Bruce Feldman
speaker
34 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 11 Aug
Bruce Feldman’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Yeah, Dan, I think the biggest example of this is Cignetti because obviously it took him two years to win a national title, took over the all-time losing his program, and they go 16-0 last year. I mean, if you look at one of the, I think, more intriguing hires of the offseason was Oklahoma State replacing Mike Gundy. They hire Eric Morris, Leach disciple, one big at North Texas. Not only does he take Drew Mestemaker, who led the nation in passing last year as a freshman –
But they bring a bunch of his players with him from North Texas to Oklahoma State. That was a one-win team. I think they'll go from one win to be a bowl team at the very least because in large part they were able to bring a lot of guys. And I think when people...
When ADs were interviewing him, they knew that an additional selling point was we're not just getting the coach, we're getting a lot of his players. So obviously you saw that certainly, as you said, with Matt Campbell going from Iowa State, it's Rocco Beck, it's a bunch of other really good players. And those guys are guys who help him really set the culture.
I think Penn State's sneaky good this year, you know, the schedule. Now, I know we've said this before about Penn State, but your assessment of the Nittany Lions is what? I'm with you. I mean, look, you have a team that they were actually very good. They were rolling. They were 5-0. Rocco Becht, who's a real leader there, he's one of the better college quarterbacks in the country. Obviously, his dad was a former NFL player, Anthony Becht.
He was a key piece, but he had a bunch of injuries. He broke down the whole secondary last year at Iowa State, had injuries. I think they were down like four of their top five defensive backs. Now you take those guys, most of them, to Happy Valley. There's some good players left that were left behind. Tony Rojas is one of the best linebackers in the country was there.
I just think it's like James Franklin did a really good job in Happy Valley, but it felt like things had maybe gotten a little stale there. That's why the coaching change happened. Matt Campbell's a really good coach. Nobody did what he was able to do in Ames, Iowa, and now he goes there, and then you hit on, I think, the other key piece of this. The schedule is about as favorable as it could be for a Big Ten team. USC has to go there. It's a long cross-country trip. It might be a whiteout game. I think that...
That's a team that it wouldn't shock me if they made the playoff in his first year because of how many guys he brought with him who know what it takes to win and I think will really help develop a winning attitude, you know, and just a mindset because I just think his message is a lot different than James Franklin's. And I think that a lot of those guys will probably respond to the change.
You know, Dabo's a made man there. He's won two national titles. I think he's fine. Bill Belichick has all sorts of issues going on behind, you know, I don't even know what substandard would be for them now. They went four and eight. Like when Mack Brown was there, they weren't this bad. And even in the bad year Larry Fedora had when they won two games.
they weren't like the laughingstock of college football, right? So, you know, if he has another four and eight season, I can't imagine that he's going to want to deal with that again. You know, you got a lot of off-field issues. They've, you know, really tried to reboot how they're doing things. If they don't get going fast enough,
I'd be surprised if he came back for a third season. With Lincoln Riley, expectations are higher. They signed a number one ranked recruiting class. I think people have been very frustrated there because it's year five. I mean, he started out well, and then they came close to making the playoff, but then it's been disappointment. I think if they get to nine wins, whether they make the playoff or not, at least that'll be progress.
If it's another eight win or worse season, I think people will, around USC, meaning the money people, will start to think, you know what, this is just not going to work out. So this is a pivotal year for Lincoln Riley. Talking to Bruce Feldman, on loan from The Athletic and Fox Sports. The expectations for Lane Kiffin in year one are what?
Realistically, probably get to the playoff. I mean, they spent a ton of money in the portal. You bring in Sam Levitt, who led ASU to a playoff two years ago. They bring in some really high-level defensive players, both on the D-line and in the secondary. Ty Benefield from Boise State is one of the best players in the country.
Lane has him and Charlie Weiss. I think you have really good offensive coaches. You know, they shouldn't have been as bad as they were last year under Brian Kelly. Things kind of fell apart there. I think realistic expectations is make the playoff. They have enough talent and they're paying them a lot of money. I think it doesn't mean, oh, this is a bad hire if he doesn't make the playoff in year one.
I don't think it's national title or bust, but I think the realistic expectation, it's a 12-team playoff. You should be with the portal and what you brought in, a legit playoff team.
yeah i think so much of it look you know you and i both worked at espn for a long time a long time ago we know how the power structure works and that was the you know the really the one thing espn can claim more than anything is like we run college football and you have the sec which along with the big ten they're the two biggest brands fox you know again as you said i work at fox you know full disclosure they have
the Big Ten, and so I think if you're looking at it from a business model, which honestly, let's not sugarcoat it, that's what this is all about, right? It's about TV money, and it's about viewers, and if you go to 24 games, 2014 playoff, the feeling is you will get, the hope is that you'd get better games in the non-conference, you will get more compelling games,
that maybe wouldn't have mattered so much if they didn't have a playoff potential around it. I think with ESPN's side of this is they've wanted to box Fox out. I think as much as the rivalry between the Big Ten and the SEC is really nasty, and it's probably gotten nastier now in the last year just with the Big Ten winning the third national title in a row, it's...
somebody's been able to unseat the SEC from the mountaintop, right? And so I think that's what's going with that is it's as much an ESPN versus Fox component here. And the kind of behind the scenes, whatever you want to call it, palace intrigue,
of that, it's pretty messy. And we'll see where it's going to land. But again, you have these two big brands, and I'm not just talking about the SEC and the Big Ten, that I feel like are out there. And then you also have these other, you know, I don't even want to call them TV networks, but these other, because it could be new money coming in, in terms of, you know, it's not just CBS, NBC. Now, all of a sudden, you have bigger money, you know, broadcasting companies because of
It was 10 guys because there's always, whether it was Javon Curse or Randy Moss, you'd hear about the freak guy or whatever. And it felt like a bunch of programs would have that guy who everybody was just wowed by. It could be like a 330-pound defensive lineman who could, you know, do backflips or any kind of things like that.
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