INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana — He's the lead analyst for FOX Sports when it comes to college football. FOX43 caught up with Joel Klatt during our recent trip to the Big Ten Football Media Days at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Klatt talked with us about the Nittany Lions tough opener at Wisconsin, the White Out matchup with Auburn and QB Sean Clifford now working with his third different offensive coordinator in three years. The following is the transcript from our Sunday Sitdown interview with Klatt that aired on the Sunday Sports Frenzy.
(Todd Sadowski)
"There’s a nice trend going on in college football with these tough openers and penn state jumped on it with wisconsin at camp randall, talk about that opener."
(Joel Klatt)
“and it’s not even .. Look, every opener is great. It’s always exciting. It’s even better when it’s a good matchup. And now you couple that with we’re going to see the fans back for the first time in what 19, 20 months? The hair on my arms is already raising for what the excitement level, for what the electricity level is going to be like at these stadiums. That one is going to be an insanely good matchup, can’t wait for it. Gus and I will be there, we’re going to have the studio show out there so it will be fun.”
(Todd)
"The results of a game like that too, fans either panic or they are jubilant, that type of deal. We’re coming off a pandemic year, it’s an opener, they don’t have preseason games. Openers are exciting, what do they tell you about football teams?
(Joel)
“They’re tough. Openers can tell you a lot, they can tell you next to nothing. And they are so difficult to predict because we don’t see them, there’s so many young players, the cyclical nature of college football, there’s so many young players that are going to be on the field for the first time, you don’t know how they are going to react. You’re trying to gel with new offenses, sometimes there are new coordinators as is the case with Penn State and Mike Yurcich. It’s so hard to evaluate what you are about to see. In turn, I’ve seen teams look great in week one and go on to have awful seasons and I’ve seen teams look terrible in week one and go on to have great seasons.”
(Todd)
What do you look at, the four game winning streak at the end for Penn State or do you concentrate on that five-game losing streak which was a headscratcher?
(Joel)
“Yeah, sure, I try not to take or put too much stock in last year for anybody to be honest with you. But having said that, you’d always rather be coming off the winning streak than the losing streak, right? If we’re standing here today and we’re getting ready for the season in 2021, let’s say it’s the same record and they won their first four and lost their last five, I wouldn’t want that if I’m a Penn state fan or alum or anything, you’d want the winning streak going in. I certainly think of them as coming off a four game winning streak personally, that’s how I’m going to look at it as I’m preparing for the game.”
(Todd)
I’m sure they are too, now look, I can’t talk about it with James because he won’t look beyond the opener, but it’s been announced as a white out, so you got SEC Auburn coming to Happy Valley for a White Out on the 18th. We talk about Camp Randall, what do you think that atmosphere is going to be like?
(Joel)
“I think that program plays in great atmospheres, there’s no doubt about it. I know Bryan Harsten is an excellent coach, can’t wait to see what he’s going to be able to do at Auburn but good luck because the White Out is a totally different animal and I’ve never even seen it in person. I used to have long conversations with Urban (Meyer) and he said playing in the White Out game is unlike playing in any other atmosphere he’s ever been in and it’s absolutely hands down the most difficult to play in so good luck to Auburn and I think that’s going to be a good matchup”
(Todd)
So by week three we will see what Sean Clifford will bring to the field as well, a third quarterback coach in three years, kind of a weird situation for Sean.
(Joel)
Well I don’t have any experience changing systems that much, that’s got to be tough. Having said that, I would say he’s got a really good coach now. Mike Yurcich has been around some really good programs, some really good quarterbacks. He’s been around .. last year, I thought Texas’ offense was excellent, the numbers prove that out. Their best offense since their national championship run. So Mike knows what he’s doing, I would just tell Sean trust it.”