Brandon Walker turned Monday night into an event. He teased it all afternoon, counted down the hours, and finally went live on the Brandon Walker College Football Show to unveil his personal Top 25 rankings while also sitting down with ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay to talk quarterbacks ahead of the season.
The buildup had a little bit of everything, including Brandon joking in his pre-show hype tweet that Lou Cignetti's Indiana squad and Ryan Day's Ohio State are still cooking with fumble luck — a jab, not breaking news, but it set the tone for a show that mixed rankings with needling. By the time he went live, the anticipation online was real, with fans hyping up the broadcast like it was appointment viewing.
The centerpiece of the night was McShay's segment on Sam Leavitt, the former Arizona State star who is now at LSU playing for Lane Kiffin. Leavitt led the Sun Devils to a Big 12 title and a College Football Playoff berth as a redshirt freshman in 2024 before a foot injury cut his 2025 season short after 7 starts. McShay didn't hide his excitement about watching Leavitt run Kiffin's offense this fall, and the segment played out as a straightforward breakdown, not a bit.
Todd Mcshay cannot wait to see Sam Leavitt with Lane Kiffin at LSU this year https://t.co/HohBjiQE1j
Leavitt was the No. 1-rated quarterback in the transfer portal when he committed to LSU, and Kiffin reportedly flew to Knoxville to meet with him personally during the recruiting chase. Pairing a mobile, big-armed passer with Kiffin and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. is exactly the kind of quarterback pairing that makes a preseason Top 25 conversation interesting, and it's why McShay leaned into the topic instead of just checking a box.
Then came the main event: Brandon's actual Top 25. He laid out his tiering system in plain terms — 7 teams he considers elite, teams 8 through 16 as close but not quite there, and 17 through 25 as basically interchangeable, with roughly 15 more teams like Florida and UVA lurking just outside. He also flagged South Carolina as his self-described 'fuck it' team, the kind of gut pick that has no real justification beyond a hunch.
Brandon knew the rankings would draw heat and got ahead of it, telling anyone upset to not take it personally — fully aware that's a lot to ask of college football fans in August. Eric Hubbs, for his part, walked away from the McShay conversation still all-in on a different quarterback entirely, saying he doesn't think there's a better signal-caller in the country than Ole Miss's Trinidad Chambliss, who is set to return for the Rebels in 2026 after a lengthy eligibility fight with the NCAA.
Between the Top 25 reveal and the Leavitt breakdown, the show delivered exactly what a preseason special is supposed to: a ranking to argue about and a quarterback story worth watching all year. LSU fans now get to see whether Leavitt, fully healthy, can turn Kiffin's offense into the version McShay was hyping — and whether Brandon's rankings hold up once the games actually start.