The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - 10 Burning Questions going into the 2026 Season

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

Fox Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt lists his 10 burning questions in the sport as we head into Week 1 of the season. He breaks down questions like how many teams can actually win the National Championship this year and who could be this year’s Indiana that shocks the sport. Will Arch Manning and Texas take the next step and bring the Longhorns to the promised land? Klatt also looks at which new Coaches will make the biggest impact in Year 1 at their new school and points out the coordinator changes at top programs that could very well determine who wins it all. He evaluates the recent weeks at LSU and whether Lane Kiffin can manage the self-inflicted distractions and lead the Tigers to a successful season as the sport’s new villain. Klatt also makes his Heisman pick as he debates between players like Ohio State’s Julian Sayin & Jeremiah Smith and Notre Dame’s C.J. Carr.*Ann Arbor Live Show Announcement*The Joel Klatt Show will be doing a live show from Ann Arbor, Michigan next week on Thursday, September 10th ahead of the Oklahoma-Michigan game. Thanks to our amazing fans, the show sold out quickly after Monday’s announcement BUT we are opening the tickets back up and adding 50 more spots at the show. Click the link below to reserve your spot at the show – tickets go quickly, so act fast! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/joel-klatt-show-live-in-michigan-tickets-1998967394287?aff=oddtdtcreator Chapters 🏈 0:00-1:15 Joel Klatt’s burning questions for 2026 season 1:16-10:16 Will the Big Ten continue its run over the SEC? 10:17-15:24 Is Indiana going to be good again? 15:25-18:44 Who’s going to be the face of College Football? 18:45-21:58 Who will be the heisman trophy winner? 21:59-26:31 Will Arch, Sark & Texas finally raise their ceiling? 26:32-32:07 Which new Coaches are going to make a huge impact in Year 1? 32:08-37:49 Who can actually win the National Championship? 37:50-40:59 Are Lane Kiffin and LSU the new villain in the sport and how good will they be? 41:00-43:43 Which teams will level up in each conference? 43:44-47:00 Who could be this year’s Indiana? 47:01-49:38 Is the sport better than ever? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca. Now, I'm not saying that they're definitely going to win the national championship, but there's a chance that this is a better team.

It is littered with guys that could potentially become that player in college football. I don't believe that this team can play by their mantra and go all gas and no breaks. Who can win the national championship? Love them or hate them. Lane Kiffin is fabulous for the sport. Is college football better than ever? Hey, welcome into the program. We've got 10 burning questions leading into the 2026 college.

football season. This is the Joel Clatt show. I'm Joel Clad. This show is sponsored by Hilton. Hilton for this day. We cannot wait for this season. I have been so excited. And I think that you're going to know why. After we get through these questions, what are the biggest questions surrounding this college football season? I know we had some games in week zero. So we got to talk about football from last Saturday, which was awesome, which was awesome. But now we get to really answer the questions. And if you haven't seen anything about this season, I think that these 10 questions are going to get you prepared for this college football season. So here we go.

We're going to dive in with right now what I think is the biggest question in all of college football, which is, will the Big Ten continue its run over the SEC? This has been the narrative, the overarching narrative, over this sport now for a little over a year. Obviously, it is the reason that we're talking about this is because of the national championships. The last three national championships coming out of the Big Ten, that's obviously where you have to start. Michigan, Ohio State, and then Indiana. But it's been even more than that because for so long the SEC had dominated,

and they were the premier conference in college football by a wide margin. They won everything. They beat everybody in the postseason. They won the national championships. They would win the non-league games. They were the dominant force. It was also that way in the NFL draft. Every single year, it was the SEC.

with the most players drafted in the first round, which is really the marker for the top tier of what we've got in college football. And over the last few years, we've seen the shift happen, not just at the top winning the championships, but also in the records in these bowl games and last year in the first round in the NFL draft. These are what those numbers are.

In the last three seasons, obviously all Big Ten championships, the SEC is 0 and 4 against the Big 10 in the CFP in the college football playoff. It doesn't get bigger than that, and that is complete dominance. Undefeated, 0 and 4, 2 and 7 versus all the other power conference teams plus Notre Dame. So it's not just the Big 10 that they're struggling with. It's everybody, and including Notre Dame, obviously Notre Dame with a huge win a couple of years ago over Georgia in the playoff. In the last two years, we've seen 2 and 5, the SEC is versus the Big 10, in non-CFP bowl games. So it's not just the CFP, but it's also non-CFP bowl games.

The Big Ten had the most first round draft picks last year for the first time in a long time. We saw that the SEC wasn't dominant in that metric. So every single metric that you used to hear about and candidly, the ones that matter, these games that matter, the first round draft picks, the elite talent, the Big Ten has overtaken the SEC. This year, for the first time since all the way back in 2015, the SEC did not receive one, not one, first place vote in the eight. people. I was pretty shocked about that. I thought for sure Texas would get a number one vote.

I thought for sure Georgia would get a first place vote. Neither of them did. Everybody else in that top six and seven, they were getting some love. Oregon got love. Notre Dame got love. Ohio State ended up being the number one team here in the preseason the AP. Back in 2015, by the way, what was going on? Because, yeah, Bama was on their run. Well, Ohio State was coming off of their national championship with Urban Meyer, and they still had Zeke Elliott and that great team returning. So they were a unanimous preseason number one. That's the only reason that the SEC didn't receive a vote in the preseason poll for number one in that poll in 2015 is because the Buckeyes were unanimous.

The Buckeyes are again the number one team this year. It doesn't mean that they're going to win the national championship. And it doesn't mean that the SEC won't win a national championship this year. It just kind of illustrates where we're at in the sport because it has been a draft shift over the last few years. So the question then begs, what will happen this year? That's, I think, the biggest overarching narrative over our sport, other than all the governance stuff, which I don't want to talk about right now because we want to talk about football. So the football questions, it really starts with that. Who's going to be the dominant

power from a conference perspective? That's what everyone wants to know. And we're going to have great evidence right away week two of this college football season. It's going to be phenomenal. I'll be in Michigan for the Oklahoma Michigan game. Gus Jenny and I on the call. That's going to be an incredible game. OU off of their playoff appearance a year ago with Brent Venables, John Matierback is their quarterback with brand new Wolverines head coach Kyle Whittingham coming from Utah.

All the mess that happened at Michigan. And now they've got their quarterback, Bryce Underwood back. All these new coaches and a team that on paper could be really good, but we don't know based on that schedule. That's a great matchup. And then obviously the monster game as the number one team in the country in the preseason Ohio State goes to Austin to face maybe the most talented team in the country in Texas in Austin. That's going to be a wild, wild affair. So that's why I start with that week because I think that the narrative will either perpetuate for the Big Ten or totally shift towards the SEC based on that weekend.

Now, they could split and it could just be even and we all move forward. And maybe that's even the likely scenario, as was the case. case a year ago when both home teams won Ohio State at home and Oklahoma at home. But imagine for a moment, one conference sweeps these two games, these massive games, huge brands, as big a brands as we have in each of these conferences, okay? Imagine for a moment that the SEC sweeps these games. OU goes to Michigan and wins, Texas at home, beats Ohio State, who at least at this point, is the number one team in the country.

I think that the noise, in particular from you know who, would be deafening. Listen, they already want to try to perpetuate the narrative that they're the best conference, even in the face of all the numbers that I already read off, which is why I read them off. Because right now, it's pretty sound. The evidence is very clear what conference is the better conference currently. Now, if those two teams owe you and Texas were to win those games week too, can you imagine? what the airwaves will be like, I tell you, man, they will be pumping that machine like you cannot believe. Now, on the flip side, if the Big Ten were to sweep those weekends, that week

two match up, if Michigan wins at home and Ohio State goes into Texas and beats the Longhorns, I don't think that the narrative will be as loud because the Big Ten doesn't have the blowtorch that the SEC has, obviously, right? I mean, all those guys in the tank, in the tank. And here's the Big Ten. If they sweep it, what it's going to be is it will be a loud, fundamental solidification of where the sports at right now. It will be foundational, emphatic proof that all these numbers are not misleading and that the dominance rests in the North in the Big Ten. I think that's a fascinating deal. If I had to make a prediction, and I know that, listen, this year is not going to ultimately ride on week.

two of the season. I'm just talking about the narrative. The narrative is going to get very loud one way or the other and certainly louder if it goes the SEC's way. But if I had to make a prediction and you look at the top teams in the country and more on how many teams I think could actually win the national championship a little bit later in these 10 burning questions. But if I had to make a prediction, I think that there are more teams that I trust to win the national championship in the Big 10 right now than I do in the SEC. Texas has some questions. there are a lot of teams with questions. I don't want to just say like, oh, for sure, it's going to be the Big Ten.

But I trust Ohio State to go and get it done. They're going to be there, at least you would imagine, as the preseason number one. Indiana just did it last year. They might even be better this year, more on that in these 10 burning questions. You've got Oregon that might have the best roster in the country and certainly experience where you needed on the defensive line with all those guys turning down the NFL and coming back. That's going to be a deep defensive line and experience a quarterback with Dante Moore. I trust those teams.

Now, do I trust Georgia? I trust Kirby Smart. I love Georgia. I don't love their wide receiver core. Do I think that that's a team that can go and win a national championship? Maybe, maybe. And then there's Texas. Well, Texas has to level up.

They've got to prove that their ceiling is above where it's at right now. Now, to be fair, so does Oregon. Because Oregon has a ceiling, even though they've been inching that ceiling just a little bit higher every single year. Whereas Texas had a clear ceiling of the semifinal two years in a row, then fell well short of expectations. So Texas has to take a big jump this year. So if I had to predict, I would predict that it stays similar to this. I think that there is more top-end talent and there are better top-end teams in the Big Ten this year,

and more specifically towards the National Championship. So I predict that the Big Ten is going to win another one this year as opposed to the SEC. But I could be wrong. I think it could be close. That leads to kind of this second burning question. and this is the one that I actually get to my face most often during the course of this offseason. I think it speaks to the shocking nature of what happened the last two years, with Indiana going from nowhere into the playoff.

And then a team that we thought like, oh, they can't really repeat that playoff performance. They beat a lot of, you know, let's say average teams, lost to the two good teams. And then all of a sudden they go 16 and 0 and win the national championship. And everybody asks me this offseason, is Indiana going to be good again? Listen, this is an emphatic yes. Indiana is a powerhouse. They are a powerhouse right now. Kurt Signetti, I think, is the best coach in college football.

That was proven last year. That roster was not as expensive as all the rosters that they were beating in the college football playoff. That was not as expensive in a roster as Miami had or Oregon had or Ohio State had in the Big Ten championship or Alabama had in the Rose Bowl. No, no, no, no. This misnomer that it was a billionaire that Mark Cuban just, threw money at the problem. That was false. It absolutely was false.

Mendoza took less money to play at Indiana than he did turning down the school that he could have gone to. So I think that alone proves that Cignetti is a great recruiter, in particular out of the portal. He's terrific in development. He's a great evaluator. And then he's a terrific coach on the field. He retains all of his staff. This is the one thing that I think is going to be hard to wrap your minds around. They were 16 and 0 a national champions. And the conversations that I'm having with people around the program at Indiana is that they're quietly ahead of where they were each of the last two years right now with this

team. There is a chance. Now, I'm not saying that they're definitely going to win the national championship, but there's a chance that this is a better team. I don't know if they're going to make all those plays like they did a year ago against Iowa and Oregon and Penn State and Ohio State in Miami. I don't know if they're going to make all those high leverage plays. I'm not guaranteeing that.

But there is a sense that this is a better team. Let me just show you where they're, they think that they're further along right now. Josh Hoover is further along in the offense and his comfort in the offense than where Mendoza was or Curtis Rourke was two years ago. That's something that they point to. The offensive line is further along. That's one of the best offensive lines in the country, one of the most experience and best offensive lines in the country, led by the All-American left tackle Carter Smith, who was also

the Big 12's offensive linemen of the year. They've got running backs back. Their front seven on defense might be even better than last year. And this was one of the best defenses in all of college football. They are eight, nine deep, just in their defensive line. They've got an All-American and Tyreek Tucker, a couple of transfers that they really believe are going to impact them on the outside, including Chidi Obi IZor, the defensive end from Kansas state. And They've got Mario Landino. He's a 300-pounder that's still in the middle. They got a transfer from Tulsa, Joe Jelly,

that they really believe in in the middle. They're still waiting on the eligibility saga for Keelan Wyatt and Stephen Daly. These two guys are caught up in that fifth year. Now, they didn't go to the NFL. So they're caught up in that class of 2022, waiting on this fifth year eligibility ruling, so they could be eligible in there. They've got Josh Burnham who transferred from Notre Dame.

They're loaded up front of the defensive line. So again, further along than where they were, a year ago. Now, there's two major questions that I have about Indiana, and one of them is not replacing Fernanda Mendoza. It's not replacing Aiden Fisher, even their linebacker. I think that the two biggest keys for them are going to be finding guys to replace, I would say, two of the most unheralded players that they had from a year ago. Their tight end H-back, Noa, or excuse me, Riley Noakowski. Riley Noakowski. Riley Noakowski was outstanding. He was terrific in the run game as a blocker. He was a great pass catcher as a tied end. They've got to replace him.

They don't have experience at tight end. That's a big question on the offensive side. And then defensively, I don't think people really understand how valuable DeAngelo Pons their corner was. I think everyone rode him off just because of his stature, very short, very small, but he owned half the field. And it allowed their defense to play with numbers everywhere else. I was watching the film in the National Championship game,

preparing for this week's game, as we call that game against North Texas. And it's staggering how many times Miami is in a three-by-one set, three receivers in one side, one to the other. And all of the attention of 10 defenders for Indiana is on the three side, and they're just allowing DeAngelo Pons to go one-on-one on the backside. Just have half the field. And all of this. So they're playing at times five over three on the wide side of the field

and just letting him have that backside. And he's batting balls down. He was amazing for them. So now Jumari Sharp, who started on the outside last year, is moving into the boundary, into that tight side, the short side of the field. How he plays is going to be a huge question and a huge benchmark as to how good that team can be. So those are the two questions for Indiana. But are they going to be good?

Yes, yes, they are. It was not just Fernando Mendoza, even though he turned into the face of college football last year. He was fabulous. And obviously, Josh Hoover is going to have to play great in those high leverage situations. We'll see if he's able to do that. But as of right now, he's further along in the offense. than Mendoza was. Two and five Canadians

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in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at PMCF Walk, Mendoza as the face of the sport, though, brings us to our third burning question, and that is, who is going to be the face of the sport? Listen, when you look around, every single year, somebody grabs the attention of the nation.

Usually it's the Heisman trophy winner, but there's a player in college that kind of just grabs the sport, and it's like, they're the face of the sport. Joe Burrell was that. Johnny Mansell was that. Robert Griffin, the third was that. Last year, Fernando Mendoza was that guy. And now we've got a huge crop of players that could be in line to give us that face of college football. The quarterback class is considered the best in years. I think that they are outstanding.

You've got guys like Dante Moore, Arch Manning, C.J. Carr, Julian San, Darian Minza, Trinidad Chamblis, Jaden Mayava, Sam Levitt, John Mateer. it is littered with guys that could potentially become that player in college football. I think it's also important to really emphasize the experience that these guys have. It's not just that they have potential. It's that we've seen it. You see, of the top 10 teams in the country right now, you take a look at all the starting quarterbacks for those 10 teams in the AP top 10.

And the average number of starts, average number of starts for every one of the quarterbacks is 19. That's a ton. That is a ton of experience for these guys. All right. Just to give you some sense of what it was a year ago, last year, the average number of starts for the top 10 quarterbacks was about 10 and a half. So they're almost double more experience. And by the way, that was severely influenced by really three guys who are no longer around. Drew Aller had over 25.

Carson Beck had over 25 and Cade Clubnick had over 25. Look at all these guys from last year. A lot of the same names. Arch Manning had two starts entering last year. Julian Sagan, no starts entering last year. Gunner Stockton, one start entering last year. Same for C.J. Carr, zero starts. Dante Moore had five.

Ty Simpson. No, like these guys were not experienced. And now you look around and the fewest number of starts any of these guys have is like Trinidad Chambliss. At 13. And by the way, those 13 starts that he had for Ole Miss doesn't count his starts at previous locations and lower levels. You've got Julian saying now he's sitting there with 14 starts. You've got Arch with 15. Gunner Stockton with 15. You've got C.J. Carr with 12. He's actually the lowest of all of them. CJ Carr. And he might be the best one. Hoover's got 31. Moore's got 20.

You've got, let's see, John Mateer has 24. Darien Minza has 27. Marcel Reed has 21. So one of these guys is going to become the face of the sport. And oh, by the way, oh, by the way, I haven't even mentioned the guy who is widely considered the best skilled position player we've seen in college football, maybe in our lifetimes, but certainly in over a decade in Jeremiah Smith. So the potential is limitless for college football this year. Like, it could be an unbelievable year. and the guy that grabs the sport and brings it down and becomes the face of the sport is going to be the one that plays best in high leverage moments and on big stages. That's what it becomes.

And that guy's ultimately going to be the Heisman trophy winner. Now, right now, the betting favorite to win the Heisman trophy is C.J. Carr. Now, I'm going to tell you why I'm not going to pick C.J. Carr to win the Heisman in a moment. But I just want to talk about those moments and stages for a second, because all of these guys are going to have ample opportunity, some of them more than others. Think about even just that Texas Ohio State matchup. You've got San and Jeremiah Smith. You've got Arch, you've got Cam Coleman. You've got all these stars in college football. Whoever plays great, and in particular if it's a really good game

and makes a play late, they will grab the sport week two and just have it right in their hands. John Mateer had that after the week two win over Michigan a year ago. Okay, so we understand that. That's a great stage. And then you have the moments. that allow you to capture the sport and the attention of everyone that follows it. You're going to have that. Dante Moore is going to have huge games, right? Trinidad Chambliss is going to have huge games. Levitt will have huge games.

Myava will have huge games. And this is where I get to a guy like CJ Car. So Carr's not going to have those games. Now, I know the Miami schedule is not great. And the Notre Dame schedule also not great. happens to be that they play each other, and that's easily the best game and most difficult game on each of their schedules. So maybe that's a moment, maybe that's a stage. Okay, I'll give you that. But think of the number of moments and stages and potential high leverage

type plays and impact plays that all these other guys can make. So it's because of that, that I'm not going to pick Carr, even though I love him. But he's not going to play a big game until October against BYU. He might be lost in the shuffle. I'm going to go against conventional wisdom here. With all these great quarterbacks, and in particular with some of them having such difficult schedules, I do think it's going to be really hard for some of these guys to escape that loss. And as we know from following college football,

a loss for a quarterback can really kick you out of that Heisman conversation quite rapidly. Just ask a guy like Andrew Luck, lost to Oregon that year, and all of a sudden, RG3 is your Heisman trophy winner. And it's for that reason we don't put that burden on other players. And we've got a player who I think is the best overall player in college football. And at the end of the year, we might be looking up and this guy might have well over 40 touchdowns in his career receiving.

So my pick for Heisman is going to be Jeremiah Smith. I think at the end of the year, there's going to be a lot of candidates. There's no doubt one might even be his teammate and quarterback Julian San. But he has the ability to capture moments and make the plays that will make our imagination go wild, where everyone will be sharing viral moments of Jeremiah Smith. And I think that he can capture, become the face of the sport. By the end of the year, he might have numbers that we haven't seen a long time from a career perspective. Big Ten's all time leading, God, this and that.

I'm going to pick Jeremiah Smith. I know with this many quarterbacks, that's crazy. But my Heisman pick is going to be Jeremiah Smith. I think he's the best player in the sport. Now, one of those guys that's going to have a great opportunity is Arch. and his team Texas, a lot of people talking about the expectations for them, and that leads me to the number four question I have for this college football season. Will Arch and his coach Steve Sarkeesian with the Texas Longhorns finally raised their ceiling? Touched on that a little bit

ago in this episode. This is a really good team. Again, I was surprised that they didn't at least receive one vote in the first spot in the AP poll. They flamed out a little bit last year after being ranked number one to start the season. But everyone kind of lost touch with him. And then it was just the big narrative is like, Arch is the problem. He didn't play well. Arch had a really strong second half of the season.

And he was one of the best quarterbacks in the country during that time frame. In fact, he was averaging 320 total yards per game. He had 20 total touchdowns and only two interceptions in his last six football games. That's playing incredibly well, incredibly well. So I don't think it's actually arch that has to like level up for Texas. He was there. What wasn't working for Texas last year was the fact that they were not playing well at the wide receiver position.

Their O line was underperforming. They couldn't protect him, couldn't run the football. And the defense played poor and way worse than what we expected their defense to do. That defense on paper last year really should have been one of the better defenses in college football. It's still kind of shocking to me that they weren't at least like top five or six in college football. They weren't even close. They weren't even close.

So the areas of the team that actually have to level up for them to increase their ceiling. When I say ceiling, I mean winning the SEC, playing for a national championship game. In order to do that, they've got to do two things. They've got to run the football better. It does so many things for your team, including protect your defense, but it also protects your quarterback. It allows your quarterback to play in more advantageous, down-and-distance situations. It's better for Archmanning. It's better for the play caller, Steve Sarkesian.

Everything's better when you can run the football. That offensive line is very talented. They brought in a couple of transfer running backs. They claim that they're going to be able to run the football much more effectively. If they can't, it will be another long year for Texas. That's number one. Number two, you've got to fix the defense. In order to do that, they went out and got a brand new defense of course.

coordinator and Will Mushchamp. Now, an old defensive coordinator that's now a new defensive coordinator. If you'll remember, he was at Texas way back in the last couple of years of Colt McCoy's tenure, by the way. And he was excellent there at Texas. He's been in the SEC forever, head coach at South Carolina, the last few years at Georgia. He was kind of a special assistant analyst type of guy for Georgia. So he's been there with Kirby. And now he's back and he's going to be coordinating the defense for Texas. Here's the thing. don't believe that this team can play by their mantra and go all gas and no breaks. If Ohio State and Indiana taught us anything last year, it's that a methodical ball control system and

philosophy pays dividends. It protects your defense. It allows you to play late into the season and still be fresh. And remember the SEC's still going this year to nine games, nine conference games in the regular season. There will be a, a premium. on trying to keep your defense in particular fresh. How do you do that? Run the football. You play a little bit slower. You can't go all gas and no brakes.

So that's one thing that they're going to have to do. They have to run the football better and then that defense has got to improve. I think that Will Mushchamp is going to have a huge impact on this season. Because if he fixes that defense, then yes, Arch, Sark, and Texas can raise their ceiling. But that's really where it lies. It's not with Arch and Sark. It's with Will Mushchamp, the offensive line, and the defense. Those are the areas for Texas that have got to change.

Obviously, a difficult schedule. They've got that Ohio State game. They've got to play at Tennessee, ranked number 20. They've got Red River. They've got Ole Miss. They've got three road trips in November at Missouri, at LSU, at Texas A&M. So this schedule is daunting. There's no doubt, but they are one of the more talented teams in the country.

And if they run it and play good defense, then they, they could easily win a national championship. So he's a coach that I'm looking at, which brings me to my number five question, which is which new coaches are going to make a huge impact in year one. Now, I think that we default immediately go to the head coaches. And listen, that's fine, and I understand that.

And in so many ways, the head coach is really like the quarterback is to the NFL. Like, that's the focal point of these programs. And they kind of rise and fall on the head coach. And so I get that. So if we're looking at head coaches, the guys who I think could make a huge immediate impact and really increase the level of the program immediately, guys like Eric Morris at Oklahoma State. He goes from North Texas. He goes to Oklahoma State, takes a bunch of his guys with him.

Does it remind you of anybody? Yeah. This is exactly what Kurt Signetti did when he went from JMU to Indiana and they popped right away, went to the college football playoff. That's what I'm looking at. Bob Chesney, now going from JMU to UCLA. Now, I think it will be much more difficult for UCLA than it would be Oklahoma State because I think the Big Ten is more difficult than the Big 12. But it's, this is a guy that has a quarterback and Nico Iamaleava and they can increase their win total drastically right away. This is a really good coach.

I also feel the same way about James Franklin at Virginia Tech. James is a hell of a football coach. At Penn State, his only problem was that he couldn't get all the way to the mountain top. But man, he's a good climber. He is a great climber. He built a really solid program at Penn State. Did a great job there. Couldn't get to the mountain top.

And now he's at Virginia Tech. And I think he will immediately make them better. So those are guys that I think could elevate their programs right away. Now, there are other new coaches with much tougher jobs, guys like Kyle Whittingham. Is he going to make an impact? Certainly he's going to make an impact. But can he level them up right away remains to be seen. Same could be said for Lane Kiffin.

LSU looking for him to move. him up right away. Can he do that right away? Remains to be seen. I think that's a giant wild card and it doesn't help with everything that's gone on over the first couple of weeks here of the season with all this eligibility stuff. But when you're talking about impact and in particular impact at the highest echelon of the sport, I don't actually think it's about new head coaches. Maybe Whittingham and Lane Kiffin can get their teams into that equation. Maybe. Maybe. But we've got really good programs that I think could potentially compete for or win a national championship that have made major moves at the coordinator position. So which are the coaches, new ones that are going to make the biggest impact here in the 2026 college football season?

I'm looking at guys like Jason Beck, the new offensive coordinator at Michigan. What does he do with Underwood? Will Mustchamp already talked about him, defense coordinator at Texas. Gary Patterson, new defensive coordinator at USC. Imagine Lincoln Riley with a solid defense. Arthur Smith. No one talks about the fact that Ohio State has a brand new offensive coordinator. It's Arthur Smith.

How about Drew Marringer? He's the new offensive coordinator at Oregon. Hired from within. Not a ton of experience for a team that has a lot of expectation. Dan Landing is on the defensive side of the ball himself as a former defensive coordinator. And there's Marringer on the other side. what does he do? See, so like the impact of these guys is is drastic. If one of these guys excels, it changed the trajectory of their team and in particular

towards a college football playoff birth or maybe even a national championship. If one of these guys flames out, then we're talking about a team that has massive expectations falling well short of expectations. That's impact. So is it really the head coaches? I think it's more of these coordinators. And there's two. in particular that I think could change the trajectory of the entire season as we view it as college football fans. And that's two guys Jason Beck, the coordinator at Michigan, and Will Must Champ the defensive coordinator for Texas.

If all the sudden Jason Beck turns around Michigan's offense and namely the play of their high end, high recruit, Bryce Underwood, quarterback, if he changes the trajectory of that offense, all of a sudden, Michigan levels up. Michigan can be a playoff team. Michigan plays all the great teams in the Big Ten. That's a difficult schedule, but imagine if all of a sudden he does Beck to Michigan what he was able to do to Utah.

Remember, Whittingham and Utah never struggled defensively, always struggled offensively. He came in, they averaged over 40 points a game. So Beck did great at Utah with a mobile athletic quarterback, same thing he's got at Michigan. What does he do there? That's a huge impact changes the entire. conversation of the Big Ten and the entire

playoff picture. Then you've got Will Mushchamp, and I already touched on that a little bit ago. If Mushchamp fixes the defense, all of a sudden, it's not just on arch. It's not just on Sark to go score more points than everybody else. Then all of a sudden, you can play safer, you can play slower, you can rest. You can do so many things that allow you

to get through the war of attrition that is the SEC schedule and the potential college football playoff, if Will Mushchamp changes this Texas defense and they return to an elite defense, which they absolutely have the potential to do so, they can win a national championship. That's impact. That's impact. So those are the two guys that I'm looking at.

It kind of begs the question then, and this is where I'll go for the sixth burning question here of the college football season. Who can win the national championship? Listen, I've toyed around with this for the entirety of the, offseason. And I've said seven, maybe eight. I'm landing on seven. I've got seven teams that can absolutely win a national championship this year. They've got the roster. They've got everything that you need. And you've got to understand that right now, it's a bit different than it used to be. You see, late in the 20 teams, when the, when the Alabama's and the Georgia's and the

Clemsonsons of the world were ruling and running college football, the unquestioned biggest variable of who would win the national championship was recruiting, talent acquisition. And so it was primarily a talent conversation. But in the last three years, it's changed. It's changed. The way that we crown a champion has changed. The way that we build rosters has changed. The dispersion of talent has changed.

And so now it's not just a talent conversation. It's a culture conversation. It's an experience conversation. It's how are you in leverage game situation conversation? And it's a coaching conversation. I think now more than ever in the history of the sport, you've got to build those pieces together in order to have a championship team move forward

and go and win it all. I think there are seven teams that can do that. Now, who does it best? I'm not totally sure. Oregon, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Georgia, Indiana, Texas, Miami, all of them won't be surprised at all if they win the national championship. I won't be surprised at all. It's what makes the sport great this year, by the way.

I think that's a deeper list, it's a more eclectic list than we've had maybe ever in college football, but certainly for a long time and easily multiple decades. Now, you might be wondering to yourself, like, well, Joel, wasn't there an eighth team that you kept talking about as the biggest wild card in college football during the course of the offseason. Yes, and I've talked about LSU as a potential eighth. I don't like it much anymore. I really don't.

I don't think LSU can navigate a season like they'll have to navigate in order to win a national championship. There's just too much adversity that pops up now that you didn't have to deal with back in the day. Back in the day, I was just watching the Vince Young documentary, the untold documentary around Netflix.

It's fantastic, by the way. I would highly suggest it go watch it. I love Vince, by the way. And hopefully we'll get Vince on the program at some point. I'd love to just chop it up with Vince. He's amazing. He's the best college football player I've ever seen in my life ever. But anyways, what struck me is in that 05 season, the fall of 2005,

that was actually my senior year. We played Vince's team twice that year. But in that structure of college football, you had to go, if you're Texas, you had to play your regular season, win the Big 12 championship game, and then you were just put in the BCS National Championship game. Same thing for USC. They didn't have a championship game in the Pac-10 back then. You just won the regular season of the Pac-10.

They were ranked in the top two in there, number one. They had that massive winning streak, and they just go and they win. So when you look at that, it's like a regular season, how many games did USC really have to, like, strain to win, adversity to win in that regular season? Well, Notre Dame comes to mind. Remember the Bush push. Maybe one other one?

Maybe. Same thing for Texas. We certainly weren't giving them adversity, even in the Big 12 championship game. And now all of a sudden they go and they play that game. So what I'm saying is there were less potholes, road bumps, less adversity back in the day in college football, as opposed to what you have now this year.

You've got to go win 16 games. You're going to be up against it. You're going to have to get through injuries. You're going to have to get through more than what you used to get through. It used to be a talent acquisition thing. Now it's a broader conversation, a more broad conversation. That's why I'm not thrilled. or I'm not hot on LSU this year as a potential national champion.

I don't have faith in that culture right now. I think it's a transactional culture. I think that that is being laid bare by Lane fighting for these NFL players to come back and be a part of his roster. It's wild to me. It's wild to me. That is a transactional program. Doesn't mean that they won't be good. They could go to the playoff.

I'm just telling you that I don't think that they're going to have the culture. I don't think that they're going to have the chemistry as a team to go out and actually win a national championship. Because to do that, boy, you better be like a rock. You've got to have each other's back. That's what Indiana had. That's what Ohio State had. That's what Michigan had. That's what Georgia had in those years when they're winning it.

Even those Bama teams, even in a different structure, man, they came together. The Florida teams with Urban Meyer, the Ohio State team with Urban Meyer, to win a national championship, there is a secret sauce that you've got to find along the way to come together as a group of men and play for something that's bigger than the name on your back. Is that going to happen at LSU this year? I just don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know if they're going to meet that mark.

Doesn't mean that they won't be talented. They could even go and compete for an SEC title. I just don't think that they're going to have the locker room to deal with the adversity. Remember, he's actually. He's actively doing things right now that makes players on his own team question their status on the team by trying to bring in these NFL guys. I think it's crazy. I think it's crazy, which brings us to our number seven question. Are Lane Kiffin and LSU now the new villain in the sport and how good will they actually be?

That's a great question. That's a great question. First answer is, yes, they're absolutely the villain, and all you have to do is look to see how the SEC is operating right now. Because forever, the SEC did an unbelievable job of circling the wagons and protecting one another. Okay. They didn't tell on each other. You know, they sung each other's praises.

We're the best conference. It's tough to win on the road. We're the SEC. Man, they absolutely held the line for. the conference. No one did it better. No one did it better forever. And what do you see right now? The SEC as a conference, basically fighting Lane Kiffin. Now, you could be arguing, no, Joel, they're fighting a judge's ruling in Louisiana. Yes, they are fighting. Why is that judge ruling that way? Well, he's a Baton Rouge judge and he's ruling that way to help LSU. Obviously,

just like the judge in Lubbock was trying to help Brendan Sorsby during the course of the offseason get eligible so he can play for Texas Tech. This is one of the reasons why we need to get the sport out of the courtrooms. But now you have the SEC actively against LSU and Lane Kiffin. There's no greater sign than that than they have become the villain of college football. And you know what? Not a bad thing. Not a bad thing. I'm not going to lament it. I think Lane is great in that role. I think he's great for college football. I think he's a wonderful coach from a schematic perspective. I would not want to play for him. But for my money, you want a villain in college football. Heck, Jim Harbaugh was the villain in college football.

made the sport better. It's more interesting when we have somebody to root against. I'm not saying everyone's going to root against him. I really am not. But I am saying there's no doubt in my mind that he's the villain of college football. So then how good can they be? Well, their talent's going to be exceptional. It would blow my mind. It would be the shock of all shocks if they came together actually from a chemistry perspective to run out there and actually like run the table, win the SEC and win the national championship. I just talked about that. It is. a different equation now. I think it takes more than talent. It takes more than a great offensive mind to go and win a national championship. It takes everything. You've got to have

chemistry. You've got to have depth. You've got to have experience. You've got to have togetherness. All these things are really hard to build. That's what it takes. Do they have that? I don't know. How good are they going to be? Really good. Really good. But love them or hate him. Lane Kiffin is fabulous for the sport. I text with him all the time. You guys might think like, you guys must not get along. We actually get along fine. I love Lane. I really do. And all these things that I've said on the pod to you, the fan, I've said to him. I've said to him. I think he's crazy for the way he left Ole Miss. I think he's crazy for what he's doing right now in the portal with the NFL guys. I think it's wild. How do you get a team to buy in if you're doing that? He doesn't care. He doesn't care what I say.

And good. Good on him. We need villains in the sport. I do think he is a villain. the sport, and the evidence is his own conference is fighting against him right now. Leads me to the number eight question because LSU is this team that's trying to level up in their own conference. I would say Texas and Georgia are on the A tier in the SEC. LSU, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Alabama, these are the teams that are trying to get to that level, at least in my estimation. You might be a fan of one of those teams and you think, what are you talking about?

We're on that level. I don't know if you are. You're trying to get to that level. The same can be said for other conferences as well. If I look around the country, I look at a pretty clear line of demarcation between what I think of the premier teams that can win their conference and potentially win the national championship. And then the teams just below them. So the Big Ten, they have a, I think, a more expansive top tier than anybody else, Indiana, Oregon and Ohio State. They've got three.

The SEC, I think has two, Georgia and Texas. ACC, clearly Miami, Big 12, top tier, Texas Tech. So, like, these teams we know. Now, there's a bunch of teams right under them in every conference that are trying to get to that level. Like ACC, for instance, Virginia, after that nice week zero win over North Carolina State,

they're right there, SMU, Louisville, Clemson. These teams are, they want to be on that level with Miami. Can one of them level up and beat Miami? That's a big question. I think the same can be said. in the Big 12. Texas Tech kind of clearly above everybody else, but then you've got Utah, you've got BYU, you've got Arizona, you've got maybe it's Oklahoma State, you've got all these other programs that are thinking of themselves, well, we want to be on that tier. So which one of

them can elevate their game to get to that tier? Maybe it's BYU out of the Big 12. And then obviously in the big two conferences, the Big Ten and the SEC, I look at the Big Ten and I look at four teams that are trying to level themselves up. USC is trying to level themselves up. Michigan's trying to level themselves up. Penn State and Washington. These teams are very good teams, but you've got to prove to me that you can potentially beat one of the top dogs. I think the SEC, like I already mentioned, you've got Alabama, LSU, A&M, Oklahoma, all these different teams. And for me, my money would be on three teams that I think have the talent, the coaching, the potential to actually go up there and beat one of

these top tier teams in these conferences. And that is in the Big Ten, USC and Michigan with a big caveat for Jason Beck, which I already talked about in this program. And in the SEC, it would be LSU just because of that talent. Just because of that talent. We'll see about the chemistry. But those would be my picks for teams that I could see leveling up, getting themselves onto that tier where they're making possibly a playoff run, which then begs the question

about dark horses. because here's the other thing that we've seen every year in college football, maybe not every single year when it was just a BCS National Championship, but certainly in the playoff era, we see teams come from nowhere to make the college football playoff. That's the nine question. Who could be this year's Indiana? Let's talk about dark horses,

but I also want to define this in two different ways. Because Indiana can be two different things, can't it? You've got Indiana from 2024, which is a team that comes from nowhere, plays a weak schedule, loses the two best teams that they face, but they were in the playoff. Kind of just comes from nowhere,

and it's like, wow, that was wild. That was fun. That was fun. So that's one definition. You've got Indiana 2024. Then you've got Indiana 2025, which is what team that has been good is all of a sudden going to just take a giant leap forward

and put themselves on the top of the sport? Two different definitions. you've got 24 Indiana, you've got 25 Indiana. So where do we sit? For 24 Indiana, these teams that it's like we don't think much of, we don't talk about them in the preseason. But man, you look at their schedule, you look at their experience, you look at even the talent on their roster.

And you could see something change or pop where all of a sudden they're competing for a potential playoff spot. Here's some wild ones. Virginia, Washington. I know I put them in that second tier, but not many people talk about Washington. You know, DeMond Williams is back. Jed Fish is there a second year.

They've got a good defense, at least what should be a good defense. Oklahoma State out of the Big 12. Maybe they leveled themselves up, just like Sig did, bringing all those transfers in in 2024. So Eric Morris could do that at Oklahoma State. I look at Bob Chesney at UCLA. These teams could make a big jump. How about Tosh LaPoy at Cal?

So here's these teams, like those are your 2024 Indiana-style run teams that we could potentially see in college football this year. wouldn't shock me, although it would be surprising. And we saw one of them play already. How good was Virginia. Virginia could easily play for the ACC championship game. Now, who could be the 2025 Indiana? Go from something to national champion.

Because we've got some teams right now that are like, yep, they're doing it. They're doing a nice job, but they lost to the best teams that they played. So we don't think a ton of them moving forward. I got two. How about Texas Tech taking the next step? How about Ole Miss taking the next step? I don't hear many people talking about Texas Tech and Ole Miss as potential national champions.

Now, granted, I said that we had seven teams. There are really talented teams above them. But I would not have told you at this point last year that Indiana had the roster or the chemistry or the experience or any of that to go win a national championship and they did. Maybe that's the case for Texas Tech. They beat up on teams that they should and lost to the best team that they faced in Oregon last year. Ole Miss. Everyone's overlooking him this season because Lane left. What if they galvanize around Pete Golding with their great quarterback Trinidad Chamblis? And they move forward and win the SEC.

Maybe they just run rough shot over college football and they become this year's 2025 Indiana. And that leads me to the number 10 question and my really favorite question of this whole batch, which is, is college football better than ever? The answer is yes. It's absolutely yes for all the things that aren't perfect in this sport. And granted, I understand that there are things that are not perfect. But all of these changes, however hard they have been to swallow, to watch, to work through. They have made the sport better.

There has been more engagement than ever with college football. And as I talked about with Colin Coward, look at all the favorites for the national championship. We've got seven legitimate teams that can win the national championship. And guess what? They are not regional teams. These are major brands spread out all over the country. That is great for college football. So whatever you think about NIL and whatever you think about transfer portal and whatever you think about the mess that is college football right now from a government standpoint, these changes, however hard to swallow, have made the sport incredible. We've got great teams. We've got talent all over the country. And we have every single part of this country

represented with high expectations and expectations all the way at the top as high as winning the national championship. That makes it great. We've got great quarterbacks. We've got great players. This could be an epic season of college football. Speaking of epic, by the way, we have a huge live show coming up in Ann Arbor. Week two, right before that Oklahoma, Michigan game. That's right. We are bringing the Joel Class show. live to Ann Arbor. On Monday's episode, I told you that we had a live show and we only had 100 spots. That sold out really fast.

In fact, it was like an hour and all of a sudden we didn't have any more spots open. So here's what we're going to do. We found some space. We talked with the venue. We've got 50 more spots that we can deliver to you. So make sure you go down to the description. Click on the link below because we've got 50 more spots for the live show. Joel Clack coming into Ann Arbor right before that OU Michigan game.

That's going to be amazing. So click on that link. and get those tickets fast. If you haven't subscribed to the program, do it. Share it with a friend because college football is amazing. We're almost here. I'm going to have picks and previews coming up for tomorrow. We are like headlong into the season.

This is phenomenal. If you haven't followed us on social, make sure you do that. You can keep up with everything that we've got going on for the season at Joel Clatchew. And if you're listening, wherever you get your podcast, make sure to rate and review us. That would be awesome. Until tomorrow, have a great night, everybody. Those are the 10 questions you are now prepared for college football.

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