Fox Sports' Joel Klatt predicts strong Michigan football rebound in 2025

Yahoo

10 hours ago

There are some who are giving Michigan football some preseason accolades, but generally speaking, the Wolverines are flying under the radar. However, perhaps the most notable pundit in college football thinks this could be a big bounce-back year for the maize and blue.
Fox Sports' premier color commentator, Joel Klatt, revealed his top 25 teams in the preseason on his podcast last week, and he has a fair amount of optimism on the Wolverines. So much so, he has Michigan at No. 10 in his preseason top 25.
"Here's the Michigan Wolverines at No. 10," Klatt said. "This team figured things out at the end of the year. They beat Ohio State. They beat Alabama basically without an offense. And they did it with an offense that threw the ball better than only what three teams in the country -- and all three of those teams were service academies. There's no way they can be that bad throwing the ball again.
"Wink Martindale, their defensive coordinator, he figured out what worked with his players as the season went along, and they became, in the back half of the year and in particular over the last four games, the best defense in the country. That should continue. They bring in new offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey. I'm interested to see how that works out. I'm not totally sure. Will we see Bryce Underwood at quarterback? Is it going to be Mikey Keene, the Fresno transfer? He missed all of spring practice with an injury. So Underwood got all of those reps. Keene does have experience, by the way. 34 career starts. He played in Lindsey's offense at UCF. I know they're going to have to replace some really talented players, in particular on the defensive front seven. But remember, without those players on the defensive front seven, without Will Johnson on the edge, they handled Alabama just fine. And that was an Alabama offense that still had Milroe, that still had Ryan Williams, and was playing at full capacity.
"Michigan should be better. Their schedule is not that bad. And if you look at that, the Oklahoma game is really the barometer. They're going to go travel to Norman, Oklahoma. And if they win that game, then watch out. This is a CFP team. If not, we'll see. Then the big question mark becomes Sherrone Moore suspension. Right now, he is going to be on a self-imposed suspension for the third and fourth game of the season. Will it be more? Will the NCAA suspend him even further? Possibly, possibly, as the time at the time that we're recording this, that has not happened yet. But even if they do, even if it is for like, let's say three games. And it's got to be the first three. Like this is a program that has shown that they can get over that. I don't think that is a game-ender for them, to be quite honest with you.
"So Michigan is going to be in the top 10."
That Oklahoma game should tell a lot, even if the Sooners are coming off a 6-7 season. With a night game on the road in a tough environment, the first-ever regular-season road SEC game for the Wolverines will be a tough test, even if OU isn't quite at the same standard as they were when they were in the Big 12. If Michigan gets the win in Norman, that would be a similar boost to getting past Washington in Week 2 in 2021, with the Nebraska game playing a similar role to Wisconsin from that same year.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Joel Klatt sees big rebound for Michigan football in 2025