Jimbo & Venables Under Pressure (Hour 1)

Live from the play show you're not overly ostentatious, studios of CBS Sports Radio 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 across all of our great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, that free Odyssey app, and of course, YouTube as well. 855-212-4CBS is numbered to jump on in. 855-212-4227. You can always get at me on Instagram, where I'm straight flexing, or via the good ol' cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Michael Sampter, Stuart Kovacs, along the other way. We're rocking and rolling all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific.

Whole lot to do today. Coming up 20 minutes from now, we'll be joined by the head football coach at Kentucky in Mark Stoup, who I think is a top 10 coach in the country. And this Kentucky program, once again, is bumping with Mark Stoup as their head football coach. They have a big matchup this weekend against a Georgia team, where I don't want to call Georgia vulnerable, but Georgia doesn't look as dominant as they've been the last two years.

They're still the number one team in the country. They still haven't lost the game, but up against their two best opponents so far. So, at South Carolina, then also Auburn, the games have been close. So, we'll see if Kentucky can pull off the upset this weekend. And then coming up later on in the second half of the season, we'll see if they can pull off the upset this weekend.

But right out of the gate, I've got to start with a little college football. And this weekend, I think there's three coaches that are under a tremendous amount of pressure, where we're going to find out where these coaches are at with their program. You have Brent Venables, who has his Oklahoma team who's undefeated, getting ready for Red River, up against North Carolina. And then you also have a big win against Texas.

You have Jimbo Fisher, who lost to Miami a few weeks ago. Now we'll see if they can find a way to get a big win up against Alabama. And then you also have maybe the most disappointing team in the country, in LSU, who was supposed to be a national championship contender, looked like they were going to make the college football playoff before the start of the year. And LSU has already lost two games this season, and now we're trying to wonder how badly is this ship going to sink, or will they find a way to get some smooth sailing and salvage this season. But LSU is going to Missouri, and Missouri's been a surprise team. They're ranked 21st in the country.

Let's start with Venables. Now he's going up against Texas. We know Texas right now is ranked as the third best team in the country.

Texas has the most impressive win this season in college football, going to Tuscaloosa and taking care of the Alabama Crimson Tide. But for Brent Venables, he waited forever to take that opportunity to become a head coach. And I believe that everyone thought when Brent Venables finally left Clemson after being the right-hand man forever many years with Dabo Swinney with the Clemson Tigers, we all believe that Brent Venables, oh, it's inevitable that he's going to be a phenomenal coach and a phenomenal head coach.

And just sometimes when you are a dominant assistant, a dominant defensive coordinator, it doesn't always translate into being a successful head coach. And last year for Oklahoma, in what was a wide open Big 12 where TCU ended up going to the college football playoff, didn't even win the Big 12 Conference as you had Kansas State with Chris Kleiman and maybe the most underappreciated Big 12 Conference champion ever take care of the Big 12. You look at Oklahoma, they should have been right there. And they weren't.

And not only were they not there, they were 6 and 7. And 6 and 7 for where the standard has become for Oklahoma with the last coach that was there in Lincoln-Riley, it seemed as if each and every year they won the Big 12 and they were in the college football playoff. But Lincoln-Riley leaves and Oklahoma finishes a season after a ball loss being a game under 500 at 6 and 7. And Oklahoma has started off the year where they haven't lost any games, now they went up against Arkansas State, SMU, Tulsa, Cincinnati, Iowa State, like some of those opponents aren't the easiest of opponents, but they really haven't been tested yet. And now you go play Red River up against Texas where Texas is projected to win the Big 12.

They were my pick before the year to win the Big 12. And not only that, you look at this Texas team where they're humming right now and their quarterback Quinn Ewers is holding off even the thought of Arch Manning getting on the field. And if Oklahoma could pull off the upset in this one, we're going to change the way that we look at Brent Venables because right now I think everyone is like I don't know what Brent Venables after his first year is going to be as a head coach. And it only gets tougher for Oklahoma because this is their final season in the Big 12 and they're off to the SEC after this year so the competition is going to increase in intensity. But if Oklahoma can win this game, I do believe the take on Monday is going to be, wow, Brent Venables is as good as advertised when he got the job a year ago. And not only that, Oklahoma will catapult themselves into the driver's seat of winning the Big 12 and not only that, but potentially being a college football playoff team. Because if Oklahoma wins this game, after that you play UCF, Kansas, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, BYU, and TCU. There's a lot of good programs there inside the Big 12, but Oklahoma, if they win this game, won't be an underdog the rest of the way when you look at those games after this one coming up on October 7th Saturday against Texas. So this is a big litmus test on where Brent Venables is as a head coach and then also where Dylan Gabriel is, the former UCF quarterback, as a quarterback now you're number two at Oklahoma. So huge week for Oklahoma.

No one's picking them. Everyone's going to be saying horns up. Here come the Longhorns. Everyone's buying into Texas, Sam Ellinger style. We're back and we're going to see if that could continue for Texas or if Oklahoma makes a big statement this weekend.

Personally, I like Texas in the game. Now Jimbo Fisher, his seat should be on fire. The only reason why Jimbo Fisher still has his job is because the Aggies would owe him a whole lot of money, like 70 plus million dollars if they wanted to move on from him.

We're in that COVID year. He had his one great season at A&M and then he cashed in in a big way. Texas A&M is a team that no one's talking about right now. And we probably wouldn't be talking about Texas A&M if it wasn't for the fact that they're playing Alabama this upcoming weekend because Texas A&M is a team.

After they lost to Miami and got spanked by Miami in that second half, 48 to 33, that they're out of sight, out of mind. Where going into the season, we all knew A&M had a lot of talent and was one of the more talented teams in the nation. But we said the same things last year about A&M and last year was a complete dumpster fire for Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies. But let me just illustrate a point here and I'm going to bring up a team that I'm going to talk about in a second in the LSU Tigers. Last year, LSU, if you recall, they lost their first game of the season up against Florida State by one point. Remember, they missed the extra point at the end of the game. LSU, after that game, was clowned. They were trolled.

They were left for dead. And everyone was saying, oh, this Brian Kelly and his family era at LSU was not going to work out. And last year, LSU, I know they didn't win the SEC because that did go to Georgia, but LSU was in the SEC championship game. I'm just going to throw this out there and let me preface it by saying I don't believe in Texas A&M. I don't trust Jimbo Fisher. I'm not a fan of Jimbo Fisher. I think he's one of the more overrated, arrogant coaches in the country that refuses to take any accountability when things don't go his way. But maybe that game in week two up against Miami was the best thing to happen for A&M because it took all the pressure nationally with the tension.

There was no pressure on Jimbo Fisher because his seat should be on fire. But when you look at the players, everyone stopped talking and stopped monitoring A&M. And since then, they lost their quarterback in Connor Wigman, but they were able to have a good backup in Johnson, who was at LSU. And Max Johnson, Brad Johnson's kid who had a big time season at LSU statistically when the team wasn't good.

And now he's trying to create the second chapter at A&M. And I'm not saying that this is going to be like Michael Pennix and Bo Nix, where Michael Pennix was done at Indiana, goes to Washington, has been thrown into the Heisman Trophy conversation the last two years, and is looking like he'll be a top 10 draft pick. We all remember Bo Nix at Auburn, extremely underwhelming.

And now he's at Oregon, and that Oregon team has really taken off with him as the quarterback the last two years. But you look at someone like Johnson, the quarterback, who the last two weeks got a victory up against Auburn and got a victory up against Arkansas. This could be a moment for A&M where they start to show signs that maybe they could be the LSU of a year ago that had a bad loss early and then finds a way to take care of business. And the next thing you know, you wake up and you go, how the heck did Texas A&M get to the SEC championship game?

Let me be clear. I don't think that's going to happen with Texas A&M. But with that being said, there is something scary about a team that we've all written off and have all said that they're done and have written the eulogy for. They could show the nation this weekend that they're a team that what they put on display up against Mario Cristobal and the Hurricanes wasn't the authentic version of A&M in 2023. Now, just because you beat Alabama this weekend, it doesn't get much easier after that. You do have Tennessee still. You do have Shane Beamer, South Carolina Gamecocks. You play Ole Miss and we know Ole Miss is a solid football team. You have Mississippi State, Abilene Christian to end the season and then you get the big game up against LSU. Now, that brings me to the Tigers this weekend. Brian Kelly, it's been so weird. It's been up and down, up and down. He gets to LSU.

He has the fake accent. It was an ugly and a messy and a tumultuous divorce from Notre Dame and people have been rooting against Brian Kelly. But as I just said to you, last year at the end of the year, we were all talking positively about Brian Kelly because he got to the SEC Championship game in year one. Now in year two, this is off to a disastrous start where you are not even competitive against Florida State in the second half, a team that you only lost to by an extra point a year ago.

And then last weekend up against Ole Miss, you lose in a shootout. This LSU team is by far and away too talented to be sitting there at three and two after five games of this season. And they should beat Missouri this weekend.

But that is like if it was an NFL team, you'd be saying this is the Super Bowl for Missouri. This is the national championship game for Missouri going up against LSU. If Brian Kelly loses this game this weekend, everyone on Monday is going to be reverting back to the takes that we all had when Brian Kelly was initially hired at LSU. And I actually am someone that I don't love Brian Kelly, but I am able to push that aside and realize the guy is a heck of a football coach, where before the season I was saying, if you give me three coaches for the next five years that I'm going to trust their programs the most, it's going to be Kirby Smart at Georgia, it's going to be Nick Saban at Alabama, and then it's going to be Brian Kelly at LSU. But for Brian Kelly, they're not going to win the SEC, they're not going to be going to a national championship game this year, or the college football playoff, as a lot of us thought they were capable of before the season, because you already have two losses, and they still have to play Alabama, you still have to go up against A&M, Florida, Auburn, but you look at this LSU team, they have to win this weekend, because if they lose back to back games, we're going to start examining Brian Kelly and saying, maybe he's just not fit for this LSU job, and it's already wild that he hasn't even been there for two years, and people have vacillated back and forth, back and forth, back and forth about Brian Kelly being a good coach, and then Brian Kelly being a bad coach as well. So those are three coaches that are under some pressure this weekend and can make big statements, and Brent Venables can make a statement that things are working at Oklahoma, Jimbo Fisher can maybe make the statement that he'll be like the LSU of a year ago, and for Brian Kelly, I don't think you make a statement with the victory, but it holds off the avalanche of criticism that will come your way if we are sitting here in the studio on Monday, right here on CBS Sports Radio, and we're talking about LSU with back to back losses. Zach Gelb here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We will take a break right now, and when we do return, Kentucky, what a program they are. Mark Stoops has done a phenomenal job with that football program. He's a top ten coach, one of the most underrated coaches in the country, and this weekend, they have a huge matchup against number one Georgia with Carson Beck and Brock Bowers. We're going to talk to the head football coach at Kentucky, Mark Stoops, when the Zach Gelb show does continue off and running on this very busy Wednesday right here, but where else? CBS Sports Radio.

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Get started at stamps.com today with code program for a four week trial, free postage and a digital scale. Huge game this upcoming weekend in college football. Kentucky's ranked 20th in the country.

They'll go up against number one Georgia. Let's go out to the guest line right now and welcome in a man that I think is a top 10 coach in the country is the head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, and that is Mark Stoops here with us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Coach, congrats on a big victory up against Florida. Appreciate you taking a few minutes of your day today. How you been? Thank you. Yeah, doing good.

Thanks. You know, it's very short lived. It was a great game this past Saturday, but then you're right back at it, only getting ready for the Georgia Bulldogs at their place.

So no rest for the weary. We'll get to Georgia in just a second, but I'd be remiss if I didn't start with your running back and Ray Davis transferring into the program. I remember when he was at my alma mater to start his career in Temple, but he had 280 Russian yards, three Russian touchdowns, and then a receiving touchdown to just how about the impact and what he's brought to your program? Yeah, Ray has really been special. He's a great young man, obviously very mature, brings a physicality to our team, and you know, I think it was nice to see him put it all together at the right time. I mean, he has shown, you know, his abilities throughout the beginning of this year, but last week, what a complete game and really got off to a fast start. It really started, you know, with the screen pass. You know, it was maybe a 10-yard run or whatever, but heck, he got it in the end zone, and it was an impressive catch and run after catch.

And then, of course, he got the run game going as well, but he's a great young man, and he's off to a great start for us. We're in a new world with the transfer portal. Some coaches have adapt, some coaches haven't done a great job at it. Your backfield is Devin Leary, who's a transfer we just talked about.

You're running back two. You've built something really special here at Kentucky, but when you go through the transfer portal, how do you know that a kid's going to be the right fit for you guys? Yeah, we make sure we get the right ones that fit our culture. We feel like we do have a very strong culture, so, you know, I think we vet players before they come in, but also they transform and adapt to our culture very fast.

I don't really have to very often. You talk about Devin Leary, you talk about Ray Davis, you talk about Eli Cox, our left tackle who came in. Those are mature young men. They fit us. They fit our culture. They've been great additions. We really needed them. Let's face it, we live in a world of free agency.

I didn't create it, but we have to live by it and do the very best we can, so there's been some great additions. That's Mark Stoops here with us. Coach, you know when you have the consistency and the program like you built at Kentucky, everyone's going to say, when is coach going to leave? When is coach going to leave?

You haven't done that. Why is that? Why have you remained loyal to Kentucky and what you built there? Kentucky, just like you said, I've helped build this with a lot of help from a lot of different people, but we have invested an awful lot into our program and it's been 11 years, so I'm very loyal to this place. I feel like it's a very good relationship between the fan base and myself, the players, the community. This is my home now and it's just a great place. It's a hard place to leave.

This is right for me. This is right for Mark Stoops at the time. I'm very happy here and I really appreciate all the players, the coaches, the past, present, the people that have worked hard to put us in this position. Coach Mark Stoops here with us.

Alright, let's get to Georgia. When we start with them, we talk about Brock Bowers. Last weekend, he looked like Rob Gronkowski and Travis Kelsey all combined into one. When you see him on the tape, just what stands out to you about the great tight end at Georgia?

Yeah, I've said it several times during my press conferences this week. I'm not sure I've ever seen somebody just like him. You mentioned Gronk because I had mentioned it earlier just because I watched him up close. I was at Arizona when he played in college and I think they're very different.

I wouldn't want to compare anybody to Gronk and I really wouldn't want to compare anybody to Brock Bowers. He's a very unique player but both are just amazing at their position. That's for sure, both amazing players. He is truly something special. He makes plays when he's covered.

He had back-to-back one-handed catches a week ago. Just the guy is a really unique player and a special player. When you turn on the tape and you get ready for the Georgia quarterback in Carson Beck, what has impressed you so far, Coach Mark Stoops?

Yeah, Carson has really done a great job. He knows he's got a lot of good playmakers around him. When you think of Georgia, you think of a physical team that always has great backs.

They've just done a nice job of spreading it around and he's managing the game really well for him. I don't know how much of the conversation that you heard leading into this one when you go up against number one Georgia. We know how dominant of a program Georgia is, winning the national championship the last two years. But since they didn't blow out South Carolina, since they didn't blow out Auburn, people go, oh, Georgia is vulnerable. When you hear that as someone has to prepare up against them this week, what goes through your mind?

Well, they're just waiting to put it all together. I said about my own team, you're not going to play 12 great games. You're just not. You have to be able to win in difficult environments. You have to be able to win on the road. I know how much Kirby respects and knows how difficult it is to win road games in the SEC. I think they also understand how difficult it is for opponents to play at home.

I think they're different. They're definitely more attacking at home. I'm sure they're just waiting to put it all together. You have to be good enough when you're not at your best and they're pretty darn good. Last thing I'll ask you, Coach Mark Stoops, when you go from the emotional high of a victory against Florida and now you have to go right to Georgia, how do you kind of reel your kids in back quickly? Because you know you need a full week's worth of preparation to have a shot up against Georgia with the program they have. Without a doubt.

That's a great point and something that has me concerned. I had to get after the team yesterday because I didn't feel like it was up to our standards for a typical, very physical, tough Tuesday practice. I'm about five minutes away from walking out on the practice field right now. We have to have a better day. We have to have a strong belief system that we can go in there and win.

The only way you should feel confident is by your preparation. We need to pick it up. I challenged the team, actually threw in an extra team meeting today, pointed a few things out to them and got some extra motivation in there just because it takes a lot to go in there and prepare the right way.

Everybody wants to win on Saturday. It's a matter of what we're going to do throughout the week to put ourselves in a position to be successful come Saturday. Coach, I'll let you get to the practice field. We appreciate the time. Thanks so much. You're welcome.

Thank you. There he is, the coach of the 20th ranked Kentucky Wildcats and Mark Stoops joining us on CBS Sports Radio. I thought a very interesting message at the end because this is a team that Mark Stoops has built at Kentucky where they've had multiple 10 win seasons.

Right. He's been able to challenge John Calipari. If you go back to last year when Calipari said Kentucky's a basketball school.

That's like the most obvious statement ever. We think Kentucky, we think of basketball first and Stoops was annoyed at that. And Calipari had to eventually apologize. So it shows you to how long of a great stride that he has built there and how much of a jump that the Kentucky program has taken. And now, right, you get a big victory up against Florida.

I love them. Last weekend, I thought Kentucky was going to win the game, but I didn't think it was going to be 33 to 14. And everyone this week says, oh, what a great win for Kentucky beat in Florida.

We love the job that Mark Stoops done. And you know that you can't really enjoy that victory really for that long. And after Sunday did occur, you have to move on because we could say what we want about Georgia and you could look at Georgia and say they are vulnerable. But just because a team is vulnerable doesn't mean that they're going to be a team that won't be in the national championship game again. Because last year we said the same thing about Kansas City. We all said at one point of the season, oh, the Chiefs offense looks vulnerable. And remind me who won the Super Bowl last year.

It was the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes won another Super Bowl. So, you know, if you're Kentucky, you need a full week worth of effort. And I thought that was a little alarming and it shows that the coaches and sensing it from his kids that the effort is there when he had to really tear into them yesterday. Maybe this is going to change the rest of the week, but I can't wait for that football game on Saturday because we're going to really find out how vulnerable this Georgia team is if this game is going to be right down to the wire and a dogfight until the end. Because this is now a Georgia team that when they've gone up against two really good opponents, when you look at Auburn and Brock Bowers ran right through them at the end of the game. You see the South Carolina game at halftime they were trailing and they turned it up in the second half. They've been able to find a way to get it done, but eventually if you keep on putting your hands on the stove, you're going to get burned.

And you're going to know that that stove is piping hot. So this is a matchup this week where you have a good Kentucky team with a good backfield. We know Stoops' team will always play defense and I hope that this is a one score game late in the fourth quarter.

And we'll see who's going to find a way to find a way to get to the finish line with the victory. Alrighty, we'll take a break here on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. When we come on back, we'll do a little Take 5 Wednesday. I'll give you my top five teams in the NFL and college football. But first up, standing by with the latest CBS Sports Radio update, here is the act man, Rich Ackerman.

You'll learn something about me. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. When coaches lose and they don't take accountability and they make a lame-ass excuse, that's what really sets me off. So that's why you heard that rejoined there with Jimbo Fish. I'll never forget years ago, James Franklin lost to Ohio State. And when he lost the game with horrible play calling with Ricky Ronnie and James Franklin, he gets in front of the podium and he delivers like a five or six minute speech. And he's talking about how they lost the game because kids aren't all bought in and they're not sitting in the front row of class. And I'm like, yeah, that's where I know that we always ignore the student part of student athlete a lot in college sports. It's because the kids weren't sitting in the front row of class is why your coaching staff made idiotic decision after idiotic decision. So that's that perturbs me a lot with college coaches. And you see it sometimes in professional sports that it mainly happens with the ego of college coaches where you will lose the game. Everyone knows why you lost the game. And because you always try to send the message out in the postgame with recruiting, you end up thinking you're the smartest person in the world.

And that there was something else that caused you guys to lose when it was just simple why Penn State lost that game against Ohio State. By the way, it's time to ask the pros where you, the listener, gets to ask us a question brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Simply tweet your question at CBS Sports Radio or at Zach Gilb using the hashtag Ask the Pros.

Be listening later in the show when we might answer your question. You could think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all your car care needs. Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. O, O, O, O'Reilly Auto Parts. Alrighty, we do this segment every Wednesday right here on CBS Sports Radio.

It is the Zach Gilb Show. We call it Take 5 Wednesday. I give you my top five teams in college football and also the NFL. As the dust settles from last week's games, it's time to look at which teams are rising and which are falling.

And there's an interception. Zach ranks his top five NFL and college football teams on this week's edition of Take 5 only on the Zach Gilb Show. So we've done a lot of college football right out of the gate.

Mark Stoops just joined us about 15 minutes ago. So let's start with the pro teams and then we'll circle back in and end out this segment with a little college football. In at number five, how about them Cowboys with the drama Dallas choking Cowboys in the fifth spot. They've been phenomenal for the most part through the first four games of the season. They're three and one and the Cowboys have basically run two playbooks this year. They blow out a team and the game's not even close or they end up losing the game. We've seen the playbook of them blowing out teams and winning the game at a big margin three times this year. A stunning loss to the Arizona Cardinals two weeks ago, but they showed up against the New England Patriots who are an inferior football team to the Dallas Cowboys right now.

And Dallas made sure after the first 30 minutes of that game that that game was over. Now for Dallas, the reason why they're not higher up on this list is you just look at the quality of opponents that they did play. They played the Jets, they played the Giants, they played the Patriots and their one loss was to the Cardinals. Probably all four of those teams are going to be picking in the top 10, at least the top 15 of the draft.

Now you get your first legit opponent. You'll see where they fall in the rankings. One of the better teams in the NFL coming up on Sunday Night Football on NBC where the Dallas Cowboys head to Santa Clara and they go up against the San Francisco 49ers. The football team in San Francisco did send home the Dallas Cowboys the last two seasons. We remember the playoff game in Jerry's World two years ago where they couldn't get the ball snapped.

And then last year, that was a championship performance by the Cowboys defense, but Dak Prescott was allergic to the end zone in that game up against the 49ers and he was the main reason why the Cowboys lost that game. There is not a single player or a single team under more pressure this week than the Dallas Cowboys because if the Cowboys don't win this game, you look at them and the take on Monday would be what a fraudulent team that is. Wow, they tease you again where you look at Dallas and it's okay. This is a football team that you see how great they could be with the way that their offense looks and how intimidating their defense is, but you've got to beat the big boys and you start off with an enormous test this weekend against the San Francisco 49ers. You don't win a Super Bowl this weekend, right? You don't punch your ticket to the Super Bowl this weekend.

Clearly, it's the first weekend of October, but with that being said, you can enable the doubters this week if you go on out and you lay an egg or you lose this game. So let's see what Dallas is made of this week. The Cowboys are in a number five. In a number four, it's a team that I give the benefit of the doubt to. They have not looked great. They only have one loss on the season and it was by one point without Chris Jones and Travis Kelce at our head where they did drop that game to the Detroit Lions. But I put the Kansas City Chiefs in at four where I wasn't impressed for the first time this year with the Chiefs defense of the Chiefs defense is really going in the right direction to move in the right direction.

And then you allowed Zach Wilson to have a career game. But here's why I'm still bullish on Kansas City. It's because through the first four games of the season, their offense has not clicked yet. Their offense hasn't started to fire in all cylinders. And if that's the biggest problem with the Kansas City Chiefs, it's almost as if you have a good problem because you know they'll find a way to iron out the kinks when you have Eric B. Enemy no longer there and Matt Nagy now calling the plays with Andy Reid. And as long as you have 15 and 87 healthy, you're always going to be a team that no one is going to want to play because we all say, oh yeah, the Chiefs are vulnerable.

They could be got. We've seen Kansas City year in and year out be down and not only be down in the playoffs, but be down big. Like you look at the performance against the Texans. They were down 20 plus points. They won the game. It wasn't even them trailing at halftime.

Tennessee a few years ago. Buffalo as well in the Super Bowl a few years back before COVID hit us when they're down 10 with seven and a half to play and they always find a way to get the job done. So eventually this Chiefs offense will look like the Chiefs offense that we've grown accustomed to the last few years, but the Chiefs are in at four. Number three, the Buffalo Bills. That is performance by the Bills last week that says we're not dead. We're not going anywhere and the Buffalo Bills are back and they make you want to shout.

That's what Buffalo showed you this past weekend because remember this offseason, they were coming off a game against Cincinnati Bengals where the Bengals walked into Buffalo and Orchard Park. They said we're going to set up our own couch. Actually, no, we're not even going to need to set up our own couch.

I don't even need to bring in the furniture. We're going to sit down on your couch. We're going to go into your fridge. We're going to open up the beer. We're going to see your woman.

We're going to have her sit down with us and have some good times. And we're just going to take over as the new kings. We're going to take over as new kings of Buffalo. That's what the Cincinnati Bengals did. And the Bills were embarrassed in that football game. Yet Staphon Diggs freaking out afterwards.

It carried over into the offseason programs where you start off with mandatory minicamp, where Staphon Diggs was excused, not excused, whatever happened there. And there was all this chaos with the Bills. And then to add a little insult to injury, week one, Rodgers goes down and you couldn't beat them. And the Jets ended up getting a victory. And it was all panic.

It was all, oh, the sky is falling. The Buffalo Bills are doomed. They missed their window to go get their first ever Super Bowl. And since then, they had three blowout victories against the Raiders, the commanders.

All right. You know, Raiders stink. Commanders a solid opponent. But then they did go up against the Miami Dolphins. And headed into last week, Miami was considered the best team in the AFC and a top three team in the NFL. And Buffalo showed you, Miami, you're just not ready yet. And not only that, the Buffalo Bills are doing this without their best defensive player and outside of Josh Allen, their most valuable player in Von Miller, because Von Miller was brought in to win a Super Bowl like he did in Denver, where he won a Super Bowl MVP and also in L.A. The Bills sent a huge statement that week one wasn't real, last year wasn't real, and the Bills are now back to being a threat inside the AFC and in the National Football League. All righty.

Number two. It's the San Francisco 49ers. Christian McCaffrey could be the MVP of the NFL this year.

He will easily, as long as he stays healthy, be the offensive player of the year. And Brock Purdy is looking Purdy awesome. And he's been absolutely ridiculous this year for the San Francisco 49ers. They are a loaded football team. I can't wait for this heavyweight matchup coming up on Sunday Night Football on NBC, yeah, between the 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys. But San Francisco, they are just a force and a force to be reckoned with.

And it's kind of incredible that through all the moves that they've done the last few years. Jimmy Garoppolo is our guy. OK, then we're going to flirt with Kirk Cousins. We don't bring him in. Oh, then we're going to trade up and draft Trey Lance. And then, oh, yeah, by the way, we're going back to Jimmy G. All right, Trey Lance will give you the opportunity to start. Oh, Mr.

Irrelevant? Oh, yeah, now you're the guy? And think about how quickly 49ers fans have made Brock Purdy to be the guy. Bill Romanowski, after like three starts, joined me on CBS Sports Radio, and he said he reminds me a little bit of like Joe Montana. Steve Young in the offseason said Brock Purdy has the force.

And the 49ers somehow, some way, against all odds, got it right. And no one's talking about this leading into the matchup. 49ers Cowboys, who's on the Cowboys right now?

Trey Lance. I haven't heard Trey Lance's name mentioned one time this week because Dak has done a good job with Dallas and Brock has done a good job with the 49ers. And then finally, it's the Philadelphia Eagles. I think the Eagles get the tiebreaker here because they beat the 49ers in the playoffs last year. I do believe the Eagles slightly are the most complete team in the NFL compared to the 49ers. And here's the scary part with Philadelphia.

They could get better. They haven't even played their best brands of football yet. So I look at the Philadelphia Eagles as the best team in the NFL right now. And I just trust Jalen Hurts more than I do Brock Purdy. So Cowboys in at five, Chiefs at four, Bills at three, 49ers two, Eagles one.

And now we ask Stuart Kovacs to speak now, forever hold your peace. Who are some teams that you're wondering why they are not in my top five? What about the Miami Dolphins? Blown out by the Bills.

They've been in my top five for every week but week one, I believe. And I think the Miami Dolphins are a team that still could win the AFC East. Maybe they will learn from being blown out by the Buffalo Bills and it will humble them. But when you just get dismantled like that by the Buffalo Bills, they have to take you out of the top five. Another strong AFC team, the Baltimore Ravens. I'm starting to really open up and warm up to the Baltimore Ravens.

But the one concern why I can't go all in, it's the injuries. They've been a problem the last two years and they've already decimated that team. But Lamar Jackson is making a case maybe for another MVP. And finally a team that looked good on Monday night, the Seattle Seahawks.

I want to buy in on the Seattle Seahawks. I don't think they're the third best team in the NFC like I said before the start of the season. Dallas has shown that. But they have all the pieces. Geno's been a good quarterback.

He actually got like worried when he got hurt the other night. You have Tyler Lockett, you got DK Metcalf. Eventually Jackson, Smith and Jigba will get going. You got the two running backs and Walker and Charbonnet. I like what I saw from their defense. And that was the biggest question mark heading into this season. I just need to see their defense be more consistent for me to buy in. Alrighty, let's go to college here.

I made a quick change here at the last second. And it's really nothing that they could do. But it's just because the wins that we thought were really good wins haven't aged well. Florida State is still in the top five. They beat LSU. LSU now has two losses. They beat Clemson. Clemson is not a dominant Clemson team and really Dabo Sweeney blew that game. But I love the Florida State quarterback.

Jared Vers is also a phenomenal defensive player and I'm a big fan of Mike Norvell. That's a team that they should win the ACC. They should be in the college football playoff.

But their wins aren't as great as they were when they did happen. So I put Florida State in at five. Four is Oregon. Oregon this year, through just judging what we've seen and not looking at previous years, may be the most dominant team in the country. Portland State 81-7. They beat Texas Tech 38-30. Hawaii 55-10. Colorado 42-6.

Stanford 42-6. And now they go into a bye week and they have the biggest fight maybe of the college football season yet going up against Washington at Washington coming out of the bye on October 14th. But Bo Nix is putting up a Heisman campaign and Oregon, like really outside of Texas Tech and you could argue they even had to sweat, haven't really had to sweat a whole lot this year and the schedule will get tougher in this gauntlet of the Pac-12. In at number three, it's Texas. Texas has the best win of the season. And I know Alabama's not viewed as the Alabama of years past, but they did go into Tuscaloosa and get the victory. Now they have a big matchup, Red River, great showdown, going up against Oklahoma.

But I put Texas in at three. Number two, I know they really haven't played in anybody, but Nebraska does have a good run defense and Michigan ran right through them, so Michigan's in at two. McCarthy's looking really good and Roman Wilson could be the most underrated player so far in college football. And in at number one, you get the benefit of the doubt even though you've had some close games this year, but you are back to back champions.

You have Brock Bowers, Carson Beck has done well in the clutch moments even though you had to sweat against Auburn and also against South Carolina. Now a good test with Kentucky coming into Athens this weekend. So my top five in college football, Florida State five, Oregon four, Texas three, Michigan two, and Georgia one.

Stuart Kovacs, speak now, forever hold your peace. An undefeated team in the Pac-12, the Washington Huskies. And could be my favorite team in college football this year. I've had them in the top five each and every week. I picked them to win the Pac-12 before the start of the season. It's just the competition that they've had to go up against has not been great this year and that's going to change after their bye week and they go up against Washington.

I think Michael Penix is the real deal. I love Kalen DeBoer, but I was only going to put one Pac-12 team in and it just came down to I think Oregon has gone up against better competition in Texas Tech and Colorado. A team that had a big win a couple weeks ago, the Ohio State Buckeyes.

So yes, it was a big win, but my reaction from that game was I was more disappointed in Notre Dame with only 10 men on the field in the final play, dropping the interception than it was me praising Ohio State. Ohio State's season is coming down to Penn State and Michigan, so I'm not ready to put them in the top five just yet. And you just mentioned them, the Penn State Nittany Lions. Very similar to what I just said about Ohio State. I think Penn State has a good defense, we'll see if their offense is going to get more explosive, they have the talent there, now they got to take off.

But we all know James Franklin has been abysmal, I think he's like 3-15 or 3-16 in his career at State College against top 10, top 15 teams. And you look at Penn State, they haven't really been challenged yet. Let's see if they can get the job done at Ohio State this year and then they also do play Michigan in Happy Valley. So those two games are going to be their season, they have to this year split one or else this is a failure of a season for Penn State. Alrighty, top five once again. Florida State, Oregon, Texas, Michigan, and Georgia 5-1. And then in the NFL, Dallas 5, Kansas City 4, the Bills 3, the 49ers 2, and the Eagles end at the one spot.