College Football Live - CFB Live - What's New in College Football?

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Join our crew Zubin Mehenti, Sam Acho and Tom Luginbill for College Football Live. The guys will discuss the latest with Darian Mensah and his transfer to Miami. We'll hear from a not so happy Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, regarding tampering in the portal. With the new CFP format, the guys will give their thoughts along with coordinators finding new homes for the 2026 season. All that and more on CFB Live, tune in now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did you know that Staples Professional can tailor a custom program to make running your business easy? With a Staples Professional account, you get one vendor, one delivery, and one invoice for all your must-haves, from tech to cleaning supplies, and dedicated support from Staples' experts who guide you on everything from product selection and ordering to payment. Join today at staplesprofessional.ca and get expert solutions tailored to your business. That was easy. Hey there, welcome to college football live with Sam and Tob. I'm Zoobin. if you're wondering, what is college football live doing on the air 15 days after the title game? Tomorrow's the February National Signing Day.

We're here in advance of that. We'll have a one hour special of college football live to commemorate that. Tomorrow, top five players in the portal. The portal is closed, but business is always open. Sam Levitt's going to be protected by Jordan Seton. Sorsby and Coleman are going to stay in their respective league. So is Darian Mensa, but he, of course, is going from Duke to Miami. And that's where we're kind of going to start.

Remember, Mensa started at Tulane, ended up at Duke. Now to Miami, as the hurricanes are looking for that final piece at quarterback. The question on championship night was who was going to replace Carson Beck. I don't think a lot of people thought the answer was going to be Darien Mensa, but it is the new cane in town. You know what Cam Ward did? He had the number one overall pick in the NFL draft after his run. Carson Beck took Miami to the brink of a championship,

and now perhaps Mentson will be the guy to try to get them over the top. We'll talk about the how this happened in just a little bit, but Sam, I want to start with you with the what, with the reminder that this guy put out a video after he was thinking about going to the NFL draft that said it was the return, a LeBron-like return to South Beach. It ends up being there when he said he was going to stay in Durham. It's just a crazy situation all the way around.

What do you make of the fit? Then we'll get into all the particulars. I think it's an amazing fit, not just from a talent perspective, but from what everything else around Darren Mentsa is going to be. I got a chance to be at the National Championship game. I was actually on Miami sideline for the majority of the game, and I was there with some of the legends. They were talking about how deep that roster is,

not just the guys that we saw on the field, but there are guys who are guys coming up next in line on the offensive side of the ball, the defensive side of the ball, some outside linebackers, some receivers, et cetera. Malachi Tony, we know what he's going to be. And so now all of a sudden you have a quarterback who's one at a high level, played a bunch of games. And oh, by the way, the last two quarterbacks either taken Miami to a national championship

or been the number one overall pick. And so, yes, I love the fit at quarterback. And Miami has decided to invest all of their resources, or at least the majority of their resources, at the most important position on the football field. Yeah, Sam, I tell you what, we've talked about it often on this show. If you've got a quarterback, you've got a chance. And what is the common denominator now for what will be three straight signal callers for the University of Miami? all of these guys have played a significant amount of football.

They are experienced. They've seen everything. They've been in pressure situations. They've been in tight games. These are all critical factors. And when you marry that with a roster, as you mentioned, in the University of Miami that is loaded with not only developmental talent from the high school ranks, but quality choices at the transfer portal level, you've now added the right quarterback with weapons around him.

I think the thing that's interesting, too, here, if you're a Miami fan, is you're going to be much more athletes. athletic at the quarterback position, which is going to make you more difficult to defend. I think it kind of takes you back to Cam Ward and all of the different improvisational plays he was able to make. Those are the types of plays that Dary and Mentson makes as well. Let's add one extra wrinkle, which of course is Mentsa leads Duke to their first ACC outright title since 1962. That win over Virginia and the title game allowed Miami to get into the playoff, which made them a much more attractive destination for Dary and Mensa. So it all comes together.

So we just discussed the what time. I want to start with you with the how. Our last show of January was January 20th, the day after the title game. If I would have said to you, I'll see in a couple of weeks. Just make sure you have some notes handy on how Miami is going to replace Carson Beck with Dary and Mentsy. I said that to you the morning after the title game. How in the world did we get here if he had a multi-year deal to be at Duke and now is going to be opposing Duke this fall? Well, we knew prior to that show on January 20th that Dary Mentsa at the 12th hour had

entered into the transfer portal. So I would have told you that in order for this to happen, that contracts aren't worth the paper they're printed on. And what we've had here now is a scenario where, you know, a contract that may be signed by a player doesn't appear to be enforceable. And if it's not enforceable, then what's going to happen? You're going to lead into tampering. You're going to lead it into overtures. And if there's opportunities, and Sam said it well, Miami is in a position financially to say, we will outbid everybody if we believe it's the right guy. They made that overture clearly. Now all of a sudden, you've got Darien Mensa sitting here on the University of Miami's roster,

and you've got Duke who may have been fairly compensated in return, but guess what? Compensation doesn't complete passes. You lose Darian Menza, and who are you going to replace him with now if you're Duke? Yeah, I love the point you made. Yeah, compensation absolutely does not complete passes. But completed passes and completion percentage usually leads to wins. This is a win now culture in college football. We saw it with Kurt Signetti.

It took him two years. Year one, he lost two games. Year two, he won a national championship without losing a game in the regular season. And so what everyone wants, at least in college football, is they want to win right now. No longer are you in a world where you can build in your recruiting classes and take three, four, five years to try and win a national championship. So what that means is that the coaches are going to do whatever they can, whether it's tampering legally or illegally, to try and to try and to try and to try and. and get the best players on their rosters. Sometimes that's through the transfer portal like we saw with Miami.

It also can be through recruiting like we also saw with Miami. Talk about the guys like Francis Maui Noah, one of the top offensive tackles. He was recruited there. Sometimes it's going to be that developmental program in addition to getting the right guys. And so that win now mentality and win now culture makes me think that a lot of what we're seeing with Darien Mensa and some other players who are making different decisions is not going to change. Absolutely, Sam. And I think the other thing in regards to this, the coaches know that if there's not going to be any governance or policing or enforcement or penalty, it is a free-for-all out there in relationship to what we would now call a college-level free agency. And so you're right. It's win yesterday. And if you have the resources within your institution to put yourself in a position to do that, you're darn well going to do it. I don't care if it's Miami or if it's anybody else, particularly is it to the quarterback.

And, oh, by the way, the quarterback's being joined by his favorite target and Cooper Barcates coming over from Duke and joining Miami. So what a haul for the hurricanes. On the other side, let's just talk for a minute about Duke because we were wondering, you know, what is Miami going to do? They're not going to be left without a quarterback, and certainly they weren't. But that's the situation the reigning ACC champion finds themselves in with regards to having an opportunity to just recoup when you lose somebody at the 11th hour like this.

I know they're going to have people in there. There are some names floated. They've got some people going. But what does it just say, Sam, in general, when a team can lose their quarterback essentially right as the portal closes and then in many ways just not really have recourse? This is a specific not discussion about Duke, but anyone who falls into this conversation. What really means you need to have contingency plans. And what I mean by that is just have depth on the roster.

That's the thing that's changed, at least in my estimation, in college football over the last 15 or years now, college football is actually more about relationships than anything. You're saying, Sam, relationships, this guy's going for money, but not necessarily. I think that the best coaches are the ones who can actually keep guys for maybe a year or two, who may not play and convince them that, hey, this is the right place for you. Maybe we'll get you taken care of financially. Maybe there's going to be an opportunity to say, okay, if this guy goes to the NFL, you're going to be the next in line.

But those relationships matter. Maybe it's a situation where someone was getting recruited and they went to a different school, and then all of a sudden that different school didn't. workout and that first person recruiting them all of a sudden still stays in contact and that relationship falls back to that player who gets a chance to go and compete. And so really just says to the fact that relationships matter. Well, I'll tell you, if you're Duke, you sure wish you would have known that prior to the 11th hour as Schuven just mentioned where you could create that contingency plan. You could go out and target somebody in the likelihood maybe that Darien Mentson

would leave. But you've got to assume if you're Duke also, you sign this guy to two-year contract, not the guy you're anticipating leaving, and now it's happened. And it's that laid in the game with quarterbacks having already signed, at least quarterbacks that you have played a lot of football that could help you. So you now go from a guy that, you know, just had a 76 QBR rating and threw for 3,600 yards to maybe somebody that hasn't played a lot of football. That could be devastating to your football team. Both fair points.

Echo what Sam said, and I think this is the most underrated thing. Sometimes retaining your own players is the biggest. win of all. And that's where relationships come into play. It's underrated with NIL and the portal. Just a reminder, before we get to National Signing Day Wednesday, we've got college basketball Super Tuesday. Hasn't been a great season for Ole Miss. Tennessee's back in the top 25 and will wait in NC State with their $15 million roster. We'll take on SMU. On the way, Dabo taken on Pete Golding and any other coaches that dare to tamper with the Tigers. He sounds off. Investing is all about the future.

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A wrestler to face a robot, that will have to happen. So whatever you think is going to happen in the future, you can invest in it at WealthSimple. Start now at WealthSimple.com. We're back, you may have recalled last week. Dabo Sweeney had a tamper tantrum. There's tampering and then there's blatant tampering. You know, tampering 101 is when you're talking to kids who aren't in the portal.

Tampering 201 is when you've already negotiated the deal with the kids not in the portal. Tampering 301 is when you got a kid who's gone in the portal, sign somewhere, move there, gone to classes, and you're still, you're texting them while they're in class. That's like a whole other level of tampering. I'm not out to get anybody fired. That's not my objective in this. I'm not out to get anybody fired,

but there has to be accountability and consequences for this type of behavior and total disregard for the rules. If this happened in the NFL, which is an actual lead with rules, they would be fined. They would take draft picks. They, you know, hit the cap, whatever. Again, I'm not trying to get anybody fired.

I just want accountability and there should be consequences for a total disregard for the rules. And this is such a terrible example. It's a terrible example for young coaches in this profession. And to be honestly, this is crazy. To me, this situation is like having an affair on your honeymoon. I've had a lot of people reach out with their stories. And so I want to challenge all of those coaches that have reached out to me. I want to challenge all of them.

You need to step up and call it out. Otherwise, don't complain. You either step up and you be an example to young coaches in this profession and be people of integrity or just shut your mouth and don't complain again. That was unbelievable. That was last week. And in true dabble fashion, I'm going to name names here because that was a very specific press conference. If you're wondering what in the world this is about, Cliff

Notes version, there was a kid named Luke Farrelli. He was a linebacker at the University of California, played for the Bears, the Golden Bears last year, got in the portal, committed to Clemson, and Ole Miss continued to recruit him. He ended up leaving Clemson for Ole Miss. So this all revolves around one player named Luke Forelli from Cal. But obviously, Tom, he's talking about a much larger issue that is permeating the sport all over the place. What do you make of dabbo being so forthright? First off, I love it. Second of all, you've got to make sure if you're dabbo and his staff

that your own house is clean, right? You don't want to be throwing stones and then come to find out that somebody's got receipts on one of your staff members doing the exact same thing. I think that's really important. Well, what Davo's doing right here is something, as he referenced, probably most coaches don't have the guts to do. But there has to come a moment in all of this

where there is accountability, and consequences. And he referenced the NFL, right? And he's not wrong. If we're going to have rules and we're going to have guidelines and structure and we're going to have governance and policing and then hopefully enforcing, then you're going to have to come up with a way of putting the feet to the fire of the NCAA, which right now has zero teeth in all of this.

Because if you really want to put an end of this, all right, catch somebody red-handed and say, all right, you're missing the postseason next year. Or we're docking you 10 scholarships. Or we're removing some of your revenue share. Something that would be so severe as a deterrent that you wouldn't even think to cross that line. Right now we have none of that. All we have right now is a very dark gray area

which coaches live in anyway. I'm fine with that. I get that. But the reality of the situation is something has to put a stop to this because this is the problem. It's not an image and likis. It's not the transfer portal.

It's tampering. So Sam, Tom really hit the first part of that comment, which essentially was the what Dabo said. But the second part of that was him calling out his own colleagues. He said, if you're going to call me and complain, do like I did and make it public. Do you think there's

any chance that happens knowing how rife tampering is in the sport? I think it's a very slight chance that more coaches calling out coaches happens. Because notice Dabo was calling out Pete Golding, but also we continue to say, I'm not trying to get anybody

fired. Coaching is somewhat of a fraternity and Dabo went on in a later interview to talk about some outlined some ideas that he had to be able to solve the issue. He said, hey, how about this? How about a player? You could transfer once and then if your coach leaves, you could transfer again. But after that, if you decide to transfer, then all of a sudden you have to miss a year. Well, that penalizes the player. I didn't hear anything in that interview. Maybe there was that I missed about penalizing the coach. Dabo did a reference in the NFL how teams get doctor draft picks or coaches get fined or teams miss playoff opportunities. Maybe that's one of the solutions that can be presented

that could actually help solve some of the issues. Remember, Dabo did call out P. Golding for being the one texting Luke during meetings. And there were some agents saying, hey, well, we told Pete Golding to stop and P. Golding's going to do what P. Golding does. But my point is that the penalty should not be levied on the player. The penalty for some of the tampering should be levied on the coaches who are the ones who are texting and calling the players. That's exactly what it is, Sam.

Let's not blame the player here. We've created an environment where we've allowed this, right? So the player has an opportunity if more money comes his way. It doesn't matter if he signed a letter of intent. It doesn't matter if he enrolled in school. None of it matters. So what the coaches are asking for, Davoswini, in particular here, is for that to matter. And there are to be accountability if there are rules in place against this,

to be levied against the coach, the assistant coach, the university, and for there to be distinct penalties so severe, again, as I mentioned earlier, that you wouldn't think to step over it. I also find it tough, too, just hearing from coaches saying that this is such a big issue. When a lot of coaches are doing something very similar, now, you might say, well, these coaches have buyouts in their contracts. A lot of coaches have contract signed, and then they go to somewhere else, right? Or they want a bigger contract, so they'll be negotiating as if they're going to leave somewhere else to get an increase in play. But a player who has outperformed his contract, a guy like Darren Mensa, who's outperform. formed his contract, took his team to an ACC championship, won it, and all of a sudden,

the market has increased. Now, of a sudden, he's capped at a level because he signed a contract that, for whatever reason, his contract isn't forcible, but a coach's contract who wants a bigger pay because they win games, their contract isn't. So I think that's why you may not see as many coaches speaking out, because a lot of coaches are doing the similar things. And maybe, as I mentioned, they have buyouts in their contracts. Maybe that's the issue.

Maybe players need to have buyouts in their contracts as well, and that'll help solve the issues. but people say that players are a reflection of their coach. Well, it seems as if the players who are making these decisions are reflection of the leadership in college football. It's all good points. I would just say one last thing. Sitting next to Dabo at that press conference was his boss. Yes, he actually has a boss on Clemson's campus.

Athletic Director Graham Neff, that goes to show you. This isn't a football thing. This is a really big thing that can affect the athletic department if football doesn't function the right way. And it was noticeable that Neff was sitting right next to Dabo when that press conference, went down. Of course, this is Super Bowl week, so it's a chance to look back at one of the most iconic plays in Super Bowl history. The Philly

Special Friday night in advance of the Pats and the Seahawks on Sunday. On the way, one of those teams that win a Super Bowl. This team just won the college football playoff. Who's chasing him down in 26? And why the path for whomever wins is going to be a little bit

different than last year. The details on that next. How would you describe the turnaround at what you've been able to build in a short period of time. It'd be a hell of a movie. You have to appreciate the greatness of this Indiana time. A century of futility is forgotten. The Indiana Hoosiers are the Kings of Palace football.

We won the national championship at Indiana University. It can be done. I think it's got to be one of the greatest stories we've ever seen in college football. Certainly agree with that, Kirk. Next year's 12th team playoff, a couple of tweaks to know about. We'll obviously dig into this later. Power 4 conference champions all are guaranteed in, which means this past season, Duke would have been in if Notre Dame's in the top 12.

They're in. And in the group of six, you don't have to be a conference champion, just the committee's highest ranked team to get in. It's never too early for a way too early. Top 10. Guys, this is the way our Mark Schlebeau laid it out. Tom, give me your thoughts on this. Love it.

Listen, I look now because of what Indiana did a year ago. go as I look at who is old and who's experienced. I like Notre Dame and I like Texas. You take a look at the personnel. Both are set at quarterback. Did an outstanding job in the transfer portal. Notre Dame has 10 of their top 11 tacklers back on defense. And offensively, the weapons put around Archmanning through the portal are going to be

outstanding. That's an experienced team for both of those ball clubs. I look at Oregon as well. They're ranked number five right now in the way too early top 10. But Oregon's returning Dante Moore, who was likely. going to be the first or really second quarterback taken in this year's draft. So they have him. They did lose their coordinators, both offensive and defensive, but the talent is there.

The infrastructure is there. Dan Lennie's built a great program. So it's going to be excited to see what Oregon does in 2026. Even though the season is in the rearview mirror by 15 days, there's still been plenty of news. Let's run into some of this. Then we'll get some thoughts. We'll start with Florida State.

Gus Malzahn is no longer going to be on the staff, no longer in college football walking away after three and a half decades. His legacy will probably be giving Nick Saban more fits than most other coaches, and that certainly means something. You know, USC has hired Gary Patterson as their defensive coordinator.

Patterson once said, I can't wait to Lincoln Riley leaves Oklahoma in the Big 12. I hate matching up with the guy. Now several years later, they'll be together on the same staff, and that is being praised all over the place. Meanwhile, Arthur Smith is headed to Ohio State. their third OC in three years.

Chip Kelly sprung board that position to the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders. Ryan Hartline used it as a springboard to his first head coaching job at USF. And now Arthur Smith, formerly an NFL head coach of the Falcons, will hope to use that and probably be gone in a year. Indications are anything from recent Ohio State OC hires. All right, Tom, let's start with you here. Plenty of assistant staff moves that have been catching people's eyes. What really caught you?

I just looked at Talahassee with the amount of pressure that is on Mike Norvell. He ends up naming an assistant on the staff in title as a coordinator. He's going to go back to call on the plays. That was a complaint two years ago. I'm not necessarily saying I believe in any of that. But Florida State better hit the ground running. And now he takes over play calling duties because of this move here in late winter of Gus Malzong retiring. Interesting to me to see how this thing unfolded at Florida State.

I'm excited to watch Gary Patterson at USC. I remember when he was obviously at TCU, he recruited me, and I got a chance to watch their defenses. But then not too long ago, he was at Texas as essentially an analyst and helped their defenses be better. And so Gary Patterson or USC, obviously we could rally offensive mind, but now a defensive genius, it'll be hard to stop. Yeah, it's being universally lauded.

Just a reminder, we'll be here tomorrow for a one-hour edition of college football live in advance of the Tuesday, February signing day, and we'll see you then.