Podcast: Latest on Michigan OL, DL in fall camp, reacting to Joel Klatt’s preseason rankings

On this episode of The Wolverine Podcast, Clayton Sayfie, Chris Balas and Anthony Broome discuss what they learned from press conferences with Michigan defensive line coach Lou Esposito and offensive line coach Grant Newsome, before discussing Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt rating the Maize and Blue as a top 10 team heading into the 2025 campaign.

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In the final segment of the show, the Michigan podcast hosts reacted to Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt ranking the Wolverines No. 10 in the nation in his preseason rankings, and some comments that he made about head coach Sherrone Moore‘s crew.

Here’s what Klatt said about Michigan, in part: “I can’t help myself,” Klatt said of the ranking. “I just love the way that they finished the season. This is a defense that got it going late in the year, even with their star players not playing.

“They cannot be worse on offense than they were a year ago, and you know what? I think they’re gonna be back among the elite in college football.”

“What’s elite,” Balas said. “Is elite a playoff team? Is elite top 10? Is elite top five? To me, elite is the cream of the crop. You’re looking at a top five program.

“My response would be: not this year, but yeah, in the next few years, I think they will be. I think they will certainly have a chance to be a playoff team this year, and that Oklahoma game is gonna be huge.

“It was interesting that the coaches left Oklahoma off [their top 25], although I think they were 26th, if I’m not mistaken, and they were the first team in the ‘receiving votes’ category. That game is going to determine which of these teams, who’s really kinda No. 15. Oklahoma has a chance, honestly. They’ve upgraded, it seems like. We’ll see how they do against that Michigan defense, but you could swap those two teams, essentially, if Michigan loses that game. And then Michigan has a couple tough ones coming up — at Nebraska, at USC — in the first six games, too.

“So, is this a top-10 football team? That would mean probably a two-loss team. I still have Michigan at three losses.”