Building the Beast: Shrine Bowl preview and CFP National Championship Game takeaways

The Athletic

21 January 2026

The end of the college football season is something of a starting bell for NFL Draft season, and the annual all-star games get everything going. It begins this week with the Shrine Bowl, a showcase event for draft prospects. Eric Galko, director of football operations and player personnel for the Shrine Bowl, joins Dave Helman and Dane Brugler on this episode of The Athletic Football Show's Building the Beast to preview the event. Before that, though, Dave and Dane highlight their takeaways from Indiana's thrilling 27-21 win over Miami in the CFP National Championship Game. Rundown (timestamps are approximate) 2:00 CFP National Championship Game takeaways 31:22 Shrine Bowl preview with Eric Galko Connect with The Athletic Football Show Please take our listener survey: theathletic.com/survey26 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TAFootballShow Podcasts: https://podfollow.com/the-athletic-football-show/view X: https://x.com/TA_FootballShow IG: https://www.instagram.com/tafootballshow TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tafootballshow Discord: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshow Call us: 847-448-0701 Email us: athleticfootballshow@gmail.com Host: Dave Helman Co-Host: Dane Brugler Executive Producer: Michael Beller Video Producer: Katy Duffy Audio Producer: Michael Beller Social Producer: Scott Krinch Follow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.social Follow Dave on X: @davehelman_ Follow Dane on X: @dpbrugler Theme song: Haunted Written by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love Songs Courtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.