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Dave Wilson
It’s hard to believe the amount of drama that was packed into the 2025 college football season.
The Lane Kiffin soap opera, in which he was linked to four different jobs while leading Ole Miss to the playoff, was like a miniseries complete with horrible breakups and airport meltdowns. Along the way he trolled Hugh Freeze, who was fired at Auburn. He trolled just about everyone else, too. Then he did an interview at the Oxford airport and scrammed out of town.
The Penn State coaching search meandered. Brian Kelly vanished into the night in Death Valley. Mike Gundy is gone, a huge void in the Quotes of the Year universe.
Notre Dame skipped a bowl game after getting left out of the College Football Playoff. Then Miami and Indiana bullied their way into the national championship game, giving us new blood for the first time in years.
Let’s rewind for a bit. Here are the quotes that explain the 2025 college football season.
Zane Flores’ first start against No. 6 Oregon this season. The Cowboys lost 69-3 to the Ducks, and Gundy, in his 21st season in Stillwater, was fired Sept. 23 after a 1-2 start including a 19-12 loss to Tulsa.
I’m sure he appreciated the kind words
«Sounds like he’s doing amazing with that.»
— Lane Kiffin, at SEC media days on Hugh Freeze’s golf game after his golf photos and single-handicap index scores became the subject of public discussion amid Auburn recruiting woes
December 1, 2025
«It’s a dream come true for me. It’s one of the greatest honors of my life, and I couldn’t be more grateful to be here.»
— Former Iowa State coach Matt Campbell, who was hired as Penn State’s coach Dec. 8, at his introduction
«There probably will be a Netflix documentary at some point.»
— Kraft, after the long, winding Penn State search was complete
to AL.com on Oct. 18 when asked whether he expected Hugh Freeze to be the Tigers’ head coach in 2026
«I wish I could ask for patience, but that’s not something that people want to give in this day and time, and I understand that. I just think we’re so dang close.»
— Hugh Freeze on Nov. 1, the day before he was fired after going 15-19 on the Plains, including 1-4 in the SEC this season
That’s a lot of dough
«We know that as Red Raiders, no one tells us what to do. We make our own decisions. This situation is on me. I leaned into throwing tortillas at the beginning of the football season. Now I must ask everyone to stop.»
— Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt after the Big 12 changed its rules for objects thrown on the field to include a 15-yard penalty along with a $100,000 fine, potentially a very costly one for the Red Raiders’ tortilla-tossing tradition
Michigan’s mess and makeover
«It has been five years of, let’s just call it what it is, a malfunctioning organization where there’s something every year. … The program means a lot to me. And it’s one of the things I want to fix before I go smoke myself to death with cigars.»
— Michigan interim coach Biff Poggi, who took over after Sherrone Moore was fired for an inappropriate relationship with a staff member, which ultimately led to Moore being arrested for allegedly assaulting the staffer
«Michigan is a special place — a legitimate opportunity to win a national championship. It has happened here. So, I looked at it as a final challenge.»
— Kyle Whittingham, 66, who stepped down after 32 years at Utah — 21 as the head coach — saying, «I’m a free agent, I’m in the transfer portal» shortly before the Michigan scandal happened, with the timing aligning for both parties
It just means more
«He said something about [then-Bulldogs defensive coordinator] Todd Grantham and collapsed.»
— Suzanne Frederickson, on her late husband Lawrence Stockton, Georgia quarterback Gunnar Stockton’s grandfather, who died of a heart attack in the parking lot outside the Georgia-Florida game after the Bulldogs lost 34-31 in 2010. Gunnar Stockton said the memory inspires him to want to «beat them bad in Jacksonville.» The Bulldogs won this season 24-20.
pic.twitter.com/Qc1AJqjLBw
— Jon Blau (@Jon_Blau) November 9, 2025
The Fighting Irish: Fightin’ mad
«As a team, we’ve decided to withdraw our name from consideration for a bowl game following the 2025 season. We appreciate all the support from our families and fans, and we’re hoping to bring the 12th national title to South Bend in 2026.»
— Notre Dame, in a statement attributed to the 2025 team, after being left out of the College Football Playoff field
«We were definitely being targeted. … The ACC does wonderful things for Notre Dame, but we bring tremendous football value to the ACC, and we didn’t understand why you would go out of your way to try to damage us in this process.»
— Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua, accusing the ACC of promoting Miami at the expense of the Irish
«I think Pete’s, his behavior has been egregious. It’s been egregious going after [ACC commissioner] Jim Phillips when they saved Notre Dame during COVID. … The chair said that as Notre Dame and Miami got closer together, head-to-head would be a factor, OK?»
— Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, at a Sports Business Journal forum, noting that one of his teams, BYU, got left out despite a strong résumé because of its two losses
How it started, how it’s going
«They don’t have Nick Saban to save them. I just don’t see them stopping me.»
— Florida State quarterback Tommy Castellanos, a transfer from Boston College, before his first start for the Seminoles in Week 1 against Alabama. FSU beat the Crimson Tide 31-17.
«I’ve actually won a championship, and we’re going to do it again. We’re going to do it here. That might piss people off. So be it.»
— Florida State’s Mike Norvell, after dropping to 4-5, saying he had «elite level confidence» he could right the ship in Tallahassee in the future. The Seminoles finished 5-7 this season.
#Mizzou brought a fan onto the field to kick a 45-yard field goal for a chance to win $25k. Instead, he pulled up his shirt to reveal «F KU» on his chest and kicked the ball at the Kansas sideline.
Border War, baby.
— Eli Hoff (@byEliHoff) September 6, 2025
Chapel Bill’s beginnings
«We have a lot of experience in dealing with kind of what the college football landscape is now. … Mike has done a great job of — it’s reinforcing the roster.»
— North Carolina coach Bill Belichick, at his first ACC media days, on how he and general manager Michael Lombardi added 70 new players
«We consider ourselves the 33rd [NFL] team because everybody who’s involved in our program has had some form of aspect in pro football. … We can walk into any school and say, ‘We’re North Carolina, we have the greatest coach in the history of football, and we have a great university. Come play for us.'»
— Lombardi, in February, on the way he planned to build the UNC program
«They outplayed us, outcoached us, and they were just better than we were tonight. That’s all there was to it. They did a lot more things right than we did.»
— Belichick, after North Carolina got blown out by TCU 48-14 in the season opener, giving up more points than he allowed in any of his 333 NFL games
«We signed players who didn’t have offers or offers that they didn’t want. Kind of slid through the cracks in terms of the recruiting process. We signed players in the transfer portal that were available. We were late in the running on a lot of them. … We ran out of time. We did the best we could.»
— Belichick, in mid-October, on how the Tar Heels constructed his first roster in Chapel Hill before the Tar Heels finished 4-8
We’re going to need to see some proof
«I do smile, and I am happy, at times.»
— Cignetti, known for his stone-faced demeanor, before the CFP Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. The No. 1 Hoosiers beat No. 5 Oregon 56-22 to continue an undefeated season and earn a spot in the national championship game.
