College Football Live - CFB LIVE - THREE FOR THREE

Episode Date: September 9, 2026

Join our crew Zubin Mehenti, Joe Fortenbaugh, Sam Acho, and Dusty Dvoracek on another episode of College Football Live! Three SEC vs Big Ten matchups this weekend...listen to see what the guys are looking for from each team! Pete Thamel joins to give his news and notes from around the country. Get the guys 3 for 3 predictions ahead of Week 2! 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 here on college football live, four days after taking down Clemson, why the SEC and LSU are tamping down to their ascension. But the next two days are going to prove to be critical.

Speaking of critical, what's the one thing Michigan has to do to take out Oklahoma Saturday night at the Big House? Kyle Winningham and our experts agree. Plus, Michigan and the Big Ten have won the last three national titles. But our Dusty DeVorechak said this weekend, the SEC is going three for three against the big. All of that coming. But if two teams are meeting for the third straight year and double, Both are in the top 10 each of the last three years. I think we've got to start with Ohio State and Texas.

Buckeyes, number one in the country. Although when they met a year ago, it was this guy who led the number one team into the shoes. I'm excited for all of us hosting the number one team in the country at home. Excited for our fans, excited for our program. I feel like I have a year better. Anytime you can go throughout a season, get reps, get game, experience. experience in a game last week. I feel like I'm a year better. You watched last year as Arch played, he got better and better and better. I thought he was playing some really good football at the end of the season. He can beat you with his legs. He can beat you downfield. He can make the throws when he needs to. So, you know, he's going to have a great season and he's going to be a great challenge for our defense. We'll see how great on Saturday. Let's take a look at today's dependable player brought to you by Mavis Tyre. And when it comes to throw in for 300, passing for four in an opener in the last.

last three decades. These four have done it on the 40 acres, bookended by one of the all-time fan favorites, Major Applewhite, and a guy that's turning into an all-time fan favorite. Arch Manning, two of my favorite guys are here. Welcome inside college football live. Dusty and Sam, it's great to have you both. You know, a couple of weeks ago, Dusty had scolded me when I said that defense wins championships, ironic, considering what you did in your career. But you really believe in this particular game, it's the Texas offense that we've got to watch against the Ohio State defense. It is, but I've talked a lot about this Buckeyes defense.

They were as good as we've seen in 30 years a season ago. But eight new starvers on this side. We had a glimpse of them against Ball State, and boy, they passed the test. They were extremely dominant in that regard. But now enter Archmanning. You just heard him with the confidence and now the experience that he's been there. And what are these new faces going to do against Archmanning? and this passing attack.

I look at Devin Sanchez, a five-star quarterback. It'll be just his third start. How about the Nicola Jay Timmins, who started as a freshman? It'll be his first ever road start. This secondary against Archmanning, Ryan Wingo, and Cam Coleman.

And what I love from Arch Manning in the opener, the ability to push the ball down the field. He was five or six on throws of 15 and more yards. Interestingly enough, all to Wingo and Coleman. And then on third and fourth down, when you got to make plays, Arch Manning was 9 of 10. You can see the improvement in that opener.

And I think a real X factor in this one, Zubin, Arch Manning with his legs. He didn't run much against Texas State. I expect that's a big factor in this matchup against the Buckeyes defense. It's a great point. It's the one dimension that he has over all the other manning grades, the ability to use those legs. Sam, to you, you know, we are sitting here waxing poetic about the Texas offense, but if there's one offense of the country that actually might be better,

it's the Ohio State offense, but they got their hands full with the Texas defense. Now, without a doubt, I'm looking at the Texas defensively, and they're looking like the Texas defenses of old, where they're forcing turnovers, they're getting after the quarterback. We've seen the Will Must Champ Infusion show up early in this season last week versus Texas State. The takeaways, the scoring on defense, the competitive excellence, that's what stood out. But what also stood out was how Ohio State struggled on the offensive line versus ball state. So talk about strength on strength, or really strength for Texas with Colin Simmons, who led the SEC in SACs, versus maybe a weakness for Ohio State on offense with the offensive line. Could be a long day for Ohio State offensively.

Yeah, it could be a long few weeks because after this week and maybe next week, we're not going to get too many more Big Ten SEC showdowns until we perhaps get to the playoff. We just discussed one. Another one is on the way this Saturday as well when Oklahoma takes on Michigan at the big house. And you know all the attention is going to be on Michigan after what happened. But let's remind people what Oklahoma did rolling in their opener. But again, after everything that happened with D. This Hail Mary being put back on the clock and escaping with the win.

Kyle Whittingham knows it has not been perfect by any stretch. We need to be more violent overall. The running backs starts there, but more finishing blocks. We've got to finish block better. And we will be ramping up the intensity in certain drills in practice. You know, we're not amping up more physicality this week. We practice in a physical way. There is no path to winning without being the most physical.

team. And that's the challenge for both squads who can be at their best when the pressure in the chaos is at its highest. Speaking of chaos, I just want to mention this. It's not going to have any impact on Saturday's game, but there's been a lot coming about the messy departure that Kyle Whittingham had for Utah, and that's something that's infiltrating this week's game talks. So we'll see if he can keep everything straight. Dusty to you, Michigan's longest run on Saturday against a MAC team was 15 yards. They really thought they fixed their running game in the offseason I hear.

What's going on here? Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up, Zub, because there's been so much focus on Bryce Underwood. Has he regressed? He did not play well at the quarterback position. But the one thing we thought about this Michigan team would be their ability to win the line of scrimmage and run the football. And that didn't happen.

You heard Kyle Wooding him say it there. They've got to do a better job, sustaining blocks, and then being able to make guys miss. Jordan Marshall and Sabian Hyder, who is this Bally Hood recruit, they combined for 59 yards on the ground against Western Michigan. I can assure you, Zubin, this will be one of the best defenses in college football that comes to Ann Arbor on Saturday. A lot's going to be talked about Bryce Underwood,

but the key to this game for Michigan is blocking that Oklahoma front that has got NFL talent all over the place. They dismantled Utep in that game. They pitched the shutout, 10 tackles for loss, and four sacks. There was some mistackling that Coach Minnables was not happy about, but this is a big task for Michigan. And it's not about Underwood for me. It's about getting those running backs going if Michigan's going to pull the upset, Ocho.

But even if Michigan does get the running game going, and they do block up front and all the running backs are making plays, the quarterback's last to be able to not throw the ball to the other team. Bryce Underwood was staring down receivers last week, and there were a couple dropped interceptions. There were a couple poor place passes. And so even if you do get the running game going, it was poor passing. There were special teams gaffs, a muffed punt.

All in all, the offense and special teams did not look good. Defense looked okay. And let's give Western Michigan respect to Matt Champion. A lot of phenomenal players got a chance to call their game last year. But Bryce Underwood has to be significantly better even with a running game. And it starts with not staring down your receivers than everyone else around him, making the plays that are available to them. I don't know if anybody saw this.

So let me just give you one takeaway stat from this game. The longest run in the game for Michigan was negated because there was a holding penalty called on Bryce Underwood. When is the last time you saw a quarterback get a holding penalty? It's all sorts of problems for Michigan. In another way, there's been all sorts of problems for LSU. You might have heard about this. But Saturday night, things seemed to boil and then simmer a little bit

when that man came off the bus and said, we are not going to roster, De Kwan, right? And Zavian Harris. They did fill out of their roster with a couple other guys to get to 105. Here was Kippin at the half to his haters after rolling against Clemson. We'll go on, we'll make adjustments. We've got to play better in the second half. We can't give away something like the first turnover, man.

This ball should be, whatever, 38, nothing. Thank you, God. Yep. Good map. Everything to say, not say, imagine if we had pro players. Did you catch the end of that? Imagine how good we would be looking if we had pro players. Holly, definitely not the only person that thought that was pretty good.

So take a look at this, per our NFF. insider Adam Schepter. De Kwan Wright's looking to play football somewhere. Might be in the NFL. His agent Drew Rosenhouse, who I'm sure many of you have heard of, is now looking around, and he's still looking at his legal options to see if there's any possible way. He might be able to play football somewhere other than the NFL.

This thing will not go away. Our Pete Thammell is here. Pete, I know the next couple of days are going to prove to be critical as it pertains to LSU and the SEC, and the fissure they have. But we've also got a little bit of a calendar adjustment that just come down in the last couple hours. The last couple minutes, I should say, that you could get us up to date on. Yeah, Zubin, we'll start with the news and then we'll put a pinch of context behind it.

At 1 o'clock central today, so essentially right now, the SEC had its federal court hearing in Birmingham scheduled. LSU's lawyers were set to be there. Just in the last 10 minutes, we learned that that appearance is going to be continued, which means it's going to be reset at a later date. It just popped up in Pacer as that are Mark Schlebeau's boots on the ground reporting for ESPN there. He said he never even saw the judge or any lawyers in the courtroom today. Needless to say, I don't think Mark's thrilled that he went all the way down there. But that's what happens sometimes in high stakes legal battles as these things go, Zubin. So look, this is a continued sign of the de-escalation of the showdown between LSU and the SEC, Zubin.

Obviously, the decision to not roster the two players who signed NFL contracts was a bit of a pinch of contrition for LSU. The SEC wants a member who's going to follow its rules, and that showed they were going to do that. I've been cautioned that there are still some issues there, and this thing isn't going to get wrapped up in the next hour or so. But the sides have been in good communication. I've talked to sources on both sides today, and it feels like there's some positive progress. I think the next mile marker is this call scheduled for tomorrow afternoon with the SEC

presidents, which again, it says in the court documents, they are going to decide whether not to expel LSU in that call. We'll find out, essentially, in the next 24 hours, ZOO, but if that call even happens, I think that's the next thing to look at. But again, there was always long odds that the SEC was going to throw out LSU. But there was also long odds that we'd ever get to this point. Those odds appear even longer right now with what's happened in the last 24 hours or so in this case that never seems to end.

That is right. I think you would need 11 schools for LSU to be expunged from the SEC. Let's go from 11 to 12. That's where the playoff stands right now. But many people are talking about soon doubling the size of the field. And there have been some moves made to at least open up the possibility. What can you tell our viewers? Yeah, Zuban, I think from 30,000 feet for the college football fan,

the move yesterday by the college football playoff to trigger a 30-day exclusive negotiating window with ESPN about a 2014 playoff means simply this. If the playoff is going to expand, it's going to expand. expand till 24 and they're trying to figure out how much money that's worth so the 30 days to talk to espion about it if they don't come to some kind of agreement then obviously it will go to market important to note this is the first year only the college football would they change the contract entering the first year of a six year deal but that's seemingly what is what is in what is in what is in flux here that ESPN is the sole rights holder for that deal uh ESPN would keep the best games right it's 11 games now, a couple-hour sub-license, but essentially they would keep control of that.

The excess games that would be created by a 24-team playoff are the ones that are going to go to market. So these aren't title games and semifinals. These are going to be earlier round games that are going to be created content through this deal. So this is not going to be a billion-dollar-plus annual windfall, if you will, Zubin. But these are going to be earlier-round games. There's obviously a myriad complications in the weeds when you start talking about windows that they could be played in, overlap, overlap with NFN. et cetera. So right now, they're going to try to find the value.

And if they do, Zubin, this step shows an increased chance. We could have a 24-team playoff next season. And speaking of value, the SEC and the other Power League is need to know the value of their conference championship games going away would be made up and superseded by the money they would get in this new 24-team playoff. If it comes to fruition, that is our P. Thammel. On the way here on College Football Live, Big Ten's won the last three national titles. But this weekend in the SEC versus.

the big 10. Our Dusty Devorichak said the SEC will go three for three as we go around the table with Joe Fortinbaugh, Sam and Dusty on the biggest topics in the sport next. We are back on college football live. Time now for the best in the game brought to you by Old Dominion Freight Line. We had a couple of freshmen ballout Saturday and their highly anticipated debuts. That's Faison Brandon for Tennessee. Keel and Russell, I think, opened a couple of more eyes and he was electric with his feet and his arm and the third Saturday in October, health willing for both of those guys, they will take the field against each other. Let's break down what might be up next for both of these guys. Sam, I want to start with you. Let's talk

a little bit about Keel and Russell. He's got a plucky Kentucky squad coming up Saturday afternoon on ABC. What are his expectations now that he is going to be seeing legit SEC competition? Keelan Russell is going to be even more outstanding than he was last season. Here's why he has another game or a game of experience under his belt. You saw him use his legs last week. You saw him run, extremely good athlete. But what was even more impressive in Keel and Russell's game was his accuracy as a passer. And sometimes as a young quarterback, you need that experience, live game reps, not just practice, but an actual game.

I understand Kentucky is a better opponent. But when you look at the accuracy, it's the same stuff that showed up on film last year. He just gotten better this year. Yeah, and I'm looking at Faison Brandon going to Atlanta, Ocho, and I think the true freshman will have a lot of success, much like he did against Furman. I don't know if he's going to put up five touchdowns, but one big factor for me in this one is the Georgia Tech's defense

inability to stop Colorado from running the football. This Tennessee offensive line is outstanding. They're going to get a lot of push. They're going to hand the football to the Sean Bishop. They're going to utilize Faison Brandon's athleticism. And I think it's going to flyson. forced Georgia Tech to put a lot in the box and give opportune situations outside for him to deliver the football down the field. This true freshman is going to get off to a two and oh start and continue

to light up the stat chart. Yeah, that'll be Saturday night at 7 p.m. Eastern over on ESPN. Saturday night is going to be absolutely loaded no matter where you look. Safe to say both Russell and Brandon were lights out this past weekend, which leads to the most obvious segue of all time because I'm sure you probably saw on Labor Day night a 1005-minute power out. outage at Doe Campbell Stadium, precluded the start of Florida State and SMU. No replay, no scoreboards, no helmet communication, no lights. I mean, you thought Alcaraz and Ben Shelton went late into the night last night.

Had nothing on my boy Dusty, who had to sit through all of that on Labor Day night. So take me through what it was like to try to call the game when you had nothing at your disposal in the booth. And all of us watching at home couldn't even really see what the clock was doing in the first. half. It was wild, Zubin. I'm going to give you the Cliffs Notes version. We're in the open. Okay, Dave Pash is starting to get after it and boom. Everything goes out. My lights go out. All the monitors in front of Pash and I go out. We finish the open. We go to break and we're like, what just happened? We thought like we lost power just in our booth. But no, it was the entire eighth and ninth floor. And obviously we had almost a two hour delay afterwards.

It was real conference. What are we going to do? Are we going to play this game? I credit both Florida State and SMU for coming together, understanding there's going to be all kinds of issues, but we're going to play the game. And we do the same as a broadcast crew. Zubin, you love this. Yeah. We had one monitor for essentially the first half, and Pash and I were huddle around it almost like a campfire when it's cold outside. We got one, one program monitor being powered by a backup battery. And at any moment, we could lose it. That's all we had. We were. flying blind. We were getting to call college football, so we made the most of it and got to watch a really entertaining competitive game down to the wire. That's the thing. If you happen to stay up, if you're old enough or young enough or crazy enough to stay up to watch it, it was a great

ending there in the final seconds with that field goal to help SMU. Take it. Great stuff behind the scenes. Dusty. Thanks. The SEC all day, Saturday on ABC. Everywhere you look, we're back with more next. We're back. We call it three for three.

Our three guys making three predictions. longstanding tradition that it's now entering its second week. Our gambling guru, Joe Fortinbaugh, is here. You are up with your three. Let's start by betting on a lot of points in the Alabama matchup against Kentucky. Game open 48 and a half, got bet up to 49 and a half for good reason. If you want to score on the road, you got to be able to run the football. Bamma's running game look great and weak run. Five rushing touchdowns by four different players. On the other side with Kentucky, I like the element of surprise. New head coach Will Stein over from Oregon, Kenny Minchie over from Notre Dame at quarterback. There's a lot of

lot to like there. West Virginia is going to blow out U.T. Martin. We're laying the 37 and a half. This all comes down to Rich Rodriguez's postgame presser after week one. They were up 24-0 at the half against Coastal Carolina, and then they threw a parade in Morgantown and forgot you had to play the second half and the rest of the season. Rich Rod caught an all-staff meeting 15 minutes after the game. I think they come out hot. And then Oregon State, I like him to keep it kind of close against Texas Tech. I take the 26-and-a-half situational play. long travel spot for Texas Tech to Corvallis, six days after this.

They have a Friday night game at home against Houston, which is going to be huge. So expect Texas Tech to go in, get the job done and get out. Yeah, Oregon State's got some life under Jammerchus Shefford, even though it didn't show up on Saturday. Sam, your three and three is what? There will be scores of scores when Louisiana Tech plays LSU.

There's going to be a lot of points in this game. Why do I say that? But we all know what happened last week. LSU had over 600 yards of total offense, over 300 passing, over 300 rushing. They have scored our first. points. Louisiana Tech put up 80. Yes, that's right, 80. And so I understand there was versus a lesser opponent, at least Louisiana Tech was, but it would be a lot of points in this game. That's my first point.

Second point, Jaden Miava is going to have more touchdowns and incompletions in his game versus versus Louisiana this week. Why do I say that? On the season so far, Jayden Malva has five touchdowns, only six in completions. And this is not that far fetched. Because in his last game last week versus Fresno State, three tuddies, only two incomplete passes. Some of that stuff was underneath, but expect efficiency. And last but not least, Malakotoni is once again going to put up video game numbers versus FAMU. He did it last week versus Stanford. 12 receptions, 234 receiving yards, almost 20 yards per catch.

Put himself on that Hosman trophy, not only the watch list, but pretty much number one. I think I could see it happening again this week. Danny gave us a Heisman post to boot. Dusty, take us home with your three for three. Well, let's go to a rivalry this weekend. It's the battle for the Sihawk trophy that's been in Ames the last two years. Take that baby to Iowa City. It's going to stay in Iowa City where the game's being played.

Iowa is good in the opener. That's going to continue. Jimmy Rogers will get it going, but not right now. Iowa State has won the last two. Iowa wins this one by double digits. First time we've seen that in five years. We talked about the Alabama office. Joe said a lot of points.

I agree. and they're going to be on the arm of Keelan Russell. Keel and Russell did great things in the opener, 342, but he didn't throw a passing touchdown. He will have multiple passing touchdowns on a Kentucky secondary that gave up quite a bit to Youngstown State. And then finally, as you've been teasing all shows, and we've got to pay it off.

The SEC against the Big Ten, it's a wild debate. At least for this weekend, it's all about the SEC. Texas gets a win at home. Oklahoma goes on the road and beats me. Michigan, and Mississippi State will go into Minnesota on the arm and legs of Camaro Taylor. If you haven't seen Camaro Taylor, you need to watch him over 400 yards, five touchdowns. My man is ball and zoob. Yeah, and he is a huge force for Jeff Levin, what's turning into a huge year for him.

For you, next couple of weeks, we're not going to see after the next couple of weeks, SEC versus Big Ten until the playoff. What do you see about these two leagues right now as they go head-to-head in these games, Dusty Mansion, as they battle for supremacy, not just at the end of the season, but this Saturday and the next Saturday as well. I think you ask yourself, what do you think happens this weekend? And then as a result, when it comes to recalculating odds, make a play on that. I agree with Dusty.

I think it's going to be Texas taking out Ohio State this matchup. Longhorns are undervalued coming into this game. Last year's 14 to 7 final included four players from Ohio State that were drafted in the top 11 picks. Three on defense, they will not be back. That's an opportunity for Longhorns. And as Sark said, had we not played Ohio State last year, we would have been in the playoff. We wouldn't have narrowly missed it. So many subplots will discuss even more tomorrow.