College Football Live - CFB LIVE - ERIC MORRIS JOINS THE SHOW

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

Join our crew Zubin Mehenti, Roddy Jones, and Tom Luginbill on today's episode of College Football Live! Pete Thamel joins to give his news and notes from around the league. Oklahoma State Head Coach joins after his historic first win with the program. What's going on with the Oregon Ducks? What does Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry have to say ahead of Kiffin's return to Oxford? Who has the edge in this weeks ACC Top-25 matchup? All this and more on College Football Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Early morning on a Manhattan sidewalk, a shooting caught on surveillance video. It was an assassination style killing, and everybody saw it. A new podcast series from ABC Audio in 2020 goes inside this captivating case. I'm ABC News legal analyst Brian Buckmeyer. Listen to Burden of Proof, Luigi Mangione, wherever you get your podcasts. Out of the tunnel, straight ahead on college football live, with Kiffin in the Drivers Lane. Saturday in Oxford. Wait till you hear the tongue in cheek and dead serious preparations taking place. What in the world is wrong with the Oregon Ducks? Could the answer be the

presumptive number one overall pick in the NFL draft? One of our experts thinks, maybe. And speaking of the ducks, Oklahoma State's Eric Morris here to tell us how he celebrated. Their stunning win over Oregon in Stillwater. Wait till you hear this. And with that, we welcome you inside college football live. I'm Zubin Mahenty. Those three stories in a minute. It is week three. We've got three gigantic storylines to get to. Let's roll. We'll start Friday night in the Big 12, but the unexpectedly big clash

between Houston and Texas Tech. The subplot for this game, you might remember in the summer Brett Yormark and Cody Campbell, the big tech booster, arguing whether this game should be played in a Friday night to preserve Texas High School football. That's just one spicy headline. A couple of spicy quarterbacks ready to go on ESPN 2.

SMU and Louisville. Kevin Jennings you know about him. Lincoln Keenholz. He might just be finding out about him. We'll discuss why that guy is so special coming up in just a second. And of course, this special matchup, we've been waiting all off season for LSU Ole Miss, the return of Lane Kiffin to Oxford at night on ABC. And if there's clear skies, you'll be able to see the stars and perhaps some aircraft. Here's a little political football from Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry. Quote, I'm thinking about having to send him on an F-16 and maybe the team on a C-130.

Speaking to Kippen and the squad, security is going to be really tight. You know, we might need the National Guard out there to protect our team. I think it's going to be an interesting weekend. That juxtapose with some dead serious talk here. I mean, I guess there's real safety issues and stuff, so there's people that have a plan for that. But I told the players today, man, like, you don't have anything to worry about as far as, like, attention on you all week and everything. There's just going to be so much attention.

hatred, everything on me. I said, you just get to go play. To me, I mean, what this place has always been about, you know, and why so many people love coming here and respect this place is because of the people that are here and how they make them feel when they come here. And so let's not lose that over a game, over a person or anything else like that. There's nothing wrong with being competitive and being in the moment, right, and being really loud and being an unbelievable fan. But at the end of the day, don't lose what we've created and what they've created for so long, which is a really a unique place with really, really good people. That's really hard to play.

Let me double that. I have been to Oxford twice as Pete Thamel, Tom Luganville, and Roddy join us. But perhaps Coach Golding mysteriously did not see that video of Coach Kiffin and Marty Smith at the airport. That was not exactly the welcome of the goodbye and Southern hospitality. We're speaking of Pete. I want to start with you. Kevin kind of mentioned it at the top that there are some real precautions being taken place, even though this is a football game.

There are some things around it. I know you've been digging into it. can you tell us here? Yeah. Well, Zuban, let's start with the Oxford Police. There'll be an increased presence, I was told, by Oxford Police spokesman Breck Jones today. Usually they have six mounted police officers roaming the square. That number is going to be increased to 19, with additional mounted police coming in from both Mobile and New Orleans. As for LSU, which obviously is going to be in charge of protecting Lane Kiffin and the team coming into this hostile environment, there is going to be the normal police presence from the Louisiana

state police. Obviously, all these coaches from big state schools who travel Zubin, you see them with the troopers every week. I've been told, though, also, there's going to be a sheriff's deputies presence as well. So there will be an increased police presence with LSU for security and safety reasons. Zubin, I've also been told that Virgil Osbury, the athletic director at LSU, has spoken to old Mrs. Keith Carter. He feels good about the security plan. And the hope from the LSU side, Zubin, is that security's not an issue and the focus can be between the white lines. Let's hope that it is, and that's where I want to go here with Tom, and we should remember. Remember, Kiffin was just in Knoxville for one year, and you saw the reaction.

This was a guy that put his heart and soul into Oxford, so you can imagine they've got to take all these precautions. But Tom, to Pete's point, let's talk some ball here. You know, Saturday night I'm watching LSU, and I flip it on, and Sam Levitt has picked off a 100-yard pick six. They sleptwalk through the first half. He's been equal parts good, bad, is he works his way back from that injury. What are you seeing here from Levitt in this huge spot Saturday night in Ockon? with the country watching. Well, Zubin, everything you just mentioned, I call Streaky.

And Streaky eventually catches up with you, especially on the road when you're going to be in a hostile environment. You know, I look at Sam Levitt as a very exciting, dynamic player that at times tries to do too much, tries to fit the ball into tight windows. We know what he can do with his legs. But this is going to be about minimizing mistakes and preserving the football. You have got to play with great consistency because, that guy on the other side line plays with great consistency, and he takes care of the football.

This is an opportunity for Sam Levin and this LSU offense to take advantage of 40 starters, all transfer portal players in the defensive back end for Ole Miss, but he cannot go up there and be a yo-yo player. Up down, up down, up down. There has to be this across the board for the LSU offense. Yes, he does, Lug, but you mentioned that secondary for Ole Miss. they're going to have to shore up some things in the back end. Ole Miss gave up seven plays of 20 or more yards, including the three runs of 30 or more and a number of passes as well.

They gave up a ton of big plays against Louisville in game one. And this is an LSU offense that we know has a ton of weapons on the outside, and as dynamic as Lincoln Keenholz is with his arm and his legs, if that streakiness that Sam Levitt shows throwing the ball is on, his legs can be a major factor as well. He is quicker. He is faster.

And the weapons on the outside, I would say, are superior to the ones that Louisville had. So this Ole Miss defense has a lot of work to do if they're going to contain Sam Levitt. It is one of those great quirks you always see when a coach becomes going from a position coach to a head coach. That unit of the ball always tends to suffer. Golding is a defensive-minded guy for Sabin and Kiffin. And it's the defense for Ole Miss that's kind of letting them down just a little bit. It's always one of those oddities you do see. SEC all day Saturday.

Georgia and Arkansas, Florida State, and Alabama. We're going to talk a little bit more about the Seminoles in just a second. And of course, LSU and Ole Miss. Time now for our Capital One, rewarding performance. And you know, in week number one, the country got introduced to Lincoln Keitholt. In week two, he exploded against Villanova. And I think more people actually found out more about him in the loss in that game against Ole Miss than against an overmatch Villanova squad.

This guy is something else. There's a lot of people that say when he was at Ohio State, He was in a whisker between a whisker of getting the starting job over Julian saying, and now he's finally getting an opportunity. Tom, I want to start with you here. The sample size has been small, but the hype has been large. And in large part, Lincoln Keenholz has met the moment. He has.

He's answered the bell. And this was one of, I think, the most intriguing quarterback storylines in the all season because it went completely against the formula that Jeff Brom had had the previous three years. He took fifth year, six year guys, guys that had started. guys that had played, primarily pocket passers. Then he goes out and he gets Lincoln Keenholz, who is a dynamic athlete. And now what we've seen so far, and it is a small sample size, but we've seen poise, we've seen composure.

We've seen him handle the moment. And you're sitting there trying to worry about Isaac Brown and Kiwan Brown at the two running back position. Now you have to defend quarterback run, and he has preserved the football. And for a young and experienced player, that is priority number one. Luke, he's been fantastic. That's 76% completion percentage, I think, is a big surprise to a lot of people, just because we didn't know what to expect from Lincoln Keenholds,

but we did know what to expect from Kevin Jennings, the King of Dallas. They started the Heisman Trophy campaign before the season even started, and he has been electric, throwing for over 400 yards against Florida State and another 300 against UC Davis. But that was within the same week, like that one was on Monday and one was on Saturday. So 700 yards in one week, I think it's probably a season high for anybody, but he's got tremendous weapons as well. Randy Pittman, it tied in, Yonick Smith,

the receiver, Jalen Hale, Yamir Knight. They are loaded at the receiver position. And Kevin Jennings is healthy. He wasn't healthy last year, and his legs looked much better against Florida State and UC Davis than they did a year ago. So I am excited to see Kevin Jennings on the stage against an excellent Louisville front.

There is no doubt about it. One of these guys is proven, and another one of these guys is hoping to prove all the hype around him is legit. You will see that Saturday in a big clash in the ACC. to the ACC want to bring Pete back inside college football live. All right, Pete, your bottom line here is you have some interesting news on what many believe

is one of the flagship programs here in the ACC, making a move at the top of the athletic ladder. Tell us more about this. Yeah, Zuban, Florida State fired athletic director Michael Alford this week, a generally unsurprising move that really doesn't affect the status of Mike Norville. Mike Norville was always on the hot seat. What this really does is it shows that Florida State is going to completely new direction for whatever its next iteration is. Look, Michael Norvel can still win and save his job. He'd be owed nearly $50 million if he's

fired, 50-50-0. So obviously Florida State would prefer if he wins. If not, there'll be a new person in charge to pick his successor this year. Up the ACC Road at Clemson will have the first career start for Clemson true freshman quarterback Tate Reynolds. He had been rotating with Christopher Vizina. Christopher Vizina has an injury in his left non-throwing elbow. Davos-weeney did say today Vizina would be available. I would not expect him to play this week. He's going to be out for the foreseeable future with that injury. And finally, just within the last three minutes, Zubin, we have some breaking news from Vanderbilt. Five-star quarterback Jared Curtis is going to start this week against

NC State. Remember, he famously flipped from Georgia's the highest ranked recruit in school history. He'd been splitting time with Blaise Berlowitz. He came off the bench and had a huge second half against Delaware. Remember, Vanderbilt was down at half-time Zubin against Delaware. So we will have the first career start for the most Ballyhooed recruit in Vanderbill history. Played his high school ball in Nashville. And we should know just because they flipped them from Georgia and people thought who he can play for Georgia, he should be able to play right away for Vandy. That's not exactly how it works. But sooner rather than later, the job is his. Pete, thanks for that late breaking update. When college football live continues, after that big win against

Oregon, Oklahoma State Coach Eric Morris got two amazing text messages. Wait till you, you see who popped up in his phone. Coach will have the answer when he joins me next. Stakes continue. It's just remarkable what we've witnessed here today. Messemaker, the boys, he turned the tables against what was supposed to be one of the best defenses in college football. This is the best moment of my life. I don't know, Drew, Melchiper Jr. says the best day your life's probably coming next April. Oklahoma State, the first program to snap a 10-game losing streak with a win over a 10-year-old. top 10 team in history.

It truly was an unprecedented moment in Stillwater. AT&T is keeping us connected as we bring in Oklahoma State head coach. Eric Morris, the college football live. Coach, let's get right to it. So you lose that first game to Tulsa. Then you're going to welcome in an Oregon program that knocked off your program by 66 points

seven days later. Just take me inside the vibe of the facility and the program in those seven days. Ooh, it's been the tell of two tapes in these first two weeks. And so obviously, you know, at our best, we can beat anybody in the nation and at our worst, we can lose to anybody. And so I think that's great for me, you know, building a program and a culture right now. And then obviously we've got a ton of distractions that are going to surround us moving forward. And so we're going to take the preparation that we

prepared with last week, the intensity, the physicality that we came out and performed. We played extremely fast on all three sides of the football. And really, we dominated that game. a lot worse than what the score showed. But the same time, we've got to capitalize on a couple of different opportunities. Before I want to talk a little bit about Drew, I want to talk a little bit about you. So take the team hat off for a second, okay? There's a lot of people that said, look,

you're coming off an embarrassing loss. You have a multi-million dollar quarterback that doesn't look the part, and you're trying to engineer a flip change that college football has never seen before in its history. What does this win? Just this one win mean for your process? Yeah, I think it's everything. And, too, just I think college football is all about momentum.

I think not only did I need momentum, our players needed momentum, but I think this institution, right? I mean, they were so good for so long with Coach Gundy here. The last two years, you know, have not been great. And so I think we needed a marquee, you know, win for an excitement around, you know, our program, our institution, athletic department for our former players, our alumni for recruiting. could just kind of go on and on, but hopefully this is the match that sparks at all. Yeah, so if you're of a certain age, you know about Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders'

feet, you know about Hartley-Dike's arms. But for this generation... I got text messages from both of those guys, so that was a cool moment from Thurman and Barry, so that was fired. I was showing my sons. What did they say? I mean, those are all-time legends. Just congratulating us, and they were

tuned in to every moment of it. Couldn't be more proud for me and the team, so that was surreal. Okay, so Barry is Oklahoma state's only Heisman trophy winner, I want to talk about the next guy that may be in consideration. I'm going to say two words and you give me your reaction. You ready? Mestemaker flip. God, I mean, you know, I was asked about, you know, if I was concerned when he went airborne, I said, absolutely not. He's such a competitor. He's going to make that play a hundred out of

a hundred times, at least the attempt of it. Now, there's other situations we want him to get down and protect himself, but to beat, you know, a top ten. team in our first game at home to set the tone. I mean, that's a player that a bunch of other guys want to play with. What does this win do for recruiting? Everything is about money, recruiting, getting guys, getting in front of people. What does a win like this do? Yeah, it was awesome.

You know, our recruiting department did a phenomenal job of getting a ton of talent here. So, you know, we had some of the top 27 and 28 talent. Just being here for one year, you know, we're a little bit behind. Recruiting's a year early now. and so really focus us in on some of the top tier 28 talent in the nation. A bunch of those guys were here from Texas, from Oklahoma, from the surrounding areas. And to see that atmosphere, I mean, boom Pickens was on fire on Saturday. And to watch the field rush and then be a part of it, like just a surreal moment.

Hey, last thing for you, I know Mestermakers 20, so he can't drink yet. But I heard you had a very interesting celebration, even an hour after the game. Tell me what the post game was like for you. It was exhausting. You know, I was so tired just getting up so early and we're a morning team, but then the delay, you know, and sitting around, the anxiety and waiting for it and then be able to go and be mentally locked in for those, you know, four hours and finally get the win. The crowd rushes the field. Obviously, the post game, I had 50 plus people here, family and friends to watch the game there on my office. So far by the time I got home to actually shower and relax and sit down and watch some college football.

It was a great, great day for me and my family and obviously well documented. I had a banquet beer. I'm a big banquet beer fan. But yeah, so I thought I deserved that one. No doubt. And I'll tell you, I'll give you a free piece of advice. This week and after any win, you go to Eskimo Joe's. That baby's going to be on the house every Saturday.

Congratulations. What a win. And it's a win. Fans of Oklahoma State will talk about for generations to come. Coach Morris, thanks very much. I appreciate you. Now, of course, there's always two sides to every story. And to be honest with you, as great as that win was,

it seemed like on Sunday morning, the bigger story among college football fans was what in the world is wrong with Oregon. These rankings kind of indicate it's been a slow start. But let me just give a quick caveat that maybe just maybe Boise State is a lot better than people think they are. We'll wait to see what happens the rest of the way. Tom, I want to start with you here because this is interesting. You at times have said Dante Moore could look at.

the number one overall pick in the draft, but there are times where he and some of his mechanics can cost him, and you saw some of that on display last Saturday. Yeah, listen, with Oregon, obviously there's a lot of things to correct and dissect with the outcome of that game, but right now, Dante Moore has a tell

in this offense, and they've got to correct it right away. This is a shotgun-based offense, and when you see Dante Moore in the shotgun, and his feet are parallel, they're parallel and in line with each other. Oregon is running the football. Look at his feet in the shotgun.

Parallel running the football. Now, when his feet are staggered with his left foot up in his right foot slightly back, Oregon's throwing the football. And it's something that shows up on tape and you've got to correct it. They've got to come up with an even base. However they want to do it, you pick one or the other, but you can't have this tell run to pass for defensive coaches to study as they prepare to play you. No, you can't, Luke. It makes it a lot. It makes it a a lot easier for the defense, obviously. It makes it a lot harder for the offensive line, which came into the year fairly

inexperienced and has really underperformed so far this year. Dante Moore has not been great, but they also haven't been able to run the football, maybe because everyone knows they're going to do it. But they're only averaging 3.8 yards per carry this year running the ball. So there's no ability to take pressure off of Dante Moore. And that defensive line with Mateo Ouyangelo and Tatum Tui Oet and Bear Alexander and Amari Washington was supposed to be the best in college football. two games, they've looked disinterested.

They have not dominated games. And it's led to a defense that's giving up over four yards of carry on the ground as opposed to a year ago where they averaged under three yards of carry allowed. So almost a full yard per carry more allowed by this defense. And a lot of that starts with the defensive front that has not been overly disruptive, either in the run or the past game. A couple weeks from now, they've got USC and everybody was wondering if these two teams would meet as undefeated teams.

I don't think anybody was worried about Oregon. They were worried about SC, and now the script has been flipped. Guys, thank you. A reminder, students scan the QR coder visit Dr.pepper.com slash tuition by September 30th to enter for a chance to compete for $100,000 in the Dr. Pepper tuition giveaway during conference championship weekend. On the way, Florida is about to play Auburn, why John Somerall is more worried about the cost of his house than that football team on the planes.

Wait till you hear this back and forth between these two American coaches that are now meeting in the SEC. Games you've going to have to circle. When Kippin returns to Oxford, in the 40 years of college game day, there may not be an easier choice than this one, live from Oxford on Saturday. Elsewhere in the SEC,

you know, Florida and Auburn are just not in the national conversation right now, which we're going to dig into in a second. Fun storyline, both coaches, both in the American. John Summoral, family members' in-laws went to Auburn. Doesn't care. Florida pays my mortgage, you know, So any family that is pulling against us, they ain't my family. I mean, I don't care what their last name is.

You mentioned competing against him at Tulane, but he also said he's just gotten to know you well as a coach and a friend over the years from competing against each other. What's your relationship like with John Sumerall? He said we were friends. I think Alex Golish is dogging John Summerall there with those comments. Lois and Tom Lugan Bill are here. You can't see Lois, but you can hear.

All right, Tom. Roddy, we'll start with you while Tom can get the situation corrected down there in the Carolinas. What's going on with Byron Brown? I was supposed to see all this stuff. I'm not seeing all this stuff. It looks like he struggled to adjust to the speed of the game since he's moved up to the power four. I mean, Baylor picked him off three times. And he's been sacked a lot too, and that's the other thing.

He's been sacked six times in two games. So the offensive line has to help him. But Byron Brown also has to process this a little faster. He's familiar with the offense. but it feels like the speed of the game's gotten to him a little bit. All right. So for Roddy, Tom, Lois, the dog, Pete Thammel, I'm Zubin Mahenty. It takes a whole production to put this on.

This is No Dog and Pony Show. We're back with more college football live tomorrow.