Joel Klatt explains how Michigan silenced the doubters with national championship

Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt said Michigan silenced all doubters with the national championship and sent all sign stealing allegations into the abyss.

Once the allegations came out, it only fueled the team further and they proved what they could do even without the signs supposedly helping them. That’s how Klatt put it.

Klatt didn’t want anyone to question the legitimacy of Michigan’s national title.

“This team just rattled off four top 10 wins in their last six games,” Klatt said on his podcast. “So why do I go over that? Because there’s gonna be people that want to question the legitimacy of this national championship and I think that’s ridiculous … I’m not saying that there weren’t rules broken. I’m not saying that it didn’t happen … I think that the more you really know about the sport, the more you know about football, I think you realize the less of an impact this actually had on the games … 

“But the less you know about football (you likely think it had) more (of an) impact. Do you think it had an impact on every single play? Do you think that it had an impact on every single game and that they don’t win unless that’s not necessarily the case? Not necessarily the case.” 

Beating the best of the best down the stretch was certainly the best way to go about it for Michigan.

“But I stand on pretty firm ground in my statements, which was if you know a lot about football, you know that this didn’t have as much of an impact as people are trying to make it out to be,” Klatt said. “Evidence is four top 10 wins in the last six games. None of that has any stench of Connor Stalions on it … But what we saw on Monday night, puts that to bed. They gave up 13 points in 13 possessions to Michael Penix … They beat Alabama. They beat Ohio State. They beat Penn State, stop. 

“They did that by the way to have those wins without Jim Harbaugh on the field. Stop, stop. So I know that there’s going to be doubters and I know that there’s going to be naysayers but you know what I think all of that got put to bed on Monday night.” 

And again, if you go by when the news broke, it was the worst timing for the rest of college football, according to Klatt. It galvanized Michigan.

“In fact, I think it would be a lot worse for Michigan if this came out now or in two weeks versus when it did come out,” Klatt said. “And then Jim Harbaugh said something not only to us, but to several in the media that I think we all should pay attention to. Jim said, ‘Boy, do you realize what a priceless and perfect gift this was?’ 

“You gave a team that was already motivated that came back for a specific cause that loved each other that was totally unselfish and you gave them fuel to their fire. You challenge them, you doubted them. You said we don’t think that you’re any good, that you can’t win without X, Y or Z and that was a perfect gift.’ And they’ve proven that out and now they’re the national champions.”