FOX Sports College Football Analysts Preview Upcoming Season

New York – This afternoon, FOX Sports conducted a press call to preview its coverage of the 2015 college football season.

FOX College Football lead game analyst Joel Klatt, game analyst Brady Quinn, studio analysts Matt Leinart and Dave Wannstedt were joined by FOX Sports President of Production John Entz to preview the network’s coverage beginning Thursday, Sept. 3 on FOX Sports 1 live from Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City at 7:00 PM ET with an expanded 90-minute pregame show prior to Michigan versus Utah.

FOX Sports college football analysts make their preseason picks for this season’s College Football Playoff:
Joel Klatt: Alabama, Ohio State, TCU, USC
Matt Leinart: Auburn, Ohio State, Oregon, TCU
Brady Quinn: Ohio State and TCU as locks; committee will have to choose from Arizona State, Auburn, Florida State and Notre Dame
Dave Wannstedt: Arizona State, Auburn, Ohio State, TCU

Former college and NFL head coach Dave Wannstedt discusses Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh and what his personality brings to the Wolverines and to college football as a whole:
“Even though he was a quarterback I always thought Jim could’ve played linebacker because of his mentality, his competitiveness and aggressiveness. That serious attitude and his personality is really what shows up most of the time, whether you’re with him socially, in recruiting visits, or whether he’s talking with faculty members at the school, or doing an interview on TV about Michigan. He’s a no-nonsense guy, and that’s just his personality, and sometimes people take that the wrong way. Deep down he’s a good person; he’s excited about being at Michigan right now, and he’s got a good plan. As he gets more comfortable, people will see through his personality a little bit better.”

A former record-setting quarterback at Notre Dame, Brady Quinn adds that Harbaugh’s history is attractive to incoming quarterback recruits:
“From a recruiting perspective, I don’t know too many quarterbacks who want to go to the NFL one day that wouldn’t want to work with Jim Harbaugh. With everything he brings, having not only played the position, but from a coaching standpoint and being able to prepare you.”

Former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at USC, Matt Leinart says the recent incident involving USC head coach Steve Sarkisian will not affect the players, but could put added pressure on the coach to win this season:
“I don’t see it as a distraction. If anything, for Coach Sarkisian, it’s definitely put a little bit more pressure on him to win sooner than later, because there was already pressure on him going into this season. From a player’s perspective, they’re just ready. They’re chomping at the bit to get this season going and put this behind them and move forward.”

FOX Sports lead college football game analyst Joel Klatt breaks down the Big 12 and says he expects TCU to win the National Championship and that Oklahoma could be poised for a big year:
“I’m picking TCU to win the National Championship. They’ve got a quarterback that is the best fit, with his skill level to the system that he runs, in the country. Trevone Boykin is perfectly suited to execute what Sonny Cumbie and Doug Meacham have there, offensively. I’m a big believer that regardless of how youthful their defense is, Gary Patterson and his fingerprint on that defense will ultimately win out, and they’ll play championship-level football.

“Oklahoma is a heck of a football team, and I’ll tell they’re going to have a bit of a resurgence and could ultimately win this league championship because [offensive coordinator] Lincoln Riley comes in, and while he is a breath of fresh air, if you will, it’s kind of harkening back to their past. This conference has been on the forefront of college football as far as the air raid offense goes, and the start of that was when Mike Leach was hired from Kentucky [as offensive coordinator] when Bob Stoops got the job at Oklahoma in 1999. Bob made this offense famous by instilling it at Oklahoma and winning a national championship and then Mike goes on to Texas Tech. Now Stoops is going back to that offense with Lincoln Riley, and he’s got a quarterback that understands it in Baker Mayfield. Oklahoma, with their stable of running backs and Sterling Shepard at wide receiver, is going to have a bounce-back year.”

Quinn talks about the optimism surrounding his alma mater this season:
“There’s a lot of optimism around this team, in part because they’re so talented. To be honest with you, I don’t think they’ve had this much talent on a team in two decades. It’s been a long time since they’ve had this much talk about future draft prospects like Nick Martin, Sheldon Day, Ronnie Stanley and Jaylon Smith. These are legitimate guys who could go in the first round.”