College Football Live - Recapping Week 6- PSU & Texas Fall, Miami's Case for #1

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

The halfway point of CFB season is almost upon us....join our crew Zubin Mehenti, Sam Acho, Tom Luginbill, Pete Thamel, and Heather Dinich on CFB Live as they breakdown what went wrong for the AP Preseason #1 and 2 and discuss what's next for a struggling Texas and Penn State. A new AP Poll is here...who do the guys think is the real #1 between Ohio State and Miami? Pete gives an update on John Mateer, Heather Dinich joins to give her CFP Predictions, and the guys discuss which teams they think are still flying under the radar...all this and more on College Football Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you're flying Emirates business class, enjoying a good night's rest in your lie flat seat, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. Hey there, welcome to college football live. I'm Timmy Henty out of the tunnel here on this Tuesday from the top of the preseason poll to bottoming out. What has happened to Texas and Penn State? Our experts weigh in on their struggles. Could it be just 17 days after having surgery on his throwing hand that John Matier could play

Saturday against Texas, the very latest on his injury situation, on the way. And the polls say Ohio State's number one. But we'll make a compelling case for Miami to be in the top spot. That more on college football lot. And we welcome you inside, Pete, Tom, Sam, Zubin. We talked about it. Penn State, Texas, one, two, top of the polls. They have combined for zero.

Power four victories. So much for the preseason poll. Let's talk about both, starting with Penn State. Probably heard the ugly stat that UCLA hadn't led for a second in any game this season before the upset of the season over the Nittney Lions with Jerry New Heisle playing center stage. He loved it. You know who didn't love it? This guy. The reality is we're talking about right now and the last two weeks weren't good enough.

And ultimately, I'm responsible. I hired the staff. We've recruited the players. I'm ultimately responsible for all of it. I think Penn State fans have heard that before. Pete, let's start with you. College football is a reactionary sport where nothing is out of bounds. James Franklin's buyout is about $56 million.

So you can pretty much tell where I'm going with this. Where does he stand here after back-to-back losses in a year they thought would be their year? Sure, Zubin. College football is certainly fueled by emotion, which makes it great, maddening, and a little bit crazy sometimes. James Franklin's buyout is in that neighborhood of $50 million. And that's just not in the conversation right now at Penn State in terms of parting ways with him. We've seen Zubin a lot of year-to-year variants in how these top programs go.

And quite frankly, in the prior three seasons, nobody had been more consistent than Penn State. They won 34 games. They were a nose-hair away from playing for the national title last year. Now, this season has certainly been a disappointment. And that especially comes on the defensive side of the ball. They're paying Jim Knowles, the defensive. coordinator, an average of $3.1 million, which is essentially more than UCLA, but it was paying head coach to Sean Foster. They gave up 446 yards against the Bruins. They gave up 5.6 yards

of carry. And that unit simply, the sum isn't better than the parts right now. So there's issues at Penn State, but I don't think there's any of those macro emotion-fueled conversations that you hinted at. But one of the bigger issues with Penn State is the fact that it's not going to get any easier. Yes, the next few weeks there may be a bit of a reprieve, but they have Ohio State, they have Indiana. And some of the problems that we've seen with Penn State aren't easily fixable. It's not like they just had a bad game. Drew Aller struggled at least when playing from behind when he was forced to pass the ball.

There are some other errors and miscues from the defensive side of the ball offensively as well. So I understand that it's like, okay, well, it's just one loss or just two losses right back to back, but it's not going to get any easier when it comes to this Penn State football team. Well, there's no question. And it certainly isn't going to get any easier if they don't prepare better for whoever the opponent is. couldn't have been a worse set of circumstances to have an emotional loss like that at home versus Oregon. And the human condition

will lead young people to feel bad for themselves, listen to all the garbage from social media. Everybody's telling them how terrible they are. Well, at least we got UCLA this week. We can go and skate through that one and get ourselves a big win. That has a total lack of failure upon preparation from the team, the locker room,

and the coaching staff, and every one of them know it. What was so disheartening about this is Drew Aller probably played his best game. Penn State football can't have Drew Aller be the leading rusher. Penn State football can't have the opposition, maintain possession of the ball for 39 minutes. I don't care if you're on the road at home playing in a parking lot. That's not a winning recipe. And so this is a football team whose mental toughness and their psyche has got to be challenged. What do they have in the tank?

What's their leadership like? Because remember, there were the team a year ago in college football that lost to Oregon during the regular season and lost to an unranked team during the regular season and won the national championship. I'm not saying that Penn State's going to ascend that way, but Stranger Things have happened. Yeah, no, Stranger Things have happened for sure. But I want to go back, Louvre just quickly to the game versus UCLA. Yes, Penn State was not prepared. It seemed as if they kind of said, okay, we're going to show up and there's going to be a get-right game. But we have to understand that it is difficult to prepare for a team.

we don't know what the offense is going to look like, right? It's a new offensive coordinator, a new defensive coordinator, a new head coach, and that UCLA team that was playing inspired. No, there's not an excuse for Penn State to lose a game like that. I don't think Oregon would lose a game like that, but it was definitely difficult to prepare for, number one. Number two, you talked about this idea of maybe they will get it right like you saw Notre Dame last year, lost, you know, so they lost to NYU when they ended up going to national championship

or two years ago, but played in it last year, excuse me. But I don't see that being the case for. this team based off of who they play coming up soon. I go back to that November 1st game versus Ohio State. I can't skip over anybody based off what happened versus UCLA. But this could be a four-lost team that's not even in the college football playoff conversation or top 25 conversation when it's all said and done. And that's where it really gets icky if you're a Penn State football fan.

Well, no question about that, Sam. Listen, I agree with everything you said right there. The only thing I would push back on with Penn State and the UCLA matchup and preparing for it, is there was no way that UCLA was all of a sudden in less than a week's time going to completely come out in an entirely different scheme. There had to be some carryover. You knew that what you saw on tape, or maybe refined some things,

come out with some wrinkles, no question about that. But this is really concerning if you're a Penn State fan. And the job that James Franklin has done over the course of time and sustained success cannot be debated. The losses versus ranked team are real. They are. There's no question about that.

But he's also built one heck of a program over the course. course of time. And now let's see what these kids are made of and see if they can bounce back. It's a great point. In the unlikely nature that they do run the table, could they make the playoff? Our playoff insider, Heather Daneich is going to join us in just a little bit. So if you're a Penn State fan, trying to play the odds hang tight for that. So that's the diagnosis on the Nittney Lions. As for the Longhorns, they have a ton to fix as well. It's going to be a long week with John Mateer, perhaps waiting in the wings on Saturday. More on that in just a little bit, too. They lost to a one in three Florida team and look as sloppy as you might imagine.

But Steve Sarkesian, he's got to put the bright side on here. And this isn't the rationale Texas fans want to hear, but it's not unfair. I found out he's a tough dude. He fought his a s' off Saturday. And those were not ideal conditions for a quarterback to perform under. I don't know if I'm stunned. I mean, take the other, how many teams are there in? college football, 130, 36.

Take the other 135 and have them go play out of Ohio State and at the swamp. Let's see how they do. I understand the sentiment. He's obviously talking about Arch Manning there. Tom, let's start with you. This is a micro-macro question. Is this an Arch Manning problem or is this a Texas football holistic problem? I think it's a Texas holistic problem right now as a whole, right?

The quarterback's going to receive a lot of the blame. He's going to receive a lot of the credit. Oftentimes undue on both sides. of that spectrum. But this is also a football team that cannot pass protect. They can't run the ball. They ran the ball for 52 yards on the ground. They don't have CJ Baxter, which has been a huge miss for them in the running back room because he's a bell cow that can set the tone. All right? They can't play defense in terms of consistently stopping the run. They were third and 11 on third down, committed 10 penalties and had two turnovers, right? So there are a variety of issues that

Steve Sarkese and his staff need to address. address. Archmanning did some good things. And I agree with Coach Sark. He was beat up. He was taking shots left and right where I think the criticism is fair of Archmanning is when the routine play is there and the open guy is there. He's got to hit him. We've seen too many of those misses through the first five weeks of the season. But I don't know about you, Sam. I think that there are other issues at play. And Archmanning is receiving the bulk of the blame. But that's not all on his shoulders when you look at the entirety of the Texas performance. especially last week.

The last week's performance shouldn't be on Arch's shoulders. The offensive line got dominated. Texas got dominated at the line of scrimmage, really both offensively and defensively from a schematic standpoint. You saw pressure after pressure, quarterback hit after hit. And I actually thought Archmanning played better this week than I even expected with all the pressure in his face. But it wasn't an arch band.

It was the offensive line. It was a defensive line. Then also special teams. Texas got dominated when it came to special teams as well. This is a team that usually makes plays on special teams. What do they do? They gave up a blocked punt for safety in this game. And they also gave up not only a blocked punt,

but they also gave up opportunities to down the ball inside the one yard line that they didn't capitalize on. You look at the last several years at Texas under Steve Sarkesian. They've been the one to score on special teams. They've been the one to block the puns. They've been the one to be the aggressor and to bring pressure. Yet we saw time and time again in their last matchup, their last opportunity, that they were losing in the.

special teams battle as well. And so in my opinion, they got out coached when it comes to special teams as well. Sam, there's no, hey, how many teams would go out there and play on the road at the swamp, play on the road at Ohio State and win both of those games? He's not wrong in saying that, but the reality is this was a team that has not met expectations yet. This is a team that a lot of people thought would be playing much better football at this point. And they're not. And I don't want to discredit Florida, because we can say everything we want about Billy here and what's going on with them. But Florida on defense is hell on wheels right now. And they are a handful and have been for everybody they've played against.

You know, Tom, it reminds you something you've always said, and you've told this in your 20 years evaluating prospects. The bottom line is quarterback is one of the hardest positions to evaluate because there's so many variables. And the variables with Manning are some things that we couldn't have even expected at the beginning. On the quarterback tip, let's bring Pete back in here to talk about the guy that perhaps inexplicably Manning could face Saturday. It would be 17 days, Pete, if he plays on Saturday that John Mateer had hand surgery, September 24th, bone broken in his throwing hand. What are we hearing about a possible expedited return? Yeah, Zubin, from what my sources said, they're saying, so you're saying there's a chance.

There is a chance that John Mateer could end up playing in the Cotton Bowl against Texas on Saturday. He is pushing hard to play, according to my sources, and there's some ambiguity about his availability, A decision either way is not expected to be made until late of the week. Brent Venables did say today, look, he hasn't done any good on good yet, and they want to see him in good on good in practice this week. So there are still more steps, and there is still time to go. But John Matier is pushing to attempt to play on Saturday against Texas. Because he's the ultimate competitor, right?

This guy is just paining him to have to miss a single snap in practice, let alone a game. Now, from what I understand, Pete, that injury is, at the base of the thumb, all right? And, you know, having had a thumb injury and playing that position, one of the things that dictates whether you can do it or not is grip pressure, right? Can you grip the football normally and effectively to be able to control the ball and how it comes out of your hand? If you don't have the grip pressure, dealing with pain is one thing.

But if you have to alter your grip and you cannot squeeze that thing, because there are times when you have a thumb injury, you can't pick up a can of soda pop, let alone grip of football and rip it and get some velocity and power behind it. So that's why they want to see how far along he is in terms of would he get fatigued, would his hand, would his arm, would his thumb hold up over the course of four quarters if they can't see that through the course of two to three days of practice. So fascinating that Oklahoma never quite ruled him out and Metteer himself said he would be pushing the limits on a return. I guess we should have taken him seriously.

on the way here on college football live. The poll sale, Ohio State's number one, asked Minnesota. They did nothing to dissuade the voters on Saturday, but does Miami have a legit case to be the top-ranked team of the country? We'll go inside the numbers with our playoffs inside of news.

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I shouldn't think how crazy it might get. Of course, Oregon's got a big win over Penn State, and then the Nidney Lions after this WTOT loss, followed it up in inexplicable fashion. By losing to UCLA is 24 and a half point favorites, and Penn State is in a gigantic hole with some very difficult games left. Let's welcome in our playoff insider, Heather Dinnich. All right, take me through Penn State's playoff chances

and the razor-thin margin of error, I presume, is left for them. I'm going to go ahead and say there's no margin for errors. They've been. They have to beat Ohio State. They have to beat Indiana. They have to look good in the process, finish 10 and 2, and then they have to pray that that's good enough, because it might not be.

Because they're not playing well enough right now to impress the college football playoff selection committee. Drew Aller is 75th in QBR. Penn State's offense, 52nd in the country in total efficiency. Right now, if you look at Penn State, according to ESPN Analytics, they have the 10th best chance to win the Big 10.

So you're looking at an at-large bid, and that selection committee will go back to that non-conference schedule. Nevada, FIU, Villanova. If you won a two-lost team that's 10 and 2 in the college football playoff, you might want to start thinking about Notre Dame again. Yeah, the numbers bear that out. You had them at 41% there at Penn State or the measly 2%.

So let's talk about some teams that are actually in the poll, not Penn State, and let's take a look at these weeks' college football rankings. Brought to you by AT&T as we kind of take a look at the top of the poll. Right now, Ohio State's at number one, looked great again on Saturday with that win over Minnesota. Miami sits there at number two, but this is where I want to go with you, Heather. You've been covering the committee since day one in 2014. Nobody has better insight on how these men and women work than you.

There's a real legit case a lot of people are making that, considering what Miami's done with their schedule, they might be angling for the top spot. How do you see it from the intel and the context you have from those you know on the committee? The college football playoff selection committee is looking for the best combination of eye test and resume. And right now, Miami is checking that box. The canes are number 10 in total efficiency. They are playing well on both sides of the ball. They're passing the eye test and they're number four in ESPN's strength of record metric just slightly ahead of

Ohio State. And for the AP voters who voted Texas out of the top 25, how does that not impact Ohio State's resume. Miami's got wins against Florida, Florida, Florida, and Notre Dame, which was one of the best in the country. How does that compare to Ohio State's best wins? Well, I love the point you made, Heather, because Miami has three current AP top 25 wins,

and Ohio State doesn't have any with Texas being knocked out of the top 25. Miami, based off a resume standpoint, has earned it. Also based off of an eye test has earned it as well. Miami has been challenged. earlier in the season, and they've risen to the occasion time and time again. Yes, Ohio State has as well. That first week matchup was a top 10, top five matchup, if you will.

But Texas didn't look like we thought they were going to look coming into the season. And so initially I thought Ohio State was going to be the number one team. But whenever that first ranking comes out from the basketball playoff selection committee, I think it will be Miami. Yeah, and Sam, we just heard Sark talk about it, Texas. How many people have to go into the horseshoe? How many people have to go into the swamp? Well, how many people had to play Notre Dame?

and Florida and South Florida, and they won all three of those. The Miami Hurricanes, and I've got to see them up close and personal this weekend from the sideline, they are as well-rounded and as complimentary of a football team as you will find in the country right now. And all of their best players reside in the best positions that you have to have to be a championship caliber team, quarterback, offensive front, and defensive front. They can run the ball. They've got balanced. The quarterback and Carson Beck has been uber efficient in his decision.

making and his accuracy, and the defense has eliminated some of the game management errors that plagued them a year ago and giving up explosive plays a year ago. Now they've become a lockdown unit under Corey Heatherman on defense. I could not agree with you more, Heather. I think that they would be the rank the number one team right now. So you know what I'm going to buy you at soda pop for saying that. It's a very Midwestern reference, Tom. Thank you. And to answer your question, Sam, the first playoff rankings come out November 4th. Heather's going to be all over that. But just as a fan, less than a month away, keep November 4th circled.

Our Capital One, rewarding performance. You know, there have been some amazing players over the years that have played at our Service Academies. I think of Keenan Reynolds. I think of Roger Staubach. Some of the amazing players. This guy has etched himself into Service Academy lore, 243, three touches, namely coming against another Service Academy,

setting a program record for the middies for receiving guards. Congratulations to him. On the way, there's a lot of teams out there that are begging for attention that this weekend, look at that hit by Sincic, that finally got it, who deserves more pub than they're getting? The guys spread some love next. Simons's's, socube, you're looking at your look de facto, ebluice, in a guarderob, prete to celebrate the season. Velour, luxue, satin, chattoyant, coupe elegant and detain sentient. Chique, or decontracted, no, tenue prete to beck, our tony-a-a-a-fait-a-a-fait, you'll far-briest, you'll be able to bea. but I import the code vestimentary of the showery. Respondes simply yes to invitations and

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Quick reminder, Sunday NFL countdown with Greenie and the gang. Full slate of games and a Monday night double header on ABC and ESPN. Coming up next Monday. We roll through. Time for the players to watch. Brought to you by Kudoba. I think everybody's going to be watching the Missouri Tigers on Saturday. They got Alabama.

They're led by Beau Corbular. the Penn State Transfer, who has been great. He loves handing it off to Ahmad Hardy, a transfer himself, who has been maybe one of the most unheralded but electric players in the SEC. And Eli Drinkwood certainly has said this could be their breakout season. So it leads us to run through a couple of other teams that maybe halfway through the season should get a little more love. Tom, let's start with you.

I'm looking at the Cincinnati Bearcats. Every time I kind of follow up with them every weekend, And then particularly after this last week and a win at home versus a ranked Iowa State team in which they average 7.6 yards of carry on the ground and really out physical Iowa State. You know, this is a league with such competitive balance and such great quarterback play, but nobody was coming into the year, even referencing Cincinnati's Brandon Sorsby, who's been a problem through the air and with his legs on the ground. No Houston and no Texas Tech on the schedule for Cincinnati. They're going to be a tough out the rest of the way in the Big 12. But they have to be consistent. I got a chance to call that game last week,

and that Tyson-vite-led defense was outstanding. They have Dante Corleone back. But the test is going to be, how do you respond after beating a team like Iowa State? So I love the Cincinnati pick. I'm going to go to a team that beat a highly ranked team in overtime two weeks ago, and that's the Virginia Cavaliers.

They have back-to-back overtime wins. Two weeks ago versus Florida State last week versus Louisville. And if you look at their schedule, it's very beneficial to them. This Virginia team, we thought, okay, maybe they just found a way to get Florida State, caught them slipping. Well, no, they're consistently winning, and their one loss was on the last play of the game where quarterback Chandler Morris through an ill-advised interception. So I'm really excited about the Virginia Cavaliers based off of who they beat, but also their schedule moving forward. It's beautiful. You're 100% right, Sam.

And I think the other thing, too, is you've got to acknowledge the job that Tony Elliott and his staff have done in the transfer portal. The addition of Cam Ross, Jamari Taylor has been a monster running back, and Chandler Morris has completely revamped that offense. They are playing with great confidence, tremendous execution, and again, you mentioned it, the schedule is beautiful. No doubt, and now it sets up Tony Elliott to perhaps make his first bowl appearance in Charlottesville

in what it seems to be in a typical year for the ACC. Maybe it's time for them to take advantage. Finally get to the postseason. We're off to a great start. We'll see everybody. So, bar.