College Football Live - CFB Live - 7/25 - ACC & Big Ten Media Days Continued

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

Our crew Zubin Mehenti, Tom Luginbill and Sam Acho continued our coverage of ACC and Big Ten media days. UCLA's head coach DeShaun Foster had a better media day than last year while North Carolina's new head coach Bill Belichick is getting adjusted to his young talent. We may see some changes to conference play, that's if you ask Penn State's head coach James Franklin. All that and more with College Football Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. I'm sure you guys don't know too much about UCLA, but our football program, but we're in L.A. It's us and USC. I'm just basically excited, really. That's it. That was 30 seconds long. It felt like an hour.

We're with you for a half hour with Sam Atta and Tom Lugan Bill and Zubimahadhi. That was Sean Foster at Big Ten Media Days last year prior to his first year on the job. You know what they say? The difference between year one and year two for a player, a coach, a team, That's always the biggest jump. And guess what? Listen to this difference from year one to year two. Well, everyone, I'm back.

Last year I stood up here and reminded everyone that UCLA is in LA, which looking back might have been the most obvious geography lesson in Big Ten history. Nico Iama Leava, our sophomore quarterback from Cali. He's an elite quarterback who chose to come back home and help build something special at UCLA. The media picked UCLA to finish six. 16th in the big 10th. How do you guys prove us wrong? Yeah, man, we're not really too worried about the media.

You know, we're worried about us and, you know, who we have in that locker room. You know, our coaching staff and, you know, our strength staff has done a great job on emphasizing, you know, our goals for the season. So, you know, we're focused on us and what we have ahead of us. And yeah, man, and so we can do. Sam, it was the most interesting storyline in the off season. All the drama from Knoxville to Westwood. You heard Coach Foster. mention it. Nico is a California kid. He's back home. How do you think this is going to go?

I think it will be a positive fit and a positive transition for Nico I Amaleava and this UCLA offense. Number one, I go to his offensive coordinator, Tino Sonseri, who was at Indiana last year with Curtis Rourke. He was the co-offensive coordinator, and Indiana had a phenomenal offense. I think that's part one. Part two, I do go back to the fit. There was so much talk about Nico wanting NIL, but if you talk to Nico or his family, it was more about adding weapons to the arsenal protection and receivers. And UCLA does have some of those weapons. Think about guys like Roger Pleasant,

who transferred from Oregon. Yes, he plays DB, but he could play offense. He could play at punt returner. J.B. and Thomas transferred from Calv. Nicknamed him Jet because he's a fast running back. And so I think getting back close to home with a team and program that has pieces that believe in him, I think it's going to be a good fit for Nico. Well, Sam, I'll tell you, you know, he's going to have to play way better than he did a year

ago because he has nowhere near the supporting cast of a football team around him that he had in Knoxville. And while UCLA won for their last six games last year and did show improvement, this is a completely different roster rebuild than the one that he just left. And, you know, we got to remember that Nico, and you look at the touchdowns and the amount of touchdowns that were thrown against Kent State, Chattanooga, and UTAP versus in-conference play in the Southeastern Conference. So I think that there's more weight on his shoulders. I think he's going to be more comfortable being closer to home, and they can build this offense, as you said, with Tino San Seri's leadership around him.

But I think he's going to have to play above and beyond because he does not have the help at UCLA that he had at Tennessee. If NICO wasn't the biggest story of the offseason, of course, the arrival of Bill Belichick, after 49 years of coaching all in pro ball certainly is. Here's Bill at the ACC Media Days talking about the difference between coaching college guys and all the pro guys he's had. The players are a little bit younger and less skilled. Sometimes that's an advantage. There are fewer bad habits to break. But I would say also the players are, I'll say much more receptive to the coaching as a coach.

It's fun to see players get better and then that gives them more momentum to keep working. We're excited to see all that manifests itself out on the field when we actually start playing football. But I think we'll be ready to start when we get going next week. And if you're wondering, that was indeed. that was indeed, Lawrence Taylor. Tom, let's start with you. Biggest question mark in year one for Belichick in North Carolina. How do you establish a culture with 70 new players

when you're essentially holding open tryouts during fall camp? I think it's going to be fascinating to watch the construction of this roster. The defensive front seven is almost entirely, front four, excuse me, almost entirely made up of transfers. They've got a lot of returning experience in the secondary. That's going to be the strength of their team. and they got to figure out who their quarterback is going to be. I think this is going to be a fascinating experiment to watch

because I think one of the biggest challenges in today's roster construction is, you know, you have your core foundational pillars and how are you now supposed to create all of that with a revolving door in the transfer portal? And it's hard, it's really hard, more so now than ever before as Bill Belichick has entered into college football. I like the addition of Gio Lopez. I think Max Johnson and Gio Lopez will,

battle it down to the wire. But they got better through the transfer portal in some areas. We just don't know yet the team that we're going to see on the field because there's so many brand new parts. And they don't know yet either. Think about it. You said there are 70 new players, 42 new transfer players that came in. 40 left the program.

And so number one, you're trying to build a culture with new players. But even if you do, go back to Colorado with Coach Prime his first year. They started off hot, but they ended up four and eight. So my real question is, will the Belichick wait? the Patriot Way be able to succeed in college football. You saw on your screen, Freddie Kitchens, NFL coach. You have NFL personnel. You asked Gio Lopez.

He says, hey, we're watching Patriots film. I get it. That might have worked with Tom Brady, but Tom Brady's not on this roster. So my questions really are, will the Patriot Way be able to permeate and translate to college football? We'll see what happens in the appropriately titled Chapel Bill. It's one of the most interesting stories, obviously, in college football.

Let's keep it in the ACC. I want to get your dark horse. picks because it feels like after watching you guys, Tom, I know you were down there in person. It was like Clemson and everybody else. That just seems to be the narrative. We'll see if that's what indeed happened. So give me a dark horse here that Tom, let's start with you that has an opportunity to really make some hay in this league. Dave Doran's going to kill me guys for saying this, but I got to go with NC State because every time nothing is expected of NC State, they have a great year. They've got a quarterback coming off of a true freshman year in C.J. Bailey. He had a

wonderful year under adverse circumstances. They've got everybody back around him, particularly at the skill guys, and they've always produced and developed players at a high level on defense NFL caliber players. I think that Dave Doran knows he's got a good football team. Nobody's talking about him. That's exactly where he likes to be. And then all of a sudden you jump up and you bite somebody. I think they're a team that could be a real handful. And they love just kind of lying in the weeds right now. They're my dark horse. And he's a lot. ACC. Well, I will go Georgia Tech for similar reasons, except for Georgia Tech has already proven

it on the national states. Think about it. You talk about continuity in college football. They're returning their starting quarterback Haynes King. Their star running back, Jamal Haynes. Their offensive coordinator just cited two-year extension, Brett Faulkner, who, when he joined the team, not only did it lead them to a 14-point increase in points, but the last two years, they've been top two in rushing offense in the ACC.

They beat Miami. They beat Florida State. They took Georgia to, what was it, eight over that? They might still be an overtime versus Georgia right now. This team is confident offensively. They have continuity. You know, by the way, they just added Blake Gideon, who's been at Texas the last four years to be their new defensive coordinator.

I think Georgia Tech, they are the dark horse in the ACC. I'll go with Louisville. I don't know if that's actually a dark horse considering what Brom has done, but they've got a lot of different pieces too, so we'll wait to see if it all comes together. There was a big, big story in the world of college sports yesterday. We want to keep you up to date on, and that's when President Trump signed an executive order,

essentially banning third-party pay-for-play situations. However, it is important to note that third-party deals can still be made if they're of, quote-unquote, fair market value. The College Sports Commission, which was launched earlier in July, was put together in part to vet those deals. That's a really big story. We'll continue to follow it on the way here on College Football Live. Clubnick was left for dead by people that said he was great.

Clubnik appreciates the great support he got from that man. What a story you'll hear right from Cade on the way. And speaking of spicy comments, James Franklin sounds off on the biggest hurdle that keeps the Big Ten and the SEC apart. The eight versus nine schedule. He's coached in both leagues, and he's got some comments next. When you're flying Emirates business class, dining on a world-class menu at 40,000 feet, You'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over.

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He's transferred to Tulane. His new head coach, he's actually kind of acquainted with Retzlaff already, believe it or not. We won our conference championship game at Troy that year, play a game against Coastal Carolina. And two days later, I want a flight to go see Jake. And he was the guy we wanted to come add to our program as a transfer quarterback out of the junior college ranks. And then BYU came in, proximity to home, several other factors came to play, end up going to BYU. 23 was the backup there. 24 was the starter.

Had a really good year. You know, when it presented, we vetted every angle of it. Like I said, the entire scope of adding a new player. And then as we went through that process, it checked all the boxes to. Let's do this. Indeed, the two-lane Title IX office took a look at him because there were some serious allegations, as you may know. Tom, so better late than never for Summerall and Retslap. They are now together again.

How do you see this working? I see it working really well. Listen, they've already taken two quarterbacks coming in and Brandon Sullivan from Iowa and Cady Samanza, who was the Mack freshman player of the year at Ball State. But neither of those two guys, in my opinion, are Jake Retzlaff. Now, what I love about this guy is he's a gunslinger. He's a grip it, rip it, get it out of your hand. Decisive, accurate. I think he's got leadership traits, and he improves their room.

This is a team that won nine games a year ago. Now you bring a quarterback of this caliber with this sample size into your program. All you've done is improve in the offseason. No question about it. So let's continue because the American Media Day where you just heard from Summer all was today. And yesterday, Big Ten and ACC are done. Let's start in the Big Ten with Michigan with a little word for Ohio State. First, I like to, you know, I congratulate them on the win, but you know, you know it's not no real win if you, if you only beat us.

So, you know, but I'm going to congratulate them on their win, but this year it's going to be different. All right, Sam, is their title invalid? Hey, it's not invalid, but I love it. Spoken like a true competitor, of course the title is valid. And part of me wanted to be like, okay, being salty from a loss. But if you're a player at Michigan, you're saying, hey, you have. have to go through us and you didn't last year. And more so, this is more looking towards the future. What will Michigan do versus Ohio State this season? Howell State lost so much talent last

year. But yes, it's a valid championship for sure. But I love the robbery. I love the competitive fire that you hear from both teams. They don't like to say each other's names. They talk about the team up north. And that's what I love about college football. Teams say, okay, you can win all you want, but until you beat us, it doesn't matter in my book. It is great. the continuation of the great rivalry will be November 29th, but who's really looking forward to that? Only everybody. Elsewhere in the Big

10, Iowa, Kirk Farrant's longest-tenured coach in America, about to become the Big Ten's all-time wins leader on his quarterback expectations. I know we'll be much improved at quarterback. That's not a knock on anybody, but if you just go back and chart the games the last two seasons, three seasons for that matter, we've had bad

health there, we've had bad fortune, bad luck, and quite frankly, playing with some guys that weren't ready to play at this level. This is an incredible admission because he had been very supportive, Tom, of Spencer Petrus and Deacon Hill. And a lot of the guys he was trotting out there that everybody knew we're not ready to play. And coach finally admitting that. But now they have reached down to the FCS level and they have gotten a guy that they are really excited about. Yeah, Mark Grunowski out of South Dakota State.

I had them in a playoff game a couple of years back. Really impressive. In fact, you could make the argument there was not a more experienced high level production player at the quarterback position in the trans report. than Grunowski is. 55 starts, 93 touchdowns at the highest level and elite level program at the FCS level. I think he's a perfect fit. They improved last year on offense under Tim Leicester. I think they're going to improve even more, but the schedule's more difficult for Iowa this time around. Yeah, and you're right. It's a good cultural fit, too. And I know a lot of people in Iowa are very excited to see this guy. A lot of people were really excited when Clemson got Cade Klubnick.

and his performance has markedly increased over the last two seasons. But despite all the stars next to his name, he knew there were some doubters. But the only guy that mattered, never doubted. After my sophomore year when everybody kind of told me I sucked and wasn't very good. And a lot of people wanted me out of Clemson. And Coach Winnie pulled me into his office and told me, Kate, I believe in you and let's go to work. When he could have gone and done what a lot of other coaches would do, but didn't and and pulled me in tight and said, I believe in you.

You know, I'll never forget that moment. You could tell, Sam, that obviously meant something to him. As a former player yourself, what do you think would he hear something like that, the bond between player and coach, it honestly the most important position out there? I think about the Pygmalion effect. I think it talks about how a coach's belief in a player can elevate that player's game. And I think that's what we're seeing with,

Dabo Sweeney and K Klobnik. Kate Klobnik was one of the most winningest quarterbacks in all of high school, but he got to college and it wasn't the same, at least early on. What did Dabo Sweeney do? He added pieces around them. Some of these pieces, Brian Westgo, T.J. Moore were freshman receivers last year. Others were guys like Garrett Riley as a coordinator in 2023 and Matt Luke as an offensive line coach. And so it went from not just talking about believing in a quarterback to actually putting the action towards it.

So that's why Dabo Sweeney has a lot of respect amongst players. and that's why you're seeing Kay K Klobnik have the increase in his play that you saw from last season. I don't know what the Pygmalion effect is, but I'm going to look it up after the show for sure. You have definitely piqued my interest when it comes to Penn State. Now, we know the deal with them, right? They made the CFP, but the whole thing with the Big Ten in the SEC is they control the future of the sport. Is it eight games? Is it nine games in conference play?

Coach Franklin has coached in both leagues and offers this analysis. everybody has to play the same number of conference games like this ain't that hard right everybody should be playing eight or everybody should be playing nine i was in that other conference when the whole discussion about going the nine games was voted on um everybody should be either play a conference championship game or everybody shouldn't play conference championship game everybody should be in a conference. I said that last year in a press conference before playing Notre Dame, and everybody thought I was sliding Notre Dame. I've been saying that for 10 years. If I didn't say it in that moment when I was asked the question, that would be a hypocrite.

Like, I'm going to say it now because I've been saying it the whole time, and that's not a knock, but you're asking a group of people to get into a room and decide the best 12 or 16 teams in college football, and you're not comparing apples to apples. I mean, everything Coach Franklin says, Tom makes sense, but the bottom line is you still have to give the SEC a legitimate

reason to go from 8 to 9 and nothing he said there really provides any reason. That's exactly right. And the latter part of his statement right there is he's referring to the committee and the people in the room. They have not provided a deterrent for scheduling.

Until, let's just say, an SEC team misses out on the college football playoff and they point directly to the schedule, well, there's your deterrent. There's your motivation to move forward and move to nine games. And until that happens, what's the motivation for the conference to do that as opposed to putting a cupcake in there in the bottom third of your schedule to give you a breather when everybody else doesn't have that breathing? Yeah, I have a little bit of different opinion.

People say in the SEC that it just means more. If it really does just mean more, and if the teams are so much better, then maybe the SEC should add a ninth conference game. And that would increase the strength of schedule if the SEC is that much stronger than every other conference. and that would likely increase the number of playoff teams that the SEC does get. And so I know people in the SEC are having the conversations of should we go from eight to nine. Like that piece is, okay, maybe go to nine if it means more. Now, on the Big Ten perspective, it's almost like we should automatically have all these qualifiers because we have nine games. I don't agree with that sentiment either, right?

You could look at some of the games that are in that nine game conference schedule and say, hey, man, these aren't as tough as some other conferences, right? And so for me, SEC, if it really does mean more, go up to a ninth game. And the Big Ten, I don't think you should be complaining because I don't really believe it's apples to oranges, right? I think they're a different kind of a comparison. Now, we'll see. You know, one of the SEC coaches, Eli Drinkwitz proposed a 30-team playoff. He's zooming right past eight versus nine to a 30-team playoff.

And speaking of Eli Drinkwitz on the way, some big news on the Missouri coach. Remember, only Missouri, Ole Miss and Georgia last two years in the SEC have on double-digit games. overall, and he got rewarded. Next. Your business doesn't move in a straight line. Some days bring growth. Others bring challenges. But what if you or a partner needs to step away?

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Canada Life. insurance, investments, advice. Just a reminder, UFC fight night comes your way this weekend on ABC ESPN Deportes, ESPN Plus. ESPNplus.com slash UFC for more on that. Eli Drinkwitz has had it working at Missouri. Got his deal extended through 2029. They're coming off a 10-win season. As I mentioned before the break only, Ole Miss and Georgia, alongside Missouri.

Missouri, the only schools of the SEC in the last two years with double-digit win seasons. Remember, Alabama was stuck on nine last year. The makeover has been something. He has them absolutely competing. They were very competitive early on when they joined the SEC. He made a couple of SEC title games, but the league has obviously shifted since then, no divisions anymore. So you're obviously seeing a different ball of wax.

He's going to have to work with Sam. Let's talk about expectations for the 2025. tigers. They've got quite a bit of attrition they need to address. And by quite a bit, you mean they lost eight offensive starters. I don't have as high of expectations as a 10-win season for Missouri. You lose

eight offensive starters. You're not just losing any random starters. You're losing star guys like Luther Burton, who was the top draft pick in the NFL. Theo Weist, who's in the NFL. You're running back. Nate Noel in the NFL. You see all the offensive linemen on your screen. Your quarterback is gone. And so all that is gone, number one. Number two,

you have a quarterback competition. Will it be Beau Pribula who transferred from Penn State, or will it be Sam Warren, who's been there for a couple years, but we had an injury last season. So I think that, yes, Eli Drinkwitz has done a phenomenal job as a head coach, but with so much of your starting production lost on offense, it may be hard for them to repeat that level of success. I agree with you, Sam. And, you know, who knows, the quarterback may work out.

And if he does, then we may have a different conversation because this is a loaded team on defense returning from a defense a year ago that was a good football team. So nine starters back on that side of the ball. And at all three levels, they've got proven production. So with the quarterback plays well, and the wide outs, Kevin Coleman comes over in the transfer portal for Louisville. You've got Josh Manning and Marquise Johnson, who were reserves on this team a year ago, but have been in the offense and have all started games.

And then Ahmad Hardy, the running back, who was first team all Sunbelt conference at ULM a year ago kind of anchors the backfield. So if the quarterback is quality, I think they're going to be pretty darn good again. If he's not and they don't have that same level of production, then I don't know if they're going to reach that 10-win pinnacle. Yeah, Prebule obviously had his opportunities at Penn State. And a guy like Sam Horn, who Sam mentioned himself,

was drafted by the Dodgers in the Major League baseball draft. Real quick, guys, give me a team that could hit the 10-win mark. I don't think people would be shocked that George and Ole Miss did it, but Missouri at 10 wins back-to-back seasons, give me a team you might be able to get the double-digit wins that people aren't expecting out of the SEC in our last few seconds. Sam? I'll go first.

I'll go South Carolina. Lenora Sellers is outstanding. He could propel this team to 10 wins. I don't like the schedule, but I'm going to go Florida because I think DJ Lagway is another Lenora Sellers. And we'll see you on Monday. Have a good weekend.