Tackling a handful of college football storylines with Josh Pate

Joining TexAgs Live from Ohio State as part of the Pate State Speaker Series, college football analyst Josh Pate offered plenty of thoughts on standouts taken in the 2025 NFL Draft, discussing Shedeur Sanders' slide, how NIL is impacting draft decisions and much more.

Key notes from Josh Pate interview

• It always depends on your priorities to go to the NFL Draft. I've watched people do something completely foolish, but then you learn the reason behind it, and you say, 'Well, maybe it doesn't sound so crazy.” If a guy doesn't have two dimes to rub together and his family depends on him, and he doesn't have the clearly stated dream to play pro ball, then maybe he did make a dumb decision.
   
• None of those things are true. Quinn Ewers is well-off financially, and it was well known internally that this was it for him in college. He looks at it and says he is going to bet on himself. He'll earn less on the front end of his rookie deal, but if he's right, his second deal will be monstrous. Let's say he bets on himself and is wrong. We know what it means. In that state, what it means to just market yourself as a former Texas quarterback instead of transferring out your last year? Over the long haul, that nets you a whole lot more than he may have left on the table in NIL.
   
• When I started hearing the criticism, I thought to myself, "Hold on. Let's view this in totality." One of the key complaints that many people have in this sport is the mercenary angle, which is tied to NIL, but it is also married to the fact that there is a lot of money, and these guys are bag chasing. I do question someone who has a problem with a kid who goes from Oregon to Michigan because they offer him $750,000 more per year in housing and travel. You criticize that kid for chasing a bag, but then also criticize Ewers for turning one down. Where's the consistency? You'll be shocked that there really isn't any.
   
• People always say that things are cyclical, which is not true because the concept of a straight line exists. There is an evolutionary nature to college football. I am at Ohio State right now. They didn't lose a kid in the post-spring portal. That wasn't always the story in the last few years. Are guys starting to learn the lesson on their own? Maybe the highest bidder isn't winning at the same percentage as it was a few years ago.
   
• It's semantics. You could have a star quarterback and make your way through the Big 12 and make the playoff, but what you are talking about is the ability to compete for a title. To compete for a title, you are talking about sending eight-plus guys to the league, or everyone one of your guys is coming back. You have to consistently do that. It is year over year over year.
   
• We are looking at a situation where the odds-on favorites are not returning quarterbacks or returning 50 percent production. Seemingly blindly, they are expected to win. There is a track record. How many times have we seen Alabama lose talent and its coaching staff? Fast forward to the modern day, but does the future start to teach us lessons about how vulnerable even the top programs are?
   
• It was straightforward to me. I think the league viewed Shedeur Sanders was viewed as a backup quarterback. You are relying on your backup to be a church mouse and disappear. The last thing you are willing to accept is drafting a backup with baggage and drama. Whether it is real or not, it was perceived. I was talking to some front office guys, and they said to me, "What is the market for these guys?" Because it isn't 32 teams, it was five or six teams. They only come around so many times. It was a spectacle. I think if given time, Sanders could emerge as a good player. I'm almost glad he is not being depended on to be the face of a franchise in 2025.
   
• I think it is a product of people's camps becoming bigger. That is kind of a product of NIL. I think it is a product of how many more people the money sucks into your orbit. There were several teams that spoke for Nico Iamaleava, and it created a hurricane. It was never him, but it was people speaking for him. I don't think it is a direct result of NIL, but it is related.
   
• The farther you get away from 2024, all someone in Clearwater, Florida, is going to remember is that Ohio State finally won a title, and Ryan Day won a title. They don't remember what the next 72 hours after the Michigan loss were like. Day does because he lived it. It's so easy to tell the story in a fortune cookie manner, but had they not gotten themselves off the deck, it would be a footnote in history for the wrong reasons. I don't know if that story has been told. I don't know if that is something you tell until your career is over. It callouses you. You probably saw one of the most intriguing stories in the sport last year.
   
• Same story every year with Penn State. You say here are four-fifths of a championship team, but where are the wide receivers? Well, they just got three in the portal. If bounces go their way, if they are fortuitous on the injury front, you execute how you know you can execute. For Penn State, it comes down to whether they respect your ability to throw the ball on key downs. If the answer is yes, that's the difference.
   
• I think it is the same theme as Penn State. If you play the schedule Texas A&M will play, you can bank on one-possession games. You can bank on four to six plays being the difference. It is not just having a receiver who can make a play in this moment? it is over the span of an afternoon, do they have to respect it? It changes the game when they have to respect whether you could do it. That is offensive balance. Balance is not allowing that safety to creep down because you are willing to throw it to your wide receiver.