The Escalade's powerful engine together with a lead foot can easily give the described behavior. He is probably mashing the accelerator at the same time that he is putting it into drive. The hunting for a gear he described is similar in that if the revs are high and you take the foot entirely off the accelerator quickly, the dropdown is not smooth.
What he needs to do at startup is to allow the drive to start moving the car before applying the accelerator gently. If you mash the accelerator down, it will burn rubber anyway. When he is in gear, he need to just ease off on the gas and allow the change to proceed smoothly. There can be rev matching even with an automatic, so you just need to know the change points.