Joel Klatt reveals his biggest question for every Top 12 team in 2026

Spring football around the country has wrapped up. Analysts everywhere are now re-ranking teams and giving their opinions on what the biggest question mark might be for each team.

FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt did just that on a recent episode of his podcast. He took his top 12 teams nationally and provided one biggest question for each.

So how did things shake out? Let’s take a look below. We’ve included a snippet of Klatt’s comments on the issue for each team.

1. Oregon Ducks

Biggest Question: “The biggest question for my No. 1 team, Oregon, this one is about their big-game issues. And they have them. That’s now become an issue. Maybe not quite Penn State-James Franklin, but it’s getting there. The one caveat I’ll say about this is that Oregon has taken a step forward every single year. Every single year under Dan Lanning.”

Last season, the program dropped only two games. Both were to national champion Indiana. The year prior? Only one game, to national champion Ohio State. The year before that it was two losses to a national championship-bound Washington team. Can the Ducks finally find ways to win the big one?

2. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Biggest Question: “Their biggest question is fairly obvious, and it’s replacing those two backs. I mean they had two first-round running backs. Jadarian Price goes to Seattle and Arizona obviously drafts Jeremiyah Love. So who’s replacing that production?”

The duo combined for 312 carries for 2,046 yards and 29 touchdowns. Nobody in the country is losing that kind of production. Replaceable in the aggregate? We’ll find out.

3. Ohio State Buckeyes

Biggest Question: “For me it’s the offensive line. It’s the offensive line. I’ve covered a ton of their games. And you can trace back, I can look to all off their losses going back to Oregon in the middle of the year a couple years ago in their national championship run. Everything past that, Michigan late in the year, this year when you look at Indiana and the Big Ten Championship Game, Miami in the playoff. They got beat up at the line of scrimmage.”

Julian Sayin is back and is considered a potential Heisman Trophy candidate. But the schedule includes Texas, Indiana, Oregon and Michigan. There are going to be plenty of stiff tests for the group up front. Can they get it done and let Sayin shine?

4. Indiana Hoosiers

Biggest Question: “Really you’ve got to go, I think, a layer deeper. Two levels deeper, really. What drove that team? And Cignetti talked about this, by the way, when referencing Josh Hoover. What do you give a quarterback, what is a quarterback’s best friend? A run game and a good defense. So the question for me is actually about their defense. And the reason is because their defense schematically was built almost completely around D’Angelo Ponds.”

Indiana will once again have a huge reloading task on its hands, but Curt Cignetti has been masterful in putting together a roster. The question is whether the defense can replace a player as singularly impactful as Ponds was. He gave everyone else on defense a lot of freedom schematically.

5. Georgia Bulldogs

Biggest Question: “We know Georgia is really good. We know Georgia runs the SEC. I mean the SEC Championship goes through Athens. Kirby deserves that. This program deserves that. The problem with Georgia the last couple of years, at least in my estimation, has been a lack of playmakers on the outside. It killed Carson Beck two years ago. So many drops. They led the country in drops on the outside. Last year they didn’t have a big-play threat. So can you go and win a shootout?”

Winning shootouts generally means having players capable of making big plays. That’s been lacking of late. Top wideout Zachariah Branch and top tight end Oscar Delp are both gone. So who steps up?

6. Miami Hurricanes

Biggest Question: “They lost so much off of their line of scrimmage. Both sides of the ball. And it’s clearly can you remain dominant at the line of scrimmage? That’s what allowed them to make the run all the way to the national championship game.”

Replacing Francis Mauigoa on the offensive line won’t be easy, but Mario Cristobal personally oversees the development of that group. The bigger challenge might be replacing the defensive front, which lost stars Rueben Bain and Akheem Mesidor.

7. Texas Longhorns

Biggest Question: “The question I think is pretty simple, maybe not totally obvious with a switch at defensive coordinator, but it’s really about running the football. Texas was putrid running the football. And if you look back to Sark‘s really good teams that he’s had, whether he’s been a head coach or an offensive coordinator, they’ve been able to run the football well.”

Arch Manning finally began to really come into his own last season. But how much easier would his life be if Texas could start running the ball consistently? Then Manning’s legs would become a much more dangerous weapon and he can sit back there and pick apart defenses at will.

8. LSU Tigers

Biggest Question: “It is the most obvious question, which is this Lane Kiffin — I don’t want to call it an experiment, because he’s obviously done this before — but they brought in 40 transfers. So can a new coaching staff and 40 transfers gel? And how quickly can they gel?”

LSU will have no shortage of talent this year. The Tigers have spent handsomely to ensure that. The big question is just whether Kiffin can get his players bought in quickly and ready to roll. The schedule is tough.

9. Texas A&M Aggies

Biggest Question: “We could talk about the finish to the season, but really it’s more about the big games and how their most important player plays. So the question for Texas A&M is Marcel Reed. Is he going to be the reason that you win big games or is he going to be the reason that you lose big games?”

Reed threw for 25 touchdowns and just eight interceptions as the team got out to an 11-0 start in 2025. Then he threw four picks with no touchdowns in the final two losses of the season. He’s a boom or bust player, but which will win out in 2026?

10. USC Trojans

Biggest Question: “The question for me is actually the defensive line. Is the defensive line ready? During Lincoln Riley‘s tenure at USC they are 132nd in the country in yards per carry allowed. And that’s when you remove sacks. … When you remove the sacks they’re 132nd.”

Riley usually commands an excellent offense, but defense has been a problem for much of his tenure. There’s more coordinator turnover again… will the defensive line, in particular, be able to overcome that? Maybe even thrive as a result of it?

11. Oklahoma Sooners

Biggest Question: “At Oklahoma this was a problem last year and it has to get fixed, because this problem was the reason that John Mateer wasn’t able to play at his potential. … I thought Oklahoma was exposing Mateer too much (in the run game) and the reason is that they didn’t get anything out of their backs. … Their biggest question is can you run it with your back and take pressure off Mateer?”

Oklahoma didn’t have a running back top 500 yards last season and the average yards per carry weren’t anything to write home about for any back. That has to change to take some pressure off Mateer in 2026.

12. Michigan Wolverines

Biggest Question: “Does Bryce Underwood turn into Devon Dampier with his legs? That’s the biggest question I think all of us have, in particular with their new coordinator Jason Beck.”

The uber-talented freshman was good last year, though he went through some growing pains. With new coach Kyle Whittingham taking over, could he be poised to make a massive jump? He’s certainly got the ability, and Whittingham and his staff have developed some really good signal callers over the years.