There is actually some football in Johnny Football’s future and for the rest of us, too.
The season starts in full force tomorrow with Texas A&M’s Heisman-winning Johnny Manziel returning after an offseason of controversy, and a half-game suspension, against Rice. Only Manziel’s stunning freshman campaign, highlighted by a win over Alabama, could have ripped headlines from Nick Saban and his two-time defending champion Alabama team.
The two will collide on Sept. 14 in College Station as both begin the season faced with potentially crippling expectations.
“I think he’s going to be the same sensational player he was last year when they lost a couple of games and didn’t win their SEC division,” said FOX Sports 1 studio analyst and former Colorado quarterback Joel Klatt.
“But people are expecting them to play for a national championship, and that’s going to be real tough with some of the players they lost. … Once the expectations are there then the bull’s-eye is on your chest. So, I think people will look at this season as a disappointment for him, even though he was still great.”
At least Alabama can deal with the weight of that pressure as a team, unlike Manziel who will go it alone, but their task is no less daunting. Though it didn’t garner the same attention, Saban’s success also has bred enemies, and one former coach compared him to the devil.
Alabama will try and continue that success by becoming the first team to three-peat as national champions since Minnesota accomplished it from 1934-36.
“I think the questions and buildup will lead them down the wrong path late in the season,” Klatt said. “People can talk about how Nick Saban won’t allow that to happen, but I’d just point to 2007 when the Patriots were undefeated. Everyone was convinced then that Bill Belichick’s revered system wouldn’t allow it to get to them. But guess what happened? It got to be too big. They weren’t just playing against the New York Giants in that Super Bowl, they were playing against the ’72 Dolphins and they lost.”
It’s not Manziel or Saban whom Klatt pictures winning the national title four months from now. Klatt sees a Stanford team that won the Rose Bowl last year and is ranked No. 4 to open this season reaching glory in Pasadena again.
“They have a quarterback in Kevin Hogan who in five starts did what [Andrew] Luck and [John] Elway never did and that’s win a conference title [Pac-12] and a Rose Bowl. That’s pretty special,” said Klatt, who FOX hopes emerges as the Kirk Herbstreit of their college football coverage.
“Hogan has ice water in his veins He’s a tremendous player, but what I love about Stanford is their defense. Their front seven is the best in the country.”