FOX Sports analyst and host Colin Cowherd has been pushing for Tennessee throughout the season.
After the Vols’ early-season win over Oklahoma, Cowherd even went as far as picking Tennessee as his future national champion come January.
While speaking with Joel Klatt on Tuesday’s episode of The Herd on FOX Sports, Cowherd rattled off reasons as to why he believes Tennessee is a “bad matchup” for the Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round of the College Football Playoffs.
“People want to talk about games here, so let’s talk about this,” Cowherd said on the show. “Ohio State’s at home as a favorite. They’re wobbling. Their O-Line is a bit of a mess and Tennessee’s defensive front is stout… Ohio State, to me, it’s going to be lousy weather. That hurts their great wide-receiving core. It’s going to be 38 (degrees), cold, and wet. That’s a bad matchup for the Buckeyes, Joel. You’ve seen a lot of Ohio State. I don’t like that game for Ohio State, do you?”
Klatt “completely” agreed with Cowherd’s takes on this being a bad matchup for the Buckeyes.
“If you look at the games in which [Ohio State] struggled, mainly on the offensive side, you would point to the Nebraska game and you would point to the Michigan game,” Klatt responded. “And the thing that Nebraska and Michigan had is they were very stout in the interior of their defensive line. That’s the whole deal. And a team that was committed to running the football on the opposite side. Those two teams had terrible offenses and Ohio State survived against Nebraska with a fourth down goal line stand with their defense and didn’t survive against Michigan. So this is not a great matchup for Ohio State, not in the least.”
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Aside from Cowherd and Klatt both definitively believing that this is a bad matchup for Ohio State, Klatt’s takeaways about the interior defensive line and the running game are extremely eye-opening. Cowherd’s comments about the weather are noteworthy, too, but it’s also something that has been talked about and even addressed by Josh Heupel already.
If you’re talking about teams with elite interior fronts on the defensive side, you have to be talking about Tennessee at some point. Rodney Garner’s group has been the calling card of Tennessee’s defense this season with their ability to both pressure the quarterback and stop the run. Tennessee’s defense has had weaknesses, absolutely, but the defensive line hasn’t contributed to that all too much.
Omari Thomas, Bryson Eason, and Omarr Norman-Lott have been strong interior players for Tennessee this season and the Vols have enough depth to keep players fresh with the thin, cold air in Columbus on Dec. 21. While the edges of the line weren’t mentioned by Klatt, Tennessee’s rushers on the ends have also been able to create havoc which has been a reason for the interior’s success.
Klatt mentioned Ohio State’s games against Nebraska and Michigan, two games in which the Buckeyes struggled to run the ball despite being committed to the run game. Ohio State totaled just 64 rushing yards against the Cornhuskers and just 77 yards on the ground against the Wolverines.
Ohio State wants to establish the run in a physical game and both Nebraska and Michigan had answers thanks to their “stout” defensive units. That’s certainly going to be a key for the Tennessee defense to get Ohio State’s offensive unit off rhythm next Saturday.
Cowherd and Klatt’s conversation was entertaining business for radio and TV but both sounded convicted in their opinions. While the conversation did focus more on Ohio State and less on Tennessee, it’s still something that Vol fans will latch onto with the game less than two weeks away.
Check out the full interaction from Colin Cowherd and Joel Klatt on Tuesday’s episode of The Herd below:
