College Football Live - CFB Live - Transfer Portal Updates/Countdown to CFP Semifinals

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Join our crew Zubin Mehenti, Roddy Jones and Tom Luginbill for College Football Live. We'll have Pete Thamel join the show for updates surrounding players entering the transfer portal and players who've found a new home. As the countdown to the semifinals continue, we'll hear from the remaining coaches and hear their thought as the guys breakdown what they expect from each team. All that and more on CFB Live now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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He changed the culture. He changed sports. Stream Booja, presented by Modelo, right now on the ESPN app. And we welcome you to college football live with the four teams left chasing college football's championship. For the first time ever, Ole Miss will play in the Fiesta Bowl, and the first team to ever lose 700 games. If they can get by Oregon, we'll be the favorite to win it all. College football truly is a year-to-year proposition, and this year says it better than any other. And with that, we welcome you inside College Football Live.

Tom. Roddy, Pete Zubin, great to have you with this. As of Sunday night, there were 4,000 players in the portal, 2,500 FBS players in the portal. And when the number one guy at the very top of that list, according to the rankings, makes a move, you know we're going to talk about it. That's where our lead is here today. The portal is open. It will be for the better part of the next couple of weeks. Brendan Soresby has made his decision. He was the Cincinnati quarterback. He is headed to Texas Tech. Now, keep in mind, this is a big move for the Red Raiders who lose Baron Morton due to some eligibility issues. He's done. His backup this year, Will Hammond suffered a knee injury, so they're not really

sure about what he's going to bring them long term. Doesn't matter. Everybody seemingly wanted Sorsby, and they got him. Hey, Tom, take a wild guess at this. So he's got an 81.5 QBR Sorsby. Who do you think was the last Texas Tech quarterback with the QBR over 80? Don't overthink this. Don't overthink it.

Patrick Mahomes. Let's find out. Together. Yes. Well done. Very well done. Although that wasn't as hard as I think. Most people at home are like, Tom, let's go. It's Mahomes already. All right. Welcome inside the show. Roddy with the golf clap. Great to have everybody with us. Happy New Year, even though Larry David said it's too late to do that. But let's get into it. Pete, let's start with you here. Give me the intel on why everybody in the world was hot for Brendan Sorsby of Cincinnati. Well, Brendan Sorsby, Zubin, is an extremely high floor prospect. He is a true dual threat. He ran for, I think he totaled 36 touchdowns last season. And he has the rare size combined with the skill set to just be a devastating force in college football. And at Texas Tech, where Joey McGuire runs a Temple Bay system that favors the quarterback run game.

he really projects as someone who could help them continue the momentum they have. Sorsby would have been considered a potential in this class, first round prospect. It's a very weak quarterback crop. Instead, he decides to go to Texas Tech for top of the market money somewhere in the neighborhood of more than $5 million. And Sorsby is a Red Raider. He's a Red Raider. He doesn't have to change any of his attire. He's got the same colors.

He's all set and ready to go there in Lubbock. I think you hit the nail. you hit the nail right on the head the dynamic element of the quarterback run game which has been lacking at texas tech that's not something they had with baron morton and now all of a sudden defenses are going to have to contend with his legs are going to have to have a plan for designated quarterback run they're going to have to have a plan for creative off-schedual plays more importantly than that though i think the number one most important thing you have to do in the portal particularly at the quarterback position is pursue guys who have played consistently at a high level and have a large sample size of experience. And that's why Sorsby has been so coveted. Well, Texas Tech is not in the business of taking a step back at all. I mean, heck, they put a billboard in Times Square for Brendan Sorsby to make a statement of how committed they are.

And what Pete said was, I think, spot on. He's a high floor guy. And sure, the ceiling is high as well. But if you know what you're getting baseline and whatever else you get is just extra on top of that, then you know you're not going to take a massive step back by surrounding him with talent. I think it's a sign for Texas Tech that, look, this was not a one-year deal, people. We are not just happy with winning the Big 12 once and making the college football playoff.

They are pursuing a championship and not just a Big 12 championship, a national championship. And Brendan Soresby with all of the things that you guys talked about certainly brings the belief that they will be in the running. All right. So as you know, in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, we're going to see, obviously, Oregon take on Indiana. And, you know, George is a five-time participant in the college football playoff. And Kirby Smart once said a couple of years ago, you can't complain when you're standing on the yacht. So if you're in the playoff and you have to deal with the portal, get over it.

It's a first world problem. And that's something that Signetti and Dan Lannning both addressed. We've had a few players go in the portal. And we would like them to continue to practice. A few have chosen to go home and won't be with us this week. I don't think that's going to present, you know, a problem for us in terms of our preparation. We've been really fortunate to be able to hang on to the players that we really want to be here and, you know, have success. And then some of them you seem walked out the door and you just hope that they have a better opportunity wherever they move next.

You know, the grass isn't always greener and that's something that you have to figure out in life at times. But that's, you know, one of the life lessons that exist right now in college ball. But every conversation is different. You know, the one thing I expect from our guys is to have that conversation. That's some coach speak personified there, guys, but you know they're probably gritting through their teeth talking about how they really feel. Roddy, take me through it, navigating the portal and the playoff at the same time. Some of these guys playing the biggest game and coaching the biggest game of their lives. It's got to be incredibly distracting and frustrating for both of these coaches.

Number one, because you're trying to secure your current team for this playoff run. You don't want guys leaving during the college ball playoff run and limiting your team in any way. But, too, you're having to go out and recruit. I mean, Indiana's had to sign Josh Hoover and Turbo Richard and Nick Marsh while they're getting ready to play Oregon and pursue a national championship. It's just epitomizes what we talk about when we say that there's a messed up calendar in college football. But unfortunately, it doesn't seem like there's the power to go and scrap the whole thing so that we can have it make sense throughout. But it's got to be incredibly distracting, incredibly frustrating. and really something that the coaches have a tough time dealing with.

Come on, Roddy. Make sense. Make it make sense. There is no sense to any of this in any way, shape, or form in relationship to the calendar. And it is so frustrating. But I'll say this, and if there's roughly 4,500 players in the transfer portal, and you're talking about the caliber of teams like in Oregon in Indiana right now, Georgia and Ole Miss Miami, where those teams are at,

what is there maybe 50 players in the transfer portal that those teams are looking at and identifying and saying, okay, that guy's better than what we currently have. And there's not going to be many of those. So now all of a sudden, you know, they're not having to go in and do, let's just say, what Iowa State is now having to go in and do. So the numbers, I think, are minimized for them. But the calendar and the timing of it is bad for everybody. but I think that those teams sitting on the yacht, as Coach Smart said,

probably feel pretty good about themselves. The thing is they want to stay on the yacht. And part of staying on the yacht is going to the shore and bringing new people on to work the yacht in a way that keeps the yacht running, which is the frustrating part because I don't want to sacrifice my yacht for the future because I'm yachting in the present. The thing is, though, the way the system is set up, you can't blame the players with this at all.

I mean, Pete just talked about the money at the top of the quarterback market is north of five million dollars. So if you are a quarterback at the top end, you're almost doing yourself a financial disservice by not going into the portal. Certainly there's other things to consider. And like Dan Laining said, the grass isn't always greener, but the money is always green. And if you get more of it, that makes it greener somewhere else. I'm going to say one word, all right? And we're going to say the quiet part out loud, tampering. Tampering. Tampering. Don't think for one second of the best players that have gone into the portal aren't tampered with, period.

So let's go ahead and get that out there. Fair enough, fair enough. The idea that it was going to be happening all on January 2nd moving forward is a little bit naive. Indiana was once on the dinghy, and now they are on the yacht too. So it's pretty unbelievable how fast these things can change. I want to bring Pete Thamble back in. I think, Pete, you know, one thing we've learned here, if you look at the four teams that are left, is if you don't have a big-time quarterback right now or at least a quarterback was a major.

experience that can help you navigate. You're not going anywhere deep in the playoffs. So let's run through some really big quarterback news you've got from the portal and other aspects. And let's start with Trinidad Chambliss who's still chasing a championship. Well, Ole Miss wants to stay on their yacht

Zuban and that will be incumbent on Trinidad Chambliss getting a six-year medical hardship waiver. I was just told no decision from the NCAA is expected on this today. So the weight continues for Ole Miss fans. Chambliss is Second year at Ferris State, he's seeking a medical red shirt for, he dealt with some lung issues, some chronic tonsillitis that year, didn't play a snap.

And if Ole Miss gets that year, and Trinidad Champlis gets that year, he'll be, you know, all-American, Heisman favorite, etc. Ty Simpson will not be back in college next year, or at least that's what his marketing agent is predicting right now. Peter Webb told me today that Simpson has not made a decision yet, but is likely expected to go to the NFL. He's going to spend this week exploring NFL options, and that's where his time and energy is going. As for Sam Levitt, he's on the ground in Baton Rouge right now visiting LSU. He is now the Tigers top target of the Lane Kiffin regime now that Sorsby picked Texas Tech. Look for a decision on Levitt and LSU, potentially in the next 24 hours. As for DJ Lagway, he's in Tallahassee right now, wrapping up his visit at Florida State.

lagway is set to go sources told me to virginia on his next visit he could have as many as three or four other visits after the cavaliers but look for dj lagway in charlottesville tomorrow as for indiana the replacement for presumptive nfl uh top pick fernando mendoza is going to be former tc uber quarterback josh hoover Hoover signed with the Hoosiers yesterday. Hoover will enter next season with 9,269 passing yards, the most of any returning player in college football. He'll be joined in the Big Ten by Rocco Beck at Penn State, another Big 12 departure. Rocco Beck at Iowa State had 26 wins as a starter over the last three years. That's more than any other starter in college football will have.

He reunites with Matt Campbell, Taylor Mouser's offense coordinator, Jake Waters' quarterback coach. Got a big story in ESPAN.com on Rocco's decision. If you guys want to check it out and learn more today. Look forward to that, Pete. We will indeed check it out. Great stuff.

Again, the portal running through about the middle of January. Hang tight coming up here on College Football Live. We'll break down the CFP semis and why the biggest winner this weekend may not have been a team, but an actual conference that can finally pump its chest. We'll have that more when College Football Live continues. We're back on college football live, the college football playoff national championship trophy presented by Dr. Pepper. You can certainly bet Pete Golding or Mario Cristobal would love to hoist that. They're meeting in the Burbo Fiesta Bowl and both have incredible respect for what the other has done.

They're an excellent football team. They've got speed, power, explosiveness across the field. They certainly play with a tremendous edge this past week against Georgia and showed up big in the big moments. I think, you know, the fact that they have their play callers in place, which is arguably the most important part, I don't think there's any effect on what they do schematically. And I think that anything that, you know, an event like what they went through, I think things like that always galvanized people. What stood out to me is, you know, the energy effort and toughness snap in a snap out. I think they've done a really good job. And so, you know, we'll have our issues with that up front.

You know, we've got to know where some of those guys are and got to take advantage of some matchups in the back end, you know, when they present that opportunity. But probably as talented as a group that we've seen that play really physical. Great respect for one another. I think it's pretty instructive. We've got a couple of guys that know the inside and out of the ACC as well as anybody. And that's where I want to start. Tom, I don't think it's a secret that the media, maybe some people on this show, maybe the guy talking,

maybe the fans, and maybe even other leagues just took shot after shot after shot at the ACC. Now, here they are with the same amount of teams left in this playoff as the SEC, whom they're going to see this week in the Verbo Fiesta Bowl. What does Miami making this stage mean for the league writ large? Well, I think it shifted a narrative, right? You look at the last three to four or five weeks of the season, and all the talk was about the ACC fumbling all over itself. You know, every single week there was a team that was in the driver's seat. And if they just take care of business, all is fine.

And every single one of those teams stumbled. But it still remained the fact that Miami is the most talented team in the ACC. So now this has proven that conference championship games really don't matter all that much. And keep in mind, the only team that's beaten Miami this year is Miami. And there are two losses. They've got a combined six turners. Everybody else, they've pretty much boat raced along the way. And so I think this is a team, Roddy, that has an edge.

They want, they're hungry, and they kind of like playing the underdog role right now. Luke's, look, Miami being in the college ball playoffs certainly helps the league, but also the bowl performance helps the league as well. When you look at what the ACC was able to do, eight and four in bowl games. including six and two against power four teams of bowl games. Look, everybody says bowls don't matter. Opt-outs this, opt-outs that. It doesn't matter when you're losing them,

but when you're winning them, it absolutely matters. And from a narrative standpoint, you'd much rather be on that side than the other. So I certainly think that the postseason has changed a little bit of the perception around the ACC. I also think we should be careful about relegating these leagues to less than standards. Like we've talked about the fact that it's more even across college football,

And especially across the top, I don't think that we can make declarative statements about teams across the country very much, unless they're just Indiana and they're blitzing everybody. But I think overall this has shown that maybe the ACC wasn't as far off as people thought it was over the course of the season. It's really an amazing moment for the league at a time where it's not Clemson or Florida State. It's holding them up. It's the team that's actually never won the ACC title game that is now in position to win the national title before they win the ACC title game, which, I mean, that's just college football again in 2025, 2026. I want to switch gears here to some of the comments

that were made by Ole Miss after that huge win in the All-State Sugar Bowl against Georgia the other night. This is from one of their stars, Zavian Harris, weighing in on what everybody's talking about, right? Lane Kiffin, quote, talking about the impact of his departure. That's what Kippin tried to do. He tried to be a blank announcer, trying to be a troll. We were going to troll him.

We got something for him. He was just trying to steal our shine. That's all he tried to do. When Coach Golden came in, they saw a difference in how a real head coach is supposed to be, and you've seen how we come together. And by the way, instead of being at their playoff game, Coach Kippen was at the Ole Miss,

excuse me, LSU women's basketball game, taking it all in. But I have a funny feeling he was probably watching that game on television. Okay, Roddy, I want to start with you here. For once, Zavian is saying what everybody has always been saying, that this is about the players that are there and the coaches that are there, not the people that have left. That said, Pete Golden, game two, he defeats a two-time national champion in Kirby Smart.

What has he shown you in this incredibly small sample size? And frankly, how has he done it? Well, he's done it by keeping this team together and motivating them through shared adversity. I think when you get a new voice in the building, it can go a lot of different. ways, whether or not guys have liked him or had a relationship in the past, whether or not they had a relationship with the previous regime or what that was looked like. I think what Pete Golding could say when he came in was like, hey, guys, I want to be here. I believe in you guys.

I think that we should use this. Everything that's going out is motivation. And that wasn't hokey. It wasn't him reaching for stuff. Those were real emotions that they felt. And so I think Pete Golding has done an excellent job, not only getting the best out of this team, but using what happened to them as a galvanizing motivational factor. Listen, I think that this team has done that going all the way back to when the initial

Lane Kiffin discussion started about whether he would or he would not be there. Not one time did any of those distractions affect the on-field performance of the players, right? That tells me that the players are dialed in and the coaching staff, all right, prepares the team well. And that's what Pete Golden did here. And that's what the rest of the coaching staff did here. done watching that football game

and I said to myself, would it have mattered if Lane Kiffin coached that game? I mean, that coaching staff there presented and prepared that team to win that football game without Lane Kiffin. Let me just give you one Pete post script on this and that is how united are the players.

There is nobody on this team that's probably more chapped than Austin Simmons after losing his job. Chambliss has been amazing. But you know what Austin Simmons says? I'm hitting the portal, but I'm not leaving until we're done. I'm with this team. Even though my job is gone until the job is finished. It says a lot about the players and coaches that have stayed.

Now, on the other side, the other national semifinal, Chick-fil-A, Pete's ball, Roddy's backyard, Oregon, Indiana, regular season rematch in the ATL. Indiana won the first game, 3020 in Austin. I think that's the game where people started to say, you know what, I think Indiana is for real, and they certainly are. Much like the Verbo Fiesta Bowl, both of these coaches, pretty impressed by what the other has accomplished. You watch this team on film. Obviously, we got to experience it firsthand. This is one of, if not the best, coach teams in college football. They play with unbelievable technique.

They challenge you in every facet and special teams defensively. They've got great quarterback play, which I think is a secret to being in this position. Second time around, you know, we're both going to watch the tape of the first game, see what we did well, see what we didn't do well. Both teams have sort of morphed since that game because it was a while back. put the best plan together you can, but at the end of the day, you know, it's which team executes the best plan play out. All right, so let's break down Oregon, Indiana, part two. Tom, let's start with you. Bottom line, Indiana did Alabama, what Alabama did to everybody else for years, and that is

really catching your attention. It really is, and when you start to look at Indiana and how they play, yes, they're talented, But what gets glossed over when you talk about the Hoosiers is that they are the best prepared, best executing team in college football. How do you only have 11 defensive penalties the entire season? How do you only have eight turnovers the entire season? They don't take negative plays. You see right there not heavily penalized. They don't give up explosive plays on defense.

They create explosive plays on offense. They're almost flawless in the kicking game. And so what they do is they go out with a really good football team and they wait for you to screw it up. And when you do, they pounce on you. And another thing in this matchup, Roddy, if you're, if you are Oregon and you are Indiana, all right, go watch the Iowa game and see what the Hawkeyes did on defense. Yeah. One thing, one thing that Oregon's certainly going to have to do better is protecting Dante Moore. Because without that and without getting him going, you really not going to have a shot in this game.

who sacks six times in the first game, pressured over 20 times in the game, and it was from all angles. It was the secondary covering and covered sacks. It was blitzes that were able to confuse them. It was guys getting beat at the line of scrimmage. They batted balls down. It was a little bit of everything in that first matchup against Indiana.

So that needs to be goal number one is protect Dante more better. Maybe running the football helps with that, but they got to figure out that protection element. It's a season at first. You guys know it. First Big Ten title win, first Heisman winner, first Rose Bowl win, maybe first national title. When college football live continues, there was one record set yesterday in a championship game that some people thought may never be broken. And it has to do with a little guy named Joe Burrow, who you may have heard of. That's it.

Back on college football live, while you were watching the CFP, we were watching everything else go down in college football. Ferris State won the national championship at the D2 level again. You know Trinidad Chambliss was watching, thinking, all right, maybe I can use my old school's motivation in winning a title to maybe win one of my own. UW River Falls in a shocker over North Central. Kayla Blaha, their quarterback, passed Joe Burrow for the NCAA's all-time passing. yardage mark at any mark. Montana State tonight against Illinois State. That will be for the FCS championship tonight on ESPN at 730 Eastern College Football Countdown pregame live from Nashville at 7 Eastern and we'll see you tomorrow for more college football line.