The Cowboys Are A Mess (Hour 1)

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Visit ixl.com audio to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. Live from the Play Show, you're not overly ostentatious, studios of the Infinity Sports Network here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Wednesday edition of the Zach Gelb Show right here on the Infinity Sports Network across all of our great local Infinity Sports Network affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course, streaming live on YouTube.

855-212-4227 is the number to jump on in 855-212-4227. You could always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter X at Zach Gelb, that's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Michigan defensive back, projected top 10 pick, one of the highest rated players in the new college football video game, tied for the highest ranked players with two other guys. Will Johnson's gonna stop by for a little college football fix at the top of the hour. Bart Winkler on Winkler Wednesdays at 4 40 p.m. Eastern, 1 40 p.m. Pacific, and Ian Williams is going to join us to preview the 49ers. Ian's actually be joining us live from London today, the former 49ers defensive lineman. He's going to stop by at 5 20 p.m. Eastern, 2 20 p.m. Pacific, which I think is like 10 p.m. his time or so, like 10 20 I believe across the pond. So looking forward to our conversation with him. I'll get to the Cowboys in just a second. What a stereotypical way to start a national radio program, but we do have to get into them with the news on CeeDee Lamb that he is holding out.

He's not going to be present for the start of Cowboys training camp and Oxnard. But Stu, your eyes kind of lit up when I mentioned that we're gonna have Will Johnson on an hour from now, the MVP, defensive MVP of the national championship game a year ago, because I have heard through sources that Stuart Kovacs is a huge and I mean huge video game player. And you are a dominant video game player. I was saying earlier, maybe for content, because I saw Hickey, my old producer hot take Hickey. He got the video game the other night. I think he actually just bought a PS five because you need a PS five for this.

Yeah. And I was told Hickey started to play the college football video game. And I said, oh, wouldn't this be like a fun idea?

Because everyone's talking about it. You know, maybe we do a little content behind the scenes and then we release a video, you know, do a little tournament here at Infinity Sports Network. Now, the last time I said Infinity Sports Network should do participate in some tournament.

It ended up in a charity kickball tournament for Dion Dawkins, where in the first inning, Elijah Stewart was stealing third base or trying to get to third base and he tore his patellar tendon and fractured his kneecap. So I don't know if I should try to be a little ambitious here and start another tournament. But one person here in particular told me that if we did said tournament and this is not an active tournament. So I'd hope everyone be OK. Maybe someone would get arthritis in their thumb. Who knows around here because there's a way to get injured. Someone would get injured. But well, Birdie told me that you would annihilate all of us in the college football video game.

I mean, I don't want to say that I would definitely. I don't know. Like, I don't know. Like, I've never played like I've played, but you're good at video games. Yeah. You come off as someone that's very good at video games.

Yeah. I'm like, I've played a lot of this new cultural video game and it's it's fun. So give me kind of the the view on the video game, the review on the video game so far, because all I've heard about it is, oh, it's unbelievable.

Oh, it's sensational. And I'm jealous. Like, I got a little FOMO going on because I thought, you know, I had a PS4. I thought that was going to be good to to be able to play with the video game, but it's not compatible for you have to have a PS5 or of course, what's the latest Xbox now? Last Xbox I had was a 360. It's Xbox One S or something like that. Yeah.

It's a weird name. They're going to have the latest Xbox or you got to have a PS5. It's how they get you.

They want you to buy the new system. I feel like everyone got invited to the party but me because everyone's playing this video game and going nuts about this video game. And that was a video game that I was so mad that it went away. And then during the pandemic, I think I fired up my old Xbox 360 because I used like I think when Reggie Bush was on the cover. So whenever that was, you know, mid 2000, I believe.

Yes. So so I remember you making the coach mode and you're doing all that. And that was fun with the whole barstool crave off of that from Coach Duggs with Big Cat. And then everyone was following that. But here we are again now in the year of 2024 when the video game is actually back and actually new and updated and current and everyone's talking about it.

And I'm just sitting here all by myself, just alone and not being able to participate into the party. So the video game is that worth it? It's that good. And it has lived up to the hype.

Obviously, it's been 11 years in the making. It was my favorite sports video game series before it went away. So I was very excited for it. And it's great. The gameplay is fun.

Obviously, it's updated with the college football playoff, the transfer portal, recruiting, all of that. So if you get a system, it's well worth your time, I think. Okay.

And money. I know that I'm not going to be able to help myself. Yeah, especially I'm one of those guys when it's a big event and everyone's there. And for some reason, I can't go to the event. I'm sitting there and be like, how the heck did I not go to this event? And I have a way to go to this event.

It's called digging into my pocket. Yeah. And coming up with what, four or five hundred bucks? Basically, yeah.

For the game and then the console and then just put it in my new apartment. Yeah. So that's the...

I think you would enjoy it a lot. It's especially for someone who loves college football and you can build up a team, you can build up Temple, you can build up a really bad program. Temple needs help.

Yeah, they could use Zach Gelb as head coach. When I was there, that was the golden rule of Temple football. And now, and it's not Stan Drayton's fault, the new head football coach, it was that... Not a nice guy!

I was about to say some words that I couldn't say and Rod Carey that just ruined the program. But the American Athletic Conference preseason meet, like the Big Ten preseason media poll comes out, right? Ohio State won, Oregon two, Penn State three, Michigan four.

However, the AAC preseason poll came out, Temple was ranked last. And it wasn't that long ago when I was a student where they had college game day. They beat Penn State for the first time in 74 years. They beat an SEC school.

I had some big victories when I was there. And now it's like, geez, Kurt Warner sun left us. And I don't even know who they have at quarterback for this upcoming season, but supposed to be not a good year for the Temple Owls.

So it's a shame. But anyway, let's start the show with what we were going to. Before I saw Stu and I just thought video games, video games, video games. And we have Will Johnson coming on who wasn't on the cover of the video game, but is ranked the 96, which is the highest ranking that they gave out. And I think two other players, an offensive lineman and then Ali Gordon, the Oklahoma State running back was also ranked the 96 as well. So I want to start with the Cowboys. The Cowboys are a mess right now.

It's kind of crazy. Because the Cowboys should be going for it. The Cowboys should be all in right now. And I think a lot of us realize the Cowboys have limitations. Heck, it's tough to actually believe a team will go to an NFC championship game or a Super Bowl when they haven't done that.

Both of them since the 1995 season. But you take a glance right now at the Cowboys, a team that the last three years, they've been good. At times, they look like they could be a contender, but they ultimately being ended up being a fraudulent pretender.

Because this team was all sizzle. They got a lot of wins in the regular season and then compose season time. It's not only did they bow out of the postseason, they've had some cruel and I mean cruel losses like an embarrassing losses to the San Francisco 49ers when they couldn't even snap the ball. And then a few years later, they played the 49ers again, where their defense was awesome, but their offense couldn't do anything.

And Tony Pollard got hurt. And then last year, that was a team you're going up against Jordan Love in the Green Bay Packers who were just happy to be in the postseason. And they walked into Jerry's World and they opened up a can of whoop ass on the drama Dallas Choking Cowboys. So the Cowboys are now in a spot where I'm not saying you should be optimistic, obviously.

I just said they're a mess, but they should try to move this thing forward. And I can't sit here and believe that the Cowboys have had three straight 12 win seasons are gonna be able to move this thing forward this year. I think they're gonna regress. And I think this thing is gonna come crashing and burning down this year with the Dallas Cowboys. I don't believe the Cowboys are making the playoffs this year.

There's too much drama here with this team. Micah Parsons doesn't have a new contract. Dak Prescott doesn't have a new contract.

CeeDee Lamb right now is holding out. The team flew yesterday from Dallas to Oxnard where they have their training camp and he's not there because he wants a new contract. Also, you have Mike McCarthy, quack, quack, lame duck coach, final year on his contract. And you had an owner in Jerry Jones who was like, we're all in this year. The Cowboys are all in.

And what was his big offseason signing? Who says you can't go home in a little reunion with Ezekiel Elliott? This Cowboys team didn't get better. This Cowboys team with the last three years won 12 games and then had deficiencies in the postseason.

They've regressed. And also, how could we forget about Malik Hooker basically saying Micah Parsons doesn't deserve to get paid yet. And they gotta pay Dak and CeeDee Lamb and Zach Morton before Micah Parsons and Malik Hooker basically saying, Malik Hooker, that Micah's too worried about his podcast.

Too many distractions. I'm telling you, this Cowboys team, I have zero expectations for them this year. I have zero confidence in this football team. And now as you get set to have this season start in a little over a month, and it's the same thing with the quarterback says, we'll look at the wide receivers. All these other receivers are getting paid. I know some have it, but we've seen a lot of money thrown at wide receivers and CeeDee Lamb sitting there saying, we know I fit what Jerry Jones wants to do.

I'm a flashy big name player. That's a top 10 wide receiver in this league. That should be an easy deal to figure out. You know, Dak Prescott, I thought they were going to get a deal done before free agency to lower that cap hit.

They've only ended up blowing it by 5 million. I know there was some talk last week that, oh, they're optimistic a deal is going to get done. I'd be shocked if a deal gets done before the start of the season.

I really would be. And Dak just started thinking about maybe going somewhere else and he could get to free agency because he has a no tag clause. But you look around right now in the NFL with how many quarterbacks and how many wide receivers are getting paid, and Dak doesn't have a long-term deal.

CeeDee Lamb doesn't have a long-term deal. And it's one thing, right, to have a distraction and a team's natural talent is able to avoid that distraction and take this team to a higher level and find a way to persevere through those distractions. But your team also has to get better. And this team hasn't got better. They lost their defensive coordinator, Dan Quinn, who is now the head coach of the commanders. This a team that you look around, their owners said they were going to be aggressive this offseason.

And what do they do? They did nothing. And that's not me being, you know, you know, having hyperbole on that. They literally did nothing this offseason. There's not a move that the Cowboys made where you go, wow, man, the Cowboys got better here. The Cowboys got better there.

That didn't happen. So I'm looking around even an NFC that isn't really strong and I'm worried and I don't think the Cowboys are making the playoffs. And if you go, Oh, Zach, that's a hot take. Oh, Zach, that's crazy.

I'll explain you the road right now. I think the Eagles are running the division. The Eagles defense is a question mark.

Don't get me wrong, but they got better by bringing in Saquon Barkley. So Eagles win the NFC East and no one ever repeats his NFC East champs since the early two thousands. So history's on the side for the Cowboys on the wrong side for the Cowboys in terms of repeating this year. So that puts the Eagles as NFC East champs, NFC North. Right now, I like the lions, NFC South. I like the Falcons and the NFC West. I like the 49ers. So those are the four teams right now, division wise that get in.

And then you have three wildcard spots. Uh, green Bay's better. They just beat the snot out of the Cowboys in the playoffs. The Rams. I think they're better with Matthew Stafford and Sean McVay. I trust Matthew Stafford and Sean McVay also with Cooper cup and Puka Nakua more than the Dallas Cowboys right now with Mike McCarthy and Dak Prescott. So then you got one spot left. Seattle.

They were nine and eight. I know there's a lot of changes. They could be a player. You know, I'm a believer in the Chicago bears this year, and I think the bears will make the playoffs in year one with Caleb Williams. That would be my final team. But that's where the Cowboys are. Even the last three years, the Cowboys have been 12 wins, 12 wins, 12 wins. They're going to regress this year. I don't think we're sitting here at the end of the year saying the Cowboys won 12 wins again. And if they do, quite frankly, unless they're hiring Bill Belichick, I don't even care. They don't want a playoff game. You know, Mike McCarthy wins 12 wins, four straight years.

It's going to be tough to justify not bringing him back. But I'd be stunned if they win 12 games this year, and I don't think they're going to be putrid, but I think they're going to be nine and eight and they're going to be in a tiebreaker scenario, or they're going to be have to fight for their own life to get that final wildcard spot. Because the fourth division winners are the fourth division winners I gave you and the Cowboys don't win the division. They're not a lock to make the playoffs. The Rams are better. The Packers are better.

And then they're fighting for that final spot. And I'll trust the optimism with the bears and the movies. The bears made this off season, you know, going out, getting a doomsday, obviously getting Caleb Williams, where I think that's going to flip that record from maybe seven and 10 to 10 and seven or B nine and eight. So I don't think it's farfetched to lay out the case that the Cowboys are going to miss the playoffs. And there's always a team, if not a few teams that make the playoffs a year before, and then miss it the following season, there is just too much drama with the Dallas Cowboys.

There's too many distractions and you're messing with people's money right now. And when you're messing a lot of people's money, especially, you know, if it's just a wide receiver, just a wide receiver, you know, just by comparison, just by comparisons. But when you have the two most important positions in the NFL, head coaching quarterback, both on the final year of their deals, I think it makes a very tricky situation. Very tricky situation for the Cowboys. And I don't believe the Cowboys make the playoffs this year. It is Zach Gelb show on the infinity sports network. Where's your confidence level in the Dallas Cowboys this season?

8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. I have a poll question up at Zach Gelber at INF sports net. And it's a very simple poll question. Well, the Dallas Cowboys make the playoffs this year. If CD lamb holding out right now, now, since he's still on his rookie deal, he's getting fined $40,000 a day.

So if he wasn't on his rookie deal, that would be something that you could not rescind since his rookie deal, they can rescind it when they finally do get that long-term extension. I saw Schefter put that out, but getting back to the poll question, will the Dallas Cowboys make the playoffs this year? Yes. NFC is champs.

Yes. As a wildcard team or no early returns, super early returns, 15.1% say yes. As NFC is champs 39.6% say yes. As a wildcard team. And then the early majority 45.3% say no, the Cowboys when asked, will they make the playoffs this year? The answer is no.

At 45.3%. What say you hit me up on social media at Zach Gelb, ZACH GLB, or via my phone lines at 855-212-4227. We come on back, two coaches, two players with the biggest questions entering this college football season that need to be answered.

We'll give you our selections when we return in five minutes. Doors take us to summers away or winter adventures and afternoon getaways. Your dedicated Fidelity advisor can help you open those doors by working with you on a comprehensive plan to help you reach your wealth's full potential because doors were meant to be opened. Visit fidelity.com slash wealth investment, minimum supply Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC. Selling a little or a lot. Shopify helps you do your thing. However, you ch-ching Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business from the launcher online shop stage to the first real life store stage all the way to the, did we just hit a million orders stage Shopify is here to help you grow. Whether you're selling scented soap or offering outdoor outfits, Shopify helps you sell everywhere from their all-in-one e-commerce platform to their in-person POS system wherever and whatever you're selling Shopify has got you covered. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout. 15% better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms and sell more with less effort thanks to Shopify magic, your AI powered all star Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the US and Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's and Brooklinen and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries. Plus Shopify's award-winning 24 seven help is there to support your success every step of the way because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash Odyssey podcast, all lowercase go to Shopify.com slash Odyssey podcast now to grow your business.

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See it, find it auto trader. So I have two non-sports stories today. I'll get to one and they both have to do with me. It's not like anything going on in the world, but I had a big no-no today, Stu, and I felt terrible about it. So I usually hate being on my phone when I'm working out. So I had a meeting here today at 12, 15 PM Eastern time. So I had to get up earlier in order to get into the meeting on time here in our offices.

And I had to change my morning routine. So I was in the gym this morning at like 8, 15 AM and my mom gave me a buzz. So I'm talking to my mom on the phone. And for some reason she couldn't hear me in the gym. So she's like, oh, I can't hear you. I can't hear you. And where she moved to now, they're like a 55 up community.

The cell phone service in the new house has been terrible. So I wanted to be like, mom, I'm being patient with my mother, of course. And I'm a mama's boy. I'm like, ma, it's you. Stop saying it's my fault. It's you.

I know the cell phone's not working. So I was in a great mood there. And then I'm going to the shore tomorrow. And for some reason, when I go to like hang out with my friends, if they want to bail on a plan or something, it's like just such a drama game. So one of my friends has a later tea time for golf, but he already blew us off for dinner. So now he's trying to get everyone to go to this later tea time. I could obviously make tea time, but some of my friends can't.

And it's like this whole thing behind the scenes. So long story short, my buddy ended up inviting two more people, like a last second, like kind of, hey, if you want to come down to the shore this weekend, you're more than welcome. Both of those people couldn't go to the shore, but they were like, hey, why don't we do August 17th, like August 16th, that weekend?

Now that's the weekend after my 30th birthday, but because I am being the officiant and one of my best friend's wedding, the next weekend is when I'm celebrating my 30th birthday. Now, the two people I both invited on this text that are now trying to push the weekend of the 16th to my 30th birthday, one said they are coming, the other hasn't responded yet. So I went to then go text one of my other friends on the side that started this whole thing. He has the same initials as the other person that hasn't responded. And I texted the friend that hasn't responded meeting to text the other friends too, if you're following.

And I wrote classic Jason, classic, not responding to my 30th birthday dinner invite, and then trying to make plans for that weekend. Now I realized right away, half a second, so I did the unsent feature, which I don't trust. So 30 minutes went by, nothing happened, and then my friend responded, sorry, I can't make it.

I'm like, he saw it. Now, a few weeks ago, a guest texted me something afterwards, and I guess they texted me in the middle of the night. So I woke up and I saw I had a message that was unsent on my phone. And I didn't see what the message was about until I went on my computer where I had texted my computer, and it was still there in the computer, so I saw the message. It wasn't anything crazy.

Yeah, so it doesn't work, basically, is what you're saying. Don't trust it. So my friend responded, sorry, brother, can't make the birthday, which I don't really care about. It was just the typical not to respond and try to make other plans, and you knew that there was something going on. So I was like, how do I play this off? And I just wrote, I lied, okay?

Oh, boy. I was just playing and then realized it came off the wrong way. It's why I unsent it, working out right now and typed real quick. And then my buddy wrote, yeah, yeah, like he knew I was lying.

Didn't buy it, yeah. So I wasn't in the wrong. I invited this person, they didn't respond, and now I look like the jerk because I sent something to someone else, a meeting to go to someone else, but it went to that person.

So it's a bad spot to be in. Oh, it's the worst. Yeah, I haven't done that in a long time. I did it once in college with a group project where basically I was saying X person mean to send to someone else in the group saying X person doesn't do anything, whatever, where we're carrying them. And of course, I sent this to the person who I was talking about.

It's great. It's a bad feeling because sometimes you can you can send the wrong text, but you could work your way around. Yeah, this one. Yeah, I'm talking about my name.

I could work my way around it. And I tried and I just hope that he didn't see it. And then 30 minutes later, boom, you get the dagger text that he did end up seeing this. Anyway, I'll get to the other story later. I want to bring the other story up to Marco Bellini just because we brought it up to yesterday. We do have the fan update when it comes to my father. Yes, Bob Gelb, about his fan, his desk fan that went missing.

And through some investigative reporting, we found who the culprit was that stole it. So we will get to that story coming up later with Marco Bellini. But still, as we enter this college football season, two coaches, two players with the biggest questions that you have for them individually. Let's start with the coaches.

Then we'll go with the players. Coach wise, I'll go, then you'll go, then I'll go, then you'll go. Coach wise, I'm starting off with Ryan Day. For Ryan Day, I don't care that he's lost fewer than 10 games at Ohio State. This is a head football coach. He knows what the standard is at Ohio State.

It is to beat Michigan and then you got to go be a national champion. He's been to a national championship game before, but the last three years they have just been bullied by Michigan in the trenches. Now Michigan doesn't have Blake Corum. Now Michigan doesn't have Jim Harbaugh. Now Michigan doesn't have JJ McCarthy and many others that want a championship. Now they have a lot of really great players still like Will Johnson going to join us later, but there's a big question mark on the offensive side of the ball for Michigan. So for Ryan Day, your fan base, which are already some have turned, it's really going to turn because the easy out is, oh, well, he hasn't lost more than 10 games as the coach of Ohio State.

How can you say you get fired? But if you lose to Michigan four years in a row now, I don't get how you could justify keeping Ryan Day, especially when Michigan, right, doesn't have Harbaugh and like same thing like with Harbaugh. You know, you look at it when Urban Meyer left, you know, he needed to eventually beat Ryan Day and he eventually did multiple times.

But this has now been so one-sided and Ohio State is projected to be either the best or second best team in the country. I got to see if Ryan Day can only get the job done against Michigan this year, but then take it the next step where he's already been to national championship game before, but this time finished the job. So I start off with Ryan Day.

You still? For me, I will go with Brian Kelly. I think I know he lost a lot of talent. You lose Jayden Daniels, you lose Malik Nabors.

That's tough, but your three for him is typically where he has a lot of success. Central Michigan nine and four Cincinnati undefeated go to a Super Bowl. Notre Dame undefeated go to the championship game. You have question marks, but their schedule is on the easier side for an SEC schedule. At least Bambas in transition, obviously with the board in his first year. So I think it's a big year for Kelly. Alrighty, my next coach. It's actually going to be Billy Napier at Florida because I look at Billy Napier, right? Was the young up and coming coach, big name coach after what he did at Louisiana and at Florida year one.

I said this the day it happened. The worst thing, and this is like a loser mentality. I'll admit that, but the worst thing to happen to Billy Napier was when he played Utah to open up the 2022 season with Anthony Richardson with the team that you knew was not going to be great. Winning that game just set the expectations way out of order and expedited like this feeling that OK, Florida has the right guy immediately when the team wasn't that good in reality. It almost would have been better, and I know it's a loser way to think about it. I admit that, but it almost would have been better if they would have just lost that game close to Utah.

Is it? It's like OK, we could see what we're building instead of OK. Now Florida's back after one went up against Utah that had big expectations going into that 2022 season and Anthony Richardson looks like he's gonna be a good pro if he could say healthy, but they were six and seven with him at Florida and then this past season five and seven. This is a fan base that their standard may not be realistic because of what they were in the early 2000s mid 2000s with Urban Meyer, right? And winning those two national championship games and they've had some double digit win season since, but they've never had the feel of a national championship team since Urban Meyer has left. And now you'll you maybe not be in the area of like Miami, which is way long gone.

But they're one of those programs. And now you ask when is Florida going to actually be back back? And for Billy Napier and your number three, right, we seem like look at Mike Norvell slow starts early, then had two years that were very impressive. Billy Napier just has to make sure the ship doesn't sink this year. Like they gotta go win. I've looked at their schedule. They gotta go win seven games, eight games, because if you go six and seven, five and seven other five win season.

It's going to be tough. It's going to be tough to justify bringing Billy Napier back as the head coach of Florida then for a fourth season. So I have a big question about Billy Napier too. Still, who's your final coach? For me, it's another SEC coach, Lane Kiffin. You're five Ole Miss, 11 and two last year. Pretty good season for them. Looking at their schedule this year, no Texas, no Bama, no Missouri, no Tennessee, no Oklahoma. They do have Oklahoma, but Oklahoma and Georgia are both at home. So their schedule is kind of on a favorable side. He has a returning quarterback in Jackson-Dart.

Foundation is there. I just think for Kiffin, again, kind of like with Kelly, same thing with Alabama kind of in transition. I think they're going to be good. This isn't a slight on Alabama or DeBoer, but this is kind of when you want to take advantage and maybe finish first or second in the conference when Bama is not what they're probably going to be in two years. You got Georgia in the mix, obviously. Yeah, Georgia too, obviously, yeah. But you look at Ole Miss and I think it actually gets tougher for a coach like Lane Kiffin.

Also, the same could be said for James Franklin. Their records are usually like, okay, they're not great, but they're really good. And they just can't beat some certain teams. And no one ever thought they were to get in a 14 playoff, but now going to 12, it's almost like Lane Kiffin and James Franklin, just for starters, both have to make the playoffs.

The way that we're going to view coaches missing the playoff this year is going to be way different from when you miss it in a 14 format than when you miss it now in a 12 team format, because you should be able to be good, not great, and still make the playoff in a 12 team format. All right, let's go to players. I didn't think this would be the first player on my list, but this is a team that can make the college football playoff. And there's questions about their coach and Marcus Freeman. I want to know what Riley Leonard is, because you saw a little bit of him at Duke, where you thought he could be a player and now, right, another transfer quarterback going to Notre Dame, like what we saw from Sam Hartman, who you knew was a good quarterback at Wake Forest. There's expectations for Notre Dame to make the college football playoff. I just don't know what the quarterback's going to be. He's got to stay healthy.

I just don't know how consistent he could be. And I'm fascinated by Riley Leonard entering this season. And I know, Stu, you are a Notre Dame fan and you're a proud Notre Dame fan unlike some other people around here that used to be Notre Dame fans. And then now they say they're not a Notre Dame fan. And we know that they're not a Notre Dame fan. And we know that they've been a Notre Dame fan recently. And I know they gave up that rooting allegiance. I think that's the right word there.

Marco, does that sound right? Rooting interests and their allegiance to the team. They just kind of combined them.

But yes, it makes sense. So Hickey today claiming that he has not rooted for Notre Dame since what? He committed to Penn State, which is just not true. When he was working with Bill, he was a Notre Dame and a Penn State fan.

And even a year ago, he'd wear Notre Dame gear. So you never knew that about Hickey? No, I knew that. I didn't realize that he renounced his allegiance to Notre Dame. That I was unaware of.

Yeah, no. So today, I guess on a Maggie and Perloff, they did- Since he committed to Penn State? How is that possible that we would even know about it then?

Exactly. But I took a little shot at Hickey today on social media because they were a Maggie and Perloff doing best college football stadiums to go to. And they didn't have Notre Dame.

They didn't have Penn State. And I said, oh, this is really going to rub Hickey that Penn State and Notre Dame fan the wrong way. He's like, I haven't rooted for Notre Dame since high school.

And I'm like, that's just not true. So anyway, I have questions about Hickey's second favorite quarterback in Riley Leonard entering this season. Stu? My quarterback, my first quarterback is Cade Klubnick from Clemson. Obviously, down year last year for Clemson, their offense was outside of the top 50.

He was OK, I think, at times. But, you know, for a program that has had Trevor Lawrence, Deshaun Watson, great quarterbacks, he's the next one that has to step up. And the fact that they don't use the transfer portal, a lot is on his shoulders to kind of carry that offense. So I'm curious to see what he's going to bring this season. I actually think it's more of a Dabo problem, too.

Yeah, it definitely is. Because it's like, all right, they had Deshaun Watson, then they had Trevor Lawrence. And then after that, it was DJ Angolais.

That was a disaster. Then everyone's hyping up Cade Klubnick. And there's names that people are hyping up, but they're not being where they should. I put that more on Dabo, sweetie. And the final one, it's probably more so the offensive line at Colorado, but that's just not sexy. So I will go with Chador Sanders, because that's a guy who could be the first quarterback taken in the draft.

You know, that's what some people are predicting right now. I just, like this year, that offensive line almost got killed last year. Now they revamped the offensive line, but just revamping the offensive line, as Marco knows, being a Giants fan, they've revamped the offensive line every year.

Like, oh yeah, they got better. But if you were really bad and you got slightly better, you're still a bad offensive line. So Colorado, they are an attention worthy program because of Coach Prime, because of Chador Sanders, because of Travis Hunter. But I want to see if Chador can lead Colorado to a bowl game this year, because that really shows you're a franchise quarterback when you win with less.

Final player here. Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold. You lose Dylan Gabriel, who was very successful last year.

He leaves via the transfer portal. Venable still, you know, he's starting to build on when he first got there, a little better last year. So it's going to be a tough road. Obviously being in the SEC now, it's not the Big 12 anymore. It's a step up in the teams you're going to play.

And for really a first time starting quarterback, I'm very curious to see what he looks like. Now, I know that all we've been talking about is Texas to the SEC, Texas to the SEC. And there's big expectations for Texas this year. Like, I feel like no one's talking about Oklahoma going to the SEC. Feels like it's weird flying under the radar, entering the SEC. All right, this is Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network.

We'll come on back. Let's get the latest Infinity Sports Network update first with El Capitan, Marco Belletti. Help to each kid no matter the age or personality and it doesn't have to eat up all your time. One subscription gets you everything for all the kids in your home pre-K to 12th grade.

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Visit ixl.com slash audio to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports, and reconnaissance from the day in sports. All right, it's time to ask the pros where you the listener gets asked us a question. It's brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Simply tweet your question at I-N-F-Sports-net or at Zach Yelp using the hashtag askthepros.

Be listening later in the show we might answer your question. Think O'Reilly Auto Parts while your car care needs get guaranteed low low low low low prices at excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. O-O-O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. Let's listen up to Aaron Rogers. He believes the New York jets and the New York Giants should be referred to as the New Jersey Jets and the New Jersey Giants.

This is on part of my take via Barstool Sports. Where do you live in New York? Do you live in New Jersey? Yeah, nobody lives in New York. Yeah, you can't live in New York.

If you're a giant you can, but I don't know why you would, just because the traffic into a tunnel and all of our stuff. I joke about, I know that the stadium used to be on Long Island, but we're the New Jersey Jets. Yeah. So are the Giants.

Yeah. The Giants play in New Jersey. There's only one team that plays in New York. It's the Buffalo Bills. Bills Mafia. Yeah.

Bills Mafia. He knows he's trolling there and he's just trying to be funny. This is what we're doing Aaron Rodgers before entering the season. I also heard Aaron Rodgers say today that he's been obsessed with Egypt for three decades. Aaron Rodgers was 40, 41. So you're telling me when he was like, what, 11, 12, 13, 14, that he was obsessed with Egypt and he had this idea he was going to go there one day. Ah, geez.

There's a lot with Aaron Rodgers, but he's a heck of a quarterback. Here is George Kittle on his message to Brandon Ayuk during contract negotiations. I try my best to not talk to guys to go into contract negotiations. So when I get into positions like this, I don't have to lie to you guys.

And so, cause like, I like to keep those conversations between us. But something that I like to tell anybody going through a contract is what, same thing that Sherman, Richard Sherman told me was like contracts like braces, they suck the entire time. And then once you get them off, you forget that you ever had them. But this time in case of a contract, you get a big bag of money.

So it's just like, I actually, I just try to sell them. It's like, it's, it's a horrible process. Like I hated the entire process when I was going through it. Bosa's last year was awful. You know, he didn't get it done until the first week of the season. So it's like, it's not fun, but you know, when it gets done or hopefully when it gets done, you're like, Hey, I can play football now with my job security and like my livelihood, all secured.

It's a good comp. Stu, you ever had braces? I did. I hated having braces. It's terrible. I forget how long I had braces for, but I was always like obsessed. I would just, I would get annoyed with them and I would like rip out the wire and then I have to go back to the dentist and everything.

I could not stand my family to be very irritated. Yeah. Like the rubber band that was on the actual brace, like I would like pick at it and that would, the wire would come loose. It was just a mess. You know, like you used to get like certain colored braces too. I should have just done something like clear.

Now, looking back at it, you know, if you did like blue and orange or blue and red or things like that, it looks so weird. Here's Jamar Chase. They're doing these NFL top 100 rankings on NFL's Twitter. And this, Jamar Chase answered who should be the number one player in the NFL. Who is the number one player?

On the what? I'm not saying him. I give credit when I do, but I'm not saying his name. I don't know what you're talking about.

Yeah, you do. I'm not saying his name, brother. I'm sorry. Joe Burrow. I'm not saying that guy's name. He's good. He's amazing. He's good. Not gonna lie. I'm salty though. I'm a little salty. Two years in a row.

I'm putting Burrow first. I actually respect it from Jamar Chase because he knows he has to say Patrick Mahomes, but because of the rivalry between the Chiefs and the Bengals, I think that's genuine. It actually irritates him that even though they've had success up against them, they still don't have a Lombardi trophy.

And you know what? Right now, I think that's the best rivalry in the NFL. And it's not in division. It's in the same conference. But Chiefs, Bengals, you've had the playoffs and then you all like, some people might say Chiefs, Bills, honestly. But for it to be a rivalry, the other team has to win sometimes. It can't just be so one-sided in the postseason. At least the Bengals got that one AFC championship game victory up against the Kansas City Chiefs. I think Eagles and 49ers is a good one to think about meeting up again. And if we could see them in the postseason like we did two years ago. But just talking about rivalries that like you wouldn't expect to be a rivalry, because like, you know, everyone could talk about Steelers and Ravens or, you know, whatever. Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. But that is a phenomenal rivalry because it lives up to the hype and not only the regular season, but also the postseason as well. Let's go to Deshaun Foster, the new head football coach at UCLA. UCLA is now in the Big Ten.

And Deshaun Foster started off with a very interesting first impression. Listen up. How you guys doing? I'm happy to be here. Glad to be a part of this great conference.

Finally putting two great emblems together. UCLA in the Big Ten. We're a school that's won, what, 123 championships. So this fits us being right in this conference. Football-wise, we're just excited. You know, I'm sure you guys don't know too much about UCLA, but our football program. But we're in LA.

It's us and USC. I'm just basically excited, really. That's it. Any questions?

Yes. So that wasn't his introductory press conference. That was just his first press conference at Big Ten media days. When I think of horrible introductory press conferences, two come to mind right away. Nick Sirianni and Adam Gase.

That's actually worse because he's been on the job now for a little bit. You know, Big Ten, you just get up there. Hey, we're UCLA. I'm Deshaun Foster.

We're excited to be in the Big Ten. All right, let's go. Fire away.

What are your questions? That's all you got to do. It's like, you don't have to sell. You already got the job. It's not like your first day on the job. You don't have to sell yourself to the Big Ten media.

That was just a mess. Here is Steve Spurrier on a peek inside Florida Gators football podcast on what conference Florida State and Clemson should be in. Well, I think FSU definitely belongs in the SEC. Clemson sort of belongs there also. I don't know if SEC wants to go to 18 teams. So I don't know. Maybe the Big Ten would like to have them.

Who knows? But it is what it is. And I think you just go one year at a time.

And then after that, see where you're at and go from there. Right now, it seems like, according to reports, neither the Big Ten or SEC want Florida State and Clemson. But based off feel, yes, it feels like Clemson and Florida State should be in the SEC. But it also doesn't feel like Oregon and USC should be in the Big Ten.

But they're in the Big Ten. So if Florida State's going to depart the ACC, which I don't think it's a matter of if it's just when. If you said to me, is it more likely they go to the SEC or the Big Ten? I would say the Big Ten because the Big Ten probably wants to get into Florida. But if neither want them and they just go to the Big 12, man, that's not a good look for Florida State nor Clemson. Because even though the Big 12, I think, is slightly better than the ACC right now, I would not be jumping for joy thinking that's this tremendous move.

Okay, we'll take a break on the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. Michigan won it all last year. We'll do a little college football fix. With the defensive MVP of the national championship game, Will Johnson's going to join us. The defensive back projected top ten pick. It is the highest ranked or one of the highest ranked players in the new EA Sports video game for college football.

Will Johnson will join us next to preview the Wolverines. Is your child struggling with a specific subject or need help with homework? Are they asking questions that you're not sure you can fully answer? IXL Learning is an online learning program for kids. It covers math, language arts, science and social studies. IXL is designed. This program will improve your kids grades.

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Make an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now. And listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at ixl.com slash audio.

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