False Start - College Football Podcast · John Buhler and Cody Williams

Episode 249: Fernando Mendoza will not throw at the NFL Combine, Akheem Mesidor's rising NFL Draft stock, Jeremy Pruitt returning to college football?

February 9, 2026·54 min·3 clips

Buehler says Alabama is the weakest of his Power Four contenders group.

1. False Start uses Fernando Mendoza’s decision not to throw at the NFL Combine as a springboard into draft-process strategy and roster-building around Indiana and the Las Vegas Raiders. 2. John Buehler hosts solo for this recording, and Cody Williams is absent while recovering from Super Bowl coverage and feeling under the weather. 3. The episode asks how teams and prospects should navigate the offseason, from combine decisions to a very early 2026 College Football Playoff projection. 4. Mendoza says he would rather throw with his own receivers than unfamiliar players at the combine, and Buehler says that protects his draft stock. 5. Buehler links Mendoza to Indiana’s 16-0 national championship season and notes that Mendoza is the Hoosiers’ only first-round-caliber player. 6. He compares Mendoza’s approach to quarterbacks who rarely throw at the combine and cites Blake Bortles as a recent example of a passer who did. 7. Akheem Mesidor is the next draft topic, and Buehler pushes back on the idea that the Miami edge rusher cannot be a first-round pick. 8. Mesidor’s age, production, and role at Miami are central to the argument, and Buehler says mock drafts have moved him from top-100 range toward the 32 range. 9. The Maryland segment focuses on Jeremy Pruitt’s possible move to College Park and the meaning of his Tennessee show-cause penalty. 10. Buehler says Mike Loxley’s Alabama ties make the idea plausible, while James Smith’s new role as Maryland athletic director adds another layer. 11. The show then shifts into Buehler’s way-too-early playoff tiers for teams with roughly plus-10,000 odds or better to win the national title. 12. His likely returnees are Georgia, Indiana, Miami, Ohio State, Oregon, and Texas Tech, and he says those programs understand what a top-10 team looks like year after year. 13. Georgia’s case rests on SEC wins, retained coordinators Mike Bobo and Glenn Schumann, and a lighter schedule than a year ago. 14. Indiana is the one likely returnee he treats with more caution because Fernando Mendoza is gone and Josh Hoover would not be the same fit. 15. Ohio State gets a boost from Arthur Smith and Matt Patricia on the staff, plus Jeremiah Smith, Julian Sayin, and the program’s unusually high floor. 16. Oregon’s case depends on Dante Moore returning, while Miami and Texas Tech are framed as portal-heavy teams with strong coaching continuity and strong league paths. 17. Notre Dame and Texas are the newcomer locks, and Buehler says both programs barely missed the playoff last year while carrying strong 2025 outlooks. 18. The tone is conversational and opinion-driven, with Buehler moving quickly between news items, draft logic, and bracket-style analysis. 19. Fans of college football roster-building and playoff forecasting. 20. Listeners wanting polished, data-driven team rankings.

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