Joel Klatt gets real on CFP implications of Clemson showdown

The NBA and NHL are both done as champions were crowned in the past week, and you know what that means: Football is on deck. Baseball is in the spotlight for the next two months, but in late August, college football will take over the lives of sports fans everywhere. The season will get started with a bang as there are numerous blockbuster matchups in Week 1, and one them pits the LSU football team up against Clemson.

Both LSU and Clemson are expected to be College Football Playoff contenders next season, so this is a massive game. While a loss doesn’t eliminate either team, it would still be detrimental to drop a game that early, especially given LSU’s difficult SEC schedule. Head coach Brian Kelly needs to lead his Tigers to a win.

“Brian Kelly needs it, guys. He needs this game,” Joel Klatt said during a recent episode of his podcast. “We all expect LSU to be a really good football team. They’ve gone all in out of the portal. They’ve got a quarterback back. Experience at that position, as we’ve seen in the last couple of years with JJ McCarthy and Will Howard winning national championships, you need experience at that position. And now Brian Kelly has it, although he’s 0-3 in season openers and LSU, they need this. Like, let’s let’s be honest. I think LSU fans need this. They need to see this program progressing in a lot of ways.”

Brian Kelly came to the LSU football program to compete for national championships. Well, since he left Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish have gotten closer to winning it all, and LSU has moved in the opposite direction. That needs to change.

“We need to start seeing the breakthrough for Brian Kelly at LSU, I think that that’s totally fair, and I do think that we’re going to see that this year,” Joel Klatt continued. “I’m a big believer in what LSU can do this year. I think this is a playoff team, and yet they’re going to Clemson, and I actually feel a little bit better about Clemson.”

Dabo Swinney is another head coach that is feeling the pressure. A lot of people don’t think that he has done a good job adjusting to this new era of college football, but Klatt expects big things from the Tigers this year.

“Dabo has clearly bet on himself, his philosophy, he’s bet on his model, and now he seems to be reloading for another run,” he said. “Clemson is really good. They’ve also got experience at the quarterback position, with the guy that I had as my number one quarterback going into the season, Cade Klubnik.”

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The Tigers vs. Tigers clash is going to be huge for both of these head coaches. The pressure will be on, and both programs need a win. It doesn’t get much better, and it should be a fantastic game.

“I think that you look at this matchup, you’ve got a really good defense for Clemson, you’ve got a quality offense for LSU,” Klatt added. “You’re going to have the home game effect for Clemson, and then you get into the conference kind of aspect of this matchup, which I love, when you get this SEC-ACC battle early in the year, in particular with the team that I think we all, including myself, expect Clemson to win the ACC.”

This is the first game of the season for LSU and Clemson, but it could have a major ripple effect on the College Football Playoff.

“If LSU beats Clemson in Clemson week one and Clemson goes on to win the ACC, let’s say, even in a dominant fashion. Well, now the SEC is going to be sitting there like, ‘Hey, that conference should only get one participant, obviously, and we should get all the rest of them.’ That’s why these non-conference games become so important,” Klatt said. “Right now, the SEC desperately needs a giant non conference win.”

A win for the LSU football team would be massive for a lot of reasons. Not only would it be one of the biggest in Brian Kelly’s tenure, but it could be helpful for the entire conference. A lot of people think that these early non-conference games don’t matter as much anymore because of the 12-team CFP, but Joel Klatt perfectly laid out why they are still so crucial.