Where Michigan ranks in Joel Klatt's post-spring top 25
Michigan Wolverines football is coming off the 2023 national championship and has all the makings of a contender once again this coming fall. On his podcast, FOX analyst Joel Klatt released his post-spring top-25 rankings this week and placed the Maize and Blue at No. 8.
Michigan checked in only behind No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Oregon, No. 5 Ole Miss, No. 6 Utah and No. 7 Alabama. Penn State and Missouri rounded out the top 10 at No. 9 and No. 10, respectively. Michigan will face three of Klatt’s top four squads.
Michigan is one of four Big Ten teams in the top 10 and seven in the top 25. USC (15), Nebraska (22) and Iowa (24) made appearances later on Klatt’s rankings.
Klatt believes it all starts on defense for Michigan, which returns just three starters but loads of experience on a unit that ranked No. 1 in both scoring and total defense last season.
“The defense is going to be incredibly good again,” Klatt said. “They are so good up front. It’s the best defensive tackle corps in America — [juniors] Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant. They’ve got good players on the outside. [Junior] Will Johnson is probably the best corner in the country, arguably. That defense is going to be stout, there’s no doubt.
There’s a question mark at quarterback, where graduate Jack Tuttle, senior Davis Warren and junior Alex Orji appear to be the top contenders to replace J.J. McCarthy, who left early for the NFL Draft and became the No. 10 overall pick. However, Klatt, who called Michigan’s spring game on FOX, sees many similarities between last year’s team and the program under Jim Harbaugh, who’s now with the Los Angeles Chargers, to what he’s seen under first-year head coach Sherrone Moore.
“They’ve got [senior] Donovan Edwards back at running back,” Klatt said. “They’ve gotta figure out what’s going on at quarterback, but let’s remember it doesn’t feel all that different.
“Everything is the same, and yet everybody is different. I get it: new head coach, new coordinator, new strength coach, new quarterback, all these things. And yet, it’s still kind of business as usual because all of those people are promoted from within, running the same systems.
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“So if you’re a player at Michigan, you’re speaking the same language, you’re doing the same things, your structure is the same and the standard is the same. Nothing has changed for the players, and us on the outside we look in and say,’ Everything is different.’”
Seemingly factoring schedule into his placement of teams in his ranking, Klatt noted that Michigan’s is extremely difficult.
“That schedule doesn’t do them any favors — there’s no doubt,” Klatt explained. “They’ve got Texas in Week 2, USC in Week 4, then they’ve gotta travel for a national championship game rematch against Washington in October. They’ve got Oregon in November in The Big House, and then they’ve got to face Ohio State in the Shoe to finish the year.
“That’s ridiculously difficult.”
Klatt said Michigan’s schedule is perhaps second in difficulty only to Oklahoma, which will face Texas (Klatt’s No. 3 team), Ole Miss (No. 5), Missouri (No. 10), Alabama (No. 7) and LSU (No. 14).
Klatt circled back to Michigan’s quarterback situation in his conclusion.
“So Michigan has a lot to prove,” Klatt said. “Is it going to be Alex Orji, Davis Warren, maybe Jack Tuttle, at quarterback? They’re going to have to figure that out as they move forward.”
