College Football Live - CFB Live- 9/23- At the Mic!

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

Join our crew Zubin Mehenti, Sam Acho, Tom Luginbill, and Pete Thamel as we hear from a number of head coaches across the college football landscape. What is the disconnect for Clemson? How is Indiana feeling after a big win in Week 4? What's gone wrong for Notre Dame's defense? Is the old Miami back? Hear directly from the coaching staff to get the inside scoop on their mindsets leading into Week 5. And which historic head coach is parting ways with their program? Find out this and more on today's episode of College Football Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you fly in Emirates business class and you're picked up by your private, luxury, chauffeur-driven car, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates. Fly better. Welcome to college football live. We've got some breaking news off the top. And the beginning of the show marks the end of an era. Sam, Tom, Pete, Zubin, Pete. Let's get right to it. Got some big news here in the coaching fraternity. Yeah, Zubid, Mike Gundy, has been very good. fired as the head coach at Oklahoma State. The staff is in a meeting right now as we talk with the athletic director and word sort of trickled slowly about in the last two hours. But Oklahoma State

has fired Mike Gundy amid his 21st season after an uncompetitive loss to Tulsa on Friday night, which followed an utterly uncompetitive loss at Oregon prior to that. He's won 170 games as the head coach at Oklahoma State. More than 100 than the program's second best. coach. He led them to two 10-win seasons as a quarterback. I don't think there's a person in college athletics or a figure in college football anyway that epitomizes his program more than Mike Gundy. So this is just access-shifting news that just broke this afternoon, guys. And yeah, it's an end of an era. The cowboy has ridden for the last time. And the mullet is no longer on the sidelines and Stillwater. Indeed. So it comes to an end after 21 years that saw a lot of

success, nearly played for the national championship, an outright big 12 title, played in two of the last four big 12 title games. But when you fall this far, this fast, it tells you everything you need to know as you take a look at career highlights for Gundy, as Pete essentially said in grand totality, the tenure as a player as a coach will be remembered fondly, but it's the last year and a half that really forced the move today. Sam, let's go to you. You as a former Texas Longhorn, of course, competed against Mike Gundy coach Oklahoma State teams. What's your reaction to? What's your reaction the news here today. Yeah, I'm not surprised.

There was a time when Oklahoma State was a feared opponent by any Big 12 team, but that time has passed. That time has come to an end after a loss to an in state team in Tulsa, after a three and nine season last year, which you were 0 and 9 in your conference, did not win one Big 12 game. Oklahoma State used to be a team not even too long ago that was competing in Big 12 championships two years ago, a team that back when I was playing 10, 12 years ago, they were a feared opponent, whether they were playing Texas or playing Oklahoma State and Bedlam,

but all of a sudden that period of time has come to an end. Yeah, Sam, you know, there's one constant in the coaching profession, and that constant has changed, whether it's three years, five years, or in the rare instances, 21 years at the same place in this profession, is extremely rare. And let's reel off the accomplishments. 18 consecutive winning seasons, 12 bowl victories, okay? this is a coach that consistently maintains success. It's one thing to build a program.

It's another thing to sustain it over a long period of time. And he just deserves a ton of credit for what not only he did with the program, but how he transformed Stillwater, Oklahoma, how he transformed that athletic department with the help of T-Boon Pickens and all of the different investments that they made over the course of his tenure there. And truly one of the most likable guys in the profession. You always knew where he stood, very black and white, and a tremendous sense of humor. I don't know if you guys saw the Monday press conference after the Tulsa loss.

He walks straight up to the mic and he's like, guys, is it hot in here? I feel like each week it's getting hotter in here. I mean, vintage Mike Gundy. True, but it's also, as much of the accomplishments you want to talk about those, it is a performance-based business. It's not a family, right? This is a business, and it's performance-based. And the performance has not been up to par.

So that's the thing that stands out to me, whether you're a player, and you get bench or you're a coach, you get fired. If you're not up to the standard year after year, at least the last several years and losing to a team like Tulsa, changes need to be made. Tom, let me go to you here. One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is the sort of evolving of the sport in Mike Gundy's

sort of insistence that he doesn't really want to be a part of the way the sport is going. He said before the Oregon game that Pete referenced that Oklahoma State had spent a grand total of $7 million in NIL the last two years combined. How much do you think his resistance to the pull of where the sport is going ultimately factored into what we're seeing? Well, I think it played a significant role. Listen, I don't know many coaches that do love the current state of college football.

They accept it's what it is. But everything has changed so drastically. And a lot of these guys are like, this isn't what I got into this for. Now, the issue I think that they ran into is because of the resistance, they were so late to the party to jump both feet into the deep end. of competing in this world. And while they were late to jumping in, everybody else even poached them. So when you didn't have an answer to replace what you were losing, and it just lit the fuse of a non-competitive product on the field.

And Sam's right. This is, what have you done for me lately business? But I don't think there's any question that them being late to the party in this new world order of college football led to this downfall. And Lug, I really think to spin this forward, what Oklahoma State does and how they does it is one of the most fascinating things in college athletics. Chad Weiberg, the athletic director, his contract is essentially run out. He's on a month-to-month deal. The big question looming now that Gundy's gone is, will he be part of the decision-making and will they make a determination on his future?

Because if you were going to lure a quality coach to Oklahoma State, which is a very good Big 12 program that Mike Gundy built it into, you need to show stability and you need to show an openness to the future, as both you guys have mentioned. That's really where Oklahoma State looks next, is how do they build this over the next few weeks into an attractive job? No question about it. We should mention that Doug Meacham, their offensive coordinator, will take over on an interim basis. And they play Baylor this Saturday right here on ESPN, too. So they're right back into the fire. Sam and Tom mentioned what happened last Friday against Tulsa. That might have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

About two or three days before that loss, we heard this. If they want me gone, if they tired of winning, they can send me on the way because that's all we've done is win. So if they're tired of winning, we've won this league eight out of the last 10 years. Is that not good? Clemson's tired of winning, they can send me on my way, but I'm going to go somewhere else and coach. I ain't going to the beach. Hell, I'm 55. I got a long way to go.

Y'all going to have to deal with me for a while. This is the worst start to a tenure in the Dabo era. So coming off that loss to Syracuse, that loss to Georgia Tech the week before, and a season opening loss to LSU. Here's what the reaction was Saturday. We just can't seem to get on the same page and play complimentary football. You know, we can't seem to get it all together. And we kind of work against each other.

And it's incredibly disappointing. And it's, it's, you know, my responsibility for us to be better. and this is not the start to our season that any of us envision, not what we work for. Even through the struggle, even through some tough times right now, I think it always kind of comes back to that of just going out and playing confidently and playing loose and trusting one another. And I think when we do that, you know, you create more fun, you create more opportunity for everybody.

And, you know, I think you can get in a rhythm more consistently that way. I mean, I think any time you get challenged, you got to dig deep, right? as coaches, as players, you've got to really dig deep and you kind of find out what you're made of. And, you know, we're certainly in one of those times right now. But just like I told the players, we're going to have their back no matter what. And we're going to enjoy going to battle and fighting together. That was Garrett Riley earlier today. In fact, just moments ago, he was a much-Bally who'd hire on the offensive side of the ball.

Tom Allen on the defensive side of the ball hasn't worked out. Tom, I want to go with you. Within the last hour, Clemson has also come out and said they had a player's only meeting. where tears were shed, players were incredibly emotional. What do you make of this start? It feels like we've had a couple of seasons worth of drama since that opening night loss to LSU. It doesn't feel like it's been a month. Yeah, it's really something else.

And, you know, when you're at a place like Clemson, the expectations are on an all-time high. And when you came into this season, there was not a team in college football that had a more confident, productive, returning, verifiable production than this roster did, almost across the board with multiple potential first rounders, high-end draft choices, you had the quarterback, you have all the weapons back. So that expectation, and to see how this team

is woefully underperformed, listen, I think to the point now where nobody is safe, everything's being scrutinized, everything's being examined, and they need to challenge their coaches, challenge their players, everything gets evaluated on tape.

Are you given the effort that's required? Are you doing what we ask you to do? Are you executing at the level that you are capable of? And with all of the scrutiny and all of this and the scrutiny of Davo with the lack of activity in the transfer portal, ironically, the best player on their team right now defensively is a transfer portal player and will help along the defensive front from Purdue. So I don't know what the answer is, but I think a message needs to be sent that if you're not performing to a certain standard, we're going to find somebody who is going to perform to

that standard and light of fire under these guys. Well, the only issue with that, Lugues, is that a lot of people, at least on the defense side of the ball, who have been subbing in and out, aren't performing to the standard. You get new guys in and you see the same mistakes over and over again. You're seeing cornerbacks or DBs playing outside leverage and there's no safety inside to help. That's either miscommunication or misalignment. You see mistackles as well.

You see one-on-one coverage and guys not getting, not making plays when they're supposed to make plays. So for me, when I watch Clemson, especially on the defense side of the ball, it's very frustrating. They play a lot of man to man, and it looks like the corners can't play man, so play something different. There's a lot of mistackles, a lot of guys who can't avoid cup blocks. It's just disgusting. As a guy who played defense, it's frustrating to say the least. And then in addition to that, you talk about the onside kick from last week in Syracuse.

Obviously, Syracuse watched film and saw that there was a lack of discipline, lack of attention to detail, and teams are seeing that and exploiting that lack of detail. Just going to this game from last week, right? Outside leverage. There's no linebacker inside. There's no safety inside. Either the DB's wrong or the linebacker's wrong or they're both wrong. They don't know.

One-on-one coverage. Right, I understand. It's one-on-one. But you have to be able to make a play at the ball. Then that on-side kick we talked about, on-side kick. Three of the four front-line players are all running away from the football. That's an obvious thing that teams look at on tape.

But the attention to detail was not there. So Clemson has an issue with not just the starters, even the backups are playing up to part. Yeah, Sam, and going back to some of the comments that Garrett Riley made when he talks about playing free and loose and trusting everything, we're not seeing any of that on offense. This team on offense is hesitant. They are unsure. Cade Clubnick does not look like he's in sync in rhythm. He's holding on to the football too long.

There have been accuracy issues. I actually think that Adam Randall's been a nice find at the running back position and they've gotten some nice production out of him. but the lack of connection between quarterback and targets in the passing game is remarkably frustrating because they don't even look like a shell of the football team that had hit their stride a year ago and was hitting on all cylinders offensively and it looked like all right this Garrett Riley coached offense and this combination of players is exactly what we needed and now they look more like the 2023 clinton offense than they do last year's offense Lugge, this reminds me a little bit of Brian Kelly, mid to late Notre Dame tenure when they went four and eight.

And he had to do sort of a full autopsy of himself, of the coordinators, of the program, of the strength staff. And it feels like that's the kind of inflection point where Clemson is right now. Look, Dabo is one of three active coaches to win a national title. I'm not hinting in any way. He should not be the coach there anymore. But they have to look at everything and really go under a holistic evaluation of what's happening there to push forward to regain the heights that Davo led them to. Yeah, Kirby and Ryan Day, of course, are the two others.

I will say this real quick. Dabo in the offseason said, we won 10 national titles. He said 10 titles in 10 years, two Natties and 8 ACC titles. And he also said they could go 16 and 0 this year. So this was a lot of smoke coming from the program itself. On the way here on college football live. Speaking of smoke, right? You got Ivis coming out of the smoke.

While everyone's looking back, that the U is back, Their coach is actually looking forward. Wait till you hear this from Coach Cristobal. Next. This Giving Tuesday, Cam H is counting on your support. Together, we can forge a better path for mental health by creating a future where Canadians can get the help they need, when they need it, no matter who or where they are.

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Freezing. Save up to 50% November 20th to 27th. Conditions apply, details online. We're back on college football live. It's time for our rewarding performance. Brought to you by Capital One. Certainly was a rewarding performance Saturday night for those that watched Indiana just destroy Illinois.

And it was over from the. jump. Kurt Signetti looking back on this and looking ahead to this Saturday. It's a tough place to play. Kinnick Stadium. They sell it out almost every Saturday. It's loud. And so

we're going to play well. This would be a challenge. A more difficult challenge than the last one for sure. And the sooner our guys realize that, the better. Tom, what are the chances Indiana's Smack Talk and team is better than last year's 11-win outfit.

They are better than last year. They're more explosive on offense. I actually think the quarterbacks and upgrade and Fernando Mendoza. They played virtually a flawless game. They were 8 of 11 on third down, two penalties for 10 yards, 49 rush attempts for 312 yards. And oh, by the way, Fernando Mendoza has thrown 14 touchdowns and zero picks so far on the year.

Indiana's a problem. From the Indiana offense to the Notre Dame defense, Marcus Freeman's not ready to take over the unit, at least not. yet, right? If I thought it was a call, if I thought we weren't calling the game the right way, like I'm, trust me, I know the definition of insanity, you know, and if that was the case, you got to do what's best for your program. But that's not, to me, the issue when I'm evaluating our deep to play.

It's not what we're calling at this time or why we're calling it. It's okay, why aren't we executing? Why aren't they, Sam? Purdue even put a ton of points on it. Yeah, they're not making the plays that are available to be made. Of course, you have a new defensive coordinator here and Chris Ash. So there's newness on the defense. But when it comes to critical plays and critical games a la week one and the second week versus A&M,

they're not making the right plays at the biggest moments. That's what we're seeing. else is stepping up. And so maybe that's too much pressure. Maybe it's maybe it's just trusting your fundamentals and your techniques. But last year, Notre Dame was making the big place. Pick sixes, uh, block punts, etc. This year, they're not. Mario Cristobal like Kirk Cignetti is looking back and looking forward, but would prefer to look forward. It's nostalgia theater, right? In this country now, everybody wants back, back, back. Well, we don't want to go back. We want to go. We want to go, we want to take the principles and

values of that brand of football, but we want to take it forward. And I think the guys that play here, they want that too, because our guys are coming back to practice, are coming back to teams. They're getting around our players. They're providing awesome mentorship. And all they talk about is moving forward, you know, and taking it to modern day football. And that resonates with our guys want to make those guys proud. You know, they want to play like them.

But we don't want to go in a time capsule and go backwards, brother. We want to go straight ahead. and we want to make it happen now. All right, that was on the This is Football podcast. Tom, I want to start with you here. Last time, Miami was ranked as high as it is number two right now. 2017, they started 10 and 0 and then lost their last three games. Why is this going to be different?

Because I think the offseason hire of Corey Heatherman defensively to correct some of the issues that plagued them on the back end a year ago has been an ideal fit. This is a line of scrimmage-based football team. Secondly, this is also a team that looks like they've corrected some of their game management issues, latent games in tight games. And so they have closed out games the right way. They made the right choice at quarterback.

And very quickly around that quarterback, they have jelled with the targets who had not played together with each other. And so they are hitting on all cylinders because they're built to be the best they can be in the most important position groups you've got to have to. play championship football. But please believe, Luges, they will continue to be tested. That game versus Florida last week, though it was an impressive, though it was a win, it was 14, 13, really going into the fourth quarter. And I understand it's robbery, all those things are true, but the offense didn't play as well as advertised. No, Florida's defense is one of the better defenses, but they will continue to be tested. Looking at the schedule, I think the SMU game could be a challenging one. Syracuse is playing well right now. NC State coming off of a loss, but they're

playing well. So, and then before you even start, there you go to Florida State. So I'm excited about this Miami team because they do have the pieces, but they have to play a little bit better when they play better competition a la October 4th. Yeah, the one thing I would mention here is that not getting a lot of chatter because it's all about the offense and Carson Beck. But if you haven't to watch Ruben Bain yet this year, Miami is absolutely loaded for Heatherman. Yeah, right Tom? No, and not just him. You got Mesidor on the other side. And they, listen, Florida could not convert a third down. for the entire game.

Yeah, 0 for 13. Think about that. 0 for 13. Incredible statistic. Hard to win when you're doing that against anybody. College football ready to go. Florida State and Virginia will start it out Friday night. Whole bunch action, including Bama, Georgia on Saturday.

On the way, much like the SEC and the Big 12 and the Big 10, the ACC, is going to a nine-game conference schedule. What does it mean for them in particular? Next. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear off about transferring your business when the time comes. Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do.

Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us, and contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk, business. It's the Nissan Black Friday event where you can, wait, wait, wait. Isn't it like a month long now? Nissan Black Friday Month? Does that work?

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Tonight, SEC fans are going to be locked in because with this new nine game schedule, they're going to be unveiling their three annual opponents and then figure out how that's going to work for the next four seasons. Remember, they are prioritizing. Geography and tradition. And a little birdie tells me if you can't be by your TV, this information is readily available in some other places, just in case you can't get there. Remember, the bottom one is important as they really want to fortify the schedule to get there with the Big Ten with scheduling at least one non-conference game

from one of the other Power 3 leagues or Notre Dame. And the ACC is finally becoming the fourth of the Power Four leagues to get back on board. They, of course, are now going to a nine-game league schedule as well. This seemed to be a fade-of-com play after the SEC fell down the rest of the way. And now it's all four power leagues going nine conference games. Tom, let's start with you because this is fresh for the ACC. What does this move specifically do for that league? I think what it does is it shows that the ACC is serious about making sure that they are at the forefront

of what is going to end up being the new world order of. of college football scheduling and joining the fray. Now, listen, is there a downside to this? Yes, because you're going to have some scheduling because the conference is an odd number of teams that could make it difficult if you add a 10th power for school to maintain some of the traditional rivalries you have, Georgia Tech, Georgia, South Carolina, Clemson, Florida State, and numerous others. So how they manage that and work through that, time will tell, but I think it's the right

move for the conference. I do as well, and also to allow you to have, be more competitive when it comes even some college football playoff conversations. You play more competitive games, play another power conference game versus another powerful opponent. So for me, I think it's the right move for them to get caught up with other teams and other conferences and to be more competitive when it comes to how strong your schedule is. Yeah, there's no question about it. Last couple of things I would say to Tom's point. Right now, last week we saw Florida and Miami. There's no guarantee that rivalry is going to resume.

It's not on the schedule for next year or beyond. It'll be very interesting also to see how the ACC doles out some of these games with the SEC going geography and tradition over other factors, which is why Alabama and LSU is not on the schedule, at least not next year with regards to the rivalry. So plenty to figure out for the ACC. We'll see you tomorrow for more college football line.