Joel Klatt evaluates Oregon’s chance to be a CFP contender

College football analyst and broadcaster Joel Klatt nearly put Oregon in his very top tier of national title contenders, but has them just on the fringe, he explained during his show this week.

Klatt ran through a slew of teams that may or may not be contenders on this week’s episode, including the Ducks, who he believes are right up there among the best teams in the country.

“Oregon almost made it into that top tier of this next batch of teams. They’re the one that I can’t really find a lot of faults in,” Klatt said to begin his address of the program.

“I really can’t. I like Oregon a lot. I wanted to move them up into that that top obvious group and I just didn’t. And I think that the reason is because of the tough nature of the Pac-12. I don’t know if the Pac-12 can get two teams into the Playoff, and so that’s the reason why they’re not in the top tier. It’s nothing to do with Oregon, because I love Oregon.”

You know who else loves Oregon, per Klatt? Their head coach.

“Dan Lanning loves his team. That’s the only reason that he acted in the pregame the way that he did, that’s the only reason he said what he said at halftime of that game against Colorado. The trailer that they put out, the video of showing Colorado talk trash, they housed that team,” Klatt said.

“That was a message to the rest of the country, and Dan Lanning’s message, although maybe subliminal, was the fact that, like, ‘I believe in this team, I believe in this team on the top tier, I believe this is an above-the-line team.'”

Klatt says that Lanning’s high opinion of his team should scare the rest of the country, since he knows firsthand what the standard of college football looks like.

“That should tell all of us something, because Dan Lanning knows exactly what it looks like. He helped build Georgia, which is the standard in college football,” Klatt added. “That, to me, speaks volumes about what happened on Saturday. Lanning doesn’t do that — going for two and the fake punt and the things that he said — unless he’s like, ‘Yep, we’re for real, I know we’re for real.'”

Getting into the nitty gritty, Joel Klatt suggested that Oregon’s team speed is certainly a major reason for their success — which was also true for Lanning’s defenses with Georgia.

“One of the areas where I watched that game and I thought to myself this seems a lot different was the speed. That’s something that I don’t think we talk enough about in college football. Yes, it takes great defense to win championships and I believe it still does, and yes, it takes great line of scrimmage play,” Klatt continued.

“More than that, what has Georgia had the last two years on defense? Speed. They can run man, they tackle really well. It makes it hard on the offense. It just makes it hard. Everything that you get is hard-earned. If you block a play for three, you only get three. If you block a play and design it for five, you only get five. There are not free yards when you play the Georgia Bulldogs, and that’s the way that looked when when Oregon was on the field this year.”

The Ducks certainly swarmed to the Colorado playmakers last Saturday. With their strong defense, which several top Pac-12 teams do not have, plus the skill and talent across the rest of the field, Joel Klatt sees this group as a contender for sure. It’s just going to be a tough road getting to the CFP with so many other elite west coast clubs in the way.

“That defense makes it real. Their quarterback makes it real. They can run the football. I love Oregon. So for me, they’re above the line the,” Klatt said. “Only reason they weren’t in my obvious tier was because of their difficulty of their conference and the fact that they’re gonna have to play at Washington, which I think is the scariest team in the country.”