College Football Live - CFB LIVE- 7/30- At The Mic

Episode Date: July 30, 2025

Join our crew, Zubin Mehenti, Sam Acho, and Harry Lyles Jr. as they hear from top coaches in College Football such as Lincoln Riley, Hugh Freeze, Brian Kelly, and Dabo Swinney. Troubling news out of Florida as DJ Lagway reports to camp in a boot, and discussions of what qualifies as "success" for Bill Belichick's first season in Chapel Hill. This and more in todays episode of College Football Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hey, welcome to college football live. I'm Zubin Mahenty. Out of the tunnel. We begin with Florida's off injured quarterback. Injured again. What does it mean for the Gator's short and long-term hopes this season? Elsewhere in the SEC, LSU opens camp today. Why the first game of the fourth season for Ryan Kelly, he himself says, is critical.

Plus, old school meets new school in the ACC. We sit down in tandem with Davos Sweeney and Bill Belichick. on college football lot. And joining me for the next half hour, Sam Macho, Harry Liles Jr., guys, let's get right to it. It's the biggest story right now in the SEC. That would be the injury to DJ Lagway. He's got a cap strain. He's in a boot.

The injury actually happened last week, so good job by the Gators being clandestined about it. But there are a few days into camp. Remember, he's coming off the throwing shoulder injury in the offseason. But Billy Napier says you might be worried about his physical state. Right now, he's also worried about his mental state. It's not ideal. I mean, in the perfect world, he would have been perfect every day of the off season, right? So I think the good thing is his attitude towards it.

I think that's a positive. Look, he's in year two. He, I think, understands what's required to be ready. It's not ideal, but I think ultimately, you know, we'll come up with the best plan we can to have him ready. And we are ready to go with this conversation. This is interesting, Harry. You feel like if DJ Lagwey is healthy,

and that's a big qualifier because he's normally not that healthy, it could really change the complexion of the sport this season. Why do you say that? Look, I think this Florida group is going to be an improved group, but that really lies on DJ Lagway's shoulders. He is a Heisman favorite for a reason. We know the skill that he brings, but then when you look behind him,

guys, the depth in this Florida quarterback room is not really there. I mean, obviously, DJ Lagway only has a handful of starts under his own belt, but he is also a five-star quarterback. So we're talking about a couple of different things here. And then as it pertains to his injuries, this is not a one-off thing for him by any means. Going back to even high school, there is an injury history there with DJ Lagway. So look, the thing that you want to see is him be healthy. think he is the key to this Florida team success this season. They're going to have weapons around him this year. You could tell that he improved and got more comfortable behind that offensive line as the season progressed. This is a coaching staff that Billy Napier has had going back to

Louisiana. They've got a great system in place. It worked for them there. They showed improvements going back into last year. That schedule, though, is going to be tough for them again. But if they don't have DJ Lagway, they don't have a shot. Yeah, DJ Lagway is a game-changing quarterback in the entire landscape of college football. Why? He's built like an NFL linebacker. He's listed at 6.3. 247. I saw him a few weeks ago at SAC Media Day. He's not 6-3. He's probably closer to 6-5 and closer to 250. He is a tank, but he looks to pass before he looks to run. And so this injury could prove very costly if he doesn't get the reps when it comes to this off-season training. So DJ Lagway went healthy, can help lead this Florida team to more success. But when he's not

healthy, he really causes the Florida team not to have a chance to be competitive in the SEC. You know, DJ Lagway at SEC Media Day, Sam, I'm sure you heard him say this. He jokingly said, you know, the reason I showed up in Atlanta is just to prove to the media that I'm healthy and lo and behold, the next thing we hear, he's not healthy. Sam, let's start with you on this one. You guys have been through Camp Sam, you in college and in the NFL. I know every year is different. Teams are totally different.

But with the returning starter in the same offense, if he misses any amount of time, nominal, serious amount of time. What does it mean as the team ramps up through fall camp? Missing time for DJ Lagway is the worst thing that could happen to him right now. Why? He is a sophomore quarterback. Last year, as a freshman, you're getting a few looks. He didn't start every game.

But what you want to do is you want to get more and more looks of defenses. So during training camp, I remember when I was in the NFL, I got more looks of what the offense is going to try and do against me. He's a quarterback. That's the most important position. He needs as many reps as he can to under. understand how defenses will try to attack him and to have better looks. I understand he has a big arm and I understand he's strong and tall and fast and athletic.

But there were a couple throws last year that he missed. And if you lose those reps in the offseason, you'll probably miss some of those throws again because of bad reads. 100% Sam. And it's really not even just the practice reps. It's the fact that he, I believe, is the only quarterback on this roster with SEC game reps. For as much as the practice reps count, whether it's spring or fall camp, Coaches across the country will tell you, even no matter how hard you try and practice, there is nothing like getting game reps in.

So that's why it is so important that DJ Lagway is healthy for the start of this football season. People are circling LSU in week three, but don't sleep on USF in week two. That could be a certain challenge with or without DJ Lagway elsewhere in the SEC. And there's another school that's got a quarterback that's under the microscope. And boy, does his head coach know it. the number one priority of practice is for our quarterback to leave that field confident. And I am going back to that this year. And we just got to,

I think we've got to be really intentional about what are we doing in this period and making sure that our quarterbacks have an adequate chance to really be prepared to have success in it and not try to win a drill. but try to get better in every scenario. Who's got more pressure here, Sam? Jackson Arnold or is head coach Hugh Fries? Oh, hands down, head coach, Hugh Fries.

Hugh Fries has not done a great job of encouraging his quarterbacks. Last year, you look at some of the quarterback changes. Oftentimes he threw his QBs under the bucks. Look at Peyton Thornt as a prime example. And this year, he has a transfer in Jackson Arnold, but he needs to instill the confidence in his quarterback, not the other way around. Lincoln Riley's always been great with quarterbacks, but he's worried about all the details at USC.

At some point, that expectation has got to go through the roof where they know they're going to win and they know exactly what to do. And that's obviously a big emphasis point for us. You know, all these little things show up throughout a game and they show out throughout the year. And the better job that you do with being consistent and demanding that out of the guys, a better job that the team really accepts that and understands that every little thing is going to matter, the faster you become a championship team. I mean, that's the route to do it. So this team is hungry and eager to go prove that. Perry, what's the biggest reason they haven't been able to come through in these tight games in the fourth quarter? Zubin, honestly, Lincoln Riley, that's some great self-awareness by him because the little things are why they didn't win more games last season.

five of their six losses were within one score. And I believe in four of those five, they actually had a lead in the fourth quarter. So look, this is a team. They will probably be improved on offense defensively. They took a step last year. They will definitely be taking another step this year as well. Yeah, they took Penn State and Notre Dame to the wire, couldn't pull it out. Brian Kelly, LSU Fall Camp is underway.

Season opener, always top of mind. We've addressed this in January. We addressed it with the guys that we brought in. We addressed it in the way we trained our football team. We addressed it in spring ball and then into our offseason. And again, we've made it pretty known, you know, what our goal is. And our goal is to go one and oh. And so if there's anything that is slightly different from in years past,

it's that we were so much more intentional about getting to August 31st in January. You should mention they haven't won a season opener since 2020, and I should also mention that's pre-Bryon Kelly. So last couple of coaches have not been able to get it done in week one. Sam, let's begin with you. What happens when you put so much emphasis into a week one game, a game you could easily lose against Clemson, and you're saying you need to go one and oh from Brian's words from January of this year on?

It costs you your confidence. It's at 12, 13, maybe even more game season. If you've put so much focus on game one and you lose game one, all of a sudden you focus on the big picture rather than the little things. It was the defense that cost LSU many games last season. Little things. They didn't do a great job of adjusting when it came to motions against the run game. And so if you focus on we've got to do everything we can to win this game, then you lose against a really talented Clemson offense. All of a sudden, the morale and the confidence of the team can go down and you'll miss the little things, which is playing better defense, defense led by Blake Baker.

Yeah, that's definitely going to be a big point of emphasis for them on that side of the football as it pertains to the defense. I think the reason that this first game of the season is so important is because I feel like if they lose this one, then I think a dark cloud sort of hovers over the rest of their season in a way that it didn't before. And look, that's not to say that a loss to Clemson would be a bad loss. That's absolutely not true. I think that two of these teams are a handful of the teams that could actually win a national championship this season. But this has not gone the way that I think Brian Kelly has hoped up to this point. And to me, this is the type of season, which is why you leave Notre Dame.

He's the only coach to ever do that. And you do it because on paper, this team with a returning quarterback and Garrett Nussmeyer, love the addition that they made the poor at wider receiver with Barry and Brown. And they made a bunch of other poor additions on top of the returning production that they had. If you're LSU, this is the season where you look at and say, hey, this is why we brought Brian Kelly in. If you're Brian Kelly, this is why you came in, and this is the perfect opportunity, one, to not only win your first game of the football season, but two, beat a Clemson team that is probably one of the top five best in the country at this point. And it's probably going to look like they did in the early 2010.

So this is a big game for both teams, but I think LSU needs it a little bit more. Keep in mind real quick on LSU. Kelly's let him do a 10-win season, a gigantic program altering win over Alabama, and he's coached a Heisman trophy winner. And it's still not even close to being enough on the way here on college football. all live. We sit down one-on-one, Reese Davis does, with old school ACC and new school ACC, even though that old school guy and new school guy are in their 50s and 70s, respectively. That's next. Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy

at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season show. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. The man on the right spent his entire 49-year coaching career in the NFL. The man on the left has spent his entire playing and coaching career in college football. Six Super Bowls, two national titles.

But as Arise Davis found out, Bill Belichick and Davoswini have much more in common than just hoisting trophies. Please welcome the new head football coach at the University of North Carolina, Coach Bill Pellichick. This is really kind of a dream come true. I grew up in college football with my dad. Did your dad ever try to talk you out of coaching? Yeah, he did.

He sure did. He said, you know, I know he was at Navy. He was making about, I don't know, 18, 19,000 a year, whatever it was. And, you know, it's just the three of us, my mom and my dad. We didn't really have much. And he said, you don't have to make any money in coaching. Go get a job. And you know, and you want me to go get a graduate assistant position.

And, you know, so you get an education. Maybe you can do some coaching as a GA, you know, help pay for your education and masters and all that. And so, so I applied to like 125 different schools, you know, every school, every big, every, every, every, every division one school, all the men of American schools, everything. I only got about three or four responses, but Coach Holtz hired. And he hired me at North Carolina State as a graduate assistant. And that was in May of 19th, And in June in 1975, Title IX passed. And all his graduate assistance went to women.

And so Coach Holtz is the first coach to hire me. He's go first coach to fire me. And so then I've got an unpaid position with the Baltimore Colts. And just an NFL thing, you know, it worked out. It worked out for them. I would say it worked out okay. You know, we play the New England Patriots this year. You know, we go to North Carolina,

and then we go to Boston, We go to Boston College to play Bill O'Brien. So I feel like I'm playing the whole Patriots organization in about a two-week span there. Could I jump in here on a couple questions? Yeah, man. You know, we each kind of like I'll have our little sayings, you know. And you have the B-Y-O-G.

What is that? Oh, gosh. Yeah, so that came, we were playing Notre Dame in 15. There was a hurricane. We hadn't played Notre Dame since the 70s. And so it had been on the schedule for a long time. And it was just a lot had built up into the, that moment and it was one of those things. It was kind of like the last thing I said to the team

before the game. Yeah. And it went viral because that's what was in my head. And I just told the team, I'm like, you know what? Listen, hey, there's a lot we don't control. Like, we don't control the weather. We don't control this, you know. And, and, hey, I can give you a scholarship. I can give you a place to live. We can give you food. We can give you a scheme. We can give you, but I can't give you freaking guts. Like, like, you've got to have, this is a B-Y-O-O-G. You've got to bring your own guts. You got to, you got to bring that. And we play the game. It was a crazy deal. It came down to the last play, a two-point conversion. Kaiser rolls, runs into traffic and comes up a yard short, and the Clemson defense rises up. And we stop them and win the game. And then

all of a sudden, you know, it's pouring. And they stick a microphone in front of your face. And they go, wait. And I went, hey, it was B-Y-O-O-G, bring your own guts. And next thing, I know I'm a meme for life. And tonight, hey, it was BYOG. Bring your own guts. I got Bill Belichick asking me about BIOG. Hey, he asked you, what would you like to ask Bill Belichick?

What would be one thing you would say to a coach or a group of coaches of being able to maintain the competitive stamina, the thrill to go win again? You know, having the right people and having the right culture, because you need people that want to keep achieving that goal. You know, even though we hit that one, It's like, you know, like Brady Bruskees to say, which one are in do you like the best?

The next one, you know, and you just, you don't stop. It just keeps going. You just keep, you just keep going. And I think it's getting people that believe in that, believe in the culture. Fascinating conversation. How about that? Bill Belichick, accepted by less than one quarter of one percent of the football jobs he first applied to. You never know if you play the long game.

Sam, I want to talk to you. We always know about the Patriot Way, right? he kind of mentioned it with Brady and Bruske. You can take us inside the Clemson way, because as the sport has taken one direction, you've gotten some inside access to the Tigers about how they've been able to essentially maintain the way they've always done things.

And you've got some good insight on exactly why Davo feels like that. Yeah, two years ago, Davo Sweeney brought me in to go and speak to the team and really go and see the campus. What I saw was more than a campus. I saw culture. You go down the slide, you listen to the way that he goes about practice, He asks as Sweeneyisms or Daboisms, whatever people call them. On the outside, Dabo Sweeney looks like this nice, loving, kind guy.

But when you show up to practice, there's a level of intensity. There's a level of respect for the game. There's a level of focus and confidence that I have not seen at a lot of different places. There's also a chip on Davoswini's shoulder. You got a chance to show me around his office. And yes, you see some of the national championships, but you see, I think it was a magazine or newspaper from 10, 15, wherever many years ago. when people were talking about firing Davosweeney.

And so he talks about this idea of little old Clemson and how no one believes. And he carries that chip on his shoulder. And it seems to me as if that chip and that confidence attracts some of the best talent in America. Yeah, Sam, and you want to talk about culture. I mean, guys stick around to play for this guy, right? I mean, I have been somebody that has been critical of Davosweeney in the past

because he built the one thing that consistently challenged the greatest dynasty. seen in college football in Alabama with his Clemson teams in the 2010s. And when he wasn't participating in the transfer portal at first, it's like, well, are you really going to let this go because you think the way that you're doing it is the right way? And a couple of things. One, his way, he's the, first off, he's the best at doing it. And two, obviously, we know that Clemson took in transfers this offseason to help shore up some positions that they felt that they had needs at. And I know I trust Davos Sweeney to find guys that are going to fit into what they've got there. You see Jeremiah, Alexander, Hayes Galloway, those are a couple that stand out to me

as well as Will Held. So look, I understand that people felt like he might have been antiquated there for a minute, but I can say, as somebody, again, that was critical of Davosweeney, I appreciate the fact that he has done this his own way and has eased himself into what is this new era of college football. And the biggest thing about Davoswini is that when he recruits, he only recruits a few people. That's what he said when I talked to him, last year, when I called the Clemson game and two years ago. There's all this talk about the transfer portal and how they don't get a lot of transfers. But he points to see, okay, look how many people we recruit and look how many people we retain. We don't cast a huge net. We go over the best in the nation and usually

they say yes to us. And so my point is this, Davo Sweeney is not worried about the transfer portal or worried about NIL. He wants players who are going to come and be the best in the world. And that's who's really committing to Clemson. Yeah, last thing I would say, Dabo always tells this story. The old AD, Terry Don Phillips, brought him into his office, and Dabo said he thought he was getting fired. He said, actually, we're going to stick by you. Pretty good decision.

On the way here on college football live, we got one more coaching interview as Reese plays tennis. I mean, the U.S. Open is next month. Reese's got to work on that backhand. Ryan Day tomorrow in Columbus. And what are the expectations for Bill in Chapel Bill? What qualifies as a success in his first year? The guys will weigh in next.

When you're flying Emirates business class, sipping your favorite cocktail at our onboard lounge, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. We've been talking college football, but pro football, one of the great days of the year, the Hall of Fame enshrinement in Canton, Ohio. Tears will flow Saturday at 1 p.m. Eastern, likely. Bill Belichick, of course, one day will be in Canton himself. Right now, he's in Chapel Hill.

Worried about making sure that his first foray into college football goes well. What a story this was for a program. By the way, UNC last conference title, 1980. Think about that. Think about the quarterbacks they've had. Last conference title, 1980. So speaking of this year's quarterbacks, Gio Lopez in from South Alabama, Max Johnson,

remember, had the broken fibula to start last season. And then the schedule. So when's the first time you can see them? How about Monday, September 1st on ESPN? when they take on TCU, who of course had their run in the national spotlight a couple of seasons ago. All right, fellas, bottom line, Harry, let's start with you. What are the expectations for this team in the ACC with this coach in his first year? I think that they'll be the middle of the pack.

I think that this is going to be a team that is going to be exciting to watch because of the guy that you mentioned, Gio Lopez, the transfer quarterback from South Alabama. While I was sliding down a muddy hill at App State, he was running and passing all over the football. football field and are out to a 48 to 14 win. I think he is going to give them chances in ball games that perhaps they wouldn't have otherwise have chances in. I'm also curious to see how many games is North Carolina going to win that are close in the fourth quarter because they've got Bill Belichick.

To me, I think that is the most exciting things to look for with the Tar Heels at least for this upcoming season. Yeah, the minimum needs to be at least a six-win season for Bill Belichick and this North Carolina Tar Heels football team. The reason why is, yes, he's Bill Belichick. you expect success, but also there's 70 new players on this football team, over 40 transfers. So you can get excited about Bill Belichick and all the success. But remember, Coach Prime a few years ago at Colorado, they started strong with all these transfers.

Started off 3 and 0. They finished off 4 and 8. And so I expect middle of the pack, like Harry said, but I think six wins should be the minimum for this North Carolina team. Yeah, Sam, and you mentioned the transfers. I'm sure Bill Belichick is good at picking them. I mean, this guy's got plenty of Super Bowls in his back pocket, right? But I do think the most interesting thing to see is how well are they going to mention how quickly.

I think teams that we've seen with a lot of transfers, really TCU in 22 and Louisville in 2023 were probably the two that had the most success with it. And I think it's because they had a lot of guys that wanted to play ball. I feel like Bill Belichick is going to have those types of guys. The ultimate litmus test is going to come October 4th when they play Clemson. As you saw earlier in the show, Bill Belichick and Davo look forward to competing with each other on that first weekend. In October, we'll see tomorrow at 2 p.m. Eastern time as Ryan Day is in the coaching spotlight

on College Football Live.