Joel Klatt picked Clemson to win the national championship in 2025, led by star quarterback Cade Klubnik.
The Tigers’ road to make good on the FOX Sports college football analyst’s prediction will be long and rocky, and it will start with a mega matchup in Week 1. In a primetime, national TV showdown at its own Death Valley, No. 4 Clemson will host No. 9 LSU, the program with the same nickname and the same stadium nicknamed Death Valley.
It not only promises to be 1 of the best matchups of the season, on the last Saturday of August, but it will give fans a chance to watch 2 of the best quarterbacks in the country on the same field. Klubnik is 1 of the favorites to win the Heisman Trophy, but so is LSU signal-caller Garrett Nussmeier.
The Klubnik-Nussmeier showcase will be a battle within the battle as Clemson and LSU kick things off at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC, with Clemson trying to back Klatt up and get back to the business of winning national titles and LSU trying to finally win a season opener after 3 straight opening losses under Brian Kelly.
Klatt broke it all down on his podcast on Thursday, 2 days before the highly anticipated matchup between SEC and ACC powerhouses.
“This quarterback battle could be 1 of the best quarterback battles we see all year long,” said Klatt.
Clemson has a ton of talent returning in 2025, which is why Klatt has picked them to win it all. Klatt believes in how head coach Dabo Swinney has built this roster.
“He hasn’t gone that modern-style route of building through the portal. I think they’re going to be a heck of a team. They’re loaded,” said Klatt.
Klatt knows how much is weighing on LSU and particularly Kelly as this season kicks off.
“Clemson is facing an LSU team that’s got a lot of pressure on them, namely on Brian Kelly. He left Notre Dame because he thought he had a better shot at winning the national title at LSU. The problem is, Notre Dame has gotten better since he left. Now, they’re gonna face Clemson, on the road, in probably the toughest of all the openers since he’s been at LSU,” said Klatt.
Here is the full video of Klatt’s Clemson-LSU breakdown, which includes his prediction of the huge game:
When the game ends late Saturday night, we’ll know a lot more about the Heisman race, about Klatt’s preseason national title pick, and about LSU’s ability to finally win an opener under Kelly.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
