Joel Klatt’s Preseason Top 25 for the 2026 Season

Who is the biggest wild card in the country? This team could go all the way up into the top three, this team could fall outside of the top 25. Arche was not a failure last year, Arche was not a bus last year, if you think that you don't know ball. We don't think they're right there, they are right there. But guys, there is a clear number one, and I honestly don't understand why this is not more unanimous. There's no other team you can put at number one. Welcome into the preseason top 25 edition of the Joel Clutch show, our show is brought to you by graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support. It is here. Let's go. I mean, this is kind of the unofficial start of the college football season, isn't it? Let's do it. I can't wait to get through this because there's some surprises in here and my preseason top 25. There's no doubt. One right off the bat, by the way, you're going to love this. And then some that you'll expect and then I'll get ultimately to who I think is the number one team in the country here as we barrel towards the regular season. Can't wait to get things started. Man, college football is the absolute best. If you're here, you know that. So let's get started. Okay. Full disclosure, I had a quiet debate in my own head and with the group here, about 25. And you're never going to believe the two teams that I was debating between at 25. I was debating between UCLA and Oklahoma State at 25. That's right. One of those teams is going to be in my top 25 and here's, here's the one I landed on. And partly because I just think that their schedule is going to be easier because of their conference and that's Oklahoma State. I landed on Oklahoma State. They're 25 in my preseason top 25. How often do you see a team that went one in 11 start out in the top 25? Welcome to the new modern age of college football. Listen, I keep telling you guys that this is better than it used to be and I kind of improving it here. Right. There's so much turnover that you can immediately turn your fortune around. And I think Oklahoma State is going to be able to do that. I really do. Mike Gundy, great coach, great coach, 21 years. So many 10 win seasons, a guy that I really respect and like a lot. But he's out and now Eric Morris is in at Oklahoma State. Eric Morris comes in from North Texas. He led them to the number one scoring offense in the country a year ago. Morris has worked with kind of a who's who of quality offensive players and college football Baker Mayfield Patrick Mahomes, Cam Ward in his career. So you know he's going to get the most out of his quarterback. He did that a year ago with Drew Mestemaker and now Drew Mestemakers with him in still water at Oklahoma State. I love this. He's a completely different team, 55 transfers, 17 of them from North Texas, including Mestemaker, excuse me, led the country and passing Caleb Hawkins, they're running back. He led the country and rushing touchdowns as a freshman. They're slot receiver. A guy that I think is a really good player, Wyatt Young, third in the country and receiving yards last year. Again, I considered UCLA for the same reasons, right? They're going to have a reboot just like Oklahoma State is going to have a reboot. They're going to do it with Bob Chesney, more on them and a little bit. But I'm going to land with Oklahoma State. I think that this is a really good football team that can turn it around quickly. Remember in a conference in the big 12 where everyone's kind of mashed together. So all of a sudden you start winning some close games and you can have a big bump in your one. I think that that might happen for Eric Morris, they're at Oklahoma State. Can't wait to see that. Okay. Now we go move on in the top 25. I'm going to stay in the big 12 Arizona. I'm a big fan of the cats. I'm a big fan of Brent Brennan now in his second season in Tucson, nine wins last season in his second season. I should say it'll be in his third season. First team, all big 12 quarterback Noah Fafita. He's coming back, which I think is huge because he's so experienced 34 career starts now in his fourth year as a starter. Now the big question for me with Arizona, I had them in the holiday bowl and I really love covering Brent Brennan. He's a candid guy. He's a heck of a football coach. They had a really good team and then a bunch of their guys that were excellent in the secondary and older players decided to opt out for the draft. So they were shorthanded in the bowl game. It kind of showed on the offensive side, even though they are excuse me, the defensive side, even though they tried to come back there in the second half, but they've got to replace a lot of those secondary players, particular three all big 12 safeties. They did bring in some guys like Cam Champa. He's a FCS all-American at Northern Colorado, experienced small school player. I think that can help out quite a bit. And they were excited about their young players that got to play in that bowl game in the holiday bowl. I think that that's huge. Their schedule has some tough road games. I don't love that aspect. They got to go to BYU. That's not easy. Texas Tech, not easy, Kansas State, not easy. So and we'll see what Colin Klein does with Kansas State. So Arizona is at 24. At 23, I'm going to go Tennessee, listen, I think Tennessee can go either way here. They've got a good roster. I'm excited about their roster, four straight top 15 recruiting classes. So they can recruit. Heipel's offenses have always produced, okay, it's not an offense issue with the vols. They've been the number one scoring offense in the country since Heipel arrived in Knoxville. The big question for me is the inexperience at quarterback in particular in that system. Can you step in and produce right away? Whoever starts from them is going to have zero career starts in college football. You've got George McIntyre, the red shirt freshman or you've got the five star true freshman that's coming in phase on Brandon. They are going to have some talent around them. No, again, like offense might not be a concern. All SEC running back to Sean Bishop. We've got the SEC freshman of the year, Braille and Staley at wide receiver to go along with a five star freshman that they brought in TK keys. So again, talent out there. They run that deep choice system. So the quarterback has to come along quickly and he's got to be able to make post snaps decisions down the field. It's a key part of that offense and that's going to be a big part of whether they're going to be successful defensively Jim Knowles comes in. Remember, Jim Knowles won a national championship with Ohio State. When he was at Penn State last year for kind of that debacle, it all fell apart. Now he's going to be in Tennessee. That ball's defense struggled last year. They do when you look at their schedule, I'm kind of like, well, listen, they've got a lot of these big games at home. And historically, they've been very good at home. Now they weren't great at home a year ago. They lost a couple of close ones. What was that? Georgia and OU. I think Vandy got after him late in the season and kind of blew him out. The three of their hardest four, I would say, games this season are at Nealand Texas LSU and Alabama. And then their tough road game is at Texas A&M again, not an easy schedule, but if you start to get back to what they were at home a couple of years ago, remember they beat Alabama. This is a team that, you know, they might make some noise in the SEC and again, experience a quarterback that's got to develop and then got to take care of home field advantage. The 22 is Iowa, Iowa. We hear all the time, you know, and this is one of those things like we've seen SEC media days. We've seen big 10 media days and, you know, the SEC folks, they just, and they should do this, I guess, but they talk about like how difficult it is to win at any location in the SEC. And that might be true. Team is true in the big 10 in particular when you're bringing up a squad like Iowa, Iowa, it doesn't matter what they bring back. They don't have a quarterback, doesn't matter. Why Kirk fairness is still there, Phil Parker is still there, their defensive coordinator. It's not a quarterback centric program. They're going to continue to do the same things, play the same sound football, physical, stop the run, run the football. They had the Joe Moore award winning offensive line a year ago. They've got to replace some of those guys up front, but they're going to be able to run the football. They're replacing all of their specialists, but they're going to play great special teams. Why? Because that's what Kirk fairness does. That's what he does. They're going to go kind of the group of five FCS route in the transfer portal and bring in a lot of experienced players from that level that are leveling up. We've seen that work before at several other places, including Indiana, you know, so Iowa is going to be 22. I think a lot of it, a lot of it comes down to how they develop up front. If they can get their offensive line up and running quickly and run the football well, then, then I think that they've got something and I'm just going to go ahead and put it on the line here. I trust the Iowa infrastructure, don't you? I think that they've proven that they are a trustworthy infrastructure under Kirk fairness of their 22. At 21, I'm going to go with Houston. I got to be honest, I don't feel great about this one, but I'm going to leave it in here. After you're done, you kind of look over it and I'm like, wait a second, am I really going to have Tennessee and Iowa behind Houston? And I'm like, well, Willie Fritz, he won 10 games in his second year at Houston, coming off that impressive run at Tulane. They've got their quarterback back. I like that. Senator Wigman is back. They made a portal pick up that I'm bullish on when they got Mackay Hughes, the running back back from Oregon. Remember, he was with Fritz in Tulane at Tulane and then he went up to Oregon. We thought he was going to be kind of a focal point for Dan landing at that Oregon offense a year ago. And he wasn't. So he's going back to Fritz. But this time, Fritz is not at Tulane. He's at Houston. I think that could be a nice pickup for them. The one big question, and this is why I'm sitting there. I'm like, do I? really want them behind Tennessee and Iowa. I'm going to leave them here. I'm going to do it. They've got to continue to win close games. That was a huge part of that 10-win year a year ago. They were six and one in their one-score games last year. It's hard to repeat that. It's really hard to repeat that. And that's one of those trends that you almost always anticipate going the other direction or at least reverting back to the mean rather than going six and one again. But with the quarterback, maybe some of those aren't one-possession games for them. And they're, you know, two-possession games. That's kind of what I'm baking on here. So Houston at 21. 20. This is a good one. Messy early off season, but maybe all is fine in Washington. Give me the Huskies at 20. Dimon Williams, back at quarterback. Let's go. Remember he signed a nice deal with Washington. And then he went into the portal and Jed Fish was like, "No." And there was some legal stuff here and there. And then all of a sudden, Dimon Williams is like, "Hey, I'm just kidding with you." And he's back. So that's my biggest question. Honestly, listen, he's a heck of a player. He averaged 332 total yards in their nine wins a year ago. He can run around. He killed Rutgers on the ground. Jed Fish is a really good coach that I think continues every single year his teams tend to get better. If you go back throughout his history, that's what a nine and four a year ago, now in his second season, like I could see them, you know, putting together something and they had a solid recruiting class, top 15 recruiting class. They've got to replace Denzel, Boston and Jonah Coleman. Don't love that on offense. I thought they were really good players, but they've got Vinesbright back. The wide receiver or excuse me, a Vinesbright, they've got to replace him. He went to Arizona State, excuse me. Robuck, Desmond Robuck, the wide receiver is the one that's back after a strong freshman year. They get Rashid Williams back. He was dealing with injuries last year. And on the defensive side, they should be a lot healthier for their coordinator Ryan Walters. Now Ryan Walters is a heck of a football coach. If you remember, he was the coordinator of that Illinois defense that was one of the better defenses in the country. What was that back in 2023? I want to say they had Michigan dead the rights that year. And almost one that game might have been the year before that, but he's there as coordinator. And he was a top 15 defense a year ago, despite all of those injuries, if they're healthier, they could be a lot better. And that's a team that has some critical games at home. So if they play better in big games, particular Desmond William, Demon Williams, excuse me. And he doesn't turn the football over. Then they might have something Louisville is at 19. I like Louisville a lot. I like Jeff Brahm a lot. Heck of a coach. He's done a great job everywhere that he's been. He's done a great job here at Louisville. Three straight seasons with at least nine wins. And remember, he had Purdue in the big 10 championship game, Purdue in the big 10 championship game before he he went to Louisville. He is a terrific quarterback coach. And now he brings them to transfer from Ohio state Lincoln keenholes. And we'll see how that goes. I think that they've got an absolute star at running back in Isaac Brown. They brought in a top 15 portal class to fill some shoes. It's not a conference that I think it's overly difficult. They do have an early game against SMU. I think that's the pivotal game in the ACC is Louisville SMU early. Listen, Miami's the best team in the ACC. You know, like don't at me. The pivotal game to see who goes and plays them. I think it starts with that Louisville SMU matchup. That one is early in the year. So Louisville at number 19. At 18, it's SMU. That's why I put them right next to each other because of that game early in the year. I can't wait to see that one. I think it's going to determine who goes and plays Miami. I'm a fan of Brett Lashley had him in the bowl game. That SMU team played Arizona in the holiday bowl. And I was thoroughly impressed with what Brett Lashley has built. And I know that it's like, I don't know if it's because it's SMU or it was kind of a weird entry into the ACC and not getting a share. And they're boosters saying we don't care if we get revenue and this and that. But like they've been really successful. He's done a great job. Lashley has. He's got 38 wins and four seasons. And he's made SMU an absolute destination for players out of the Metroplex, that Dallas area. They've gotten a really experienced quarterback and Kevin Jennings. And if he just doesn't turn the football over, he is dynamic. He's a guy that has led them to a playoff in his career. He's a heck of a player. They beat Miami a year ago. He's got 26 starts under his belt. He's exciting. And that huge game against Louisville. That's week three, by the way. I think that the winner of that is driver seat to go and play Miami in the ACC championship game. So let Lashley and SMU at 18. At 17, I've got Penn State. I toyed around with having them higher. In particular, because when you're looking at these schedules and more specifically out of the SEC and the big 10, you look at like who hit the schedule lottery and those two conferences. I mean, Penn State hit the schedule lottery this year in terms of who's they're missing and who there's playing. And then you get all the turnover. So James Franklin out. Now that was messy last year. There's no doubt. And then the search took forever, but they landed the plane. It's like circling over Chicago, oh, hair for two hours because of lightning. And it's like, are we ever going to land the plane? That was the Penn State coaching search last year. And then it's like, oh, yeah, we we we're down. We're down. We landed the plane. Matt Campbell, hell of a football coach, 10 seasons at 10 seasons at Iowa State, now at state college. And he brought everybody. He brought everybody. The most important person that he brought was Rocco Becht. Rocco Becht is the most experienced quarterback in college football. 39 career starts. The second most important person that he brought along with him from Iowa State, Taylor Mouser, the offensive coordinator. So now Becht and Mouser still together running the same offense. And by the way, with a lot of the same players, they brought everybody. He's going to be handed the ball off to Carson Hanson. He was at Iowa State. Second team, all big 12 a year ago. James Peoples transferred from Ohio State. So he's at Penn State now. They made a great defensive coordinator hire and Dan Thinlin stole him away for USC. Dan comes back to his alma mater at Penn State now. He's going to coordinate that defense. And again, they won the schedule lottery. I think this is a team that if you just look at the schedule, I've talked about it the entirety of the offseason. That's a 10 win football team, a 10 win football team. All right. They've got a tough game at Michigan. They've got a host USC. Those are the two toughest games. I mean, you miss Indiana. You miss Ohio State. You miss Oregon. Like this could be a big year. This could be a big year for Penn State. They should start five and oh, then they're going to have USC at home. The next week they'll go to Michigan on the road. Those are back-to-back weeks in October. So Penn State number 17. All right. From there, I got to kind of like a next tier. Okay. So those are the teams that I would consider kind of the back end top 25 teams. And again, Penn State could probably have jumped up. But again, a lot of that has to do with schedule because we don't really know how all of this is going to work out. It's a reboot. It's just a higher profile reboot than let's say Oklahoma State or UCLA, which has me. It's kind of a reboot for Penn State. But now we get into the next year. And up until we get to the top 10, these next, you know, six teams, I got to be honest, I you could almost place them anywhere for me. So I was splitting hairs here and I'm going to go with 16. I'm going to go with Ole Miss. I know that's lower than some, but, but let me just tell you about what I love about Ole Miss. I love their backfield. Trinidad Chamblis is excellent. I think he is a fabulous player. He was very close to my top 10 list in terms of top 10 players in college football. I think he's fantastic. I really do. I love his leadership, his toughness, what he did to lead that team through the absolute turmoil of their coach, leaving them right before the playoff joke. They might have the best backfield in the country with Chamblis and then Q1 Lacey. I love that. They did well in the portal number two ranked portal class. Love that. But here's what's difficult is that Lane is a force of nature in particular on the offensive side. And he took the offensive staff away. So can you replicate what they were able to do on the offensive side? That's a question. And it's a big question for me. Pete Golding, he's your head coach. Now he has been on record as saying he didn't want the job. He didn't want to be a head coach, but here he is. He's stepping in almost reluctantly to take over this program and Pete did a wonderful job in the playoff, wonderful job. And he should be commended for that. And now he's going to have to be the guy. He built a great transfer portal roster. He's got this excellent quarterback. They're going to have a chip on their shoulder. And then you get to some of the tough games. They've got to open the season against Louisville, not easy. They've got a host Lane Kiffin and LSU in week three. That place is going to be fire absolute fire. They've got road trips to Florida, Texas and Oklahoma. They have home game against Georgia in November. So for those reasons, I'm going to replace Lane and particularly on the offensive side, the tough schedule, I've got them at 16. Right ahead of them is Alabama. Cue it up, Bama fans. You know what to do. Go to the comments. You hate it. You think I hate Alabama. Don't hate Alabama. I picked Alabama to win the national championship for like 10 straight years. This is viewing this team through regular lenses and not Crimson lenses. I do not love the trajectory of this program right now. Even though they made the playoff a year ago, they got blown out by Georgia. They got blown out by Indiana. That was not a close football game. Indiana physically accosted Alabama. Like they beat them to death in that rose bowl. 50 runs, 50. So here's what I'm concerned about for Bama. They're going to have a brand new quarterback and where's the run game to help them? You see, that was the biggest issue last year. They had this elite quarterback and Ty Simpson who did his best. They couldn't protect them in big games. They couldn't run the football. Now, what do I like about Alabama? I love their roster. Kaling Debora continues to recruit at a high level. I love their defense. Their secondary should be outstanding. I think that their defense should be a very high level defense. I think the secondary should be one of the best in the country. They did lose a bunch of transfers on the defensive line. I'm concerned about their line of scrimmage. They lose transfers on the line. Their offensive line is a huge question mark. They could not run the football a year ago. 126th in yards per carry last year. And this has not really been a staple of Kaling Debora. It's not like he's Steve Sarkeesian that has always had good running teams and then all of the sudden he doesn't have a good running team. Like this is, that's a concern. That's a concern. And so, for those reasons, I've got Bama at 15. There are really good programs ahead of them. You start looking at college football. This is not what it used to be in the late, you know, 2000 teams where it was one, two, three programs that were elite. And then it's like, well, who knows? No, no, no. There's really good programs. And there's a depth of really good programs. Tricky game early against Kentucky and week two Will Steins first big game. There's a head coach. They've got a four game stretch in the middle of the season. Georgia at home at Tennessee and him at home at LSU after a buy yikes, yikes. So Alabama is at 15 at 14. I've got BYU. They managed to keep Colonies to talky, huge win in Provo. Really good team that is shown that they can absolutely handle the big 12 and candidly they can handle everybody except for Texas tech in the big 12. The next step for them is leveling up to beat a team like Texas tech, clearly has a better roster than they do. Now they do have LJ Martin back big 12 offensive player of the year. They've got Bach Meyer back, Bear Bach Meyer, their quarterback. I like, I like what BYU does. They're consistent. It's kind of like Utah used to be under Kyle, waiting him. It's like, okay, yeah, I know what I'm going to get every single year. They did lose their defensive coordinator, J hill. He went to Michigan to be with Kyle, waiting him, but they should be very good on that side of the ball. They promoted from within Kelly Papinga is their defensive coordinator. He played at BYU 20 years ago. I'm a big fan of Colonies to talky. I'm a big fan of this BYU team. I've got him at 14, one spot ahead of Alabama at 13. I'm going to go with Texas A&M. Mike Elko has done a great job at Texas A&M and I've been a believer of and and and certainly optimistic for A&M here for a few years because of Mike Elko led the Aggies to the playoff last season. Now he does have to replace both coordinators. So Colin Klein got a job to go to his alma mater and be the head coach at Kansas State, Jay Bateman. He's out. So he made two internal promotions to OC and DC. They got their quarterback back. You know, you can kind of sense the theme. I'm bullish on quarterback experience and quarterback's coming back. So Marcel Reed. He's back. His next step is being more consistent and not turn the football over and playing really good football against the best competition. Right. You don't want to have those lows. Right. We saw them play really poorly and then great. We've seen that even in one game. It wasn't great against Miami. Miami ended up, you know, being better than maybe we even thought in that first round game. I think Reed can improve. He's going to have a craver back on the outside. That's good for them defensively. I have some questions. I know they were great on third down. They were the best third down defense and all of college football, but they were not great stop in the run. And that's something that's going to have to get better, have to get better. In fact, when you strip out their sack yardage, remember, Cassius Hall was terrific, a rush in the quarterback. And sack yardage goes against rushing yardage, which is so stupid. So if you, if you piece that out and you say like, take away the sacks, what were the Aggies defensively just defending running place 127th in college football last year when you take away their sack yardage? That's going to have to improve. There's no doubt. Watch out for Northwestern transfer and Tosaka. I had him last year when Northwestern played Oregon, really good player, very good on film. I think he could pop at Texas A&M. He's replacing Cassius Hall road games against LSU in September, Alabama in October. Can they get one win out of those two? If they're able to do that, there's a good chance that there's seven and one going into November and it's a tough November. So November, they've got at South Carolina, Tennessee, Atocla Homa and Texas. So that's A&M, they're 13 at 12. I am very bullish on this team. USC. USC is 12. This is Lincoln Riley's best team at USC. They are a real team at the line of scrimmage. This is real. This is no longer, you know, smoking mirrors, Caleb Williams, you know, can we throw it around do all that? No, no, no, this is real. They have, they've got an experience quarterback who I think could be in the Heisman trophy conversation. Every Lincoln quarterback is in the Heisman trophy conversation. That's Jaden Mayava. They've got both of their backs back. Remember, Wamen Jordan was outstanding and then he got hurt and King Miller rolled in and was fantastic as well. Both of those guys back again, the defensive line finally looks legit. That's been a huge problem. The biggest issue that USC has had is that defensively, they have not stopped the run. If you take a look at their rushing margin, what they gain versus what they give up, it was 61st in the country. Well, Lincoln's OU teams, they were six in the country in rush margin. Again, what, what they gain versus what they give up. So if USC improves defensively, which they should on the defensive line, then like watch out for USC. They've got the number one recruiting class in the country, young players who are not going to have to step in and play right away, but could fill in and provide a ton of depth for them. Like, for instance, this, they're defensive, number one defensive in Luke waffle. So just like Colin Simmons, a few years ago, didn't have to play a ton as a true freshman for Texas, but came in and had production because he was able to play in, in, in very certain and specific situations. That'll be the same thing that USC is able to do with a lot of these talented young players. Gary Patterson in as defensive coordinator. That's interesting. My only hesitation. They would be easily in the top 10. Everything that I've just listed out love, love, love, love. Why are they not in the top 10, then, Joel? Because they're schedules brutal brutal three game stretch home against Oregon home against Washington at Penn State. That's one three game stretch. They also have home games against Ohio State and a road game against Indiana. So yes, they've got to play Oregon Ohio State and Indiana at Penn State and Washington. Whoo. Probably a good year not to play Notre name like if we're, if we're being honest with ourselves. So it comes down to this. I think that if you are looking at this and you're saying they have to go 10 and two, that means they've got a split at home with Oregon and Ohio State. If not, then you've got to be thinking about, is this the team with this schedule, the way that they could possibly play with wins like at Penn State or Washington. Could they get in at nine and three? And this is a schedule that could do it. Last year, we had that debate with Texas college football is always a year late. We have these debates, whether it's a group of five team or a nine and three team of all like, well, should this team be in and then it's this two year cycle. It's almost like we prepare ourselves for it. We front load ourselves for what ultimately happens in college football, eventually a nine and three team is going to get into this playoff. Is it potentially USC this year? It could be. Like I said, this is a top 10 team that I'm nervous about their schedule. So that's USC at 12 at 11. It's Texas tech. I thought about moving them lower than this, but I didn't. And here's the reason is that even though they went through this Brendan Soresby saga, and yes, he was a good player and could have certainly elevated their offense, which they desperately needed based on that offensive performance against Oregon and the playoff. This is still a very good roster. And it's clearly the best team in the big 12. It's been a crazy few months, but again, I think this team should be right back in the big 12 championship game. We'll Hamilton is going to be their quarterback. He was the backup last year for Baron Morton and played well at times. Then he got injured and by all accounts, at least from what I've heard, he's ahead of schedule on his rehab and he should be able to go early in the season. If not week one, a hundred percent. This roster is talented. They hit the portal again. They will not be, they will not get beat in terms of spend. That's their mantra. They will not be beat on a player. So they had to go out and replace them guys. They had to replace from mellow height and David Bailey, Jacob Rodriguez on the defensive side. So who'd they get? They got some really good players. You might not have heard of them, but they've got some really good players, Austin romaine from Kansas State. He's got over 160 tackles the last two years. He comes into replace Jacob Rodriguez as a linebacker. They got these two edge players. Again, you've probably never heard of him. Trey White, San Diego State, Adam trick Miami of Ohio. What have those two guys done? Well, white and trick combined for 15 sacks and 118 quarterback pressures last season. So can they replace height and Bailey? Probably, probably schedule lines up for them to be at least 11 and one. If not 12, no. And again, right back in that big 12 championship game, the question for them, are they going to be able to level up when they go up against the team that's a really elite team like an Oregon and in particular on the offensive side of the ball. All right. So now we get into the top 10. My top 10 teams in college football leading into the 2026 season. I've got two teams I debated here at nine and 10. I've got a wild card and then I've got my clear top seven and really a clear top one. Then I've got two through seven, a wild card and these two teams that I debated at at nine and 10. That's how we're going to break this out in my top 10 teams. All right. Number 10, Michigan. Probably higher than most, but this is probably the second biggest wild card team in college football. More on the first wild card team when I come coming up. I believe in Kyle Whittingham. You guys know that with the way I've talked about Utah over the years. I used to say death taxes in Utah football. I should say death taxes in Kyle Whittingham. I believe in this guy's structure. I believe in what he believes in. He believes in in the fundamental traits to go and be a great football team. They will be physical. They will play great defense. They will run the football. That is a great blueprint for Michigan. We saw that blueprint when the national championship for Michigan just a couple of years ago. He also brought a very good offensive coordinator and Jason Beck who did wonders for him at Utah and maybe the key guy that he brought. Nobody talks about this. His offensive line coach Jim Harding. Do you know why there were so many Utah offensive linemen that are either playing in the NFL or being drafted into the NFL on an annual basis? Jim Harding. He's a great developer. And so now you can get back to that great O line play that we saw for so many years at the end of Harbaugh in Michigan. That was a young team last year in Michigan. And I know a lot of those guys got in the portal, but then they got out of the portal and came back to Michigan. So the roster is actually better than you anticipate when you actually look at it. It was an incredibly young team in particular on the offensive side last year. They had six freshmen, including Underwood out there playing in most of those big moments late in the season. You've got Underwood. Can he develop 17 total touchdowns 11 turnovers? That has to improve. There's no doubt. But Jason Beck has a track record of getting the most out of his quarterbacks in particular athletic quarterbacks. Jason Beck was with Devon Damper two years ago into Mexico and then at Utah. And what did he do? All he did is lead the country in terms of quarterback production on the ground, or at least the power for. If you look at what Beck was able to do with Damper, it's about the quarterback run game. And I'm not saying that Underwood is going to have to go out there and run at 30 times per game. But Damper and Bird Ficklin were running at about 16 times per game as compared to Underwood seven. See, I think if Underwood runs the ball between 10 and 12 times per game, that offense becomes much more dynamic. You've got Andrew Marsh on the outside. You've got these backs in the backfield. They're going to be incredibly, I think potent, including Savion Heider, who by all accounts is one of the better true freshmen in the country. If you look at the top four teams in quarterback rushing from a year ago, from a year ago, you've got the four academies or excuse me, the three academies and Utah. Navy, Army, one and two, Utah, number three, Air Force number four, 104 yards per game from quarterbacks in terms of rushing. That's the big deal for me on the Michigan side. I think they'll be good on defense. Jay Hills, their coordinator. They've got a secondary with a lot of good players. Jay Year Hills, Zeke Berry, Smith Snowden transfers in from Utah. He's very good. John Henry daily transfers in from Utah after being in all American. Michigan's going to be very good. Schedules not easy, but Michigan's going to be very good. Guess who they play week two. My number nine team, OU. This was the debate that I had at 10 and nine. It was Michigan and OU and I'm going OU at nine. The reason that they got the edge over Michigan is is one simple reason. John Materer is healthy. And when he's healthy, they have the edge of quarterback. Can they run it better this year? That's a question. They get their backfield back, but they're going to have to run it better than they did a year ago. He can't do everything for you. Remember last year after they beat Michigan and he did everything and he was kind of the leader in the Highsman race at that moment. And I told you then exactly what played out. He can't do this every week. He will break down. And he did. And once he broke down, they started to struggle a little bit. If he's healthy, he's one of the better players in the country. This is a team that plays great defense under Brent Venables. So the question becomes, can you protect your quarterback with a run game? Venables has to protect Mathieu. They were 10 and three last season, first playoff birth in a few years. And Venables did a hell of a job on the defensive side. That was one of the best defenses in all of college football. It was like Ohio State Indiana, Oklahoma. Like those were the defenses that would really get after you. But the offense was woefully short of that standard. And the problem was the fact that they couldn't run it. You've got to be able to run the football. They've got three starters back on the left side of the offensive line. They brought in a transfer from Arkansas to play right tackle. They've got their backfield back Xavier Robinson and Torrey Blaylock. Excuse me. So they should be better running the football, but that's got to be a commitment. They've got to be able to do that. And then if I'm an OU fan, I'm just thinking to myself, can we finally marry an elite side of the ball with a side of the ball that can just like just be okay. Can we do that? You know, we had all those great offenses under Lincoln Riley and the defense was just totally suspect. And then last year, you got this great defense and the offense is totally suspect. And you're like, can we, can we just get a marriage sooner fans? I hear you, but you're inside of my top 10. I think this is a very good program. I think Venables is doing a heck of a job. And I've got them at number nine. Watch out for David Stone, the defensive line. I think he's an absolute star. Now I get into the biggest wild card in the country. This team could go all the way up into the top three. This team could fall outside of the top 25. I have no idea. I'm putting them at eight. I think it's going to go well. But guys, we don't know LSU. We're just on the lane, Kiffin Express here, everyone. What's going to happen? I have no idea. Let me give you like one quick pessimism. Everyone's like, oh, they're rosters going to be incredible. I think it is. I think it is as well. They got the number one transfer portal class in the country. Absolutely. They did. Guess what they did before last season. They had the number one transfer portal class in the country. And I didn't go well. They could not play their way offensively out of a wet paper bag. It couldn't do it. The events was okay. But Interlay and Kiffin, that should fix the offense. Now let's get to the optimism side of LSU. He averages over 500 yards of offense, just falling out of bed. That's what Kiffin does. He brought in Sam Levitt, heck of a quarterback. He rebuilt the roster out of the transfer portal. And he's got a history at Ole Miss of rebuilding the roster out of the transfer portal. And it working. It didn't fall apart at Ole Miss. They were able to go in there and succeed. And he did very well with that model. So can he replicate that at LSU? History would suggest that he can. Okay. I think that we're going to turn on the television when they're playing Clemson in week one. And we're going to be like, oh, wow, LSU is for real. Now, could it go the other way? Yeah, probably could. I mean, who knows what he's going to say or what he's going to do? I mean, he's an absolute loose cannon. Just this, just this. I mean, he left a playoff team before the playoffs. This is, that is crazy. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Piano key neck ties out here. If they fix the offense, they should be good. I think that their transfer meshing will be solid. And now it lines up for, I think, what is a beginning of the season that can either set them up for failure or set them up for success. Clemson to start things out. La Tech. Oh, well, at Ole Miss. Okay. You think they're going to be ready to play? You think it's not just the fan. Oh, the environment's going to be incredible. Yeah, yeah, it is. And guess who's going to be jacked out of their minds? The Ole Miss players. That's all they've been preaching. There is like, Hey, you want to come back and have a shot? at that guy, the snake. And they're like, yeah! So good luck there. And then A&M. Set you for success. Set you up for failure. Let's get into my top seven. Again, I think I've got what I what I think is a clear number one. And then truth be told, you can talk me into any order from two to seven, any order. So I don't want to hear the like, I can't believe you have this team over that we are splitting hairs from two to seven, splitting hairs. And we start at seven. Again, don't I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it. Texas is seven. Started last season, preseason number one. They've got things that they have to fix. We know that and we can't just assume that they're going to be fixed until we see it. And the biggest area that they need to fix is the offensive line run on the football. That has got to turn around. I think Sark would be the first one to tell you that. It can't all be on archmaning. And if you look at Sark's history, his quality teams always run the ball well always all the way back to to Washington when he was the head coach with with Bishop Sanky running the football. You know, like that's what that's what he needs. That's what he does. It allows him to take shots down the field. It's allows him to open up the middle of the field. It allows him to put the defense in conflict in terms of what they're going to stop. He didn't have that a year ago. That has to change. Okay. Last year they didn't run it well. They didn't have great play out of the wide receivers which we had come to be accustomed to staples for Sark. And so they went in the portal and they spent and they tried to fix those areas. They got guys like Cam Coleman. I think that's a great upgrade. Love Cam Coleman. They got Hollywood smothers and Relique Brown for their backfield. Okay. We'll see how that goes. I think arch got undue criticism a year ago. I went over this last week in my top 10 players, but like arch was not a failure last year. Arch was not a bus last year. If you think that you don't know ball point blank period. This guy was an elite top three quarterback in the sport the last half of the season. And the people around him were falling woefully short of expectations. So you can say like, Oh, arch wasn't you didn't do anything. Yeah. Their wide receiver core was not good. They couldn't run the football in the offensive line stunk. And yet still over the last six games, he averaged 320 total yards, 20 total touchdowns and two turnovers in his last six games. He was a monster against Michigan in the bowl game. Like arch is not the issue. This is not about orch having to fix anything. This is about Texas having to fix things around arch. Get your wide receiver room right. Get the offensive line right. Get the running game right. Defensively, I thought they were going to be any elite defense. They weren't. They fire Pete Kowski. They bring in Will Muschamp. Now he's got an elite pass rusher and Colin Simmons. So what are they going to be on the defensive side? The entire question for me about Texas is not archmaning. And if your question is about arch, sorry, you don't know what you're looking at. Can they be physical? Can they run it? I've got them at seven because I've got Georgia at six and Georgia still runs the SEC. That's just what it is. Georgia is still the class of that league. And until somebody beats them, that's the way it's going to be. They still have a great roster. They still have Kirby smart and they still have a absolute gamer of a quarterback and Gunner Stockton, who is at his best when his best is needed. We saw a time and time again. You can't kill Georgia. Why can you not kill Georgia? Yes, there's something inherent about the program and the roster and all of those things. Their toughness, their physicality. And that's something that you expect with Kirby smart. Yes, all of those things are true. Absolutely. Because Gunner Stockton plays his absolute butt off in the fourth quarter. If you look at his fourth quarters, he's incredible. 83% throwing the football seven touchdowns. No interceptions in the fourth quarter. Dude is elite in the fourth quarter. Remember some of the throws he made late. Well, that's the Tennessee game. Oh my goodness. Our former producer cat. She's listening right now. And she just went, oh, she was like, no, Miss Becky, her friend is like, don't bring up that game. Gel Gunner Stockton, absolutely elite in the fourth quarter. If they get a reliable passing game, I think that they would move up from six into the top five. I don't know who they're throwing the football to. They've got plenty of star power on their defense. They've got KJ Bolden Ellis Robinson. They've got an emerging star in their defensive line and Elijah Griffin. He was a freshman, all American. Again, they still have Kirby and they still run the SEC. There's no doubt. But here's the problem. They're not playing at a level like the top five teams in the country are playing right now. You know, and and I do have my questions surrounding like, okay, you get into a game with, let's say it's even Texas. Let's say it's in the playoff against whoever, right? Indiana Ohio State Notre Dame. Can you score with those teams Notre Dame average 42 points a game last year and might average more this year? So can they do that? Stockton's a gamer. There's no doubt. But who are you throwing to on the outside? College football season is almost here. And if you're like me, this is the best time of year. You're looking at the schedule, checking the matchups and circling the big games, you have to see in person. There's just nothing quite like that Saturday Stadium atmosphere. Now, once you pick your game, the next step is finding the best deal on tickets. And that's where SeatGeek comes in with over 35 million download SeatGeek is the number one rated ticketing app featuring more than 70,000 events across sports, concerts and live shows. I use SeatGeek because they make the entire process effortless. The app makes it super easy to search for your team, compare seats across the entire stadium, and grab your tickets in just a few taps. Everything is sent directly to your phone, so getting through the gates on Game Day is completely seamless. Plus, every single ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee. So you can shop with total peace of mind. And of course, I have a code for you guys. You can use code clat10 for 10% off your next set of college football tickets at SeatGeek. That's 10% off any college football tickets with promo code clat10. Make sure you click on the link in the description to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account. So you can use it later on. We just want to thank SeatGeek for their support of the show and all of college football. All right. Now we get into the top five. I've got Indiana in the top five. They are my number five team. And candidly, this might be low. Discount Kurt Signetti at your own peril. He's 27 and two at Indiana and was a masterful coach last year and really year one as well. If we think that's going to fall off, we are sorely mistaken, sorely mistaken. I feel like Edward Arruini Dean of students. If you think Ferris is just going to coast through his last few months of school, you are sorely missing. This guy ain't falling off. He's just not. He's just not. One of the great things that he does is evaluate talent out of the transfer portal. Do you think these transfers that they brought in aren't going to immediately succeed? They will. They will. SeatGeek was the best head coach in the country last year. He kept his coordinators. He got Mike Shanahan and Brian Haines on the offensive and defensive side. I know they lost a lot, but let's let's just play a thought experiment out here for a moment. And this is not an indictment on Fernando Mendoza or Curtis Rork, but play a thought experiment out for me just really quickly. I want you to think of Curtis Rork coming from Ohio. I want you to think of Fernando Mendoza coming out of Cal and I want you to think of Josh Hoover coming out of TCU without what they did at Indiana. So block out what Mendoza did at Indiana, block out what Rork did at Indiana, block out what you think about, you know, Hoover at Indiana, just at their previous school. Who would you pick? You would pick Josh Hoover. Again, no disrespect to Fernando Mendoza, but you would pick Josh Hoover. He's got more elite traits than both of those guys. Now, did he struggle with turnovers? Yes. Was he bit more of a gunslinger? Yes. Did they have to? Yes. Is he going to get introduced to as Kurt Signetti said his two best friends are running game and a defense? Yes. He will be introduced to those and I trust that Kurt Signetti knows how to coach his quarterbacks. Mendoza struggled with interceptions and look over the last two years with first year quarterbacks in that system. What did Mike Shanahan and Kurt Signetti do with Curtis Rork and Fernando Mendoza? They threw the lowest amount of interceptions as a percentage goes as it relates to the amount of attempts in the country. They've got the lowest percentage or interception rate in the country. Lowest interception rate in the country. Do you think Hoover is going to play better? Yes. Do you think Signetti evaluated him correctly? Yes. I mean, these are these are obvious answers and think about it from this perspective. No one threw more RPO passes, run pass option passes than Fernando Mendoza a year ago. Guess who is number two on that list in college football? Wild guess. Josh Hoover. Probably going to work, probably going to work. They brought in a guy like turbo Richard to run the football 750 yards of Boston college. He's not a big name, but neither was Kayla on black Roman, him be those guys really effective run the football. So now you're going to have turbo Richard. You're going to have Kobe Martin. Kobe Martin. When he got into the ballgame for Indiana last year, average six and a half yards per carry. This is a run first team. They got a great offensive line led by Carter Smith, the all American. They're not going anywhere. They brought in Nick Marsh from Michigan state on the outside to replace Elijah Sirad and Omar Cooper. They've got Charlie Becker. He's back like they've got a really good defense. I know they've got to replace some of those JMU guys, those core guys. They've got to replace D'Angelo Ponds, but they bring back Jamari Sharp. He had the pick to end the national championship. They bring in a transfer from Penn State, AJ Harris. I'm going to just trust Kurt Signetti. I think that schedule is a little bit tougher than what they've had over the last couple of years. They've got Ohio State at home. They've got Michigan. That's on the road. Those are back to back in October. They've got USC coming out to Indiana. They've got a trip to Washington. Those are back to back in November. More difficult schedule, elite recruiter, elite evaluator, elite program, Indiana 27 and two over their last two years. Number four, bullish on this team, bullish on this team. Here we go. Miami. Miami fans think I hate them. This is good, right? Aren't you, or do you have to be number one for to get any, to get any love? I have this buddy and he's on the Miami like chat boards all the time. They hate me. I don't understand. It's like you guys have this great highlight. John Beeson got a Nevin Shapiro bounty by pile driving me into the ground and you think that you think that I hate Miami because of that. I love that. The only thing that I hate about it is that I didn't have a higher bounty. I love the canes. Last year was a breakthrough for them. There's no doubt Mario Chris ball getting all the way to the national championship game. They've recruited and developed at a high level. They're great on the offensive and defensive line and granite. They're going to have to replace a lot of those guys Maui Noah, obviously, Bane, Mesador, but they're doing it with elite five star type players. Remember when like Georgia and Alabama would always get the benefit of the doubt when they graduated and developed NFL talent. It's like, yeah, well, it's five stars coming in to replace them. That's exactly what's going on at Miami. If you look at their defensive front, yes, they loon lose Bane and Mesador. They have five former five stars on that defensive line, including the Missouri transfer Damon Wilson. They should be pretty good. They bring in Darien Minza quarterback. They've got Malachite Tony on the outside. They've got Mark Fletcher in the back field, Chris ball knows how to own the offensive line. He knows that. Okay. I think they'll develop even though they lost Maui Noah. I thought they got much better in big games and they did. They didn't, they didn't fail down the stretch in November in particular on the road. They succeeded and they won big, they beat Ohio State in the playoff like this. This team was real played for a national championship was right there, but in a couple of their losses, there were still these blunders that take place. They've got to clean those up. There was a roughing the pass or personal foul in the SMU game late and that ended up costing them. They lose that game. And then they give up a blocked punt when Indiana is not even trying to block the punt in the national championship game for a touchdown, they lose that game. So those have to get cleaned up. There's no doubt, but there was a giant step forward last year. They're the class of the ACC. I believe they go to the ACC championship game and that's the team is absolutely in the playoff. I don't wait to watch them play Notre Dame. That game's going to be incredible. We move on to number three. At number three, a team that is going to be almost completely opposite to what they were a year ago. And that's Ohio State. So the Buckeyes are going to be at number three. Buckeyes could have one of the best offenses in the entire sport quarterback, back, Julian Saiyan, best player in college football, Jeremiah Smith, back, offensive line, lots of returning players up there on the offensive line, running back, back, Bo Jackson. So this offense, which was a question mark a year ago with a brand new quarterback and it's like, Oh, you know, what are we going to do on the offensive line? Who's going to run the football? Now we know those answers. What we don't know is who's replacing all those elite NFL players on the defense. So now you're going to have to replace eight starters on the defense. And it's not just any starters. It's guys like Caleb Downs, Narvel Reese and Sonny Styles. These guys were, we're littering the top of the NFL draft. So it's going to be maybe a little bit different. That was a team that was a defensive team a year ago. They were the number one defense in college football under Matt Patricia. Now do I think that they recruit and develop at a high enough level again, back to the benefit of the doubt that we just gave Mario Cristobal and the way that he is recruited on the defense of lines. Shouldn't we give that same benefit of the doubt to Ryan Day and Ohio State? Probably, you know, they, they were replacing a lot of starters. Arvel Reese was not a starter two years ago. Comes in one years of starter, one of the best players in college football. They finished 12 and two. They lost their last two. Indiana couldn't get, you know, yardage and short yardage late. They lose to Miami. That big pick six was a huge, huge issue and they lost the line of scrimmage. If they're better on the line of scrimmage on offensive line, which they should be, then this team could make another run. There's no doubt. I trust Ohio State. I trust Ryan Day. This is an elite program at the elite level. They will be in the top one, two, three or four for the foreseeable future in college football. That's where they're at right now. That's where they're at. Really excited to see five star wide receiver Chris Henry, by the way. I can't wait to see him go along with Jeremiah Smith on the outside saying could have a huge year again, offense, probably leading the day. Here's number two again, I have a clear number one. Number two is Notre Dame, Notre Dame. I love an angry team and this team is angry. They bring back a ton of experience. I love that. That really is kind of the MO of college football. If you want to go and win a championship, what do you need? You need experience. We've seen that with veteran rosters at Michigan veteran roster at Ohio State, veteran roster at Indiana. Last three national champions were littered with veteran rosters. And you get all this turnover in the transfer portal and college football these days. It's like, what do you need? You need experience and they have that again, 15 returning starters. Marcus Freeman has elevated this program. He has done an incredible job. You know, the indictment for Brian Kelly at LSU wasn't just what was going on at LSU. It was, it's, it's what was going on in South Bend. Brian Kelly told us that Notre Dame had a ceiling. And Marcus Freeman ran in like Mario and just started busting the bricks out. Ding, ding, ding. He has recruited at an elite level. This team is absolutely fantastic. Almost everywhere. Maybe questions at running back only because you're replacing two first round running backs. Okay. Do we think that they're going to be able to be replaced? Yeah. Because they are great on the offensive line. You've got CJ Carr. Remember, CJ Carr, my top quarterback in college football going into the season. He was, was he number three on my list last week of top 10 players overall. You've got my top. What was it? My second rated overall player and littered more on the defensive side. The defense should be outstanding, absolutely outstanding. They didn't get into the playoff a year ago. Now they've got this cake schedule and absolutely will be in the playoff probably as a rested team. Their toughest game is Miami. We all know that tough game against maybe BYU on the road. They've got SMU on their schedule. The offense loses those first, first round running backs, but I think that they could be a passing offense car elite thrower. Now you bring Jaden great house back after losing a bunch of games where he played four games a year ago. You bring in a guy like Quincy Porter and you've got Mike Denbrock. I don't think he's got a problem throwing it around. Remember, use the coordinator for LSU when Jaden Daniels won the Heisman. I think that the offensive line could be the best in the nation. Whoever's tote in the rock is going to be doing it behind absolute monsters. That defense is going to be absolutely sick, absolutely sick. Nine starters back, including the front runner for the Thorpe Ward, Leonard Moore, five starters from last year's front seven. Watch out. Watch out. I mean, road game at BYU, home game Miami and SMU. They're number two. I'd have them number one, but guys, there is a clear number one. And I honestly don't understand why this is not more unanimous. If you actually evaluate rosters out there and what's coming back, everybody else has a question, everybody, everybody in the top 10, everybody in the top seven, Texas, so you can be able to run the football. Georgia, who's catching the football, is Hoover going to replace Mendozo? What is Miami going to do on the offensive line? Can you replace eight starters on defense for Ohio's date? Can you replace two first round running backs for Notre Dame? Guess who doesn't have questions? Not one. Oregon. Oregon's number one on the country. And quite frankly, it's not close, at least at this point. I'm not saying other teams aren't great. I'm not saying that they're absolutely going to win the national championship. But if you're doing this evaluation, if you're going through this process in the preseason, there is no question about Oregon. The only question about Oregon is maybe down the line. It's like, okay, can you rewrite these performances from your last two blowout losses in big games, the Rose Bowl to Ohio State, and then that's semi-final to Indiana a year ago? But let's not like. They've lost three games in two years and all three games. All three losses worked to the eventual national champion. We don't think they're right there. They are right there. And this team has no questions. Core to back. He's back. Backfield. Back. O line. Strong. Whiteouts. Great. Decore and more. Evan Stewart tied in. Probably best in the country. Defense. Elite. Top end. Everywhere. Best defensive line in the country. All those guys back. Mateo Ouyonga Lele should be in the NFL, back at Oregon. Tatum Tuyoti should be in the NFL, back at Oregon. Amari Washington should be in the NFL, back at Oregon. Bear Alexander should be in the NFL, back at Oregon. It's like, what are we doing? You've got an experienced elite quarterback with, with greatness around him, including a strong line of scrimmage and you've got the best, most elite, most experienced defensive line in the country. Oh, by the way, that young secondary from a year ago is only a year older and they brought in Koi Parish from Minnesota, who's an excellent safety in the transfer portal. There's no questions. You've got Brandon Finney out there at corner, Dan landing his built a roster that is the best roster in college football, walking into this season. There is no roster. There is no starting 22 that rivals, Oregon's period. Dan has been elite. Now he's got to replace both coordinators. He did that from within and the only question that we have about Oregon is, can you get into a big moment and not lay in egg? Did it against Ohio State in particular in that first half of the Rose Bowl? Did it in the first half against Indiana last year in the national semifinal? I think that they'll get better from that. Dante Moore. He's back. He's going to learn his lessons. He's not throwing a pick six on the first play of the national semifinals. So I think this is a team that can go one more step. They're not going to lose by 41 to Ohio State or 56 to Indiana. Like this team is an elite team. They're my number one team. I know Dan asked me not to do this, but there's no other team you can put at number one. Uh, some other teams that I thought about that didn't quite make my top 25. I already mentioned one right off the top. That was UCLA Utah, Devon Dan Peary still there for Morgan Scally. I thought about Utah, thought about Missouri. I like what a Missouri has. I thought about Clemson, Condabo bounce back. I thought about Cal with Tosh LaPoi, Boise State. So there were some teams out there that I thought about, but this is where I land. My preseason top 25 folks, I hope you enjoy. Do you agree? Do you disagree? We've got more content coming up next week. If you have not subscribed to the show, please do that right here on YouTube at Joel Clath Show on social media, wherever you're listening to this. If you're listening on podcast form, rate, review us, follow us, do all of those things. Can't wait for the season. There's your top 25. Enjoy the week, everybody.