The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Biggest Questions facing Klatt’s Top 12 teams for 2026 Season

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

Fox Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt dives into the biggest questions facing his Top 12 teams from his Post-Spring Top 25. He breaks down how Michigan’s new OC Jason Beck could tap into a new area of Bryce Underwood’s skillset. Klatt looks at the potential obstacles facing Lane Kiffin in his first year in Baton Rouge and Indiana’s unique challenge to replicate last year’s incredible run. He circles the biggest problem that has plagued Ohio State in recent years and wonders why Georgia can’t seem to fix one particular area on their stacked roster plus many more questions that need to be answered!Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/KLATT10 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. My biggest questions for this top 12. This is a huge year for Dan Laining. So can a new coaching staff and 40 transfers gel? Is he going to be the reason that you win big games? Or is he going to be the reason that you lose big games? What is a quarterback's best friend, a run game, and a good defense?

This is a championship or bust type of roster. Hey, welcome into the program, everybody. This is the Joel Clatt show. I'm Joel Clad. This show is brought to you by Graduate by Hilton. We thank them for their support. always. Let's jump right into it. Okay, so last week I gave you my post-spring top 25. If you haven't watched that, go back and watch that on YouTube. You can listen to it as well,

wherever you get your podcast. That's where I give you one through 25, my post-spring top 25, entering the summer. Here's what I want to do for today is my biggest questions for this top 12, this group of top 12, which, let's be frank, there are two categories here. There's the top seven teams. All of those teams, I think, could actually win the national championship. And then there's this group right after them. And I'm going to be talking about their biggest question, the biggest question mark that we've had for them over the last couple of years or even things that they're going to have to replace from last year. And if they can answer those questions, if they can be good in these areas, then these teams are going to level up. The top seven will have a great chance to

actually win it all. And then this next group that I'll start with, they're going to have a chance to be in that contenders group. So that's what I wanted to do today. Let's start with my number 12 team. Okay, my number 12 team was Michigan. So we start with the Wolverines and what is their biggest question right now in the offseason and then entering the season, does Bryce Underwood turn into Devin Dampier with his legs? That's the biggest question I think all of us have in particular with their new coordinator, Jason Beck. So Jason Beck spent the last two seasons with Devin Dampier at New Mexico and Utah. They've been each of those years second in college football in rushing.

Why? Because of the quarterback run game. You look back, Dampeer at New Mexico, 1,100 yards. Last year, even though he missed a few games, it was banged up, 800 yards. Bird Fickland came in as the backup quarterback for Utah. What did he do? He ran for 500 yards. So if you look at the top four teams in quarterback rushing last year,

it's the three service academies in Utah, right? So that's a big part of what Jason Beck does on offense. Now, do I think it's going to be as extensive? Probably not, because you do want to protect Underwood, little bit. This is going to be a more physical conference and more demanding schedule in the Big Ten. So you don't want him running a ton, but this is part of what Jason Beck does. Now, they're going to have probably a better run game surrounding the quarterback than maybe even Utah did, even though Utah could run the football. Because if you look at what they've got in the backfield,

it's very good. I look at this team and I'm thinking to myself, all right, Underwood ran it only about seven times for 30 yards per game and Chip Lindsay's offense. Well, Jason Beck's Cubies have run for the last two years, 1,150 yards and 1350 yards. Okay, so if that pans out, this becomes a very difficult offense to stop. Very difficult. Let's just put it this way. If Michigan leads the power four in rushing, which is what Utah was able to do a year ago, with Underwood, with Jordan Marshall, with their freshman, Savian Hyder, who, by the way,

Wittingham has spoken glowingly about this new true freshman, then they become a team and a style that no one wants to play. They're right back into that mode where they are the antidote to what Oregon does, to what Indiana does, to what Ohio State does. So that's the biggest question.

I can't wait to see how it all pans out and exactly what we see from Underwood in Jason Beck's offense. So that's the number one question surrounding Michigan. We move on. At 11, it's Oklahoma. Now, Oklahoma, this was a problem last year

and it has to get fixed because this problem was the reason that John Mateer wasn't able to play at his potential. Now, early in the year, Mattir was incredible. In fact, he was on a lot of people, including my Heisman list, leading the Heisman list, but it was a lot of Matier in the run game. Now, I know I just said I'd like to see Underwood run it more, but there was the caveat. You don't want to expose him too much. and I thought Oklahoma was exposing Matyr too much.

And the reason is that they didn't get anything out of their backs. Okay, when the quarterback complements the run game and you can be effective using your backs and your quarterback, then you've got something. Last year, Oklahoma was unable to do it. So their biggest question is, can you run it with your backs and take pressure off Mateer? If they're able to do that, we think that they're going to be able to play great defense. They did it a year ago with Venables call in the defense. If they can run it with their backs, now all of a sudden,

Matyr becomes the player he was early in the season last year. The Sooners have their top running backs back from a year ago. They've got Robinson and Blaylock, both of those guys back. They've got three starters on the left side of that line, and they brought in a Marion Harris on the right side for the right tackle spot. He comes in from Arkansas, so they feel like they fixed the offensive line a little bit. Mathieu had to do the heavy lifting last year, and I thought that was a problem. It's one of the reasons why he banged up his hand

and once his hand was injured, then they weren't the same even trying to throw the football, as we all know. I didn't think that that was a recipe for success. I said it early in the year, a year ago when they played Michigan. He was Superman. He had 34 passes, 19 carries. 19 is too many. Seven might be too few for Underwood and Michigan, but 19 from a tier and OU is probably not the ticket. Somewhere in the middle of those is where you need to be. He cannot be Superman every week. I don't think he'll get through a nine-game SEC schedule. Remember, it moves up to nine games. If they have a run game plus a top-10 defense, plus Mater's playmaking ability, well, they could be a real threat in the SEC. They could level themselves up to a team that

could do some real damage in the playoff. So that's why that's the biggest question for me surrounding OU moving into the summer and ultimately next year. All right, number 10, this was a team. And again, go back and listen to or watch. the post-spring top 25, because this is a team, and I talked about it at length, that I'm higher on than most. And the reason is the line of scrimmage. And this is USC. Now, USC, I know I'm going to get a lot of people like, oh, my goodness, this is too high.

You always over-hyped USC. And listen, I totally understand that. And until we actually see it, you know, it's probably pump your breaks time. But there were elements last year where they were really good on the line of scrimmage. But it's not just about running the football, which we think they're going to do really well. Again, go back and listen to the episode. I talked about their returning offensive linemen. Their backfield is healthy.

Their question, obviously, at wide receiver, but that's not the question. The question for me is actually the defensive line. Is the defensive line ready? And let me take a deeper dive in this. During Lincoln's tenure at USC, they are 132nd in the country in yards per carried aloud. And that's when you remove sacks. And we've got to remove sacks because, again, you know, the fact that we include sacks and rushing totals in college football drives me crazy. And you get a better sense of what a defense actually is, a front seven actually is, if you remove those sacks.

And when you remove the sacks, they're 130 second. Notre Dame ran all over them. If you're watching on YouTube, one, congratulations, make sure you hit subscribe and you're watching Jeremiah Love and Judarian Price just carve that defense up. Now, the question is, is not that you can get to be a dominant defense, but let's take a look at something that's like a little bit under the radar, which is this margin between what you gain per carry and what you give up per carry. That gives you a real good idea of how strong you are at the line of scrimmage.

Like for instance, last year, Indiana was a plus two. So they ran it for two yards more per carry than what they gave up per carry. That's really good. If you look at what Oklahoma was during Lincoln's tenure, they were third in the country in yards per carry difference. They were pretty good. Even if they didn't play great defense, they were good at the line of scrimmage per se,

at least in this metric when you're talking about the difference of what you gain and what you give up. If you move to his tenure at USC, they've been 55th in the country in yards per carry difference. If they can shrink that down and that defense is just okay, stopping the run, then they're going to have something here because they've been able to run the football. They've been able to be pretty good.

They were in the game in the second half against Oregon on the road. They were in the game getting torched on the ground against Notre Dame on the road. They really should have beaten Illinois, and they were very impressive at home against Michigan and beating them up at the line of scrimmage. They were pretty good against Iowa, even though they gave up a lot of yards on the ground. They did a heck of a job in that game. And so you look at this defensive line, that's the question mark. The defensive tackle that I really love is Jakeem Stewart.

They've got Bucard. there as well. They got Shelby in there, Cameron Crawford on the edge, but now they have depth. Now you can rotate. You're not going to get as tired. And they also have the number one edge player in the class, Luke Waffle. I believe that's how you pronounce his name. I'm sure we'll get corrected if that's not the way you pronounce his name. But if they're better on the defensive line, then USC could have a monster year. They could compete for a Big Ten title. They could level themselves up into the playoff. Again, these teams that are outside of the top seven, these are the ones that are going to be competing for those last at-large spots. We get the conference

champions in and the group of six in, and then all of a sudden you're looking at these, you know, three or four spots. Can you get those? These are the questions that you have to answer in order to get those spots. So USC is the defensive line ready. All right, now we move inside of the top 10. Texas A&M. What's the biggest question surrounding Texas A&M? Good year last year. You could easily talk about, hey, you've got to finish the season better. We've seen them have fast starts like they did a year ago. Or were they 11 and 0 before they lost their last two? So we could talk about the finish to the season.

But really, it's more about the big games and how their most important player plays. And so the question for Texas A&M is Marcel Reed. Is he going to be the reason that you win big games or is he going to be the reason that you lose big games? Because there were times when he played really well. There were other times when he did not. and in particular in those two losses to end the season. I know it was windy against Miami.

He did not play well against Texas and Miami. And as a quarterback, you've got to be the reason that your team wins. You've got to go out there and give them the best opportunity, put them in the best position. You look at the way the last two seasons ended, scored three points in the home loss against Miami. He had no touchdowns and four interceptions against Texas and Miami in those last two games. Multiple interceptions and four of them. his last six games. That has to turn around. Now, it's a little bit of a roller coaster with him. And so I know that you're going to have to take some of the bad in order to get the good.

He's a low floor, high ceiling player, right? Rough first half against South Carolina, that's evidence of the low floor. Great second half against South Carolina. That's evidence of the high ceiling. Didn't throw it great against Notre Dame, but had big numbers. His Craver went wild after the catch, so they were able to get the ball out of his hands. He's amazing with his legs. so when he's not throwing the football well, can he impact the game with his legs? If he can cut those bad games and eliminate those bad performances or even just one series here or there, now all of a sudden A&M is a team that has to be reckoned with in those big games versus a team that falls flat in those big games.

So if Reed becomes a player and plays to his potential in all of those matchups, now you're talking about a team that's certainly going to go back to the playoff, could compete for the SEC Championship, and maybe with the way that they've recruited and the stability under Mike Elko, maybe they could compete for the national semi-final, maybe even get to the national championship game. Number eight is a fun one, and it's obvious,

and I tried to stay away from just the obvious answers here, but number eight was LSU in my top 25 post-spring. It is the most obvious question, which is this Lane Kiffin, I don't want to call it an experiment, because he's obviously done this before, but they brought in 40 transfers, 40. So can a new coaching staff and 40 transfers gel? And how quickly can they gel?

Now, the question begs like, can you have top-in success with that big of a roster shift in year one? Yes, you can. Texas Tech last year had 21 transfers, 11 starters. Last year, Kiffin's own team at Ole Miss, they had 32 transfers. Indiana a couple of years ago, you know, in their turnaround with Signetti, they had 27 transfers. If you're looking at their depth chart or a projected depth chart right now for LSU,

you're probably looking at 11 or 12 starters from the portal. And so it comes down to culture and execution. How quickly did they buy into the culture, which he was able to do, by the way, at Ole Miss. So it leads you to believe that they're going to be able to buy into the culture and then execution. Okay, can you gel these guys together and execute in big moments? Now, that was a hard element for Indiana

in big games in that first season. It wasn't so much in the second year. So how quickly can they execute for LSU? I think that they're going to have to hit the ground running. You look at guys like Sam Levitt, Jordan Seton. They're coming in. They're going to make this roster better. It's likely the most expensive roster in all of college football.

And it's going to have to be ready to go right away. First four games, Clemson, LaTec, at Ole Miss in Lane's return. That's going to be wild. And then they face that Texas A&M team that I just talked about. Two losses would leave them with really no margin for air if they lost two of those four. I don't think that they will lose two of those four, but they're going to be tough. And the experiment, the culture, the execution, that's going to be tested right away. And so this summer is vital for LSU and they've got to get it going.

Two losses, by the way, in those first four, it would leave no margin for error. And then they've got a three-week stretch in November where they've got Bama, Texas, and Tennessee, right? So they've got to get it going and they've got to get it going in a hurry. Now we cross the threshold, okay? And I talked about this on the post-spring top 25. I believe that the rest of these teams that I'm going to talk about, if they can solve the issue that I'm going to talk about, if they can answer the question in the affirmative, then they're going to have national title hopes. They can win the whole thing. They're talented enough to do that. Again, we've got good parity. I think that there's seven or more teams that

could actually go out and win the national championship this year. That's a good thing. And we start number seven with Texas. They were seven in my top 25. And the question I think is pretty simple, maybe not totally obvious with a switch at defensive coordinator. But it's really about running the football. Texas was putrid running the football. And if you look back to Sark's really good teams that he's had, whether he's been a head coach or an offensive coordinator, they've been able to run the football well. That 2020 Bama team that he was the coordinator of, They had Najee Harris. Like, they could run the crap out of the ball.

And Texas just couldn't do it last year. Just couldn't do it. It was bad. The running backs yards per carry last year, just from the running backs, 120th in the country. Now, Brandon Baker is going to kick inside to right guard with the arrival of Melvin Sinai. He's coming in from Wake Forest.

He's one of the top portal tackles. And you've got Trevor Goosby at left tackle. He's back along with. with their center, Connor Robertson. They should be better up front. Sark is at best when he's running it well, and he's going to have to do that with a rebuilt running back room, transfers this offseason, Hollywood Smothers,

and Relique Brown. Brown coming in from Arizona State, smothers from North Carolina State. These guys have to play well. And if they're able to do that, then Arch is not going to be under as much pressure. See, part of the problem with Texas last year is that everything was on Arch's shoulders.

everyone just thought like, oh, he didn't play well. He actually played fine in the back half of the year. The last six games, he was actually excellent. They did not protect him in games like the Georgia game, right? You can't protect him with your offensive line only if you can't run the football with your running backs. He can't be the one just carrying the run game, obviously. And so the backs have got to do something for Texas.

And if they do, if they get back to being able to run the football like Sark normally runs the football, then this is a team that can compete for the SEC title. There's no doubt. Good running gam impacts arch and it also impacts the defense. It's going to help the transition as well, Mushchamp comes in to be the defensive coordinator. Defense was 28th and scoring last year. I thought that they should have been better. They were much better the year before. A run game limits their exposure on the field. So again, run the football with the backs. That is their biggest question. That's what they've got to get fixed this summer. If they're able to do that, then watch out Texas could make a run. Number six, Miami. They lost so much off of their line of scrimmage,

both sides of the ball. And it's clearly, can you remain dominant at the line of scrimmage? That's what allowed them to make the run all the way to the national championship game. They were terrific. They were terrific on the offensive line. They did not allow a ton of pressure. They were able to run the football, and their defensive line got after it. put Julian San under a tremendous amount of duress. And so you're replacing all these guys. You're replacing Maui Noah and Rubin Bain and Akeem Mezzador, all these high round draft picks in the NFL.

What do you have behind them? What do you have behind them? Now, they've recruited and developed lines. And that's what Mario Cristobald does. The question now is how much of a drop-off is there? If there's not much of a drop-off, this team is going to go right back and compete for a national chance. championship. They're that good. If you look at the guys that they're going to be doing it with,

they've got a ton, a ton of former five-star players. Okay, so at least they got talent. They got five former five-star players that are coming back in on the defensive line alone in order to solidify what they lost in the draft. You've got the Missouri transfer on the edge. That's Damon Wilson. He's a former five-star. You've got Marquis Lightfoot. He's a former five-star played a lot last year. You've got Armando Blunt, Ahmad Moten, Justin Scott, a defensive tackle, all these guys, right? So they've got talent up there. The question is, what is the drop-off? Can you remain dominant at the line of scrimmage? That's the game that Mario wants to play. Now, there is one caveat here. There is one caveat because they were dominant at the line of scrimmage last year and didn't win at all. What came back to bite them? Big game blunders. I toyed around with making that the biggest question, but that's hard to fix until you actually get into those. moments, whereas you have to have the prerequisite of being dominant at the line of scrimmage in order to get to those moments and make those games matter. But the big game blunders, you know, I even talked about last year, there was an element of that that they fixed.

They played well on the road in November, but remember now, a couple of their losses, and certainly the biggest loss, you think back to the national championship game, they get that pump blocked. Indiana's not even coming after the punt. Like, that can't happen. That is a massive blunder and a huge game. They took a terrible roughing the passer late in the game against SMU. They lost that game. So can they correct those big game blunders? That would be a question moving forward.

They were able to do that to an extent a year ago. The prerequisite, though, and the biggest question is remaining dominant up front. If they can remain dominant up front, they will be right back in the position where they were a year ago competing for the national title. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you. It's everything you want denim to feel like for summer. Easy, breathable, and effortlessly cool. With a fit that creates natural movement and a wide leg that feels modern, not overwhelming.

Plus, that signature, wait, for this price, moment. Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg. At number five, I had Georgia. All right. So Georgia is interesting because we know Georgia is really good. We know Georgia runs the SEC. I mean, the SEC championship goes through Athens. Kirby deserves that. This program deserves that. The problem with Georgia the last couple of years, at least in my estimation, has been a lack of playmakers on the outside. It killed Carson Beck two years ago.

So many drops. They led the country and drops on the outside. Last year, They didn't have a big play threat. And so can you go and win a shootout? I don't know if they can because the guys that they're going to have on the outside just don't scare you. Ever since Bowers walked out the door, who's the threat? Because remember, at some point, I think that you've got to at least come to the conclusion that you're not going to shut everybody out. You're not going to hold everybody under 24. You look at these top four teams that I'm about to talk about, Indiana, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Oregon.

They're going to be really good on both sides of the ball. They're going to be very good on offense, very good. So what happens if one of those teams comes out, they're hot that day, they're hitting, they're executing, and they score 31. If you're Georgia, you better be able to score 32. And the question is, do you have the playmakers on the outside to do that? Now, last year they had Zachariah Branch. He had 81 catches, but almost all of that was quick catches at or near the line of scrimmage. Very little production down the field. They've got to develop

somebody down the field. The next closest player, by the way, had 27 catches. So there's not a lot coming back. Their leading returning receiver from last year's group is a veteran, London Humphreys. He had 18 catches. All right. Is he the guy? They brought in the 6-4 receiver from Georgia Tech, Isaiah Cannon. He was their third leading receiver last year. He's likely going to start. Does he turn into a real number one on the outside? Only time will tell. They're going to need a young player. They obviously recruit well. They're going to need a young player to step up. Lawson Lucky is going to be the starter at Tide End. He shared time with Oscar Delp. I like him as a player. He didn't even get to 20 catches. I think he had 15 catches.

So again, this idea of threats on the outside, do you have them? Can you be explosive when you need it? Even when Georgia had their talented defenses, at some point, they had to win a shootout. They had three shootouts last year. They had a win at Tennessee and a shootout. They had to win against Ole Miss in a shootout in the regular season. Then they took the loss to Ole Miss in a shootout. And at some point, you're going to need firepower. So what happens when you face those teams? We know they're going to be there. They're going to be right there. They're going to be in the playoff most likely, and they're going to face a team that has a really good quality offense. And so when you need 32, 34, 38 points, can you get that out of your offense? The defense, by

the way, they have allowed 35 plus points in five games over the last two seasons. It's going to happen again. It's going to happen again. So their biggest question is weapons on the outside. Can they develop them? Will they emerge next season? What's up, Clashio fans? I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for the best deal on tickets. And it's clear to me that Seat Geek is the answer. With over 35 million downloads, Seat Geek is the number one rated ticketing app. There are more than 70,000 events listed like concerts, festivals, sports, and more. Now, I know college football is several months away, but MLB is in full swing. The NBA and NHL playoffs are here, and you can even get World Cup tickets on Seatgeek. Now, I really want to go to

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about the question like, will Josh Hoover be Fernando Mendoza? That's an easy question. It's easy to think about, hey, they're losing this JMU pipeline. What's going to happen with their culture? It's easy to look at, hey, now they're going from being the hunter to the hunted. How does that impact them? But really, you've got to go, I think, a layer deeper, two levels deeper, really. What drove that team? And Signetti talked about this, by the way, when referencing Josh Hoover and what do you give a quarterback? What is a quarterback's best friend, a run game, and a good defense?

So the question for me is actually about their defense. And the reason is, is because their defense schematically, was built almost completely around DeAngelo Pons. I know that's strange. He's only a 5-9 corner on the outside, but he was the key. He allowed freedom of movement for the rest of the defense.

they had a ton of zone pressures, simulated pressures, because they could roll the defense away from DeAngelo Pons. He could handle everything back there. He could handle half of the field into the boundary and the passing game. He could also come up and run support. Pons was the critical factor in what was one of the best defenses in all of college football and certainly one of the reasons that they went on to win the national championship. He was unafraid against bigger wide receivers, even Jeremiah Smith.

And so who becomes that guy? I think that's a major question. He had a chip on his shoulder. This is a guy that no one talked about it. But again, the critical piece, can they replace DeAngelo Pons? Guys that could be doing that, maybe the Penn State transfer, A.J. Harris. Is it J. Mari Sharp? He started on the opposite side of Pons last year.

Did they move him over to the boundary? Boundary meaning short side of the field. That's where Pons primarily played. Think of the big play he made in the semi-fifference. against Oregon right off the bat, picks off a pass and goes back the other way. He was so good. And again, allowed them to play with more numbers and advantage everywhere else on the field because they could rotate away from him. He was that good on half of the field. That's the biggest question for Indiana going into next year, not even Mendoza, not even the JMU pipeline,

not even Hunter to Hunted. It's Pons. Pons was the key. If they can replace him, they're going to be good again on defense and they'll be good on offense and they're going to be threatening in the big 10. My number three team is Ohio State. This one to me is fairly obvious. I think most would actually talk about their defense. Eight starters, they're having to replace, guess what they did that a year ago? They ended up being the number one defense in the country. In fact, they've been the number one defense each of the last two years as far as scoring defense goes. Do I think that they're going to play quality defense? Yes. Yes, I do. They recruit as well as anybody. They've gotten some very impactful and experienced productive transfers in the transfer portal to come in and play on that defense. Earl Little comes to mind at safety.

So it's not that for me. For me, it's the offensive line. It's the offensive line. I've covered a ton of their games. And you can trace back. I can look. to all of their losses, going back to Oregon in the middle of the year a couple of years ago in their national championship run, everything past that, Michigan late in the year. This year, when you look at Indiana and the Big Ten championship game, Miami in the playoff, they got beat up at the line of scrimmage. They couldn't protect Julian San. They couldn't convert on short yardage. And their offensive line was an issue. It was an issue. It was an issue in every one of those losses. And so it becomes the biggest issue moving in to this season. Now, their offensive line has a lot of guys back, a lot of guys back.

Arthur Smith is their new offensive coordinator. He's got a run game background from his time in the NFL. He had Derek Henry, he had Bejohn Robinson. He loves multiple tied ins. We know Ohio State loves multiple tight ends. Nobody ran more two tight-in sets than Arthur Smith. He ran 48% two tight-in sets. But when you look at a team that allowed five sacks in each loss against Indiana and Miami,

something has to change up front. They've got to get better up front. Short yardage failure against Indiana late in the game. If they get that short yardage conversion, they likely win the game. They couldn't block Michigan two years ago late in the season, and it cost them that game in the horseshoe. Ohio State was just 51st in the country last year when you're talking about yards per carry. That has to improve. Now, if it does, watch out.

this could be one of if not the best offense in all of college football. You've got a returning starting quarterback and saying who's the most accurate quarterback in the country. You've got the best player in college football in Jeremiah Smith. You know you've got other wide receivers out there as well. If they can also run it and protect the passer, this is going to be the best offense in the sport. And if it's the best offense in the sport, they could win the national championship. Because again, we know they have history. They replaced eight defenders a year ago.

they were the number one defense in the country. They're going to replace eight defenders this year. And although it sounds crazy and all those guys were top, what, 12 draft picks, I think they can do it. I think they can do it on the offensive side. Short yardage was a problem. Sayin is not going to be a quarterback sneak guy, so you better fix it up front with your offensive line.

You don't have Will Howard to turn to anymore. He was great in their championship run on short yardage, in particular, fourth downs in particular. Sayin is not that guy. Unless you're going to go to the backup quarterback, then your O line and your backs are going to have to take over in those moments. And that's the biggest question surrounding Ohio State. Notre Dame was two.

Their biggest question is fairly obvious. And it's replacing those two backs. I mean, they had two first round running backs. Judarian Price goes to Seattle. And Arizona obviously drafts Jeremiah Love. So who's replacing that production? If they get great production out of the run game, they will be a great team.

They're going to be excellent on defense. I think CJ Carr is going to have a really solid year. But it can't be just a throw team. They're going to have to run the ball. That's their biggest question. They became the first team with two first round running back since 2008. I believe that was the Arkansas team with Darren McFadden. But they hit the portal.

Or, excuse me, instead of hitting the portal, they're going to fix this thing from within. They're going to replace this thing from within. They're putting their faith in their guys that they've had. Anais Williams. He had 58 carries last year, freshman Nolan James. He had 14 carries last year. Kedron Young, he's a big back, 235 pounds.

He missed last season. He had 21 carries in 2024. Those are your guys. Those are the top three on the depth chart. They have combined 93 carries in college football. So that's a question. That's a question. And it becomes the biggest question for Notre Dame.

because I don't think that they want to play a style where C.J. Carr has to be just the throw-first offense. They want to run the football. Their offensive line is going to be outstanding. They've got four returning starters up front. That's going to make the job for those backs a lot easier. And then C.J. Carr, his job becomes a lot easier. If they get quality run production, maybe not price and love, but quality run production, this is a team that will absolutely compete for the national championship. They're that good. They really are. And they're hungry.

Remember, last season ending the way that it did, the two losses, and then they were held out of the playoff, knocked back by the playoff committee, the selection committee, they're going to be pissed off. They're going to be motivated. And if they can get production out of those young backs, then watch out for Notre Dame. And Oregon, the biggest question for my number one team, Oregon, this one is about their big game issues. And they have them.

And that's now become an issue. Maybe not quite Penn State, James Franklin, but it's getting there. The one caveat I'll say about this is that Oregon has taken a step forward every single year, every single year under Dan Lany. Year one to year two, step forward, play for a conference title. Year two to year three, get back to the conference title, win it in the Big Ten. Their first year in the Big Ten, they were the number one seed going into the playoff. They get beat badly by Ohio State. What do they do?

They come back out and they go right. Right back to the playoff, and what do they do? They win a playoff game. So they are taking steps forward, but the problem is that they allowed 56 points versus Indiana, 41 versus Ohio State and their last two CFP losses. You know, this is supposed to be a defensive guy, Dan Lannning. And in big games, their defense doesn't really show up. They've been right there.

The way they lost to Ohio State, getting run off the field in the first half in that Rose Bowl, the way they lost to Indiana. I know one of those was a pick six to start things off, but the defense has got to get better and up to task, up to speed for the big games. Now, they've got two new defensive or two new coordinators, one on each side of the ball. Chris Hampton, he was promoted from safety's coach. He's going to be the defensive coordinator. He's going to have to look at those games and figure out a way to play better defense when it matters.

Now, you can get in a shootout. I'm talking about going from giving up 56 and 41 to like 30. How do you give up 30 and not 41? How do you give up 30 and not 56 and allow this experienced offense to go out there and potentially go win the game in particular late? Look at their losses under landing. Okay, 2025, two losses versus Indiana eventual national champ. 2024, loss versus Ohio State, eventual national champ. 2023, two losses versus Washington, eventual runner up in the country that year they lost to Michigan.

2022. One loss versus Georgia, the eventual champ, losses against Washington and Oregon State and a rivalry game that went down to the wire. So five of their eight was the eventual national champ, and one of their eight was the eventual national runner-up. They're knocking at the door. It becomes a big game issue. When will we know the answer for Oregon?

When will we see this come to fruition? Is it the regular season games, like at USC or at Ohio State, maybe? Although we've seen them win big regular. season games in the last few years. We're going to have glimpses there, but I don't think we're going to know until the playoff. This is a championship or bust type of roster. I have them number one in my post-spring top 25. I don't see a lot changing once we get to the year, and I give you my official preseason top 25. This is a huge year for Dan Lannning, taking a step forward, winning those big games in those big moments, and the question becomes about their defense. Can you just

keep yourself in the game on defense. That's the biggest question for Oregon. This season for them all about finishing the job and going for that championship. I think they've got the ability. They certainly have the defensive line. All of those guys coming back. They certainly have the roster. They certainly have the blueprint. But that's their biggest question moving into the year. Hey, if you haven't subscribed to the YouTube channel, I suggest that you do so. We're going to be back. We're going to be live every single Monday dropping episodes right here. leading up to college football. So make sure you subscribe on YouTube.

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All right, before my voice goes out, we'll get out of here. We'll be back next Monday with more Joel Clatshow. Until then, enjoy your week, everybody. Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair.

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