College Football Live - At the Mic- Hear from Head Coaches Around CFB Ahead of an Exciting Week 7

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

Join our crew Zubin Mehenti, Sam Acho and EJ Manual as they look ahead to a weekend full of exciting matchups...get updates on rumors swirling around Chapel Hill, NC and in Norman, OK; is Belichick already checking out? And is QB John Mateer ready to check back in? How do the guys think a struggling Texas O Line will fare against an aggressive Oklahoma defense? Can Alabama shut down the nation's leading rusher in Ahmad Hardy? Hear from Head Coaches Kenny Dillingham on how ASU is preparing for some rainy weather, Kirby Smart on facing Auburn on the road, and Sherrone Moore on Michigan's fans showing out even when they're not at home. All this and more on today's episode of College Football Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Challenge Football Live is presented by Dr. Pepper. Another Saturday. We got us about it. It's going to be a hell of a fight. I'm guessing you do too if you're watching this program. They're not loving what's happening at North Carolina right now. Biggest story in the sport over the last 24 hours. Rumors that North Carolina wants to try to extricate themselves from their contract with Bill Belichick.

It's a five-year deal. He's been on the job for five games. There's been player dissension, player treatment issues, no power five wins. Belichick pouring cold water on it. I'm fully committed to UNC football and the program we're building here. And more importantly, perhaps his boss, Baba Cunningham, the AD, coach Belichick, has the full support of the Department of Athletics and the university. Huge story here.

That's what we're all about. We're going to dig into it. Welcome to college football live. E.J. Manuel, Sam Acho Zubin Mahenthi. We're joined by David Hale, who covers the ACCC 24-7-365 for ESPN. Right off the gate, David, take us inside what it's been like for the North Carolina football program from stem to stern over the last 24 hours. Yeah, you talk about the last 24 hours.

If you go back a week, it's been chaos starting with a letter that Mike Lombardi, the GM, sent to donors saying this is all the rebuild, don't worry about it, to the blowout loss at Carolina, to an assistant coach reportedly suspended for recruiting violations, to ending the Hulu show that they were supposed to do without it ever airing, to now reports coming out yesterday that Bill Belichick and Carolina were discussing, terms of getting out of a contract that currently would have Carolina on the hook for about $30 million guaranteed. A lot of this is bluster from the reporting that I've done. Yes, there is a lot of dissension inside the Carolina locker room and inside the athletics department now. If you go back to when

Bill Belichick was hired, there was a big portion of the athletics department that was not entirely on board with this hire to begin with. So when things have gone south and they have gone very far south. There's a lot of folks that are eager to sort of, I don't know, leak some information, get some rumors stirred up, anything that sort of extricates Carolina from a decision. I'm not sure how many people were super excited about initially anyway. And then there's questions about how invested Bill Belichick is for the long term here as well. Again, his GM, Michael Lombardi said this was a rebuild project that would insinuate multiple years of building something. There was reports yesterday that Bill Belichick was in communicato with some of his coaching staff.

I'm told he spent a good portion of yesterday on the phone with the recruits trying to walk back a lot of the rumors that have been out there shove some toothpaste back into the tube. But you have to ask how much damage has already been done. That's just a week of headlines that I talked about. We could go back months and it has been one bit of chaos after another in Chapel Hill. There's no question about it. And the irony here is that in New England, no pieces of information. got out. It was absolutely

an iron wall and now things leaking out here and there. David, thank you very much. Let's talk about it here with the fellas. I don't say this flippantly, but maybe the high point of Belichick's tenure was his first drive in his first game when they went right down the field against TCU. Since then, literally, if they played a team

with the pulse, nothing good has happened. They've now scored 120 to 33 so far this season with wins over just Richmond and Charlotte. Bill Belichick has 14 wins away if he ever got back to the NFL from tying Don Shula for the all-time win mark. And that's where you say the problem is because that's the NFL.

This is college football. And these are two distinctly different games. Belichick said football was football, but that doesn't seem to be what's happening. There are two different value propositions. For a collegiate athlete or even a high school recruit, they want to get to the NFL. And what USC has said is they said, hey, this is the NFL. You've been able to get there this way. But it seems as if that's not the case.

Go back to last year. Ohio State had 15 guys drafted Michigan the year before 14, 15. in Georgia the year before, 15 guys drafted. So there are different pathways than just Bill Belichick to get to the NFL. And, oh, by the way, if the goal is to get in the NFL, then it's probably not wise for UNC and Bill Belichick to be not allowing Patriot Scouts to go and watch their practices. So if I'm a collegiate athlete, I might hear Bill Belichick or Lombardi and say, okay, this is an NFL system, NFL type of program.

Freddie Kitchens, a former NFL coach. But I also realize that I can go to Texas, I can go to Georgia, I can go to Oregon, I can go to Alabama, and still get to the same. pathway and maybe have not necessarily more fun, but maybe a more opportunity to be better and win early on. From a lens of somebody who played Bill Belichick a bunch in the NFL, I just can't see him going out this way. I really can't, especially if this happens to be true.

Now, this is speculation. These are rumors. And we know how rumors can be made up, especially when there's some turmoil with this team who they just haven't played good football. Right now, they don't have the talent. It doesn't look like they, at times know what they're doing, even defensively, like against Clemson Tigers. There were too many easy opportunities for the Tigers to score points, which was good for

Clemson, but for a team at this point in the season, Sam and Zubba, I just think it's too soon to really start saying, hey, look, man, we're going to just pack it up and get up out of here. I can't see Coach Belichick going out that way. But what aren't rumors are what's put on tape, right? The defense is talking about that's been embarrassing led by Steve Belichick. They haven't been good to the least degree defensively quarterback. They've been trying to figure it out. Will it be Gio Lopez?

He struggled, got injured. Max Johnson played well, then struggled. So you could talk about the speculation and the rumors that's true. But if I'm a player, if I'm a recruit, I'm seeing my team get blown out time and time again by UCF or teams to that caliber, those aren't rumors. Every new coach, though, needs at least two or three seasons to get recruits in there, to get the right fit culturally with his program as well. So just keep that in mind about Bill Belichick.

But the team was a six, seven win team last year. That's, I want to add that as well. They still might be. There you go. Quick post script, the winningest coach in North Carolina history, Mack Brown was pushed out so they could hire Bill Belichick. We'll have much more on this story tonight on the ACC network, ACCPM, EJ and I'll be with you with David, Andrea Adelson,

everybody that covers the league at 6 p.m. Eastern time tonight as we continue to work this story and dig our heels into this. This is a big time story. Big time game and the big time story on the field this week, of course, is the status of John Mateer. If he goes on Saturday, it'll be 17 days since he had surgery on his throwing hand from September 24th to a return on October 11th as Oklahoma looks to stay perfect and bounce back from a six-win season and do so and put another nail in the coffin of what's been a disappointing season for the Texas Longhorn's 3.30 Eastern ABC. Metteer's return could be the X-Factor. But EJ, I said this tongue planted firmly in cheek.

Who is he an X-Man? Look, Zubin, that's exactly how I was going. Is this guy Wolverine at this point? Because if he's able to come back from a broken thumb after surgery on your throwing hand as a quarterback, like that's remarkable. But I'll say this. I would still give him one more week, especially if he's shown that he can throw to football a little bit at practice, he can move around because the thing about it is not showing up in the game, guys.

It's also when you get hit or when you fall or when you hand a ball off to a running back and he rubs that thumb a little bit. Is it going to get aggravated? So that would be my key. Beyond the Heism, just let him get one more week. We can heal up and then have him for the duration of the season. I love the point. Are you playing for one game or for one season?

If John Matero comes back and re-injures that thumb in this game on his throwing hand, he could be out for a few more weeks or do you have him sit out for one more week? And then all of a sudden, you look at it. You got South Carolina, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri. You don't want to sacrifice. If I'm Oklahoma, I may not want to sacrifice one game or really the entire season just to have him come back for Texas. That's what we heard from our buckles say we want to be smart.

The offense coordinator for Oklahoma, I want to be smart about Mathieu. Think about this real quick. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but what would happen for Texas as we're going to switch and talk about the horns here? If somehow the storyline Saturday night is limited Mateer with one hand defeats Archmanning and Texas. You have to think about this is the way this sport is now going. That's a real storyline for Texas. And you say they're up against it because if you look at the lines of scrimmage where you guys love looking, Texas at a woeful disadvantage. Oh, Oklahoma has a clear advantage when it's a clear advantage.

comes to specifically the offensive line of Texas versus the defensive line of Oklahoma. Arch Manning played well last week in versus Florida, but he's, but the offensive line couldn't really block. They struggled not only run protection, but pass protection. And you think about it, Florida, that's the strength of their team. Oklahoma's strength is their defense. Brent Venables, it's their defensive line. It's Dominic Williams on the inside.

It's, it's, Kip Lewis at linebacker. It's Armason Thomas number 32. And so that offensive line was getting beat left, right, and center. And that's the strength of the Oklahoma. defense. Everyone's going to be aggressive and attacking on that defensive front. That could be a challenge for Texas. Look, no matter who plays for Oklahoma, Texas must figure out something to do with running the football. At this point, that's the glaring issue. Everybody's banging up on Archmanning. He can't do this. He can't do that. Offense line can't. Why are we not running the

football? And coming into the season, that was supposed to be a strong room for them, whether it was Jared Gibson or it was Quintravian Wisner. Like, these guys just have not shown up. Archman, cannot be the leading rusher for your football team on a weekly basis. Outside of Arch last week against Florida. I think the rest of the running backs have 15 yards total. That's not good enough, especially against a tough front seven from OU. And part of the issue, though, isn't just the running backs not being good enough for healthy enough. It is the offensive line. As an offensive lineman, you don't need a pass for tip, but also have to be physical when it comes to running the rock. And so Texas hadn't been able to run the ball all season long, Oline has to be better.

Keep in mind, everybody says the attention's here on Texas because of the way they've played, but Brent Venner-Bals has won six games, two of the last three years. This is a big time spot for him to try to get over the hump and prove that OU can compete in the SEC. That game will be at 3.30 Eastern on ABC. The game before that on your local ABC station will be Alabama taking on Missouri. Alabama's had a great defense after that opening weak flub against Florida State, but nobody in the country has been able to stop Ahmad Hardy. He joined college football live yesterday. He's the nation's leading rusher. And E.J., he said to me, when I asked him what you're running style is, he goes, my style is generally just running over people,

which is if you can do it, that's the Earl Campbell way of doing it. And you say, that's no joke because to this point, nobody's been able to stop it. No, and look, I don't think Bama's going to be able to stop him, but they can't contain him. And I'll put it that way because you have this front seven that has gotten better week in, week out for Alabama, which is huge. But Amal Hardy is a special back where he just keeps his feet turning. When he gets through the gap, it's going to take two or three guys

to get him down on the football field. So the big key for Alabama is rap, tackle, all the basic stuff that we talk about in day one of training camp because this guy's powerful. And also, Coach Drinkwood is going to feed him. And the other part about this, the running ability from Boehler with Amad, Hardy. That makes it even harder for the front seven where you want to try to key in on Hardy. Well, oh, I pulled the ball out. Now Perbula's out on the edge with one defender as well. So that's going to be a tough thing for Bam to go up against.

Bo Perbula has been excellent. To your point, it's been Amad Hardy, but Bo Prebula has been as advertised, the transfer from Penn State. He was backing up, Drew Allen. All right of a sudden he got the starting spot as he transferred. But I think the matchup's going to be between the quarterbacks. Will Perbula be able to consistently be accurate like he has been all season long, consistently use his legs like he has all season long. Will he be able to out duel, a quarterback who's probably the favorite right now, one of the favorites for the Hosman Trophy in Ty Simpson. So I'm looking at, yes, I'm on Hardy in the running game,

in the outside zone of the stretch play. But it's Bo Pribula versus Ty Simpson. Whenever has a better game, I think that's going to be the winner. Yeah, for Missouri, keep in mind, when the SEC had divisions, they made a couple title games early because they happened to be in the much easier east. But now, of course, it's just one league, and Eli Drinkwitz wants to prove they're good enough to get there no matter the schedule. This is a gigantic litmus test for them.

On the way here on college football live, you want to talk. talk about a litmus test. How about going to Eugene and taking down the ducks? Sam and E.J. On the quarterback that's got all the pressure on the world on that right arm to make it happen. And how we can make it happen inside the tape with Mendoza next. College Football Live is presented by ice cold Dr. Pepper. College football. It's a pepper thing. Welcome back to College Football Live, presented by Dr. Pepper.

Where Reese and the guys will see you Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Eastern or really, really early, if you happen to be in the crowd there in Eugene, Oregon, all setting up for Indiana and the Ducks. I think you probably know Dan Lannning loves his quarterback, but guess what? He loves the Hoosiers quarterback, too. Fernando throws a really good ball. He's able to throw it to weapons down the field. He has great wideouts that do a great job in contested catches and attack it. And then he makes great decisions in the RPO game.

When the box is light, he's able to hand it off and take advantage of run looks. When the box is heavy, he's able to throw to win. Our defense has got to be relentless in this game. We have to look for opportunities to take advantage of the ball, attack the ball, create that as a weapon, be able to get the ball back to our offense as fast as possible by stopping the run first. Get it back as fast as possible. Chip Kelly coaching this team, what's going on? One of the best this season when you are top 10 in all of these categories among the 136 teams in the FBN.

you know you've got a guy that can sling it. And for more on how he's done it, we send it over to the fellas. Well, Zubin, you talk about who loves Fernando Mendoza. I love him as well. He's one of my favorite quarterbacks to study on a weekly basis, completing 73% of his passes. We're going to take you through a play right here with this Iowa defense trying to get after Fernando with the blitz.

And more than just try, I actually would say extremely effective. You're going to see a cross-dog blitz. So you're going to see the center's going to slide this way. So linebacker's going to pick. Other linebackers are going to loop around. So we know where the slide's going to go. Running back's going to make a mistake, block. And now, Fernandendoza, meet Mr. Montgomery, number 36.

Linebacker in the quarterback's lap, we want nothing better. This is a dream come true. Hey, but Sam, that's a dream that I'm about to give you a nightmare because let's re-rack this thing. And I'm going to show you exactly what I mean with the nightmare for defense. You talk about the cross dog. First off, these two linebackers are on different levels. As a quarterback, I know there's some kind of pressure coming,

but notice this safety right here. Fernando Mendoza quickens up his drop, and he sees his safety come up in that hook-to-curl window. What does that leave? A big open void for Elijah Surat up the seam. Again, Alistair has 43 catches, excuse me, a catch in the last 43 games straight. So again, this is going to be a back or forth where Oregon is going to try to get out to Fernando Mendoza. But we'll be prepared for that blitz.

And we know that Oregon's going to bring the blitz. Mateo O'Iongole has been outstanding. But I wonder, will Fernetta Mendoza be apprehended that pressure and those hits over and over and over again? I think so. Back to you, Zoot. Fellas, thank you so much. So let's take a look at some of the other games. We've sent so much time talking about Red River and Alabama.

These are some really interesting games. I want to keep your eye on Georgia at Auburn. That'll be the Saturday night prime time game at Jordan Hare. Kirby Smart at the mic knows what it's like on a Saturday night in the plains. It's an intense, crazy environment. The night games are more so than the day games in terms of that atmosphere that's created. But, you know, we practice in that. We create an environment of chaos and noise and try to create.

create confusion and do things so that we have to communicate in that. There's certainly more anxiety the first time you do it, but it's not like that goes away. You have to be confident and know your plan and execute your plan. Dogs are a three and a half point favorite. Auburn has hit the skids having lost two in a row, O and two in SEC play. So why is this spread so close? I think it's because you saw Kentucky be able to pass a football a little bit against Georgia. And I think looking at this matchup for Georgia, they're going to one have to bring pressure.

But the other part about this, they got to get guys on the ground. Like the one thing that I've noticed uncharacteristically about Georgia's secondary is they've not done a great job of tackling every week. Now, that's probably been because they play some really good offenses, but I look at this game as a matchup for Georgia where if they can get some pressure on Jackson Arnold, you do not want to create some one-on-one matchups with Cam Coleman, Eric Singleton, Jr., that's going to put those DBs in a bind. Normally USC Michigan, Michigan, Michigan, Michigan's faithful is going to travel west and Sharon Moore happy about it, not dwelling on it. At the end they were going to somebody else's place and we're not celebrating going to Coliseum. There's no pictures and selfies because we're at the nice Coliseum. It's sold out, but it's sold out because Michigan's coming. Coach, I'm not sure if you saw this.

Sharon Moore said this game is a sellout only because Michigan's coming. Are you kind of expecting a pretty good solid home field advantage? You know, he's making it seem like there's going to be a lot of Michigan fans in the stands. Yeah, I don't really care what he says. We're looking forward to playing. Love it. Love it. Both of these teams are one lost teams with playoff dreams. So who needs this one more? I would say USC actually needs this one more based off of who they're about to play. Yes, they have Michigan, but later on they have Notre Dame following that.

And later on in the season, you have Oregon. Michigan, you could argue they might need it because if they don't win this game, they must be Ohio State at the end of the season if they want to make the playoffs. But man, USC's schedule looks like they have the harder path. So I think USC needs it more. Beating Ohio State hasn't been much of an issue. Sorry, Buckech, fans. I had to throw that one in. All right, 83%. chance of rain in Salt Lake with Arizona State coming to town. Kenny Dillingham is AMS NWA certified. I really don't care about the weather. Like obviously we got to prepare for it. We have to spray, you know, football's down as much as we can. We got to do stuff like that. But at the end of the day, you know, football is won by one person moving the other person in the other direction and then not giving the other team the ball. At the end of the day, like weather can affect how you get that

accomplished. But you still have to take care of the football and you still have to move the person in front of you the other direction. Right. So I think, you know, whether there's rain, whether there's not rain, yeah, we're into it. We can't prepare for it. We live in a desert. We don't get much of it naturally. We have to play some wet ball drills. But we're not focused on that.

We're focused on, you know, the task at hand, which is Utah. EJ, you played in Florida and Buffalo, inclement weather places. What's it like when you got to grip that ball in a situation like this? Yeah, well, look, it is difficult, especially if you don't practice it, but we did see Arizona State go back and do the wet ball drill. I did this in high school. I did it in college, and I certainly did in the pros when I was in Buffalo. So it's not so much the quarterback Sam Levin.

being able to throw the football when it's wet. It's also Jordan Tyson, these skill players for Arizona State. When you do catch it, you've got to secure it and hold on to it. That's the other part about this. Again, it's not just a QB. Make sure you're holding on that rock out there of his way. All right, good stuff. On the way here on College Football Live, Texas A&M has never, ever played for the SEC title nor won it.

The Gators have their season back on track. Can they ruin the Aggies top five ranking? We'll talk about that next. College Football Live is presented. by ice cold Dr. Pepper. College football. It's a pepper thing. From college football to the NFL,

Greeny and the guys get you started Sunday morning at 10 a.m. Eastern time for a busy week six in the NFL. It'll be capped Monday night with another ABC, ESPN doubleheader. Time for our Dr. Pepper Championship Drive game of the week. And is this the drive that they've been waiting for in College Station? A&M is perfect in the top five. Again, their last conference title of any kind, 1998, they happen to be in the big 12. They're taking on the Florida Gators. EJ. Let's start with you. If you're an Aggie fan,

look, bottom line, last year, they were on fire. They win against Texas. They're in the big SEC title game. Instead, they end up losing four of five. So what makes this A&M team a little different from last year that had a lot of potential, but really struggled at the end? There's a few differences. The biggest difference is just the health at the quarterback position with Marcel Reed. They've been able to keep the same guy in the game. Now, he's been a great, been a great job of running the football, but also taking care of football. Only three interceptions the point. So he can keep that thing under six over the season. That's going to be a big deal. But Levyon Moss being healthy as well, guys, in tandem with Ruben Owens. These guys are going to be able

to continue to run the ball. But then Casey Concepcion, probably the best player as far as transactions in the transfer portal this year. He has special teams ability, but he also has the ability to draw more attention from other defenders where now Mario Craver and Terry Bussie, those other guys can get opportunities to make big plays for A&M's offense. But he has an opportunity to go against dominant defense. The reason Florida has beat Texas last week was because their defense. DJ Lagway played great as well, but this Florida Gators defense is going to bring problems for A&M and for Marcel Reed and for Casey Concepcion and the entire unit. Yes, we understand Lagway has struggled, though we played great last week. And Lagway is coming home.

We grew up about an hour away from Collin Station. So if he plays good and that defense plays good as well, it could be a lot closer than people think. Yes, I understand it's two and three versus five and O, but this is strength on strength, in my opinion, for in this match. The other part for Florida, they were able to run the football. You look at the time of possession of that game against Texas. That's what really smothered Texas offense because they started depressed. But if Florida can get off to a fast start running the rock against A&M, they got a good chance. And I absolutely love the story of Marcel Reed. He was a third stringer. And he kind of played in the 2023 Texas Bowl. The coaches saw him. They said, we like him. He stuck around and it is paid off.

He's the starter and he's the engine that makes the Aggies go. We'll see that on Saturday. I want to end the show on a truly inspirational note. You may recall Ethan Pritchard, the young Florida state player who was shot in the head in a case of mistaken identity. after their season opening win over Alabama. It's been 39 days, but he has been released from the hospital after spending almost over a month in intensive care. He's now on his way to a rehabilitation facility. And his father, Earl, who's been his spokesman,

did say over the last 39 days, he couldn't say enough about his hometown in all of Seminole County, who's rooting for that young man, as are we. Well wishes on the road to recovery.