Joel Klatt picks Alabama over Michigan in the Rose Bowl

Picking Alabama over Michigan makes sense to the non biased observer... Until Michigan wins a bowl game, taking Bama to win makes sense.

When we win, it will be great though.

who cares.

everyone forgot every shitty game Alabama has played, somehow. Like the Auburn game, just recently!

They are uneven and can be exposed. 

Sure, they have a lot of good players. But this is probably the worst playoff Bama team.

Michigan will win. I think it will be like 27-10. Milroe will have like three interceptions.

Unless we unleash JJ's legs and punish them for not having a spy, I have serious concerns about moving the ball. If we replicate the LSU game plan (which I doubt Alabama would expect) I absolutely love our chances. Jayden Daniels had 400 yards of offense in three quarters. Though it's not talked about as much, better Saban teams have struggled with good dual threat QBs.

Also, our offense has been pretty "meh" since the second quarter of the Purdue game. That offense against Iowa didn't look great before the Semaj injury either. Yes, we've been in control in more of our games, but we're putting a lot of stock in JJ's injury, while at the same time, his legs (and increased chance of injury) are probably the key to victory. I worry JH is going to try and pound the ball 40 times to victory.

I don't find a Klatt on either roster. His opinion isn't going to change a thing. Just win.

That's fine to predict and I really respect Joel. 

That being said....This Alabama team is getting the benefit of the doubt because of their most recent win against Georgia(and it was a big one!). Odd that people aren't talking about:

1) The 4th and 31 Hail Mary prayer that they needed to beat 6-6 Auburn the game before Georgia

2) Only a 3-point win over 4-8 Arkansas

3) A double-digit loss at home to Texas

4) Bama being tied with USF at halftime

Bama is a great team, but they sure haven't had a "Bama" year.

Everyone is picking Alabama. Everyone.

Yet the line still sits at UM -1.5.

Michigan wins by 2.

It’s good to be the underdog sometimes…

Michigan is going to add insult to insult when Alex Orji turns in a game-winning supporting performance.

Good.  I don't like being the favorite in games like this.

I recognize that there are still some unknowns with Michigan on the ground but I keep hearing people act like Michigan's SP+ #10 offense is poor and ill-prepared to play Alabama (even though Michigan has played the #2, 3, and 4 defenses in the country and they play #1 in practice every day) while Alabama's #11 offense is poised to explode despite the Tide rather consistently struggling all year when they played a top-level defense - see their struggles against Texas, Texas A&M, and Georgia moving the ball consistently. 

Michigan got a short field thanks to the Morgan punt return and a fumble and otherwise that's basically the yardage difference between UM and Alabama in their conference championship games.  Case in point - Michigan's starting field position was their own 38 on 14 drives while Alabama's was their own 29 on 11 drives.  

Alabama is a good team but Michigan has been so dominant for basically the whole year that people assume they don't have 3rd and 4th gear because they rarely have to slip into it, while teams like Alabama that have had to dig deeper into their bag against inferior opponents are presumed to still have deeper to go when there's little evidence they haven't already hit their limits.  Now, that maybe means Alabama still wins this game, but all year Michigan has met every challenge thrown at them and I'm not sold that "big guy who's a great athlete with an inaccurate arm" is some insurmountable mountain for them.

I'm superstitious. Just like with Ohio State, I've been doing online Magic Eight Ball once a day for the past 2 weeks. The question is: Will Michigan Football beat Alabama? After the game, I'll tell you what the answers have been and we'll see whether they were right. 

Hard to argue with him, I think Bama wins as well.

I expect everyone to pick against Michigan. Let them. It’s understandable but this game is not going to be a walkover by either team unless the bowl curse on Michigan jumps up big time here- slow start, fall behind and have to play catchup which is not their game. Keep big plays down, grind it on offense and dictate the pace. Hopefully Michigan can play well on grass which they haven’t played on all year (except for Penn st?). Bama has played on grass all year almost every game. May be a factor.

We get the last say when we win…

Go Blue!!

i think Klatt is the best analyst out there.

Have no issues with him picking Bama; its going to be a close game and you have to pick somebody..

Its going to come down to TOs and someone making a big play. Milroe, for all his inconsistencies can make those plays and has playmakers Michigan does not (outside of TE). JJ is going to need a big time game like versus TCU; a conservative game call will not win this game imo.

no risk it, no biscuit

It's basically JJ vs Milroe. JJ had been held back since the 1H at Penn state. It's time to turn him loose. He will outplay Milroe and we will win. 27-20.

ChatGPT > Joel Klatt 

I love listening to Klatt as much as the next Michigan fan, but there's an additional piece of context that's not being considered: Michigan had no reason to put ANYTHING on tape during the Iowa game after their first score. Everyone knew how that game was going to end at that point. There's a lot that Sherrone Moore and Jesse Minter held back that can now be deployed in the playoff.

The same Joel Klatt that was a OSU fan boy the whole game? At least we don’t have to hear him and Gus cheerlead over the broadcast Monday.

I remember when the sports media said Michigan didn't  play anyone after beating every team they played by 30+. They then beat three ranked teams to end the season. Still not good enough according to the sports media.

What Michigan clearly needed to do was to lose a game and then squeak by in four other games against non-ranked opponents, including one that required a miracle to win. That would have then put Michigan in the conversation to be good enough to win a national championship.

/rolls eyes

So essentially both teams are now solely being defined by their last games then?  This narrative is stupid and lazy. Us playing a snoozer against Iowa doesn’t erase what has been accomplished throughout the season. Nor does Bama beating UGA erase the fact that they barely escaped losing to 2 or 3 trash teams. Do I think we could lose? Absolutely. But this  “Michigan MIGHT win IF they play an A+++ game” shit has to stop. It’s as if Bama has morphed into the 85 Bears in the last 3 weeks.  This is the problem of having a month off and nothing to do but rewatch the Iowa game.

Michigan vs. Everybody.(and now Joel Klatt too) 

Need a big game from JJ passing and running.  Use his legs.  If we just try our regular run game, expect what happened against Iowa to happen again.

We're gonna lose by a few scores. You really do need the 5 star twitchy athletes to win it all and beat the top tier teams with big time NIL programs.

On CBS, Neuheisel just put up a side by side of JJ's stats before and after Stalions resigned.

Though Stalions was suspended before the MSU game (and the story broke before the MSU game), CBS decided to use the resignation as the cutoff point. This means that the MSU stats count in the "before" column.

They're probably very sad that Stalions resigned the day before the Purdue game, because he threw for 335 yards that day--easily his season-high.

Then of course Neuheisel says "draw your own conclusions" without mentioning that the last four games were against literally the 4 best teams we faced all year.

It's funny because the Stalions advantage throughout the year was all about how it helped our defense, but recently the focus has been on how it helped JJ. Not even our offense, but JJ specifically.

Just win 

Klatt has been pro OSU this season. I'm not surprised by this take.

Michigan held too many plays this year. Reason could be to prevent injuries, ie JJ running the ball and Blake and Donovan getting too many carries. 

Another example was Sharrone running the ball every play in the second half vs PSU. It worked, we won and they couldn't stop us. Regardless, Michigan went 13-0 this season, again.

Hopefully, Sharrone and Harbaugh will open up the play book in Pasadena and shock all of us.

Let’s all hope that Corso picks Bama…

Joel knows ball.

Bama 26-17.

Our O line hasn’t been great for most of the year. I have a bad feeling about them and Bamas dline. Let’s hope we can get some screens or something going to soften up that pressure. If not we’re screwed. 

I hope the team plays fast and loose.  Beating Ohio was the key to the year, to shut those whiners up and prove the past two years were not about signs, but about talent and coaching.  It’s all gravy since then, so go out, have fun, and let it rip.  This is not a virtually  unbeatable Alabama team.  Took a miracle for them to beat Auburn.  Lot of close games during the year.

Enjoy Joel's takes, but surprised he weights the last game each team played so heavily.  A lot changes from week to week in a football season. These are still 20 yr olds, so who knows which version of these teams show up. Nothing predictable about this outcome.

Last year he picked Michigan over TCU. Hope he's wrong again.