Episodes

Matt Vitzthum never set out to climb the coaching ladder. He just kept showing up and doing the work. A Division III football player at Wartburg College, Vitzthum learned early that the game gives you far more than it asks in return. He stuck around after his playing days, sat quietly in the back of meeting rooms, and filled notebooks with lessons learned, absorbing everything he could. Nearly two decades later, he's the head football coach at the University of South Dakota. Vitzthum joins Se...

Is Notre Dame overrated? Can Indiana knock off Ohio State? And is anybody buying Texas as a top-10 team? It's a PYA (Plant Yo' A**) Saturday on The Preferred Walk-On Show, and Seth and James are breaking down one of the most loaded college football slates of the season. The fellas are making picks for Ohio State–Indiana, Notre Dame–BYU, Alabama–Tennessee, Georgia–Auburn, Florida–Texas, Missouri–Ole Miss, Wisconsin–UCLA, Oklahoma State–Houston and Mississippi State–LSU. Plus, Indiana's undefeat...

Saturday gave us another reminder that nothing in college football stays settled for long. George Somerville of The College Chaps joins Seth for the first Sunday Walk-Through to unpack a weekend that reshaped the conversation around several teams. Alabama walked into Starkville and overwhelmed one of the hottest stories in the sport, with Keelon Russell making his own case for the spotlight. Missouri brought Florida crashing back to earth with a dominant performance in Columbia. Kentucky erase...

Is a 24-team College Football Playoff inevitable? And if expansion is coming, does anyone actually have a plan for what college football should look like when it gets here? Seth and James dive into the latest CFP expansion conversation, including automatic bids, the future of conference championship games, the G6, an FCS-style postseason model and the larger problem facing the sport: college football keeps changing, but its structure hasn’t caught up. Then the boys turn to the field after anot...

Texas somehow found a way. Seth and James open Week 3 by breaking down Texas’ comeback win over Ohio State - and why the final score doesn’t necessarily erase the questions surrounding Arch Manning. Did Ohio State get too conservative? Should Ryan Day have taken the points early? And what happens when Texas faces another elite defense? Then the guys try to figure out what exactly happened to Oregon in Stillwater. After escaping Boise State and falling to Oklahoma State, are the Ducks simply wo...

College football is back — and so is James, back alongside Seth as The Preferred Walk-On Show kicks off its seventh season. Before the first full Saturday of the season, we’re putting some early 2026 takes on tape: the teams nobody is talking about enough, potential conference disruptors, a Group of Six playoff sleeper and our picks for 10 of the most interesting games on the Week 0 slate. Could Syracuse make noise in the ACC with a healthy Steve Angeli? Is Houston a legitimate Big 12 title co...

What makes a great college football trip? For Josh Sims - better known as CFB Travel Guy - the game itself is only part of the answer. It’s arriving in town on Friday. Finding the restaurant that’s been serving fans for 70 years. Walking a campus for the first time. Seeing the traditions you grew up watching on television. Tailgating with people you’ve never met. And feeling the energy build until kickoff. Josh has crisscrossed the country chasing those experiences, and he joins Seth for a wi...

Matt Schumacker spent years envisioning himself calling college football in front of 80,000 fans. Now he gets to do it for real. The new lead play-by-play voice for SEC Network football joins The Preferred Walk-On Show to tell the story behind an 11-year climb through sports broadcasting, from calling minor league baseball for free and driving hours for $200 assignments to nearly leaving the profession altogether during COVID. Matt discusses the moments he wondered whether the opportunity wou...

Western Carolina head football coach Kerwin Bell knows what it means to be overlooked. Bell arrived at the University of Florida as an eighth-string walk-on quarterback before climbing the depth chart, earning the starting job, and becoming the SEC Player of the Year. That journey launched a professional playing career and eventually a coaching career defined by explosive offenses, championships, player development, and a willingness to believe in players others might overlook. In this episode...

UTRGV football is being built from the ground up, and Coach Marco Regalado is right in the middle of that foundation. In this episode, Seth Saunders sits down with Coach Regalado to talk about his South Texas roots, his non-traditional climb through the coaching profession, and what it means to help build a new Division I football program in the Valley. Coach Regalado shares how his football journey took him from Zapata, Texas, to Texas State, to creating a football club when his own playing p...

Missouri State head football coach Casey Woods joins The Preferred Walk-On Show to talk about leadership, culture, faith, toughness, family, and what it takes to build a football program that lasts. Coach Woods shares his journey from playing at the University of Tennessee, earning his way as a walk-on, coaching on a national championship staff at Auburn, helping build winning programs at UAB and SMU, and now leading Missouri State football into a new era. This conversation goes beyond wins an...

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer sits down with The Preferred Walk-On Show to trace his path from walk-on player to leading a Power Four program - and to explain why culture, core values, and resilience matter more than any recruiting ranking. Coach Beamer opens up on the leadership lessons that shaped his coaching philosophy, the outsized role walk-ons play in building winning culture, and how adversity and failure became catalysts for growth. He digs into the core values - love, gratitu...

For over a century, the NCAA was the sheriff of college football. Today there's no sheriff at all - and the fight to replace it is reshaping the sport. In this solo deep-dive, host Seth Saunders makes the case that NIL, the transfer portal, conference realignment, and playoff expansion aren't separate crises. They're symptoms of one massive transfer of power, and college football is living through its own Cold War. Seth traces the legal through-line that got us here: from the 2014 O'Bannon case...

College football is changing fast — and most of those changes aren't for the good. Between conference realignment, NIL, the House settlement, player compensation, TV money, playoff expansion, and the slow erosion of regional rivalries, the sport is at a crossroads. In this episode of The Preferred Walk-On Show, Seth Saunders lays out a comprehensive vision for how to reshape college football while preserving what made it great in the first place. This is not just another complaint about the cu...

Geoff Collins walked on at Western Carolina, earned a scholarship, became a three-year defensive starter — and turned that into a college coaching career spanning three decades that took him from DIII to the FCS to the head coach of multiple Power 4 programs. Seth Saunders sits down with the former Temple and Georgia Tech head coach for the second episode of The Preferred Walk-On Show's summer interview series. Collins traces his full path — from what jersey numbers 92 and 5 meant to a walk-on ...

If LSU's roster really costs an $40 million and the House settlement only allows $20.5 million in direct revenue sharing - where is all of the extra money coming from? In Part 2 of our Show Me the Money series, Seth breaks down the third bucket of college football compensation: everything happening above the rev share cap. That means multimedia rights partners (Learfield, Playfly, JMI Sports), the new generation of school-aligned collectives, and the high-stakes Nebraska arbitration case that j...

Coach Bobby Kennedy is Montana's 38th head football coach - he joins The Preferred Walk-On Show to talk about the opportunity to lead the Montana Grizzlies football program, the mentors who shaped his coaching philosophy, his front-row seat at the 2005 USC-Texas national championship, and why the Brawl of the Wild is unlike any rivalry in college football. From Joe Glenn in Missoula to Mack Brown at Texas to Lou Tepper at Illinois, Kennedy's coaching tree runs through some of the most influenti...

🏈 SHOW ME THE MONEY — PART 1 How do college football players actually get paid? In Part 1 of our Show Me the Money series, we break down the full money flow — from traditional scholarships to the House settlement, conference TV deals, and the rise of NIL collectives. You'll get a clear, no-jargon look at the three main compensation buckets, how the new $20.5M revenue-sharing cap is funded, CFP payout mechanics, and why funding an elite roster now runs $25–40M. We also dig into the fallout for ...

The Sugar Bowl is loaded with history and this SEC showdown will add another chapter to this game's storied past. One of the College Football Playoff's most fascinating games is about to kick off — and The Preferred Walk-On Show is breaking it all down. Host Seth Saunders previews the Sugar Bowl between the Ole Miss Rebels and the Georgia Bulldogs, examining how Lane Kiffin’s departure changes everything for Ole Miss as they face one of the most disciplined programs in college football. 🏈 Ins...

One of the most improbable and memorable seasons in college football history now reaches one of its defining moments. On this episode of The Preferred Walk-On Show, host Seth Saunders previews the Rose Bowl matchup between Indiana and Alabama, as the Hoosiers play their first game ever as the No. 1 team in the nation, completing one of the most stunning program turnarounds in modern football under head coach Curt Cignetti. Seth breaks down what this moment means, how Indiana got here, and why t...

The College Football Playoff Quarterfinals are here — and the Orange Bowl delivers one of the season’s most intriguing matchups: Texas Tech vs Oregon. Host Seth Saunders breaks down the game from every angle — football, culture, and betting — while echoing Dan Lanning’s call that CFP Quarterfinals belong on college campuses. This episode covers: 🔥 Texas Tech’s Rise — powered by the Matador Club, Cody Campbell’s NIL vision, and transfer portal dominance 🦆 Oregon’s Talent Base — elite athletes ...

The CFP Quarterfinals are here! The Cotton Bowl is loaded with star power, storylines, and championship stakes — and The Preferred Walk-On Show is breaking it all down. Host Seth Saunders previews the Miami vs. Ohio State matchup with a deep dive into the tactical, emotional, and personnel-based battles that will decide who marches on to the semis. From Carson Beck’s Jekyll-and-Hyde brilliance to Ohio State’s historically dominant defense, this episode gives you everything you need to understa...

This FCS postseason has delivered chaos and history — and now it all comes down to one final showdown. In this episode of The Preferred Walk-On Show, host Seth Saunders breaks down the FCS semifinals, recapping the defining moments that set the stage for the national championship game between the Montana State Bobcats and the Illinois State Redbirds. From the first-ever playoff edition of the Brawl of the Wild — the Super Brawl, to Illinois State’s unforgettable road-warrior run, this episode ...

Championship stakes meets storied rivalry in Bozeman, Montana this weekend. This week on The Preferred Walk-On Show, host Seth Saunders is joined by Montana State Head Coach Brent Vigen as the Bobcats prepare for a playoff semifinal showdown against Montana — the first-ever postseason edition of the Brawl of the Wild, which observers have dubbed the Super Brawl. Coach Vigen offers rare insight into how Montana State has built one of the most disciplined, physical, and resilient programs in the...