Joel Klatt reveals his stance on Washington’s odds to make the College Football Playoff

Earlier this month, Joel Klatt named Washington as one of the possible crashers this year into the College Football Playoff. Now, two weeks later, Klatt is as far as looking into the odds for this season of the Huskies to return to the CFP.

Klatt named some long-shot bets that he likes coming into the college football season during his show on Wednesday. He referenced that prior nod to Washington earlier this month, which now has him looking at their team’s longer odds of actually potentially making the CFP.

“Washington to make the CFP?” Klatt thought. “I already told you, if you remember, my kind of like darkhorse-type of episode where I threw out teams like Missouri, and Georgia Tech, and Utah? And I threw out Washington. And then you go and you look at the odds.”

Per the odds at BetMGM, Washington is (+900) to make the College Football Playoff, which gives them the 10th-best odds out of the Big Ten. That’s with a win-total for the Huskies at 7.5 according to BetMGM, which ranks similarly in the conference as it’s tied for the third-highest total with Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and USC, while they also have them at (+1400) to make and (+5000) to win the Big Ten Championship.

That said, Klatt sees a lot of value there with Washington. That starts with a manageable schedule, namely with home games against No. 3 Ohio State, No. 7 Oregon, and No. 12 Illinois, with the Huskies’ toughest road trip being to play a previous national title rematch against No. 14 Michigan in Ann Arbor. Then, team-wise, the Huskies could be led by an improved, experienced offense featuring a young, exciting quarterback in Demond Williams Jr.. Finally, Klatt is also buying into the track record of Jedd Fisch, based on the job he has done in college so far this decade, as he enters year two in Seattle.

“You look at their schedule? You realize what they have, in particular on offense? How good they are at home in Husky Stadium…They get three of their toughest four games at home, where they’ve won 20 in a row. That’s one of the best atmospheres in all of college football,” Klatt said. “Demond Williams showed huge potential in the bowl game. I love what they’ve got on the outside and in the backfield. If they get the O-line working at all – that was a problem for them last year, was protecting the quarterback and, in particular, Demond Williams when he was in the game late.

“For Jedd Fisch, who has a propensity to pop? Like, this guy can coach. Think about what he did at Arizona, and the quality team that he put on the field before he went to Washington after DeBoer left.”

Washington will need to capitalize inside Husky Stadium this season for this to be a viable wager. If the Huskies do, though, Klatt likes their worth, with BetMGM listing them at 9-1.