Can USC Top Ohio State At Home? Oregon Drops To 4 Losses? Klatt’s Week 9 Picks

Oregon’s on the brink of a fourth loss, and Ohio State heads west to face the USC Trojans. What’s in store for Week 9 of college football? The Trojans’ Week 8 loss to Wisconsin raised concern for head coach Lincoln Riley and his future in Los Angeles. Hosting the No. 2-ranked Buckeyes only adds to the pressure. Georgia’s Week 7 loss to Auburn – followed by a bye – set the stage for the annual rivalry with Florida. While Florida has beaten teams like No. 12 Ole Miss and No. 11 Texas, do the Gators have room for another upset? What does FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt see happening in a wild Week 9? Here are Klatt’s Week 9 picks and predictions, from the latest episode of “The Joel Klatt Show”. Spread: Ohio State -6.5Moneyline: Ohio State -245, USC +200 Klatt’s thoughts: “Ohio State at USC. Ohio State is favored by 6.5 on the road. The biggest question in college football, everybody, is Julian Sayins’ replacement. Who’s it going to be, first and foremost, and will that player be effective? Nobody knows, and the reason it’s so important is not just because it’s the quarterback for Ohio State, but because they have the best player that we’ve seen in a long time as a wide receiver. So who’s throwing it to Jeremiah Smith? That’s the biggest question, and yet it’s not the most important element of this Ohio State team … Their defense is outstanding, outstanding. Their defensive line is outstanding. They are getting better every single week. I watch almost every play, even when I’m not covering Ohio State. I watch a lot of film. Ohio State’s one of those teams. I watch every snap that they play, and the defensive line that I saw play against Texas, which was okay … The defensive line that I saw play against Indiana was vastly different, vastly different. “The biggest advantage in the overall game is Ohio State’s defensive line against USC’s offensive line. USC’s offensive line is not playing very well at all. We saw that last week against Wisconsin. They couldn’t protect Jayden Maiava, and they couldn’t run the football – -17 yards, rushing the football. The offensive game plan for Ohio State, for me, has got to be flexible. When you go into this game with whatever questions you have at the quarterback position, you have to understand that you have to play the game offensively, the way that your defense allows you to play the game offensively. You can’t go in with some aggressive game plan, and all of a sudden create short fields for your defense. “Breadcrumbs for USC suggest that they are not even close to what I thought that they could be, or anticipated that they could be, or even what I thought they were last week. Their run game is 103rd in the country in yards per carry. Why is it different than Oklahoma for Lincoln Riley? The run game. It’s not the passing game. It’s not the defense. It’s the run game. Sloppy wins are the breadcrumbs that I would look at. Sloppy against Rutgers. Sloppy against Washington. Sloppy against Penn State. And now here comes Ohio State into this game.” “What do I think is going to happen? Ohio State 20, USC 10. I am saying Ohio State covers the 6.5.” Klatt’s straight-up pick: Ohio StateKlatt’s pick against the spread: Ohio State -6.5 Spread: Georgia -11.5Moneyline: Georgia -440, Florida +340 Klatt’s thoughts: “Florida against Georgia. Georgia is favored by 11.5. That’s just too many, isn’t it? There’s no doubt they will play better than they did against Auburn. All those mistakes that we saw against Auburn, the turnovers, the penalties, that’s going to be blown out of there because Kirby Smart’s been able to lean on these guys. My issue is that I don’t know what Florida team is going to show up. Is it the team that you know has wins against Ole Miss and Texas, or the team that has losses against Missouri and South Carolina? You know, I don’t. I think Florida has to run the football. They’re not going to sit there and throw it. I don’t think they can be an independent throwing team. They’ve got to be able to run first. And if you’re telling me that this is a trenches game, they’re not going to win a trenches game with Georgia. “You look at that Texas game; they had five sacks and 11 tackles for loss in that game. So they might make things a little bit more difficult for Georgia, which means in a game in which I don’t know which team is going to show up, I’ve got to take the points. I can’t sit there and say, “Yeah, Georgia is going to be up, you know, 34 to 17 in this game comfortably,” and then give up a late touchdown and lose.” “I got to take the points. Georgia wins the game 31-20, and I’ll take the 11.5 towards Florida.” Klatt’s straight-up pick: GeorgiaKlatt’s pick against the spread: Florida +11.5 Spread: Texas Tech -3.5Moneyline: Texas Tech -166, Arizona +140 Klatt’s thoughts: “How about Arizona at Texas Tech? Arizona ranked 22nd. Texas Tech ranked 13th. I don’t know why Texas Tech is ranked 13th. They’ve really done nothing this year. They’re actually favored in this game by 3.5. Arizona has been quietly taking care of business. Arizona is pretty good, pretty good. Since that loss to BYU, by the way, they led at halftime against BYU in Provo, and that was a BYU team that still had LJ Martin, the Big 12’s Offensive Player of the Year from a year ago. You know, like BYU without LJ Martin beat Notre Dame. So Tech, they’re looking at this Arizona team, thinking to themselves like, ‘This is going to be a real test.’ And Noah Fafita comes in as one of the most experienced quarterbacks in all of college football. Brent Brennan is a heck of a football coach. They’ve got some momentum on their side. You know they housed Cincinnati, who just beat Texas Tech. I think Arizona’s got a great chance in this game. “The Tech defense has covered up what has been an anemic offense for large stretches of the season, including last week. Texas Tech has five defensive touchdowns over the last four games. Five, and you look up; they didn’t score an offensive touchdown until the final minute against Cincy. Will Hammond has not played well. It’s a unique style of defense from a structural standpoint, and it’s hard to prepare for. They were excellent last year. They’ve been very good this year. Now this year they’re getting after the quarterback. They’re actually sixth in the country in sacks against an offense that is really struggling. Now, my biggest problem with this game is that it’s in Lubbock because I love the Lubbock crowd. That crowd’s going to be insane, but it could have a little panic to it. “I’m going to take the 3.5 here and say Arizona 24-20.” Klatt’s straight-up pick: ArizonaKlatt’s pick against the spread: Arizona +3.5 Spread: Utah -6.5Moneyline: Utah -258, Cincinnati +210 Klatt’s thoughts: “Utah at Cincinnati. Utah is favored by 6.5. Cincinnati coming off of that emotional, crowd-storming win over Texas Tech. That was awesome for them. There’s no doubt. Utah’s been playing with fire a little bit. They were kind of close to Kansas. They were close to Colorado. They had to pull away from Houston last week after being down 10-0 at halftime, and yet this does come down to matchup. If you’re just looking at the matchup, I’m looking at this team in Cincinnati, and they played a couple of weeks ago West Virginia, who, by the way, has an offense that is centered around a quarterback running the football. That’s Michael Hawkins. Michael Hawkins had over 500 yards in that game, 500 yards. So is Cincy going to step up and stop Devin Dampier and this high-powered Utah offense? I don’t think that they are going to. “So now you have to tell me, well, now you’ve got to get into a scoring matchup. You got to get into a high-flying affair. Well, they couldn’t do that against Arizona, and now they’re going to see a Utah defense, which is one of the better defenses in all of college football. Cincy has to run it well with their quarterback, JC French, and their running back, Colt Tab. They ran it for over 250 last week, but this is a different animal because Utah is a top-10 run defense in America. So watch out for Utah’s defense controlling this game. I think after the emotional win, you might have a little bit of a letdown, even at home for Cincinnati. “Give me Utah 35-24, and they cover the 6.5.” Klatt’s straight-up pick: UtahKlatt’s pick against the spread: Utah -6.5 Spread: Oregon -3.5Moneyline: Oregon -175, Northwestern +145 Klatt’s thoughts: “Northwestern at Oregon. Oregon is favored by 3.5 in Eugene. Things are not going great. I was surprised to see this line. To be honest with you, Oregon just fired their offensive coordinator, Drew Mehringer. Jay Johnson, who was an analyst, is going to take over. He’s been an OC before. He was the OC at Michigan State, and also at Colorado in his past. Is it going to get fixed just by a coordinator? It might. It might. They’re banged up at wide receiver. They had discipline issues at wide receiver. We’ll see. They like Evan Stewart. That whole saga off the field. Is he going to be out there? Jeremiah McClellan is still out with a foot injury. I think the game is actually more about Northwestern than it is Oregon, and the reason I say that is because Northwestern is buttoned up. David Braun is a hell of a football coach. “Chip Kelly has done a marvelous job as the offensive coordinator for Northwestern. His creativity, he’s running kind of almost a wing-t, almost an academy-esque style of offense that is very difficult to prepare for because of its unique nature and everything that you have to stop, all the different directions that the ball can go, the reads that are taking place, almost an option-style attack. Aidan Chiles is playing phenomenal football, he’s been great for them at QB. He’s been excellent. He’s going to be motivated to play well in this game. “And then I look at Oregon, and I’m like, how much do they have here? It’s not about their talent anymore. It’s about their buy-in. What buy-in am I getting from the Oregon Ducks? Because it’s going to need to be significant on the defensive side to stop that rushing attack and the unique nature of that rushing attack for Northwestern. It takes an incredible amount of discipline and commitment to go in there and stop a rushing attack like Northwestern has. I think that they’re going to need to play one of their better games, if not their best game, to beat a Northwestern team that will not beat themselves. Curt Cignetti tells me this in our meetings all the time. In order to win the game, you first have to lose the game. Northwestern doesn’t lose games. You might beat them, but they don’t lose games. I think that’s an important distinction. “So I’m going Northwestern 24-20.” Klatt’s straight-up pick: NorthwesternKlatt’s pick against the spread: Northwestern +3.5