NCAAF News

Home

Teams

Quizzes

Newsletter

Power Rankings

Main Image: Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

CFB Sunday Summary Is An Adjustment

Originally posted on Last Word On Sports
By Tony Siracusa | Last updated Sep 7, 2025 2:00 PM ET

After getting through the overreaction weekend last week, it is time to make adjustments, some of which are based on Saturday’s storms. We will adjust our insights going forward now that we have more information. We are going to adjust our thought process. And we are going to adjust our attitudes…about certain teams, not about society as a whole, of course.

Poking the Duck

We all saw this coming, right? Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy took some not-so-thinly-veiled shots at the Oregon football program during the week. He opined about what he claimed is a $40 million personnel budget for Ducks football. By any measure, with the $20 million in revenue sharing that every school can do, and NIL deals, Oregon officials say it is closer to a $30 million budget.

But Gundy, who has always been glib, has transformed into downright dour this season. He played the Little Sisters of the Poor martyr routine when going up against the cash machine that is Oregon. This from a guy whose home games are played at a stadium named after oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens. From 2005 to his death in 2019, Pickens donated more than $268 million to the school, including academic endeavors, and yes, the athletic department. The school put some of the money into growth funds. So hey, Coach Mike, if you are feeling a financial squeeze, maybe you just aren’t doing a good enough job shaking the OSU family trees for cash.

Gundy’s comments sounded like an advanced excuse for losing. The result? Ducks-69, Cowboys-3. It was the largest loss in program history.

Weathering the Storm

Dozens of games up and down the eastern seaboard got lengthy delays because of lightning storms on Saturday. From Piscataway, New Jersey, to Athens, Georgia, teams and fans were sent running for shelter. The universal rule for college football is that if there is trackable lightning within eight miles of the venue, the game is halted, and fans are encouraged to seek shelter. The area must be clear of lightning for at least 30 minutes before play can resume.

The Wake Forest game had two delays totaling more than three hours. Just going to say, we didn’t have those when we were covering college football in Southern California.

Speaking of Stormy Moods

It became public this week that Bill Belichick is not allowing scouts from the New England Patriots to watch his North Carolina Tar Heels practices. It is common for NFL scouts to have access to practices and games. It’s good for the college program to have the attention, and it is good for the players to get a look from those at the next level.

But Belichick marches to the beat of a different drummer…usually a silent drummer. Just days after the Heels got plastered in the season opener, and Belichick gave his post-game press conference in what looked like it had been set up by a sorority with balloon arches and everything, he now had to discuss this latest turn.

He responded that since he is not welcome at the Patriots’ facilities, they are not welcome at his.

At some point, Belichick is going to need to realize that this is not about him. None of it. Yeah, the ridiculous amount of hype has been about him. But he has been there nine months now. It is about the players and the program. Belichick’s job is not just to win games, but to get his players to the NFL when their college days are done. Behaving like a petulant child is usually counterproductive to that effort.

Riding Out the Storm?

It used to be that coaching changes were not made until the end of the season. But now with the portal free agency timeframe, and with an early signing period for high school recruits in December, failure at the coaching level draws a much swifter reaction.

Can Brent Pry last the entire season at Virginia Tech? He was already pushing the limits of fan and booster dissatisfaction. And then he drove the Hokies right into a ditch on Saturday. VA Tech had a 20-10 lead over Vanderbilt at home. The Hokies were then outscored 34-0 in the second half, en route to the 44-20 loss. VA Tech is 0-2 with little upside being evident right now.

Billy Napier is back on the suspect list. The Florida Gators got him a reprieve with a strong close to the 2024 season. But after Saturday’s home loss to USF, the headlines are back about how much the buyout on his contract is. Florida had more than 100 penalty yards in the game. There were two Gators’ touchdowns taken off the board in one drive. And Florida had to punt on nearly every possession in the second half.

And oh yeah. There was also the ejection for spitting on an opponent. Florida defensive lineman Brendan Bett was ejected for spitting at a South Florida player late in the fourth quarter. It was one of two penalties assessed against the Gators on the final, 87-yard drive that set up Nico Gramatica’s 20-yard field goal on the final play to give USF the win.

Safe But Not From Hovering

Frank Reich’s job is in zero jeopardy at Stanford. He is only there for the one season anyway. And he was hired by general manager Andrew Luck. But last week, Luck was in the coach’s booth for the Cardinal opener at Hawai’i. Saturday at BYU, he was pacing the sidelines. The minute he puts on a headset, the assistant coaches would be well advised to polish up their resumes.

Offensive Play

Why is Penn State’s offense so bad right now? The Nittany Lions returned a quarterback who threw for 3,327 yards last year and two running backs, each of whom ran for 1,000+ yards.

And why is Clemson struggling? Down 10-0 at home to Troy? Where is the high-powered offense?

And while Syracuse mounted a comeback to beat UConn, head coach Fran Brown was clearly offended by the play of his Orange. He had his team running wind sprints on the field after the game.

Good Look

We were prepared to declare that we thought Duke had the best helmets of the day. Then we watched Arizona State last night, so we acknowledge them both.

This article first appeared on Last Word On Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: