College Football Live - QB's on the Move

Episode Date: December 12, 2023

Host Kelsey Riggs is joined by Tom Luginbill, Desmond Howard, Matt Miller, and Pete Thamel as they discuss the big player news in the College Football landscape. Notably, Drake Maye and Sam Hartman declaring for the NFL Draft, Riley Leonard transferring to Notre Dame, and Dillon Gabriel to Oregon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome into college football live. I'm Kelsey Riggs, and we're coming out the tunnel in this busy Tuesday afternoon. Starting with this. Drake May, he's off to the NFL. What kind of pro player can he become and find out who thinks he should have stayed another year in Chapel Hill? Plus, don't sleep on the Washington Huskies in the playoff this season. Could they be poised to be national champions? And the portal? Well, it's portaling. And quarterbacks, they are starting to shake out which big names have found new places to call home this fall. Who's paying for it? Making a mistake that a good quarterback of the portal costs, you know, a million to million five to two million dollars right now. So just just won the same page, right?

Matt Ruhl might not be paying that right now for a transfer quarterback. But Pete Tham will be with us in a little while to talk about if he's able to flip one of the top quarterbacks in this year's class. Tom Lugan, Bill, Desmond Howard, with me now. Matt Miller also standing by because we've got to start with what is happening right now. As guys get ready to declare for the NFL draft and big news, news as North Carolina quarterback, Drake May, made it official he has played his last collegiate game. The North Carolina quarterback posted on social media saying it was a lifelong dream to play quarterback at North Carolina, but now he's opting out of the bowl game and focusing on draft

practice. Now, despite the fact that he's only started two seasons for North Carolina, his career in Chapel Hill put him near the top in a number of major North Carolina records. He's fourth in total offense at just over 9,000 yards. He also ranks the top five in passing yards, touchdowns, and completion percentage. And Lug's done that all in just two seasons with North Carolina. We have talked throughout the year, Loubs, about 1A and 1B when it comes to Drake May and Caleb Williams. Let's focus right now, though, on Drake May. And in your opinion, what is he going to bring to the next level? Really, really savvy athleticism. I think that's one thing that's underrated about him. He rushed for just under 500 yards this year. Now,

statistically it will look like he didn't have as good a year. Our crew had North Carolina in week five against Syracuse. And when you started to really peel back the layers, I would argue he was playing as good, if not better football at the same time this year as he was in 2022. They were just able to run the football more effectively. And a lot of the explosive plays that they threw this year as opposed to the previous year didn't result in touchdowns. Like I'd get tackled on the two or tackled on the five. So the run. rush numbers started to go up. I just think he's got a knack for changing

arm angles, making plays when maybe there's a play that's not there to be made. If there's a criticism, why has this team not finished the last two seasons on a high note? Yeah, you know, I agree with Luz as far as a sneaky athleticism. I do think that Drake May

is very athletic. I just think he can use another year of staying in school, just another year of development. I'm not sure about his processing ability. I think that he's able to process at a decent level for a college quarterback. But when you're talking about a guy who's projected to be maybe one of the first two quarterbacks off the ball, the expectation is he's supposed to be plug and play. And when I've

watched them throughout the season, you know, there's just those head scratching plays to make you say, what was he looking at, what were his reed, and why did he throw the ball where he threw it, which leads me to believe that he could use a little bit more development. Athletically, he's gifted. Arm angles, he's good. But as far as processing, I think that's where some of the scouts are going to have an issue with Drake May. We'll see how quickly he is able to develop at the next level because he did make it official. He has played his last game for North Carolina.

And you take a look at what the future looks like and where he could go. We've got our first look at NFL analyst Matt Miller's initial 2024 mock draft. Here's how the top 10 shapes out. And USC's Caleb Williams going first overall. to Chicago, then Drake May to New England, the order of the marked draft based on ESPN's FPI, which projects when each team might be picking based on simulations of the rest of the season. So that's what it will look like right now with Drake May, potentially going number two overall right behind Caleb Williams.

And we bring in NFL draft analyst and Matt Miller now for more on Drake May. How do you evaluate what he'll be able to do, Matt, as a pro? Yeah, the guys know that Drake May is a fantastic athlete. also a huge arm can make every throw that you want to drop in your playbook. I think the biggest complaint would be a lack of consistency, especially when it comes to ball placement. But it's easy to watch North Carolina in the last two years and see a little Josh Allen or a little Justin Herbert with some of the things that he can do inside, outside the pocket,

varying up the arm angle, varying up velocity to find his guys. And I would say once he got Tess Walker this year, I think we saw the passing game really expand for Drake May. So yes, you could always argue of redshirt sophomore could use more time. in college to better that processing ability. But right now, the traits that he has are really exciting to NFL teams, which is why he's coming up the board number two overall in this first mock draft. Matt, let's take a look now at your top quarterbacks and key in on those because four of them were in the top 10 of your mock draft.

You see Caleb Williams, Drake May, Jaden Daniels, J.J. McCarthy, and of course, Boe Nix. Let's focus on the Heisman winner, Jaden Daniels. In all season, we've talked a lot about Caleb Williams, Drake May, are they 1A and 1B? But how close is Jaden Daniels to that top two potentially? Oh, he is right there in the mix. And as you mentioned, Heismuth-Truthy winner, I think he was the most improved player in college football, as well as the best player in college football, which is why he's taking home the hardware. But what he's done this year, improving his ability to play from within the pocket.

Jaden Daniels was the best deep ball thrower in college football this past year, 22 touchdowns, zero interceptions on passes over 20 yards. We know what he does as a runner, but he's really starting to tie everything together as a passer. I think it will come down to team preference, whether it's the New England Patriots, maybe it's the New York Giants, the Las Vegas Raiders, whoever is in that number two spot looking at QB2, it could just be the preference of style you want to run, and maybe it is the experience of Jaden Daniels, who has five years of college football as opposed to two years with Drake May. So it is really going to be an interesting conversation over the next four to five months as we dive into these players.

It definitely depends on not just who you are, but also where you could go. Matt, we appreciate the insight there. Des and Lug's back with me now. And we saw his top five. I want to go top three on y'all's quarterbacks because I think we have some differing of opinions. Lugues, give me your top three quarterbacks that are available to be drafted this year. Well, I started off with Caleb Williams because I think he can just flat out do things that you can't coach. And you watch that USC football team.

You just try and close your eyes for a second and envision who they are without him. And his arm strength is so much greater than I think he gets credit for. That's going to really show up in the pre-draft process. Drake May, we already talked about him, 62 touchdowns and 16 interceptions the last two years. But I think Jaden Daniels is the one,

and I would agree with Matt, that has really revamped his ability from within the pocket. You watch him at ASU as a freshman and a sophomore could not really function. him three step and five step classic drop back game. He's completely revitalized the passing game from those early days of his college career. So I think his stock is continuing to rise.

I tell you what, Lou's. I like Jaden Daniels and Matt Miller hit on the head. He says he's probably one of the most improved players in the country. But not just from last season to this season, we're talking about from Arizona State to where he is now. I mean, such a progression, development, the way this young man processes everything. and the way he attacks the game. So I love when you look at him

from Arizona State to the Heisman trophy winner, just a great quarterback and great development. Then you got Caleb. We all know about Caleb Williams what he brings to the table. And then JJ McCarthy. I think that JJ is a guy who's going to be, when they start to really peel back the

layers, he's NFL ready. No shortage of talent for this year's quarterbacks. That is for sure. We will find out not too long where all these guys are headed. But right now we've got some other quarterback news to to it's involving Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman, who also has opted out of the Irish's bowl game and declared for the NFL draft as well. He finishes his collegiate career where there were 15,000 passing yards, 134 touchdowns and 49 interceptions. We'll have more on what's

next for the Irish at the quarterback spot moving forward coming up with Pete Thammel. And we've also got info about who's transferring to play quarterback for the ducks. Pete Thamel joins us with the latest on the landing spots from all across the transfer portal. College Football Live is brought to you by K Jewelers. Celebrate every moment with K. McDonald's and AutoZone. Get in the zone. Welcome back into College Football Live.

We've got the portal tracker. Keep an eye on it for you. and you take a look at some of the numbers. Since the portal opened on December 4th, over 1,600 FBS players have entered over 7. Our Power 5 players, over 800 are group of 5. And on top of that, 100 and 10 of them are FBS scholarship quarterbacks. It's called the portal tracker,

but I think we should also call it like the Pete Thammel tracker because our college football insider Pete Thamel is so busy right now following all of this news. And a lot of the quarterbacks are busy deciding where they're going or taking visits. You got an update on one big time named quarterback. What do you have, Pete? Well, Kelsey, DJ Uwe-ungalai is going to be peaking at another ACC school. He obviously started his career at Clemson, transferred to Oregon State last year. He will be visiting Florida State this weekend. His visit will come after former Washington State quarterback Cam Ward visits

Tallahassee. He's also visited Coral Gables earlier in the week as an expected to take one more visit. So there's a possibility that DJU with his more than 8,000 yards and 57 touchdowns, could be completing his college career in Tallahassee. Always interesting when you see somebody go back and potentially could be playing against his former team in Clemson, if that does work out with the Seminoles. Meanwhile, the Irish, they got a wide receiver in the transfer portal and Bo Collins, but they're still looking for their quarterback. What's the latest on what the Irish are going to do there? Well, Kelsey, they found him, and this may sound familiar, but, but they found an overachieving ACC program with a star signal caller and invited him in for a year.

This time it's Riley Leonard, the Duke quarterback, who led the Blue Devils to a 9 and 4 record in 2022. Started off 4 and 0 in 2023 before a string of injuries. Leonard actually left the last three games he played this season with injuries until the toe injury against Louisville finally knocked him out. Leonard and the Irish came together in part because of history. His great grandfather played for Notre Dame in the class of 1940. And we can all relate to this, Kelsey, growing up, his favorite movie was Rudy. Oh, I love that.

You saw him post on social media saying that this was a dream come true for him. As we bring back in, the guys will have more with Pete in a second. But, Des, let me start with you. Marcus Freeman, getting Riley Leonard, also mentioned Bo Collins. What are your thoughts on the pieces that he's adding there for the Irish? Well, first of all, Rudy sucked. I was hoping he'd pop a hamstring. But besides that,

besides that, I'm happy with coaches, staff. How did you think that about Rudy? He needs some help on the outside. Don't with Rudy. They need some help on the perimeter. I mean, I don't care who they had the quarterback position.

I think that was one thing that was lacking. They were strong up front offensive line. Obviously, they had a power running game, but they didn't have the perimeter threats, especially the vertical. threats to take a lid off of defense. So now it's great to see that they're going to bring that type of threat to South Bend at the receiver position.

I totally agree with the receiver. In fact, as I would say, I would argue that Sam Hartman had better targets on the perimeter at Wake Forest during his career than he did at Notre Dame. So that's a good upgrade there. As far as Riley Leonard's concerned with Notre Dame, I like this because it brings a running athletic element to the office. You can utilize Riley Leonard as a designated runner, quarterback power, quarterback counter, zone read stuff. That's not something

that they've really had at their disposal will make them more difficult to defend. The biggest key is staying healthy, right? You've got to be able to stay healthy. And I'll say one thing about the transfer portal guys, and I just wrote a piece for dot com on 10 transfer portal quarterbacks and where they may end up. Did you look at those numbers that we just posted when we threw up

that screen? Like somebody's not doing the math here. And I know Pete Thamble knows this. That's way more people in the transfer portal than there actually are scholarships for. And it's continuing to go up year after year, which is super interesting as well. You think about all those guys where they aren't heading. I like y'all's football takes.

I don't think that I will ever get does his movie takes just based off of that. Let's get to some other quarterback news, though, that we have. That's former Oklahoma quarterback Dylan Gabriel. He announced this week he's transferring to Oregon for his final season of eligibility, ranked six among all FBS quarterbacks this season, passing for over 3,600 yards, and 8th with 30 passing touchdowns. So how does he compare against the other quarterbacks? He'll be playing next season.

We'll take a look at this. Gabriel has the most career passing yards and passing touchdowns among players with 2024 eligibility. And on top of that, he has the eighth most passing yards in FBS history and a good chance to move into second next season. So Lug's, the Ducks just lost their Heisman finalist quarterback and Bo Nix. Now they need a new one. How do you like Dylan Gabriel to fill this void? Well, obviously, he's got tremendous experience, but I love his anticipatory traits. He gets the ball out of his hand.

He's got tremendous confidence. He sees the field well, even though he doesn't have ideal size. For me, the interesting thing about this is I watched him when he first arrived at Oklahoma, and I really felt like this is a group of five player that maybe doesn't quite belong. And then this last year, I thought he really, really showcased himself well. He looked like he belonged, had a great year. Yeah, I agree with you. He knows he's a dual threat quarterback, brings a ton of experience, leadership to the Dutz offense.

He's exactly the guy that they needed. They're going to have a lot of talent. You look at the skill position players for the Oregon Ducks. They have guys in the backfield out there on the perimeter. He's the perfect plug and play quarterback for the Oregon Ducks. They didn't really surprise many people when he decided to sign with the Ducks because it just made perfect sense. And you mentioned all that experience that he has something that they had with Bo Nix as well

after he transferred in from Auburn. Quarterback that doesn't have a whole lot of experience yet, but is one of the favorites right now, something we're going to bring back in Pete Thammel for, because Twitter's talking. Everybody's talking online about what could potentially happen with the number two overall quarterback, number eight in ESPN 300s, Dylan Rayola, and potentially flipping his commitment from Georgia. Elsewhere. Pete, what can you tell us? Well, Kelsey, it looks like we're on the cusp of the biggest flip of flipping season. Dylan Rayola, who had been committed to Georgia, who was previously committed to Ohio State, appears to be in line to commit to Nebraska. There's obviously strong family ties with the Raiolas and Nebraska. I was told last night that Nebraska coaches reached out to Daniel Kalin,

who was their quarterback commitment for this upcoming cycle in 2024. He's a local kid from Bellevue West. And they said basically they were expecting a commitment from Rola. And therefore, they were giving Kailan the option to stay. And they guaranteed his NIL and his scholarship. But they wanted to let him know he would have company in this upcoming class. So again, it's never done until it's done in recruiting. but it looks like Dylan Raola may be a cornhusker and we'll find out in the upcoming days.

Something to keep an eye on there for sure. Lug's your reaction? Well, you watch this Nebraska program over the last 10 years, right? And they are just starved for quality quarterback play. They are starred for a guy that you can build the program around and they just haven't had it. Dylan Raola is extremely gifted. He can make all the throws super smooth. Looks a little bit like Joe Burrow in terms of having that purity as a pass. So this would be absolutely huge for Matt Ruhl and that staff.

And you mentioned Matt Ruhl. As we heard Matt Ruhl off the top of the show, a quote a couple of weeks ago, talking about what you pay for a transfer quarterback, but this isn't a transfer. So what do we think? Yeah, I still want to know what matches did Matt Ruh look under to find that $2 million to bring this high high stakes quarterback here and flipped them from Georgia. I mean, once you flip a guy from programs like Georgia and Ohio State, that means he came with a high price tag.

It would be a big deal for sure. We would continue to follow all of this. Lug's what you got? Listen, I just keep asking myself, where are these million dollar quarterbacks that are in the portal that actually played like a million dollars? And by the way, Des right? NIL's not supposed to go into recruiting, right?

Yeah, right. No, not happening. Has it ever happened even before NIL. Signing Day special on ESPN2. Next Wednesday, two hour special. Lugues and the crew will have you cover there. Make sure you tune in for the last. latest there. Meanwhile, we got to talk national championship after this because Washington is

appearing in just their second college football playoff. But Desma leaves this team is national championship caliber. He tells you why after this. A season, all season. I'd rather be. It is coming. Going to be here before you know at Michigan and Alabama and the Rose Bowl. Washington and Texas in the Sugar Bowl starts Monday, January 1st. And it's hard to believe it, But that means 20 days away until we get to see these college football playoff semifinals. As you take a look at the college football playoff national championship trophy presented by Dr. Pepper. One of those four teams is going to be hoisting that trophy and not too long. But guys, a lot of attention, obviously, on what's going to happen out in the Rose Bowl,

number one and number four going head to head. But I want to talk about the Sugar Bowl right now. And, Des, you think one of these teams could be not just walking out of that game with the but could have the potential to win the national championship. Who is it and why? I really do. And I've liked this Washington team since probably halfway through the season. Now, they started the season with Michael Pennix and the receivers and these guys were just

like lighten it up, throwing the ball off the field. But the second half of the season, the Dylan Johnson, the running back, he started to emerge. They became much more physical. And that's how they beat Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game. Don't forget, they were an underdog, a nine and a half point. underdog in the Pact 12 championship, and they took care of Oregon because of Dylan Johnson, that young man right there, and the offensive line. They were more physical.

They were able to control the clock and control the line of scrimmage. He's a difference maker now for the Washington Huskies, and that Texas, boy, oh, boy, their front seven, they're a group to be reckoned with two. So the game within the game is going to be Washington's offensive line against Texas's front seven, the Longhorns Front Seven. Make sure you keep an eye on that. I couldn't agree with you more. I don't think Washington has faced anybody

with the two tandem defensive tackles that Texas plays within that front four. That's how good to Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy are. We know Washington's capable of getting explosive plays. I don't know if Texas can eliminate all of them. I think they can limit them because of that front seven. But for me, the whole question is, can Washington run the football effectively

against the Texas defense of front seven that's number one is a defense overall in the big 12 against the run, number three in the country against the run, and the number one third down defense in college football to get off the field. So I think this is all about whether or not Washington can't, if they can bore a win for a doozy.

Yeah, I tell you what, and that was the most impressive thing about Texas when I watched them early in the season against Alabama. They traveled to Tuscaloosa, took on Alabama in their own backfield, but what really jumped out is how they controlled the line of scrimmage offensively and defensively. Love the way that they control the line of scrimmage, guys.

20 days away from that, but bowl season, it starts one Saturday. Starting at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific, the Celebration Bowl, then Miami of Ohio and App State, and the Mexico Cure Bowl, and Starco Brands, L.A. Bowl, UCLA, and Boise State. postseason is here and pretty soon it will be time for semifinals as well look forward to seeing you back same time same place right here tomorrow on college football live