College Football Live - CFB LIVE - WEEK 1 REACTIONS

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

Join our crew Harry Lyles Jr., Tom Luginbill and Roddy Jones with special guest Pete Thamel as they react to the madness of Week 1. Florida State dropped their home opener to SMU with limited technology. Michigan got a take two on a hail mary. LSU put the nation on notice with their dominance against Clemson. Pete Thamel gives his news and notes from around the league, and the guys look ahead to Week 2's marquee matchups. All this and more on College Football Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Discover coffee plus on nispresso.com. Welcome into college football live. I am your host today, Harry Lyles Jr. Week one has finally wrapped up. We saw the last bits of it in Tallahassee last night between SMU and Florida State. Let's get you out to that highlight from what was a unique evening. The lights were off before the game kicked off due to a power outage. Ultimately, this game would have a one hour and 40 minutes delay. But we got back to the football with the lights on game tied at 17 early in the fourth. Kevin Jennings completes it to Yonick Smith. who breaks away a 79-yard touchdown.

It gave SMU the lead 24 to 17 on the ensuing Seminoles drive. Third and eight past midfield. Ashton Daniels completes it to Samuel Singleton Jr. That's going to tie the game up at 24. Seminoles getting on the board there. Under four minutes left to play SMU third and 10, Jennings hits Tremico Green for a gain of 29 yards, setting them up in great position.

They would go on to kick a field goal to go up. up 27 to 24. Same score with two seconds left. Last chance for FSU. You know the drill here. Daniels runs it up the middle, and here goes the lateral process. There's one.

There's another. And it goes into the hands of SMU Jennings. 26 to 36, 430 passing yards, three touchdowns. Here was Rhett Lashley earlier this afternoon on the Pat McAfee show. Yeah, week ones are tough. And for us, that was a week one game. You know, you saw if you watched the Louisville,

Ole Miss game two nights ago, it was 10 to six at half. until the offense has kind of woke up. Like, it just takes a little bit of time sometime. And, you know, I was really happy that we came away with the win when there was a lot of really good, like offensively, we did a lot of good, defensively we did a lot of good. But there was enough sloppy with, you know, three turnovers on offense, the muff punt. We only had six penalties, but there was two or three that were really critical.

And it's always a lot more fun to correct things and get their attention with the win. I'm joined now by Tom Lugan Bill and Roddy. Jones. Guys, that was unlike anything. I think most of us have ever seen for a number of different reasons. Roddy, I'll start with you. What stood out to you about what we saw last night in Tallahassee? Well, the big takeaway was SMU tried to do everything they could to lose the game, but their talent simply wouldn't let them. They're too good to lose. I mean, essentially you were negative four in the turnover margin. It ended up being negative three, but it's only because SMU got a turnover on the very last play of the game. But Kevin Jennings,

showed both the special attributes that he has, and then also some of the things that have been head scratching, 430 yards of offense, but two interceptions, one-on-one that that Reth Laschley blamed on the receiver. The other one was a bad decision. He mentioned the must punt, and then the big penalty on the attempted field goal that gave Florida State extra downs,

gave Florida State a first down, and they went on to score a touchdown. But SMU is still really, really good, And if they claim up the mess, if they clean up the mess that they had in game one against Florida State, they will really be a contender in the ACC. Yeah, and Roddy, I think it really comes down to the simple fact that despite the turnovers from Kevin Jennings, SMU is so far superior at the quarterback position than Florida State is right now. And they were able to overcome it because of that.

I also love the new additions through the transfer portal. You lose C.J. Johnson Jr. as a running back, Kendrick Raphael comes over. he's a leading rusher. The wide receivers, Randy Pittman came over, had a big day. Yonick Smith comes over from East Carolina. They have a wealth of weapons. And I think, you know, was Kevin Jennings, and I've seen him a lot having broadcasted on the ACC network two years ago when he first got the starting job. This is just kind of how he plays. He'll make an inopportune throw. He'll take a risk with a football. But the other thing he does to counter that, he always makes the play that needs to be made at the right. time. And he did that last night in the fourth quarter on two separate drives.

Definitely some early season jitters there seemingly from SMU, the four turnovers, but they survived it. And if you're Florida State, you get to follow up this week with a trip to Tuscaloosa. So we will see how things end up there for the Seminoles. It is now time for our rewarding performance brought to you by Capital One with a look at Sam Levitt, who became the third LSU player with 200 passing yards and 100 rushing yards. in a game in the last 30 seasons. The other two, well, you probably recognize these guys from LSU as well. Heisman winners, Jaden Daniels, and Joe Burrow.

Coming up on college football live, Arch Manning gets another crack at the Buckeyes after last season's loss. We'll preview the showdown in Austin next and bring in insider Pete Famil as well. A new podcast series from ABC Audio in 2020 goes inside a case that has captivated the nation. To many people, Luigi Mangiore. is a modern-day Robin Hood.

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And for matters like this, there is only but one answer, which is to bring in ESPN senior writer Pete Thammel. Pete, what is the latest wrinkle in this lawsuit between the SEC and LSU? Harry, the SEC had two more federal legal filings against LSU. Lane Kiffin, LSU's Board of Governors, Athletic Director Virge Osbury, and LSU President Wade Bruce. These filings, in these findings, the SEC is seeking authority to expel LSU from the league. SEC's presidents and chancellors are going to meet Thursday, and they are essentially going to decide

that day, whether or not to throw LSU out of the league. This all sounds dramatic, Harry. It is still viewed as highly unlikely. The SEC will throw LSU out of the league. But quite frankly, it's pretty highly unlikely we got to this point where Greg Sanky was testifying in a state court for more than three hours on Thursday. And there's now been two different significant federal filings for the SEC to essentially be able to enforce its own bylaws. Also in the lawsuit, the SEC states that LSU's actions, quote, confirm the lack of institutional control over the athletics program at LSU. From talking to sources on both sides today,

weirdly what the SEC's tenor in this is that between Lane Kiffin and Will Wade and the lack of essential leadership, they think there's a leadership void there. Again, lack of institutional control is in the filing. Those phrases don't get thrown around very often. So pushing forward now, we have a new showdown, if you will, Harry. We have the LSU presidents and chance. I'm sorry, the SEC presidents and chancellors scheduled to meet on Thursday. And in that meeting, Harry, they will decide if it gets to that point, if they don't see some contrition from LSU, if they don't see a more, how do we want to say this? If their fidelity to not playing pros, which has been the core of this issue, is not made more clear, there will be a vote amongst SEC presidents and chancellors about the possible expelling of LSU from the Southeastern conference.

College football, always keeping it interesting, Pete. Going to another big story from this past weekend, Western Michigan, and their battle with the timing mechanisms or lack thereof in Ann Arbor, what is the latest on that situation? Well, that issue, now they're about 72 hours removed from it, Harry. I seem to have faded into the background. We heard a bunch from Lance Taylor, the Western Michigan coach. We heard a bunch from Western Michigan's president.

But today, in a bit of a wrinkle, there's been a new. filing. And essentially, MAC Commissioner John Steinbrecker said in a note to the football oversight committee that the game result should be reversed. And the core of that argument from the MAC to the NCAA oversight committee is that this was not a judgment regarding the proper amount of time on the clock. It was an error in the application of established replay protocol. So they are saying replay protocol was not filed and that should be reversed. I would think, you know, we've had two Hail Mary significant in this game.

This feels like a third Hail Mary for Western Michigan to try to get the result reversed. But here we are. You don't often get requests from a league to the NCAA football oversight committee for a game result to change. But it's college football, Harry. You never know what's going to happen. It's college football. And to your point, you know, teams claim national championships all the time. If Western Michigan wants to claim the game from week one against Michigan, I don't have a problem with that.

One more ever-present topic in college football, Pete, expansion. Are we about to be on the precipice of adding more teams to the playoff? Well, Harry, I'd say we are stepping towards that. And today is a potential step toward a 24-team CFB. As we are speaking right now, the leaders of the college football playoff committee are on a Zoom where they are discussing whether or not to trigger a 30-day exclusive negotiating window with ESPN for a 24-team playoff. Remember, we are in the first. year of a six-year exclusive deal with ESPN.

If the playoffs going to change, ESPN, because it's the sole rights holder, primary rights holder, would have exclusive negotiating access to that. So today, if this window is triggered, there'd be 30 days of negotiating. And if they don't come to an agreement between ESPN and the CFP, the excess games would go to market. Important to note here, this isn't all 24 games going to market. ESPN, obviously, there's an 11 games in a 12-team playoff. They own those.

They'd be expected to own two more because of prior agreements. So it essentially would be 10 new games that would go out to market. So we will find out in those 30 days if ESPN comes up and bids an adequate amount for the CFP, or if it goes to market, the short story here is we are, this is another step toward 24. But very important to remember, this does not mean we are definitively going to 24, but it's rather another step, Harry, in the exploration of that path and makes it a pinch more likely. Great information, Pete. And, you know, for your troubles, we're going to let you stick around and talk some actual football here in just a moment. Because of our must-see week, too, we've got a couple of awesome rematches here.

Obviously, Ohio State and Texas and Oklahoma versus Michigan. But let's flash you back to last season when Ohio State and Texas faced off in Columbus, a 14 to 7 Buckeye victory. Both teams have done a lot of growing. leading to this year's showdown between the two giants in one of the season's biggest matchups that you're not going to want to miss. Here's Archman. Yeah, not all the time you get a second chance to play another team after a rough loss. So we're all excited for the opportunity. As bad as it was on film, it was kind of a close game. It's rough film to watch. I don't like watching it that much. Yeah, not a lot of good memories a year ago. I'm hoping to have a good game this

year. I think, you know, just having last year's experience definitely helps you as a quarterback, you know, in kind of every aspect of your game. But I'm just going to go out there and do what I can and execute to the best of my abilities and, you know, do whatever we can as an offense to help us win. A game of this magnitude requires the entire crew. So we've got everybody here at Pete Hamill again for your troubles. We're going to start off with you. What stands out to you about this game that we're going to be seeing in all? Well, Harry, last year in this game, there were conservative offensive game plans on both sides.

This year, these are completely different quarterbacks. They are different physically. They are different experience. They are calloused and hardened through their experiences. Expect this game to be more wide open than that 14-7 slog that Arch has clearly filed the way in the horror movie section of his DVD collection. I'm sure all the college kids have DVD collections, right? Texas right now has Cam Coleman and Hollywood smothers, along with Rayleigh Brown.

Simply put, their weapons are much greater, and the offensive line is much more stout. So look for Texas to come in and on the attack a little bit more this season. Same for Ohio State. Sources there told me that they feel like this is one of the best offensive lines they've had there in Ryan Day's tenure. Look for them to lead at the point of attack. You know, Pete, I agree with you when it comes to the skilled weapons. And I think that's why it's going to be so critical for both of the, defenses to limit explosive plays.

Now, every coaching staff goes into every game and they want X amount of explosive plays on the ground, X amount through the air. They had that goal each and every week. And guess what? Defensively, we cannot give up explosives. Well, I don't know how many of those you can limit, but you're going to have to limit some. You're going to have to have a Jeremiah Smith reception be 15 yards and not 60. You're going to have a Cam Colman reception be 20 yards and not 80.

And so make these offenses earning because I agree with you. I think they're going to be a bit more wide open. They trust the quarterbacks now. They're not spoon feeding them, but you've got to make these two offenses earn it. Because if it's just to track me, man, I'm actually hoping for that. It would be awesome. But I just don't think that bodes well for either team. Well, Luke's, you kind of hinted at it.

This is going to be about the stars. Julian Say and Archmanning blockbuster quarterback matchup in week two. You've got Cam Coleman on one side and Jeremiah Smith on the other. Maybe the top two receivers in this upcoming. year's draft. But you also have two new coordinators that really haven't shown their hand on how they're going to put their thumbprint on their respective units. On the Ohio State side, Arthur Smith comes over from the NFL, and it was mostly vanilla in week one. Didn't have to do a whole lot. So what wrinkles does he have from that level? And then on the other side, it's Will Mushamp for Texas

who comes back and his coach boom is looking to restore some prominence to that Texas defense. He's got Colin Simmons, one of the stars in this game that Ohio State Offensive Lollinger. is going to be tested. So as Pete said, you know, the players may have their DVDs, but the coaches on their record players, when they start to play that music, what is it going to play? And how great is that symphony going to be when they put their thumbprint on it? I'm still a VHS guy, myself, guys, but, you know, we'll talk about that another day.

This is going to be a monumental matchup that feels even bigger than last year because of what we saw out of these two teams in week one. Pete Thammel, we appreciate you for your time. Go get some rest, man. Here's our Saturday SEC on ABC College Football Triple Header number 8, Texas, A&M hosts Arizona State at noon Eastern, followed by number 13, Alabama and Kentucky in Lexington. Then at 7.30, it's the main card. Number one, Ohio State takes on number four, Texas.

Each game available on the ESPN app. Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood struggled Saturday versus Western Michigan, going 12 of 22 for 170 yards with a touchdown. to pick. He also had 47 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground, but Kyle Whittingham spoke Monday on Underwood status as Michigan's QB won. He's our QB right now. And, you know, it's not a, it's not something that's infinite. I mean, at some point, you know, we've got to turn a corner and and we've got to see improvement as we do with a bunch of stuff. We've got to see improvement out of the coaches. And so it's not just on Bryce, but, but, and it's not just Bryce's job that is,

not absolutely set and conquering. Nobody says it. Lou Gehrimer quarterback guru. What do the Wolverines need to see out of Bryce Underwood with a much bigger challenge ahead of him coming this Saturday against Oklahoma? Yeah, well, I think they got to get the run game going to help him out so you can get some play action pass. And I thought the offensive line got manhandled by Western Michigan. And so all of a sudden when it became more evident that they weren't going to have that balance, what I see in Bryce Underwood is a guy who's extremely. talented and gifted physically.

But he's also playing very robotic. He's playing very tense. And he is a one side of the field read guy right now. He's not far enough along to where you're seeing the progressions and him getting from point A to point B to point C. And it's happening and processing quickly.

There seems like there's a bit of hesitation. Now, did he make a couple of plays throughout the game and some throws where you're going to, wow, what are we going to see that guy each and every snap? Yes, he did. But it just hasn't been able to put together consistency when it comes to getting through to the defense quickly, progressing, get the ball out. He just seems a little bit tense and tentative to me.

Roddy, Michigan dropped from 16 to unranked in the AP poll today. What are your takeaways from this Michigan squad? Well, it's right for them to drop to unranked because through 60 minutes, they had lost the game, but 60 minutes in one second gave them a win. So it was right for them to drop. My takeaway is that the offense is a mess right now. Lug's mentioned the offensive line. the running backs didn't run well either.

There were a couple of opportunities with a little bit of patience to set blocks up and then have big gains. Bryce Underwood had a couple as well. So Jason Beck's got some work to do with this offense. I have faith that he'll get it done. But overall, the defense really hung in there until late in the game where they were on the field for forever and then couldn't get off the field in that second half. But that offense is a bit of a mess.

They're going to have to figure out the run game. They're going to have to figure out the running back situation because they're talented there. but it didn't feel like everyone was meshing. They weren't all seeing things from the same set of eyes. And so I would simplify things for Bryce Underwood, use him maybe primarily as a runner with some play action passes, like Luke said. But ultimately, you've got to challenge everybody because that Oklahoma front is legit.

Yeah, it's going to be a hill to climb. Western Michigan, a forbitable opponent, by the way, won the Mac last year, going to be different against a Brent Venables coached defense. Now, after the break, despite their 51 to 10 loss in Baton Rouge to LSU, Dabo Sweeney says there is still plenty of ball left to be played, which, hey, he's not wrong, guys. It was week one. You're going to hear from him next.

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Quarterback Derry, Mentsa, and wide receiver Malachi Tony have built at Miami. Tony hauled in 12 of 13 targets for Mentsa for a hurricane. Single game record, 234 yards. In Miami's Week 1 win at Stanford. heard. At the mic, Darien Mensa spoke today on Malachi, Tony, whose start has been as hot as anybody's. He's a special person, obviously a special player. Honestly, just makes my job extremely easy as a quarterback. He's almost like another quarterback on the field, just the way that he understands defense. So it's just, you know, makes it that much easy here as a quarterback.

but I think it starts with, you know, after practice, throwing routes. You know, he's one of the first people in the building, last people out. Roddy, a lot of love for Tony, but what's the ceiling for Darien Mensa? If Darien Mintsa stays healthy, he will have the most productive season in the history of Miami football. Cam Ward had 4,313 passing yards. Darian Mintsa had 405 in game one. Cam Ward didn't have a Malachi, Tony. Cam Ward didn't have a Cooper Barcate.

And so that 39 touchdown mark that Camborne said to is also very much in danger. Davos Sweeney, you want to talk about somebody good at the microphone. Despite their 51 to 10 loss, he scoffed at the idea of drawing conclusions on their season already. Chap, you come with all these questions. I'll tell you, you're the gotcha guy. No, I don't. I don't, man. I regret being 0-1 right now.

I regret that. But, no, we're, we're. can you ask me that at the end of the season? You know, the season isn't over. I mean, we got one game. We got 11 more. What if we go 11 and 1? You promised me you asked me that then?

Okay, good. I'll answer it. Luke, I don't know what a gotcha guy is, but where does Clemson go from here? Well, listen, he regrets being 0 and 1, but I bet he regrets more why they are 0 in 1. They got a lot of work to do, but what he's got to make sure he does

is keep a pulse on that locker room. And I personally think he's going to have to play the young true freshman quarterback going forward. Without question. Cool news here. Tennessee's Arion Carter, he pledged to donate $427 for every tackle this season to cancer research. The NCAA, if you don't remember the story, had suspended him in July for a $427 flight to an NFL pre-draft training facility. So turning that into something different here. His girlfriend was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer in February 2026.

Roddy, your reaction to this? Tremendous cause. It's good on Aryan Carter for doing this. Unfortunately, he's going to get zero donation dollars this week because he's playing the Georgia Tech Yellowjack is he making a single tackle. We'll see you tomorrow.