From Digital Drive, Day 4: Chris Low, Matt Moscona, Connor O'Gara & more

Tuesday morning's edition of TexAgs Live emanated from the Omni Atlanta Hotel, the site of 2025 SEC Media Days. Today's special guests included Chris Low, Matt Moscona, Nick Roush, Connor O'Gara and John Nabors.

Key notes from Chris Low interview

• I'm great. It's good to be here. It’s the last day of SEC Media Days and the unofficial kickoff to the season.
   
• I like it. When I was covering these teams — Tennessee, South Carolina and Clemson — you get to the end of the season and summer, and you talk about the same things over and over. When you talk about my case, I like it because every day, every week, you find out about new things in the country. It's hard, but it's still a lot of fun for me to get to know people. Certainly, I've covered the SEC for so long to get to know coaches, players and administrators in different parts of the country.
   
• The best thing about SEC Media Days is gathering things for future stories. There haven’t been a lot this week so far. I'm working on a quarterback story in this league. It's the different categories and different tiers for these guys. There are QBs starting for the first time — like Arch Manning, who's played a bit but is handed the keys to the season for the first time. Guys like Jackson Arnold, who switched teams and got a reset. Tennessee, who knows who it will be since Nico Iamaleava went to UCLA. Then the guys like Marcel Reed, who got thrown in late last year. Then, guys who are elite like DJ Lagway, LaNorris Sellers and Garrett Nussmeier, who will have long, great careers. Manning will, too, but he hasn't played much like Sellers or Lagway. For Diego Pavia, who is a more fun guy to watch play than him? It will be fun. For Ty Simpson, it feels like he has been at Alabama for four years by now, but he hasn't started till this year. The “blue bloods,” existing in Georgia and Alabama, don't have a quarterback to put at who are saying these guys are NFL material. Simpson is getting his first shot, and Gunner Stockton got a shot in the playoffs. That is the biggest storyline this year: Who will break out and make the biggest impact this year?
   
• Alabama will be a lot better on defense. Deontae Lawson's health is important. He's a great linebacker in college football and better on that side of the ball. They didn't lose guys that could have gone pro. We know when Alabama is at its best, the Tide will impose the defense on you. Thinking about how Simpson will play — is he consistent, and does he have guys around him? If you're an Alabama fan, you hope Kalen DeBoer brings Ryan Grubb as offensive coordinator, that they have a close working relationship, and if you’re an Alabama fan, you hope Grubb will be the missing piece on offense.
   
• If I have to pick the two best teams at the end of the season, I'll be as bullish on Alabama as anybody. I'll tell you this, the SEC, the difference is because of A&M and Texas coming in. From 2015-2022, it was top-heavy. Georgia was great, then Alabama and then it was back and forth. LSU had a monster year in 2019. Then there is a wide gap. You saw what happened last year. Everyone beat up on everyone.
   
• A&M, we got back and watched them last year. I think mid-late October, they probably were as consistent as anybody. They didn't run out of gas, but they did not finish well enough, so they need to sustain that. They will do something. To be good in this league is to run the ball, and to be great and strong up front offensively as anybody. If you ask any coach, they want to be good at quarterback and to be good at the offensive and defensive lines. They lost some guys upfront defensively, but Mike Elko has recruited and developed well enough and brought new guys from new places. They will be good again. I like the fact that their running game and offensive line will help them play the way Elko wants to play, shorten the game and do what you want to do. Not be in third-and-long situations. The thing about Reed is that if you're good enough up front and good in the back, they won't throw everything on his shoulders. He will be capable of more, and they are in the group of teams behind Alabama, Georgia and Texas. Then maybe LSU and then A&M. There are five teams — A&M, Oklahoma, Tennessee and South Carolina — who are healthy and have those quarterbacks break out and be leaders on their teams. They win close games. You guys saw A&M more than me at Florida. They hammered the Gators in their second home game and continued to play at a high clip, but then something seemed to be missing.
   
• I think there will be one or two 9-3 teams in the CFP. Georgia was close and took eight overtimes to beat Georgia Tech. They would have been a three-loss team, though it was out of conference. There are a lot of scenarios that could have happened. I was in the Nashville game in Vanderbilt against Texas, and Texas had to receive an onside kick to win the game. The league is getting closer. I would not be shocked if you say to see a three-loss team in. Last year, the SEC didn't get credit for the schedule. This year, we will see a 9-3 team in the playoffs.
   
• The Big Ten is pushing for four automatic seats in the CFP. The SEC will be good for five or six teams in. The sticking point is how many league games the SEC plays. The coaches don't care about the ninth game. The presidents and chancellors want it because it's more money. All these schools are looking for more money because they have to pay $20.5 million in revenue sharing. The coaches may want one thing, but they don't make the decisions. If the commissioner wants something, he will get it. I think we get to nine games, but I don't think in time for the 2026 season. You have to make a decision quickly. The Big Ten is not budging and will stay on four automatic qualifiers and not the 5+11 unless the SEC goes to nine conference games. I like the nine, and I get the toughness and grind of the league, but at some point, we need to see more SEC teams play each other. I hate that we don't see Auburn vs. Florida, Texas vs. Arkansas, or Texas A&M vs. Arkansas play. If we get nine games, we get to see the matchups more often.

Key notes from Matt Moscona interview

• Garrett Nussmeier is the leading returning passer in college football. He is the only 4,000-yard passer back from a season ago. He was on a team that was 101st in rush offense. They had no balance. They relied on Nussmeier to do a lot, and he did. The thing he needs to purge out of his game is what y’all saw last year.
   
• LSU was firmly in control of that game. The critical mistake of throwing to the middle of the field, and that was when the avalanche started. If Nussmeier can purge that out of his game, everything else is there. The size, arm strength, ability to make throws, moxie, toughness, and he’s the son of a coach. He checks all the boxes. It’s just the experience he gained from starting last year. He’s got to learn from those experiences. He could be in New York for the Heisman if the stats are there.
   
• LSU is replacing four offensive linemen. They were outstanding in pass protection last year, but the run game never got going. The Les Miles school was 104th in the country in rush offense, which doesn’t happen. I think they are really talented at running back, but I don't know if you can expect it to be better when you're replacing a whole offensive line.
   
• The defense last year was improved from 2023, but they went from 105th in the country to the 60s. Can the defense go from 60s to 30s? If they are and the offense is what we think it'll be, they have the opportunity to win each game they play.
   
• LSU better be better than that. They are usually an 8.5-win team. Every decade or so, boom, they pop out a good one. I don't think people understand what they did in the portal this year. They recognized the opportunities with Nussmeier coming back to win a national championship this year, so they went and spent.
   
• A year ago, Brian Kelly said, “We aren’t in the business of buying players.” But they are this year and are going for it. It’s basically what Ole Miss and Ohio State did last year. LSU went and bought the best transfer portal in the country and is expecting to be in the playoffs and make a championship run.
   
• If they don't do that this year, it's fair to ask if it’ll ever happen under Kelly. All these one-year mercenaries will be gone. Nussmeier will be gone. I expect them to regress in 2026. This has to be a team where you're 10-2 in the playoffs. You have to be in the playoffs.
   
• LSU is not Texas A&M. It’s not a poverty program, but they don’t have that type of resource A&M has. If LSU fired Kelly after the season, it’d be $51 million. If they don’t make the playoffs this year and regress in 2026, then I think you're looking at, “Okay, what’s the exit strategy?” I’ve said it for four years. LSU gave Kelly a 10-year contract where 90 percent is guaranteed. For better or worse, they are bound together financially for a decade.

Key notes from Connor O’Gara interview

• Did you get confused for a second on day two when the War Hymn came on for Steve Sarkisian? I know Billy Liucci tweeted about it. Was that officially a TexAgs hoax? Because there's no shame in it. There's a rivalry. You have to mix things up. You can confess now, and we won't hold it against you.
   
• This week is my favorite this year. I love being able to see everyone and come on shows like yours. If you don't travel regularly — I don’t, with this role, watch all the games — I like being in person, and it's great.
   
• By day four, you talk about the energy levels, and it is tougher to get going. If something like the wrong school song playing happens, content is content. It's dead here, and it's not karaoke. I did my best to be a responsible mid-30-year-old adult and know my limit. I'm a two-drink guy, and I'm rolling the dice to be professional the next day. I want to be able to talk about football that day.
   
• I feel Josh Pate has given me one of the most meaningful talks of my career at the Peach Bowl, talking about how I don't go to games in person and would go to Georgia and Ohio State a few years ago. He gave me a great, meaningful talk. That meant something, but apparently not if I didn't get a wedding invite. There's nothing wrong with being invited by association. I've got it from time to time with my wife.
   
• I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but Arch Manning is impressive. He came into this knowing this would be a big deal. He didn't want to come to media days and pushed back on the idea. He will write and talk about reality. It's the best media scrum since Johnny Manziel in 2013. That was the expectation going in, and seeing how well and calm he's answering questions, two different points they had to move him closer to the mic because of how soft spoken he was. It wasn't because he was shy, but he was sitting back in the chair and was relaxed. He seems ready. He probably wouldn't have been ready last year. People go, “Why wasn't he the starter last year if Quinn Ewers was a seventh-round pick?” I think he figured out some things last year and figured out who he is as a person and is comfortable in his own skin. Sarkisian said he's a quick-witted guy. He talked about when his family would tell him that. He complemented one of his shots on the golf course, and his family said, “What are you doing? That's a weird thing to do.” I'm a Manning believer more so than a skeptic, even if I don't think he needs to start as a preseason All-Star QB.
   
• Texas has four of five new starters on the offensive line. One is Trevor Goosby for Kelvin Banks Jr. in the A&M game, and he was phenomenal. I'm really high on what he will be at left side tackle. I asked Manning what he needs to be better at at this point in his career. I was hoping he would say sensing backside pressure. He instead talked about needing some reps. He was first to admit he has to prove it and started two games against competition, and all due respect to Louisiana-Monroe and Mississippi State, those programs aren't exactly going to define legacy at Texas. It's perfectly fair to have questions about his game, but he's capable of doing everything. That's why there's a belief in doing everything. Am I sitting here like Paul Finebaum, saying he will be the best quarterback since Tim Tebow? Absolutely not. Do I think Manning will be fun and put in awesome spots since Sarkisian is a wizard and because this defense could be the best in college football? I do. It has me buying it more than selling it. I don't know if he's the biggest Cam Newton guy. Johnny Manziel comes to mind, and Joe Burrow with one of the greatest seasons ever, comes to mind.
   
• I think A&M needs a passing game to scare people. I have no questions about the ground game, and we don't need to get into off-the-field issues with Le’Veon Moss. I'm more concerned with his knee injury as a running back, but then I think Rueben Owens will be phenomenal. I like what we saw in Amari Daniels last year, fitting in the bigger role.
   
• I love the fact of the continuity in the offensive line and year two with Collin Klein. I love that Reed showed us things in his first year as a starter that made us think that he's a great scheme fit. I don't know if that will scare people with how they throw the football. If you have the upside of a playoff team, you need that. The playoff teams last year, if you were one-dimensional, you got exposed. Tennessee got exposed. Tennessee had a great ground game with Dylan Sampson. They had injury troubles with him at the end of the season and into the playoffs. I still think it would have been a tough matchup in the playoffs if he had been healthy. What will determine your upside? If they can take the top off some defenses, if Reed can improve his downfield accuracy and KC Concepcion steps into the true freshman All-American he was at NC State, let's have those conversations about A&M.
   
• I think losing Moss in the South Carolina game hurt. How could it not be, given the depth issues they had at running back? You were surprised when Owens came back late in the season. There is just a discerning feeling with the defense, and part of it was the guys up front. You were supposed to have the three guys upfront be anchors and get to the quarterback and rely on that. The way we talk about the A&M run game this year, that's the thing we can hang our hat on, and we know we can have our hat on. You know you have a chance to do that with anybody you have a chance anybody you line up against. It was supposed to be with that defensive line, and of course, with the bowl game, it's a different roster up front. You hear Elko talk after and say, “I don't know how we couldn't figure out zone coverage.” You need to figure that out and other secondary with Tyreek Chappell and how it will impact your team, and it’s fair to ask those questions. Reed was not the problem. He's a gamer and didn't give up in those spots, and he kept battling in South Carolina and Auburn. I do think you need that type of guy for the situation you're in.
   
• Reed won't be part of preseason All-SEC conversations in ways Lagway will. I think we see upside with Lagway. The things he did as a downfield thrower, he averaged 20.4 yards per attempt when he threw a pass that was longer than 20 yards past the line of scrimmage. Those things get noticed. Twenty yards downfield was an issue for Reed. He has to get better. Did they have guys who could maximize downfield passing attacks? Probably not. Do they have them this year? We will see. That will be a game changer for how good of a run game it is. In theory, you should have more favorable matchups on the outside, and who knows, maybe that's what will benefit him.
   
• Reed has to be a top five or six quarterback to be 9-3. He has to take that next step to be in conversation. There's definitely a part of me that goes, “What if it's the 2020 team all over again? What if it's a team that benefits from continuity from the offensive line and has a Mike Elko-style defense where you feel comfortable about winning close games?” Kellen Mond was a good player that year. Was he an elite quarterback? No, but you were able to win games because of the strengths you had that gave you a chance against anybody in a season with the lone Alabama loss. That's why I can't quite get to that level. Maybe Reed playing at a top-five level and being in the All-SEC convo at season's end has to be a common denominator with any sort of A&M playoff run.
   
• We don’t compare anyone to Cam Newton, that's for sure. We should do the same with Manziel. Newton, especially because of how unique he was. Newton comparison all around. You can be inspired, that's fine. Any sort of “you can be Cam Newton 2.0.” It will always be a bad take. Google Jeremy Johnson.
   
• I think you still need to give credit to what he did last year and acknowledge that if there's someone who can work through those things, it's LaNorris Sellers. He's likeable. I don't know how these kids are raised so mature at 19. That's a cliche thing to say, and he's one of those guys to go, “Man, he's one of those guys who's got things figured out.” I think his personality matches his play style, where he won’t panic. The big thing about Shane Beamer is that he doesn't want him to be Superman this year. We want our offensive line to be better and do things within the scheme this year and give him help in the passing game. Nyck Harbour has the all-world speed he has now that he's not running track. There are things with South Carolina that are purely fair to question, that I'm questioning too. If we were trying to predict right now who the preseason All-SEC QB is that won't finish, there is Sellers because of those surroundings. I agree 100 percent on that point. He's not overrated, and those thighs at the Clemson game he ran through the entire defense, and did against A&M too. You're right if we say how we will be talking about him in a couple of months.