FOX college football analyst teases Penn State-Ohio State kick time
While Penn State head coach James Franklin and his team put all of their focus on the trip to Northwestern this upcoming weekend, news leaked Wednesday about the Nittany Lions’ next Top 25 matchup in a few weeks from now.
With a bye week to follow this weekend’s game, plus a nonconference game against UMass on Oct. 14, anything other than 6-0 heading into Penn State’s Oct. 21 trip to Columbus to face Ohio State would be a major surprise given what we’ve seen so far. The Nittany Lions are currently a 27.5-point favorite this week for the game in Evanston. The spread will likely be even higher for Penn State’s homecoming game against UMass.
Officially, the Big Ten hasn’t yet announced start times for the Oct. 21 weekend, but FOX college football analyst Joel Klatt admitted Wednesday during an appearance on Colin Cowherd’s show that FOX has the rights to the game.
During a discussion with Cowherd over who’s better currently, Penn State or Ohio State, Klatt followed up by saying, “It’s a good thing that we’re going to be able to find that out, and I can’t wait to call that game. Klatt is the color commentator alongside Gus Johnson for FOX’s Big Noon game every Saturday.
Notebook: James Franklin, Penn State prep for ‘different’ look at Northwestern
Cowherd followed up with a tease himself, asking Klatt which network will the Ohio State – Penn State game be on.
“I believe that’s on FOX, F-O-X, Big Noon Saturday,” Klatt replied.
As Blue White Illustrated reported in the beginning of May, this game was always penciled in for a Big Noon Kickoff. In fact, if the game was scheduled for a different week, this kick time likely would’ve been announced in the spring, as was the case with Penn State’s Nov. 11 home game against Michigan.
The main reason it wasn’t is because the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry is also set for that same weekend. With FOX holding the rights to broadcast the top game of the day that specific weekend, the network wanted to see how the first half of the season played out before publicly announcing. With the Spartans already losing two games this season, it appears the network has made its choice behind the scenes.
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Klatt had much more to say about Penn State as well, admitting that the Nittany Lions are a true national championship contender this season.
“Love Penn State,” Klatt said. “They are a real national championship contender. Every week that goes by that their quarterback gets more confidence as a young player, Drew Allar; every week that goes by that their defense continues to play with length and athleticism and aggressiveness; every week that goes by that their run game gets better and more physical and that they can lean on it more and more. That’s a really good team.”
He also added, “I’m a huge fan of what James Franklin is doing. Saw that team against Illinois. Did they look great? No. But guess what? They looked good enough, and they can continue to get better. Now I can’t wait for those matchups against Ohio State and Michigan later in the year.
“If you’re looking at those matchups as a Nittany Lion fan, I would just say that I think they’re much more built, suited if you will, to match up with Ohio State than they are to match up with Michigan. The size or lack thereof of their defensive front would worry me a little bit when facing the Michigan Wolverines, who I already told you in this show are more like a boa constrictor. That’s my thought about Penn State.”
