Joel Klatt Names Historic Program That Could Be A Sleeper For College Football Playoff

Looking across college football in 2024, Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt sees one team who can pull off a surprise run to the College Football Playoff title like Washington last winter.

"The more I look at it, folks, the more I'm just convinced Notre Dame is going to be really strong," he said in a recent snippet of the "Joel Klatt Show."

His argument for ND as a contender is two-pronged. Of course, Klatt likes the staff and roster in place. But he also really likes how the schedule plays out for the Fighting Irish. First, he discussed expectations for the actual team.

"Notre Dame is going to have a dominant defense," Klatt asserted. "You know that's going to happen under Marcus Freeman. That side of the ball, they returned several, including the Nagurski Award winner from last year, Xavier Watts."

Returners bolster the defense, but the offense gets a boost thanks to a few newcomers, per Klatt.

"Then they get a really solid offensive coordinator in Mike Denbrock," he noted. "So he comes back to Notre Dame, after going with Brian Kelly to LSU. Now, you're looking at this like, Riley Leonard with his experience, Mike Denbrock, that defense — well, they're going to be pretty good."

Moving on to the schedule, Klatt just doesn't see many challenges in the middle portion of the slate.

"They get A&M in the opener," he says. "And then you start rolling through their games like — win, win, win, win, win, eyebrows go up, win, win; and then you're like, they're going to be 8-0. They beat A&M, they'll be 8-0 when they host Florida State at home. You think that's not going to be a raucous environment?"

Thanks to some schedule quirks, Klatt notes how rare true road trips are for the Fighting Irish, another advantage for their CFP hopes.

"Their only three true road games — A&M, Purdue and USC in the season finale," he revealed. "So they go on a true road game Week 1 and then end with USC. In the middle of the year, they only go on a true road game once."

For those reasons, Klatt truly thinks Notre Dame is a sleeper hiding in plain sight.

"Watch out for Notre Dame," he says. "People are going to roll their eyes. I'm just saying, they feel a lot like Washington from last year."

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