Why Joel Klatt is picking Penn State over Utah in Rose Bowl

The 2022 college football bowl season is alive and well, and one of the hallmark games of the season is on the horizon. That, of course, is the Rose Bowl, which will be played between No. 11 Penn State and No. 8 Utah on Monday.

Penn State went 10-2 in the regular season, with its only two losses coming against Big Ten East rivals Michigan and Ohio State, which are both in the 2022 College Football Playoff. On the other hand, Utah went 9-3 in the regular season, cracking the Pac-12 Championship Game by way of a three-way tiebreaker and beating No. 10 USC – for the second time this season – in said game.

Penn State has sported a potent one-two running back punch this season in Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton, who have led the way for an offense averaging 182.1 rushing yards per game (fourth in Big Ten). On the other hand, Utah’s defense has surrendered just 325.3 total yards (first in Pac-12), 218.3 passing yards (second), 107.0 rushing yards (first) and 20.4 points (first) per game.

On the latest edition of “The Joel Klatt Show,” Joel Klatt explained why Utah’s defense will force Penn State’s offense to play outside its comfort zone.

Rose Bowl: Will No. 11 Penn State upset No. 8 Utah?

Joel Klatt previewed the No. 8 Utah Utes taking on the No. 11 Penn State Nittany Lions in the Rose Bowl.

“When you look up, and in [Utah’s] last four games, they’ve held their opponents to 1.9 yards per carry, that includes by the way USC, who had run it for over four-and-a-half [yards] per game in every game this season, and then in the championship game two yards per carry,” Klatt said. “That includes Oregon, that was a heavy run team and a real identity of toughness and imposing your will. They want to run the football. What did they do? They ran it for 59 yards.

“Granted, Oregon won that game, but Utah’s defense, again, is very good. They’re gonna force this game onto Sean Clifford, and that’s not really where Penn State wants to be.”

Clifford has totaled 2,543 passing yards, 22 touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 146.1 passer rating, completing 63.6% of his passes this season. He has also run for five touchdowns. Meanwhile, Utah quarterback Cameron Rising has totaled 2,939 passing yards, 25 passing touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 152.9 passer rating, completing 66.2% of his passes. He has also run for 409 yards and six touchdowns.

With all that said, Klatt sees Penn State overcoming Utah.

“I like Utah a lot, but Penn State’s playing with house money,” Klatt said. “See, Utah really wants to win this game. They’re gonna feel the pressure of what happened last year against Ohio State [in the Rose Bowl], and when you look at Penn State’s defense, they’re so much better than people realize. In the last half of the year, again, only Michigan and Ohio State were able to do really anything offensively against Penn State. So, I’m going with James Franklin, the young Nittany Lions, they’re underdogs by two-and-a-half. Give me the two-and-a-half, and I’m taking Penn State.

“And you talk about a springboard into next year, I think that they can springboard and really have a huge year next year with that core of young players there for Penn State.”

Penn State’s defense has surrendered 317.9 total yards (seventh in Big Ten), 212.8 passing yards (ninth), 105.2 rushing yards (fifth) and 18.0 points (fifth) per game this season. Furthermore, it has surrendered no more than 17 points in nine of its 12 games.

Klatt’s other New Year’s Six bowl game predictions:

No. 7 Clemson beats No. 6 Tennessee (Orange Bowl)

Joel’s thoughts: “Jalin Hyatt out, Cedric Tillman out, it’s going to be a different wide receiver group moving forward. They’ve got the true freshman that they’re very excited about next season. It’s a wait-and-see for Tennessee for me in this game and for next season, whereas for Clemson it seems like they’ve got the quarterback and the trajectory where this could be the jumping off point to another playoff run, another National Championship-style run next year … Klubnik against that passing defense is why I like Clemson.”

No. 5 Alabama beats No. 9 Kansas State (Sugar Bowl)

Joel’s thoughts: “Bama’s gonna win. I believe that. Kansas State also is weak in the one area that I feel like you can not struggle against Alabama, and that’s in protecting the quarterback. Kansas State’s 119th in the country in terms of pressure rate given up. With Will Anderson on the field, that doesn’t compute for me. They also struggle with quarterbacks that can create. We’ve seen that with a guy like Max Duggan. We’ve seen them struggle with really dynamic running backs when Bijan Robinson got loose and had that great game against them earlier in the year. Jahmyr Gibbs, if he’s on the field. Those are elements that just clearly favor Alabama. They’re the better team.”

No. 10 USC beats No. 16 Tulane (Cotton Bowl)

Joel’s thoughts: “Now, the fact that it hasn’t just been reported like ‘hey, he’s [Caleb Williams] definitely out’ I do think that he’s gonna play. I think that he’s probably healthy, or else we would’ve heard more about it. If he’s not, they’ll [USC] be in some trouble, but I can’t sit here in good conscious, and just say like ‘yeah, I’m gonna take Tulane in this game.’ USC should be better. They should be better next year.”

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