2025 College Football Thread

[Mr. Scot]

I didn't end up watching any of the game, but I have seen the final score and the endless Belichick memes dominating Twitter today.

That...must have been rough

[LinvilleGorge]

8 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

I didn't end up watching any of the game, but I have seen the final score and the endless Belichick memes dominating Twitter today.

That...must have been rough

Basically looked like UNC from last year. No defense and not enough offense to make up for it. Having Sam Howell and then Drake Maye as well as some pretty damn good RBs hid a lot of underlying talent issues that can't be hidden anymore. We have 70 new players under Belichick and evidently half of them aren't D1 caliber.

[PNW_PantherMan]

Just now, LinvilleGorge said:

Basically looked like UNC from last year. No defense and not enough offense to make up for it. Having Sam Howell and then Drake Maye as well as some pretty damn good RBs hid a lot of underlying talent issues that can't be hidden anymore. We have 70 new players under Belichick and evidently half of them aren't D1 caliber.

If UNC loses to Charlotte they should fire BB 

[HPPantherzfan]

2 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

If the coaches have freedom of movement and if the regular students have freedom of movement, so should the athletes.

Tired of this fake "student athlete" crap that they have pushed for decades when what they meant was unpaid labor.

I am perfectly fine with free agency every offseason until real contracts exist.

Eh have to kinda disagree with you here.  The whole point of “student athlete” was you get a free education and some of these schools are not cheap.  Now they get free education if they choose to plus money plus freedom of movement.  At some point you have to cap something

[Proudiddy]

3 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Mack always said that all he wanted was for UNC to match the Texas offer. He never wanted to leave.

Damn, I didn’t know that.  What could have been…. Sigh.

[Davidson Deac II]

1 hour ago, Mr. Scot said:

I didn't end up watching any of the game, but I have seen the final score and the endless Belichick memes dominating Twitter today.

That...must have been rough

But it should have been expected.  He could have retired after Brady left and his legacy would be secure.  But he just couldn't do it.  And coaching college is a world of difference than coaching in the NFL.

That being said, he could still turn it around.  But I doubt having him will ever get UNC to the heights they expected when they signed him.  

[kungfoodude]

30 minutes ago, HPPantherzfan said:

Eh have to kinda disagree with you here.  The whole point of “student athlete” was you get a free education and some of these schools are not cheap.  Now they get free education if they choose to plus money plus freedom of movement.  At some point you have to cap something

The "student" part has historically beeen a farce for revenue athletes. 

[kungfoodude]

8 minutes ago, Davidson Deac II said:

But it should have been expected.  He could have retired after Brady left and his legacy would be secure.  But he just couldn't do it.  And coaching college is a world of difference than coaching in the NFL.

That being said, he could still turn it around.  But I doubt having him will ever get UNC to the heights they expected when they signed him.  

The time it takes to turn them around isn't likely to be hit by a 73 year old.

[LinvilleGorge]

19 minutes ago, Davidson Deac II said:

But it should have been expected.  He could have retired after Brady left and his legacy would be secure.  But he just couldn't do it.  And coaching college is a world of difference than coaching in the NFL.

That being said, he could still turn it around.  But I doubt having him will ever get UNC to the heights they expected when they signed him.  

I just don't know that he has the time to turn it around at his age. His age is going to be a major strike against him in the recruiting trail and it's just a tough row to hoe to turn a football program around. One good recruiting class can turn around a basketball team. Hell, one individual recruit can turna around a basketball team - Carmelo Anthony basically won a national championship single handedly at Syracuse. Cam at Auburn is the only college who even comes close to that type of impact off the top of my head. A good recruiting class is 2-3 years down the road from significantly impacting a college football program... if you can actually keep them around. The instant impact is in the portal but everyone else is chasing those guys too.

If I was building a college program, I'd focus almost exclusively on the trenches starting out. To me, that's the big difference in college. The better teams dominate the trenches. There's just a LOT more talent disparity at the college level than there is the NFL level. The worst teams in the NFL are still full of guys who were all conference or all American at the college level. The gap between the best team in the NFL and the tenth best team in the NFL is pretty small. A couple of plays might be the difference. The #1 team in the country is probably going to be a 10 point favorite over the #10 team at the college level. The gap on talent between the #1 team and the #32 team is a massive gulf. The #1 team's backups would be competitive against the #32 team. I just don't know if Belichick after a career in the NFL was prepared for the level of talent disparity he was going to face.

[CRA]

man, I really dislike LSU's Brian Kelly.  Makes Shane Beamer look like Joe Cool. 

[CRA]

New CFB AP and Coach's poll

2025 College Football Rankings - ESPN

FSU with the biggest move up.  Unranked to #14.  Bama down 13 spots to #21

 

[Anybodyhome]

11 minutes ago, CRA said:

New CFB AP and Coach's poll

2025 College Football Rankings - ESPN

FSU with the biggest move up.  Unranked to #14.  Bama down 13 spots to #21

 

Alabama will be 2-4 and still ranked. The rankings are so incredibly fugged up, they need complete demolition and reinvention.

Edited 4 hours ago by Anybodyhome

[Jay Roosevelt]

Alabama has no business being ranked.

My top-25:

01. Ohio State
02. Penn State
03. Georgia
04. LSU
05. Texas
06. Miami
07. Clemson
08. Oregon
09. Notre Dame
10. Michigan
11. Illinois
12. South Carolina
13. Florida State
14. Arizona State
15. Tennessee 
16. Florida
17. Iowa State
18. SMU
19. Texas A&M
20. Ole Miss
21. Oklahoma
22. Tulane
23. TCU
24. USF 
25. Navy

[Proudiddy]

48 minutes ago, CRA said:

man, I really dislike LSU's Brian Kelly.  Makes Shane Beamer look like Joe Cool. 

I hate Brian Kelly with a passion.  He’s just a piece of poo.