moore is the new head coach. Everybody knew this was going to happen. You don’t do what he was able to do this year as the acting head coach and some of their biggest games and not get this job in particular with the culture that they’ve built. They built something so special at Michigan as the national champions, right? I mean, we didn’t think that was going to happen really, did we? And yet it did happen. And so you want to continue that. Jim Harbaugh has built something that has legs and is sustainable. And now that sustained effort is going to be handed to Sherrone Moore.”
Though there are pundits who exclaim Michigan should have perhaps done more of a national search, Klatt disagrees, saying this move the same as hiring Ryan Day was for Ohio State or hiring Lincoln Riley was for Oklahoma.
“So he’s going to get that five-year deal. He’s going to start about five and a half million. That’s absolutely in line with where he probably should be,” Klatt said. “It’s about what Ryan Day got when he first got the job at Ohio State right around Lincoln Riley when he first got the job at Oklahoma and even Steve’s first contract at Texas, down there with Steve Sarkisian. Now they’ve since got bigger deals, and rightly so because they had a lot of success. I do think Sherrone Moore is going to have a lot of success. But the first thought, as I already laid out is that this was a no-brainer. And the first element of that is that he did prove it. So we got to see this. He didn’t have to go into a job interview and say this is what I would do if I was the head coach. They got to see it in practice and they got to see it.
“And some of the biggest games that Michigan had in particular down the stretch. You look at the four games that he was the acting head coach Bowling Green early in that first suspension for Jim Harbaugh, and then later in the year, right when they are like up against it. Games in November are the ones we remember. And they went a road game against a top-10 Penn State team. They went a road game against Maryland. And then he beats the Ohio State Buckeyes. That’s the job interview. You didn’t have to have a job interview to look at what he was able to do and immediately know that he was going to going to be the coach and he did a great job in those games. Their game plans were terrific. His adjustment against Penn State was outstanding when he realized that they weren’t gonna be able to block the pass rush for Penn State and what did he do? He got big, put extra offensive linemen on the field and immediately ran the ball 32 straight times to close out the game. Incredible, incredible adjustment as the acting head coach and the play caller. More on that in just a little bit.
“The second part of me you know that looks at this from a no-brainer standpoint is the stability. If this offseason has proven anything, it’s that no program in the country is immune from the chaos that ensues with a coaching change. No program. Look at Alabama as the case study. Nick Saban walks away and retires as the greatest in the history of our sport, and immediately chaos ensued, even in Alabama. So the fact that Michigan could do this with a guy that has been in this program and helped build this culture that just culminated in the national championship is a must. And they needed to do it quickly, which is exactly what they did to avoid the chaos that naturally ensues in modern-day college football when you change your coach. I’ve had conversations with several guys, like for instance, Ohio State fans, there have been some that have clamored like, I don’t know if Ryan’s the guy you know, he lost against (Michigan) — what are you going to do? Change like, fire him so that you have to start from ground zero? That’s not what you want unless you absolutely have to. OK, what’s better is to just change — identify, what are you going to do to change and get better and then go do that, which is what Ohio State seems to have done this offseason.
“Michigan gets to avoid that because they’ve got the no-brainer right in front of them with Sherrone Moore. This guy is a rock star. I love Sherrone. I’ve loved meeting with Sherrone Moore. I think he’s going to be highly successful for a lot of reasons. And I’ll get into those here as we get there. But you look at the chaos, think about what happened at Alabama think about what’s happened at Washington some in some ways, Arizona with Jedd Fisch leaving or Texas A&M with the Jimbo move — like it just happens, man. It’s just like the churn effect gets going and everybody starts to come in and try to recruit those players away from those schools.”
Still, Moore is going to have a series of challenges beyond just retaining players and staff.
Moore has already lost defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert. Both are following Jim Harbaugh to the NFL. So, as Klatt sees it, Moore will need to establish himself as the head coach and then make the right hires.
And then, on top of that, be his own man instead of a facsimile of Harbaugh. These things are easier said than done. But Klatt is confident that Moore will deliver on those fronts.
“What is this going to look like now that Sherrone is going to be the head coach for Michigan? Well, it brings up the question immediately, like, is he going to call plays?” Klatt said. “Now, it’s a little bit different than let’s say, Ryan Day, or Lincoln Riley, when they got these jobs through kind of a similar way, almost a promotion from within. And the reason is that they had called plays for an extended period of time. And that was really their superpower. If you remember, this is actually the first year that Sherrone was the sole play caller from Michigan. So it’s not like he has an extended history, even though he did a great job. I’m not saying that he didn’t. But this is not something that has been in his DNA for even four years, or five years, or six years or 10 years. This is something that he just started doing last year. So it’s going to be easier for him to move into a CEO role than it would be those guys (who) in large part got their promotions because of their ability to call plays. That’s not necessarily why Sherrone got this job. Now, is he really good at it? Yes, obviously. And his adjustments in some of those games were really solid. But it’s a little different than those guys that had done it for an extended period of time before they got their head coaching job. So that’s going to help him if he wants to, to move off of it.
“And we’ve talked at length about this, I actually believe in college football, it might be too difficult for a coach to be a head coach and do it well, in this day and age with NIL and transfer portal and the crazy schedule that we have and be a play caller. I think it might just be too difficult. This is one of the reasons why I think Ryan Day has gone to the outside and hired Bill O’Brien as the offensive coordinator. And that’s the evidence that you need. Because this guy Ryan is one of the elite playcallers that we have in the sport. Why would he give that up? Well, it’s just too difficult. OK, so Sherrone’s going to have to battle with that from the beginning. If I were him, I would look to give that up, immediately set it up right away so that you can focus 100% on just being the head football coach, and give somebody else those duties as the play caller. I think that’ll be really important.
“And a likely candidate would be Kirk Campbell. He’s the guy that was the quarterback coach this last year. I like Kirk a lot, got to spend some time around him. He did a really good job with J.J. this year, J.J. took a step forward in his game, a pretty gigantic step forward in his game from a development standpoint, and Kirk was a big reason for that. And so I think Kirk could easily step in there and be the play-caller.
“And then the other question that I would have is what happens on defense, I expect Jesse Minter to go with with Jim Harbaugh. I think that’s that’s pretty likely. So who’s the extension of Mike Macdonald and Jesse Minter, like the defense in a large way is just as much a part of the identity of this program as the run game. And because of that, you’ve got to hold on to both, that’ll be difficult for Sherrone because he’s gonna have to find someone you can’t run a different defense — I think those players would look at you with their eyes crossed. What we’re not running is a different defense. Look at what this defense just did. We just beat Ohio State three straight times, right? Like, they’re not going to want to change defense. So they’re going to need to find who’s the extension of Mike Macdonald or Jesse Minter, that you can bring in and coordinate the defense and keep it on the rails in terms of how dominant they’ve been over the last couple of years, specifically, this last year, their defense was just incredible.
“That leads you to kind of the last thought on Sherrone, which is the difficulty for him personally. And he’s going to be caught in between these two things that are both true. He’s going to want nothing to change at Michigan, clearly, and yet, everything has to change at Michigan. How can both of those be true? Well, because Sherrone has to keep the culture, the systems and everything in place. And yet he cannot be Jim Harbaugh, nor can he try to be Jim Harbaugh. He’s got to be authentically himself.”
Where does Joel Klatt see Ohio State heading into the 2024 season? #GoBucks
During the regular season, we like to take a look at where some of the top analysts in the country rank the best college teams. And is it ever too early to look to the season ahead? Well … maybe, but that doesn’t keep the talking heads from giving their opinions early and often.
Fox Sports college football analyst, Joel Klatt, is one of those guys we tend to pay attention to. He knows the game and seems to shoot straight with solid insight.
While Ohio State was far from impressive to end the regular season and an ugly loss to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl left a bad taste in the mouth of Buckeye Nation, there is reason to be optimistic for 2024. With a plethora of talent opting to return for another run and some top transfers out of the portal, the Bucks are national championship or bust.
Joel Klatt thinks Penn State will be a really talented team in 2024. Where are they in his way-too-early top 10 for 2024?
The end of the college football season was only a couple of weeks ago, although we are already getting closer and closer to the opening of spring football practices around the country, and the hype for a game-shifting 2024 season in college football is already building. Fox analyst Joel Klatt is among the many ready to look forward to next season and he has given his first take at his top 10 teams in 2024. Klatt shared his way-too-early top 10 list recently on The Joel Klatt Show on YouTube.
Of course, these rankings and opinions are subject to change over the course of the offseason, and we will be sure to see how Klatt adjusts his thoughts, if necessary, leading up to the start of the 2024 season. But it should not be too surprising some of the teams Klatt has among his top 10 teams in college football for 2024 this far out from the start of the new season.
Here is a look at Klatt’s way-too-early top 10 for the 2024 season, starting with his no. 10 team, the Penn State Nittany Lions. Klatt said this was his second version of his top-10 list, but that nobody will ever see his first edition created shortly after the end of the 2023 season.
The Oregon Ducks are among the top-ranked teams in the nation going into 2024 according to Fox Sports’ analyst Joel Klatt.
As we continue to watch rosters be built across the nation via the transfer portal, this moment on the college football schedule allows us a pretty good look at how things are shaping up for each team and each conference. Though things will look quite a bit different in terms of total personnel a few months from now following spring football, we at least have enough information to know which teams are making major improvements, and which teams are struggling to stay afloat.
For instance, teams like the Oregon Ducks and Texas Longhorns have been skyrocketing when it comes to their use of the transfer portal, adding some of the top-ranked players in the nation. Meanwhile, places like Washington and Alabama have seen a rash of players leave the team and enter the portal recently after coaching changes.
Focusing on the Ducks specifically, their additions to an already loaded roster of returning starters have them among the most highly-anticipated teams going into next year. We’ve detailed already how both ESPN and Pro Football Focus have them ranked ahead of the 2024 season. As we do throughout the season, it’s also useful to see how respected college football analysts view the rankings as well.
Let’s take a look at how Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt ranked the top 10 teams going into the offseason:
We’re just a week past Michigan football taking home the crown for best team in 2023 after the Wolverines beat Washington, 34-13, to win the 2024 national championship game.
While the maize and blue faithful are certainly still celebrating the first championship in Ann Arbor since 1997, much of the college football world is looking forward to next season.
Though the dust has not settled in terms of head coaches, position coaches or even rosters with the transfer portal, here are which teams Fox Sports’ premier analyst thinks will be the best of the best in 2024.
“I think Michael Penix fits Sean Payton perfectly,” Joel Klatt told Denver Sports. “… He’s the guy that I think Denver should target.”
The Russell Wilson era appears to be coming to an end, and the 2024 NFL draft is approaching. Will the Denver Broncos go big game hunting? If so, college football analyst Joel Klatt thinks they may have the ideal fit for head coach Sean Payton’s system.
Klatt believes Washington Huskies star quarterback Michael Penix Jr. could be the perfect fit for the Broncos. Penix is projected to be a first-round draft pick, and according to Klatt, Penix’s attributes fit into the type of mold that Payton would want in a quarterback.
“Depending on the game — 15 to 30 times a game, he’s asked to make NFL-style, big-boy throws,” Klatt said during an interview on Denver Sports/104.3 The Fan last week, via DenverSports.com’s Andrew Mason. “And not just the throws themselves, but the post-snap read, the ability to throw with timing and accuracy and anticipation, and he did that better than everybody in college football. So, his game actually translates to the NFL more quickly and better than anybody else in the draft class.”
The Broncos are scheduled to select 12th overall in the first round, and Penix might still be on the board when Denver goes on the clock.
“I think Michael Penix fits Sean Payton perfectly,” Klatt said. “I really do. He’s the guy that I think Denver should target, because they’re not going to get Drake [Maye]. They’re not going to get Caleb [Williams] unless they go way up there and give a lot — which, where they’re gonna be from a salary-cap perspective, I just don’t think that they can do that.”
With Payton and the Broncos possibly moving off Wilson, Penix potentially being the pick for Payton is a storyline to keep an eye on this spring.
