College Football Live - CFB Live - 9/5 - Watch for Week 2

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

College Football Live coming from Norman, Oklahoma! Join our crew Jen Lada, Stanford Steve, Pete Thamel and Desmond Howard as we prepare for Week 2. A ranked matchup between (15) Michigan and (18) Oklahoma while Dan Lanning and Mike Gundy have words ahead of their Oklahoma State and (6) Oregon game. Stanford Steve gives some betting tips and the crew gives you some team and players to watch out for this week. All that and more wtih CFB Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you're flying Emirates business class, sampling our range of vintage wines from the largest selection in the skies, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. Michigan, we've got, we've got Desmond Howard, Stanford, Steve, the authority. Here on the South Oval in Norman, Oklahoma on the campus of the University of Oklahoma. And this is a big matchup. I don't know if it's going to have college football playoff implications, but certainly, too. two programs who would love to ascend from where they were last year and get into that conversation.

Head coach Sharon Moore making his way to his old stomping grounds. You know, he played for the Sooners in 2006 and 2007. This matchup features ESPN's top rank transfer. John Mateer versus 2025 number one recruit Rice Underwood. We are in for a good one. Let's hear from the head coaches. We want to get after every quarterback that we play, you know, but everything that there's a mythology to all of it.

And so you've got to start in the run game, starts up front. You've got to win the battle in the trenches. Everybody's got to win their matchups for anything to work. So it's going to be a great physical matchup. And again, for us, a great limitless test to where we're at. I know our guys are looking forward to the challenge. Really good football team, complete football team in all three phases. Return game, they're dangerous.

Offensively, obviously it all starts with Mateer, the quarterback and what he does. And they've got a bevy of running backs. know they're going to be fast, I know they're going to be physical, they're going to be fundamentally sound and be explosive on offense. So we've got to do things to counteract his thought process and how he puts together the plan. So that's what we're going to attempt to do. In the only AP ranked matchup of week two, these two historic programs are squaring off on the gridiron. Michigan, the only FBS program to eclipse a thousand wins all time. But Oklahoma has the edge in AP titles and Heisman winners, four of them since 2003. You know what's crazy?

guys, these two programs have only faced off one other time. And we're talking about two of the teams that have the six top winningest percentages in all of college football. So Pete, we begin with you. What will be the keys to this game for the Sooners and the Wolverines? Well, Jen, it'll be an old friend from the Calgarytham.

Jaden Ott. He only played a handful of snaps in the Open against Oklahoma State. He is back and ready to go full time here. Remember, Jaden Ot of two seasons ago led the Pack 12, God Rested Soul, in rushing. 13-150 yards, back when it was a full-fledged conference.

Jaden Ott is a dynamic player when available. So it was a little scary when he wasn't available for Oklahoma in the opener. There's a lot of confidence from Brent Venables and Ben Arbuckle this week that Jadenott is going to be back in that old form when he was one of the most dominant running backs in college football and the run game really

needed it in the opener. I'll tell you guys, well, we just saw Brent Vanibals. He said control the trenches, want to win the battle in the trenches. Both teams want to control the line of scrimmage. So I believe that the battle in the trenches is going to be very important to who wins this game. You look at a Michigan team, bringing in a young quarterback in Bryce Underwood.

First career start in this territory, SEC, background, backyard. This is going to be a tough game for that offense, but he has great running backs. He got Jordan Marshall. Don't forget what he did a year ago in the bowl game against Alabama. And you got Justice Hayes. Justice Haynes last week had three touchdowns. Haynes averaged 10 yards per carry. I think the running game is going to be very key for Michigan.

If they're going to be able to move the ball against this tough sooner's defense and control of the line of scrimmage. No doubt. I think both offenses are up against it in this game. The strength of both teams is the defense, right? And on one side you mentioned, you know, the phenom, freshman quarterback coming in. How does Michigan protect him? How well can they run the ball?

How much balance can they provide to help him when it gets into tough situations? And on the other side, Oklahoma, an offensive line that sounds like they're going to start two new guys at tackle. against a ferocious Michigan defense. But this is why you've got Viteer at quarterback. He's a wizard out there. He's got to make plays on third downs. Oklahoma has what they want.

Michigan has what they want. And now you go out there and battle it out. So it's a fascinating matchup in which would be a very, very physical game. A Michigan defense, though, that is without J. Sean Barham, who is going to miss the first half of the game because of that targeting call. And obviously, the Michigan defense, they really like him. I mean, he's a dynamic player, big difference maker. And without him in the first half,

they will have to adjust. All right, let's get to the teams last week that were knocked off. In a rematch of last season CFP semifinal, we saw number one Texas drop its season opener to number three, Ohio State. Yeah, of course, you know they love that outcome here in Norman. That was a 14-7 defensive slug fest. So then we go to the next game, which is in Tallahassee. That was unranked Florida State.

They upset number eight, Alabama in a... blowout. It was the Crimson Tides first on field season opening loss since 2001. We roll on to the Battle of the Tigers, where number four, Clemson was upset by number nine, LSU at home. That marks its fourth consecutive loss against the SEC since the start of last season. And on Sunday, Carson Beck led number 10 Miami over sixth ranked Notre Dame. It snapped an eight-game losing streak against top 10 foes for the hurricanes. So when we look at those teams, ranked teams that lost last week, Pete, I'll begin with you, what adjustments do you need to see from those teams?

I think the first thing we need to see, Jen, is no panic. Even in Alabama, everything is still in front of these teams. This isn't your father's college football where an early season loss undermines your entire season. So I think these teams have to go back and forge an identity. That's difficult to do when you open up with one of these blockbuster openers, which all of them did. I think one specific thing I want to see from Clemson is I want to see tailback Gideon Davidson.

He's a true freshman, one of the top running back recruits in the country. Dabo is always slow to work in the freshman. He only had two snaps in the opener against LSU. If Clemson's going to get that run game going, they need a little juice from Davidson. It'll be interesting to see against Troy if they start finding that identity with Davidson. Well, we know that they can change their spots.

Dabble went to the transfer portal, so maybe we will start to see changes from Davo. What do you need to see this weekend? And who do you think has the most pressure? I think it's Alabama. When you look at what they looked like last week against Florida State, Castellanos comes in talking all that game. And boy, did he back it up, man.

I give him all the credit. And that's one thing I take away from here is everybody's going to talk about how bad Alabama looked, and I will in a second. But Florida State came out and gave it to him. And with Alabama, the lack of physicality, the lack of speed on defense was really glaring. And is it an effort thing? Is it just to not want to? That's what I see.

Pete, you mentioned it. Everything is still out in front of these teams. It's really hard in this day and age, social media and everything, not to overreact. But Alabama has to be better, and it starts, I can't believe I'm saying this, with effort. Yeah, no, you're right about that. You know, they say it's not talking smack if you can back it up.

And Tommy Costalano's back it up. That was amazing. But I looked at that Alabama team, and they just seemed to lack any discipline. They just didn't seem fundamentally sound. They're not the team that we're used to seeing. So I hope they're able to get that together because Carolyn DeBoer is a really, really good coach.

I just hope he does not lose his team. But you're talking about another team that really surprised me. Texas, going on the road, playing in Columbus, listen, you get an opportunity to go up against a team that knocked you out of the college football playoff. To me, that's the whole talk of the summer. You can't wait to get to Columbus. And it was such a lackluster performance

by the longhorns, especially Archie. Manning. Now, I think at this point, they play San Jose State. They play U-TEP. They play Sam Houston. This is going to give Archmanning, the office, and probably the whole team and opportunity now to build up some confidence because that's going to be their games the next three weeks, and they're going to have a bye week. And then they travel to Gainesville, October 4th, and they got to tussle with them gators. That's going to be the next big game to see exactly what the longhorns are about this season. Yeah, so nine of the top 10 teams this week, guys,

are playing unranked teams at home. That we're used to in college football at this time of year, right? All right. We'll take a break here on college football live. But first, tomorrow's SEC on ABC College Football Triple Heather is number seven, Texas hosting San Jose State. You mentioned that, Des. That's at noon, eastern, 11 a.m. Central,

followed by number 20, Ole Miss, and Kentucky in Lexington. Then at 7.30, you got number 15 Michigan, taken on number 18. Oklahoma in a big early season test for both of those programs. Each game also available on the ESPN app. Coming up on college football live, as Oklahoma State heads to Eugene for a showdown with number six Oregon, Mike Gundy and Dan Lannning aren't holding back on their differences in recruiting. We'll break all of that down next. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans.

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All right. Let's take a look at today's road test. It's presented by Goodyear. Tomorrow kicks off the Seahawk battle with Iowa taking on Iowa State where the road team has won the last five meetings in the series. Then for just the second time in history, you've got Oregon facing Oklahoma State. And I don't know if you've been paying attention, but there has been some spicy exchanges between Mike Gundy and Dan Lannie ahead of this matchup. I think Oregon spent close to 40 last year alone. So that was just one year. I might be off a few million, but they're spending a lot of money.

They spent a lot of money, you know? From a non-conference standpoint, there's coaches saying they should play teams that are spending the same amount of money. If you want to be a top 10 team in college football, you better be invested in winning. And we spend to win, some people say to have an excuse for why they don't. So I can't speak on their situation. I have no idea, you know, what's what they got in their pocket. over there. I'm sure U.T. Martin maybe didn't have as much as them last week, and they played.

So we'll let it play out. Always a sharp response from our guy, Dan Lannning. But it is a summation of sort of where we are right now in college football. Des your reaction to that conversation. Yeah, well, Mike Gundy needs to know the code of the streets. Now, you never count another man's pockets, you know what I'm saying? But if he was sharp, he would have came back, well, at least we can keep our mascot's head on. You know what I'm saying?

Saw that video. We saw that video. And I also thought about what Nick Saban said a year ago, too, when he was on game day, he said, you know, it's okay to spend that type of money. But if you buy the wrong product, he said, you're a... Yeah, that's what he said. Exactly. And the last time we saw Oregon, man, it wasn't pretty in that Rose Bowl.

But, you know, these guys are taking little jabs. I think it's great for the sport. I like it when coaches show their personalities when they take jabs at each other and say what's really on their mind. So both coaches had points to make. I think that both coaches had significant points. They were right. And I don't have an issue with that.

I think we should get more of that. I just feel bad. You see Martin catching strays. They're just trying to get back in the mix. They're playing a money game also. No, I will say this, that when you look at what Dan Lannning has done when he is heavily favored in games,

there will be instances where he could punch more scores. in. And this one could get ugly. You might find this game later on in the show. Exactly. Somewhere the ghost of T. Boone Pickens is offended. Oklahoma State for years because of T. Boone Pickens out kicked its coverage. It outpunched

its weight class. They were the funded team. They were ahead in facilities, locker rooms, all that stuff, all the waterfalls and Ferrari chairs and everything. Oklahoma State was ahead of that, and it really helped Mike Gundy early in his career establish Oklahoma State as, look, Mike Gundy's won 100 more games

and the next best coach at Oklahoma State. He's done an unbelievable job there. And a lot of that early on was due to T. Boone Pickens. So full circle moment now. He's crying poor, look with his hat out, pointing the finger at Phil Knight. But it's a great point because a lot of these programs, guys, whether you're Oregon or whether you are Oklahoma State, are talking about donor fatigue. They're talking about how these donors are going back to them year after year after

year. And they're saying, well, we gave you a boatload of money last year. What did it get us? Well, we gave you a boat of money the year before. What did it get us? And so there's only so much money. to go around for some of these programs. That's what I've been trying to tell people.

This thing right here that we're going through that we're experiencing, it's not sustainable. They're going to like, hey, man, at some point, you're going to just out-coach somebody. You can't come digging in my pockets every year. Yeah, for real. And it's not sustainable. So that's a great point.

And the bottom line is you're dealing with kids. Yeah. You don't know. You can't know. That's going to work. Exactly. Well, Mike Gundy's bosses are doing with losing fatigue because they made him take a pay cut to get money to the players

to help revitalize the program. And they had always been in that. the upper tier of paying coaches, right, Pete? No question. They did a good job keeping personnel there and keeping everything there. They've got a personnel issue there right now. It's simply. They've got a whole new staff now, right?

Every new staff. Complete turnover. Yeah, they've, you know, ripped up the roster, brought in people in the portal. Now, the backup quarterback, Zane, Flores playing. I just, I don't see a pathway for them to get to bull contention this year. Wow. Now, look, like, there's so many unknowns. They could reveal themselves, but I got a feeling in the fourth quarter,

we're going to be worrying about how much Dan Laning runs up the score, not if the Cowboys can stay in the game. All right. So we mentioned a few of those other games there on that graphic as well. What else are you keeping your eye on, Pete? Well, the Border War was back, Kansas and Missouri, and the Bo Probula era, excuse me, at Missouri has now begun. Bo Pervula is one of the most exciting players in the country.

He was good enough last year at Penn State that they brought him in for a series of game, despite the fact that they had a quarterback who might be the number one overall pick of the draft. and Perbula showed it against Central Arkansas. He scored two touchdowns with his legs. He threw for two more. And he brings a diverse skill set that's going to be really exciting to see against the higher caliber opponent. I'm really optimistic to see what Eli Drinkwitz can do with Bo Perbula here.

And it's his show now. I'll tell you what, guys, you know, Iowa, the Iowa Hawkins, they've struggled on offense for years and years. They went out and got Mark Grinowski. This quarterback from South Dakota State, he won a Walter Payton Award, which is their version of the Heisman. So I thought they were going to have an explosive offense.

Last week, 44 yards passing, one touchdown pass, and then he added a touchdown in the running game. But I think this is going to be the game that he's really going to jump out and going to surprise us because we know he has the talent. He has the winning pedigree. And listen, this is a game where, you know, they've been pointing at this one on their calendar. They circled it and they have to tell Mark,

this is the one we got to have against. these Iowa State guys. So I expect him to have a better game he had a week ago. Yeah, it's a great matchup with Rocco Beck doing what he's doing on the other side also. I look at Florida and USF. USF was the talk of college football before we got to Saturday. The big upset win over Boise State kind of put themselves on the map as far as when we start talking about group of five teams that can look at the playoff.

Now they go to the swamp in-state rivals. We talk about it all the time. All these guys know each other. But on the other side, you got Florida. who is just laying in the weeds. No one's talking about them, but they begin a monster part of their schedule that includes this game against the Bulls.

They go to Miami. They go to LSU next week. They come home. They play Texas. If Florida is going to take that next step as a program, which their fan base expects now because of the schedule that they overcame last year, they can't get caught looking at anything in this game with South Florida.

You have to take care of business. They're built for it. They've improved on both lines of scrimmage. But South Florida, Snegey goal, has done a really good job. And Brown, the quarterback is dangerous. So that's a tricky spot for Florida. Yeah, and it's not going to be as easy as it was last week when they were able to run up the score against Long Island. Pee, what are we looking at as we head into week two?

Well, we'll start with some good news for Texas Tech, Jen. Barrett Moore and the starting quarterback for Texas Tech had been questionable all week. He left the second quarter of the Arkansas Pine Bluff game with a leg injury. I was told by a source this morning that he's in line to start against Kent. Now this may not loom big this weekend, but they host Oregon State, and then they go to Utah in a huge early Big 12 game in two weeks. So the staff there at Texas Tech has really wanted more to get into rhythm, which is going to help them as they go into Big 12 play. For Michigan State, in a sneaky good matchup against B.C of the ACC, they're going to be out one of their best defensive players. Safety Nikai Martinez is out for Michigan State.

I was told by a source this morning. Now, Michigan State didn't give up any defensive scores, and they're open against. Western Michigan. They got a bigger test against the Eagles. And finally, for big picture news, the NCAA oversight committee passed a ruling yesterday that still needs to be fully ratified for one NCAA transfer portal. This opens January 2nd. It's supposed to run about 10 days, and it should bring a little bit more certainty to the sport. I think the biggest thing for fans to take away is that without a portal at the end of spring, when you have someone locked into a contract, they just can't leave after the spring. I think it brings some roster certainty and some of

The chaos will leave the sport. Perhaps we won't have as many Wild Wild West references starting next year. Just to be clear, that is just one transfer window. Folks can still transfer multiple times. I've seen a lot of confusion about what that distinction is in the world in the last 24 hours or so. All right, from standout performances to early upsets, week one has given us plenty to react to. So what is worth watching in week two? We've got the quick hits.

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Ikea. Bring home to life. Hit those numbers from last week, but we certainly hope. I hope you will be joining us Saturday morning 9 a.m. Eastern live from Norman, Oklahoma, right here, South Oval. We've got Manny Diaz, we've got Brent Venables, and Trey Young is going to be our guest picker. Don't miss it Saturday morning. All right, Steve, what's your gambling guide for all those fine folks out there? Yeah, there's a lot of big numbers out there, and we're going to take them all. BYU plays Stanford.

I don't like the matchup for the Cardinal at all. Bear Bachmeier against his old school at Stanford. minus 20 and a half. We talked about Oregon and Oklahoma State. I think there's going to be some feelings involved in that game. I like Oregon to lay it on. They have plenty of talent, Oklahoma State. Again, as P pointed out, the roster is not there.

And then a great quarterback matchup in SMU and Baylor. Sawyer Robertson against Kevin Jennings. Both offices are extremely explosive. I expect a lot of points in a fun, fun game and a long, long game. Over 63 and a half there. All right. We've only had one week of ball, but we can still make. some conclusions based on what you've seen so far, Pete. What will you be watching for this weekend?

I conclude Steve's a little sad that Bear Bachmeier's not at Stanford anymore. He's sounded a little melancholy in his tone there. As for the group of five, what I should be talking about, it is wide open. Anyone who tells you they know they're going to win the group of five is lying to. There's so much player turnover. It's impossible to project. Fascinating matchup this weekend. Toledo of the Macc versus Western Kentucky of Conference USA. Maverick McIver is Western Kentucky's quarterback. He's a a seventh year senior. He committed to Cliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech.

He's been around so long. He may have taken an official visit with Steve to Stanford. He also has eight touchdowns and no interceptions. Good player. With age comes touchdowns apparently. Who's the player you'll be watching this one does? Quarterback for Kansas, Jalen Daniels. I mean, this young man, he's battled injuries, but so far this season, he is on fire.

Seven touchdown passes, only one I and T. and you look at that number right there. 80% of his passes, he's completed. I spoke to his offensive coordinator, Jim Zabrowski. He said, Jaylon's having a lot of fun this year, Desmond. He's healthy. He's battled a knee of back. And this guy is the soul of our team.

We love what we see. But moving forward, big game on the road against Missouri, and they're an underdog, too. If they're going to pull off the upset, Jalen Daniels is going to have to be that guy. That's game tonight. Yeah, I'm looking at it. Louisville and JMU. Pete brought up the group of five. My pick is JMU. I believe in the Dukes.

When you look at what they bring to the table, great offensive matchup, but this game is going to be measured off against them all year this year. All right. College game day comes your way. Bright and early 9 a.m. Eastern right here from Norman, Oklahoma. We will see you next time.