Fox Sports analyst picks surprise team atop Pac-12 in preseason top 25
Joel Klatt released his preseason top 25 college football rankings in the Monday edition of the Joel Klatt Show.
Klatt’s top five teams failed to surprise as Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State and Alabama took the top four spots while Penn State slid into the No. 5 ranking. However, that is where Klatt’s adherence to the status quo stopped.
At No. 6, Klatt picked Washington, making the Huskies the first non-Big Ten or SEC team and the highest-rated team in the Pac-12 in his rankings.
“This is a team I really like—really like,” Klatt said. “Washington is sneaky good. I think Washington could win the Pac-12.”
The reasoning behind the ranking begins with the man under center in Seattle—Michael Penix Jr. The former Indiana transfer starred in his first season with the Huskies in 2022, throwing for 4,641 yards and 31 touchdowns with a 65.3% completion percentage. The performance netted Penix Jr. an eighth-place finish in the 2022 Heisman Trophy vote with nine first-place votes.
Penix also managed to stay healthy for a full season for the first time in his career, appearing in all 13 games.
Klatt expects an encore in 2023.
“That is my dark horse right there,” Klatt said. “If I am talking about Heismans, that is where I would start. Anybody not named Caleb Williams, it would be Michael Penix.”
In addition to Penix, Washinton returns a pair of 1,000-year receivers in Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan who caught seven and nine touchdowns last year, respectively. Klatt described the Huskies' wide receiver room as second to only Ohio State in terms of quality.
As strong as Klatt’s argument starts, it falls flat in the latter stages of his case for the Huskies and in his rankings.
Washington absolutely belongs in the top 25—maybe even the top 10—but not as the top-ranked Pac-12 program.
As Klatt notes, Washington did not advance to the Pac-12 title game. USC and Utah did.
Both Utah and USC rank higher than Washington in terms of returning production according to ESPN. The Trojans rank No. 14 and the Utes come in at No. 16 while Washington lands at a very respectable, but lower, No. 22.
Based on returning production alone, one can make a case for the Utes or Trojans—or both—over Washington.
However, both Utah and USC also return their starting quarterbacks from 2022 including Caleb Williams for USC who Klatt calls the best quarterback in the country and his favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.
Credit to Klatt on taking a swing in his preseason top 25 which usually proves to be lessons in futility within one month of the start of the season. But, Washington does not belong atop the Pac-12 in the first week of August.
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