College Football Live - CFB Live - CFP First Round Preview

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

Join our crew Zubin Mehenti, Sam Acho and Roddy Jones for College Football Live. Listen in as the guys look ahead and give us their favorite playoff storylines. We'll hear from a few coaches as they prepare their teams for this weekends matchup. With Notre Dame not making the playoffs, find out which one of their star players is now looking ahead to the NFL Draft. All that and more on CFB Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The best gift, you don't even have to unwrap it. We want to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! NBA Christmas Day begins at noon Eastern on ABC and ESPN. Out of the tunnel here on college football live after the committee showed no love to Notre Dame, Jeremiah opts for the draft. How high might he go? We know both Miami and Texas A&M, road grade quarterback, played to the postseason. But our experts say it'll be defense that'll decide the game Saturday afternoon. And two days from taking the field the very latest on all of Alabama's concerning injuries as they get set for Oklahoma.

That more on college football live. And with that we welcome you inside college football live. Roddy, Sam Zubin, here with you. So before any dreams are crushed, and the bracket is still perfect, and everybody's still championship dreaming. It's the perfect opportunity to start the show by talking about our playoff storylines,

our favorite ones because everything is still possible. Roddy, let's start with you. What you got? Zubin, what if I told you that the losing its program in the history of college football would be the number one seed in the upcoming college football playoff? What if I told you that a lightly recruited quarterback would transfer in from Cal and become the Heisman trophy winner?

What if I told you that Kurt Signetti would be the coach of the year? Two years in a row, it's Indiana because their story is a movie. What if I told you that sounds like a 30 for 30. That is the tagline. I'm going with Texas Tech. If the Big Ten of the SEC are going to control college football moving forward, how sweet and ironic would it be if they've got to deal with a champion from the Big 12 moving forward as they figure out how this sport is going to move forward?

I'm going with the Red Raiders winning it all. What if I told you that the real underdog story, the true sweet story in this college football season, It would be a team like Tulane or a team like James Madison, number 11, number 12, group of five. One of those teams finding a way to upset the competition, maybe to beat Oregon, maybe to beat Ole Miss, and to make their way through the college football playoff. Now, that will be a 30 for 30. Yes. Now, what if I told you the easy answer, but none of us take the easy way out, of course, would be

Ole Miss without Lane Kiffin rolling all the way through. It's a regular season rematch versus Tulane. Tulane head coach John Summerall is off to be Florida's head coach. but even before he became Tulane's head coach, the day of his introductory presser two years ago, Sumroll called his shot. Our vision is to win conference championships. Winners win, and I'm a winner, and we're going to win.

We're going to win conference championships. We're going to win bowl games. I'm telling you right now, I'm speaking into existence. We're going to make the college football playoff, and we're going to win it. How about that? If you take a look at the tail of the table, the tape between the two.

Somerl's been a head coach for four years. Each and every year, he's been a head coach. His team has made the conference championship game. Meanwhile, the guy he's about to face has never been in this spot ever before. Here he is on how he's handling it all. So we're two weeks in. We used last week, like a mock by week with the focus on Tulane and then came back, brought him back Sunday and a walk through Monday and then had full patch yesterday,

go shells the day. We're practicing when the game time would be. So normally we're earlier a.m. We've kind of moved the back a little bit. And then we'll have a walk through tomorrow and fast Friday and get ready to go. So kids have been locked in, focus. Preparation has been pretty good up to this point. You can just tell by the mannerisms, how he's sitting up, how he's super serious. He knows what a big moment this is for him. Let's talk about this game in general, specifically from Ole Miss's point of view.

What in the world can we really expect here with so much in flux? Yeah, there's a lot of question marks, but some of it's. still remains the same. Trinidad Chambliss is leading this offense to a top three passing offense, but they also are extremely great at running the football. My questions are going to be what happens on fourth down? Pete Golding is a defensive coordinator, but he's

also now the acting head coach. What happens when he's dialed in on third down, calling a defense, and then on fourth down there's a situation? Maybe there's a struggle on offense. Who's going to get the guys in check? I understand that you have elite players on the outside and at running back and at quarterback. But my question

is when it comes to the critical decisions, maybe it's fourth down. Maybe it's a third down on offense. Who will make those decisions and will Golding be able to handle that kind of pressure? It's a great question, Sam. And honestly, we won't know the answer until he's in those situations. The thing that I'm looking at for Ole Miss in this situation is how that offense responds. Charlie Weiss, the play caller offensive coordinator, is back from his weak dalliance in Baton Rouge. He was allowed to come back and coach this team in the college football playoff. And it feels like there's a lot of pent up energy. It feels like this is a team that desperately wants to get out there on the field.

And they had a lot of success against Tulane the first time. I certainly think Tulane will have a different plan, maybe not quite as much man coverage, maybe have a different way to defend Trinidad Chambliss who rushed for over 100 yards in that first meeting. But this offense is what's carried this team all year long. And the play of Trinidad Chambliss has been fantastic. It's been a while since we've seen them since that Egg Bowl. And I bet there is a lot of pent-up energy in that offense that we may see unleashed on Tulane. Roddy, I want to follow up with you here. Jake

Rett's laugh was 5 for 17 passing for 56 yards in the first game. I know as Sam is referenced, some rolls kind of one foot in, one foot out trying to figure out what to do here. What in the world can they do to get him going knowing there is no

way they can win this game unless he has the game of his life? They're going to have to find a way to get him in the of the game. And a lot of times what Tulane does is get Jake Retzloff going in the run game. He was not very effective running the football the first time that they played. And there were a couple missed reads early on. I think he was a little amped up to be in that environment. And he missed a couple of reads early on that put him behind the chains. He's going to have to throw the ball better. Did not throw the ball well. You said the numbers. But missing receivers was something

that was pretty common throughout that. But ultimately, getting him in the flow of the game and finding a way to create big plays with Shaz Preston is going to be big for this. two lane offense. They've run the ball well at times. I don't know that they will do that particularly well in this game without Jake Retzloff's legs being a big part of that run game. All right, fair enough. So offense is going to be the key to that game when college football live continues, as we mentioned at the top for the first game Saturday, it's all about the defense between Miami and Texas A&M. And with Alabama's injury situation, as dire as it is, we've got our Holly Rowe at practice ready to go to tell us the very latest on all

the tide guys in out status to be determined in a knockout game Friday in Norman we're back after this hi there surprise 30 for 30 presents boo ya can't get a witness from the congregation you can't stop authenticity oh yeah Stuart was exactly like you saw him on camera off camera he dialed it up 10% Can you imagine the impact of young black boys and girls looking at that going, I feel seen. He changed the culture. He changed sports. Stream Booja, presented by Medello, right now on the ESPN app. Talk about stepping up.

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Level up for more on the ESPN app or at stream.esPN.com. Sign up now. There's a lomium in here. Unbelievable. This is what makes this sport so amazing. The college football playoff first round. begins Friday and continue Saturday.

Saturday early is when Miami will be on the field in college station. How the Keynes got here. What a season for them. They do know how to mind the transfer portal of quarterback, right? Cam Ward out, Carson Beck in. They gave him some wide outs. He made it happen. Miami got out to a really quick start. They actually got to number two in the poll for the first time since 2017. And they've been. knocked off some big time opponents, including Notre Dame in the opener, and then they went to Florida State, took care of company as well.

But here's the thing. They decided to have their worst losing streak of the season, that two games which put them on the brink right before the committee rankings came out, those back-to-back losses to Louisville and SMU. Bottom line, the Aggies are not afraid of Miami's Rubin-Bain Jr., the great pass rusher, duly noted on both sides. I haven't had a time to watch any film yet since it just got announced, but, you know, I don't think he'll be a threat that we need to worry about too much.

You know, we have great players. We've got a great offensive line, so we'll be able to handle him. You saw what the A&M players said about you? Mm-hmm. Okay. And is that something where you just, it's noted in your mind, and then we'll see what happens on Saturday? Yeah. I mean, God bless them.

That's all. All right. We'll see who laughs last there. All right, guys, let's get into it. You think the D-line on each side is really going to play the key role. The question is, who will be more impactful and forceful? Well, let's start with the guy who was just sending out a blessing to his opponent. I love it.

Ruben Bain, Jr. is 6-3-275, going to be a top pick in the NFL draft, and he is a menace. So my question is, who will have more of an impact on this game when it comes to defensive linemen? Will it be the monster on the outside, Ruben Bain, or maybe his counterpart on the other side on the same team, Akian Mesedor? or will it be A&M in their defensive front, led by Cassius Howell, who has 11 and a half sacks. So that's what my eyes are going to be on. We talk a lot about quarterbacks. I care more about who are the guys that are going to be affecting the quarterbacks. Great pass rushers on both teams.

No doubt, Sam. And the pass rushers on A&M are going to have the crowd on their side when they're out there getting after this Miami defensive line. Ruben Bain Jr. is fantastic. And I do wonder if Trey Zun got a little talking to by his coaching staff after those comments, just saying, hey, look, man, I know what you're trying to say. You're trying to say that you're confident and that you can handle anybody. But let's not say anything to poke the bear with that Miami defensive line. The question, though, that I have is about A&M's defense.

When you look at A&M defensively, they are kind of an anomaly. They're the second worst defense in this college football playoff in terms of points allowed, game at 41st. And when you look at who they've played, they've only played three top 30 offenses in terms of total offense this year. Two of them, Arkansas and Notre Dame, put up 40 points on this A&M defense. The other one that they played was Mizzou, who played A&M without his starting quarterback as Bo Pribula was hurt. They played with the two freshmen. So this will be the biggest test that this A&M defense has faced at home all year long. That Notre Dame game, that Arkansas game, those were on the road. And so how will they respect?

bond against a really good Miami offense at home with that crowd at their back. Roddy, I want to follow up with you because this is something that you mentioned on the show yesterday. And that's something we haven't mentioned, considering the venue here, one of the biggest in all of America. You did say yesterday the crowd could play a huge role. We know what the 12th man has meant over the years, tight game, three point spread. How do you think that home field could manifest itself? Well, it makes it really tough to check on third downs. with the different looks that A&M will give you pre-snap. And so Carson Beck's going to have a tough time adjusting pass protection

and even changing routes on the outside. The other way that it can manifest itself is Miami through the first about half of the season was really bad on the offensive line with pre-snap penalties. A ton of false starts. They've mostly cured that since the SMU game. But if that starts to rear its ugly head as crowd noise often makes offensive lines a little bit itchy in terms of getting off the ball, then that can certainly hurt Miami because those crushed drives.

Yeah, I played at Kyle Field twice during my four-year collegiate career, and that's the loudest place I've ever played. The reason that matters is this. You talk about the environment, the atmosphere, the pass rush. So all of a sudden, if you do have a false start on the offensive line, all of a sudden you're not third and seven, you're third and 12. It makes it easier for the defensive ends to know that it's obviously going to be a pass. And oh, by the way, the crowd noise hurts offensive linemen when it comes to getting off the ball quickly.

Defensive linemen, they're looking at the rock, so they're going quickly with their speed. Offensive lineman, they can't hear the snap count, but have to go on a silent count. So advantage, I would say, goes to A&M when it comes to their defense on the field and Miami's offense on the field. All right, so that will be the first game on Saturday. As for the last game, the caper on Saturday night, way out west between James Madison and Oregon. Let's take a look at this real quick because the tail of the tape highly favors Oregon. But I want to mention one thing about JMU. And that is, whether it's been FCS or FBS, Every full-time permanent James Madison coach in program history has had a winning record.

And there is just something to knowing how to win at any level of football. Roddy, let's start with you. It's a 21-point spread, but that doesn't mean intriguing things can't abound in this game. What really interests you most watching the Dukes and the Ducks Saturday nights? I want to see if James Madison's rush defense is legit. I mean, this is a team that's only played one power four team all year long, and it was Louisville in a game that was a game in the fourth quarter, but ultimately they lost by 14 points. James Madison is allowing 76.2 rush yards per game. When you look at rush yards or yards per rush, they're third in the country.

So this is a rush defense that's been phenomenal all year long. Now, that was against mostly Sunbelt competition. Oregon is a different beast. And that Oregon offense, as good as Dante Moore is, is really. predicated on being able to run the football. So if they're able to stop the run and put the pressure on Dante Moore, I'm not saying it's a recipe for upset. I

don't actually think that, but I do think it can make things uncomfortable for Oregon. And I do want to see Oregon's passing game. We talk about making them one dimensional, but man, who's going to try to stop Kenyon Sadiq, the tight end who can do it all for Oregon? So I understand James Madison, one of the best defenses when it comes to rushing the quarterback, but sometimes

Oregon has some of those difference makers that may not be able to give James Madison a chance to have the matchup advantage. All right. On the way, speaking of matchup advantages, Alabama's banged up the way they are. It could be advantage. Oh, you, the very latest from Alabama's practice, and how Kurt Zignetti did something yesterday that no coach in America has ever done before. We'll tell you what that is next. stage, big-time opponents.

What makes college football so good. This is going to be a great game today. Come on! Miami, Texas, A&M is where they'll be Saturday, but shockingly, of course, left out of the field in favor of Miami was Notre Dame. And that's where we're going to go for our top stories. Jeremiah Love,

Roddy, is going to be bolting Notre Dame for the NFL. I want to set this up real quick or get your thoughts on it. What you're seeing here is his 95-yard run. against Indiana last year in the first ever college football playoff game, played at a campus site, and they rode that run all the way to the national title game. Now he'll be running on Sundays instead of Saturdays. Roddy, what do you make of this move as Jeremiah Love is headed to the NFL?

Yeah, it was sort of a slam dunk that this was likely going to happen. He's one of the best backs. He is the best back in the country, and he's one of the best back prospects that we've seen in a while. I think this guy could go as high as top five. Now, some of that will depend on who's picking their position of value. But based on big boards that NFL teams will have, I think most of them will have them in their top five big boards. Now, because he plays running back,

and they push him down top 10, top 15. I don't think there's any way he's getting out of the top 15. He is a very exciting prospect. I think you can see a little Jemir Gibbs, a little Saquan Barkley in his game. I think he's going to be a fantastic pro. Combination of those two would be something for anybody that gets him. This is ironic, but totally true.

I did Google this today. Kurt Signetti is the first coach to ever win the Associated Press coach of the year in back-to-back years. Sam, what do we make of this magic carpet ride? Roddy's favorite playoff storyline manifesting in front of our eyes, it's almost too good to be true. It's not because Kurtzetti actually called it out. Before he said Google me, maybe when he was telling people to Google him, he had a speech at the basketball game at Indiana. in Bloomington, and he was talking about how Purdue sucks, and he said, man, Ohio State and Michigan sucked too, and people laughed.

I have a good friend who lives in Bloomington. He's in the athletic department, and he said, man, people didn't believe him. They all laughed at him in Bloomington. And now, fast forward, had a dominant ear last year, made it to the playoff, and even got better this year. So this is no fluke. One thing that Kurtzetti said, he said he wins. Google him.

We've Googled him, and he's winning. Right now, it's clear. They have the best team, the best coach, and the best player. We'll see if that stands, but right now, that is the deal. As you take a look at the bracket, let's hone in on Alabama and Oklahoma. That'll be the playoff opener Friday night, as you saw the game day guys will be there. If you take a look at the injury report, both teams banged up, but Alabama seemingly has had some injury concerns at some key positions in the backfield

and on the defensive line for quite some time. They've got two days to get it all. figured out. There's plenty of ways we could go here, Sam. But as you take a look at some of these bowl-faced names, particularly for Alabama, what concerns you the most as Kaelin DeBore gets for his first college football playoff game with the tie? Well, I'm most excited if I'm an Alabama fan. The bottom two, Josh Quavis and Jan Miller are questionable. They're not out. That's huge because there have been backups in the game. Daniel Hill and Caleb Edwards, Daniel Hill, a backup running back a sophomore. Caleb Edwards, a true freshman that have struggled when it comes to past

protection. Zuban, we had a conversation earlier said, man, what's happened to Ty Simpson over the last couple weeks? Well, sometimes it's the guys around him that aren't fully doing the job when it comes to the youth and protecting the quarterback. And so it's not just offensive linemen that need to pass pro. It's tight ends and running backs as well. So if you get Jim Miller

back, that's a huge addition. If you get Josh Quavis back, another huge addition and could make quarterback Ty Simpson's job and life a lot easier. Sam, I'm proud of you, a linebacker giving some love to the that running backs and tight ends do

and pass pro. The guy that I am really interested to see enter the fold is R Mason Thomas. Remember, he had this scoop and score against Tennessee where he injured himself, scoring a touchdown. He was not there for that stretch run for Oklahoma where they got hot.

He's the best player on this Oklahoma defense, and this Oklahoma defense has been the reason they've been winning games. This is the play that he got hurt on, but since that play, Taylor Wine has been fantastic. You go back and look at that Alabama game the first time, and they were able to sack Ty Simpson four times

and get pressure on them, numerous others. You're adding the best player on that defense back to the fold? If I'm Alabama, I'm a little concerned about wine on one side and Thomas on the other. I want to talk a little bit about the coaches in this matchup here. Roddy, I want to specifically go to you. Obviously, we'll get Sam's thoughts here in just one moment. And that is this with Kalin DeBore.

They said in a 12-team playoff, it would be virtually impossible for a school like Alabama to miss. the college football playoff. Nick Saban, of course, made it year after year after year when the playoff field was one-third the size. But here comes to Boer, missed it last year, had to sweat bullets to make it this year.

How much pressure is on him just to at least win this game and say, I've got a notch, we're on the right track in the toughest situation any coach could possibly step into. I think it's huge, Zubin. Alabama is not going to give any coach a participation trophy for making the college football playoff. When you look at what Kailen DeBore has done in his first two years,

I think it would be qualified as unsatisfactory, particularly when the guy who the field is named after that you're playing on is still around. Nick Saban is still a big part of our college football minds. So I think Kailen-Dabor really needs this to have people just take it easy a little bit because these Alabama teams haven't quite been what they became accustomed to under the greatest coach that we've ever seen in Nick Saban. But it's a very different story

for the head coach on the other side in Brent Venables. The last four years, Oklahoma has struggled under Brett Venables. Last year, you could argue it was the receiver,

the injuries at receiver. Maybe it was a quarterback play. I thought that Oklahoma was going to be a six and six team this year based off their schedule, which was the toughest, if not one of the toughest in the entire country,

let alone the SEC. And all of a sudden, you have a team in Oklahoma that's 10 and 2 that had a quarterback injury, overcame that, and that was hosting a home college

football playoff game. And so Brett Venables, who's a coach who lives every play and down like it's fourth and one, it seems as if it's all paying off when it comes to the recruiting and the success of the sooner program. It is so fascinating when you look at both of these coaches, considering right now Kaelin DeBore is more playoff wins at Washington than he does at Alabama. Let that settle for a second. And Brent Venables has as many 10 win seasons at Oklahoma as he does six win seasons. Doesn't matter. You win this game Friday. You move on. Your title dream stay alive. And Oklahoma hasn't won the title in 25 years. For Sam and Roddy, I'm Zubin Mahenti. We'll see you tomorrow for more. College Football.