FOX Sports lead analyst Joel Klatt was on the call at Beaver Stadium when Indiana’s Omar Cooper made the catch of the year — a game-winning touchdown against Penn State — but even he couldn’t fully grasp how incredible it was in real time.
Klatt admitted on the most recent episode of his podcast, “The Joel Klatt Show,” that in real time, he didn’t think Cooper stayed in bounds to complete the touchdown catch that gave Indiana a 27-24 lead with 36 seconds left.
“From the booth, you’re up a little ways,” he said. “You’re at the 50-yard line, and I’m looking down to the left, and from my vantage point when I see the play live, (I think) there’s no chance it’s a catch. It looks like he’s hitting his head on the field goal post. I’m like, ‘No, there’s no way.’ I see the official’s hands go up, and I’m like, ‘Oh, they’re going to replay this.’ So, my immediate reaction was to go to the monitor, which is why I didn’t say much after Gus [Johnson].”
Johnson, as Klatt mentioned, called the play a touchdown right after the official signaled that Cooper had successfully come down with the grab before saying, “What a cool play! Unbelievable!” with a cracking voice.
Joel Klatt reacts to Omar Cooper’s INCREDIBLE toe-tap catch to win the game for Indiana 😤
Klatt, meanwhile, still needed a moment to digest what he witnessed as he commended both his broadcast partner for the call and the broadcast team for capturing the moment so well.
“He gets the touchdown call, and he goes to Mars,” Klatt said. “What an iconic and incredible call from Gus Johnson, and that’s why we love him. He reacts with all of himself, he’s cracking, he’s losing his voice and it’s amazing. I didn’t say much because I’m going to the replay monitor, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Surely, this isn’t a catch.’ From my angle, there’s no chance he’s bringing that ball in.
“Sure enough, on the replay, we’ve got an amazing crew — our camera guys and our entire crew are phenomenal, led by Chuck McDonald and Rich Dewey, our producer and director — and they had the shot, replay angle, and it was right there — first angle. Bang. There’s the freeze as you’re getting down there and boom, the left foot is in — and I’m losing my mind.”
Once Klatt recognized that Cooper was actually able to make the touchdown grab, he let out an instinctive, “Oh my gosh, he caught it!”
“I had no analysis for you,” Klatt said of his call. “That was just pure emotion. I was reacting to what was one of the great catches I’ve ever seen in a moment that needed it. Omar Cooper, greatness was demanded of him and he delivered greatness.
“Omar Cooper, well done, my friend.”
Klatt also further analyzed the play during the Monday episode of his podcast.
“This guy, he goes up the ladder and he’s looking down after controlling the pass, and you can tell that he’s specifically reaching that left foot to touch it inbounds,” Klatt said. “That was wild.”
The play was the highlight of what was arguably the best game so far of this college football season. Prior to Cooper’s touchdown grab, Penn State was on the precipice of upsetting No. 2 Indiana amid a tumultuous season. The Nittany Lions had rallied from a 10-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to take a 24-20 lead.
Following punts from each team, Indiana got one last opportunity to win the game when it got the ball at its 20-yard line with just under two minutes left. Klatt admitted that he “didn’t have a great feeling for Indiana” at the start of that drive as it had only scored three points in the second half at that point.
Klatt’s instincts looked spot-on after the first play of Indiana’s final drive, when quarterback Fernando Mendoza took a seven-yard sack. But Mendoza didn’t blink. On the next snap, he fired a 22-yard strike to get the Hoosiers rolling — the start of an 87-yard masterpiece capped by a handful of gutsy throws and a jaw-dropping touchdown to Cooper. As the ball settled into Cooper’s hands, play-by-play man Gus Johnson couldn’t help but shout, “Give him the Heisman!”
It was the perfect soundtrack to an instant classic — and Klatt and the rest of the FOX Sports crew knew it, too.
“We were talking about it as we left the booth — Gus and I and some of the other folks who are always with us in the booth — and we were talking about where that game and finish landed in the hierarchy of all the years we’ve been together,” Klatt said. “This is the 11th season of games now that Gus and I have been together, and that’s easily a top three, four game that I’ve ever called with Gus. That was sensational.”
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