Fox Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt has a few thoughts on the Alabama Crimson Tide‘s season opener at Florida State, as well as a final score prediction.
On the Thursday edition of his podcast, “The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast,” the longtime color commentator on Fox’s “Big Noon Saturday” games said he believes Alabama‘s 13 1/2-point odds to beat Florida State were more than justified.
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Klatt began by saying that it had been something of a quiet offseason for the Crimson Tide and second-year coach Kalen DeBoer.
“We’ve been talking a lot about teams like Texas, Penn State, Clemson, Ohio State, maybe even Oregon, Notre Dame, and here’s Alabama just kind of waiting in the wings,” Klatt said after recalling the Crimson Tide’s 9-4 season a year ago.
“But don’t we trust Kalen DeBoer? I do,” Klatt added before highlighting DeBoer’s impressive track record at each of his previous stops, particularly at Washington where he guided an otherwise dormant Huskies program to the national championship game in 2023.
“He’s got the track record that suggests that we should trust him,” said Klatt, who pointed out that DeBoer has a career record of 113 wins to 16 losses as a head coach, including 25-3 at Washington. “That’s remarkable. That’s not just going to go away. I understand that this is more difficult because of the (SEC), but he’s got a great track record.”
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Will Ty Simpson’s development at quarterback be an issue for Alabama?
Klatt pivoted to offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who reunited with DeBoer in the offseason after a brief stop in the NFL as the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordinator in 2024. For Klatt, Grubb is the perfect right-hand man for DeBoer and is “great news” for first-year starting quarterback Ty Simpson.
“What do I know about DeBoer and Grubb? They develop quarterbacks,” Klatt said. “They throw the ball well everywhere they’ve been. They’ve been able to have quality quarterback play.”
Klatt noted that Simpson would be throwing to one of the best receivers in all of college football in Ryan Williams.
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“At times it looked like this guy, even on the outside, could go win a game on his own,” Klatt said of Williams, who had 48 catches for 865 yards and eight touchdowns in a spectacular freshman season. “And there were moments for Ryan Williams at Alabama, you felt like he could kind of take over the game on his own.”
Klatt believes that Simpson’s development as a starter after spending the past two seasons as a backup to Jalen Milroe won’t be an issue for the Crimson Tide in 2025.
“My prediction is that Ty Simpson develops just fine and Alabama becomes very potent on offense. If that happens, watch out. Watch out because the defense is going to be fantastic. They’ve got some real star power all over the field on that defensive side.”
‘This is still Alabama,’ Joel Klatt says of ‘underrated’ Crimson Tide
Klatt highlighted defensive linemen LT Overton and Tim Keenan III and linebacker Deontae Lawson as players who stood out the most on Alabama’s defense.
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While Keenan recently suffered a lower-body injury and at minimum won’t be a “full-go” for Saturday’s game in Tallahassee, Klatt nevertheless expects big things from Alabama this season.
“This is an underrated defense that could be one of the better defenses in all of America. So if you get a little bit of development out of the quarterback, what are we talking about, folks? This is still Alabama. DeBoer has recruited well. I understand it’s not Nick Saban, I get that, and to put (DeBoer) in that echelon and expect what we expected out of the Nick Saban Alabama teams maybe isn’t fair. But I do believe that this is still going to be a great program and a top-line SEC contender every single year, and I think we see that in this opener at Florida State.”
Klatt questions direction of Florida State entering season opener vs Alabama
Alabama and Florida State are two programs heading in opposite directions entering 2025, Klatt believes.
“I don’t mean to be dismissive, but they overhauled the roster, they overhauled the coordinators, they bring in Gus Malzahn and Tony White… It feels so similar to those teams that I covered late in the Mack Brown era at Texas where things weren’t going well, so Mack started just turning over staff. At some point, Mike Norvell is going to have to look up and be like, ‘What’s actually going on at Florida State?'”
Klatt then outlined what he thought was happening with Norvell and the Florida State program ahead of 2025.
“He’s been there for five years, and in three of those years, he’s sub .500. So over 50 percent of the time, this is a sub .500 program with Mike Norvell as the head coach. The rarity is the pop that we saw in the undefeated season… but that was the rarity. That was the anomaly, and now this is a program that’s stuck in the portal. And I don’t think you can build that way.”
Final score prediction
Klatt closed by saying that he ultimately didn’t believe Florida State had the type of roster that could compete with Alabama.
“I just don’t think the talent level is there… And then you start thinking about what could the score be with these two rosters in this matchup, even at Florida State? Here’s the score that I come out with: I think Alabama wins this game, 34-17.”
“I think the Tide are an excellent program, and I expect them to develop on offense to a point where this is going to be a playoff team. I really do… and I think No. 8 Alabama gets a big win early for DeBoer in this season on the road at Florida State.”
Kickoff for Alabama vs. Florida State at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on ABC with Joe Tessitore and Jesse Palmer on the national TV call.
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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: Alabama football won’t have problems vs Florida State, Joel Klatt says
