Joel Klatt: Peter Woods fuels optimism around Clemson, national championship hopes

Clemson enters the 2025 season with some serious national championship hype, so much so that FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt believes Dabo Swinney and his Tigers could end the year playing in their first College Football Playoff national title game since making it four times in five years between 2015-19.

And one of the biggest reasons Klatt sees that as a legitimate possibility this season is junior defensive tackle Peter Woods, the 6-foot-3, 315-pound behemoth manning the middle of Clemson’s defense.

“The 10^th-best player in preparation for this season, from Clemson, is defensive tackle Peter Woods. Now Clemson is going to be insane. I love the idea of Clemson kind of running through the ACC and getting back to the mountaintop,” Klatt said on Monday’s episode of The Joel Klatt Show on YouTube. “I don’t know if they’re going to win the national championship, but man, I am really toying around right now — what is it, the middle of July — like I think Clemson could play for the national championship.

“I think Dabo could have the last laugh in all of this ‘how are you doing this?’ (criticism), ‘the game has passed you by,’ so one and so forth. Part of it is they’re really good on defense, and part of that is that they’re great in the middle of their defense up front with Peter Woods,” Klatt continued. “I know this is old-school, but I’m a big believer in front-to-back, inside-out — that’s how you construct a great defense. … To be fundamentally good and correct and right, in particular at the college level, you’ve got to be good right down the middle, and that starts with your defensive tackles.”

Klatt went on to rattle off the last three national champions — Ohio State, Michigan and Georgia in back-to-back years (2021-22) — and point to their superior defensive line play, specifically at defensive tackle. The Buckeyes defensive front was built around 2025 first-round pick Tyleik Williams (No. 28 overall to the Detroit Lions). The 2023 Wolverines defense featured two 2025 Top 15 selections in No. 5 overall pick Mason Graham (Cleveland Browns) and No. 13 overall pick Kenneth Grant (Miami Dolphins). And, of course, who could forget the Bulldogs’ massive DT tandem of Jalen Carter (2023 No. 9 overall pick) and towering 6-foot-6, 330-pound Jordan Davis (2022 No. 13 overall pick), both of whom played pivotal roles helping the Philadelphia Eagles win Super Bowl LIX in February.

“I think that’s the biggest reason why Michigan and Ohio State and even Georgia before them were so dominant and won national championships. Because they were great at the defensive line,” Klatt concluded. “Peter Woods is that. I think he’s the best defensive tackle in the country, he’s excellent. He played on the edge as well as the interior, so you know he’s got that athleticism, the bend, and he can be dominant up front in the middle of the defense.

“He’s 6-3, 315 pounds, he can stuff the run, he disrupts the timing of the offense by getting to the quarterback, both (through the) interior and on the exterior. Big fan. Peter Woods, you’re going to be hearing his name … quite high in next year’s NFL Draft.”

Whether or not Clemson is ultimately playing for all the marbles on Jan. 19, 2026 inside Hard Rock Stadium in Miami is yet to be seen. But just based on some of college football’s most recent national championship, the Tigers might just have the ultimate trump card in Peter Woods.