Clemson Concern? (Hour 1)

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Major League Baseball trademarks used with permission. Live from the palatial yet not overly ostentatious studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City. Sitting on top of the 10th floor 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Tuesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates. Sirius XM Channel 158 and the free Odyssey app. 855-212-4CBS. Number to connect with us 855-212-4227. You can always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or the good ol' cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We are coming to you live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios. Whether you're looking to purchase a new home or refinance yours, Rocket Mortgage could help you get there for home-owned solutions that fit your life. Well, Rocket can and producing the extravaganza for the next four hours is no other than hot take kicking. I don't know about that hot take kicking. The NFL season is here. We'll have all week to talk about it.

Thursday opening game of the season in L.A. Bill's actually a two, two and a half point favorite as they are a team that has Super Bowl aspirations kicking off their season in the home of the defending world champions in the Los Angeles Rams. So we will do a ton of NFL this week. But I got to start off in what really was an entertaining and electrifying last few days of college football.

A week ago, you had week zero. This past weekend, the true start of the college football season with week one. And going into this weekend, there were a lot of games that you wanted to really take in, whether it was Oregon and Georgia. Georgia just blows the doors off of Oregon and Bo Nix absolutely stinks. You had Notre Dame, Ohio State, which was a good first half. It was a little bit closer to the third quarter than Ohio State asserted their dominance. And I was all over the Utah-Florida game.

I thought that was going to be close. Shame that Cam Rising threw that pick right at the goal line at the end because the Utes had big aspirations this year. But it was good to see Billy Napier and Anthony Richardson go out there as a duo and get their first win together with Billy Napier, now just coming over from Louisiana when he was with the Raising Cajuns.

But really, this entire weekend for me was centered off how Labor Day was going to end yesterday on Monday night. And the team I was most intrigued by. And I just wanted to see, after a very close game up against a bad Georgia Tech team a year ago, we know a Clemson football team a season ago had college football playoff aspirations, a championship robust each and every year because that's a credit to the program that Dabo Swinney helped build. And last year, they were just a flat-out disaster. They didn't win the ACC.

They weren't even the ACC championship game. The offensive line stunk. D.J.

Ungolaile stunk. Now you lose Tony Elliott, your offensive coordinator. He was awful last year.

You don't have Brent Venables anymore. He's now at Oklahoma. And he was such a big piece to what Clemson did and what they built the last few years being the right-hand man to Dabo Swinney. So there was a lot of questions about Clemson heading into this season. And there wasn't going to be anything, regardless of what happened in that game against Georgia Tech, where today I was going to be leading the show, jumping up and down like a fat kid in a candy store, getting all giddy about this Clemson football team. However, I did point out on Friday that if they had an underwhelming performance against Georgia Tech, then there was going to be a lot of criticism and there was going to be a lot to talk about.

And that's what happened. Now, if you didn't watch the game on Monday night and you just saw the box score, you would say, Zach, what are you bitching about? The final score was Clemson 41, Georgia Tech 10. Georgia Tech stinks. They're not a good football team.

Jeff Collins is on the hot seat. And the final score did not reflect the way that that game played out because it was 0-0 at the end of the first quarter. It was 14-3 at the end to half. In the third quarter, Clemson only outscored a horrible Georgia Tech team, 10-7 in the third. And then things got away in the fourth quarter where Clemson outscored Georgia Tech 17-0. Clemson goes and wins the game 41-10. Now, let me remind everyone that last touchdown that Clemson scored wasn't by QB1 DJ Ungolay.

It was by their five star quarterbacking, Cade Klubnick, who was a very efficient 4-6 in the game, 50 yards passing and a passing touchdown. I'm not going to start the show today saying that DJ Ungolay was problem number one. And he wasn't problem number one last year.

But DJ Ungolay is a problem. And we've been all over this story when Roddy Jones joined us about a month, month and a half ago from the ACC Network. He works for the ACC, the conference that Clemson plays in. And I asked him the very simple question of how are we going to be talking about DJ Ungolay at the end of the year. And he said we're going to be talking about him as a backup quarterback because Cade Klubnick is going to replace him. And Dabo could continue to be effusive in his praise after the game. You could have the new offensive coordinator give DJ Ungolay words of extolment. You could tell me at ACC Media Day that he's their guy.

He's deserved this opportunity. He's the starting quarterback. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it, but there are. And there's a lot of questions and now a lot of intrigue about what DJ will do.

But let me be clear. He's not problem number one. Because last year we really just looked at probably three people on why this Clemson team didn't reach their level that we thought they could a year ago. A lot of blame was put on the shoulders of the old offensive coordinator Tony Elliott. A lot of blame was put on the quarterback in DJ Ungolay.

A lot of blame was put on Dabo. Last year, though, if you watch Clemson football, that offensive line was horrendous. That was not the same offensive line that saw them get to multiple championships and win two national titles. The offensive line we saw from Clemson last year was foreign to us. And all offseason long, all we did was talk about DJ and Dabo, DJ and Dabo. And was anyone really talking about the Clemson offensive line?

Because it would be easy to just trash DJ today. But it is tough to evaluate any quarterback when the offensive line stinks. And up against Georgia Tech, which is not a premier program, which is not a creme de la creme program, that Clemson offensive line was not good.

It was bad. The wide receivers, we have to get on the Clemson wide receivers. They produce a lot of wide receivers in the NFL.

Drops left and right. So was DJ perfect in the game? Was DJ great in the game?

No. But there are excuses to why maybe he didn't play at the level that we thought he could have over now a year and a half, almost two years ago, when we saw him in the COVID year, come on in when Trevor Lawrence had COVID, and he had a masterful performance up against Notre Dame. We haven't seen, though, that DJ Uwe Ungol-Ale since that game consistently up against Notre Dame. Because last year, I think he finished here with nine touchdowns and 11 interceptions for an entire season. He was bad. So, yes, I'm not telling you he's exonerated of all blame, because there's a lot of blame to be placed on DJ Ungol-Ale. This Clemson program, though, is not as great as we thought it was going to be and the sustained success that they were going to continue to have. And they have major problems. This is not an overreaction.

This is not Zach. It's the first game of the season. There is some sloppy play. No, that's not what this is, because defensively, they could be the premier defense and the preeminent defense, a top five defense in the country. That's how good that defense was. But a year ago, their defense opened up the season against Georgia was phenomenal. And then this year, clearly their defense wasn't a part of the problem, but offensively, there are major, major, major flaws with Clemson. The O-line stinks, the wide receiver is dropping balls left and right, and the quarterback is not great.

I don't know if he's as bad as he's playing, but the apex for the quarterback, DJ Ungol-Ale, is not greatness the way that we thought it was going to be two years ago or even before entering last season. And now we've seen this before with many quarterback competitions. We've seen, even though they want to embrace it, a competition even a year ago when Oklahoma was undefeated and they took Spencer Rattler off the field and put in Caleb Williams. If you struggle, even when you're winning, winning ugly doesn't always cut it and could still evoke a change.

And that's what I believe will eventually happen by the end of the season. Forget the next two games against Furman and Louisiana Tech. Those games shouldn't be close, but they got to be a little bit more crisp than what it was against Georgia Tech.

But after that, Sam Hartman now back with Wake Forest. You're on the road going up against the Demon Deacons. NC State did not look good over the weekend. They should have lost to a bad ECU team. Then you get NC State. They're still a top 20 program in the country. Those two games probably will define how long DJ Ungol-Ale remains as a starting quarterback. Because not that long after that, you got a matchup against Florida State.

We'll see how good they are. They had a nice little victory against LSU. I think it was more so about LSU's incompetence than Florida State being back. You have Notre Dame. I know Notre Dame just lost to Ohio State, but that was expected. And towards the end of the year, you play Miami. I just don't think DJ, unless if it's the stubbornness from Davos Sweeney, is going to be the starting quarterback from start to finish this year. Especially when you're seeing glimpses in garbage time of Cade Klubnick and you know what is expected out of him because he is a five-star quarterback.

So this conversation is just beginning. And all DJ Ungol-Ale had to do was go out on the field and ball out. He did not do that. His offensive line didn't help him. His coaching staff didn't help him. His receivers didn't help him.

When you are a great quarterback, though, you find a way, even when you don't have the best in front of you, to look better than what DJ did on Monday night. This is a Clemson team that, yes, when the season started a week ago, we were talking about them being a top four team. Now, there was a big gap between Alabama, Georgia, and then also Ohio State before you got to four.

And then when you looked at those three teams, there was a gap from one, two, and three, and then four, a sizable gap. Clemson, though, is showing you right now they're not a top four team in the country. They don't have the looks of a top four team in the country, especially in an ACC.

That is not all that. And the Pac-12, they're going to have a tough time unless if it's USC getting anywhere in the college football playoff. Big 12, you probably think Oklahoma. You think Baylor. So it's all there for the taking in a schedule that's not all that tough, where, yes, in the ACC, Wake Forest, NC State, Miami are respectable opponents, if you're Clemson, you better go run the table.

And with insurance, if you have one loss, maybe you could still get in, but then you open up Pandora's box. But when I look at Clemson with the way that they played to start off their season on Monday, after this narrative the entire year that they're not all that great in the offseason, I don't think this is going to be a no loss or a one loss team. I could see two losses, even with the favorable schedule, coming for Clemson and then forget about their college football playoff chances. So here's our poll question today at Zach Elbe on Twitter, at CBS Sports Radio.

Clemson this year will, and then you can fill in the blank, be winning it all, make the playoff or miss the playoff. Here are the lopsided returns right now. And this shows you how doom and gloom it is after their performance, their insipid performance, their dull performance, their pedestrian performance on Monday night. Winning it all is at two percent.

Think about this. In a year where there's not a lot of depth in college football, winning it all is at two percent. Then making the playoff is at just 15 percent. And right now in the early returns, 83 percent of the listening audience believe that Clemson is going to miss the playoff.

And after what I saw Monday night, there's no other way around it. I don't think this team is going to make the college football playoff this year. And that would be back to back years where Clemson misses the college football playoff.

For the better part of last decade, dominant, impressive, great. Last year they faced some adversity. And even though they won 41 to 10, they didn't eliminate any of the questions that I had about this Clemson team.

Because for the first three quarters, that was ugly. And I mean just brutal and sloppy football against a football team that is not good in the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Ryan, how you voted in this one, winning it all, make the playoff, miss the playoff. What is Clemson going to do this season? Miss the playoff.

It's pretty, I think it's easy now. The only way, Ryan, they even entertained them making the playoff is just because this ACC stinks. And you would expect USC with the new coach and a new quarterback and a new star wide receiver, they'll eventually lose. So in a bizarre way, they control their own destiny.

I'm understanding of that. But they don't look to me to be a top four team in the country. And I think they're going to have some hiccups along the way. You know what Clemson's doing right now? They're playing with fire. They played with fire last year. They got burned. How many more times are you going to touch the stove and realize your hand's going to get burned? And it seems like with the lack of adjustments, with the bad offensive line, a receiver's not stepping up. The quarterback not looking more developed than a year ago. It's almost as if Clemson doesn't realize the problems or they don't know how to address it.

And they keep on going back to that stove, putting their hands on the stove, thinking they're not going to get burned. That's a problem. It's a big time problem. So you can chime in on the poll question. At Zach Elbat, CBS Sports Radio, and you can give us a call. Do you think Clemson is going to make the college football playoff? I'm going to say no.

855-212-4CBS. When we come on back, Georgia dominates. They opened up a can of whoop-ass, and they picked up basically with how last year ended. And then there's some news about this 12-team college football playoff. We don't know when it's going to start for sure. I don't like it. I'll give you my opinion on that when we return in five minutes on the Zach Elp show.

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Major League Baseball trademarks used with permission. In the national championship game. And prior to that they did lose in the SEC title game.

We know the history. Another SEC title game that they lost. And then you go back to the national championship where you did have Tuatunga Vailova come in after halftime. But for Georgia to lose all that they did on the defensive side of the ball. And you're going up against an Oregon team. Who yes, Oregon is in a transition period. Were they the 11th best team in college football entering this season like the rankings said so?

No. Bo Nix. I've been dumb with Bo Nix before the season started.

I tried to tell you that Bo Nix is a bad quarterback. Everyone looks back to that first career start where he was horrible through the first three quarters. Really all four quarters until the final drive up against Oregon at the time when he was at Auburn.

Dan Lanning coming over from Georgia to go replace Mario Cristobal. But that Oregon team, even with how I thought that Georgia was going to win the game. How they just got steamrolled. And it didn't even matter when they got on the field.

And you couldn't even give me a little bit of a game. That was an embarrassing effort. And I mean an embarrassing effort by Oregon. But then also in a different breath, I'm most impressed by Georgia. And I don't think Stetson Bennett gets enough credit.

We know Kirby Smart has now elevated himself and catapulted into that great category where for years he was stuck on being very, very, very good. But it is so clear that Georgia is a top three team in the country. And Georgia is in that class with Ohio State even though Ohio State was not great up against Notre Dame. And then you have Alabama who is the best team in my opinion when you just look at it on paper in college football. Even though Alabama didn't really have a moment where they could make you impress them going up against Utah State. You just know how great they are with having arguably the best offensive player in college football in Price Young.

And then arguably the best defensive player in Will Anderson Jr. To win a title though when you have every reason to be complacent and you've lost all that you did. To still be at that level of dominance when you're ranked the third team in the country at the time going up against the 11th team. Which I know in college football that's a gap.

But it's not as sizable as what the final score did reflect. After one weekend of college football, yeah, Georgia, the team that won it all last year, was the team that impressed me the most because they won the football game 49 to 3. They made Georgia, they made Oregon look like they were a cupcake for Georgia.

Which is crazy. Oregon's a big brand. We're talking about Oregon potentially going to the Big Ten. Oregon's been a big brand for college football. And it looked as if Georgia was going up against Colorado State or something. And that was the 11th team at the time in the country in Oregon. So I got to give a lot of credit to Georgia. Where I think they may even feel that they've been disrespected even after winning a national championship game.

Which is bizarre. Because no one, now I don't want to say no one thought that they would repeat. Because we did think they'd be a top four team in the college football playoff. But going into this season, a lot of people made it seem, including myself, Alabama, Ohio State, Alabama, Ohio State. Until someone takes out Georgia, that's going to be a tough, and I mean a tough task to do so. And we know how this is going to end. No disrespect to Florida, wonderful performance up against Utah.

I love Anthony Richardson. I would be stunned though if we're not seeing Alabama and Georgia in the SEC title game once again. That is how impressive Georgia was with what they displayed on Saturday. Hickey, who was the team to you that was the most impressive this past weekend? I'm going with the team you just kind of threw a backhanded compliment to, Florida. No, that wasn't a backhanded compliment. Are you right now, are we getting a hot take, take the prediction that Florida is going to be the SEC championship game? No. But to their credit, after week number one, I was very impressed with the Gators.

My opinion of Anthony Richardson was not high. Time out. Heading to the year. Hold on a second.

Can you remind me, I'm having some short term memory problems here. Who did Florida go up against? Utah. The Utes.

The Utes. And wasn't there a talk show host and also a producer who said that Utah was going to be in the college football playoff. And he said it last week and then a little birdie told me that that same producer also has a show on the weekends. Why can't I remember this guy's name? But who's the guy that does the Friday into Saturday weekend overnight from 2 to 6 a.m. Eastern on CBS Sports Radio? Who said on that Saturday morning extravaganza that Utah's going to the college football playoff? Who's that no name? Yours truly, Ryan Hickey. Oh, it's you. The mush. It's right in full effect and full force.

What do you tell us about football? You must push to Utah. Look, I didn't throw the pick in the end zone.

That's true. I was sitting here believing, you know, sorry. Sorry for for trying to will a team into into the playoff. Now, I was rooting for Utah because there there's just more potential. I think with the storylines of Utah would have won that game even though Florida is a bigger brand because the Pac-12 Oregon's dead. There's no way that Oregon this year is going to the college football not long term, but this year Oregon's done.

So you lose 49 to 3. You're not recovering from that, especially when your quarterback stinks and you have a rookie coach. So I was looking forward to which maybe wasn't getting a lot of hype. USC's been getting the hype, but that USC Utah game in October and I wanted to see those two teams undefeated when they did play.

And now that's not going to be the case. So I guess Utah can still get back in it, but they can't lose another game for the rest of the season. They're got to beat USC at least once, maybe even twice if they do meet back up in the Pac-12 championship. But you know how this works in the Pac-12.

The Pac-12 just loves to shoot themselves in the foot. And now Oregon didn't have a pulse up against Georgia. We'll see when USC loses a game that they're not supposed to lose even though Williams I know is up against a no-name opponent. But Caleb Williams, we all know how good he could be. Addison is a stud transferred over from Pitt. He had two touchdowns in his debut with the Trojans. You just look though at that Utah game, even with Anthony Richardson with his legs and his arm just being dual threat, being awesome. You still should have went down and put the ball in the end zone if you're the Utes. And I have a lot of respect for Kyle Whittingham. And you look at that final play, I didn't think it was pass interference.

I don't know about you, Ryan. If they would have had a timeout, which they did not at that time, I think Rising would have run the football. Because even if he, I know there's like 17 or 18 seconds left right when he throws the pick. If he would have run that, and it's a risky kind of situation there because can you get back up to the line and find a way to get the ball snap once again, that's a little bit tricky. If he would have ran the football in that spot, I think he may have scored.

Instead he threw a pick right at the goal line. Isn't that the most typical Pac-12 type of game, Ryan, up against a big-time opponent. Florida, SEC, school, and Florida may be better than what people think.

You have so many opportunities to put them away. You're going back and forth. Even after Richardson and Florida make another great play, you're marching right back down and at the goal line you throw a pick. It's the most typical Pac-12 thing I've ever seen.

And that's what's so frustrating. It's set up well to kind of buck the narrative of not just the Pac-12 self-cannibalizing, but also... In the swamp too. Right, they lose a lot of non-conference games against big opponents.

And this is a chance right on the road in a hostile environment. Florida didn't come in ranked. Now they're better than probably people thought coming in, including yours truly. We knew this was going to be a good game. You thought Utah was going to win the game.

Great statement. I don't fault you for taking Utah. No one thought this game was going to be a blowout. You knew it was going to be a close game. It was going to be a tough effort.

But to lose the way that you did when you're right at the goal line and at the 6-yard line, and you got 20 seconds to go, and you can't find the way to put the ball in the end zone, that's just as brutal as brutal could be. And played well. Like you said, they give up the touchdown, Anthony Richardson. They come right back down the field. It's not like they were just playing bad for most of the game. They hung in there. They should have won.

They can be very frustrating as a non-Utah fan or any sort of allegiance. Tough. And you had Victor right in front of you. And you put your hand in the cookie jar and you snatched the defeat. That's what they did.

It was just that was so brutal. So you're most impressed by Florida. Yes, I will go for part of my low opinion on them going into the year. Played really well against a good Utah team and got the win.

To what extent, though? Alabama, Georgia, no one's touching them in the SEC, we would think. Are they the third best team in the SEC, or do you still reserve that for Texas A&M?

Or someone else? I, right now, will see in week two, I'm still rolling with Tennessee. Oh, with Hendon Hooker. I'm going with the explosive offense. Big game against Alabama. Big game against Alabama.

Big game against Pitt on the road this week. Well, unless if you ask the coach. Unless if you ask the coach. Oh, never mind. Sorry. Alabama, Texas this week. Yes. Is the matchup. Tennessee plays Pitt. Right. But you'll get Alabama, Tennessee later in the year. Yeah, you do. And I wonder when you get to that game, well, clearly, Tennessee's going to embrace that.

But it's just like one of those games. I went right to SARC. That's where my brain was going. Texas and Alabama. Did you hear SARC this week is now trying to downplay the importance of this game against Alabama? I did.

He said the legacies will not be made with this game. Great week two game. Pitt and Tennessee.

Under the radar. Because Pitt's off the emotions of the backyard brawl. Keaton Slovis is very good. Pitt didn't play their best brand.

And Hendon Hooker could be. He's not the best quarterback in the SEC, but he is one of the better quarterbacks in the SEC. SEC's loaded this year. Absolutely loaded this year when it comes to quarterback play. So you're saying Tennessee's the third best team in the SEC. I'm still rolling with the Vols. Yes, sir. Okay. Florida's up there.

They're top five. What do you take by you? I'm rolling. I'm sticking to my guns here.

And judging by your track record. Not great. Sorry, Tennessee Vol fans.

Exactly. I haven't picked this weekend. That's all I got to say. I heard if you went to Utah right now, they wouldn't let you into the university. Kyle Winningham has banned you from the program since you guarantee that they're going to be in the college football playoff.

No longer allowed to pick for the Utes anymore. So you're most impressed by Florida is where you're going after this week. Gators. Okay. Georgia is the dominance.

What? What type of games do you think that was going to be? You thought probably Georgia is going to win sizably, but not by 49 to three. I thought Oregon to be able to score a touchdown right before game time. If you asked me who's most upset, a lot of all the big games, I would have said Georgia. I thought Oregon was covering the spread, like not easily, but like, I feel, I felt most confident on Oregon covering the spread, the Notre Dame, then Arkansas, then Utah. I felt pretty good about Oregon covering that number. Actually, Utah felt good about two. So the two teams I felt the most conviction about Utah and Oregon covering not winning covering blew up in my face big time. Now, there was some talk show host here on CPS sports radio. He may go by the name of Zach Gelb, who said that out of all the Monday through Friday, full time producers and hosts that Ryan hot take Kiki is the most knowledgeable when it comes to college football.

You got to start picking some winners here. He's picky zone one or four the first week and you went up against some caller. Yeah, he went five and oh, so not great. Not great for the brand.

So far. Wow. Well, it's pretty much on brand for hot take. Kiki, you have the knowledge of college football. You just don't like to use the knowledge that you have inside your can pick winners.

You eat you. The caller went five and oh, Josh and Harrisburg was our first contestant in five and I picked every game against the spread correct. And that's on the weekend overnights. And I don't want to make this assumption, but we don't know what state of mind Josh and Harrisburg was in when he was giving you a call like 4am Eastern time. I've done those shows. You don't know.

Sometimes the words that are coming out of people's mouth on that shift. I may have laughed at him a few times. And did you look who's laughing at now? Were you? You were arrogant. No, not arrogant per se. But I was like, Oh, nice pick.

Like you pick Florida State. Okay. When does that segment just go away?

Hickey's pickies. Oh, no, it can't go away. Even if the callers are just destroying you like they were Georgia and your organ. I can. No, I can't run away from the noise. I'll just take the beating, but I'm not going to just fold like, you know, some coward.

Yeah. Well, this is what I want you to do. I want to do the best of Hickey's pickies on our show. And we'll recap them each and every Monday. We will either give you a stock up or doing the closing bell or a stock down. But I would like you to put a little montage together of you being arrogant with callers or respectful of callers. And then the callers picks and that's how we could play a little homage, let's say to the weekend overnights and then also hold you accountable.

Because we say this all the time. This show is a system of what checks and balances. So if you're just giving erroneous takes on the weekend overnights, I need to kind of light a little fire in your tummy to get, I know I put it out there. I'm not hiding from my picks.

I embrace the one in four. Is this too much to ask impromptu for at 9 40 p.m. Eastern? So three hours from now, can you find a way to put a little montage from Hickey's pickies? Yes. Too much to ask or you could do it? No, no.

We can get it done. OK. We got to see what Hickey's like. That's a little ballsy there, Marco, going up against the callers. Yeah, no.

And I was working with Ry, so I liked I liked the idea of him doing that. I'm just a little I'm glad that you're not wearing a burlap sack from the beating that you took apparently over the weekend, because I really hope you didn't bet on some of these games with some of the spreads that you're throwing out there. Whew. Man, you got some holes in your pocket after this weekend? I mean, well, I will. I don't bet on any of my picks for a reason.

I would be I'd be in big trouble. All right. I'm glad to hear that. But I'm also a little bit more concerned, usually when you don't bet on it, you do better when you pick. Yes. Because you're going to throw money, then you lose your money. Right. Because it's a little clearer mind.

It's a little different when you don't actually have the money down. So you're telling me you can't pick when you bet with it or whether you don't bet with it. I can't pick winners. I just can't pick winners in general.

Ha. See, now, there is a difference, though, for being the most knowledgeable person at the station when it comes to college football and then just being a horrible better. I still will say that that statement should that you're the most knowledgeable person Monday through Friday at the station when it comes to college football.

Maybe your pictures suck. I mean, you're talking to give myself a little credit here or a break. I should say we're talking about volatility for 18 and 20 year olds. The least predictable thing in this world is right. If you're going to make these predictions, you're one and four, then you've got to be respectful. The least predictable thing is college football? Yeah.

How about the lottery? About week one, college football. After that, I mean, honestly, if you can't see the beating Georgia is going to put on teams, then I don't know what you're looking at. Georgia, there's like five teams that are the exceptions. There's about nine teams that before they get on the field, you know the spreads, it's at least 35 and it deserves to be.

How is it not predictable? Because you've got this backdoor coverage, you've got teams play better than they, you know. Big games? Yes. We only do the best games.

Not doing any of these, you know, best bets. We only do the best games. That's what people want to talk about. Well, each school schedule is a cupcake here or there.

Maybe you schedule a cupcake here or there so we can actually have you at a respectable level. No, I listen. Week one, I get it. After a couple of weeks, if you can't figure out what's going on, then that's on you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Jenga gets hurt first quarter.

How am I supposed to see that coming? You know? No, no, no, no, no. Ohio State get out of first gear maybe?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oregon, wait. You had to show up to the game, could it kill Oregon to show up? Have a get off the bus. You know the game plan. You had spies inside the facility.

What are we doing? Show up. You had a lot more faith in the Ducks showing up in that game than I did. I got to be fair. I didn't, I didn't expect, I thought Ducks would recover easily. I really did. And you know more college football than I do. I readily admit that. But I didn't see the Ducks putting up much of a fight.

So Marco's going to be driving, what, a Ferrari with all your college football picks this year? I mean, really. I mean, LSU hit an extra point. You know what, I'll let you go on that one. I'll let you go on that one. That's what I'm saying.

There's certain games. And again, week one, there's a lot of, oh, I thought, and it's not, okay, all right. But like I said, college football, after about three weeks, if you don't know who the top teams are, we got a problem. It is the Zach Guilf Show on CBS Sports Radio. We come on back, we'll talk about this inevitable expansion in the college football playoff.

We think it's going to be 2026, it could be 2024, it could be 2025, but we'll get into the idea next. Baseball is everywhere you are this season with the MLB app. Enjoy the show from wherever you are when you download the free MLB app to your mobile device. Never miss a second of the action with coverage of in-game highlights, pitch-by-pitch features, select live broadcast coverage, and more. Show support for your favorite team with customizable MLB club-branded icons, and tune in to exclusive premium content for every team in the league. The MLB app is your ticket to all things baseball all the time.

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Major League Baseball trademarks used with permission. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. Zach Gelb Show, CBS Sports Radio. Baylor blew out Albany this weekend, 69-10.

Blake Shapen, 17-20, 214 yards and also did have two passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown and a good game this week for Baylor upcoming up against Kalani Satake and BYU this upcoming Saturday at 10.15 p.m. Eastern. So the defending Big 12 champions look to win the Big 12 once again and we'll see how they do as they welcome in a program that's going to the Big 12 in BYU. Okay, I got to get to this college football playoff news. So we found out about this on Friday. I was in for Maggie and Perloff, so I didn't get a chance to react to it for our audience here.

I reacted to their audience though. The college football playoff, this was inevitable. We thought it was going to happen last year, then movement happened in college football and you had all these fake alliances. It's going to 12 teams. The contract and the report last week was supposed to be the last two years of the contract, 2024-2025. The news that we got last week from Pete Thame at the end of the week was that the first year is going to be 2026 and the new contract to 12 teams, but there are meetings that are going on this week and maybe the push and the talk is going to be to get it to maybe start as soon as 2024, maybe 2025. So Ryan, isn't this so typical of this entire decision-making process? We are close to getting what we think is a 12-team college football playoff.

It's going to be 2026 at the absolute latest, but still we're in this weird spot where it could happen as soon as 2024. It's just so on brand for college football. It really isn't. Again, why get anything done in an expedited form?

It doesn't do anything done in a timely fashion. Drag your feet for four more seasons. Sure, what the hell? Let's do that. I hate it.

Here's why. I am totally cognizant of the fact that we are moving to the power five going away and the conferences are going to get extremely short in, is it going to go to only three power conferences, two, or maybe just one superpower conference, then that's a different conversation if it just goes to one super conference. For so many years though, these semifinal games of four teams stink. I don't think there's really ever a year where I go, man, the team that was number five, I really needed them in the college football playoff and the college football playoff committee got this wrong. So that's number one.

Here's though my biggest problem, Ryan. The beauty about college football is almost every game in the regular season matters. So you go to last year, Michigan, Ohio State, rivalry weekend, Thanksgiving weekend, it was all on the line. The winner goes to the Big Ten championship game and gets a chance to go punch their ticket to the college football playoff.

The loser is on the outside looking in. You go to 12, you do diminish the importance, rivalries are always going to be important, but the actual impact of winning or losing that rivalry game. You then also, for a conference championship game, now you win, you probably automatically get in, but you lose, it's okay, you lost, you only have now your second loss on the resume in a 12 team field, you're going to get in. So I love when the games matter in college football and I think when you go to 12, you're taking away the importance of some of these games later in the year, which the traditional format and the way that we watch college football now, we hype those games up so much.

But you're on the side that you actually like this. You tell me why and you maybe debate the points that I just brought to you. I think it brings more parity to the sport, which is it desperately needs, like, sure. Does it maybe- A 12 seed could win a first round game. Are they ever going to go run the table though, you think? In this format right now, absolutely not. I mean, a five seed, a four seed is not winning right now in a college world playoff because there's no close games.

But how do you get there, right? It's not just overnight, you wake up one day, there's 20 teams out of talent. How you get there is by slowly implementing different rule changes to incentivize talent to go elsewhere.

NIL is one, transfer portal is another. Well now, with the 12 team college world playoff, you can help incentivize kids instead of just going to Alabama and sitting for two years, you could say, hey, look, me at Michigan, Penn State, Oklahoma State, Stanford, UCLA, Oregon, you could come here, play right away, get an NIL deal and also we'll make the college world playoff and we can compete, you know, for a title right away. It helps to get and spread the talent out, which is really desperately what college football needs.

But what's the difference? You just mentioned Michigan. Michigan made the college football playoff last year.

Yeah, once. And now- Michigan State made it once, but can't repeat it. In this format, okay, maybe you could make it more, but what are you going to play? Just the next one extra game?

Michigan, they lost to the semi-final, got blown out of the semi-final and had a great year. Right. So what's the point? So what's the meaning of parity?

That's like, so what? So you're just, we're just, it's a participation trophy now? You get into the college football playoff? You're saying that this is better for the sport because of parity and if I'm a kid that's going to Michigan, now I have more of a chance to make the college football playoff? No, not going to Michigan. I'm saying if you're a kid going to Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, that's really it. That's where all the talent is. You know, there's no, like no teams have a chance to win the title because everyone's going to those schools. So what you're saying- Spread them out. So now a kid that was going to go to Alabama is going to go to Michigan?

Yeah. Okay, what's the big difference of the kid right now that's going to Michigan right now compared to the kid that's going to go to Michigan in three, four years if it's still, you're going to get in the college football playoff now almost every year because it's a 12 team field, but you're only going to be going there for one game. It's like playing for one extra game, maybe two most. Well, the talent spreads out. Now more programs get better players. You don't think that's going to bring competitive balance? I do.

I still think Alabama is going to be the creme de la creme is going to be there. You don't. That's it. Throw the hands up. We're done.

It's Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, everyone else. This is all about money. That's what this is.

Right. But also promoting parity. It's a money grab, but it helps spread the talent out. This is all about money.

That's what it is. And now you're just going to get more money and you get into a college football playoff and you probably don't deserve it. I don't like two, three lost teams getting into the college football playoff.

That's what it's going to become when you go to 12 schools. And it's going to lessen the importance of some of these big time games. Now you can enjoy MLB play the one app with all your favorite free MLB games. Enjoy beat the street, quit pink and more. Enjoy competing against friends. Enjoy unlocking exclusive rewards.

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