Joel Klatt on Alabama State football starting in Week 14

Fox Sports analyst and broadcaster Joel Klatt had some harsh words for the Alabama Crimson Tide and another SEC football team on Monday’s edition of his podcast, “The Joel Klatt Show.”

Klatt said both Alabama and the Ole Miss Rebels lost the benefit of the doubt over the weekend after losing both games to teams they were heavily favored to win.

Ole Miss (8-3) fell 24-17 in Gainesville to the Florida Gators (5-6), who still have no guarantee of reaching a bowl game. Alabama (8-3), of course, suffered a 24-3 loss to the Oklahoma Sooners, one of the ugliest performances by a Crimson Tide team in years.

Regarding Alabama, Klatt said:

“You lose the benefit of the doubt when you lose to an Oklahoma team that is 1-5 in its last six games against FBS opponents. You just do it. You lose the benefit of the doubt if one of your losses is against Vanderbilt and Vanderbilt lost to Georgia State.”

Heading into Week 14, Klatt said he believes only three SEC teams make the 12-team College Football Playoff: the Texas Longhorns, the Georgia Bulldogs and the Tennessee Volunteers.

“Alabama and Ole Miss, there’s no real path (to the playoffs) for those teams,” Klatt said. “For that to happen, there would have to be a mass pandemic. We just saw this last Saturday, so I’m not saying the chance is zero percent. But these two teams are clearly out right now.”

Alabama fell to No. 13 in this week’s USA LBM Coaches Poll. The Tide were ranked No. 7 in the College Football Playoff rankings last week. The updated rankings will be released Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. CT on ESPN.

Alabama hosts the Auburn Tigers this Saturday in the 89th edition of the Iron Bowl at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on ABC.

Contact us/follow us @RollTideWire on X and like our page on Facebook for continued coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinions.