Colin Cowherd predicts Tennessee to win the national championship

On The Herd with Colin Cowherd on Wednesday, host Colin Cowherd made a prediction that is sure to catch the attention of several thousand people in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Following a 4-0 start for the Volunteers, Cowherd is jumping on the bandwagon with both feet, even ahead of a highly anticipated showdown between Alabama and Georgia this weekend.

“I’m going to throw something out,” Cowherd said. “Those two teams aren’t the best teams in the SEC. I’m going to call it right now. Tennessee is going to win the national championship. I came on this show before the Oklahoma game and I said Oklahoma, they’re not going to score. Tennessee’s got the best defense in college football. Excellent coach. Explosive offensively. I think Tennessee’s the best team I’ve seen.”

He immediately faced some pushback from FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt, who was his guest on the show.

“You’re wrong,” Klatt said. “There’s not a pause.”

But the long-time college football analyst did follow up and provide his own insight on Tennessee, outlining why he thinks it’s a stretch to outright call Tennessee the national champions.

“They are certainly, I think, and I’ve said this on my program this week, they are national championship caliber,” Klatt said. “I do not think they’re the best I’ve seen, partly because of the inexperience at quarterback. Remember, (Nico) Iamaleava, while he played really well, still made a few mistakes, because OU still plays really quality defense. I love him as a talent, and the defense certainly is making up for a lack of blue-chip ratio. So they don’t have the requisite roster, you would say, to go win a national championship.”

Klatt went on to outline that Tennessee is in the mid-teens nationally as far as the composite talent on the roster is concerned. Most national title winners come from much higher up in the ranks.

In fact, Klatt pointed out that even Michigan was a statistical outlier to the downside last season. Tennessee would be fighting historical norms to win it all.

“It would be a bit unprecedented for Tennessee to go win the national championship,” Klatt said. “Now I’m telling you I think that they’re that caliber. But to just state that, ‘They’re the best team that I’ve seen,’ I think that is a bridge too far.”