College Football Live - Gambling Scanals and ACC Tour

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

Welcome into CFB Live hosted by Zubin Mehenti, along side Sam Acho, Heather Dinich and Kris Budden. The crew dives into the developing story of John Mateer and gambling. Plus what can we expect from Bill Belichick in year one in college football. All that and more here on CFB Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

commute a college football live with Heather Dinnich, Sam, Acho, and Chris Budden. I'm Zubin Mahenty. Chris here, part of our sideline series, the top reporters in the sport, adding their perspective. So, Chris, great to have you. Let's jump right into it. Biggest story in college football here in the last day or so, Oklahoma superstar transfer quarterback, John Matier, having to deny he's been involved in sports gambling. After the term showed up on his Venmo transaction history, for those of you unfamiliar, I'm sure most of you are, Venmo is a mobile payment service. All right, so Mathier had to come out swinging.

Quote, the allegations that I once participated in sports gambling are false. My previous Venmo descriptions did not accurately portray the transactions in question, but were instead inside jokes between me and my friends. I have never bet on sports. I understand the seriousness or the matter, but recognize that. Take it out of context. Those Venmo descriptions suggest otherwise I can assure my teammates, coaches, and officials at the NCAA that I have not engaged in any sports gambling.

Our P. FAML reported that OU became aware this Monday night. They're looking into it. Heather, let's start with you. Oh, you shouldn't just be wary of this investigation. You're saying they should also be wary of the NCAA in general. Take us inside. Listen, the NCAA does not tolerate sports betting. And if you look at the NCAA rules, which I looked at earlier today,

If you bet on any NCAA-sanctioned sport at any level, then they're talking about eligibility as a punishment. That's where it starts. So if you're a college baseball player, you can't bet on Major League Baseball. If you're a college football player, you can't bet on college football or the NFL. That's how this works.

And if you bet on your own team, that's the worst possible scenario. If you're a college football player and you're betting on other teams, it starts punishment-wise at possibly losing as much as half of a season's worth of eligibility. So there are a lot of wishy-washy rules sports betting is not one of them in the NCAA. Heather, I think that this goes into a larger conversation of technology moving faster than we're able to keep up with. And you have kids that are soon going to be the age of being able to have a job. and if they go and babysit, someone wants to Venmo, and they open up an account, you need to turn that to private.

If you open up Venmo, I could see more than probably if it's public than what you're doing on your Instagram stories. And you gave someone $25 because you went to go get sushi at the local restaurant. These athletes need to know privacy roles. Instagram is doing the same thing with your location settings and where you are from a map's point of view. And in terms of gambling and how big this has become from those. that watch the sport. There are athletes that are getting Venmo requests for you didn't live up

or you threw a touchdown or an interception when you shouldn't have. And that costs me $2,500. You owe me this or, hey, thanks for the touchdown pass late in the fourth because I earned $400. Here's a piece of the pie that let's say you accidentally accepted that could get you into very large trouble. So my piece of advice is as we're keeping up with technology and Venmo is now part of this in this gambling world is be smart and keep all of this stuff privately. Sam, let's go to you on the field here. What is the impact that Mateer was supposed to have for a program like this that might now be in flux? Well, it's supposed to be night and day.

He was supposed to bring some light to a dark, dark offense. What I mean by that? Oklahoma's passing offense was 119th last season. Now, Washington State, where John Mateer was at, they were 16th. So the issue is this. There wasn't only John Mateer that's coming to Oklahoma. It was also his offensive coordinator, Ben Arbuckle. So the entire offense is going to be or supposed to be built around John Mateer.

And around Arbuckle and what he's been able to do with their history. Of course, Jay not at running back coming in as a transfer from Cal is supposed to be a part of that addition. But if for whatever reason Matur is not able to play, you can expect some more of the same, which is a poor and a poorest offense for Oklahoma. Yeah. Lastly, I would just say that Oklahoma has said that they do comprehensively monitor sports gambling activities, and they have no reason to believe that an NCAA investigation is pending. As they say, stay tuned.

Elsewhere, we are getting ready for the start of week one, 19 days until we basically end week one with a Labor Day night showdown between TCU and North Carolina. Of course, that means Bill Belichick. Every ticket for North Carolina football. has been sold this year. Not bad for a program that hasn't won a conference title since 1980. The ACC Road Tour in Chapel Hill asking Bill the difference between CFB and 49 years in the NFL. Well, every year in the NFL, it was a starting all over again feeling. So some of those guys heard it. In Tom's case, they heard it 20 times about, you know, staying in bounds in a four-minute offense and getting out of bounds in a two-minute offense. and, you know, saving a timeout for a field goal and so forth.

So all those things. But, yeah, it's the same progression. And then we work them out in the field and the things that we need to correct, we correct and try to get those right. And the things we do right, we reinforce and say, yeah, this is what we want to do. Here's how we want to do it. In all honesty, we've shown a lot of Patriots film and other great players in the NFL, too, but a lot of Patriots film on here's what we want you to do.

Here's how to do it. Right. You know, watch High Tower, Watch Brady, watch Gronkowski, watch Edelman, watch, you know, Lawrence Taylor, watch these guys do it because they were great at it. And so it's actually been fun to go back and watch some of those guys and show them how good they were and why they were so good because the way they played the technique and how they understood the game. Great insight. LTE was at practice the other day. You can see that entire interview, ACC Network, 7. Eastern. Tomorrow, the road show is going to be at Stanford.

the guys will get their frequent flyer miles. Sam, I want to talk with you. Belichick just said there, listen, there's really not that much of a difference between college and the NFL as far as he's concerned, but as a guy that played both yourself for 13 years combined, you say there really is. Yeah, Bill Belichick is wrong on this one. There's a major difference between college and the NFL. The NFL, there's a culture. There's a set group of players that are there, staff that is there, that can help build and install what exactly you want to be and who exactly want to be. college is very different, especially now. North Carolina has 70 new players on their team.

70, it's not like a draft. You draft like seven or eight guys, bring in 10 free agents. No, there are 70 new players, 40, over 40 transfers. So this is, yes, it's football, but there are different types of athletes you're dealing with. You're not dealing with Julian Edelman or Rob Grancowski or Tom Brady, for that matter. These are kids who are trying to get to that level. And so you can watch all the Tom Brady tape you want, all the Edelman tape you want, all the gronk tape you want, but you may not be able to be that person.

So there are major differences in college and the NFL, and I think Bill Belichick spent 50 years in the NFL. He may see that sooner than later. Sam, I love that North Carolina is not in the AP preseason top 25 because it's a reminder that just because you hired Bill Belichick, a Super Bowl winning head coach, doesn't necessarily mean you're going to flip a switch and North Carolina is going to win the national championship. Let's start with working the way into the top 25 because the reality here is it's not the NFL

because there are no NFL preseason games for him to learn who these players are. You talked about all the transfers. We're talking about a roster and an acclamation period here with unproven skill players, guys up front who are just starting to really hit each other with pads on and, you know, just completely finding out the identity of this team beyond its head coach is going to be critical. I don't think we're going to know who this team is until they play Clemson. This season, I think North Carolina is the biggest mystery in college football. That Clemson game is going to be in early October.

Chris Button, I want to go to you. It's not exactly like playing the Bills Dolphies and gets twice, but I know you have taken a look at UNC schedule, and that's giving you some thoughts. Yeah, I mean, you throw on all these numbers of 70 new players, and, you know, will Bill Belichick be able to do that in his first year? And they're not in the top 25. And I get it, Heather.

There should be realistic expectations. But then you go through the schedule. And maybe Jim Phillips is really nice when they put this together. Because other than Clemson, I mean, these games are winnable. It's the second easiest schedule in the ACC. It's 10th easiest in the country. Find me someone's in there that if they can find a rhythm there with Geo Lopez as a quarterback that they can't win outside that October 4.

So I 100% get that you got a lot of new phase. and they need time to gel, but they didn't sell out all those games because people think they're not going to get a winning record. Yeah, but there may be a reality check, Chris, to your point on October 4th when they play Clemson, you might be able to beat some of the earlier, easier teams on your schedule just based off of coaching alone.

But when you play a talented team like Clems, and even later on in the year, when they play Syracuse, who I believe was a 10-win team last season, it may be a dose of reality, not just for Bill Belichick, but for all the fans that may hop on the North Carolina Van Wagon. Sam, I want to go. go to you real quick, just because one thing we haven't discussed is on every team, the most

important player is the quarterback. And for Belichick, he didn't even reach into the power four to get his quarterback. What should we make of Geo Lopez in year one with all the attention and getting a guy from South Alabama? Well, let's not hate on Joe Lopez in South Alabama just yet. Joe Lopez is extremely talented. He's a dual threat type of quarterback. He's not necessarily going to beat you with his legs all the time, but he can't run the ball. So there's talent there. But remember, there's still a quarterback competition. At least there hasn't been a starter announced yet.

Max Johnson, who was starting really when the season started last year. Outside of that, he broke his leg. I believe it was week one. He's back in that conversation. And so Joe Lopez has an opportunity to maybe put the team on his back. He is talented, but there's still so much that needs to be seen, not only in the competition, but also can he handle all that's going to be put on him when the offense is installed in the power for. That's a great point, Sam.

It'll be bittersweet for Max Johnson because you're right. He did break his leg in week one against Minnesota, and now he'll be back for week one, likely as the backup to start. Still to come here on college football live. You know, it was Heipel's old quarterback that got all the attention this offseason. But his new one, whoever it is, is primed to do what? First, we've got to figure out who it is. Across the country, big quarterback duel.

You have to be determined. We'll talk about it next. So he'll either put on Vivo or Brutus for the last time. 1159 a.m. Saturday, August, 30th. Can't wait for that. Alabama fans can't wait to see if Ty Simpson is going to be that five-star quarterback, everybody said he was going to be. He was named Alabama started yesterday, though kind of unofficially it had been trending that way for a while. Keep in mind, he's only throwing 50 passes in his college career, and Alabama's coming off a run where you had Bryce Young, Jalen Milrow, Mack Jones, who all balled out. So Alabama's done. Ohio State looking to replace Will Howard. Notre Dame's going to have a ton of inexperience no matter who they picked. Joey Aguilar seems like he's going to replace Nico, but you never know. And who's going to replace, of course, Chodor Sanders at Colorado, all of those TBA or so we think. Sam, let's start with you. The media, the fans are all saying all these competitions are wide open. The coaches are saying it too. Take us inside a program with your experience.

At this point in camp, what do the guys in the locker room know about the most important position and who's going to play? The players already know who's going to be the start. I don't care what a coach says in an interviewer, what the media says. The players know. I remember my time in Arizona with the Cardinals. We brought in Drew Stanton to be our quarterback. And all of a sudden there was a trade. We acquired Carson Palmer.

There was a quote-unquote competition. But Carson Palmer was doing things with the ball that Drew Stanton, quite frankly, wasn't. And so from a player perspective, it was very clear who should be the starter. Same thing goes in college. There's no doubt, especially now, 10 or so days away from week one, you're already game planning for who you're going to play. You're already putting in guys who have reps with the ones and other guys going to get reps with the twos and threes. You know who your starter is for the most part. And if you don't, that's a bigger problem for your team as a whole.

The coaches at this point have to start giving guys more reps with the ones to figure that out. And you want to learn leadership. but I have talked to several agents who have said coaches also like to play a little bit of a mind game because retention is as much a big part of their program as recruiting. And you've got to keep those backup quarterbacks out of the transfer portal to have some depth at the position. It's getting harder and harder to do. But look at how important it is in the college football playoff and surviving a season that now goes to January 20th or 21st. Can you have an Arch Manning as your backup quarterback?

Not many programs are very lucky enough to be able to do that. But look at what happens when you don't. Look what happened with Florida State when they had that undefeated run to the ACCC title and were left out of the playoff because their starting quarterback went down. So I think there's a little bit of a strategy not only on the field but also off of it from some of these head coaches. Great point, Heather. Game within the game. Chris, I want to go to you because one of the first matchups you'll be on the sideline for is Syracuse and Tennessee.

We mentioned the quarterback battle at Tennessee. You know, I heard the other day. I saw a story that Joey Aguilar was thinking about quitting football to become a firefighter. Instead, he stayed patient. Now he's being thrown into the fire. This is a big time replacement for Nico. Take us inside his development because he's had to do it in an expedited fashion. Yeah, the expedited fashion and a system with Josh Heppel that is already hard to learn

and then had to come here towards the end of May early June when there was that quarterback swap. What I find it so interesting is that when, Niko I. Maliava went to UCLA and reports were that he wanted more money and Josh Hype will put his foot down. The rest of the Tennessee fan base was like, yes, like we're good with him leaving. We don't want someone asking for more money. You know, Joey Aguard, our coming will open you with open arms. What if it doesn't go so well at the beginning of the year? Because by the way, they have to have a new center.

Cooper Mays who has been there where it feels like forever is gone. They have to replace a lot of their wide receiver core. That is a hard playbook for someone who just came in in June to be able to, learn. What is that fan base saying about Nico leaving if things don't go according to plan to start the season, especially against Syracuse? Sam, take me into the mind of a player here. Tennessee has won 30 games over the last three years. I think people are losing sight of that. But there was some talk because of the way the Nico thing went down that maybe a little bit of a fallback is okay this year because of the circumstances. Do you buy that?

I'm not buying it as a player. The fans may buy it, but as a player, you don't believe in falling back. You don't believe in rebuilding. You believe in winning now. Now, here's the issue with winning now. That August 30th game versus Syracuse is likely going to be a problem for Tennessee. Syracuse is a team on the rise. That's problem number one. Problem number two, you need a solution for Georgia, September 13th.

Go Alabama, October 18th at Alabama. And then at the end, November 22nd, Florida. Those are four potential losses for this team. And so on the outside, you can talk about rebuild all you want. But there will be frustration. I would still argue for Tennessee fans if you end up eight and four this season. All right, one team you don't see on that schedule is South Carolina. That may be a good thing because coming up on college football live for the first time in a long time,

the game talks have some big time expectations. Though can they be fulfilled thanks to maybe the best player in the conference? That's it. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made to measure growth and expansion advice. and we can talk your ear off about transferring your business when the time comes. Because at Desjardin Business, we speak the same language you do, business.

So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us, and contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk, business. One of the longest continuing series in all of college football, not in Ames or Manhattan, as Joe said, on the Emerald Isle. As I mentioned, this is our sideline series. Our reporters are joining us, and there are Chris Cross in the country

first couple weeks of this season. It's going to be a dozy of a back-to-back for Chris Budden. We talked about Syracuse and Tennessee. On Sunday, she will be covering Virginia Tech and South Carolina. And Chris, that's where I want to start with you with the Gamecox last year, picked to finish 13th in the league.

They finished three spots out of a playoff berth. And you're saying they need to heed a lesson from last year's tough, tough losses. What is that? Yeah, I think they just go on when the ones that you're supposed to win. And one of the ones that I'll go back to was the LSU game from a year ago where they had the lead. And I understand Lenore Sellers went down. But, you know, your defense needs to be able to step up and hold them off.

If you're able to do that, win the close ones. If you look at Arizona State, they were able to make it to win the Big 12 and be in the playoff because they won the close ones. You got to be able to win the close ones in this league. It was the same thing against Alabama as well. I believe a three-point loss against the tie. You do that. And I think also the chain bemer's the perfect coach to be able to handle these expectations. And what a way to be able to start it in Atlanta on a Sunday against the team that his dad coached for so, so long.

Yeah, look forward to seeing you there. Sam, let's follow up on a word that Chris just used. Expectations. It's been quite a while since South Carolina's had expectations this big. What does that do to a team at? this time of year knowing what everyone is already expecting out of them. Oh, it means nothing for what everyone else is expecting, but internally what you expect of yourself, it means everything.

I remember back in 2008 when I was playing at Texas, we lost one game that year. We thought we should have been the national championship. We weren't. The offseason we spent saying we're going to do everything it takes to get to the national championship, and we did. This South Carolina team won their last six games. And Chris, you talked about some of those tough losses. They lost by two points to Alabama.

They should have beat LSU if Lenore Steller-Stellers, stays healthy. You have a confident team with a team that knows that they have a quarterback, you can take them all the way. So if I'm a South Carolina player, I have the utmost level of confidence in myself, in my teammates, and in my quarterback. The outside expectations don't matter, but what I did on the field last year, it means so much more than anyone else can say. Listen, I feel like it's hard to find the team right now, the top half of the SEC, where the expectations aren't high. And I know, Ajo, you've got that Texas, sitting on your shelf there looking real nice everybody loves the longhorns my buddy

fine bomb loves the longhorns but the reality is I don't think we're talking about this enough to me the SEC is wide open every single team in that league is ranked in the top 20 in ESPN strength of schedule metric what does that mean it means they're going to lose okay it's going be really hard for even the Texas Longhorns who have the number four schedule in the country to go through this gauntlet and survive. When you look at South Carolina, I love that matchup against Virginia Tech, but I mean, holy cow, at LSU, they got Alabama. Oklahoma's not going to be easy at A&M. And then against rival Clemson, that's a huge game. Because remember, head-to-head matters in that committee meeting room. If Clemson and South Carolina

don't win their respective leagues and they're both fighting for an at-large bid? What does that mean for the college football playoff? So yes, I think Lenora Sellers has raised expectations for South Carolina, so has that defense. They've got a lot of good things going for them. But so does LSU, so does Georgia,

so does Alabama, and so do your Longhorn, Sam. Fair enough. One thing I just want to mention for all fans that may not be aware, essentially whatever teams you played on the road last year in the SEC, you're now playing them at home. So you do have a little bit of familiarity there. One quick note I want to mention today, the University of Kansas got a $300 million donation. Move over Phil Knight, get to know the name, David Booth, putting $300 million into the

athletic department, a lot of it earmarked for football. Our reporter series will end up tomorrow with our Katie George who will join us for Sam, for Heather, and for Chris. I'm Zubin. We will see you tomorrow for more college football live. Thank you.