College Football Live - CFB LIVE - 8/28 - Notable Games

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

Our crew Zubin Mehenti, EJ Manuel, Sam Acho and betting analyst Joe Fortenbaugh are live from Bristol! As we countdown until kickoff of Week 1, the guys go over notable games you should pay attention to. Sam and EJ debate on who's the real Death Valley between 9 LSU and 4 Clemson. A breakdown of what to expect between 1 Texas and 3 Ohio State. Lastly, some prop bets with Joe while EJ and Sam give their bold 2025 season prediction. Take a listen to College Football Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's hours, minutes, and seconds. Boise State. looking to crash the playoff party again. Takes on South Florida. It's the first of two tonight. 5.30 Eastern from Tampa. There are 26 games in total. Thankfully, I don't have to watch all 26.

These guys do with E.J. E.J. E.M.A. Manual, Sam, I'm Zubin Mahente. Great to see you out of the Zoom boxes. Great to see you in person. And we've got a great lineup of games. Let's get right to it. And then we're going to dig in as week one is underway. Notable games tonight. Again, 26.

on the docket. Boise State, no Ashton Genti, but they do have Maddox-Matson back. They're not going to be on the blue turf tonight, but they'll try to make USF feel blue. This is a big one when it comes to group of five implications on the ACC Network tonight. East Carolina will take on NC State. You might remember the last time these two teams met in the military bowl, there was a brawl between the two. And now eight months later, a lot of the dudes that were swinging at each other are back tonight swinging for points in Raleigh, again, on the ACC network. We heard a couple days ago, Mizzou's going to go with both Bo Prubula,

the Penn State transfer, and Sam Horn, the Dodgers draft pick, dual sports star. They'll take on Central Arkansas, and they're going to try to figure out who their starter is after this game as they move forward. The starting quarterback for Duke may have been the most coveted player in the portal.

If that's not peak 2025 college football, I don't know what is. Duke gets the guy everybody wanted. They're taking on. Elon, ESPN Plus and ACC Network extra. Look for it. You'll be able to find it. It's a big season here for Duke, who's put forth a huge financial commitment.

And then after Boise and USF, Nebraska and Sincere, we're showing you Arrowhead because the game's going to be played at a neutral site. So you got the Travis Kelsey home stadium, Travis Kelsey's alma mater. Big Reds, like, by the way, we're in this game too. Coming off a bowl win for the first time in almost a. decade. Guys, let's break it all down. EJ, I want to start with you. Every season starts with a step and a journey.

So what's the first step, the first thing you're looking to see from someone here tonight? It's going to start in Arrowhead. That last game you talked about, Dylan Ryola. And I think the season he had last year, guys, as a true freshman to complete over 67% of his passes, that's big time. And also, this is year three under head coach Matt Rules. So you talk about teams that have two or three cycles of recruits. And now they bring in or actually bring back Dylan Ryola to this.

offense. I just expect them to take that huge jump. Now look, Cincinnati's very good, too. They got a lot of NFL players. They also have a new defensive coordinator there with John Butler at Nebraska. So maybe some new wrinkles is what they're going to do for Scott Southerfield's team to prepare for. But ultimately, I just want to see how Dylan Riola is grown throughout the offseason. Yeah, I'm most excited about the Boise State USF game. The reason why is that Boisey no longer has Ashton Gentie. We know that Mattis Maxon is back. But their defense is something that we haven't talked enough about. They had 55 sacks last season. They They led the FBS.

And yes, Amad Asanin is in the NFL, but Jaden Virgin Morgan, who had double-digit sacks as well, the team in sacks is back as well. So I understand Byron Brown, he can play. But he's going to be facing not just one dominant rush, but four rushers rushing as one. That's team they run a lot of past rush games, a lot of two-man stunts, three-man stunts. So they have a great propensity of getting to the quarterback and making quarterbacks frustrated. All right. So we'll be waiting to see what happens there.

26 games on the docket. They broke down the two tonight, which you'll see back to back on ESPN. As we want to take a look at our Dr. Pepper Championship Drive, game of the week. Recent history, not on LSU side, ahead of its showdown in the other Death Valley, which is a topic. We'll talk about it just a little bit. Hang tight for that.

LSUs, you may have heard because it's been everywhere, has lost five straight season openers, which is a notable stat because that's not generally the resume you see for a program that really every year is thinking national championship or. bust. Sam, I want to start with you here. Brian Kelly has talked about the importance of winning the opener after what you just saw on your screen. But the bottom line is you're saying putting that much emphasis into one game already in some ways provokes the idea that you've been defeated even before you take the field on Saturday night. Take us inside your rationale. Yeah, you have to have

a certain kind of mentality, not just for the opening week, but for every single week. We heard Kay K K. K. K. K. K. K. K. K. K. K. He said, no, if I was preparing differently this week than I did three weeks ago or even three months ago, that means my mindset wouldn't be right. We hear so much of the emphasis that Brian Kelly puts on game one and on week one and overcoming week one. This is a non-conference game. I understand you want to win it, but you still have so much ahead of you. And so if your mindset is completely focused on, hey, I have to break the curse and win in

week one and put our team back on the map in week one, I think that's the wrong mentality. You have to think about the entirety of the season. Of course, you want to win every single game, but putting that much pressure on yourself and your team unnecessarily, I think is a detriment to his team. It's a good point, Acho, but I think the other part for Clemson, being that they're in the ACC, if you look at their schedule right now, as far as AP top 25 preseason teams, they only have three on their schedule. One of them is LSU.

LSU has seven, including Clemson. So if Clemson loses this game out of the starting blocks, then what other opportunities do you have to get yourself back in contention, whether it's just narrative, simply about what we talk about or what the nation is talking about, or truly having those top 25 matchups to still boast of your resume to get into the playoffs. So I think that's why it's more important here for Clemson, a whole home turf and the whole Death Valley Jr. thing that we'll get into at some point. Yeah, that's worth the discussion.

Hang tight for that. I want to ask you, because of your quarterback chops, multi-year starter, a guy that had a ton of success in the ACC, and a guy that was very highly recruited. That describes you. It also describes Kade Klubnick. From what you've seen here as a multi-year starter, from your quarterback's eye, where has he made the most progress? I think the biggest area is the pre-snap. And we talk about recognizing coverages, recognizing fronts.

But the other part, too, is staying calm once you see the ball actually snapping. Right here, you're going to see SMU showing seven or eight guys up on the line of scrimmage. So I'm thinking, this is this all out pressure? Do I need to keep my tight in? My running backs have a seven or eight-man protection to where I can work. Those two receivers up there. He says, you know what? I don't think it's actually a blitz.

And it's not. They end up dropping back into a regular cover three, number 24 right there in the middle of your screen. He's out of place, and Kate sees that. He's able to hit that scene right on the, right on the, chest to where he's able to protect himself and also still take off and run. Those are the areas where Cade is also able to use his brain, but also his athleticism, because when things break down in that pocket, that's when he's the most dangerous of those defense.

Yeah, and I agree with that. It's not just the pre-snap, but it's the decision-making post-snap. There were a couple of plays last season where games on the line and he has to make a decision, and oftentimes it was to run the football, and you see him bust off a 50-yard run, a 60-yard run, a 30-yard run on a critical fourth down. His decision-making, in my opinion, is probably what's grown and what's changed the most Early in his career, you saw all the talent, but there are some questionable decisions when it came to maybe it's a RPO or a zone read scheme. Now of a sudden he's making all the right ones.

Take me inside. Go inside the quarterback room for me. No matter how good a player is, there's always room to improve. Yeah. What's the one thing maybe he can do a little bit better as he starts thinking about playing on Sunday? Well, like Sam is saying, too, just to protect the football, especially in the game like this, you're going to be amped up, you're at home, you have your whole fan base behind you. Now we're talking Heisman, potential Heisman frontrunner. don't press.

Allow the game to come to you. And Sam was talking about the pressure that's going to be on LSU. It's going to be pressure on K Clubnick, too, because, again, he was a five-star guy coming in. National Championship trying to replace Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson, those guys that came before him, allow the game to come to you, go through your reason checks

like you did last year, and when all else fails, use that athleticism too. You mentioned it a couple times. It's time to have that discussion. We know LSU is known as Death Valley. But in the upstate of South Carolina is where they're going to play on Saturday. And let's just say, this man just upped

the ante. You want great habits when they're needed. When you're on the road and you're playing in Death Valley Jr. Not the Death Valley. That's what you need. You need those traits on a day-to-day basis.

Wow. Guys, before we go to the tail of the tape, As Spurrier once said, it's always talking season. What do you make of that jab? Brian Kelly needs to understand that anything he says or does, can or may will be used to get him in the court of law. He thinks he's talking to the Rotary Club in Baton Rouge.

No, no, no. The world is watching. Well, Big Sam, I'm over here taking notes because I guarantee you Tyler from Spartanburg taking notes. Dabo Sweeney's taking notes. T.J. Parker, K. K. K. Klovenik. All of the Clemson fans out there are taking notes. Death Valley, Jr.

That is true disrespect. But you know what? Let's find out which one is the real Death Valley. We're talking about a little bit of tail of the tape. Samacho, lead us off. Who do you think the best coaches in this match? Well, I don't think it's the one talking about Death Valley Jr. I'm going to go Davo Sweeney at Clemson.

He's won before. He's consistent. He's excited to talk about going undefeated this season. You know, quarterback-wise, is really tough. I really see these guys, 1A, 1B. When you're talking NFL draft prospectus. But right now we're talking in this matchup, I'm going to go K Klubnick. One, because he's at home. So the crowd noise on defense shouldn't be too bad for him.

But the other part, the athleticism, that's going to have to show up against this LSU front seven. And it's looking a little bit too Death Valley Jr. So I'm going to go for the mascot. I'm going to go LSU. Why? Because they have a real actual tiger, not a human dressed as a lot. a tiger. Shout out to Mike. I like that. All right. Stadium fans. This is a hard one.

I've played in Clemson Stadium. Very tough place to play. Is it junior? Was it junior? Was it a Junior? Was it Death Valley Junior? It was not Death Valley Jr. They actually got us. But now the second time I didn't start. But the other part, when you think about college football, you think about some of the best just surroundings in all of our sport. It starts there in Baton Rouge. With my best friends, Jacob Hester, talks about all the time. I would love to go there at some point. And also, that was my second choice when we were coming out of high school. I'll go LSU. stadium of fans.

Oh, respect. Okay, last but at least, this two, two, color scheme. I don't know what you think. You're a man of high fashion. I try, I try. But I'm an lead LSU on this one, man. That color scheme is crazy. I have a lot of respect.

Obviously, there are similar color schemes with that purple. For me, it's something special. Yeah, well, look, we've got to find out who going to win the game, too. I mean, two to three. Oh, all right. All right. Back to you, Zubin. Savvy call EJ, not starting that game.

Can't blame me for that one. Yeah, it's time for our weekend lineup brought to you by Wendy's. That's a savvy move for a guy that's so new. to television. Well done. Arch in Texas open at Ohio State. We're going to talk about that coming up in just a bit. Florida State looking to bounce back from his worst season in 50 years. Notable that E.J. also did not start last year, a quarterback for them.

So you can't blame him for that to win season. And another big one Sunday night, Notre Dame and Miami. On the way, Arch and the shoe. He's been at Texas for 30 months, but he's still seen as brand new. We'll dig into that quirk in just a little bit. And Joe Fortinbaugh, master of the game. Why are you holding a soccer ball? It's not that football here, bro.

He's ready to go. Actually, there is a soccer component. One of the biggest uptets you've ever seen. Which are going to tie into college football. And Joe's picks. First time on TV. Next. College Football Live is presented by Ice Cold Dr. Pepper.

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Protect what you've built today. Visit canadalif.com slash business protection to learn more. Canada Life, insurance, investments, advice. Welcome back to College Football Live, presented by by Dr. Pepper. On that note, you're looking at the college football playoff national championship trophy presented by Dr. Pepper. Now, the question is, will Ohio State hoisted again and will Ryan Day become the first Ohio State coach to win back-to-back titles? That's actually never happened in the great history of the Buckeyes.

It's obviously the marquee game. Game Day is going to be there. It's Coach Corso's final show. And as soon as he puts the headgear on, when that's over, we're going to kick. and we're going to kickstart an incredible week number one. And as all eyes have been offseason on that guy, and that's where we're going to start the discussion with Arch Joe Fortinbaugh, ESPN. Betting analyst is here. We're going four wide.

E.J., I want to start with you from this particular point. The question of whether or where Arch can improve, you could go anywhere because he only started two games. There's a ton of places to improve. But considering where he is at this station in life as a quarterback, what's the number one thing he needs to improve? I think the number one thing is just the decision making. And when you watched Arch last year, he was really clean and crisp in what he did, especially in some of those starts that he had.

I think back to ULM, I also think back to Mississippi State. But I think the big area, in a game like this, like I said, with K. Klubnick and Garrett Nussmeyer, don't get in a sense where you have to force the ball in there. Don't get in a sense where you feel like you have to make every single play. Sometimes it's okay to punt. You have a great defense on the other side of the football. Sometimes it's okay to hit that checkdown and let some of those great running backs get you another 10 or 15 yards of yards of yards.

after catch. So I think for him it's just going to be decision making. And again, he is inexperienced. He hasn't started a lot of games, but he's been in the system for three years. So that should pay well for him. Yeah, and as much as we talk about the inexperience, I actually would push back on that a little bit. I got a chance to go speak to the Texas football team about a year and a half ago. And Archmanning was on that team about a year and a half ago. And though he wasn't the guy a year and a half ago, gosh manning understands the guy a year and a half ago. Archmanning understands the scheme, understands how to win. He understands and he's learned from not just Steve Sarkeesian and Kyle Flood, who's helped running the offense, but also from Quinn

Ewers. How do you game plan? What does it look like to be a starter, not just for one game, but for two games, to play in big time opponents, big time matchups versus A&M, first time in over a decade versus Ohio State. You saw him get some reps in that game. And so the moment will not be too big for Arch Manning. He's experienced already. A lot of known factors in this game, but even more unknown. That's a very dramatic setup there. I've got everyone's attention. But here's what we want to look at, Arch 95 career passes. Could be great, but we don't necessarily know. We know it's an unproven quarterback on the

other side. We know heartline steps into the role. We know Patricia steps in the role as coordinators. I think you have a game of this magnitude starting slow. I'd be looking lower scoring in the first half. Overrunners right around 23 and a half. I think you have two teams that want to find their way and then they open it up as they get more comfortable in the game flow.

Real quick for you, though, zero of those 95 passes have ever come on the road. Does that mean anything in the gambling? In terms of Yeah, exactly. In terms of the idea of just easing into the game, right? Like there's a lot of arch props out there, but there's so much uncertainty, especially with who he's facing.

Again, Matt Patricia is stepping in for Jim Knowles. I don't think we can talk enough about what that's going to mean to the Buckeyes. So ultimately, going on to the road, I don't think you want to come out and open the game up and go nuts. Remember, the last we saw of Steve Sarkesian, he got way too risky on the goal line against this Ohio State team, and it cost him. Little conservative early, open it up later. And you don't think that Steve Sarkesian knows that Arch Manning is having his first start at the shoe on the road. Of course he knows that. So he's not going to try and force the ball down the field. No, he's not going to try and lean on a quarterback who's making his first start for this season as the guy. No, he's going to lean on the running game. Lean on a new offensive line to actually do run blocking, not necessarily pass blocking. Lean on a defense. That's returning Michael Taff, who's a priest is an All-American and also returning their defensive coordinator. And so, no, you're not going to put Arch Manning in harm's way. You're going to lean on the trusted sources that you already have. I think it's fair to say that considering this game features the defending national champions, we should probably discuss them for a minute. And they

run on one guy on their secondary that is their true leader in Caleb Downs. And I know there are so many things that make him special, but what really stands out? He's very responsible. He knows what he's supposed to do, what the other team's supposed to do, and what everyone on the field is supposed to do. I love Caleb Downs because he knows what he's going to do on the tape about Caleb Downs. We're going to look at this play. It's going to look like a nothing play, but it's a big deal. He's on Juan Davis, right? He's man to man. So he knows his gap has to be outside. Watch him move and move. Boom. Most people see this match. and they start darting straight outside.

But no, he's going to keep that gap tight, push it back to Tidelik Williams in the NFL right now for a zero-yard gain. Now of a sudden, you're going to see him standing next to a referee. Is he trying to do what does he do? I don't know what he's got something going on. Hey, ref, I know I'm lined up as a middle linebacker right now, but move out of my way because I'm dropping to the middle of the field as a middle field runner. He's evaluating, see everything going on.

Boom, he drops back. What happens? Sack fumble, sunny styles, right? He's doing his job and getting the ref out of the way so he can do his job. But not just that later on. Remember that middle foot runner play? Caleb Downs, middle of the field. The first time he's really targeted in this game, what happens? Seventh third play of the game, at least on defense, three guys open. He's reading the quarterback's eyes, game ceiling interception. 472 snaps on

defense. Only 14 over the season. He was passing down. Only 14 times was he targeted. Two interceptions. He's a game maker. Wow. You kind of get bored out there. If you're only being targeted 14 times, you've got to keep your focus. We are focused on the first of 26 games tonight. It's going to start in Tampa for 530 Eastern on ESPN. There's a 10 o'clock kick Eastern time in San Diego, wall-to-wall football as USF looking for a big time upset. Harry Liles is going to be on the sideline tonight on ESPN.

He gets a set for kick. Zubin coming off of their college football playoff appearance, along with Heisman Runner of Ashton Genti, Boise State is entering a new era. And quarterback Maddox and told me that this team is eager to prove that they were more than just one player last year. They're returning their entire offensive line and have a couple of backs in the backfield in Malik Sharad, a transfer from Fresno State and Sire games that they feel can uphold what is a standard that was set by Ashton Genti. On the USF side, Byron Brown, who missed eight games last year at quarterback, set multiple records in 2023.

He's back. We spoke with him yesterday. He was all smiles. They're going to be running a lot of tempo in this game, Zubin. It's going to be a fun one. 30 p.m. Eastern kick college football count. I'll get you going at 5 Eastern. And your thoughts on the picks we need to know, pick this one? What do you think in here? First of all, a tremendous mustache on behalf of the young Liles. I think we all noticed that and I think we're all very impressed. Now, back to the business at hand in that game tonight.

I like the dog. I would take South Florida plus the points. It's five and a half. Was his highest nine and a half. Problems last year for Boise State in a similar situation. They went on the road to Georgia Southern. Very hot, very humid. Won the game, didn't cover the spread.

Defense gave up 46. I think something similar happens tonight. It's going to be over 90 degrees in that game. As you work your way down the list of games into the weekend that we'd end up playing, I'd be looking at Alabama. I'm not going to elaborate on that. I'm sitting next to a Florida State guy. On top of that, Utah minus five and a half against UCLA, not a believer in Nico Iamalia.

South Dakota plus the 15 and a half against Iowa State. Look at the spot for Iowa State. One a big game against Kansas State in Ireland. They got SciHawk next week. We almost landed the analysis. Syhawk next week. In between, you've got this matchup. You don't want to show a whole lot.

You just want to survive to the next week. Yes, that's what I'm here for. I'm not here for much. I'm not here for much, but I am here to help Joe. Thank you, Sue. On the way, yesterday soccer had its maybe biggest upset ever, ever. Got us thinking. What would that qualify in college football terms?

The guys will weigh in. Next. College Football Live is presented by ice cold Dr. Pepper. College Football. It's a pepper thing. And in part by Popeyes. Love that chicken from Popeyes. Black Friday is here at IKEA,

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IKEA, bring home to life. This is it. The Swan Song for the legendary Lee Corso after 28 years. Texas at Ohio State, make sure you're there at 1159 a.m. Eastern. It's a moment you'll remember forever as a college football fan. As I mentioned, 26 games on the docket. Mike Vic out there tonight,

Sean Jackson out there tonight for their respective clubs. And we should mention they will meet October 30th in Philadelphia at the link, where, of course, they were great members of the Philadelphia Eagles. You know, Boise State's ready to rock. That's head coach, Spencer Danielson. He's ready to go. He took over for Andy Avalos, and he has had the program back where Boise fans expect them to be.

Hey, I don't know if you caught this earlier this week. In one of the biggest sports upsets of all time, Grimsby Town, a fourth-tier soccer team, knocked off Mighty Man United, 13 rounds of penalty kicks. Every guy on Grimsby, his salary for the year, is made by every man you player in a week. Whatever the dude earns in a year,

man you players make in a week. Got us thinking, fellas. And let's start with you, E.J. Give me a shocking, bold, crazy thing we might see this season along the lines of what we just saw there. That was pretty shocking. But I'll say Penn State defeats two AP top 10 teams this year. They haven't done that since 1989.

when Jopal was the head coach. Give me Baylor making the college football playoff. They got Auburn. They got SMU early. One six straight last year. I like Baylor. Probably should have made the first one. They're still smarting over it.

You'll see E.J. and the guys on Countdown and a double header tonight.