Official 2025 College Football Thread
 

Alright, new thread for a new season, Aug 23 is the official start of CFB season.

College Football News has their Top-25 and there are 6 SEC teams in the top 25. IMO somewhat underrepresented (I mean, where are the Hogs?) but we'll see soon enough.

collegefootballnews.com




Not much news for the Hogs. Returning QB Green for his 2nd season under Petrino. The Hogs have lost a lot of starters. I'll be happy for another 6-6 season and minor bowl game but wouldn't be surprised if we didn't go to one. I think this is the last year for Sam Pittman. Short of wildly exceeding expectations of mediocrity (or worse), think this is his last year.

EDIT: below came out a day after I made above prediction about Pittman. Hope is high but reality & expectations are low

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/ne...-team-in-2025/

I was at the gym the other day watching the TVs on mute. And the local news had a piece about the area of football coaches, all being part of some coaches kickoff against cancer fundraiser or something like that. And watching Bill Belichick have to stand there and pretend he wanted to be there as opposed to coaching football was really funny. The man really is not wired like a college coach and I still think his tenure will be short and semi disastrous.

I hadn't thought about this until now, but this story made me think "hmm, it's like a more skilled Jim Donnan"

Deion Sanders has a press conference scheduled with his medical team to update everybody on his health. It seems he has been in and out of the hospital since April, and it must have been something big. Some speculation that he is stepping down, but it looks more like he is in recovery from whatever it is and plans to come back this year. He might be limited early.

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Jim Donnan's best skill was paying players 1-A rates in 1-AA.

Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he has beaten bladder cancer - ESPN

CFN strength of schedule.

Hogs at #5. Rooting for 6-6 and minor bowl but realistically, a losing season. I just hope Petrino can make some close (and fun).

collegefootballnews.com

I don't know why but CFN has updated their SoS from just a couple days ago and the Hogs are now #1.


The initial rankings never hold up, be interesting on the real SoS at end of season.

AP Top-25 is out.

Top-10 order is pretty different from collegefootballnews ranking above. No real surprise I guess.

Does it strike anyone else as interesting that ESPN is subtitling the week 0 game in Ireland as “Farmageddon”?

That's apparently the official name of that particular rivalry

The sackless NCAA let Michigan go with a big fine. They explicitly call out that they deserved a two year postseason ban but went against their regulations. It's open season now.

Now?

On the financial side they were already irrelevant. You can expand that to all cheating related activities as well. No school should ever cooperate with them again.

With Harbaugh now having show-cause penalties totaling fourteen years, I have to think that's got to be a record for a college HC ... unless somebody has gotten a lifetime ban.

Anybody know off-hand whether that's happened (I'm thinking MAYBE the SMU scandal but I don't know honestly)

edit: if the Google AI is correct, it's the most ban years for a coach for anything other than gambling. The record appears to be a single 15 year show cause for three people with gambling (2 basketball, 1 baseball)

I think Bliss at Baylor previously held the record at 10 years.

Sorry, I know I've posted about this too often but I thought this was hilarious.

The NCAA: "Harbaugh ran a program that was largely dismissive of rules compliance. There was little, if any, emphasis on following the rules."

— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) August 15, 2025

"Michigan agreed that Harbaugh violated head coach responsibility legislation. Harbaugh,
however, disagreed with this violation in his NOA response. Specifically, Harbaugh stated that a
head coach responsibility violation would constitute “double jeopardy,” since he already received
a three-game suspension from the Big Ten Conference in response to the scouting scheme.
However, the conference’s imposition of a penalty does not impact the COI’s ability to conclude
that a violation occurred."

SEC announce they are officially going to a 9 conference game schedule in 2026. The plan is three permanent rival games and 6 rotating games, with every team playing every other team every two years, and a home and home every 4. They said the three rival games will be reevaluated every four years. I find it pretty easy to come up with lots of teams permanent three, but I hit a wall with some (like Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri...)

For the Hogs, I want Texas, LSU and Old Miss !!

Gophers almost losing to Buffalo in the first half at home, but this might be the most promising QB I’ve seen play for us in a long time

Rs Frosh Drake Lindsey from Arkansas

Good to see an Arkansas kid doing well elsewhere. Hope he does great up there.

I really cannot fault any Arkansas HS kid not staying home. Our program is ... trending down. A miracle could still happen, but if it did, it'll probably be because of Petrino and not Pittman.

I absolutely DESPISE the trend to spend large parts of broadcasts these days talking to somebody about bullshit that has very little or nothing to do with the game.

Wisconsin's starting QB gets hurt on a potentially serious non-contact play and the booth doesn't even notice or show it because they are too busy asking Montee Ball some nonsense trivia about Wisconsin hall of famers. Are there more than 10 people in the country who care about that? Is there anyone in the country who wants to hear Montee Ball talk for more than 30 seconds over one of the first big college football game of the year?

Christ I sound like a boomer... but please just show and talk about the game. Is that too much to ask?

I also yell at clouds on this. I want to hear two/three guys talking about the game and sometimes other things, and that's it. No in-game interviews with coaches/managers, no mic'd up players. Keep other people out of the booth.

Preseason football this year was particularly bad. Not that the action is particularly gripping, but it's still something. But I'd tune in and there would be multiple 15 minute stretches of just talking to whomever with nary a care what was happening on the field. Especially don't care if this is an out of market game.

Thats the thing, Edward. Everything I have read says Arkansas never offered him, which seems crazy with him being a legacy guy and he is from the hometown. Like what the heck. Put up ridiculous numbers and was Gatorade PotY in AR. He doesnt seem very mobile, but his arm looks like it could be special - at least in a Gopherly sense lol. It did seem like the Gophers were in on him early and had him fairly boxed off. I guess his family is loaded so we might not have to worry about NIL if his stock does take off. I think he absolutely shiuld have been a 4 star recruit

Woof. I hate bagging on a guy who just beat cancer, but that last two minutes for Colorado was about as poorly coached as it is possible to coach.

Haynes King pretty fun to watch.

He is that dude.

I really hope we don't have to run King like that all season.

Also, nice of Deion to not use his timeouts there at the end of the 4th quarter. Really just some terrible clock management. Got the ball with 1:07 left and didn't use his last two timeouts... and then ran out of time.

Didn't help his QB ran around like a chicken with his head cut off and ran a bunch of time off the clock.

So much talk about how important this OSU/TX game is and I'm sitting here thinking it doesn't matter one bit. The loser can easily get into the playoffs even with another loss.

I know the defenses are great, but this OSU/TX game isn't great entertainment.

game looks a little too big for Arch Manning right now

At least Mel Kiper will be able to reuse all his notes from this year on Shedeur Sanders at next years draft

:lol:

:lol:

Yeah, Vols have scored 31 points in the first half.

It's pretty obvious that Syracuse is absolute assssss defensively.

But how does one interpret the 9/18 passing? Is it great that they've scored 31 points despite all that? Or is it increasingly worrisome that there's only 9/18 passing against a defense this bad?

Up big at the half but I've seen very little (aside from the running back) that makes me feel inclined to change my 8-4 or 7-5 expectations for a Tennessee team with this QB starting.

Sayin has looked pretty good, but the whole offense only goes ten yards deep right now. There's no mid or long game.

edit: lol literally 30 seconds later.

Manning really not impressive. He can grow, obviously. Right now he looks "eh."

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Replays should have a timer. If you can't decide in 2 minutes, call stands.

Probably a week 1 overreaction, but neither OSU or Texas looked like top 10 teams let along top 5.

Agreed, but it is way too early. Both of those offenses will look better as the season progresses. Those are probably two of the best defenses in CFB right now as well.

Despite all the hype for Manning, both teams were playing with inexperienced QBs. Sayin is a RS Freshman and hadn't even taken a meaningful snap in a game before today. I'm glad Ohio State won but both teams will look nothing like this at the end of the season.

Bama's defense not exactly projecting fear right now.

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With every passing minute the coaching search in Tuscaloosa intensifies

This looks like an 8-4 team at most.

What a fine Saturday afternoon

Hogs up 31-7 at the half over the Aggies!

(... Alabama Aggies that is)


Hope our QB2 get some playing time in 4Q

William Wallace: HOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLDD

Bama going to have a long season. Well, at least some of the coaching staff is going to have a long season.

I would have been the first one to crush the kid when I was younger but I hope Arch gets a bit of a break now. The desperation from the sports media to crown him not just as the next Manning but the equal of seven year NFL vet Peyton right now all spring/summer was ridiculous.

So yeah Coastal not looking good this season-losing 45-7 to Virginia right now

Or a short one.

6-4 vs unranked opponents suggests that a change might not wait until the end of the year.

That was what I was suggesting. For the handful of coaches that survive, they will have a long season.

Hogs took care of business 52-7 vs Alabama A&M. Next week should be another easy one at Arkansas State.

Then #21 Ole Miss and 3 ranked teams in short order. We'll need a couple upsets to hit 6-6.

Most positive was Taylen Green. He played well and was pulled in 3Q. Defense was sloppy in 1Q but pulled it together. Hard to really tell right now, but we'll find out in 2 weeks vs Ole Miss.

Doesn't Deboer have like a $70 million buyout?

It's down to $63 million now I believe.

For those who watched MIA vs ND ... did y'all know CJ Carr's mom was at the game?

Holy Taylor Swift with that coverage of her

I'd like to point out that Neal Brown is now special assistant to Sark and has been working with Arch. That man has never seen an offense he couldn't make worse.

Only made me want the Canes to knock his block off even more.

Jumbo got $76 million from Texas A&M to go away. Debeor's wouldn't even be the record.

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Finebaum joked that the problem is that unlike A&M, Alabama doesn't have oil wells.

People says things like that, but history has shown us if there is a will there is a way. My guess is though, they will not be firing him till the end of the season at the earliest. It will be the cordinators that will likely be losing their jobs sometime in the middle of the season if things go really south. If DeBeor loses four or more games this year, he is toast at the end of the year.

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Dola: Just to add, there is one way DeBeor gets fired before the end of the season. If Saban even hinted he would be willing to come back, they would get rid of DeBeor if they had to stuff him in a duffle bag and shove him in a bus. Not that Saban would.

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I'm sad the TCU margin of victory > the Bellicheck dating age gap didn't hit.

Belichick's defense looking lost against college offenses was the biggest given in week 1. It'll get better for UNC, but his hire is going to be a disaster.

This article is hilariously ridiculous. That said, make Gruden to Alabama happen.
https://www.newsweek.com/sports/ncaa...ements-2122640

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I hope DeBeor loses every game and his buyout in a Bernie Madoff style scheme.

Fuck that guy

I dont think what happens over the next 5-10 years is going to be kind to Bellicheks legacy.

This is Michael Jordan on the Wizards. We'll just kind of pretend it didn't happen.



The guy got a big payday and his son a job he isn't qualified for.

I don't disagree that at all, the only thing gives me a slight pause with the Jordan comparison is that Brady went and became the oldest QB to win a Super Bowl in his swansong. Would we view MJ the same way if Pippen went and was the star on an NBA championship team around the same time he was struggling with the Wizards... we probably would but it would at least be a footnote.

Given what we know about how that relationship ended and what we know about the personality of both, I can totally believe that's at least partly driving this ill advised comeback. I guess the money and the 24 year old girlfriend also help.

I guess it'll depend on what happens from here on out too. Not to defend the guy, but it is one game. If they have a few 8-4 or 7-5 years, it's not going to destroy his legacy. It is North Carolina after all. If they have some 3-9 seasons, well that's another story.

Still, people aren't tearing down Saban's legacy when he couldn't hack it in the NFL.

I can’t imagine banning NFL scouts from practices is going to bridge the generation gap when it comes to relating to college age players either. Just seems inevitable this thing is going to end with everyone mutually agreeing to go their own way at some point in the near future.

Iowa needing a 2 minute drive to tie or win (lol) went exactly as expected.

They really need someone to sit down with coach and get him to accept some level of modern analytics. Two 4th and shorts they could have easily went for it and probably got it but he was more than happy to settle for the chip shots (31 and 36 yards.)

When you average only 3.4 ypc is there anything that resembles a good bet on 4th & short?

Gators gonna Gator. Man, how can you not put together a quality team with the resources and recruiting talent they have in their own back yard year after year?

Hogs up 56-14 and taking care of business.

Our QB2 had a great first series and got his first TD. Hope he gets a couple more tries. Ole Miss is next week and that’ll be the real test.

When you have an HC that would likely be a downgrade at a lot of HS football programs you and I are familiar with, that's a pretty reasonable place to start.

Speaking of HCs, two games in feels like too soon to tell what sort of HC Fran Brown will be at this level but I do like his attitude

Syracuse beats UConn in OT, then runs sprints due to play - ESPN

Of all the various outcomes in college football today, the one I think probably sealed someone's employment fate is one of the least surprising: barring something very close to running the table, I don't see any way Mike Gundy is at Oklahoma State next year.

And honestly, that's a trigger that probably should have been pulled a while back.

Not _entirely_ his fault perhaps (only mostly) but the expiration date on that relationship seems to have passed IMO.

I saw the score and just assumed Oregon was playing some FCS school. Good lord.

It was one of the only games I was able to get at that time frame that was actually between two name schools so I started to watch it. Less than two minutes in Oregon had ran 3 plays and had two very long TDs. I did the math and the game was pacing something like 560-0 so I decided I should probably go outside and clean the grill and weed eat rather than spend any more time on that game.

ESPN has Hogs at #18. Pretty surprising as we’ve not gotten much loving so far … but I’ll take it

ESPN shakes up FPI Top 25 rankings after wild Week 2 of college football - On3

UCLA (its in Los Angeles) and Iamaleava are off to a hot start

You know those big, fancy HS football stadiums in Texas. This is the part they don't tell you about. I took this picture about half way through the first quarter. It never got more crowded than this.

This school district paid $70M dollars for this.

https://imgur.com/a/zzkGUI3

Clemson's secondary looks really bad.

I'm not very impressed with Klubnik either. He'll put up numbers in this offense, but he misses guys and is awful under pressure.

In the Tech game they are sharing audio communication when they do reviews and its kind if cool. Have they done this before or is it new?

I have never seen it, but I agree that it is interesting.

The ACC is doing it for select games this year.

That... That was some weird play calling that barely worked out

Big win for Tech. Now Clemson has two losses in three games,

What a boss kicker

This has to be the last year for Dabo, right?

Vols made first TD look easy

Edit: ditto for Dawgs

UGA immediately responds. This has the making of a high scoring game, but then I have seen too many games with fast starts that then just became a slow slog after.

Going to need to get to triple digits to win this one.

21-7 with 3 min left 1Q. Dawgs defense better stiffen up quick

So will UGA be this years Alabama, with people complaining about them getting in (but not getting in) the playoffs.

Joey Aguilar, your 2026 #1 draft pick apparently. He's such a huge upgrade and I never would have guessed that possible a few months ago.

21-14. Entertaining game of far! It’d be fun if this scoring pace keeps up.