College Football Live - Excitement in Aggie Land

Episode Date: August 31, 2024

Jen Lada, Pete Thamel, Stanford Steve and Desmond Howard preview the biggest Week 1 matchups live from College Station! Additionally, the crew provides more in depth discussion on the highly anticipated battle between Texas A&M and Notre Dame as well as a look into the new weapons in Georgia's offense. All that and more on CFB Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you're flying Emirates business class, sampling our range of vintage wines from the largest selection in the skies, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. College Station, Aggieland, if you will. Howdy. And welcome in to College Football Live. We have a big slate of fantastic games ready for you to preview here on College Football Live. And just so you're aware, it is a balmy 90 degrees.

here in College Station. You know what that means. Sons out, guns out, guys, but not a lot of people out when it's 90 degrees. We've got these cooling things on our chairs. More about that as the show goes on. But for Desmond Howard and Stanford, Steve, and Pete Thammell, I'm Jen Latter. A big week of college football.

I feel like last week sort of wet the appetite for the college football fans. But this week, guys, we've got some real barn burner games. Yeah, I'm fired up. We're here. Everything in College Station feels like it's new, right? New buildings everywhere. And now we got a new coach.

And they are fired up for their new coach. I can't wait to see the atmosphere tomorrow, starting with tonight here in College Station. So all eyes here for week one for me. I'll tell you what, USC versus LSU, big game. I think both teams need to prove what they can do defensively because they were horrendous on defense a year ago. And then both teams are coming into this game

without a Heisman trophy winning quarterback. So I like this matchup, USC versus LSU. My favorite part of college station, other than the fun terminology, is that every single thing in this town is geared towards this game tomorrow. Everyone you run into is either here for the game, going for the game. At 6 o'clock this morning, people were tailgating Friday morning for a Saturday night game. Wow. Energy is palpable. There is a ton of pressure on Marcus Freeman Squad.

We'll get to that as the show goes on. Maybe not as much on Mike Elko's team as he is a first-year head coach. There will be a transition period. But he is very familiar with the quarterback that he will be facing. That's Riley Leonard, who averaged over seven yards on scrambles over the last two seasons. Only last year's Heisman winner, Jaden Daniels, who has been referred to, topped those numbers. The defense that Elko inherits at A&M has been burned on scrambles the last two seasons, allowing nearly nine yards per pop with Daniels doing a lot of that damage.

Here's head coach Marcus Freeman on what he has seen from his new starting quarterback. He's not afraid to run. He wants to run. He wants to bond his hand. So I think that's an added element to your offense. I don't want to see our quarterback running a ball every play, and that's not our plan. But to have the ability to have design quarterback runs or truly read defenders with a quarterback that can pull it, is something that's going to help our offense have success.

Riley Leonard is gritty. He is tough. What do you expect to see from him in this offense? First of all, just connecting the dots to this game is just nuts. You know, these two coaches face each other. year we were there at Duke for game day. Now different schools. Riley Leonard was Elko's quarterback last year.

He's Marcus Freeman's quarterback this year. It's awesome. But regarding Leonard, you know, Des, you were on those Packers teams. You always heard about Brett Farr being too amped up before a game, right? And you got to hold him and call plays just to let him air it out a little bit. Exactly. I think the temperament of Riley Leonard is really important. So, again, the connecting of the dots, going against a familiar guy in Elko, how is he going to come out?

Injured last year, we didn't get the true taste of him. But knowing what he's up against, the strength of Texas A&M is their defensive line, and how is he going to adjust? How many quarterback design runs are there going to be? How many times he's going to get himself out of trouble with scrambling? That's what I'm expecting from him to be really good at. Decision making, it's huge for him. Yeah, I spoke to Coach Freeman. He said the reason they wanted to get him out of the portal, because they knew that he could play in big games.

He said he's a fierce competitor and they love what he brings to an offense. But it's not just about Riley Leonard. He has some weapons now, too. He has a receiver named Chris Mitchell. They got him out of FIU. Average 17 yards per catch. He can blow a lid off of a defense. And then Jeremiah Love.

He's listed as a running back. But Jeremiah Love is like a Swiss Army knife. He can do so many different things because it's versatility. He's going to have to touch the ball tomorrow 15 to 18 times. And on the other side of the ball, Pete, what are you expecting from Mike Alco's defense? I'm expecting a fun moment to start the game. Mike Elko obviously worked here as the defensive coordinator. He's never run out of the tunnel.

He would go right up to the booth. So tomorrow night against Notre Dame, and he runs out of the tunnel for the first time. What will we see, Jen? We're going to see a really solid sound defense. His first year at Duke, they inherited the worst defense in the country in total defense.

They improved by 70 places. Texas A and I'm at a pretty good defense last year. But with that line, Steve mentioned, I think they're going to be stout. I think we're going to see a low-scoring game, field goals, special teams. These are two defensive coordinators. They're not going to call the game to throw the lid off.

What's low scoring like 20 to 17? Somebody getting the 20s you think 20 points wins the game. I agree. I really do. Wow, okay. Not like we saw from some of the teams last night that got blank. We'll talk about that as the show goes on. You know, I was talking to folks at Notre Dame, we talked about Riley Leonard.

One of the things he did to kind of ingratiate himself with his new team. We talk about the transfer portal, how you don't have a lot of time to get that rapport that you need. He made flashcards of every one of his teammates and studied it like you would study for the SAT or a test in high. school. So that just goes to show the effort that he put in to try to be the leader of this squad. All right. History might be on Florida side when it hosts Miami tomorrow at the swamp. The Gators have won 34 consecutive home openers. That is the longest on field streak in SEC history. But back-to-back losing seasons have generated questions about Billy Napier's future in Gainesville. So let's hear from Napier. He said, I'm not a fool. Part of leadership is

you've got to have some self-awareness and you have to make tough decisions. You have to make necessary changes. We've done that. I have a ton of confidence. It is all part of the story. Pete, what more can you add about Napier and his job security there? Well, to Billy Napier's credit, Jen, he has contractual self-awareness. He signed a seven-year deal when he got the Florida job. More than 50 million guaranteed. If they were to have another bad season, Billy Napier would likely be fired. It's pretty clear. He would be owed more than $26 million if he's fired on December 1st. that would be the second biggest buyout in history of college football. The biggest.

Yeah. Right here. And that was three times as much. But $26 million to fire coach is not something to sneeze at. There's an interim president at Florida. I don't think it's fate of complete for Billy Napier. And part of that was he knew what he had to rebuild and they prepared for it contractually. Let's take it to the field, Steve.

What do you expect to see from Florida this week? Well, first of all, I love the way Napier has handled this off season with everything going on, court cases. And all anyone wants to do is talk about. the schedule. And in all this, you know, chaos, what they did do last year as they took their lumps, they had a ton of freshmen play. They had freshmen score 14 touchdowns.

They had seven true freshmen start games. That's the most in the country. So they're not this bad of a team, you know, but again, everybody just keeps talking about the schedule. Cam Jackson, the detackle up front is an absolute stud. But again, the way he has not addressed all the stuff off the court, off the field, and focused on his team and getting ready for this spot, the swamp, opening up. your season against an in-state rival.

I love the way they've gone into this, and I expect a good game from them. What about Miami does? The Keyes believe they won the portal sweepstakes. They got Damien Martinez running back out of Oregon State, and then they got Cam Ward, Washington State's quarterback, and Cam Ward, I tell you what, guys, he's a difference maker. I spoke to some coaches last week over there at Miami that said, Desmond, first and foremost, we wanted him because he's an alpha male. Now only does he make the offense better, he makes the defense the whole team better.

Secondly, his ability to escape. I mean, this guy has a thick lower body, excellent balance, and he's always keeping his head up and his eyes down the field when he's scrambling. Elite armed talent, he's the type of quarterback that they need in this offense. One of the weapons for Miami will be featured tomorrow on college game day. We've got the story of Cam McCormick, who, if that name sounds familiar, it's because he's been around for a while, guys. He'll be kicking off his ninth season in college football.

You can see that on college game day. So much more coming your way here on college football live. Football is finally here. We've seen some ranked teams already in action. We'll get you those highlights from Colorado and more after this. Plus, Steve is getting a few more games and bets that you might not be thinking about. He's got his week one gambling guide coming up next on college football live. At Desjardin, we speak business.

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Tonight, number 16, Oklahoma hosting Temple. And then what a triple header we have for you on. Saturday, number one Georgia and Clemson, Miami and Florida, Notre Dame, Texas, A&M. Sunday night, you've got number 23 USC squaring off against number 13 LSU in Las Vegas, and Monday night, B.C. is in Tallahassee taking on Florida State. College football really kicked off on Thursday night. Let's take a look at some of those highlights. We begin the action with Murray State at number 11, Missouri. First quarter, Missouri, this is actually the opening drive, third and five in the red zone. They're going to get that first down and more 16-yard touchdown.

Missouri Handily handles Murray State, 51 to nothing. Lindenwood at number 22, Kansas. Second quarter, Kansas up 20, third, and two. Jalen Daniels finds Luke Grimm all the way down the field. He's back. Had a step on him for 58 yards. Kansas wins this one, 48 to 3. Baby blues for Kansas.

I like it. How about Southern Utah at? at number 12, Utah. This is the opening drive for Utah. Third and six at their own 36. They want more. That's too easy. Look, running back, wheel route, straight down the sideline.

All alone, finds the end zone, 64 yards for Dijon Stanley. Utah shutting out southern Utah, 49 to nothing. How about Western Carolina at NC State? This one was interesting. Barely. Bracin McAll to Kevin Concepcion for the reception. A 35-yard touchdown there. I'll see what you did there.

Yeah, 3821, the final score in favor of NC State. North Dakota State at Colorado. This one, a lot of folks tuning into. See what those buffaloes will be able to do this season. Third and goal, Colorado up four. You probably heard the name, Travis Hunter, A lot. It's an insane catch. Completely insane.

Handling the coverage. How is he catching the ball? Strengthful. Fourth of the touchdown, 31 26, the final. Desmond, Y'allel. Your biggest takeaway from the Thursday action. Well, the player we just saw, Travis Hunter, is a dude. I mean, the level of play from him at two skill positions, wide receiver and defensive back,

is just phenomenal. And then the number of snaps, I mean, he has a stamina of a world-class, like, marathon runner to take all those snaps. So that last catch, though, that we saw, that's cool. That's all right. That's nice. But the last one for the touchdown, it's harder than any one-handed, catch you'll ever see on any level. So his concentration, his ball skills, his confidence.

He's just a dude, man. Pete, what did you see Thursday night? So I saw Cam rising back and I saw Utah's offense go from completely dysfunctional in the throw game to like looking like Oregon Chip Kelly in 2009. He threw 15 passes. He completed 10. He had five touchdowns. He was out by the end of the second quarter. It was like jarring to see the Utes move the ball like that. So Utah had the number 86 passing offense in the country last year. Really held them back. They played quarterback roulette. If Cam Rising can be Cam Rising again, I think Utah is

the prohibitive favorite in the Big 12th. And I go to the SEC. We showed him earlier. Missouri. A lot of guys lost on defense. But talking to Eli Dreikowitz, his two words this year are air superiority. And you saw that last night.

I love what they bring in a table. It's almost like they don't care about defense. He knows he's got studs on offense. And he's to feed those guys. They lost that defensive coordinator to to LSU. That's a big loss for them. I've got some air superiority happening on my back side here. I'm not about you guys. I got some air

superiority happening on the backside here combating these 90 degree temperatures here in college station. Steve, some other games of note this week that we need to be hitting on from a betting perspective. Take us through your week one gambling guy. Yeah, we've talked about it earlier. Florida is at home. I call it got to get game.

When you look at what Florida has on the table knowing what the future brings as far as the schedule. You're at home, in-state rival. All those freshmen are now veterans on your team. Montrell is going to be back. He's going to play. Graham Murch was very good last year in a situation

where they didn't think they were going to be good offensively. So I expect Florida and it got to get game to cover those two and a half. Next, Oregon. Everyone, Dennis, you got them, right? Yes, sir. You got to win the title. Go ducks. So the boys in Vegas could cook up numbers according to the point spread and the differential of the point spread

in the total. So they are projected to score 51. points. I think they might score 80. They scored 81 in the game last year. Dan landing in that attitude and what they just foot on the gas nonstop. I expect a monster output to show us

what Oregon has. And then tonight Florida Atlantic, Michigan State, Michigan State is as much turnover as anybody in college football. Aided Childs is the guy earlier this week. He said, you bet, take the over. Yeah. Okay. While I'm listening, I'm taking the over between these two teams. Tom Herman's got a lot of guys back from a team.

That's a very interesting game tonight. We'll certainly be paying attention to the Oregon game. Talk with your pads might be the quote of last season other than let a naysay or no. All the things that were said last season. You talk with your pads from Dan Lanning is one that stuck around, didn't it? All right. Coming up on college football live, it's the ACC versus SEC Goliaths. Can Georgia get their first win of the season and start climbing their way back to Top Dog in the SEC?

Nick Saven on College Day Day. yet you have got to. It is must see TV tomorrow morning, 9 a.m. Eastern, right here from Texas A&M. We all saw Max Johnson go down with an injury last night in that UNC game. Pete, what's the latest there? Bad news for UNC, Jen. Max Johnson, the veteran quarterback. He played at LSU. He played here at Texas A&M. is going to be out for the remainder of the season. Mack Brown called it a hip injury last night. They were determining whether or not he'd stay in the hospital overnight. He is now out for the remainder of the year with that injury. That means Connor Harrell will be the starter for UNC. We saw him run the ball five times for 50 yards last night. He's a dynamic dual threat guy.

He started the Gator Bowl against West Virginia for UNC last year. But yeah, really bad news for UNC, veteran quarterback Max Johnson, who came to be the starter at UNC is out for the year. That's tough. And that, of course, is the uncertainty of college football. What else do we need to know about headed into week one? Well, we need to know that Sunday, we're going to see two quarterbacks. Again, in an era where over 50% of the starters are transfers. These are two guys that stuck around behind Heisman trophy winners. Right there, we see Miller Moss. He's a local kid from California,

waited out behind Caleb Williams, and then obviously we have Garrett Nussmeyer, who did the same thing at LSU. We'll see how those explosive offenses transition to these new eras. An old friend starts for South Dakota State. You may remember Mark Grinowski. He has 37 wins as a starter.

If South Dakota State goes on and wins the national title in FCS as their favor to do, he'd be the all-time winningest quarterback in all of college football. Jack rabbits are about a 10-point underdog in Stillwater. Beware, Cowboys. So the Georgia running back situation is going to be the most fascinating thing to watch as we go into the Clemson game on Saturday. They're expected to be without starback Trevor A.T.N.

Rod Robinson, his expected backup is out with an injury. So this means we're going to see a lot of Branson Robinson and a lot of true freshman Nate Frazier. He's from Los Angeles. He's been the buzz of camp. Look for number three to give them some explosion tomorrow. And speaking of those dogs, it is time for our good year road test. The road to the college football playoff begins and ends at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Clemson taking on Georgia in the Afflack kickoff game tomorrow. That's at noon Eastern on ABC. Then we'll be right back there on January 20th. Oh, yeah, right back. It's going to go so fast for the CFP National Championship. Des, this is an ACC Galaq. in Clemson and SEC Goliath in Georgia. What will you be watching for in that matchup?

Well, look at Clemson's offense, right? You know, Kate Klubnick, you know, he was up and down a year ago. Now they went out and got him some wildhouse. They brought in two five-star freshman wide-outs. One name is Bryant Westco. He's about 6'2, 170 pounds, can run like the win. And then you have T.J. Moore, 6-4-3-190. You put them on the field with Antonio Williams.

You got something special. And they still got Phil Mafa, 6-1, 230. pound running back. So I want to see this office now with all this new talent around Cade Clupnik. That's what I look at too with Mafa and that identity they established when he was in the game. Last year Clubmick didn't have the experience

he got as the season went on. And Shipley they moved them around all over the place. They didn't have an identity. When Mafa was in the game, the offensive line knew he was getting the ball and there was a mindset. The guy is a punishing runner. I expect him to get the ball a bunch of times and we haven't even mentioned Georgia, but

Clemson needs a jumpstart to this game. They have to start fast if they want to be in this game because we know what Georgia brings to the table with Carson back in that offense. So I'm going to double down on what Desmond said about the receivers. I think that unit has been Clemson's weakest link as they've gone from elite to just very good. So I want to see that whole unit. Antonio Williams back from injury. Westcoe coming in as a five-star. Do they have Mike Williams?

Do they have these? They have freak shows at that position. They had the best unit in the country and they had mediocre ACC units. They need that unit elevated. I think they have the best pieces they've had in the last few years. Excited to see them against that Georgia secondary. A great test. I think Georgia's excited too.

And that's what I'm wondering, guys, how much of a chip on their shoulder does Georgia have after what happened last year with them being on the outside looking in? I mean, just looking at their head coaches. He wakes up with it. So, yeah, I mean, Clemson's got to love being the underdog and playing that role. They don't get to do it often. But Georgia's got plenty to prove as, you know, we've. They lost out of the playoff, you know, beat Florida State. They get any credit for it.

They've got to be jacked up for this one. ESPN, FPI has Georgia with an 82.4% chance to win that game. So probably going to go Kirby Smart's way. Let's take some picks. Let's make some picks for this weekend's action. And we begin with Temple at Oklahoma. Pete, give us a quick thought on the game. So Jackson Arnold Era starts for Oklahoma, five star from Texas, a lot of hype.

What will they look like behind a revamped offensive line? Oklahoma is tired of people talking about Texas, Texas, Texas, Texas. Oklahoma's going to go out and make a statement in this game. Yeah, I feel bad for Temple. I mean, coming into the SEC, you get a Friday night game. That fan base is as good as there is in the country. You mentioned Jackson Arnold, score a lot of – the defense is going to be great for Oklahoma this year.

And that's, I think, the big thing they can fall back on as this SEC schedule starts. But that offense will go crazy tonight. Sorry for the owls. Yeah, that was a bit of an easy one. Let's move on. FAU at Michigan State. Pete, what should we be watching for? Tom Herman's most dangerous teams when he was at Houston and he was a coordinator, had mobile quarterbacks.

Meet Cam Fancher, former Marshall quarterback transferred down there. They are going to run him a lot in East Lansing tonight. And then tailback, C.J. Campbell is a Florida State transfer. They feel like they have high-end talent at those positions. And those two are going to have the ball in their hands a lot tonight. Steve, who we got? Yeah, I mentioned it if you go. I expect points.

I think Jonathan Quinn's a great head coach. And I look at the turnover they have. Aided Child is as talented as there is in that conference. So I expect a lot of points, but I'll take FAU plus the points. I think they got enough. Pete talked about the returning guys along with the transfers. Tom Herman was always good as an underdog. He wasn't good as a favorite when he got to Texas.

That was the problem. You're right about that. I think it's going to be a competitive game, a very close game. I'm going with Michigan State. I'm going with Sparty. TCU at Stanford, the last game our guys will pick. Pete, what should we be watching for in this one? They've been a little coy about the starting quarterback at Stanford.

I've been told Ashton Daniels is going to start. If you don't know, look for our old friend, Elyke Mayor to have another big game. He had over 1,000 receiving yards last year, and Tiger Bachmeier running shotgun with him out wide. Talk about teams that took their lumps last year. Stanford did that. TCU was just a massive disappointment,

but nobody really thought they could get those expectations of the year before. I think Stanford, they're wearing Cardinal on Cardinal with the uniforms, which I'm not a fan of it. It looks like practice uniforms. But Stanford will keep it close. Not a lot of people will be at the game either. When TCU was blown out of water, they took a year off.

They three conference wins, but I think they bounced back strong this year. I'm going with TCU. Lost on all of talent as teams that do really well often do in the year following. Thanks for hanging out with us here on college football live. Don't forget college game day. Tomorrow morning, 9 a.m. Eastern from right here in College Station.