Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey, lifers. Dustin here. This is the College Football Lifer podcast. Thank you so much for listening in. I really appreciate it. I'm very nervous. This is my first ever podcast episode.
[00:00:14] Had a YouTube channel for a couple years that got shut down, which, you know, I'll make a video about that on the YouTube channel at some point. I'm banned from YouTube, so that sucks.
[00:00:27] No one's going to listen to this for a little while.
[00:00:29] So I'm going to get into the news of the week. We're still technically in the off season. A little over two months left until the start of the 2025 college football season.
[00:00:41] But yeah, we got, we got some stuff to talk about. Some things are starting to pick up towards the 2025 season. We got some TV kickoff times, we got some College Football hall of Fame stuff to talk about.
[00:00:54] Got some record payouts for the 2024 season and we got some conference realignment talk. So, you know, a little bit to talk about here.
[00:01:04] Never done an episode of podcast. This one's audio only. The future will have video as well.
[00:01:11] Just wanted to get this started, get this done and see what the length of it would be. I definitely want to focus on the past, present and future of college football as I used to on the channel. But I. But now I can do it a little more in depth I think here.
[00:01:26] So every episode leading into the season, episodes probably in July really, so not that much time between now and then. I would like to have at least a topic from college football history to talk about. I also am going to start a TikTok where I will put out TikToks probably every day about college football definitely during the season and you know, see if we can get a little multi platform going some. Since YouTube has terminated me and nuked me for absolutely no reason.
[00:01:58] I don't know how long this episode is. You can see the time code down there at the bottom. I believe on Spotify and other places where this podcast will go out, you can skip ahead to different sections.
[00:02:10] If there is a time code in the description or in the show notes, I believe is what it's called on podcasts and so I will have those available.
[00:02:20] If there's something you don't really care about, you want to skip to the next section. But with all that being said, I want to get started with the biggest thing that I think happened this past week and it's one instance of this. So we're going to have a quote here from Ryan Day, national championship head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes and his thoughts on The Big Tens 4 auto bids in a new expanded playoff system and I think this just goes to show where things are going to go in the future of our sport. So this is per an ESPN.com article quote we're in the Big Ten and we have 18 teams and some of the best teams in the country, day told espn. I feel like we deserve at least four automatic qualifiers, ESPN goes on to say Day noted how the Most recent Big Ten expansion added the top teams in the original Pac12 and including the only two, Oregon and Washington that made the four team playoff and played for national titles. Washington received the championship game or reached the championship game after the 2023 season, falling to Michigan and Oregon won the Big Ten last fall and earned the number one overall seat in the playoff, losing to Ohio State in a corner final matchup at the Rose Bowl. Uh, Ryan Day says you would have had at least a team or two in the playoff from out there, day said, referring to the original Pack 12. So it only makes sense when you have 18 teams, especially the quality of teams that you would have in that many teams representing the Big Ten. Day added that a college ball playoff model with more automatic spots will benefit the sport because it will incentivize stronger non conference scheduling, especially given the discrepancies in conference scheduling models. I assume he means the fact that the Big 12 and the Big 10 currently have nine conference games while the ACC and the ACE, the ACC and the SEC only play eight conference games.
[00:04:16] Which that is something that should be addressed. I think really all teams in the power four should be all conferences should be playing for.
[00:04:26] Let me rephrase that. All conferences should be playing nine conference games. All four conferences got my numbers mixed up.
[00:04:34] Yeah, they should all really. That's not even the conversation. The conversation we should be having is that they should be playing 10.
[00:04:40] That's really. I mean when you start getting 16, 18 team conferences, more coming, 20, 24, whatever it ends up, you're gonna need to play 10 conference games to even be able to play most of the other teams in your four years at a school there.
[00:04:57] The whole point of a conference is you're supposed to have a shared hopefully geographically regional identity and play each other.
[00:05:07] I thought that was the whole point. So really a 10 game conference schedule is what really needs to be happening. But we're still at the eight or nine game schedule.
[00:05:17] I do agree that it would help non conference scheduling because you know that kind of incentivizes you to want to play stronger Teams, stronger programs outside of your conference because a loss won't hurt as much because you'll get an auto bid based on theoretically your conference standings or what have you.
[00:05:39] The problem is that the Big Ten and the SEC think that they're so goddamn better than the ACC and the Big 12. And, and in a lot of respects they are. They're definitely more rich, they're definitely. Wealthier is the word. Definitely wealthier than the other conferences. But I, I, I, that's because they keep picking teams from those conferences to join. And it's only going to get worse once the ACC's grant of rights loosens in 2030. So yeah, I, I don't understand. Greg Senke was talking about this. That there seems to be a big debate.
[00:06:16] We're moving to 16 teams. That seems pretty much like a done deal at this point that starting probably in 2026, it'll be a 16 team playoff. The only question is what model. So the Big Ten of the SEC seem to want a four plus four plus two plus two.
[00:06:35] Was that 12 plus four model? Right. So that would be four automatic bids for the Big Ten, four automatic bids for the SEC, two for the ACC, two for the Big 12.
[00:06:48] You'd have your automatic qualifier for whatever Group of Five conference ends up being the runner up. Mountain West, American, Sun Belt, what have you. And then there'll be three at large spots which easily could be gobbled up by the Big Ten and SEC as well. That gives them more money, more notoriety, helps with recruiting, helps with TV deals, all that.
[00:07:13] I think it should just be the 16 best teams. I don't know why that is such a radical idea. Conference championships don't matter anymore. So who gives a fuck about a conference championship? It doesn't matter.
[00:07:29] What I wish we could do. Had we known the PAC12 was going to explode, we should have kept it at 4 and just made it.
[00:07:37] Each conference has their own tournaments, right? So each conference has four teams.
[00:07:44] Those four teams play each other. One versus four, two versus three. Then the conference championship game that gets you into the College Football Playoff. Then we take the four conference champions from the power four conferences and seed them, however, and make that the College Football Playoff.
[00:08:04] We're too far gone past that now. I understand that. Locked out or would have locked out some of the group of five programs. Every group of five conference. Tough.
[00:08:14] You're not going to win in this model anyway. It doesn't matter.
[00:08:18] Boise State didn't have a shot in hell of winning the national championship last year. No group of five team will ever win the national championship.
[00:08:26] Cinderella runs are nice, but at the end of the day it doesn't benefit the sports.
[00:08:31] It doesn't matter. Like it just doesn't matter.
[00:08:34] The power 4 should branch off into a different division or separate from the NCAA all by themselves and then this wouldn't be a problem. So very strange that Ryan Day is coming out supporting four Big Ten auto bits. Not, not really. That was sarcasm, but I don't think the Big Ten or the SEC has justified it.
[00:08:56] Is the fourth team in the SEC really that much better than the second team in the acc? I don't know man.
[00:09:04] I think we should just take what we think are the 16 best teams.
[00:09:08] I think it should go back to a computer based model because that takes the weight off the scale, the thumb off the scale for the playoff committee, which I don't trust, I don't think anybody trusts. And yeah, just let the 16 best teams according to the old BCS computers have at it and we'll figure it out from there.
[00:09:29] And as much as it pains me to say because I love conference championship games, the conferences should just do away with them. They don't matter. We should just award a conference regular season champion and you know, there are bigger things to play for. So that's, that's, that's been a big talking point for the last couple of weeks is what should the future of the College Football Playoff look like?
[00:09:53] Of course we know that the bureaucrats in charge so espn, fox, SEC and Big Ten are going to be the ones that ultimately decide what that looks like. It's just a matter of how much will the Big 12 and the ACC push back against that.
[00:10:09] Next item up. Mike Leach now eligible for the College Football hall of Fame. This came from on3.com so pretty nice article here. Quote the previous rules for induction prevented Mike Leach from being eligible. Those rules in short, a head coach needs to have been active for at least 10 seasons coaching in 100 games and have a 6 60% winnings percentage. Leech doesn't have a 60% winning percentage. He has a 59.6% winning percentage largely because he took jobs at schools that had historic disadvantages within their respective conferences.
[00:10:47] So what they ended up doing is the College Ball hall of Fame has since dropped IT down to 59.5% is now the threshold to get in. Which makes Mike Leach eligible for the College Football hall of Fame.
[00:11:01] Absolutely deserving.
[00:11:03] Changed the way that offensive scheming is done.
[00:11:07] And he took programs Texas Tech, Washington State, Mississippi State, historically terrible programs and he made all of them at least great for a season, but usually very good over an extended period of time. He was in the mode to do that at Mississippi State and Starkville when he unfortunately passed away.
[00:11:29] To make some stats here for you, 10 seasons as the head coach at Texas Tech, eight at Washington State and three at Mississippi State before his untimely passing. In his 21 seasons as a head coach, he took his team to 19 bowl games, winning eight of them.
[00:11:44] Seven AP top 25 finishes, including number 10 for Washington State in 2018, and basically revived all three programs to finish with a.596 winning percentage. Now just over the threshold for the College Football hall of Fame. Could not happen to a better guy based on what I have always heard about him.
[00:12:05] More deserving coach again, his Air Raid offense was revolutionary. The way he approached the offensive game, especially from someone who played rugby in college, is just sensational.
[00:12:19] Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree and what he was able to do in his last couple of seasons there at Texas Tech before his very weird firing by the administration in Lubbock was incredible. And he had Texas Tech on the verge of a national championship.
[00:12:37] I don't know if you know much about Texas Tech's football history. It ain't great, okay? He had them on the verge of a national championship. He had Washington State on the verge of a Rose bowl birth, almost won the PAC 12.
[00:12:53] I mean, just insane stuff. His first game at Mississippi State, they set like SEC conference passing records against lsu.
[00:13:02] Just insane stuff. So absolutely deserving.
[00:13:06] Congratulations to him. I have no doubt he will be on the next ballot to be named for potential inductees. We have the 2025 edition of that coming up later in this episode, so stay tuned for that. But yeah, very happy. Mike Leach absolutely deserves it. And now he will have his shot.
[00:13:27] We got some big time news this week. It's about the time of the year when this starts happening where we have the. Basically the first three weeks of the college football TV schedule are set. After that, they kind of go week to week. So we can see what you know as teams start to perform, which teams deserve Big Noon, which teams deserve that SEC 330 slots, which is the. The old CBS spot. ESPN or really ABC will have that designed for the SEC matchup of the week. And then of course ABC and now NBC have prime time games at night that they need to account for. So we'll see a little bit of that going through. I do want to talk about some of the notable games here. I have how many is this from week zero all the way through week three.
[00:14:24] I have 38 that I just kind of want to briefly touch on here. Starting in week zero, you have this is a Saturday, August 23rd, you have Kansas State against number 15 Iowa State in Dublin. So Farmageddon gets exported here to the emerald aisle. That one will be at noon eastern time on ESPN. All these times are eastern.
[00:14:46] Also in week zero, Fresno State at Kansas at 6:30 and the ACC's Stanford at Hawaii at 7:30 on CBS.
[00:14:55] So you get a CBS and a FOX game on that first Saturday going into week one. Thursday, August 28th, Nebraska against Cincinnati in the Chief Stadium and Arrowhead in Kansas City, Missouri, 9 o' clock on ESPN.
[00:15:10] You know, Nebraska, formerly Big 12, Cincinnati, Big 12 now. Friday, August 29th, Auburn at Baylor, 8 o' clock on Fox. It's always going to be weird to see Auburn at Baylor. I'd be interested to know the last time they played. I haven't looked that up. At 8 o' clock on ESPN, we get to finally determine who won the 1990 national championship as Georgia Tech travels out to Dion in prime time to face Colorado in Boulder the next day. Saturday, August 30, the first real Saturday, first full Saturday of college football action. We have Syracuse against number nine Tennessee in Atlanta at noon on abc. The rankings that I'm talking about here are the final AP rankings from last year. About two weeks before the first week of college football will get the AP preseason rankings. But for now, we're going to go based on the 2024 postseason rankings. The big one, number four Texas. Add number one Ohio State, noon on Fox. I think that is the game I'm most excited for for this year.
[00:16:10] See what both teams do. Texas, now officially under the Arch Manning era. Ohio State, coming off defending national champion, lost a slew of talent in the college wall draft or the NFL draft. So it'll be interesting to see Ohio State trying desperately to get that game to be moved to primetime. Texas saying, now we'll play at noon. That'll be okay. I think it'd be better for us if your fans are playing at noon instead of 7:30 and having all day to get rowdy and drunk. I think that'll be okay. Number 17, Alabama at Florida State, 3:30 on ABC. We'll see what Kaylin DeBoer does in year two post Nick Saban and what Florida State does coming off a dreadful 2 in 10 season. Never ever thought I would say Florida State coming off a 2 and 10 season in my life. LSU AD number 14, Clemson, 7:30 on ABC. That should be a really fun one. Cal at Oregon State, 10:30 on ESPN. Utah at UCLA, 11 o' clock on Fox. Football. Officially in the post Cam Rising era is Utah, ucla. We'll see if Nico will be eligible to play, see what's going on there.
[00:17:17] Yeah, PAC 12 After Dark Lives Cal at Oregon State, Utah at UCLA.
[00:17:23] Sunday, August 31st. You have two games on the docket. Virginia Tech, number 19, South Carolina and Atlanta, 3 o' clock on ESPN. Quick turnaround for the building staff there to get the turf and everything from the Syracuse, Tennessee game out and put down turf for the Virginia Tech, South Carolina game. Syracuse, Tennessee and then Virginia Tech, South Carolina. I feel like I messed those up. But yeah, got a quick turnaround there. You got 27 hours from kickoff to kickoff in the building. So good luck to those people. Number two, Notre Dame, national runners up at Miami at 7:30 on ABC. So you had the national runner up now playing the team losing their first overall quarterback pick in the NFL draft.
[00:18:08] And then your, your labor day matchup. Monday, September 1st, TCU at North Carolina, 8 o' clock on ESPN. When this was announced, you know, fine. And then, you know, as the Bill Belichick drama has continued to grow, this becomes more and more interesting to me. We will see what that game ends up looking like. Week two, Saturday, September 6th. You got Iowa at number 15, Iowa State, noon on Fox. So enjoy the Iowa State Fair everybody. Baylor at number 12, SMU, noon on the CW. Number 16, Illinois at Duke, noon on ABC or ESPN. Number 11, Ole Miss at Kentucky at 3:30 on ABC. Kansas at Missouri, 3:30 ESPN2 rival rivalry renewed.
[00:18:57] These two should meet every single year. Oklahoma State at number 3, Oregon, three hundred and thirty on CBS. Number 21, army at Kansas State, 7 o' clock on ESPN. Number 7, Arizona State at Mississippi State, 7:30 ESPN2. See if Arizona State can replicate what their 2024 season look like. Boston College at Michigan State, 7:30 on NBC. I think that could be a really interesting game. Two teams trying to fight for, for renewal at the beginning of this young year. Michigan and Oklahoma, 7:30 on ABC. You know, lost a little bit of some of the luster we thought this matchup would have. I mean it's two of the greatest programs of all time, but both coming off kind of disappointing seasons. Michigan's a little less disappointing after upsetting Ohio State and Alabama and back to back weeks or back to back games. And Oklahoma upsetting Alabama as well.
[00:19:51] Speaking of Alabama upsets from last year, Vanderbilt at Virginia Tech 7:30 on ACC Network. UCLA at number 23, UNLV at 8 o' clock on CBS Sports.
[00:20:02] Stanford at number 13, BYU at 10:15 on ESPN and then week three, some notable matchups. Friday September 12 Kansas State at Arizona in a non conference matchup at 9 o' clock on Fox and Saturday September 13, Wisconsin at number 17. Alabama noon on ABC or ESPN. Number 14 Clemson at Georgia Tech will be the other game. So one of those will be at noon on ABC. One of those will be at noon on ESPN.
[00:20:29] USC at Purdue 3:30 on CBS.
[00:20:33] I feel like when USC decided to join the Big Ten they weren't thinking about having to travel to Purdue. Not, not something you actually want to do as a, as a notable name. Ask Ohio State how that has worked out in the past. Number six Georgia at number nine Tennessee 330 on ABC. Always a good one. Pitt at West Virginia, Backyard Brawl 3:30 on ESPN. Florida at LSU 7:30 on ABC. Texas A&M and number two Notre Dame 7:30 on NBC. I know Aggies fans are really excited to go up to Notre Dame to, to do that one. That that was a big game for them last year to host the Irish. Now they get the return trip. Boston College at Stanford, an ACC conference game at 10:30 on the ACC Network and Minnesota at Cal at 10:30 on ESPN. So little taste test of some of the early kickoffs. You know 38 of those early games there just kind of going through. We'll break down all of them during the regular season next up. We have officially seen the ends of Clemson and Florida State trying to leave the ACC for now.
[00:21:44] This is per Pete Nagos of on3 on Twitter. Quote Florida State, Clemson and the ACC have officially formally ended their dueling lawsuits. ACC suit against FSU and North Carolina Business court was voluntarily dismissed today. Quote the schools agreed on the new revenue distribution models in March. 40% of TV money will be evenly distributed to 14 longstanding members. So no Stanford, Cal or SMU as a part of that. 60% distributed on a ratings based formula. So Florida State and Clemson, the big ratings draw here in the acc. They will get a good chunk of that money followed probably I would assume by Miami and maybe SMU depending on what that looks like going forward for the Mustangs. Although they gave away I think all of their shares so I don't actually know.
[00:22:38] But Clemson and Florida State have ended this.
[00:22:41] They are still leaving the conference. They will not be in the ACC in 2036, I can promise you that.
[00:22:48] They got the magic number. They got what they wanted out of this lawsuit, which is to see what it would actually take for them to leave.
[00:22:57] And that number drops down to I believe about $75 million in 2030. That is when they will be leaving the ACC for greener pastures.
[00:23:06] What will the college wall landscape look like in five years? If I know. But they will be leaving in five years. So as of right now, they've agreed to this revenue distribution model. There's no point in proceeding with the lawsuit if they're gonna have to pay $200 million to leave and take all their TV rights, leave them actually in the ACC, not even be able to take them with them. So Clemson and Florida State ending their dueling lawsuits against the ACC for now.
[00:23:35] Next up, UNLV to the Big 12. Is that imminent? This is interesting. So this is from an article from the San Diego Tribune this week. Quote, the PAC 12 initially took four Mountain west schools, hoping to add three or four from the American Athletic Conference. But when Memphis, Tulane, South Florida and Texas San Antonio passed, it grabbed Utah State and reportedly pursued unlv. The Mountain west responded by coaxing its remaining seven members, excuse me, to sign a grant of rights through 203132 in exchange for percentage of an expected nine figure windfall from the five departing school schools. UNLV and Air Force were offered the most 24.5% each. That is expected to total between 17.5 million and 23 million per school. Another plus was a clause in the grant of rights allowing UNLV or anyone else to accept an invitation to a power conference before 203132 without penalty. And the Rebels are quietly confident that the Big 12 is a viable option.
[00:24:40] So confident sources say that they've told incoming freshmen football recruits they will play in the Big 12 before they graduate.
[00:24:49] So they expect to not only apply and be accepted, but to start playing within the next four or five seasons.
[00:24:58] So UNLV expects a move to the Big 12. So confident are they they are telling freshmen that they are going to play in the Big 12.
[00:25:07] Now that could just be something they are saying to people to get them in and then when that doesn't happen they're like, well we thought it was. But I do think based on this article from San Diego Tribune, I do believe that there's going to be something coming soon. Especially when you look at Las Vegas as a huge market. UNLV coming off a very good season, they share the same stadium with the Raiders. That's a boon.
[00:25:34] I'm sure the Big 12 would like to have a basketball tournament in Las Vegas. I'm sure they would like to add that on their nice little graphic of the different states and big cities that they are a part of going coast to coast. You know, they added Gonzaga with the basketball school they added. There was talks about adding UConn, but we'll see. You know, the Big 12 is going to continue to grow. They are trying to be somewhere near that sec, Big Ten league as much as they can be. And adding UNLV could certainly help that in some degree. You know, at least adding that footprint of the Rebels, it'll be interesting to see who else they get to come with them. Would it be a USF in Tampa? Would it be a Yukon and just say we'll take their crappy football program because their basketball program is so elite. I don't know why UConn would want to leave the Big east, but whatever.
[00:26:31] Yeah, we'll see. It's not going to be just UNLV, I can tell you that much. Sticking with the Big 12, we have a record payout from the Big 12 per Matt Murchall. Hope I said that name right of the Orlando senator on Twitter. Quote Big 12 commissioner Brett your mark announced that the conference will distribute a record $558 million to its member institutions.
[00:26:54] That is about 34.87 million per school if it's equally distributed. For reference, in February The SEC announced $808 million so they would pay each full member 52.5 million per school. Texas and Oklahoma got 27.5 million since they had just joined. And last month the Big Ten announced a whopping $928 million that gave 63.2 million to its longest standard schools with the six newest additions receiving a little less. So Big 12 has a long way to catch up, but I believe at the moment I haven't seen the ACC's number for 2024, but I believe they're above the ACC of per school distribution.
[00:27:36] And so it's going to keep continuing to grow. Again, they will add Gonzaga for the basketball part, which will boost the number a little bit and that could help influence what we were talking about just a few minutes ago about UNLV and maybe somebody else coming over as well.
[00:27:52] This one kind of a breaking news story kind of came out late last night and I waited until I saw it from actual sources today that I feel like I could trust that being now. Pete Thamel on Twitter Oregon wide receiver Evan Stewart to miss significant time for the 2025 season, potentially all of it here's what Thamil said on Twitter Quote Oregon wide receiver Evan Stewart has suffered a knee injury that's expected to impact his availability in the 2025 season. Season sources confirmed to ESPN he caught 48 passes for 613 yards last year for the Ducks and projected as a top wide receiver in the Big Ten this season. End quote I've seen a lot of outlets online saying that it was a porn or porn torn patella tendon which could be season ending.
[00:28:42] I've also heard that it could have happened during a 7 on 7 scrimmage. So that that's devastating. That sucks.
[00:28:49] If you include his last two or his two years at Texas Tech and last season at Oregon, Stewart had 1776 receiving yards. God bless America. He averaged 12.8 yards per reception and 11 touchdowns total. His biggest game last year came against the Buckeyes in the regular season when he had seven catches for 149 yards and a touchdown. So a huge loss for Oregon. He was expected again to make a huge impact, maybe be the guy at Oregon and maybe up for the Politnikov. You definitely have been on a watch list for the Politikov Trophy. So huge blow there. Hope he can get better. Hopefully it's not as bad as a torn, completely torn patila tendon and he can come back and play this season even if he misses some of it. Next up, Conference realignment never sleeps and this week we got word from Villanova that they plan to join the patriot league in 2026 again from Pete Thamill on Twitter Sources Villanova football is leaving the caa, the Coastal Athletic association for the Patriot League. The move will be effective in 2026. So there you go. They follow Richmond who announced last May that they were leaving and William and Mary this past April. So just a month and a half ago they are all leaving from the Coastal, formerly the Colonial, to the Patriot League. All in football only capacities.
[00:30:12] Villanova joined the Colonial in 2007. They've won four conference titles in the 2009 national championship since they joined. So pretty big loss.
[00:30:22] The Patriot really felt like they were on the way out. They were. They were down to a to nothing really and they've rebuilt it in a football only way and they are now going to be a pretty powerful conference going forward in the fcs. I mean they're not going to quite rival the Missouri Valley or Big sky probably, but they could absolutely take over like the Socon.
[00:30:50] You know. I mean they could absolutely be a top three conference in the FCS level And you know if you get three or four teams from your conference in the playoff, you're doing something good. So we'll see what the Patriot ends up doing. What the Coastal does in response as their conference membership had ballooned quite a bit leading up to all of this mass vacancy, it feels like. So congrats Villanova fans. Hope you're enjoying your new home soon.
[00:31:21] Next up, we'll talk about the 2026 hall of Fame ballot. Has announced Again, this is the ballot. So this is not the people actually going to be enshrined in the College Ball hall of Fame, and this is the ballot. It'll be voted on by a panel and they'll whittle it down. The actual induction will happen right before the national championship.
[00:31:41] It's pretty cool time. Huge fan. I live in Atlanta now, right near the College Football hall of Fame, so very cool. If you've never been, you should absolutely check it out if you're ever in the area.
[00:31:52] Very interactive, very modern. It's a very cool place.
[00:31:57] Again, 79 players and nine coaches here I'm only going to mention the 20 that I consider kind of the most deserving because I don't want to go through all 79 players. But I did want to give you, you know, kind of a sampling here of some of the players on this list. There's a lot of notable names that I've left off. You are free to look at the resource or Google it, figure out, look at the full ballot and let me know who you think should get in.
[00:32:23] But we're going to go alphabetically here with what I consider the 20 most deserving on the list. Your list will absolutely vary.
[00:32:30] First up we have Morton Anderson, Michigan state place kicker, 1981 first team all American, three time all big Ten selection Left Sparty as the Big Ten's all time leader in field goals made. Set the conference record for longest field goal at 63 yards, which still stands today.
[00:32:47] Dez Bryant, Oklahoma State wide receiver, 2008 Consensus All American 2008 Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year and was First Team All Big 12 as a receiver and a return specialist. Led the Big 12 in scoring, receiving yards and punt return average in 2008.
[00:33:05] Dallas Clark, Iowa tight end, 2002 Unanimous First Team All American Mackey Award winner and two time All Big Ten selection. Led Iowa to a pretty great 2002 season that year there Randall Cobb, Kentucky wide receiver, 2010 first team All American as an all purpose player. The only FBS player to rank first or second on a team in rushing, passing and receiving that season in 2010. 2 time all time 2 time first team all ACC Holds the SEC record for all purpose yards in a season and set the school record for career touchdowns. Aaron Donald Pitt Defensive Tackle 2013 Unanimous First Team All American Winner of the Bednarik, Lombardi, Nagurski and Outland Trophies 2013 ACC Defensive Player of the Year two time first team all ACC Pitts all time leader in career and single season tackles for loss. That's 28 and a half in 2013.
[00:34:02] Crazy.
[00:34:04] Ken Dorsey Miami Florida Quarterback 2002 First Team All American led Miami to back to back BCS championship games winning it all in 2001. Arguably the greatest team ever assembled in college football. Two time Big East Player of the Year 2001 Maxwell winner left Miami as the school leader in career offense and passing yards. I know that he probably gets a pass on a lot of things because he was just the quarterback of that team that's mostly I think, known for their defense and their speedsters. He absolutely was an integral part of that. Troy Edwards Louisiana Tech Wide Receiver 1998 Consensus First Team All American Politnikov Winner set the NCAA record for career touchdown receptions. Still third on the list to this day. 27 touchdowns still stand as the NCAA record for single season touchdown receptions and he had NCAA record 405 receiving yards in one game.
[00:35:00] Not against some FCS team, not against some group of five team. Against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 1998.
[00:35:08] Yeah, that's not nothing. Still the career leader in receiving yards, all purpose yards and 100 yard games at Louisiana Tech.
[00:35:18] RG3 Robert Griffin III Baylor Quarterback 2011 Consensus First Team All American won the Heisman O' Brien and Manning Awards 2011 AP and Big 12 Players of the Year two time all Big 12 and led Baylor to their first bowl win in 19 seasons. Percy Harvin One of the most electrifying players I've ever seen. Florida Wide receiver two time first team All American that was an All American and wide receiver in 2007 as the all purpose player in 2008. So two time first team all American at two different positions. Two time SEC and national champion three time first team all SEC and the first Florida Gator to ever have 100 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving in the same game.
[00:36:03] Garrison Hurst Georgia running back unanimous first team all American. Doak Walker winner third in Heisman trophy voting 1992 SEC player of the Year and finished career only trailing Herschel Walker in school career rushing yards. Josh Hyple Oklahoma quarterback. Current Tennessee head coach, 2000 consensus first team all American. Walter Camp, player of the year. Won the 2000 national championship. He was the Big 12 player of the year and the Heisman Trophy runner up.
[00:36:33] My boy. Mark Ingram, Alabama running back, 2009 unanimous first team All American, Heisman Trophy winner. Offensive MVP of the National Championship game and SEC offensive player of the Year. Sebastian Janikowski, Florida State place kicker.
[00:36:48] Kickers don't get nearly enough respect. I think we all know this. The fact that this guy's not already in the national hall of Fame, College Football hall of Fame is really a disgrace. He's a two time first team All American.
[00:37:01] The only two time winner of the Luke Graza Award. Winner of the 1999 national championship and two national championship appearances. Put him in. What are you doing? James Laurinaitis, Ohio State linebacker, three time first team All American. Two time Big Ten Defensive player of the Year. Four Big Ten championships, two national championship appearances. Led Ohio State in tackles in three straight seasons and won the Nagursky and Buckets in separate seasons. Absolutely deserving if you remember watching him. He was just a wreck on the field. Herman Moore. Virginia wide receiver, 1990 consensus first team All American. Holds the NCAA record for highest average gain per reception at 22 yards with a minimum of 105 catches. I apologize. Going a little fast. First team all ACC. Finished with school records and receiving yards and touchdown catches.
[00:37:54] He helped lead Virginia to a number one ranking in the AP poll in 1990.
[00:37:59] Virginia. Up until then Virginia had been an absolutely poverty program. I believe that was the year they also beat Clemson for the first time. Clemson going into that game with a 290 record against Virginia all time. So shattered a bunch of school records while he was there. I think he's deserving of being in the hall. Kellen Moore, Boise State quarterback, 2010 First Team All American. Also the New Orleans Saints head coach. Now finished career as the winningest starting quarterback in NCAA history with 94.3 percentage. Winning percentage. Set the NCAA record for lowest career interception percentage. Had 43000 yard passing seasons. Twice was the WAC, the Western Athletic Conference player of the Year and was one time the Mountain west player of the year. So he won it three times across two different conferences. He is Boise's all time leading passer with 14,667 yards. Good Lord.
[00:38:56] Next up, absolutely no brainer for me. And I graduated from the University of Alabama and that is Cam Newton. Auburn Quarterback, 2010 Consensus First Team All American, Heisman Trophy, O' Brien Manning, Maxwell and Walter Camp winner. Won the national championship. Was the SEC offensive player of the year, third FBS player ever with 20 rushing and 20 passing yards. Second or sorry touchdowns in the same season.
[00:39:20] Only played one season at the FBS level and it probably is the greatest single season in the history of the game. So absolutely he should be in right behind him. Nadama Kasu, Nebraska defensive tackle. 2009 unanimous first team all American. Winner of Bed, Narak, Lombardi, Nagurski and Outland Trophies. 2009 AP Player of the Year. He was the first defensive lineman in 15 years to be a Heisman finalist. 2009 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and came up the biggest in the biggest moment. He had seven tackles for loss against Texas in that Big 12 championship game that Nebraska fans still think they got robbed out of to this day.
[00:39:59] Manti Teo, Notre Dame linebacker. 2012 unanimous first team all American. First player to win all of the Maxwell, Walter Camp, Bednar, Butkus, Lombardi and Nagursky awards in the same season.
[00:40:13] Arguably the greatest defensive season a single player has had in college football. First exclusively defensive player to finish in the top two of Heisman voting in 30 years. At that point led Notre Dame to its first national championship game appearance since 1988. I'm not going to talk about the other stuff and last player we'll talk about here. Peter Warrick. When I was a kid, okay, Peter Ward, Florida State wide receiver. When I was a kid, this guy, I hated him so much. As a Clemson fan.
[00:40:42] Arguably the best non quarterback I've ever seen live.
[00:40:48] Two time first team All American national champion. He was the MVP of that national championship game. Two time first team all ACC. Finished as the ACC's all time leader in receiving yards at 3517 and Florida State's career leader in receiving touchdowns at 32.
[00:41:05] The fact that he is not in the hall of Fame yet is an absolutely disgrace. Get Peter Warwick in the hall of Fame.
[00:41:12] I do want to briefly go over the nine coaches because all of them deserve a mention, but I think only two of them deserve to be in the actual hall of Fame. First up we got Jim Carlin. West Virginia from 66 to 69, Texas Tech from 70 to 74, South Carolina from 75 to 81. He had nine bowl games in 16 seasons. He was the 1973 National Coach of the Year, three times Southwest coach of the Year and coach the Heisman winner. George Rogers at South Carolina.
[00:41:41] Pete Cawthon, senior. He was the head coach at Austin College, 100 years ago. From 1923 to 1927 Texas Tech from 30 to 40. He won four Border Conference titles at Tech and the 1938 undefeated team. Highest win percentage 69.3% among Tech head coaches of at least 33 seasons. Larry Coker Miami 2001 to 2006 UT San Antonio from 11 to 15 he was 60 and 15 while at Miami. Two BCS championship game appearances 2001 national champion. First rookie head coach to do that since 1948 and a three time Big east champion. I do not think he belongs in simply because the players themselves. If you watch The U Part 2 documentary, they literally say that the coaches didn't really do anything and it was a player led team. The players led the practices. The players picked the plays at times like that's why I am endorsing Ken Dorsey getting in, but not Larry Coker.
[00:42:40] Dennis Francione Southwestern Kansas from 81 to 82 Pittsburgh State the Gorillas I believe is their mascot from 85 to 89. Texas State in 1990 and 91. Also came back at the end of 2011 and 2015.
[00:42:55] New Mexico 92 to 97 TCU from 1998 to 2000, Alabama for two seasons in 01 and 02 and Texas A&M from 03 to 07. He was a two time NAIA coach of the Year, led New Mexico to their first bowl game in 36 years and led TCU to their first bowl win in 40 seasons.
[00:43:15] So he kind of works as a Mike Leach character to kind of rebuild some of these programs.
[00:43:21] Interesting. He finished up at Texas State as well and kind of helped their transition into being a more notable program.
[00:43:29] Ralph Frieden, MD from 2001 to 2010 he was a 2001 Coach of the Year, National Coach of the Year, two time ACC Coach of the Year and the only coach to win the ACC in his rookie season. How about that? That 2001 Maryland season was so odd. I would like to really do a deep dive in it. It was. It's probably one of the more unexpected seasons I've ever witnessed.
[00:43:54] Even as a 12 year old kid I was blown away that Maryland was doing as well as they were. It's very very strange.
[00:44:01] Gary Patterson, TCU. He was there for 21 seasons from 2000 to 2021 two time national coach of the year six AP top 10 final rankings. He was 11th in all time bowl wins five times. He had the number one ranked defense. That's across different defensive coordinators. We know he was a defensive minded coach. He was a conference USA champ, four time Mountain west champ and a Big 12 champ. So you want to talk about leading a program to the promised land. He led them from the Conference USA to the Mountain west to the Big 12 and very technically they accepted a bid to the American at one point. So you know, really four conferences.
[00:44:39] I think he absolutely deserves to be in. I think Gary Patterson should be in the hall of Fame already and and seeing what he did to that TCU program, they owe pretty much everything to Gary Patterson.
[00:44:51] Next one up I also think is the other one that deserves from this list of coaches to be in the hall of Fame and that's Chris Peterson, Boise state head coach from 06 to 2013 and the Washington Huskies from 2014 to 2019.
[00:45:04] Winning his coach in Boise State history led Boise to its to be the first non automatic qualifying team to win two BS BCS games, five BCS top 10 finishes, five Boise Conference titles, two Pac 12 titles with Washington led the Huskies to the 2016 College Football Playoff and Washington's first back to back 10 win seasons since 1990 and 91.
[00:45:28] So I mean to do what he did at Boise to get them into the PAC12 now even though it's not the same PAC12, I understand that to kind of resurrect Washington for the modern age.
[00:45:38] Absolutely think he deserves to be in the last two coaches here. Darrell Rogers, Cal State East Bay in 1965 he was the head coach at Fresno State from 66 to 72, San Jose State from 73 to 75, Michigan State from 76 to 79 and Arizona State from 1980 to 1984.
[00:45:57] It's the first time San Jose State was ranked was under him. He was Also the Big Ten coach of the year in 1977 and national coach of the of the year by Sporting News the following season when they won the Big Ten championship. Sparty did in 1978. And last but least, Tommy Tuberville Ole Miss head coach of 95 to 98. They carried him out in a pine box to Auburn in 99 to 2008. He was also the head coach at Texas Tech from 2010 to 2012 before he left in the middle of meeting with recruits to take the Cincinnati job 2013-2016.
[00:46:33] I think he's a piece of shit as a human being but you know, what are you going to do 2004 coach of the year after the SEC championship and 130 season obviously had there been a playoff I think they would have at least been in the national championship game. Certainly would have given a hell of a lot better of a performance than Oklahoma did that day. And he is currently still 10th in the SEC in conference wins. And he did win the 2014American Championship while the head coach at Cincinnati.
[00:47:03] You know, I, I think he was a very good head football coach. I think he's a terrible person and I hope nothing good ever happens to him, to be completely honest with you. So that is, you know, a quick look at the 2026 hall of Fame ballots. So we'll see. Maybe Mike Leach should be on here for the 2027 season and hopefully he'll get in then. Last couple of stories here and we'll wrap it up. We're already at about 40, almost 50 minutes here. Uh, the Bahamas bowl not being played in the Bahamas this year. Uh, per Brett McMurphy on Twitter quote Bahamas bowl will not be held in Bahamas this year. Sources said the bowl will be played this season at a site to be determined. This is the second time in three years the bowl was moved. 2023 Bahamas bowl was played in Charlotte when the stadium in the Bahamas was not available, end quote. So we will see the ESPN has released their bowl schedule for the 2025, 2026 bowl season. The Hummus bowl is not listed in that. So it looks like that bowl will not just be not played in the Bahamas, it looks like it might not be played at all. And ESPN might be angling to get an NFL game scheduled instead. So I think ESPN would be okay for that. At least that's what it looks like based on what ESPN released. I kind of like the idea of a traveling bowl game just kind of moving around on a, you know, every, every other year it's in the Bahamas. And then other years you have the Bahamas bowl, still call it the Bahamas bowl. Like how the Big Ten is still the Big Ten. Just call it the Bahamas bowl, but play it in like the Kibbe Dome in Idaho. I think that would be great.
[00:48:40] And the last story here, USF to induct Jim Levitt into the USF hall of Fame. The Athletic hall of Fame absolutely deserved. Took over South Florida when they were in one AA in 1997. Led them into the FBS and the Conference USA and eventually the Big east took them to five bowl games and won 95 total games. If you don't remember, during that insane 2007 college football season, he actually led them to a number two AP poll ranking at one point.
[00:49:09] So very cool. Absolutely help USF on the map. And yeah, I think it's, it's well within order. So congratulations to Jim Levitz on your Athletic hall of Fame at usf. Enjoy it.
[00:49:23] So that's what I have for you first podcast in the books. Very nervous, talked very fast, messed up, a lot of words. Thank you for getting through them.
[00:49:34] Really appreciate it. You can always reach out to me on Twitter or Instagram at. Yeah, that Dustin.
[00:49:41] Yeah, that Dustin.
[00:49:44] And that is where you can reach me. You can talk to me about football or anything else for follow my life, whatever you want to do. Stalk me. I don't care.
[00:49:52] So that's it for the first episode, this June 6, 2025 episode of the College Wild Lifer podcast. Thank you so much for watching or not watching, listening. I have to change that. I'm not on YouTube anymore. I got to change that. So we'll have a Tik Tok channel soon for the College Ball Lifer. And yeah, see you again next week. Thank you so much. Bye.
