Josh Pate’s College Football Show

“Mega-Spring Preview + Remembering Urban Meyer’s Florida”
iHeartPodcasts | March 9, 2026
Host: Josh Pate

Episode Overview

This “Mega-Spring Preview” episode delivers a comprehensive look at 2026 spring football across college football’s top programs, portal transfer quarterbacks, and key roster shakeups. Josh Pate dives deep into offseason storylines, the ripple effects of transfer portal trends, which programs are facing crisis or opportunity, and what to expect from spring practice buzz. The episode also takes an evocative detour into one of Josh’s favorite topics: the Urban Meyer Florida Gators era—breaking down its impact and legacy for a generation of SEC football.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Spring Practice: The Real Start of the Season

• Spring is where hype gets reality checked and “the time of year you start to figure things out.” (05:29)
• Pate emphasizes the season begins in earnest now, not in November: “I refuse to believe when we get to November and December that the surprise outlier teams gave you no signs that they were going to be outliers.” (07:05)

2. Portal Quarterbacks: Spring’s Pressure Cooker

(09:30–22:45)

Top Portal Storylines

• LSU: Sam Levitt arrives with questions after a turbulent, injury-marred season at Arizona State. “He goes to LSU and he's going to face Blake Baker's defense in practice every day... there’s a lot of newness down there.” (10:38)
• Miami: Darian Mensah was the #2 portal QB (per On3) now working in his third offense in three years, with added support from his WR1 from Duke. Biggest question is the offensive line. (11:55)
• Indiana: Josh Hoover takes over after Fernando Mendoza’s national-title season. Hoover’s history of interceptions is under the microscope: “That won’t be tolerated at Indiana. So he’s stepping into maybe the best ecosystem to step into right now in college football.” (13:02)
• Texas Tech: Brendan Sorsby, a known commodity within diehards, could be “the next Mendoza” surprise now that he’s moving from Cincinnati into a brighter spotlight at Tech. (17:45)
• Baylor: DJ Lagway—once a SEC top QBs, now at Baylor (who finished 4th in passing offense last year); both team and player in “desperation mode.” (19:08)
• Missouri: Austin Simmons, the former circled name at Ole Miss, resets under Eli Drinkwitz with “verified hype”—people inside the game think highly of him even though he faded last season at Ole Miss. (20:12)
• Louisville: Lincoln Keinholz transfers from Ohio State, “going to play for Jeff Brohm who has botched a quarterback acquisition approximately never.” (22:17)
• Broader trend: About 30 Power 4 teams will start a transfer QB this fall.

Notable Quote:

• “This is the time of year you start really hearing so-and-so’s over the moon about the addition they made—or they’re worried they got sold a bill of goods here. Don’t know. That’s why God invented spring practice.” – Josh Pate (21:29)

3. Big Ten: Building Tier 2/Tier 3 Depth with Transfer QBs

• Spotlight on programs like Nebraska (Calandria from UNLV), Illinois (Hauser), Wisconsin (Colton Joseph, ODU), Northwestern (Aidan Chiles).
• Emphasizes that for the Big Ten to add real depth, these types of transfers must hit.

4. Spring Questions By Team: What to Watch

(23:56–34:22)

Notre Dame

• Ranked preseason #1 by Pate. Wide receiver room is the watchlist—could be one of the best but unproven.
• “Will they be dynamic enough to win a big game down the road with the wide receiver position if they need to?” (24:43)

Ohio State

• Defense lost top talent (Caleb Downs, Orville Reese). “One wave of attrition, that’s one thing, but then you have a second wave right behind it.” (25:41)
• Offense may need to pick up the slack with a tougher schedule (Texas, Iowa, Indiana, USC, Oregon).

Indiana

• The challenge will be roster churn and the “consequences of success”—namely expectation and the target on their backs after a title run.
• Staff continuity and best-in-class coordinators remain strengths. (27:27)
• “They haven’t dealt with this combination of churn and then expectation kind of setting in simultaneous.” (27:47)

Texas Tech

• Dominated the Big 12 and made the playoff; replacing high-profile defenders. See if their G5 transfer evaluation approach keeps working.
• “They didn’t go raid the rosters of top teams... For all I know, they may have a better team this year than they did last year.” (29:31)

Miami

• Replacing most of the O-line. Pate expects Cristobal/Mirabal to build a “playoff-caliber product” but the offensive line (as usual) is the checkpoint.
• Defensive line also in retool via the portal. (30:41)

Oregon

• Only major question is O-line (“If Oregon does have it on the O-line, this team may win a national championship this upcoming year.”) (31:08)
• Other positions are “check, check, check.”

5. SEC Focus: Run Game Revival & High-Pressure Springs

(35:00–46:15)

Texas, LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma

• All four projected league leaders need major run game improvements after 2025 struggles.
• Texas rebuilt RB room via portal; also hired Mark Stoops as an analyst (expecting gains in physicality).
• LSU—Lane Kiffin brings 6 new linemen; “very high expectations” (38:18)
• Alabama—Fresh O-line and a new O-line coach after “low-key sucked” last year; big QB battle (40:34)
• Oklahoma rewriting O-line and needing to escape the bottom-of-nation rushing stats. (43:27)

Georgia

• Blueprint example: “If you’re trying to figure things out in the SEC, look to Athens. They probably have a blueprint for it.” (45:54)
• New receivers and changing roster, but stability and internal development as usual.

6. Off-the-Field: Pooling CFB Media Rights—Why Fans Should Care

(47:49–59:59)

• Summary of a breaking bipartisan Senate bill to allow pooling of CFB media rights—“for the first time, a Republican and Democrat ... have agreed on legislation to amend the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to permit conferences to pool media rights.” (53:25)
• Josh argues this is a real solution for better schedule variety, less stale/insular network coverage, and potential new revenue streams that could flow down to athletes and non-revenue sports.
• Explains the “silo model” pain points for fans and advocates a “more NFL-like” production/scheduling ecosystem.
• “I think we would just completely light our numbers on fire because I think I find it more interesting than the audience does—but the scheduling piece, I think that’s something people would go crazy for if it was articulated properly.” (57:55)

7. Big Games Josh is Circling for 2026

(63:04–76:38)

• LSU at Ole Miss (Week 3): Lane Kiffin returns to Oxford to face his old team, with new coach Pete Golding on the other sideline. “Pure theater.” (64:32)
• Oregon at Ohio State (Week 10): Major late-season playoff implications—“Competing worldviews, competing cultures.” (65:44)
• Miami at Notre Dame (Week 10): Regular season “Super Bowl” for the Irish, a chance at payback for the prior year. (67:25)
• Red River Shootout (Week 6): Oklahoma vs. Texas at the Cotton Bowl; both teams will be battle-tested with huge prior games.
• Georgia at Alabama (Week 6): Stakes always massive, “for states that touch each other, they didn’t play regularly for a long time, now all of a sudden it feels like they’re playing every five minutes.” (72:17)
• Houston at Texas Tech (Week 3): Underdog Houston gets an early shot at dethroning Big 12 favorite Texas Tech.

8. Remembering Urban Meyer’s Florida: SEC’s White-Hot Star

(76:39–84:35)

Fan Question: “What was the Urban Meyer Florida era like?”

• Josh paints the 2005–2010 era as possibly his “favorite in the history of the SEC.” (77:26)
• “Urban Meyer came into the SEC and treated winning like oxygen. He fought for it like he was fighting for oxygen.” (77:55)
• His thumbprint was everywhere; everything was run at Meyer’s “competitive culture” level—“for better or for worse.”
• Two schools of thought on the decline—burning out (off-field/culture) vs. getting passed by Saban/Bama. Josh leans toward the Saban theory.
• “Those '08,'09 SEC Championship games—nothing has ever touched what those two were like. And Urban was right there at the center of both of them.” (82:54)
• Memorable moment: “Goosebumps on the arm right now... every first down was magnified... the most off the charts, intense, insane environments I’ve ever experienced.” (82:22)

9. Nebraska “Mood Tracker”: Waiting on the World to Change

• With Matt Rhule entering year four, Nebraska is stuck in mediocrity—not bottoming out, but a long way from the Big Ten elite.
• Recruiting is down (98th in 2026 cycle), transfers have been average.
• “Quarterback of the future bailed, his replacement didn’t even put bedsheets on his dorm before he bailed... So you kind of are calling it on the fly right now, trying to repair the plane in the air.” (87:17)
• “The floor is high enough... but they’re a long way from climbing to tier one right now.” (88:22)

Notable Quotes & Standout Moments

• “Spring is here and that means short sleeve weather is here... Spring ball has begun. I got so much to dive into. We have been preparing for this for a month. This is an extremely critical time of the year.” (06:23)
• “If you’re trying to figure things out in the SEC, look to Athens, Georgia. They probably have a blueprint for it that they’ve used at some point along the way.” (45:54)
• “The whole pooling of media rights is a thing I’m fascinated by and it’s a thing that I have said before and I’ll say again—let me very clearly restate my opinion on this: this whole concept... will be met with super-majority support once it’s articulated properly and once everyone understands it.” (54:12)
• On Urban Meyer: “The Urban Florida teams at their best—that was a white hot star... when it burned, it burned as hot as any team had down there in a long, long time.” (78:53)
• On Nebraska: “You’ve got to admit, you’re kind of calling it on the fly right now, you’re kind of trying to repair the plane while you’re already in the air. Sometimes you can do it, sometimes you can’t.” (87:17)

Important Timestamps

• Spring Practice, Portal Transfer Overview: 05:29–22:45
• Notre Dame, Ohio State, Indiana Preview: 23:56–31:08
• Team-by-Team Spring Concerns: 31:08–34:22
• SEC Spring Preview: 35:00–46:15
• Media Rights & Off-the-Field Business: 47:49–59:59
• Big Games to Circle for 2026: 63:04–76:38
• Urban Meyer Florida Retrospective: 76:39–84:35
• Nebraska Mood Tracker: 85:19–88:22

Tone & Style

• Direct, conversational, and loaded with insider perspective
• Blends data, behind-the-scenes whispers, and Pate’s trademark optimism for spring possibilities
• Nostalgic and passionate when evoking landmark eras (“goosebumps on the arm right now”)
• Wry, self-aware humor: “We start from scratch, you hit the reset button and of course your record is 0-0. But also you’ve got to build a new team.”

Summary Verdict

If you haven’t listened
Josh Pate’s Mega-Spring Preview delivers everything a college football diehard craves: sharp portal tracker analysis, deep context on roster churn, what coaches are really facing this spring, and how national football politics might soon reshape your Saturdays. The Urban Meyer / Florida segment is a masterclass in conveying the feel of an era, and makes a strong case that March—just as much as September—is college football at its most hopeful and interesting.