Confusing CFP Committee (Hour 3)

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From one of the solutions that fit your life well, Rocket can. Georgia or the field to win it all. Who are you taking?

855-2124 CBS. Is it Georgia or the field? You can find that poll question at CBS Sports Radio or on my Twitter page at Zach Gelb. Real quickly, we were talking about the most disappointing teams this year in college football. And some of the teams that we've had on the shortlist, obviously the Ohio State performance against Michigan without.

Blake Coram was extremely disappointing. Clemson, disappointing. Alabama, disappointing. You get into teams like Oklahoma State and Oklahoma as well.

And we went through a bunch. Another team that has to be in the conversation. It's Texas A&M. Texas A&M before the start of the year was either six or five ranked, depending on what poll you were looking at.

I think they were six. To finish as badly as they did. Now, I think you had the same take as me. Going into the year, I never thought A&M was being as great as the way that people were talking about them. And maybe it was because we were all hoping that Alabama and A&M, even though it ended up being this good game, it was going to be like the game of the year. And to not even have any juice going into that game because of where A&M was at.

It was just like, OK, whatever. Like at that time when you had A&M in Alabama, that was on October 8th. They lost to Mississippi State the week prior and they already lost to Appalachian State. Their wins were Sam Houston and Miami. And it wasn't like the Miami game was a barn burner.

It was 17 to 9. So, yeah, we all know A&M, they've been disappointing. But I never thought they were that great. I never thought they were going to make the college football playoff this year. I never thought they were competing for a national championship. I never thought they were winning the SEC this year. But to be five and seven and really your only highlight was the LSU game where you played spoiler in the last week of the season.

You're hoping that Connor Wigman is going to be the guy. But since he wasn't the guy at the start of the year, I just never really looked at that offense, even with all the talent that they had and thought that they were going to be this big force this year. Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you I knew it all about A&M and thought they would be five and seven. And not even be in the top 25. But here we are.

So there is a level of disappointment. There is also my belief that Jimbo Fisher should not be back. But we know he will be back as the head coach of A&M for next season. With all that being said, though, they were brutal this year. And after and even when they sucked you back in a little bit. And I told you about that start where they lose to or they beat Sam Houston, they lose to App State, then they beat Miami. Remember, I think they were down like 14 nothing against Arkansas. And then they came back and beat them 23 to 21.

It's like, OK, maybe you get me back revved up a little bit for the Alabama game in two weeks and they lose to Mississippi State. And once they lost to Mississippi State, they lost. Then the next week against Alabama, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Florida, and they lost to Auburn. Jimbo Fisher got out coached by Cadillac Williams 13 to 10.

That's brutal. That's a horrible stretch this year for A&M. But I guess, Hickey, really why we didn't bring them up as the most disappointing team in college football. They're definitely disappointing is because I thought this was going to be like a four loss team heading into the year. You know, if everything went right, a three loss team, I never looked at them as this dominant force heading into this football season like other people did. And obviously those meaningless rankings before the start of the year put them in at number six.

Same. Yeah, I mean, that was just absolutely foolish. And again, people just buy into recruiting rankings without looking anything else is why they're number six start the season. But it's like, that's surprising. Maybe, okay, seven to five. I could have saw not five and seven.

But we're talking about seven to five. When you get to that point, like is another loss or two that surprising? Sure.

Did I see him lose an app state? No. But at that point, once it happens to take anything from there is not a surprise. So it's like, sure. In one end, they start number six and we're talking about a team that finishes five and seven. But it really does not feel that surprising. This team is not good. They're hyped every single year.

Jimbo Fisher is not a good coach. And it's like you kind of just buy into the off-season hype and carry it over. And this team is all hype, no substance. When you get into the top four teams right now. So Georgia before the start of the year was ranked at number three. I think Georgia already has exceeded all expectations this year. We knew Georgia was gonna be really good again.

But with how much talent they lost on defense, you know, I still don't think Kirby smart. I know he just got all the credit in the world for winning a national championship. But this year, Georgia got to a point other than the Missouri game.

There's really not been a point where they have been legitimately tested or you thought to yourself, wow, Georgia is about to fall off. Like, I'm not saying it's more impressive than the job that he did last year. Because they won it all and we'll see if he can find the way to win it all.

But if he wins it all again this year, it's not even close. The job this season is more impressive than last season. Even with having to lose to Alabama and then come back and beat them. You look at the roster from last year compared to this year. And yes, this roster is still filled with talent and they had the experience.

And yes, this year has been more open. But did you think Georgia was going to win the national title before the start of the season? They were giving the conversation, but do you think they were going to win the national championship again? Like, I think they've been extremely, clearly they're undefeated. They've been extremely impressive. But to start the year off at three and now be the unquestioned favorite to win the college football playoff with all they lost is a great coaching job by Kirby Smart. Without a doubt.

I mean, again, he's got to the program where they reload, they don't rebuild. And this is a prime example of it. Yeah, I picked and missed the college football playoff. I did not think they were going to have anywhere near the same success as they had last year. Oh, did you really?

Okay. I had them in my top four. I didn't think they were going to make just because you lose what, nine guys off the defense, you lose George Pickens, you lose a few running. Like they lost kind of like what 2019 LSU did when they just unloaded everyone that one year and everyone left. And then just all of a sudden there's no talent left.

It's insane what Kirby Smart is going to do. Well, I'm saying when LSU did have a lot of good players in 2020 for LSU. Oh, for LSU, I think you meant for this Georgia team.

No, no, no, no. I thought I was like waiting for a similar thing to happen with this Georgia team. And I'm just saying it's a credit to Kirby Smart because again, recruiting wise, obviously they kill it.

But also development wise, there was points, not this, not now. There were points like midway through the year after the Tennessee game where it's like, this team better than last year's team. Like they were dominant. Michigan similar feel where they were eight before the start of the year. I think a lot of people thought Ohio State was clearly the better team before the start of the season. For Michigan to lose Ojabo and Hutchinson, the defensive side of the ball, we knew they were going to be better offensively. Because McCarthy on paper is better than McNamara. You have Blake Corum getting more reps now.

Donovan Edwards, the speed at the wide receiving position. There was a thought they were going to clearly be better offensively than what they were a year ago. I think the surprise for a lot of people is that they have been really damn good defensively. And you saw that this past weekend.

At least for me, I'll give Jim Harvick credit. I didn't think they were going to take a step back everywhere. Because the U.S. has had Haskins like 20 rushing touchdowns last year. He was the heartbeat of that offense. And now Blake Corum is great now, but last year we didn't really know what he was in terms of... But they were better at quarterback heading into this season.

That was at least the sense that I gathered for the Michigan fans. Well that was the sense, but again, that was just more on paper than anything else. It wasn't like we've seen a lot of JJ McCarthy to believe what he could do. And up until last week, it's like he really was that much better than think Kate McNamara.

There was not much of a difference. There were times last year where you saw from JJ McCarthy in small doses the athleticism and the big playability. And there were some games this year that you could see that he was clearly better than Kate McNamara. Even though he did have the coming out party this past weekend up against Ohio State. Now, TCU. We know, I know that they were not in the top 25 before the start of the year. I think they were picked like 6 or 7th in the conference before the season did start.

I have to double check that. I'm going to say they did not even get a top 20. I'm looking at the AP.

They didn't even get a top 25 vote. Yeah, that's one of the biggest surprises in college football this year, clearly. Was there anyone? Is there going to be one guy that comes out and you find out, oh, he had a future bet on TCU to be undefeated after the regular season? There's no shot. There's no chance. But there's always one. No, not even on that one. TCU?

Maybe some rich booster or something like that? Some guy in March, Big T. Like, I would do it if I was in Vegas. Hey, Penn State, no chance to win, but hey, what the hell? 12-0, those odds must be good. Listen, I'll tell you, this guy could probably retire if he did a 12-0 TCU bet.

Mattress Mac probably has that, right? You would think. That is for sure.

He has every bet. Now, what was your thought on USC before the start of the season? Not good enough for the offensive defense alliance to win. I thought they'd be good. Not good enough to make the college football playoff or win the Pac-12. No, I did not think they would win the college football playoff. I thought the Pac-12, yes, Utah was the favorite before it did start.

I thought at times you could maybe look at them and say, okay, they're moving in the right direction to getting back. I never thought this year, though, before the start of the season, and early on I changed my tune on that, that we'd be sitting here and saying USC is back. Now, if you told me from the start of the year that they would finish in the top 25, I wouldn't say you're crazy, but they weren't ranked in the top 25 before the start of the season. I'm looking at eight people.

Oh, actually, sorry, I take that back. They were ranked 14th. USC was ranked in at number 14th. They've exceeded expectations as well? You look at all four teams that right now are online to make the college football playoff. That's crazy that all four have exceeded expectations.

Now, the different levels. Georgia exceeded expectations. They were three. Michigan exceeded expectations.

They were eight. USC at 14 exceeded expectations. They're now back and they're one win away from going to the college football playoff. And TCU, good luck finding what people thought about them before the start of the season. Like usually when you have the four teams, you get a year where there's one or two teams that really exceed expectations.

But usually before the start of the year, you can lock it up at least two teams that are going to be in the college football playoff because usually Alabama is always there. Now, Georgia is starting to be that team that's going to be there for a long time with what Kirby Smart has done. Besides the last two years, there's always been a belief in Clemson. There's always a belief in Ohio State. The fact that all four of these teams. Just exceeded expectations and really the only expectation of them being in the college football playoff again, without a doubt, was Georgia. In my opinion, that's pretty damn impressive this year when you look back at what the possibility is, assuming that it goes the way that we think it's going to go, that USC is going to win this weekend and it's going to be Georgia.

It's going to be Michigan, TCU and USC. This is in a year where you had a lot of chaos and a lot of teams look like they were on their way and then fall off. I don't know if I could ever remember a year. And you can in a college football playoff era, obviously, where all four teams, you could make a case, did better than what anyone thought they could do before the start of the season. Most people, the majority of people thought they could do before the start of the season, Hickey. It's been a year full of surprises. Like I said, for the most part, we always talked about it from the angle of disappointment. Anytime we talk about a team that gets hot or builds momentum, they find a way to lose a game they shouldn't.

It's a lot of negativity, but when you're looking for the other way, you're right. All four teams are surprising in one sense or another. All four teams have done better than expectations. I don't think right off the top of my head we could talk about a year where all four teams are better than we thought. Like I said, it's Alabama, it's Clemson, it's Ohio State, always kind of in the mix and always kind of getting there.

And we expect them to be in there. I don't know many team or many picks right now that maybe Georgia is probably the most popular pick. I'm not sure how many people were buying Michigan in terms of getting back in. Definitely no one at TCU. Some people had USC, so it's like a very unpopular, most likely what's going to be a college football playoff.

How much is this NIL-related? And now the sport getting a little bit more open up and also the transfer portal as well. Clearly for USC, it's almost all NIL-related and transfer portal because that's how this team and roster is built. With Lincoln Riley being there, you're number one. Michigan, it was just repeated success, I would say.

A little bit. We're starting to get there. It certainly takes a few more years in recruiting cycles to obviously kind of have that filter out throughout a good amount of schools to where there is legitimate parity. But it's definitely like I said, for USC for sure, it's obvious.

NIL, transfer portal, they were the team that's done it the best. Georgia it isn't. Georgia is just a force to be reckoned with. And then for TCU, man. Max Duggan wasn't even the starter. I know he has experience, he's been there for years, but he wasn't even the starter for the start of the year. And then he got the injury right away and then he went in and never looked back.

And we know how good Quinnen Johnson has been too at the wide receiver position. And Sonny Dykes, remember when he joined us? I forget exactly when it was, but I want to say it was in the first half of the season. And I said to him, I go, are you surprised by this start? It was maybe after... Maybe after Kansas. I think they're like 5-6-0. Yeah, I think it was either after the Kansas or the Oklahoma State game.

It was like one of those games where they were 4-0, 5-0, 6-0. And I said to him, I go, if I had told you that before the start of the season, would you have believed it? And he goes, well I always have belief in my team, but I've done this job three other times before in other spots.

And he goes, you never know what to really expect the first year. So even their coach, and everyone's surprised that TCU is 12-0. But even their own coach was surprised that they were 4-0, 5-0, 6-0, whatever it was at the time. It's one of the great stories, obviously, in this year in college football.

But one of the better stories that you'll see in a long time, we'll see how far they can take it. Okay, before we take a break, and we will get into later on this hour, should Aaron Rodgers want to stay with the Green Bay Packers after this season? If you had to give me a guess, Georgia or the field to win it all? Early, early returns, what do you think this should be and what do you think it will be? Georgia or the field? I will say should be 75%. Yes, Georgia will be, I'll go 68%. Georgia, 47.4%. Early returns. The field, 52.6%. And I thought you were spot on in terms of thinking this was going to be 70-75%, so I'm surprised by the voting.

Interesting. Now, I told you earlier, I'm feeling better and better about Michigan winning it all. Maybe some people think Caleb Williams, surprise, surprise, picks off Stetson Ben in the first round, then it's USC Michigan in a title game. Could that be a thought or worse? Some people just think Michigan could be better than Georgia.

Maybe that's what it is. If I had to guess, I would say it's people thinking it's Michigan more than TCU or USC. To win it all, yes. But maybe some people are believing that USC could pick off Georgia in the first round.

How about a crazy thought? Maybe we'll actually get some good college football playoff semifinal games this year. Maybe that will actually happen or they'll both be playoffs.

You never know, because that's the way that it's been ever since this thing has started. I would recommend that it was the Oklahoma game, that semifinal game, which was the Oklahoma-Georgia, which was a classic. We have not really had any good semifinal games. 2019 Ohio State Clemson. Like you said, 2017, the Rose Bowl game was really good. Not a lot of good ones, though.

No, not many come to the top of the range. When we both sit here after watching so much college football and go, yeah, what's with those great semifinal games? You'll win, you'll win, you'll win.

That's not a good sign. Newsbreak's next. or wherever you get your podcasts. Throughout the 60s and 70s, cops hunted down key figures of the Dixie Mafia, including its enigmatic ringleader, Kirksey Nix. I'm in a rush to making money.

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Download the Odyssey app today. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports, and reconnaissance from the day in sports. Aaron Rodgers says he thinks he will play Sunday against the Bears.

This, of course, courtesy of the Pat McAfee Show. Well, we're not eliminated. I got good news with the scans yesterday, so I plan on playing this week. Rodgers says he wants to play because it's his job to play.

Listen, we're 8-4, 4-8, 12-0, 0-12. I'll be wanting to suit up this week. And not just because it's... Because that's what you do. You know, when you're a player, you go out there, and if you can play, you play.

You don't need some doctor to give you an excuse. Oh man, I don't know, maybe one more week. You know, not quite 100%. No. If you can go out there and compete, and you have competitive greatness in your body, in your heart, in your mind, you go out and play. Rodgers is saying all the right things when it comes to his status of playing and how he wants to handle this.

But, the one thing I will say... Didn't he just say the other day that he wants to keep on playing as long as they are mathematically in it? So then doesn't that whole thing sound a little bit hypocritical? That yeah, you go out there and compete because you're a player and you want to do that, or you shouldn't rely on what a doctor says, whatever he just said.

But then if you're mathematically eliminated, that I guess changes the equation of that philosophy. Tommy, your contract if you're on Rodgers? I guess we'll find out after this week when they... Well, actually they might win this week. They'll still be alive for a wildcard, Dickey. So probably like two or three weeks when you lose, then we'll see. Do you think he wants to be there after this year?

I know he just signed an extension. If we could have Aaron Rodgers in here, and let's say he gets shot up with a little true serum, and I go to you, do you want to actually be on the Packers next year? What do you think his answer is? I would probably say no. You would?

I would probably say no. Even though we talked about how much it means to him finishing his career as a Green Bay Packer? I think he still wants to win, and you're not doing so in Green Bay.

I agree with you. If I was Rodgers at the end of this year, I know you just signed the extension. We'll see how easy it's going to be to try to move off of that.

I would say let's work together. Because next year, even if they make a comeback, and it's possible that there'll be a better football team next year. You make moves in the offseason.

I know that's wishful thinking. But maybe with a guy like Christian Watson having a second year under his belt, you'll be much better on the offense side of the ball. You have fewer injuries, all that stuff. Rodgers healthier. It wouldn't be shocking at all if they made the playoffs next year. But the fact of it, even how open the NFC could be for the foreseeable future, seeing it all come together where not only you're in the Super Bowl and winning it, that's tough for me to envision happening in Green Bay. And that's for me why if I'm Rodgers this offseason, I say, yeah, I just signed the extension. We then maybe had a sense, depending on what you read and what you believe, that he knew that Devonta Adams wasn't coming back when he signed that extension. Maybe now a year later after the injuries, after how bad this season went, you go, I've rethought it.

And you know what? I wonder how Packers fans would take that. Maybe it's just Twitter.

And Twitter is not a great reflection of society. I would think more fans would be annoyed than happy if you got rid of Aaron Rodgers. But there's a lot of fans that I see on Twitter that even tweet us, that call us as we're on a bunch of affiliates in Wisconsin.

We love our Wisconsin affiliates, like the five or six of them that we're on. It seems like we get a lot of calls, a lot of tweets, and we see a lot of conversation that they're ready to move on from Rodgers. I was going to say, maybe it's just the irrational fans that call the show. But the last two years, anytime we've had a controversial Rodgers topic, it's either been 50-50, stay or go, or more like, screw it, have him go, see you later, we'll move on to Jordan Love, whoever. Enough of this guy. And you know who can't stand him the most? Our Bart Winkler. Yeah, he's not an Aaron Rodgers fan. Bart's favorite part of this season was Jordan Love throwing a touchdown pass to Christian Watson.

I can guarantee you that. Alright, let's get to your boy Jeff Saturday hot take hickey on why the Colts didn't call a timeout until fourth down on the final drive, and yeah, they had all three. Yeah, I didn't feel like time was really of the essence at the moment. I thought we had a good play. I thought we would get to it.

Obviously, we don't do great on the backside, so it's worse than it, you know. But I felt good about the call before. I felt like we had time, we would have timeouts afterwards. We were in striking distance, so yeah, I never felt like the pressure of needing the timeout. Like I said, I thought the call was good. Again, we were in that mode pretty much the whole second half, so it was pretty consistent with what we were doing. So again, it wasn't like a change for us. We just didn't execute it.

Hickey, the easy take today is to just land base Jeff Saturday. And it was stupid not calling a timeout. But what do you expect when a guy's coaching in his third game and was at get up on ESPN four weeks ago? Now, with that being said, with that being said, I think the right take today, Matt Ryan, you're a veteran. Matt Ryan, you're the quarterback.

You're the leader on the offensive side of the ball. You should have called a timeout yourself. I think Matt Ryan has the power to call a timeout there. Or worst case, even if he doesn't, you go up to the official, you call a timeout, they're going to give you the timeout. Matt Ryan should have called a timeout at that moment last night, and I put that on the quarterback. It's the same thing Russell Wilson and Daniel Hackett that we got into earlier in the year. Russell Wilson got to call a timeout and say, Coach, we're not kicking this field goal. We're going for it. Shut up. The only thing I'll say is if you're going to play call in your ear, it's like, I mean, I feel like you're just training, say, all right, we're going.

Let's go, fellas. They were wasting so much time when you're running around and directing people and no one's moving. Just call a timeout. You're Matt Ryan. You're not a rookie quarterback.

It's on Jeff Saturday. Better clock management. You got to put your play call or two in a better situation to succeed and having him on the fly. Call a second and 17 and then a third and three.

I'm not saying Jeff Saturday's a little off the hook because what Jeff Saturday did last night was stupid. And that's what you get when it's an interim coach that had no head coaching experience other than high school. But how no one told him to take a timeout, how he didn't know how to not take a timeout, and how his quarterback, like we talk about checks and balances all the time on this show. You know, I'm the executive branch. You're the judicial branch. I guess I'll make act the legislative branch. There's checks and balances. One of those branches had to say, yo, take a timeout. And they didn't.

It's terrible. Matt Ryan says he liked the Colts not using their timeouts. I don't mind the call. We're going with some tempo trying to get that first and then probably bang a timeout after that first. We didn't get it, then have to take the timeout and on the fourth down call.

Credit to them. They did a good job of jumping inside. We had some in-breaking routes. He knew they should have taken a timeout. Just trying not to throw his coach underneath the bus. Jeff, Saturday from today regrets not using a timeout before the third down run. Obviously, there's always things everybody wants to do in plays they want back.

I wish I had that third down back. In all honesty, wish I had used a timeout. Just looking at it on film, looked at it last night again, looked at it this morning again. And from a time perspective, I felt good. But you could tell we were in disarray.

I just didn't have a great feel. And Parks made a great call. I still liked the call right away. I told him to have one ready. And as soon as he went down, he had the call in place. So his was on. But then we had the formation of personnel.

We had guys running across. And again, looking back, it's a learning experience. I didn't meet my expectations. Again, I hold the guys accountable. I'm accountable for that. Just wish I would have. That one's the one that's going to stick with me. So use it as a learning experience. Hopefully get better at it.

But frustrated with myself on that. Womp, womp, womp, womp, womp, womp. Heck yeah, does that make you feel? He was just rambling there.

Pissed. Because it's like it's the easy call in the moment. Everyone is sitting there saying, what are you doing? I don't understand how you're sitting there thinking like, oh, this is the right thing. No timeouts.

That's the irony. Us sitting on our couches knew what to do in that spot. The guy that just came off of his couch to coach this team had no clue what to do last night. Did you see the tweet that was circulating Twitter last night? Yes.

Where he was promoting, what was that, like three, four years ago? Coming up on Get Up, we talk about clock management. Again. All right, Jeff, may you learn? Now, don't get me wrong. Frank Reich absolutely deserved to get fired.

There's no reason in keeping around Frank Reich how they didn't go to someone else that was on the staff and had a little experience there, mind boggling. But hey, that's why the Colts are the Colts, the gift that keeps on giving. Let's go to Mike Tauman. He says Kenny Pickett continues to get better in the face of adversity. He's getting better every week.

And it's in a very natural way because of experience. He's a competitor. He's smart. But it's still a lot of meat on the bone.

And it's just the process. But like I always say, he's good enough and we're good enough to win while that happens. And so we're not grading him or us on the curve.

We acknowledge that he's very much in development. You can ask me next week and I'll tell you he got better in all areas again next week because with each snap becomes exposure and sharp guys, guys that are competitors, they grow from those things. Yeah, you're good enough to beat the Colts.

You're not good enough to go make the playoffs with this team the way that it's constructed right now when you talk about winning games. Now, you've been very critical of Kenny Pickett. I think Kenny Pickett has played fine this year considering what he has or what he doesn't have around him.

One thing is clear, that Pickett to Pickens connection is starting to become really, really good. And that's some building pieces for the future where if you fix the offensive line, Nazhe Harris, I know he's had some injuries this year. I don't feel as great about him this year as I did last year, but I'm not ready to write him off. Defense, I know he's not been playing great as a unit this year, but you got some pieces there. I don't think, the Steelers got work to do, but I don't think they're as far away as what people think they are. I think you had the offensive line turned around.

That's obviously the first and foremost. If you can unlock Nazhe Harris, if you give Kenny Pickett time, help something else out. You don't walk away from this year thinking that Kenny Pickett is a bust and Kenny Pickett can't be the guy. I'm not saying that you say he's, without a doubt, the guy and he's your next franchise quarterback for the next ten years, but he's shown you some signs. And other than the third quarter, the whole offense didn't show up.

And the Colts had the ball and the big special teams play and they had the ball for a while and then they fumbled it. I thought that Kenny Pickett played a really good game last night. Best game of his career so far. That's not saying much, it's been five, six starts, but best game of his career.

He should thank you. Well, thank Gus Bradley. You guaranteed, stop, you guaranteed that the Colts were going to win by ten plus points last night.

That's right. They're not better than any team in the league by ten plus points. Joe Thomas says the Broncos defense is very close to quitting on Russell Wilson.

This would be the 33rd team. Very close, I think they've already quit on Russell Wilson. Mike Purcell yelling at Russell Wilson is a seminal moment in the season because the next time the defense gets frustrated and the offense is not holding up their end of the bargain, the defense is just going to give up. Because the last thing you do before you give up is you get really, really frustrated and then you take out your anger on the other side of the football by yelling at them. The next thing you do when you continue to be frustrated is you just stop giving a s***. You had a guy that was playing in the AAF in 2019 and Mike Purcell yelling at Russell Wilson.

Think about that. This team's already quit, the defense already quit on him and they have every right to quit on him. Now, Hecke, I want your take on an early line this week. The Ravens, you would agree, are a team that you can't really trust because they can't finish games?

Correct. Now, they just beat the Panthers 13 to 3, the Ravens two weeks ago. The Broncos just got blown out by the Carolina Panthers. Ravens play the Broncos this week in Baltimore. Ravens are an eight-point favorite. How would you gamble that game? Wow, I'd take the Ravens.

Because guess what? The fourth quarter doesn't matter because the Broncos can't score a touchdown. They can't score more than 10 points in a game. So as long as the Ravens score 17, 13, 11, they are A-OK. Yeah, I think they're going to cover the eight as well. And we'll see if maybe this whole fight motivates this team, but I don't think it will because A, this team's not good, and B, they have no belief in their quarterback. Which is, we're talking about Russell Wilson, they have no belief in him. Man, how the mighty have fallen. And final one, Jerry Jones and if Odell Beckham Jr.'s flight incident decreases his interest in the wide receiver, this courtesy of 105.3, the fan in Dallas.

No, it did not. Those are not, his overall team compatibility, his judgment, his behavior, is not an issue with him. It is with many, but not with him. Can you just say, when you're asked, is whatever happened on the flight going to decrease your interest, just say no? Like, Jerry Jones needs to learn how to give one-word answers. Because then he like says other things, and I'm surprised with only 15 other seconds, I thought it was going to be another 45-second answer. But man, he really knows how to ramble, even when he's on the more concise end of things, I think. Yeah, I'm a little confused about the end part, like what he was trying to say, but yeah, a nice little, nope, nope, we're still interested, would have subdued. Just keep it simple, stupid. hungry.

heart and peace. 15 years into Kirksey's life sentence, the Dixie Mafia was practically folklore, but that would soon change. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South, a documentary podcast from C-13 originals, a Cadence 13 studio. to The Dixie Mafia, available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Throughout the 60s and 70s, cops hunted down key figures of The Dixie Mafia, including its enigmatic ringleader, Kirksey Nix. I'm interested in making money.

I'm not interested in hurting people. 15 years into Kirksey's life sentence, The Dixie Mafia was practically folklore, but that would soon change. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South, a documentary podcast from C-13 Originals, a Cadence 13 studio, season two, The Dixie Mafia, available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to The Zach Gelb Show.

Hickey, just a quick question. So we both said tonight when the show started, Georgia, Michigan, TCU, USC, Ohio State, Alabama, one through six, correct Amundo? Yes.

Look him back at it. And maybe this is just nitpicking. Shouldn't Tennessee be in front of Alabama? They're both 10 and two. Tennessee beat Alabama. Shouldn't Tennessee be six and Alabama seven? Absolutely. That chip has sailed.

That's why I feel like I haven't made a, you know, I feel like we haven't had a bigger push for it. Since it happened, they got jumped a few weeks ago and they lost, but. And also Hendon Hooker got hurt. So they got that second loss too.

Lost by 30 points. Yeah, to South Carolina, it was just, okay. You kind of forget about them and knew they didn't really have a shot. I never, there was a little door that was open for Alabama if all chaos did go down and it came pretty close to happening. But I don't think Alabama was really, after that second loss, viewed as a serious playoff contender. So maybe that's not why it's that big of a discussion, but it was asked tonight, again. And Boo Corrigan did say, well, one, it was very much debated amongst the committee and a lot of conversation around that. The volume of head-to-head is certainly one of the criteria that we look at.

We're looking at a full body of work. And when you look at their two losses by Alabama, including one on a last second field goal to Tennessee, and then you are measuring somewhere in there, you've got to measure the loss that Tennessee had to South Carolina. And as we went through that, that was part of the determination as to why to have Alabama ahead of Tennessee.

That really makes no sense. But what they're saying is, yeah, Alabama, their two losses were combined by four points. And one was to LSU, who up until last week in the committee thought very highly of, and the other one was to Tennessee, but that's the major thing. Tennessee has two losses. They beat, though, Alabama. And the Tennessee losses, one was to Georgia, which is nothing to be ashamed about, even though the game was more lopsided in what the final score says, and the other one was South Carolina. All right, I know we're going to shame Beamer on the show tomorrow, but was anyone picking Tennessee to lose to South Carolina heading into that game?

No. So I get, you know, what they're saying is Alabama, their losses were by slimmer margins, but I don't care if it's by slimmer margins when one of the teams that we're talking about is Tennessee, who they lost to. I don't, I'm not, I promise, not trying to take this to the 12 versus four conversation, but one of the frustrations, one of the reasons why I'm excited for 12 is that when it comes to four, the committee is so annoying because they don't have any criteria. We're talking about, in this example, head-to-head doesn't matter, right? Tennessee, the fact that they beat Alabama in their mind doesn't matter. Go back a few weeks ago, LSU had two losses, Ole Miss had one loss. LSU was ranked higher than Ole Miss because LSU beat Ole Miss.

Despite the fact that they got blown up by Tennessee at home 40 to 13 and had one extra loss, they still put LSU, I think it was 11 and 12 or 10 and 11, they put LSU ahead of Ole Miss despite having one more loss. So they are head-to-head mattered a lot to the point where you can have one more loss, doesn't matter, here, equal amount of losses, you beat the team we're talking about, doesn't matter. There's no consistency. No, there's no consistency.

It doesn't make any sense. Now the difference between you and I, and once again, we're not trying to get into this four and 12 debate, I could then say, we're having a conversation about it, but does it really matter who's ranked sixth, who's ranked seventh? Because they're gonna get, right now, the top four teams are the right four teams right now. And there's never been a year where I've said, oh, I need to see team five, six and seven and all they got screwed.

To then expand it to 12, I know we have debated this over and over again, I don't wanna rehash this and start yelling at one another because I think other than the Trey Lance, Justin Fields debate, or not, excuse me, Trey Lance or Mac Jones debate, I think this will be the most heated debate that we've been into during the show, is the four, 12 debate. It's just like, you look at a year like this, where so many teams have just crumbled under pressure. Like I have no desire to see Alabama play another game or Tennessee play another game or Penn State play another game, Clemson, Kansas State, Utah, Washington, Florida State, after this weekend. And those are some of the teams that are LSU, Oregon State. Those are teams that are in the top 15 right now when you expand to 12.

I know what you're gonna say. And I know you're gonna talk about, oh, every other sport, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You see more teams get in and all that.

I just have no desire to see those teams in the playoffs. Well, I was just gonna say is like, I don't have to agree with the right, like the rankings are not for me, right? So I have an opinion, you have an opinion, the committee is the one that matters.

So we don't have to agree with them wholeheartedly. But there's no consistency. But at least if they had a formula where we could understand and say, this is what we prioritize, whether it's wins, losses, head-to-head, strength of schedule, whatever. If they just had an idea of, okay, this is what they prioritize and that's why this team is here and that's why this team is below another one, fine.

I can hate it, but at least we understand it. Each week it changes. Head-to-head matters one week, strength of schedule, how much you lose by, every week it's a brand new like theme. Then there's some weeks where you do feel like that you have the committee more earlier on than later on, where they do things just to get a reaction out of people. And they do things to just create a conversation.

Like remember when TCU was ranked, I think it was an initial college football player ranking, they was ranked seventh. And you were freaking out about that. And I said to you, Ryan, you're fine. Like I totally get what you're saying. And I even said you were 100% right in what you're saying. But the committee, they were basically, and it makes no sense. They were creating a conversation and they were trying to basically still value these other bigger brands, but through time if you win your games, you'll then eventually rise to the top. But it still made no sense why you ranked them at seventh.

And I really think they ranked them at seventh to try to just build drama around TCU if by the chance they did run the table and they would move up week by week by week. And eventually they did that. But it's all over the place.

That we could agree on. And it makes no sense. And what's the one saving grace that they always have? And I said this to you in the beginning, there's always times where, and you didn't really have to use it this year, but they wave the glasses around and they say, oh, it's the eye test because that's their safety blanket if they want to get a bigger brand in or something like that. And it's also frustrating and like, frankly, like it shouldn't be amazing, but it sort of is at the same time that even though the committee changes, whoever's the spokesperson still cannot answer their questions straight and still cannot give you any sort of actual reason or response whether it's Boo Corrigan or Gary Varda, God, he was the worst from Iowa like last two years.

It's like the people, this is like, I know it's not their main job, like they're all, they don't have other day jobs, but it's like you hire somebody to be a spokesperson, they can't even answer the question or give you a real response. You know what we should do? What are we doing? Now you'd have to denounce your fandom for Penn State because you'd be too biased. I think you should be the spokesperson for the college football playoff committee.

We'll have hot take Hickey each and every week. You're all stupid. These are the four best teams in the country.

We don't care about anyone else. These are the top four rankings and you can be the spokesperson for it. Like move over- Do a better job than Boo. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, right?

Move over her. We'll have Hickey giving the state of the union each week for college football playoff rankings. I'm ready. Condoleezza Rice is already in where she used to be part of the committee.

So she can give me some pointers, but I'll be ready. Wasn't at one point she was gonna be the next head coach to the Cleveland Browns. Adam Schefter broke the story. They're interviewing her, exploring. Now she's a part of the ownership group of the Broncos, right?

Poor, poor Condoleezza. Yeah. Jeez, you may have to denounce that one.

Yeah, you may want to go explore somewhere else. But you're right. It's just find the four best teams and everyone's definition of what the four best teams are. It'd almost be better if we just, I don't want to put it in a computer, right? I was gonna say, don't bring back the computers. Bring back the computers. Those stupid computers. Like in Zoolander, the information is in the computer. That's how we'll bring back the computers moving forward. And that's what we should do.

Just break the computer. Get in there. I kind of like putting Hickey in charge of the college football playoff committee. I mean, listen, the bar is very low. It's not hard to succeed at that job, that's for sure. Anyone can do it right now.

I guess, except the people that are hired to do so. Cole Kublick will join us next. We'll get his reaction on some of the moves around the country and the coaching carousel, especially at his alma mater in Auburn. And we'll also get his thoughts on what the final four are going to look like. Does USC have to win this weekend to get in the college football playoff?

Or should they already just be in because Ohio State's not playing this weekend? Football season is here. The new Odyssey app lets you stay connected to your NFL team, your station, your shows. Follow your favorite stations and come back again and again. Get real-time updates on everything you care about.

Miss your show? Jump back to their awesome rewind feature. The Odyssey app is NFL football. Live and on demand, wherever you are, whenever you want. And did we mention it's all free?

Download the Odyssey app today. Throughout the 60s and 70s, cops hunted down key figures of the Dixie Mafia, including its enigmatic ringleader, Kirksey Nix. I'm interested in making money.

I'm not interested in hurting people. 15 years into Kirksey's life sentence, the Dixie Mafia was practically folklore, but that would soon change. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South, a documentary podcast from C13 Originals, a Cadence 13 studio. Season two, the Dixie Mafia. Available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Football season is here. The new Odyssey app lets you stay connected to your NFL team, your station, your shows. Follow your favorite stations and come back again and again. Get real time updates on everything you care about.

Miss your show? Jump back to their awesome rewind feature. The Odyssey app is NFL football. Live and on demand, wherever you are, whenever you want. And did we mention it's all free? Download the Odyssey app today.