Joel Klatt sees a championship team in Alabama after massive win over Georgia

Alabama feels like Alabama again after beating Georgia inside their own building in Week 5. That has Joel Klatt thinking the championship aspirations for the Crimson Tide aren’t far fetched any longer.

It looked dicey after Week 1, but Klatt watched a completely different Alabama team in Week 5. Kalen DeBoer has the Crimson Tide humming, and there may not be a limit on how high they can climb moving forward.

“How about Bama coming out absolutely on fire for the second straight year against Georgia,” Klatt proclaimed, via The Joel Klatt Show. “You talk about self-evaluation — being honest with yourself, working your way through it, developing, having the competitive character. I keep saying it, but that competitive character means owning up, getting better, and doing the things necessary to change.

“I haven’t seen a team improve as fast as Alabama has. From the Florida State tape, and the loss, to now beating Georgia — it’s like two different teams. The uniforms are the same, the coaches are the same, a lot of the players are the same, but the tape is vastly different. The offensive line is vastly different.”

“I know some guys were banged up and maybe now they’re back, but that doesn’t explain it all. Something happened in that team. And I want to praise that.”

Continuing, Klatt harkened back to Ohio State’s championship run last season. He sees some similarities in this Alabama team in 2025.

“I guarantee you, Alabama is looking around saying, ‘We know what we’ve got, we know the men in this locker room,’ because of what they just went through,” Klatt added. “We just had a period where everyone jumped off the wagon—me included. I was panicked. Why? Because the film I watched showed no effort. And when there’s no effort, there’s no buy-in. Without buy-in, you don’t have a championship team.

“But it’s very different now. I see buy-in, I see effort, and I see a championship team with Alabama. This team, and this quarterback, can beat anybody. They just ended the longest win streak in college football—33 games. No one had beaten Georgia in Athens since before COVID.”

Klatt will be watching as Alabama takes on their next test in Vanderbilt — a chance at revenge on the docket for DeBoer. They’ll square off at 2:30 p.m. CDT, with the game airing live on ABC in Week 6.