Joel Klatt thinks the Washington Huskies are a legitimate national championship contender.

UW is ranked seventh in the country and sitting at 4-0. The Huskies have yet to be held under 40 points in a game, and they have yet to play in a competitive game past halftime. On his podcast this week, Klatt talked about the varying College Football Playoff résumés of teams around the country, and he said there are five teams right now who look like obvious contenders.

Washington is in that first five.

“The Washington Huskies are the scariest team in the country for everybody else,” Klatt said. “That team is easily one of the two or three best teams in the country. Hands down. They’ve got a quarterback that right now would get my Heisman Trophy vote, if I was voting just after one month of the season.

“Michael Penix Jr. has been the best player in college football. Not a lot of people have been watching because let’s face it, they haven’t had great opponents, but the opponents that they have faced, they have destroyed.”

Washington opened the year with a 56-19 win over Boise State. Then it ripped apart Tulsa, 43-10. Then it went to East Lansing and demolished Michigan State 41-7. And last week it beat Cal 59-32 to open Pac-12 play.

Penix has been held under 400 yards passing just once so far this year — last week against Cal — and it was because he didn’t play the second half. The senior quarterback leads the country in touchdowns (16) and passing yards (1,636).

“That passing game is the best passing game in college football,” Klatt said. “Quarterback-wide receiver combination, the way that they protect the quarterback. He’s never touched, he’s never pressured, and they’ve got electric players on the outside.

“They’ve got a great combination of size and athleticism, and also slot guys that can run and are terrific in space. They’ve got a coach that understands offensive football. He’s one of these, you know, almost savants when it comes to play-calling — Kalen DeBoer. And he’s also a terrific head coach that nobody knows about.”

Klatt also hit back at the notion Washington doesn’t play defense and is only outscoring bad opponents.

Penix has been able to take early exits often this season because UW has been able to jump on top of teams and play to its defensive strengths — its pass rush.

“They don’t need him through three quarters,” Klatt said. “They are housing everybody. Everybody.”

That won’t continue over the course of an entire season (right?) but so far it has been hard to find flaws in what Washington has done.

They’ll look to keep it rolling against Arizona on Saturday, with kickoff set for 7 p.m. PT on the Pac-12 Network.